The Story of the Three Sedimentary Rocks

A long, long, time ago, when nothing you would recognize today existed, there were three sedimentary rock brothers. They lived in a village known as Strataton. They were the bravest rocks in town, defending it from igneous empires like the Empire of Obsidian. They saved the day more than once in the little town.

Strataton still exists today! Check it out!

One day, Chieftain Chalk, the ruler of the village, decided to send the three rocks off on their own quest.

"I am proud of you three. You have bravely defended the people inside our village. But we must learn what is outside our village. I would like to send you three off on a quest to find out what is around Strataton."

The three brothers each packed what they needed and left.

We got Chieftain Chalk to get his picture taken when we interviewed him for this story!

Sandstone traveled to the Obsidian Empire, where he was greeted and treated kindly. The Obsidian Empire's old emperor had died, and the new one cared much more for peace than the old one ever had. He had a peaceful life there where he met almost every type of rock: intrusive, extrusive, foliated, nonfoliated, from A to Z.

One day an unexpected lava flow came and melted the entire village. Someone was stuck in one of the houses, about to get burned to its death, and Sandstone saved it, being melted in the process. Soon, the lava cooled down and crystallized, and Sandstone was now an obsidian rock. However, the Obsidian Empire had migrated somewhere else by then, and he was left alone. He had to go back home to his brothers. He waited for a few hundreds of thousands of years until he finally met the other brothers again.

When we interviewed Sandstone, we trekked back to his death location and snapped a picture of it. Sandstone was very uncomfortable being there, so this was the best pic we got.

Shale attempted to trek deep underground to meet the metamorphic rocks. They were kind to him, but the problem was that their appearance kept changing each day. Some were foliated, and others weren't. The next day, the foliated ones were nonfoliated and vice versa.

Soon, he noticed that his appearance was changing every day, and he had become a metamorphic rock. He learned that the heat and pressure in their underground village had made him into a metamorphic rock. He hired some guides to help him make the dangerous climb up back outside, where he began to trek back to Strataton.

When we interviewed Shale, we trekked right up to the cliff where he first breathed fresh air again. It was too dangerous to go in, though.

Humble Limestone found a village near a stream where he found a group of sedimentary rocks. They were unkind to him, treating him as an enemy. He left and visited some mineral deposits in the area. The minerals were very kind to him, giving him bedding and other things he might need on his way back to Strataton. He thanked the minerals and went on his way.
One day, on his trek, he slipped and fell into a river, and over many years, he slowly weathered into sediments. His sediments, or his remains, were deposited downstream to the bottom of a lake through a geological process called erosion. Deep underneath the waters of the lake, the sediments of his former self were compacted and cemented into a new sedimentary rock, made up of his old remains. From there, he met many other new limestones, and when he looked down at himself, he was the exact same limestone he had always been. He trekked back to Strataton from there.

When we interviewed Limestone, we traveled to the mineral deposits where the kind minerals were. The minerals were as kind as always, and Limestone even gave them a gift! We snapped this image on the way out back to Strataton.

The village of Strataton had become very old. The area had eroded a lot, and it was much easier to spot than most rock villages. Chieftain Chalk's great-great-grandson Flint was the new chieftain, although Chieftain Chalk was still alive and doing well.

One day, a metamorphic rock known as quartz showed up at the gateway to the village. The guards were suspicious at first, but let him in when they realized he was actually Shale. Shale had a reunion with Chieftain Chalk and all of the rocks he remembered in Strataton.

A few thousand years later, Limestone finally made it back as well. He got a reunion with the rocks of Strataton as well.

One day, and expedition to the edge of sedimentary territory found an obsidian rock looking glum. They took him back to Strataton, where they found out he was actually Sandstone. The three brothers had a reunion, even though Shale and Sandstone looked very different from their younger selves when they left.

Due to erosion, Strataton isn't even recognizable!