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Today, you are going to meet a rock bandbut not
the kind you may think. These are the rocks that
make up the southern Appalachian Mountains, and
they are going to tell you their story. The
oldest member of the band is Granny Gneiss.
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GRANNY GNEISS Hello! My real name is
Granite Gneiss, but you can call me Granny.
And remember, Gneiss is not spelled N-I-C-E
like it sounds. Its G-N-E-I-S-S. When you look
at me, you can see that I am made of lots of
little crystalsmostly black, white, and
gray. I am more than a billion years
old. Thats older than almost everything you can
see around youa lot older!
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When I was formed, all the continents of the
world had collided to form one giant continent.
During the collision I was pushed and squeezed
until my minerals were flattened.
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Then I noticed that it was was getting hot
underneath me . . .
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. . .and there were volcanoes erupting all over
the place.
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FLO Hello. I came from lava, and you can call
me Flo. Some people think that Im hot stuff,
and I was a lot hotter than an ovenabout 2000
degrees Fahrenheit. Thats as hot as a melted
rock! But I flow slowlykind of like a thick,
hot fudge topping. If you think I was hot stuff,
you should meet Tuffy.
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TUFFY Hi! Yes, indeed, I was not only hot, I was
explosive! Do you know what will happen if
you shake a can of soda for a long time and then
open it? Gases in the soda expand and make it
explode out of the top.
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Well, thats how I came out of the volcanolike
Rocket Rock! Gases in the lava made it explode,
and I shot through the air, then fell to the
ground and cooled off.
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FLO Do you know in what group of rocks Tuffy and
I belong?
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We are igneous. That means we were totally melted
when we formed!
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TUFFY Those volcanic eruptions were exciting,
but when they ended I was out in the open. It
rained and snowed on me.
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Water froze in cracks and wedged me into pieces,
and I started to break up into sand and clay.
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SHALE Hey Tuffy! Do you have a problem with sand
and clay? Just remember that were the ones who
have all the fun! Hi. Im shale, but my friends
call me Shay. I was formed from the clay made
when rocks like Tuffy broke up. My sister, Sandy,
is made of the sand.
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SANDY Hi! My real name is sandstone, but you
can call me Sandy. Have you ever gone river
rafting?
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Well, thats what Shay and I did, only we didnt
ride on top of the river, we rode in it, swept
downstream by the water.
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SHAY While we were being washed downstream, the
continent was pulling pull apart and a deep sea
formed.
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When we got there, we got into a fast current,
and I had the ride of my life. I raced through
an underwater canyon at more than a hundred miles
an hour. It was so much fun that I rode as long
as I could.
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SANDY Fun for Shay, maybe, for me it was more
like being spun in a blender! As the water
slowed down it dropped me, and I settled down on
the sea floor.
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SHAY Sandy couldnt ride in the water any more
because she was too heavy for the slower parts of
the current. I am light and flat, so I was able
to drift along even in slow-moving water. I was
sorry that Sandy missed all the excitement. You
wont believe what I saw!
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Way out on the bottom of the sea floor, black
steam was coming out of vents into the water.
That steam carried tiny bits of valuable metals,
and they drifted over me as I lay on the sea
floor.
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Even now you can see beautiful little golden
cubes of pyrite in me in a lot of places. In
areas where lots of metal collected, people mined
through me to remove the metal. At first people
didnt know that when you cut rocks like me open,
rain water can carry acid from my minerals into
creeks. This makes them acid like vinegar and is
very bad for fish and plants.
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SANDY Yes, everybody has to watch out for
that! When Shay was in the sea, it slowly got
deeper and deeper because of movement on faults.
By the time it stopped sinking, he was covered
with miles of sediment.
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SHAY Then the sinking stopped, and the sea
dried up. A new sea formed to the west, and it
was shallow and warm. A new friend named
limestone formed there. We call her Limey, and
she is a very nice rock.
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LIMEY Thank you, Shay. Yes, I was born in the
sea. Sometimes Im made of sea shells or corals
that turn into fossils. I form in warm water
that is not very deep.
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Sandy, Shay, and I are all part of the same group
of rocks. Can you guess which group?
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If you guessed sedimentary, you were right.
Sedimentary means to settle because we settle
out into flat layers.
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SHAY People like Limey because she does a lot to
help them.
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LIMEY Yes, I add lime to the soil, which helps
plants like peach trees grow better. People also
dig me up to make roads and concrete.
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In some places I contain zinc, which is a metal
that is used to keep the steel in cars from
rusting.
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In places where water washes parts of my layers
away underground, caves form. People like to
visit caves because they are so beautiful inside.

When I was first formed, there was a much larger
and deeper sea to the east. It was like the
Atlantic Ocean is today.
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FLO Yes, but it was different, too. When I
erupted out of a volcano, I flowed right out
under the ocean water onto the sea floor just
like lava does today in Hawaii and Iceland.
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SANDY Then everything started to change.
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Plants and animals that had first formed in the
sea began to live on land. This was long before
the age of dinosaurs, so the plants and animals
were a lot different than the ones you see today.
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SHAY The really big change was deep within the
earth. The continents started moving closer
together. The ocean that was in between them got
squeezed smaller and smaller, including the
layers of rock like me that were under the water.
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Finally, the continents collided. Huge layers of
rock slid across each other like they were
nothing but a deck of cards. They got shoved
higher and higher until they formed mountains.

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SANDY We were buried under tons of rock, and it
was hot, too. Shay couldnt take it. He was
softer than me, and when he got squished, all of
his little, flat grains lined up and got even
flatter.
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SHAY Is there something wrong with flat? Let
me tell you something, Sandy. The very best
rocks for skipping are flat and break easily
into flat pieces just like me.
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SANDY Thats true, but its hard to hold on to
those smooth, flat surfaces. When you get wet
theyre slippery, and rocks on top can slide
downhill and become landslides.
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GRANNY GNEISS Are you two at it again? Please
excuse them. They argue all the time. Even though
they argue, they have been hanging out together
for several hundred million years, first in
rivers and at the bottom of the ocean and then in
the mountains.
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SHAY Yes, with us its down and upfirst we get
washed down into the sea by rivers and streams,
then eventually we get shoved up into mountain
ranges by continents pushing us around. When
were high in the mountains, all we need is a
hard rain and were ready to go again.
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While we were up in the mountains, I heard that
there was another continental break-up and a new
ocean developed. It was called the Atlantic
Ocean, and I couldnt wait to explore it, too.
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SANDY No wonder Shay needs to rest so much. I
like riding the rivers, but Id rather stay in
the mountains longer.
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SANDY Shays a softy, and he gets washed
downstream easily. I like riding rivers, but I
stay in the mountains longer because Im tougher
than Shay.
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GRANNY GNEISS When Sandy and Shay are together
in the beds of rivers they sometime form
beautiful rapids and waterfalls. Sandy is tough,
so she makes the ledges. Shay moves out quickly
and leaves low areas between ledges.
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FLO Some of us took a lot more heat and pressure
than Sandy and Shay during the collision. Just
look at what happened to me! I grew long black,
needle-like minerals and got new long name, too,
but since you are my friend, you can still can me
Flo. Some rocks changed so much that you can
hardly tell who they used to belike my friend,
Shifty Schist.
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SHIFY SCHIST Hi everybodyits about time I got
to meet you! I guess they saved the best for
last. I used to be volcanic, but I am now a
changed rock. Yes, indeed, heat and pressure
made a new rock of me. I now have shiny layers
that are neatly folded. Do you know what rocks
that have been changed by heat and pressure are
called?
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Were called metamorphic, which means changed,
just like Granny Gneiss.
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GRANNY GNEISS Thats right, Shifty, but some
rocks changed even more than we did. They got so
hot that they actually melted! At the surface,
melted rock comes out of the Earth in volcanoes
or lava flows, but some melted rock stays deep
underground and cools off very slowly like Baby
Gran.
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BABY GRAN Hi! I was afraid youd all forget me,
just because Im the youngest member of the rock
band.
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SHIFTY SHIST Sorry about that, Baby.
BABY GRAN Its OK Shifty.
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BABY GRAN My real name is granite. Im not deep
in the earth any more. The mountains above me
eroded so that Im at the surface now.
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I make rounded, smooth-sided domes like Looking
Glass Rock.
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TUFFY Id never forget you Baby Gran. Although
we look very different, we both formed from
melted rock deep in the Earth. Id say were
almost like cousins!
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GRANNY GNEISS Thats right, Baby Gran, and I was
once a granite, just like you before I was
metamorphic. Well, now you have met the members
of the rock band. We belong to three groups, but
we are all related, and the one thing we all do
is change. So the next time you see us, I hope
you will try to get to know us better. Now,
heres our song!
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ALL SING A Southern Appalachian Rock Band. A
Southern Appalachian Rock Band.
Double click for sound
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Theres Granny and Flo and Baby Gran. Theres
Sandy and Shay and Limey, too. And dont forget
Tuffy or Shifty Schist, and the changes that they
went through.
DoubleClick here
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Theyre bedrock of the mountains so high, the
rapids, the coves, and valleys, too. Theyre
much, much older than you and I, and the stories
they tell are true.
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Each time we see a piece of rock, it tells us of
worlds so long ago. The storys about this earth
of ours where things come from and where they
go, where things come from and where they go.
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A Southern Appalachian Rock Band. A Southern
Appalachian Rock Band.
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GRANNY GNEISS OK, all together now What is your
favorite rock?
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ALL A ROCK BAND!