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Central Park Rocks
Despite impressive landscape gardening campaign over the last two centuries , New York ’s Central Park has retain born feature that take thousands of eld to form . The urban haven , which covers some 840 acres ( 339 hectares ) , is a great place to see layers of ancient basics stick out out from the sess or glacial grooves on a schist control surface .
Glacial Grooves
During the last ice age , glaciers dragged rock-and-roll across the Earth’s surface of Manhattan ’s bedrock , leave behind the groves and striations that can be pick up in Central Park today .
Manhattan Schist
This cross - section of fundamental principle on Central Park West show how the layers of Manhattan schist are cant over to the Confederate States .
Rocks Point the Way
If you are having difficulty point yourself in the park , the southwards dipping rock layers could point you in the right steering .
Mica Specs
gleam flecks of mica can been seen in the schist .
Limestone
Even many of the manmade parts of Central Park have a geological history . The window dressings on this building are made from Indiana limestone , which formed at the bottom of a shallow inland ocean that deal most of the Midwestern United States during the Mississippian full stop . diminutive marine dodo sometimes can be spot on structures build with this stuff .
Cleopatra’s Needle
Cleopatra ’s Needle may be Central Park ’s oldest manmade feature , but it has a geological history that predates even the ancient Egyptians . It is carved from Aswan granite that formed some 600 million years to begin with .
Sidney Horenstein
Sidney Horenstein , a geologist and environment pedagog emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History , gives walking tours in New York .
