ROCKing the Environment



Hutton Anticline at the Arbuckle Mountains
Picture taken by ME! Kate Kozicki
Feb. 19 2011

Rocks rocks and more ROCKS! Being a geology major I get to go on these amazing field trips of driving along the side of the highway getting out of the big white van and staring at the formations of the rocks, do not get me wrong they are super awesome I love what I do but I do hate those huge vans with a passion. My recent field trip was to the Arbuckle Mountains, they are super cool. But being in this class made me think about how rocks in our environment actually add a little something to Oklahoma.

When you are driving along the highway and you are in a part that has been blown out for the highway you see all the formations of the rocks and think why is it like that? Well there can be many reasons why they have folds or they look like they are standing up the list could go on. During our first stop to this anticline in the Arbuckle Mountains I climbed to the highest point and stood there to take in the view and it was breathe taking. I felt as though I was like an Indian scanning my native land and checking out where there might be a group of buffalo or if there were Europeans coming my way. It was defiantly a life changing experience that studying rocks has brought me.

Rocks to me are something when I am in the field something I can connect to the environment with. When I look at a huge blown out part of the highway I am able to see the history the rocks and see what they have gone through which helps me relate to what the actual on top of the rocks have also gone through. It is crazy to think of what Oklahoma looked like millions of years ago when everything was untouched, the land was flat no mountains just a huge area of blank of land, and to be able to stand at a high point at the Arbuckles and see the rolling hills now just makes you appreciate our land immensely more. I adore Oklahoma and believe we have one of the best state possible.

As I was in the huge white vans driving on the highway seeing parts of the Arbuckles that have been blown out for the highway it was still breath taking. All the different shapes and curves it is all the shapes and curves our land and environment has gone through out time. When I was in St. Louis visiting my dad their highways have tons of rocks lining their highways but they were ugly rocks, don’t get me wrong I love rocks but after seeing our Oklahoma rocks they were just icky. Our Oklahoma rocks are pretty and I feel that plays a large part into our environment. With the rocks we have we have many natural resources to support us and I find it a very mind blowing way to think of it like that.

From now on when I am driving the highway I like to look at the rocks surrounding me and just like to take in how they have been there forever and make Oklahoma just a little bit better than other places. We may not need an actual living breathing thing to effect our environment rocks to me have a huge impact to our environment for giving us the oil boom and mountains that are throughout Oklahoma. To anyone that has not spend time in the Arbuckle Mountains I think you should defiantly check it out and think like an Indian it really helps you appreciate our land and environment around us today.