News

Jun 24, 2023

St. Cloud's granite reveals the history of Minnesota

If you want to learn about Minnesota history, look no further than the rocks

If you want to learn about Minnesota history, look no further than the rocks beneath your feet. Every month on Minnesota Now we get some insight in that area from Jim Cotter, professor of Geology at the University of Minnesota Morris.

Today, we focus on St. Cloud granite — which is both a spectacular resource and a really interesting geologic feature, which formed 1.77 billion years ago by igneous intrusion. At that time, Minnesota was at the southern edge of what was a much smaller North America.

MPR News guest host Emily Bright spoke with Cotter about it.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

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