It’s easy to lose yourself gazing at some of Pennsylvania’s geological features, especially in mountainous Centre County.
Now you can see just how old the state’s features are and what they are made of at the College of Earth and Mineral Science’s Museum and Art Gallery.
A more than century-old topographical map of Pennsylvania is now on display in the Deike Building on the University Park campus.
The relief map is 7.5 by 17 feet and shows the geological rock deposits and their distribution throughout the state, the museum director, Russ Graham said. It’s also three dimensional so visitors can see the hills and valleys in the state raised off the map.
“The colors you see on the map relate to the age of the rocks, not so much the rock type,” Graham said. “The distribution of these rocks is a result of the collision of the North American and African plates back in what we call the Permian time about 270 million years ago.”
If you find State College on the map it shows the happy valley we’re in is made up of limestone, and all of the surrounding mountains are capped by sandstone.
Graham described Pennsylvania’s features like a car in an accident. The front of the state, near Philadelphia is demolished and has the oldest rocks. The Centre Region is crumpled up like a hood of the car. The western part of the state is like the truck, which is raised up on a plateau and has the youngest rocks.
“One of the things about Pennsylvania is its natural resources. Coal, gas, oil, iron, and all kinds of different minerals are reflected in the geology,” Graham said. “To find those types of resources you have to know where the rocks are at and that what this map tells you.”
The map was originally made in 1893 for the Chicago World’s Fair. It was donated to Penn State in 1897 and has bounced around from building to building since then.
When the Steidle Building was being renovated the map was sent to Philadelphia, where it spent two and a half months being refurbished at the Materials Conservation Company.
In Philadelphia, Materials Conservation used thousands of Q-tips to clean, refurbish, and touch up the map. Graham said the map looks “much more stunning” compared to when it was collecting dust in Steidle.
“We’re seeing it now as it would have looked in 1893 when it was put up at the World’s Fair like a brand new map,” Graham said.
The map was originally created in Philadelphia by Edward B. Harden, an artist who worked for Geological Society of America. When it arrived at Penn State, it was placed in the original Old Main Building as a visitor attraction.
Graham said the museum is going to use the map to look at how the Earth’s materials are so important to society.
“It’s an amazing piece of work,” Graham said. “The colors are so beautiful and stunning that it’s really sort of a piece of artwork.”
