One such event is the building of mountains.
Finding marine fossils on mountain tops may be evidence of a past uplift event.
An example of this is Mt. Diablo, which is about 35 miles away from the closest ocean.
Scientists have studied this mountain closely to determine how it formed millions of years ago.
But there is something interesting about the fossils on top of Mt. Diablo.
CLICK on the blue box to zoom in on the fossils from the top of Mt. Diablo.
These fossils called Turritella are found at the top of Mt. Diablo.
Scientists can use clues from this fossil to learn about how Mt. Diablo formed.
CLICK on the blue box to zoom in on one of these fossil shells.
Turritella is a marine snail, which means that it lives in the ocean.
If these fossils are from organisms that once lived in the ocean, then this indicates that Mt. Diablo’s summit was once the ocean floor!
Mt. Diablo became a mountain through an uplift event.
Let's see how this might have happened.
The Turritella fossils are buried in sediments that are 50 million years old.
CLICK on the Start button to see how they became exposed on top of Mt. Diablo!
