My kid asked if mountains are just really big rocks

I was looking at a road cut with my six year old near Bend, Oregon. He pointed at the exposed layers and said, 'So that's just a giant rock we're driving through, right?' I gave my usual spiel about uplift and erosion, but he cut me off. 'But it's still a rock. You just said it's made of rock.' He had a point. I've been overcomplicating it for a decade. Anyone else get schooled by a five foot tall logic machine?

2 comments

2 Comments

hill.christopher12d ago

Hold up, I gotta disagree. A single rock is one thing, but a mountain is a whole system. That road cut shows layers, right? That's different kinds of rock, plus soil, ice, plants, and animals all mixed together. Calling a mountain just a big rock is like calling a forest just a bunch of trees. It misses how all the parts work together over crazy long times. Isn't the whole story more interesting?

thea_chen12d ago

So a rock is just a lonely mountain?