🪨 Rocks, Ores and Fossils

Hello! Today we are going to look under the ground. There are rocks, ores, and even clues left by living things from long, long ago: fossils.

Soil is just a thin blanket on top of the ground. Under it are rocks. The land part of the Earth’s crust is made of rock. Mountains are rock too.

Each rock is useful in its own way. Granite is hard, so it makes kitchen worktops. Marble shines when it is polished: it is used for statues and stairs. Limestone is used to build walls.

Hidden inside rocks are ores: shiny, valuable materials. They are dug out of mines and processed. Ores become the raw materials for many things we use.

Ores turn into things we use! Copper is processed into the wire inside electric cables. Iron is processed into nails. Gold is processed into rings.

How does a fossil form? A very long time ago, a fish died in a lake. Slowly, the fish sinks to the bottom.

The soft parts of the fish rot away. The bones stay. Soon mud and sand cover them, and that keeps the bones safe.

New layers build up on top. A very long time passes: thousands, even millions of years. The mud and sand turn into stone, and the bones stay inside the rock.

Years go by. Rain, wind, and heat and cold wear away the rock on top. This is called weathering. One day the bones show again. That is a fossil: the remains of a very old living thing, kept safe inside rock.

Fossils tell us about the past. If we find a seashell fossil on top of a mountain, that place was once the sea floor. If we find a leaf print, plants once grew there.

Summary: the land part of the Earth’s crust is made of rock. Inside rocks there are ores: we make wire from copper and nails from iron. Fossils are the remains of very old living things. Now try it in Earth Spins!