Find a location by zooming and panning on the map. Tap or click on a location of interest for geology results.
How to zoom in and out? Pinch-in on the map to zoom out, and pinch-out to zoom in.
How to pan around the map? Slide two fingers on the map.
Minnesota rock types
Igneous Rocks
Igneous rocks form from magma that cools deep in the earth or from magma that erupts at the Earth's surface in the form of lava. As these rocks cool, different minerals form and solidify together to create varying textures and hardnesses. Igneous rocks include basalt, gabbro, and diorite.
Metamorphic Rocks
Some rocks in Minnesota have switched rock types through geological time! Shale, slate, and gneiss are known as metamorphic (Greek: meta “trans-” or “change” and morph “form”) rocks; they start as sedimentary or igneous rocks and undergo transformation through chemical processes from heat and pressure.
Sedimentary Rocks
Minnesota's land was once blanketed by seas, where sand, mainly quartz, formed beaches and sandbars. Sedimentary rocks contain fossils and are crafted from tiny sand—and clay-sized particles that have been transported through water and wind to new locations and then pressed and cemented together. Sedimentary rocks found in Minnesota are sandstone, limestone, and shale.
Soils: surface materials
Glacial Geology
Depth to Bedrock (approximate)
Bedrock
Mesozoic Cretaceous
Mesozoic Jurass
Paleozoic Devonian
Paleozoic Ordovician
Paleozoic Cambrian
Precambrian Proterozoic
Precambrian Archean
The original geologic data is from the Minnesota Geological Survey and the soils data is from U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. The DNR compiled and generalized the original data for reference only.
