Van Hise Rock is a rock

monolith A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive rock (geology), stone or rock, such as some mountains. For instance, Savandurga, Savandurga mountain is a monolith mountain in India. Erosion usually exposes the geological for ...

located along Wisconsin Highway 136 near Rock Springs,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. The rock is a geologically significant outcropping of

Baraboo Quartzite Baraboo Quartzite is a Precambrian geological formationHanson, G. F.''Geology of the Barabou District, Wisconsin'', The University of Wisconsin Extension, 1970, Information Circular 14 of quartzite, found in the region of Baraboo, Wisconsin. Whi ...

. It serves as a monument to Charles Van Hise, a prominent Wisconsin geologist who studied the area extensively. The rock was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1997. and

Description

Van Hise Rock is made of Baraboo

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...

, a type of pink-purple quartzite found in south central Wisconsin. It is one of the best-exposed parts of the

Baraboo Range The Baraboo Range is a syncline located in Columbia and Sauk Counties, Wisconsin. It consists of highly eroded Precambrian metamorphic rock. It is about long and varies from 5 to in width. The Wisconsin River, previously traveling in a north ...

, a ring of quartzite hills that passes through Columbia and Sauk Counties. The quartzite in the range was formed as

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

during the Precambrian Supereon; then a

greenschist Greenschists are metamorphic rocks that formed under the lowest temperatures and pressures usually produced by regional metamorphism, typically and 2–10 kilobars (). Greenschists commonly have an abundance of green minerals such as chlorite ...

phase changed it to quartzite. The monolith is located in a wayside on Wisconsin Highway 136, about 3/4 mile north of the intersection with Wisconsin Highway 154 near the village of Rock Springs. The wayside provides visitor access to the rock.

History

The rock is named in honor of Charles Van Hise, a prominent geologist who chaired the University of Wisconsin Department of Mineralogy and Geology. Among his significant accomplishments in geology and politics, Van Hise determined how the quartzite in the Baraboo Range had formed. Building on earlier discoveries that the quartzite formed in the Precambrian Era and had metamorphosed, Van Hise was able to determine the forces that deformed the rock; his discoveries helped form the key principles of

structural geology Structural geology is the study of the three-dimensional distribution of rock units with respect to their deformational histories. The primary goal of structural geology is to use measurements of present-day rock geometries to uncover informatio ...

. Van Hise also used his studies of the quartzite's conversion from sandstone to write the ''Treatise on Metamorphism'' in 1904, the first publication to describe the process of metamorphism in detail. University of Wisconsin geologists used Van Hise Rock to demonstrate the properties and principles which Van Hise discovered; the rock is still used in geological education and research.

References

External links

Van Hise Rock
at National Historic Landmarks Program

and its geologic context

{{National Register of Historic Places Landforms of Sauk County, Wisconsin Quartzite formations Rock formations of Wisconsin National Historic Landmarks in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Sauk County, Wisconsin Natural features on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Precambrian United States

Description

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links