Più rocce, per favore

The weather was starting to turn for the worst today, but we still braved the elements to go check out more rocks. We traveled through many of the sequences of rocks that formed on the backside of the mountain belt. We talked about how the tilt, wobble and orbit of the earth affect climate and how that cyclicity shows up in the rock record. The repetitive patterns we see in the rocks can be used to reconstruct paleoclimate and give us a sense of how much time has passed.

Ash deposits reminiscent of the volcanism long ago.

A limestone quarry near Gubbio.

We had a wonderful lunch at this restaurant outside Gubbio. This is the restaurant that Sandro takes all his geology groups to, as it is historic in the discovery of the K-T boundary. Just outside the restaurant is the outcrop that was the first spot where the boundary was discovered. So, naturally, we all took photos next to it.

The remaining members of the Stretch 2014 posing near the K-T boundary.

Our fearless leaders enjoying the pleasures of professorship, including an obligatory photo with the K-T.

In the evening, we got to spend some time in the historic town of Gubbio. Gubbio has a large Roman amphitheater that is still in use today, as well as a whole medieval village built on the side of the mountain (actually on a fault plane, which is poor choice due to earthquake hazard). Unfortunately, much of the town was closed, as it was after hours. I really wanted to see the Iguvine Tablets, which are a sort of Rosetta Stone for the ancient Umbrian language (3rd century BC) and 1st century Latin. The tablets shed light on the grammar of this ancient dead language, and also on the religious practices of the ancient peoples of Italy, including the archaic religion of the Romans. Cool stuff!

The streets of Gubbio in the evening.