USGS, 50 Years in Menlo Park, CA Logo

Stop 8

Continue along the azalea-lined sidewalk parallel to Building 1 until you reach the second door and turn left, toward the snack bar. Here, in a flower bed adjacent to the sidewalk, is a rounded granitic boulder that may look like any number of weather-worn granites from the Sierra Nevada or Rocky Mountains. This rock, however, is a long way from its origins.  USGS scientists brought it back from Antarctica in 1984. It comes from the eastern flank of Iselin Bank, a large undersea ridge that extends nearly 200 km from the Ross Sea into the South Pacific Ocean. With the exception of the Antarctic rock that was used for Admiral Byrd’s headstone, this is the largest piece of Antarctica to have been shipped from that continent.

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