Get out and Get Dirty: Vegas’ own Great Unconformity

I love Nevada. We have such unique and interesting things, aside from those you see on the Strip.  We have a desert spring that was responsible for creating the Endangered Species Act that is so deep that three divers went down and never came up.  We have the Extraterrestrial Highway, where Area 51 aficionados can look for black helicopters, unmarked white vans and aliens. Our state fossil is one of the most terrifying creatures ever born, a great tyrannosaurus Rex-like, dolphin-like sea creature with eyes the size of dinner plates that hunted in packs.

And we have the Great Unconformity.  This geological site is located on Frenchman Mountain and is special for rock hounds because it juxtaposes some of the world’s oldest rock next to some of the world’s newest.  Within the span of a hand, you can touch rock created a billion years apart. UNLV Professor of Geology, Stephen Rowland, has created a great website that explains the geology, history and importance of this unique site.

An unconformity, he says, “is a buried erosion surface. It is a surface of rock that was exposed on the Earth’s surface and was then covered by younger layers. Unconformities are important because they represent missing intervals of the geologic record, like pages missing from a history book. The Great Unconformity represents about 1.2 billion years, which is more than one fourth of the age of the Earth.”  The Grand Canyon is another place where you can see the Great Unconformity, but ours is closer and a lot easier to get to.

Image courtesy of Alan Goya, Goya Photography.

Follow me on Twitter @nvwriter.