What’s a Petoskey Stone? What is the state stone of Michigan.
The Petoskey Stone is a coral that lived 350 million years ago during the Devonian age when the northern part of Michigan was covered with a sea of warm water. The scientific name is Hexagonaria percarinata; sloss (Hexagonaria meaning having six sides).
The soft living tissue of the corallite was called polyp. At the center of the polyp was the food intake opening or mouth. This dark spot, or the eye of the corallite, has been filled with silt or mud that petrified after falling into the openings. Surrounding the opening were tentacles that were used for gathering food and drawing the food into the mouth. This living corallite thrived on plankton which lived in the warm sea.
Source and for more on Petoskey Stones go to http://www.boynecountry.com/petoskey-stone-73/
Here are details.
Pre history of Warren and Center Line
For many thousands of years Warren was covered with seas, glaciers, lakes, clay, marshland and forests. Mastodon bones and other fossils found in the area date back from ten thousand years to hundreds of millions of years. Although there is no human record we read the history from the evidence left in the rocks themselves going back millions of years. The topsoil under our feet took thousands of years to build up. Below that is about a hundred feet of clay which are the remains of mountains dragged here by the glaciers from the Upper Peninsula. Below that are many layers of rock formed in many ways some from millions of years of this area being covered by shallow seas and coral reefs. There are layers of salt that extend from here to New York which are the result of salt water seas drying out. If a clock face were to represent all of prehistory and history of our area only the last fraction of a second would represent the history of mankind on this planet. Mankind's tenure on this planet has been very short in comparison to many other things. How far back does history go?
The area that became Warren was first formed from molten rock and became part of the edge of the Canadian Shield about five billion years ago as the Earth cooled. The Earth's crust later folded forming mountains and volcanoes to the north of the Lower Peninsula. The Penokean Mountain range was created in the upper peninsula of Michigan and was probably high as the present Rockies.
Over 600 million years ago in the Precambrian Era the area that would become Warren was part of a shallow sea in which sediments were deposited on the sea floor from the erosion of the mountains. After the old mountains were eroded down the Killarney Mountains were formed in the Upper Peninsula. Geologists have found sedimentary rocks layered, folded and tilted, or crumpled into wavy lines, indicating that originally flat layers were pushed up into ridges and mountains. By measuring the angle and thickness of these layers of rock (strata) and studying the places where still hidden strata appear as outcrops on the surface, geologists have determined that a great mountain chain, sometimes referred to as the Killarney Mountains, extended from Minnesota, across Wisconsin and Michigan, and on eastward into Canada. This mountain range towered over the landscape for millions of years until the combined forces of earthquakes, glaciers and weather eroded them away. We are now resting on top of the ground down Killarney Mountains.
In the Cambrian period over 500 million years ago the land was uplifted many times. With each uplift the sediments were changed and folded and new igneous rocks were forced into these formations. The mountains eroded and the sediments that were carried into the shallow sea became the layer of Cambrian Sandstone located below present day Warren.
In the Ordovician period over 425 million years ago Warren remained under the ancient sea which became alternately shallower, deeper, clear and muddy which formed the layers of limestone from millions of small animal shells and dolomite and shale formed from muddy water.
Since the Michigan area was shaped like a huge saucer it has been called the Michigan Basin by geologists.
During the Silurian Period over 400 million years ago the area of Warren was covered with deep seas with clear warm waters. Great deposits of muds and corals were formed (now called the Niagara Limestones). This is about 3200 feet below Warren now. One form of coral became the state stone (the Petoskey Stone). Toward the end of this time the seas became salty as ocean water splashed into the basin and many forms of life died. Layers of salt, and anhydrite settled in the bottom of the basin which is now down about 1200 feet below Warren. Later more limestone was formed.
During the Devonian period over 325 million years ago the climate became warm and moist. Michigan became a closed pond. This was the age of fishes and corals which formed limestone. Later as a bay formed and vegetation sediments were deposited various shales were formed.
During the Mississippian period over 310 million years ago shales, limestone and gypsum were deposited.
During the Pennsylvanian period over 280 million years ago Warren was above the sea while the center of the state was a huge swamp with huge fern like plants (which later formed coal).
During the Permian period over 220 million years ago the climate of Warren became alternately hot and dry and mild. There were saber tooth tigers, horses and other animals including dinosaurs. Erosion has removed all traces of these and almost everything else up to the end of the last glacial period. For a source for the above just look at any Michigan Geography book. (Geo of MI)
About a million years ago the climate gradually became colder and the land was covered with snow. As it continued to grow colder the snow became deeper and changed to ice under the pressure of the snow layers above. Glaciers 100's of feet thick pushed, scraped and ground the surface of the land as they advanced. Warren was covered by thick ice for thousands of years.
Warren RESTS ON TOP OF MOUNTAINS!
There were several periods of glaciation. When the glaciers melted, deposits of glacial drift (now almost 100 feet thick) settled to the bottom of the lake which was formed at the end of the glacier. The ground we are now resting on top of is the remains of the ground down Killarney Mountains. These mountains that used to be in the upper peninsula which were themselves formed from the Penokean Mountains are now the dense clay that is under the topsoil and sand layers of Warren’s gardens. You can be historically correct when you state that Warren rests on top of mountains.
Warren thawed out but rested under an expanded Lake St. Clair until about 10,000 years ago.
As the lake level declined and the ground rose Warren at first was tundra with arctic plants, then low plants and shrubs, then gradually the following trees became dominant: Spruce, fir, pine, oak, chestnut walnut, sycamore butternut, basswood, elm, beech ash, oak, and pine. Some of the animals that have lived in the area of Warren since the glaciers and lake retreated are: wolf, giant beaver, white-tailed deer, musk ox, mastodon, American elk, Jefferson mammoth, muskrat, moose, short-tailed shrew, woodchuck,, eastern chipmunk red squirrel, gray squirrel Canada beaver, white-footed deer mouse, vole, raccoon, martin, red fox and many different species of birds. Mastodons were a special animal. What happened to them? How big were they?
Mankind has caused threatening changes but History can help.
Archaeologists tell us that man may have lived off and on in Michigan over 10,000 years ago. What is strange is that several civilizations seem to have become extinct. Some scientists claim that there has been as many of five extinctions of life on this planet. But these claims have not been proven. I mention them because they may be true and because it gives us something to think about. Mankind after all still has the specter of nuclear winter which will follow even a modest nuclear exchange perhaps brought on by terrorists. We now have the serious disasters happening such as hurricanes and droughts caused by global warming which is now accepted scientific fact. Our planet is now suffering massive global extinctions of animal and plant species caused by pollution and human activity. The Carbon dioxide balance is being upset by industrialization and the global depletion of the planet’s rain forests. The Ozone layer has taken a beating leading to increase in cancers. Peoples in the past had a strong ozone layer to protect them. They lived practically their entire lives outside They did not have or need sun screen lotion. And they had clean air to breathe unlike now when thousands of people dying as a result of pollution. Our governments are not seeing to it that enough research is being done on drugs to stop the new drug resistant bacteria. Our enemies are mainly only ourselves and bacteria.
We live on a planet which is a mere speck in the vastness of a huge uninhabitable universe. It is like a big spaceship and it has no life preservers. We need to take care of our space ship as it is the only one we have. History can help us do that. History can show us where to make changes in our cultures for example to put an end to violence and needless wars thru rule of law and thru a code of conduct that must be required of every citizen of our planet-spaceship Earth. If we cannot live together in peace the nuclear weapons and biological weapons will be unleashed and we will all die. Scientists are concerned because terrorists are increasingly able to accumulate more destructive power. Nuclear weapons and materials are being stolen particularly from the old Soviet Union and now Pakistan. History warns us that weapons usually get used. Lastly history tells us that we had better pay attention to science. Medical scientists are warning us that more medical research needs to be done to find antibiotics against super germs. With the human population soon to be 7 billion our enemies the bacteria and viruses have a huge target population in which to develop mutations. Super germs are increasing at an unprecedented rate and we need to develop antibiotics against them. We had better pay attention to history of epidemics. We need to be observant, informed, and prepared.
Nuclear catastrophe in the past in Michigan?
The oldest radiocarbon dating from Michigan archaeological digs prove that man was in the area 5350 years ago. And that may actually be a false reading. It actually be much older because a nuclear event may have happened that throws readings off. A very recent scientific discovery of a possible nuclear event (not man made) that happened several thousand years ago leading to the extinction of mankind and animals in Michigan and causing genetic mutations including the appearance of corn. Theory is that radioactive rays from a super nova explosion in space hit Michigan with radiation. (See research source Terrestrial Evidence) There have been several finds in our area such as huge Mastodon bones.
Other resent scientific research shows that our planet may have had multiple mass extinctions of much of its life caused by meteor impacts. (Brit)
Dorr, John & Eachman, Donald. Geology of Michigan. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,1970
Parkins, Almon Ernest. The Historical Geography of Detroit. Michigan Kennikat Press. 1970
Terrestrial Evidence of a Nuclear Catastrophe in Paleoindian Times from: the Mammoth Trumpet (March 2001) by Richard B. Firestone, Lawrence. Berkeley National Laboratory, and William Topping, Consultant, Baldwin, Michigan http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/nuclear.html
Hinsdale, Wilbert B. Michigan Archaeological Atlas Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.1931.
Brit, Robert Roy. Mystery of Arizona's Meteor Crater Solved posted 9 March 2005 on Internet. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050309_meteor_crater.html
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