By Deddy Asrol Lintong, Brunei Darussalam
On the 1st of July, we all gathered at the lobby at 9.40 am to depart from our hotel to visit the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Arizona. We arrived at the museum at around 10.00 am and had a tour through the museum with our guide. With his expertise in Geology, he talked about the history and geography of Northern Arizona, especially the Colorado Plateau. He talked about how the layers of rock show how the Earth keeps changing. The land lifts or subsides with the shifting of the Continental Plates. Seas periodically cover the area, providing a home for life, then recede, leaving new layers of sediment.
He also explained the evolution and extinction of dinosaurs, from sea-dwelling invertebrates of the Cambrian to giant dinosaurs of the Mesozoic to mammoths and ground sloths of the Ice Age. The most interesting part of the tour was when he showed a picture with many species in it and asked us how many dinosaurs were there. Most of us were counting all the species in the pictures and gave similar answers, about 7-9 dinosaurs. To our surprise, there was only one dinosaur in the picture. Our guide explained dinosaurs stand only on two legs and have totally different hips from other species.
Another interesting part was the formation of the Grand Canyon. Our guide explained the process of weathering which was a simple breakdown of rocks, caused by nature, especially water and wind. Furthermore, volcanoes spew new layers of lava across the land, to be carved by rivers into dramatic canyons. Erosion peels back the top layers to expose earlier eras, creating the iconic landscapes of the Southwest.
At the end of the tour, our guide left us valuable experiences and knowledge about the understanding of the Colorado Plateau, fascinating geologic formations of the Grand Canyon, the evidence of dinosaurs and other ancient creatures that roamed in Northern Arizona.
All opinions expressed by the program participants are their own and do not represent nor reflect official views from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, or of the Institute for Training and Development, Inc.
