The Oldest Rocks in the World

Some geologists believe Wyoming's Wind River Range might be the oldest mountain range around. That would make these some of the oldest rocks in the world. This is an unnamed mountain to the north of Spyder Lake.

Tachihara 4x5, 75mm, Velvia 100, warm polarizer, crappy PS work.
Oh yeah, and a bubble level.

Cheers,

Very striking image, Mark! This is different from anything I've seen from the Winds. Looks to me like your PS skills are fine, but it also looks like you had a great image to begin with.

Nice shot and interesting comment... I just did two long backpacking trips in the Winds and I got the impression that they were quite young, because of all the evidence of recent glacial activity (including endless boulder fields). Perhaps the range is old but the glacial carving is fresh? It's interesting how the northern part of the range is like an enormous uplifted plateau that has been carved deep into mountains by glaciers.

Anyways, in the northern Winds I was constantly amazed by all the variety of intricate patterns in the rock. Your photo captures this well.

Cool shot of a fascinating place. I need to get up that way again.

Just to clarify, I believe the oldest rocks in the world are nearly 4 billion years old. Mountain ranges have much shorter life-spans, since they're exposed to erosion. The Rockies have been around for "only" about 70 million years. The rocks within the mountains can be older than the mountains, but the oldest ones are the basement rocks located deep underground, unless exposed by major erosion, like they are in the Grand Canyon (man, I'm a nerd )

Great image Mark!
Regardless of the age of the rocks, your image does a great job of showing what the Winds are made of. And at the same time, is very pleasing to the eye.

Mark – great shot. I like your composition and also the detail in the rock.

Did you use a Center Filter or adjust for light fall-off in edges and corners in Photoshop? I am curious because my 75mm lens (Nikkor f4.5) has significant fall-off when not corrected with a C-filter.

I think I remember reading in "Sky's Witness: A Year in the Wind River Range" (HIGHLY RECOMMENED ) that some of the rocks are incredibly old, 2+billion years. Also since some of the rock there is flat/horizontal, there has been less erosion and I think I remember reading there are unique tests they do with these rocks, studying the impact of cosmic rays over time, etc. I hope my memory is not too foggy
Oh yea, I LOVE the photo!

Love the image...

Grant, I remember hearing (reading? I can't remember) when I was backpacking years ago, that the Beartooth mountains are some of the oldest expost rock on the planet... As in the billions of years old.

In fact, I found a link... apparently on the order of 3-4 Billion years

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beartooth_Mountains

Dare I say... in my opinion, the Central Montana Rockies, Idaho-Bitterroot Rockies, and the Greater Yellowstone Rockies are substantially more impressive (looking) than the Colorado Rockies... (gasp)

Thanks for the kind words. I think this is my favorite image from my trip to the Winds.

I vaguely recalled reading something on the web about this range being quite old. It stuck in my head because it's counter-intuitive. I thought more weathered mountains like the Apalachians would be older. I searched around a little but I couldn't find any references. I figured if I read it on the web it must be true.

Rene, my 75mm is a Caltar II-N f/4.5. I have a CF for it but didn't use it for this shot. I find that I don't need it unless I start using movements on the front standard. For this shot I used a bunch of rear tilt and just a tiny bit of tilt at the front. I didn't notice any fall-off in ths image so I didn't do anything particular in PS to correct it.

Cheers,

I think there is a distinction being made between "oldest mountains" and "oldest rocks". The Appalachian's are often considered the "oldest" or "one of the oldest" mountain ranges on earth, forming about 680 million years ago. However, I assume the rock in the Wind Rivers could be considered the oldest by the age of the actual exposed rock, which isn't necessarily the same as the age of the mountain range itself. It's reasonable to assume that billion-year-old rock seen today wasn't exposed until the much more recent uplift which created the mountains. I think there might be an answer HERE, but I have no idea what they're talking about. I'm not entirely sure this article is written in English.

I think Brent and others have it pretty much right. I did a quick search and it looks like there are some pretty old exposed rocks in the Wind Rivers. Apparently, the mountains have eroded a lot, as they were once over 20,000 feet high. So some of the older rocks were uplifted and then exposed by erosion. The mountains themselves don't appear to be all that old, but some of the rocks are pretty dang old.

Sorry, I may be overly intrigued by geology, even if my knowledge of it is a little lacking. I'll let us get back to photography.

Great shot!

Oh, and Sky's Witness is a good book...I read it many years ago.

Mark, beautiful light to showcase the rocks! I can see where it would be your favorite.

Hey, Brent, what part of "Neogene exhumation" don't you understand?

Nice photo, I like the leading lines in the foreground.

As for the rocks, the mountains themselves are Laramide structures, or more simply put they are the same age as the better known Rockies. As others have alluded to though, the rocks themselves must predate the uplift thus making them older. I would assume that the granite that makes up the Winds, like the Tetons, is Precambrian meaning that they are no younger than 542 million years old, but likely much older. I know that the Wyoming craton is an old Archean Province that has housed some zircon grains older than 1 billion years. As for the oldest rocks in the world, I have some difficulty believing that. I think the oldest rocks were actually found and dated last year up in Canada on the Slave craton giving an age ~4.6 billion years old, the oldest zircon yet. Wow, that was quite the nerd out there; sorry sometimes I get carried away!

Andy

Very nice. I like the light hitting the left side of the mountain.

Very nice image - I like the lead-in and the rock on the left is just right for balance.