The numbers show where you can find each rock type.
1. Iron/nickel meteorite found in 1959. 4.5 billion years old. This is sample of a similar meteorite. This would have been part of the core of a destroyed planet. The centre 10% of the earth is made of a molten mix of this.
2. Silurian era sandstone in a granite quarry 10km up the Skipton Rd. Maybe 600 million years old.
3. Pale granite. In various places around Lismore. Formed 450 million years ago when this part of the earth was deep under the sea where Florida is now! It is formed from the molten rock of the crust. The other samples are from different nearby molten rocks.
4. Laterite. An ironstone formed from silt from northern mountain ranges which eroded and washed into a lake here 30 million years ago. Found on the high ground for 5km from Lake Tooliorook around to the north of Lismore.
4. Gravel formed from the same ironstone rock. A group of them are clinging to a magnet.
4. A sedimentary rock formed of quartz and other pebbles possibly falling from glaciers melting in a large lake to the north side of Lake Tooliorook. Probably 20 million years ago. Formed from eroding mountain ranges as Australia drifted away from Antarctica.
5. Western plains basalt. Formed 1 - 2 million years ago and extending on the flatter country from Melbourne to Hamilton and Ballarat. Magma from many vents filled in the old hills and valleys. The surface rock has eroded into a heavy cracking clay. Not many rocks remain on the surface.
6. Scoria. Formed during the eruption of Mount Elephant 184,000 years ago. Steam from water mixing with the hot magma made a frothy rock which solidified before landing. The stone walls of the district are often made of the larger rocks of these later eruptions.
6. Scoria with olivine, again from mount Elephant. Erupted 184,000 years ago. The olivine is formed from crystallized mantle from deeper under the crust. The crystals formed as it cooled slowly on the way up. Much of the earth is made of a molten mix of this.