The local picture: understanding the geology of southwestern Ohio
At the Limper Geology Museum, you will be able to explore a large collection of local rock, mineral, and fossil samples. To learn about and view some of these samples, survey our collections or take the museum's online tour! Following the links below will give you an overview of southwestern Ohio's geologic history. The links provide an overview of how the rocks formed, a look at the life in the ocean that covered this area 450 million years ago, and an introduction to how those organisms became the fossils we see today.
Learn about our area's unique geological features and the processes that occurred to form them by following the links below.
- The Cincinnatian Series
- Life in the Late Ordovician
- Sediment formation in the Late Ordovician
- Characteristics of local bedrock
- Fossil content of local limestone
The same forces that cause volcanoes, mountains, and ocean basins also cause climatic changes that have greatly influenced the forms of life that have thrived and died out on earth. These changes, and their resulting geographic features and fossils, are interesting to scientists and non-scientists alike. Scientists use the evidence recorded within rocks throughout geologic time to reconstruct a picture of earth's history. Amateurs, too, can look at local rocks to learn about what life was like in the Ordovician Period, 505 to 438 million years ago.
