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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
The Geology of North America as
Illustrated by Native American Stories
Robert G. McWilliams
Professor Emeritus
Department of Geology
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056
[email protected]
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
Introduction: Why Stories?
Stories are widely used for teaching science at all levels (Eisen and Laderman, 2005;
Isabelle, 2007; Konicek-Moran, 2010). Stories are particularly well adapted for teaching
outdoors where other types of teaching aids are unusable. Stories can quiet restive
audiences and command their attention. Stories can be memory devices for organizing
major ideas. Stories provide rich context science teaching methodology that is easily
adapted to a wide range of learners with the use of the Internet as illustrated in this book.
Specifically, the stories and demonstrations in this book are intended to help teachers and
their students achieve the first category of the National Science Education Standards
(NSES) namely, Unifying concepts and processes in science by providing teachers and
their students with a simple but powerful idea to help them understand the natural world.
In addition, this book addresses one of the particular objectives of Earth and Space
Science in grades 5 – 8, namely the development of an understanding of the geosphere
(crust, mantle and core) as it relates to the other components of the Earth system.
Furthermore, the stories and demonstrations in this book are specifically intended to help
high school teachers and their students understand the dynamic equilibrium of crustal
movements, geochemical cycles in Earth systems during geologic time. The NSES
(p.188), states that approximately half of high school students will need a great deal of
assistance and concrete examples to understand these concepts. Lastly, the stories in this
book give teachers and their students an opportunity to view science through the culture
of another people in another time, which in turn provides teachers and their students the
opportunity for classroom interaction and critical thinking about the differences between
scientific and non-scientific explanations of natural phenomena.
What follows is a combination teacher’s manual and classroom activity book. I’ve
formatted it for easy reproduction and adaptation by teachers of all levels. It is
written in pretty much the way I told it to over 1,700 elementary and secondary
school teachers to whom I taught geology in the field between 1986 and 2010. Those
teachers encouraged me to adapt the Native American stories and to develop the
demonstrations described in this narrative and it is to them that it is dedicated.
The story of Turtle Island
The this story comes from the Woodland Indians who originally lived in the area south of
the Great Lakes between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River. The Miami Indians
for whom the Miami River and Miami University of Ohio were named were Woodland
Indians. I taught geology at Miami University and lived only a few miles (km) from the
Miami River for over 35 years. I’ve always had great interest in and admiration for
Native Americans and I therefore particularly enjoy telling this story (adapted from
Burland, 1985).
A very long time ago, the people lived in the sky because the earth was covered with
water. In the sky, there lived a beautiful woman who was the daughter of a powerful
chief. The chief thought his daughter was sick and asked the tribal healer to cure her.
The healer told the woman to sit next to a tree in the sky, where the people lived.
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
Then the healer told his assistants to dig a large circular trench around the roots of
the tree. They dug so far that the woman, the tree, and the earth clinging to its roots
fell from the sky. For this reason the woman is called Woman-Who-Fell-From-theSky.
The swans saw the woman falling from the sky and so they gathered her up on their
wings just before she fell into the World Ocean. The swans carried her to Great Turtle,
the oldest and wisest of all the animals, set her on his back and told Great Turtle: She
has no place to live.
The great turtle summoned all of the animals and said: The tree that fell from the sky and
that is now on the bottom of the world ocean, has attached to its roots sacred earth. We
need someone to dive to the bottom and bring some sacred earth to the surface.
Without hesitation, Duck dove into the sea. Even though Duck was a powerful swimmer
he couldn’t dive deep enough to even see the bottom of the ocean. Then Beaver tried.
Beaver was gone a long time but even though Beaver could see it, he couldn’t touch the
bottom. Otter plunged and managed to touch bottom but had to return immediately for
air. The animals thought that the project was so hopeless that hardly anyone noticed
when Old Lady Toad, the homeliest and most ridiculed of all the animals dove into the
ocean. Old lady toad was gone for so long that everyone thought she drowned. When
she finally emerged, she climbed up on the back of the great turtle and spit out the sacred
earth that she had gathered from around the roots of the tree which fell from the sky—
and died.
Great Turtle remained silent and when he was certain that all of the animals understood
the necessity of Old Lady Toad’s sacrifice, he said: This is sacred earth and it has the
power to grow. And it did. It grew into the place where Native Americans lived and
called Turtle Island. Turtle Island is the continent that we now call North America.
Turtles are among the most primitive and oldest vertebrates. Turtles first appear during
the time of the dinosaurs, during the Mesozoic, but unlike the dinosaurs they are still
thriving. Some turtles are very hardy and can live for a hundred years. When you first
see a turtle, you might mistake it for a rock. But then you quickly realize that a turtle is a
moving, living organism. I don’t claim North America is an organism but I am saying
that like a turtle, North America is slowly moving across the globe. Furthermore, at first
glance one might think a turtle is a simple, uncomplicated animal. But if you look
closely you immediately discover that the animal that lives between two rock-like shells
is as complicated and beautiful as any other creature. To someone who is not a geologist,
North America might seem like a huge slab of rock covered flat-lying layers of sand and
gravel. But if you travel around North America you quickly discover that the rocks
below the flat-lying rocks of the plains are wonderfully deformed and exceedingly
complicated rocks of all types. You will also discover if you travel, observe, and think
long enough, that the deformed and complicated rocks that underlie the plains are the
foundations of ancient mountains that have been eroded flat.
The story of Turtle Island says that in the beginning there were no continents and that
somehow the “sacred earth” of the ocean was drug up and the continents began to grow.
What is this “sacred earth”? As a geologist and storyteller, I say that what the story calls
“earth” are the mountains from which continents are assembled. And furthermore, I
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
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suggest that the sum of time it took to create both mountains and continents deems them
worthy of great reverence.
Geologic Chronology
In everyday speech, geologists divide the time span of the earth’s history into four
intervals. The most recent, the current interval is the Cenozoic Era that began about 65
million years ago at approximately the time dinosaurs became extinct. The preceding
interval, the Mesozoic Era, the “ age of dinosaurs” began about 250 million years ago.
The Paleozoic Era, the “age of invertebrates” begins about 540 million years ago, at the
same time that invertebrate fossils first become common. The earliest interval, the
Precambrian Eon includes all the Earth’s history from the very beginning of the Earth
about 4.6 billion years ago, to the beginning of the Paleozoic (Figure 1).
Period Began
Millions
Evolutionary Events
Of Years
Ago
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Eon
Era
Period
Quaternary
2.5
First Humans
Cenozoic
First Grasses
Tertiary
65
First Large Mammals
_______________________________________________________________________________
Cretaceous
145
Jurassic
200
First Birds and Mammals
Triassic
250
Beginning of Age of Dinosaurs
_______________________________________________________________________________
Mesozoic
Phanerozoic
Permian
299
Pennsylvanian
318
First Reptiles
Mississippian
360
First Winged Insects
Paleozoic
Devonian
416
First Trees and Amphibians
Silurian
443
First Land Plants and Insects
Ordovician
488
First Corals
Cambrian
542
First Fish and Shellfish
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Precambrian
4600
Oldest Rocks
Beginning of the Solar System
Figure 1
Geologic Time Scale and Major Events
The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
This informal division of geologic time is comparable to the fourfold division of human
history. The Precambrian is analogous to prehistoric time, the part of human history
before writing and about which comparatively little is known. The Paleozoic is
analogous to ancient history, the time of the earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia and
Egypt. The Mesozoic corresponds to the medieval interval following the fall of the
Roman Empire. The Cenozoic is roughly comparable to the modern era that began with
the Italian Renaissance. (For more detailed information about geologic chronology, go
online to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale.)
Geologic Time
Although the simplified division of geologic time is intuitive, geologic time is not.
A million years strains our understanding and a billion years is incomprehensible.
Imagine counting at the rate of one digit per second without stop. How long would it
take to count to a million? The answer is more than ten days. How long would it take to
count to a billion? The answer almost 32 years! At the same rate it would take over 140
years to count to 4.6 billion–the age of the Earth.
Here’s another visualization. Consider the time span of the Earth’s history as equal to the
distance from the tip of your nose to the tip of your extended arm, approximately one
yard (meter). One swipe of a fingernail file on the tip of the fingernail of your middle
finger would erase the distance represented by the time span of humans on Earth.
Mountains arise from slow almost imperceptible crustal movements but the Earth is very,
very old and there is lots of time for small movements to create mountains and for small
mountains to grow to large mountains and for large mountains into rows of mountains
that are squeezed together into continents.
What are Mountains?
In ordinary speech we call a high point of land a mountain. That definition works for
ordinary conversation but doesn’t work for geologists. The Earth is 4.6 billion years old
and only the “recent” mountains, mountains created less than 600 million years ago, are
still recognizable as high points of land; all the really old mountains have been worn flat
or have been swept into the sea. Moreover, there are high points of land that aren’t
mountains. For example, the highest point near Oxford, Ohio, where Miami University is
located, is the Rumpke landfill (garbage dump) that is approximately1000 feet above sea
level. On the other hand, Elk Ridge, across the highway from Miami University Geology
Field Station, near Dubois, Wyoming is about 8,000 feet above sea level and about four
times higher than any place in Ohio, and yet, neither Elk Ridge nor in any place in Butler
County, Ohio are mountains. Therefore, geologists have to look for and use indirect
evidence to locate and interpret the truly ancient mountains.
Archeologists try to figure out the history of ancient people, but the people are gone and
most of their works are destroyed. Most often archeologists have to excavate to find even
the trace of the foundation of what used to be a dwelling. Therefore, archeologists use
indirect evidence such as trash heaps and the types of materials used in construction to
infer how ancient, now-gone people lived. Likewise, geologists use indirect evidence to
figure out the origin and history of the ancient, now-vanished mountains.
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
There are three types of indirect evidence that are indicative of both ancient and modern
mountains. The first of these indicators is deformed sedimentary rock.
Sedimentary rock is composed of the residues of rocks eroded from the mountains and is
deposited most commonly by water but also can be deposited by wind (air) and ice.
When a sedimentary rock layer is deposited, it is laid down horizontally. A sedimentary
rock layer is not like a rug that mimics the uneven surface on which it rests. Instead, like
snow, a sedimentary rock layer is deposited horizontally even if the surface on which it is
deposited is bumpy and potholed.
Probably the most familiar example of deformed rock is tilted sedimentary rock layers.
Tilted sedimentary rock layers are actually parts of the giant wrinkles spanning tens of
miles (km) called anticlines and synclines. The part of a wrinkle forming an arch is
called the anticline. The part of a wrinkle forming the trough is called the syncline. The
low end of a tilted rock layer points in the direction of the center of the syncline and the
high end points to the direction of the center of the anticline. (For useful illustrations and
additional information about anticlines, go online to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticline. For information about folds go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fold_(geology)). For information about faults go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fault_(geology).
The second familiar indicator of rock deformation is a place where sedimentary rocks
have been broken by compression or stretching. The fissure between broken rock layers
is called a fault. In short, tilted, wrinkled, sedimentary rock layers and (or) broken,
faulted sedimentary rock layers indicate the rocks have been deformed by compression or
stretching.
Igneous and metamorphic rocks are the third type of indirect evidence for mountains. Of
course, like folded and faulted sedimentary rock, igneous and metamorphic rocks also
indicate deformation when bands of minerals in the rock are contorted and twisted, but
the point I am making is that even undeformed igneous and metamorphic rocks indicate
the crust has moved and built a mountain.
Igneous rocks are rocks that were melted by the Earth’s interior heat. Lava is molten
rock (magma) that hardened on the Earth’s surface and is the best-known igneous rock.
The molten rock that intrudes other rocks on its ascent to the surface and then solidifies
below the surface is called intrusive igneous (plutonic) rock. Metamorphic rocks are
rocks whose minerals have been re-crystallized by the Earth’s pressure without melting.
This may seem contradictory or even impossible because pressure causes ice to melt. But
ice and water are important exceptions to the otherwise almost universal rule that
pressure prevents melting. Rock at the surface would melt at this temperature but the
pressure of the surrounding rock beneath the surface is so great that the atoms in the
minerals cannot expand, and therefore cannot melt. The pressure is so great that instead
of melting, the atoms in the minerals re-crystallize without melting into denser,
metamorphic minerals. (For a concise and well-illustrated elementary discussion of
sedimentary, igneous, and/or metamorphic rocks go on line to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_(geology).
In summary, geologists define both modern and ancient mountains as places where there
has been deformation caused by crustal movement. Crustal movement and deformation
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
are recognized by the presence of one or all of the following: deformed and faulted rocks
of any kind and by the presence of igneous rocks and metamorphic rocks.
Rock Forming Minerals
The story of Turtle Island tells us North America grew from the tiny bit of mud that Old
Lady Toad dredged from the bottom of the world ocean and spit out on Great Turtle’s
back. One of the essential themes of the Turtle Island story is that tiny, seemingly
insignificant changes over the incomprehensively long spans of geologic time bring about
almost miraculous growth.
The atoms of elements are the smallest building blocks of the rocks that compose the
mountains and that, in turn, comprise the continent. The atoms of the 92 natural elements
chemically combine with themselves and other elements to form compounds also called
molecules. Geologists call the compounds that constitute rocks minerals. There are more
than 4,000 geologically created compounds called minerals. But the group of minerals
called silicates, like Old Lady Toad’s tiny mouthful of mud, is by far the most important
building block of rocks. (For useful additional information about minerals go online to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral. For information about felsic minerals go online to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felsic. For information about mafic minerals go online to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafic.
Silicate minerals are composed of the elements silicon and oxygen with or without other
elements. Rocks composed principally of iron rich and magnesium rich silicate minerals
are called mafic rocks. Those composed mostly of aluminum rich and potassium rich
silicate minerals are called felsic rocks. The continents and the mountains that comprise
the continents are mostly felsic rocks, of which granite is the best-known example. The
crust beneath the sea floor and that supports the continents is mafic rock of which basalt
is the best-known example. The most important distinction between the continents and
the surrounding Earth crust is that continents are composed of predominately granite-like
felsic rocks, and the surrounding and underlying crust is composed of basalt-like mafic
rocks.
North American Mountains
The most obvious North American mountains are the multiple rows of mountains west of
the Great Plains and scattered over the western third of the continent called the
Cordillera. The Cordillera begins in the Aleutian Islands, and extends inward from the
Pacific Coast and southward through Canada and the United States, onward through
Mexico, Central America, and South America. The swath of mountains called the
Cordillera includes the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, the Coast
Range, the Brooks Range, the Basin and Range and other mountains too numerous to
mention. (To see more maps of North American mountains and the distribution of rocks
in North America go online to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_america and scroll
down to physical geography.)
To understand the confusion of mountain names, it helps to know that the names and
boundaries of these mountain chains, ranges, groups, and individual mountains are purely
arbitrary. For example, US Highway 27 travels north from Hamilton through Oxford,
Ohio where Miami University is located into Indiana. Between Hamilton and Oxford the
highway is called US 27. Once it enters the city limits of Oxford it is first called
Patterson Avenue, then takes a left turn and is called High Street and then it turns right
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
where it is called College Street, then a left turn where it is called Church Street until it
crosses the railroad when it is once again called US 27 until it encounters the next town
in Indiana. The point is that names and dimensions of mountains are as arbitrary as
street and road names that vary depending on location and who is naming them. More
importantly, individual mountains and clusters of mountains are simply local
manifestations of titanic deformations affecting the entire continent.
The crustal movement and deformation that built the Cordillera began in the
Precambrian, continued through the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic and are
still being deformed and uplifted today (Figure 2, on next page).
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
Figure 2.
Distribution of North American mountains. Shaded areas include both the sub
aerial continental plains and the submerged continental shelf. The Appalachian
Mountains include the Marathon Mountains of west Texas, the Ouachita Mountains
of Oklahoma and Arkansas, the exposed igneous and metamorphic rocks in the New
England states of the U.S., in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland in
Canada.
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
The Cordillera meets everyone’s expectation of what a range of mountains should be.
They are high, and rugged with steep slopes and deep valleys, igneous and metamorphic
rocks are common throughout, and the sedimentary rocks are deformed and faulted.
The second most obvious mountain group is the Appalachian Mountains east of the
Central Plains along the east coast of the continent (Figure 2). The central portions of the
Appalachians extending from Pennsylvania to Georgia are clearly mountains. But the
mostly buried Appalachian Mountains extend south and westward into the Ouachita
Mountains of Oklahoma and the Marathon Mountains of Texas. Likewise, the deeply
eroded Appalachians extend northward from Pennsylvania into the Catskills of New
York, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and continue northeast through Maine
and into Nova Scotia where they abruptly end in the Atlantic Ocean.
Like the Cordillera, the Appalachian Mountains began to form in the Precambrian and
underwent dramatic deformation, metamorphism and intrusion by igneous rocks
throughout the Paleozoic. Unlike the Cordillera, however, deformation in the
Appalachians ended in the early Mesozoic. Erosion and deposition beginning in the
middle Mesozoic has partially worn down and partially buried the original mountains.
Geologists can recognize the remains of the Appalachians, even where they worn down
to sea level as for example, in Maine or where they are mostly buried as for example,
between Georgia and Oklahoma, by presence of deformed rocks, igneous and
metamorphic rocks.
The least obvious but most extensive North American mountain group are the mountains
that comprise the vast plain north of the Great Lakes called the Canadian Shield (Figure
2). The Canadian Shield is composed of at least four, perhaps as many as seven groups
of Precambrian mountains, all of which were squashed together, eroded flat and buried
when the Paleozoic began. Once again geologists are able to recognize and distinguish
the surviving foundations of these mountains by the presence of deformed rocks, igneous
and metamorphic rocks. Although what is called the Canadian Shield is only well
exposed in Canada, the same cluster of Precambrian mountains underlies the entire
continent of North America and is well exposed in the bottom of Grand Canyon. The
Canadian Shield is what makes North America a continent. In the geologic sense of the
term, a continent is a raft or a platform felsic silicate rock created by squeezing together
Precambrian mountains.
The Growth of North America
Here’s how you can re-enact the story of North America’s growth. While sitting at a
table (or while imagining you are), put your left elbow and palm on the edge of the table
closest to where you are sitting. Now pretend that the edge of the table represents the
Earth’s equator and your palm represents North America. The tips of your fingers
represent what is now northern Canada; your wrist represents what is now southern
Mexico. Your thumb is on the side that represents the east coast and your little finger is
on the side of your hand that represents the west coast. At the beginning of the Paleozoic,
540 million years ago, what we now call North America was located so that what we now
call Canada was on the east coast, what we call Mexico was on the west coast. During the
Precambrian, more than a half billion years ago, North America was slightly south or
astride the equator. Since that time North America has been moving counter clockwise,
north and west–like a single swipe of a windshield wiper. Now rotate your arm at the
elbow so that your palm rotates in a smooth arc across the table. During the Paleozoic,
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
the heyday of the invertebrates, roughly between a half billion and a quarter of a billion
years ago, North America was in the tropics. During the Mesozoic, the time of the
dinosaurs, roughly between a quarter and a tenth of a billion years ago North America
was in the subtropics. During the Cenozoic, the time of the modern mammals, North
America moved into the temperate and polar regions.
At the beginning of the Paleozoic North America was about three fifths of its present
size. So now, curl your pinky and ring finger into a fist behind your palm and repeat the
windshield-wiper arc up from the table edge. While rotating your arm and hand
counterclockwise slowly bring your ring and pinky back parallel to your other three
fingers. The purpose of this demonstration is to show that during North America’s trip
across the Pacific Ocean it grew by colliding with and adding bits and pieces of the ocean
floor and other continents—like rain and snow on the leading edge of a windshield wiper.
The wrinkled western two fifths of North America that accumulated during North
America’s counter clockwise sweep across the globe is now called the Cordillera.
What about the Appalachians? The answer is that during the Paleozoic North America
rotated roughly thirty degrees counterclockwise into the tropics north of the equator.
What we now call Europe, Africa, and South America were parts of a single continent
called Gondwanaland during the last half of the Paleozoic. At the end of the Paleozoic,
Gondwanaland collided with the east coast of North America, welding all of the world’s
continents into a single continent called Pangaea. (You can see a color animation of the
breakup of Pangaea by going online to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercontinentf.)
You can re-enact the collision that created the Appalachian Mountains by holding your
fingertips ninety degrees from each other (in the same way basketball players sign time
out). Then by rotating your right palm toward your left, like a closing a door you can see
that the collision of your fingertips is analogous to the formation of the northern
Appalachians when the part of Gondwanaland that we now call Europe collided with
North America. The collision of the rest of your fingers and palms are analogous to the
creation of the central Appalachians when the part of Gondwanaland that we now call
Africa collided with North America. By closing the heels of your hands and forearms
together you re-enact the creation of the Appalachians usually called the Ouachita
Mountains in Oklahoma and Marathon Mountains in Texas when the part of
Gondwanaland we now call South America collided with North America.
Beginning in the early Mesozoic, the giant continent called Pangaea broke up into the
present seven continents. During this time of breakup North America continued its
counterclockwise rotation to its present position.
What about the Canadian Shield? There are at least four groups of ancient mountains
that comprise the Canadian Shield and comprise the core of North America. Although
we don’t know the all the details, the same types of collision, accretion, and rifting that
created the Appalachians and the Cordillera created each.
Therefore, ocean floor sediments– Old Lady Toad’s mouthful of mud– are transformed
into mountains, and mountains are transformed into continents. Where do the ocean floor
sediments come from? The answer is that they come from the erosion of the mountains.
When the mountains are eroded the sediments become the plains that cover the area
between the mountains. Rivers and glaciers erode the plains and dump them in the
ocean. Atoms and molecules are the building blocks of the minerals comprising
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
sediments and sediments are the building blocks of rocks. Rocks are the building blocks
of mountains–mountains are the building blocks of continents.
Story of Mount Mazama and Crater Lake
One of the reasons I became a geologist is because I grew up in western Oregon,
surrounded by volcanic rock and only 90 miles from Crater Lake. The ancestors of the
Klamath people were living in Oregon when Mount Mazama erupted, creating Crater
Lake, 6006 years ago. I adapted the following story from the one that Chief Lalek, an
eighty-year old Klamath Indian, told William M. Colvig, his nineteen-year old visitor in
1865 (Clark, 1953).
One time when Chief of the Below World was on top of Mount Mazama, he saw and fell
in love with Loha, a Klamath woman who was cherished by all who knew her. Chief of
the Below World told Loha of his love and asked her to return with him to his lodge
inside Mazama. There, he said, she would live forever. But the tribal wise men warned
Loha that even though they also loved her, she could never, nor should she ever, want to
live forever. Following their instruction, she refused Chief of the Below World by hiding
from him.
When Chief of the Below World learned that the people had unanimously refused his
proposal, he became furious and in a voice like thunder swore that he would destroy all
the Klamath with the Curse of Fire.
Through the stars surrounding his home. The mighty form of Chief of the Above World
descended from the sky and the two spirit chiefs began a furious battle on the
mountaintop. The mountain shook and crumbled. Red-hot rocks as large as the hills
hurtled through the skies. Burning ash fell like rain. Chief of the Below World spewed
fire from the mouth of the mountain. Fleeing in terror, the people found refuge in the
waters of Klamath Lake.
Then the oldest of the tribal wise men raised his voice so all could hear. Only a living
sacrifice will turn away Chief of the Below World’s revenge. But who among us will
offer himself as a sacrifice? No young person will want to make the sacrifice answered
the second oldest wise man. You and I have but a few more years to live. We should be
the ones to throw our torches and ourselves into Chief of the Below World’s fire pit.
After a period of silence, the two old men lighted their pine torches and started toward
Mount Mazama. From the waters of Klamath Lake the people watched in astonishment
as their torches, brilliant against the night sky moved to the crest of the volcano. There
the old men paused, and then, with their torches high above their heads, jumped into the
fiery pit.
The generosity of the old men energized Chief of the Above World. Once more the
mountains shook and the earth seemed to tremble on its foundation. When Chief of the
Below World was finally driven back into his home, Mount Mazama collapsed upon him
and after many years rain filled the great crater.
Distribution of Volcanoes and Origin of Crustal Movement
Volcanoes are not randomly distributed over the Earth but instead are arranged along
belts or chains (Figure 3).
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
Figure 3
Distribution of the major boundaries between the tectonic plates and associated
chains of volcanic mountains. Parallel lines and arrows show separating plates
along rift zones. Converging plates along subduction zones are shown by saw teeth.
There are three major volcanic belts. First is the chain of volcanoes that divide the
world’s oceans along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the East Pacific Rise, and the Mid-Indian
Ridge. The second is the Pacific Ring of Fire (also known as the circum-Pacific Belt)
that encircles the Pacific Ocean. The third is the chain of volcanoes extending from
across the Mediterranean from Gibraltar, across the Himalayas into Indonesia (Figure 3).
Not coincidentally, earthquakes are common below each of these three volcanic belts.
Not only are both the volcanic and earthquake zones found together, both belts encircle
the
Earth in the same way as the seams encircle a baseball. Just as with the seams of a
baseball, if you follow a chain of volcanoes around the globe you will discover
eventually it returns to the starting place. (To see a detailed map of earthquake epicenters
along plate boundaries that mostly coincide with volcanoes along plate boundaries and
for additional information, go online to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake.)
The fact that chains of volcanoes and earthquakes encircle the planet suggests what earth
scientists have now demonstrated, namely that the Earth’s crust is cracked and that the
crust is moving.
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
Size of Volcanoes
Nearly solid, relatively cool magma produces the smallest volcanoes, pyramid-shaped
mountains with a base typically tens of miles (km) or less broad and a total height less
than a mile (1.2 km) called cinder cones. Wizard Island in the center of Crater Lake is a
cinder cone.
Very fluid, extremely hot magma produce the largest volcanoes, pancake-shaped
mountains with bases typically more than tens of miles (km) wide at the base and a mile
(km) or higher are called shield volcanoes. The cones in Hawaiian Volcanoes, and those
in Haleakala National Parks and the Hawaiian Islands themselves, are shield volcanoes.
The differences in size and profile of cinder cones and shield volcanoes are the result of
the differences in the distances which very hot fluid lava and relatively cool viscous lavas
can spread from the vent before solidifying.
Sometimes volcanic magmas alternate between relatively cool and very hot. Volcanoes
due to these types of magmas are called composite volcanoes (but also called
stratovolcanoes) because their size and profile are about half way between those of a
shield volcano and a cinder cone. Mount Mazama, which holds Crater Lake, is a
composite volcano.
Sizes of Volcanoes and Types of Plate Movement
Earth scientists now say the Earth’s “ hard crust” is like the shell of a cracked egg. The
“hard crust”, or lithosphere is broken into about a dozen large, irregularly shaped, 60
mile-thick (100 km) fragments of lithosphere called plates (Figure 3). (To see 17 pages
of color diagrams showing the relationships between the lithosphere, the asthenosphere,
the mantle and different types of plate movements, search Google for Lithosphere and
Asthenosphere and then click on Google Images. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol,
HTTP, is much to long to print here).
First, a rift zone is a deep fissure created where the plates separate by moving in opposite
directions (Figure 4, on next page).
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
Figure 4
Sketch of different types of plate movement on a simplified globe showing how
rifting, subduction and transform movements are related.
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
The fracture in the rift zone reduces the pressure on the very hot rock at the bottom of the
crack. The release of pressure allows the rock to expand and melt. The molten rock
becomes lava that floods to the surface forming shield volcanoes along the line of
separation.
Second, a subduction zone is where crustal movement pulls one lithospheric plate under
another, as when one playing card slides under another when the deck is shuffled (Figure
4). The pressure generated as one plate is pulled under and collides with the overlying
plate, deforming and metamorphosing the rocks along the subduction zone. This is why
deformed rocks and metamorphic rocks are two of the primary indicators of ancient
mountains—the very forces that generate igneous and metamorphic rocks also produce
mountains.
Pressure within and below the lithosphere is so great that rock cannot melt. But when
subduction pulls wet rock 60 miles (100 km) and more below the surface the wet rock
melts and produces giant plumes of magma.
Now I need to digress and explain why subduction of wet rock creates magma. It turns
out that mixtures sometimes have lower melting temperatures than do pure substances.
For example, pure tin melts at about 200 º C and pure lead melts at about 300º C but a
mixture 60% tin and 40% lead melts at about 180º–20º lower than either pure lead or
pure tin! (This is why solder melts before the pure metals it is used to join.) The same is
true with the wet silicate rocks pulled 60 miles (100 km) or more beneath the surface by
subduction. A mixture of water and silicate rock melts at a lower temperature than the
surrounding dry silicate rock. The rate of subduction and the amount of water mixed
with the subducting silicate rock varies and hence the conversion of high-pressure rock
into magma is erratic compared to the rate of magma formation in a rift zone. Therefore,
instead of producing shield volcanoes, a subduction zone produces composite volcanoes,
which result from the episodic eruption of cold and hot magma. The volcanoes that
encircle the Pacific Ocean, called the Ring of Fire and the volcanoes of the
Mediterranean, Himalayan-Indonesian Belt are all subduction volcanoes.
In addition to the kinds of movement in rift and subduction zones, there is a third type of
plate movement called a transform. A transform is where crustal movement pulls one
plate parallel to another, as when two cars pass each other in opposite lanes of a two-lane
road. Transforms result because the Earth is a sphere and transform faults connect the
movement of separating plates (rifting) to converging plates (subduction). Transform
faults typically do not create volcanoes.
You can approximate the relationship between rifting, subduction, and transform
movement on the Earth by interlacing your fingers and touching opposite thumbs (like
when you are getting ready to twiddle your thumbs). In so doing you create a sphere that
represents the Earth. Now, pull your hands apart and let your right thumb slide under
your left thumb. Where your right thumb slides under your left represents subduction.
Where your fingertips separate from the base of your fingers represents rifting. Where
your fingers slide past each other in opposite directions represents transform faulting.
Also notice, as you do this demonstration, your hand-made sphere remains the same
circumference because the expansion created by the rifting fingers is equalized by the
contraction caused by the subducting thumb.
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
Consequently, the different kinds of plate movement produce the different sizes of
volcanoes. First, rifting along the oceanic ridges releases pressure and thereby creates
very hot magma that becomes giant shield volcanoes. (Hot spots also produce shield
volcanoes, most famously in the Hawaiian Islands. The cause and nature of hot spot
volcanoes is currently a subject of debate among geoscientists. (For a concise description
of the alternate hypothesis for the cause and significance of hot spots go online to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_spot_(geology).) Second, subduction around the Pacific
Ocean and along the Mediterranean Sea eastward into Indonesia produce not only
deformed and metamorphic rock but also create the alternately very hot and relatively
cool magma that feeds intermediate-sized composite volcanoes. Third, the smallest
volcanoes, cinder cones, are found on and near both shield and composite volcanoes and
are not the result of any specific type of plate movement. Lastly, transform movement
deforms and metamorphoses rock but normally doesn’t produce magma or volcanoes.
Cause of Plate Movement
The story of Crater Lake and Mount Mazama asserts the mountain is the aftermath of the
struggle between Chief of the Above World and Chief of the Below World. Present day
earth scientists agree except that they say volcanoes and mountains result from the
struggle between heat and gravity.
If it seems hard to understand how gravity can cause the crust to move and create
mountains, here’s a demonstration that makes it more comprehensible. Stand facing a
table with your left middle finger resting lightly on the edge. Next, extend your right arm
as if you are pointing to something off your right shoulder. Now raise your right foot off
the floor and support yourself with your left foot. In less than a minute you will find
yourself being pulled, at first very slowly, and then rapidly to your right and thus
demonstrates how gravity pulls things out of balance and causes them to move.
In the above demonstration, your shoulders and extended arm represents a crustal plate.
Your left shoulder represents the hot part of the plate next to the rift zone and your
extended right hand represents the cold part of a plate sliding into a subduction zone.
The point of the demonstration is to illustrate that crustal movement is triggered by the
cold end of the crustal plate sliding into a subduction zone and as it does so it pulls the
other end of the plate away from the rift zone. The cold end of the plate slides into the
subduction zone because it is denser. The rising of the hot end of the plate is analogous
to a hot air balloon that rises when the air inside is heated. Likewise, the sinking of the
cold end is also analogous to a hot air balloon that goes down when the air inside cools.
To recapitulate: gravity pulls a cold dense section of the lithosphere into the
asthenosphere. As it does so, gravity stretches and fissures the brittle lithosphere
elsewhere, thus creating a rift that allows magma to escape and create a hot, less dense
section of lithosphere.
Why the Lithosphere Is So Easily Broken
We think of the plates that comprise the lithosphere as thick and strong only because we
are small in comparison to the size of the Earth. The Earth is about 8,000 miles (9,600
km) in diameter and consequently the 60 mile-thick (100 kilometer-thick) lithosphere
comprises less than one percent of the Earth’s diameter and therefore the plates are not
only very thin, but are also very weak in comparison to the size of the Earth.
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
The Earth’s Physical and Chemical Properties
If you imagine that the four fingers of your left hand represent Earth’s radius, the distance
from the surface to the Earth’s center, each finger represents about 1000 miles (1,200
km). Starting from the center, your pinky represents the thickness of the Earth’s solid
iron-nickel core and your ring finger represents the Earth’s liquid iron and nickel core.
Together, the solid and liquid portions of the Earth’s core comprise about half the Earth’s
radius. Notice the upper and lower core have the same chemical compositions but
opposite physical properties. The core doesn’t have any known effect on movement of
the plates.
Your middle and index fingers together represent the thickness of the mantle. The 2,000
mile-thick (2,400 km) mantle is composed of mafic silicate rock, that is, rock composed
of silicate minerals rich in iron and magnesium. The entire mantle is solid, not liquid.
The aesthenosphere and the lithosphere together comprise the uppermost 120 miles (144
km) of the mantle. The aesthenosphere has approximately the same composition as the
rest of the mantle and is different only in being especially soft and pliable – like peanut
butter. The overlying lithosphere of which the plates are composed is likewise roughly
the same composition as the asthenosphere and the rest of the mantle but instead of being
pliable is easily broken—like peanut brittle. The important thing to understand is that the
difference between the lithosphere and the asthenosphere, like the difference between the
inner and outer core (and for that matter, ice and water) is physical, not chemical.
I like to use the differences between peanut butter and peanut brittle to emphasize the
differences between the asthenosphere and the lithosphere. Both peanut butter and
peanut brittle have similar compositions because both are mostly peanuts. Likewise, both
the asthenosphere and the lithosphere are predominately composed of mafic silicate rock.
Furthermore, just as peanut butter is soft, putty-like, and pliable and peanut brittle is
rigid, hard, and brittle so is the asthenosphere soft in comparison to the brittle lithosphere.
Why are the continents and the mountains made up of granite-like felsic silicate rocks
and the lithosphere and the rest of the mantle made up of basalt-like mafic silicate rocks?
The reason is because during rifting and subduction parts of the lithosphere melt.
Although the lithosphere is composed predominately of mafic silicate minerals, it also
contains felsic minerals. The felsic minerals melt before the mafic minerals and
therefore, every time the lithosphere begins to melt, felsic minerals are extracted from the
lithosphere and concentrated in the mountains which in turn, are squeezed together to
form the continents. The partial melting of the lithosphere during rifting and subduction
accomplishes a separation of similar compounds just as when distillation separates pure
water from seawater, a solution of salt and other compounds.
In summary, the innermost half of the Earth, the core, is composed of iron and nickel.
The inner half of the core is solid and the outer half is liquid. The core has no known
effect on crustal movement that creates the mountains and the continents. The upper half
of the Earth is composed of solid mafic silicate rock. The 60-mile (100 kilometer) thick
asthenosphere is an exceptionally soft and pliable peanut butter-like layer of the mantle
beneath the brittle, rock-like 60-mile-thick lithospheric layer. The lithosphere differs
from the rest of the mantle because it is brittle and contains gigantic “islands” of felsic
silicate rock called continents.
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
The Story of Turtle Island Continued
The most insightful and pedagogically useful part of the Turtle Island Story is the second
half (adapted from Burland, 1965).
It turns out that Woman-Who-Fell-From-the-Sky was pregnant. When her time came she
gave birth to two boys. The first was Tsenta. The second, Taweskare, was so impatient
he couldn’t wait to be born in the normal way. In a rambunctious fury he hacked and
forced his way out of his mother from below her armpit and in so doing caused his
mother’s death.
Tsenta was slow and gentle. Tsenta created the broad plains and the wide meandering
rivers. He created the useful plants like the oak and the pine that we use for shelter and
he created the gentle animals, deer and rabbit that we use for food. Taweskare was
impetuous and destructive. Taweskare destroyed the plains and made mountains, he
transformed the wide meandering rivers into the roaring torrents that cut canyons. He
created poisonous plants and the cactus and he made fierce and dangerous animals: the
bear and the wolf.
But Tsenta is more powerful than his brother and was able to drive him away from the
east. Tsenta uses all the processes that wear down the surface, weathering, land sliding,
wind, water and glacial erosion to wear the Precambrian mountains into the nearly flat
surface that we now call the Canadian Shield and covered the parts of the Precambrian
mountains that underlie the Gulf Coast and the Central Plains with sediment. Tsenta has
partly, but not completely leveled the Paleozoic mountains we call the Appalachians.
From the debris of the Appalachians he is making the coastal plains and continental shelf
along the eastern and gulf coasts of North America.
Taweskare still controls the west where there are earthquakes, volcanoes, hot springs
and geysers that are the consequences of the new mountains he is still making. Even
though Taweskare still runs amok in the west, Tsenta is undoing Taweskare’s work to
create the Great Plains. (Pat Betteley, a former student and now a sixth grade science
and social studies teacher in Madison, Ohio collaborated with illustrator Robert Rath to
create a comic script of this story published in the May/June 2011 (volume 27, no 8 issue
of Faces magazine.)
The concept that unites all of these stories is the idea that death begets birth and that birth
causes death. The great turtle made certain that the animals understood the significance of
Old Lady Toad’s death before he told them that the sacred earth has the power to grow.
What Chief of the Below World creates, Chief of the Above World destroys. What
Taweskare creates, Tsentsa destroys–endlessly. One of the central ideas of Native
America mythology is that in order to create, something must be destroyed. (For an
discussion of the universal mythic themes depicted in the Turtle Island story and the story
of Crater Lake, see Sullivan, 1989.)
North America West of the 100th Meridian
Geologists, geographers and almost everyone else know that western North America is
different from eastern North America (Figure 5, on next page).
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
Figure 5
Map showing the location of the 100ø Longitude (100th Meridian) and the geographic
differences between western and eastern North America.
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
The west is “high and dry”. The really high mountains of the west begin above two miles
(2.4 km) above sea level. In contrast, the highest mountains of the east are scarcely more
than a mile (1.2 km) above sea level. The rain comes from the Pacific and the Atlantic
Oceans. The two mile-high (2.4 km) mountains of the Cordillera prevent the eastward
migration of rain from the Pacific. The result is that west of the 100th meridian
(longitude) a year’s worth of rain is usually less than a 20 inches (50 cm) per year (except
along the Pacific Coast) and often less than 10 inches (25 cm). In contrast, the rain clouds
of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico move almost unobstructed throughout the
east where a year’s worth of rain is commonly more than 20 inches (50 cm) and in many
places more than three feet (1 m).
The West is high because the Pacific plates are being pulled under western North
America. Subduction produces magma that rises up, heats and thereby causes the
western edge of the continent to expand. The ocean is flooding the eastern edge of North
America because of the combined effects of glacial melting and the expansion of
seawater as it warms. (The ocean is rising on the Pacific Coast, too, but the Pacific Coast
is rising faster than the ocean.)
On the west coast, the mountains emerge from the sea. On the east coast, the oceans
flood the plains. Barren rock characterizes the mountainous west because in most of the
west there isn’t enough rain for plants to flourish. On the other hand, abundant rain
allows forests and meadows to cover the plains of the east. Valleys and mountains are
characteristically steep and narrow in the west because the rate of uplift is more rapid
than the rate of erosion. Broad valleys and gently rolling hills characterize the east
because abundant rain collapses and erodes steep slopes more rapidly than uplift can
create them.
The East is different from the West in another way. North America east of Glacier
National Park (near the intersecting borders of Idaho, Montana, and Canada) and north of
the Missouri and Ohio Rivers was covered by continental ice beginning about two and a
half million years ago until between 15 and 10 thousand years ago. In eastern North
America mile-thick continental ice shaved off the hilltops and filled the valleys with
glacial sand and gravel. But west of Rocky Mountain National Park (west of Denver)
and Glacier National Park, Taweskare uses mountain glaciers to cut deep, vertical-walled
U-shaped valleys and instead of cutting off mountain peaks, he sharpens them into spires
called horns. (For a map of the extent of North American mountain glaciation the
Cordilleran Ice Sheet and of North American continental glaciation, the Laurentide Ice
Sheet, go online to http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/namQ.jpg).
Tsenta uses continental ice to make eastern North America flatter. Contrary as ever,
Taweskare uses mountain glaciers to make western North America more jagged.
Sacred Wheel of the Arapaho
The Wind River Indian Reservation, the home of 2500 Eastern Shoshone and 5000
Northern Arapaho, is located less than 20 miles from the Miami University Geology
Field Station. The Sacred Wheel of the Arapaho, also sometimes called the Hoop is a
supple branch that has been bent into a circle to look like a snake swallowing its tail
(Figure 6, on the second following page).
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
The only genuine illustration of the Sacred Wheel is a photograph in a very scarce
anthropological monograph written by G. A. Dorsey in 1903. Fortunately, you can
download the entire book by going online to Google Books and searching for Sacred
Wheel of the Arapaho. (The Hypertext Transfer Protocol, HTTP, is much to long to print
here). There you can see a photo of the actual Sacred Wheel in Plate 1, between pages 12
and 13. Dorsey’s description of the complex symbolism of the Sacred Wheel is found on
pages 12-21.)
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
Figure 6
Sketch showing the Sacred Wheel of the Arapaho, the distribution of North
American plains and mountains, and a simplified rock cycle.
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
According to the Arapaho, the snake swallowing its tail represents the world ocean
surrounding Turtle Island. The world ocean has no beginning and no end. You can
travel from the Arctic Ocean into the Atlantic. From the Atlantic you can go to the
Pacific and from the Pacific you can go to the Arctic and so doing realize that the
Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans are arbitrary names for different parts of a continuous
worldwide ocean. The Arapaho also say that the snake depicted is a small harmless garter
snake. I surmise that this is to indicate that nature, like a snake, at first seems threatening
or even terrifying. But if you understand nature, just as if you understand this little
snake, you realize that there is nothing to fear.
The Sacred Wheel is decorated with four equally spaced clusters of eagle feathers.
Among other things, the four clusters represent the four directions: north, south, east and
west. But for my purpose, the most important point is that the feather clusters symbolize
two of the pairs of opposites that govern our lives.
The first pair of opposites is the east and the west. The east represents day and the west
represents night because the Sun appears in the east and disappears in the west. Day is
the end of night and beginning of night is the end of day. This pair of opposites control
each day of our lives.
The second pair of opposites is the north and the south. The south corresponds to summer
and the north corresponds to winter. These two opposites control each year of our lives.
The Sacred Wheel implies but does not depict the third pair of opposites: above and
below. Above and below are implied where the four directions intersect at the center of
the Sacred Wheel. This third pair of opposites are more plainly illustrated in the story of
Turtle Island when the four animals, Duck, Beaver, Otter, and Old Lady Toad dive into
and return from the world ocean four times. In the story of Crater Lake Chief of the
Above World and Chief of the Below World go up and down as they first create and then
destroy Mount Mazama. Above and below correspond to the birth and death of each
creation and creature.
The Rock Cycle
I claim that in the most general terms, the Sacred Wheel represents the same concept that
scientists recognize as the conservation of matter (Figure 6). Geologists call this
continuous recycling of the Earth’s minerals and rock the Rock Cycle. No new matter is
being created. Old rocks containing the same atoms and molecules that existed when the
universe began are simply being used over and over to create different combinations of
new rocks.
I divide the rock cycle into four episodes: uplift, erosion, subsidence, and deposition.
The four directions represented by the four clusters of eagle feathers on the Sacred Wheel
can remind us of these four episodes. New mountains are growing on the rising western
edge North America because that is where subduction is pulling the plates that comprise
the Pacific Ocean floor under the North American plate. As gravity pulls the Pacific
plates under the North American Plate, the rocks of the Pacific plates not only compress
fold and metamorphose the leading edge of the continent; they trigger the eruption of
magma that heats the leading edge of the North America and cause it to arch upwards.
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
In the north, the flat surface called the Canadian Shield is the result of erosion cutting
down to almost sea level the four groups of Precambrian mountain ranges, mountains that
originally were as high as the present-day Cordillera.
The east reminds us that the eastern edge of North America is sinking. The reason the
east coast is sinking is because the eastern edge of the continent is cooling and thereby
becoming denser. The rate of sinking of eastern North America, compared to the rate of
uplift in western North America is very slow, but the present-day rate of flooding is rapid
because glacial ice is melting and seawater is expanding as it warms.
The south, particularly the Gulf Coast and the Florida peninsula and the adjacent
continental shelf are composed of sediments that are in some places more than six miles
(7.2 km) thick exemplify the effects of deposition. These sediments were eroded from
the mountains to the west and the east and now partly bury the southern Appalachians.
How does the power of the below world make North America move? The heat produced
by the radioactive elements of the Earth’s interior are the power of the below world.
When this heat escapes as magma along the rift and subduction zones it causes the crust
to rise. Gravity causes the crust to sink when it cools and becomes denser. The sinking
of the cold lithospheric layer and the rising of the hot lithospheric layer cause the crust
and all the continents to move.
What causes erosion and deposition? In this case, the power of the above world is the
power of the Sun’s heat that creates clouds by evaporating oceans, lakes and rivers.
When the clouds cool and condense, gravity pulls rain, snow and ice downhill and erodes
the continent. When rivers reach the ocean they deposit gravel and sand that become the
continental plains, the continental shelf and the mud that covers the ocean bottom.
What we call the beginning is often the end
and to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
T.S. Eliot (Little Gidding, No. 4 of Four Quartets)
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The Geology of North America as Illustrated by Native American Stories by Robert G. McWilliams
References
Burland, C. A., 1985, North American Indian Mythology, New York, Peter Bedrick
Books.
Clark, E., 1953, Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest, Berkeley, University of
California Press.
Dorsey, G. A., 1903, The Arapaho Sundance: The ceremony of the offerings lodge. In
Field Columbian Museum Publication 75, Anthropological Series v. iv, 12-21. Chicago:
Field Columbian Museum.
Eisen, A. and G. Laderman, 2005, Bridging the two cultures: a comprehensive
interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning science in a societal context. Journal
of Science Teaching. National Science Teachers Association. HighBeam Research. 22
Feb. 2011 <http://www.highbeam.com>.
Gill, S.D., 1989, Mythic Themes. In Native American Religions: North America, ed. L.E.
Sullivan, 157-166. New York: Macmillan Publishing.
Isabelle, A. D., 2007, Teaching science using stories: the storyline approach. Science
Scope. National Science Teachers Association. HighBeam Research. 22 Feb. 2011
<http://www.highbeam.com>.
Konicek-Moran, R., 2010, Even more everyday science mysteries for inquiry-based
science teaching. Arlington Virginia: NSTA Press.
National Science Education Standards, 1996, Washington, DC: National Academy Press,
262 p.
Acknowledgements
I wish to extend special thanks to Ohio Board of Regents Improving Teacher Quality
Program and to Miami University for generous financial support for the Environmental
Sciences for Elementary School Teachers Program. Thanks also to the following for
insightful reviews and suggestions for the improvement of this manuscript. P. Betteley,
J. Constible, R. Flinn, S. Hall, N. Harr, R. Lee, J. Mason, M. Parkes, C. Pliske, E. Soldo.
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