250 word description

In CT, shapes and colors are evidence of colossal forces, locked for billions of years in a global tug-of-war, which has made and remade the face of the Earth over the vast expanses of deep time.

The oldest reveal continental collisions so colossal they raised mountains thousands of feet high. Others testify to the slow, yet relentless effects of weather and the elements that later all but carried these peaks away. Great columns of stone mark times when the earth's crust cracked and split until floods of lava poured out over thousands of square miles. Sandy beaches and boulder fields along the southeast coast are leftovers of time in the more recent past when Connecticut was frozen beneath immense sheets of ice.

Connecticut's diverse geology, combined with the state's small size, makes it an extraordinary natural laboratory.

From Salisbury to Stonington, it's easy to travel over a billion years and to explore some of the most significant events in Earth history.

Sedimentary rocks cemented together from sand and mud, define the Connecticut Valley. Their layers kept a record the past that reveals details of the climate, plants, and animals of two hundred million years ago.

Igneous rocks, formed from molten volcanic rock that later cooled and hardened, are also common. Igneous rocks form the great ridges that form the backbone of the state and today offer some of the most spectacular local hikes. Still, others formed deep beneath the earth's surface and are seen today as the massive granites along the southeast coast.