[bright piano arrangement]

♪

(male narrator)
You may remember
a scene like this

from last week
or last year or decades ago:

a school classroom.

But bet you didn't
hear words like this

when you were comin' up.

Lukogranodiuriticmetatonalite.

Uh,
lukogranodiuriticmetatonalite.

Lukogranodiuriticmetatonalite.

The
lukogranodiuriticmetatonalite--

the Spruce Pine rock.

(narrator)
Lukogranodiuriticmetatonalite

is just one
tongue-twisting example

of what Alex Glover
brings to his classroom

at Mayland Community College
in Spruce Pine,

where he teaches a course

on the fascinating and unique
geology of the region.

And to hear him talk,

there's nowhere else
in the world

quite like right here,
at least geologically.

This is a man
in love with his work.

He ended up here

in what amounts to his
geologic mountain paradise

in a roundabout way,

when during summers in college
he worked in a coal mine,

which he described
as "hot, nasty, and dirty,"

12 hours a day,
7 days a week.

And then something happened.

(Alex)
I got to help
the geologist one day

because his helper was sick,

and so I got to do that,
and it was just awesome.

I mean, four-wheel drives
in the woods,

and we're drillin'
and makin' maps and surveyin',

learn how to survey
and how to test the coal,

how to run the lab samples,
and it was just--

it was
an unbelievable job for me.

(narrator)
He liked it so much

that he encouraged
the real geologist's helper

to take more time off--

heh, heh--
so he could step in.

(Alex)
I just, uh, fell in love
with the subject.

[bright piano arrangement]

(narrator)
As you might imagine,

Alex's classroom
is as big as all outdoors.

(Alex)
You're seein'
just awesome stuff.

I mean, uh, we had a class
today in the field

where I still
have to pinch myself thinking,

how could this happen,

the awesomeness
of this happening,

and it happenin' here

where we
can actually have a class

and take students
to go see those things,

and to be blessed
with an area in the mountains

to live like this
and see geology

that most people
don't ever get to see?

We see igneous rocks here.

We see
metamorphic rocks here.

We see some--some versions
of sedimentary rocks here

there are not many places
in the world

where you can see all of those
and how they react together.

(narrator)
You might easily think
things happened fast

when you hear
Alex's quick explanation,

but tectonic motion
is measured

in centimeters per year,
so slow a pace

that it's nearly impossible
to stretch your mind around.

When Africa
and the Eurasian continent

were slamming together,

this is where those pressures
were focused,

so lots of things
were buried deep,

and then these things

were, uh--
were uplifted.

(narrator)
One popular site

where you can witness
this thrusting

is in Linville Gorge,
not far from Spruce Pine.

That's where you'll find

the Linville Falls
thrust fault,

where something
amazing happened.

A slab of rock
called the Cranberry Gneiss

that's over
a billion years old

was thrust
on top of a rock

called quartzite,

which is a mere
550 million years old.

The crusty rock in the middle
is mylonite,

and it's
300 million years old--

quite a sandwich.

Some of the oldest rocks
in this state

and in the Southeast--

it's been shoved

up and over rocks
that are 540 million years old

with a half a billion years
in between!

Awesome!

(narrator)
"Awesome" is a reaction
that comes easily to Alex,

especially now
that he's come home

to the mountains

after a career
in commercial geology.

And then came the mother lode
of teaching opportunities,

practically
right in the Glover's

mountain-loving,
gemstone-hunting,

rock-strewn backyard.

I started collectin' samples,

and I thought, you know,
when I retire,

I'd love to do
some of this stuff.

So I retired March 31st
and thought, well, you know,

Mayland hasn't had
a geography instructor

in 12 years,
and here they are

in the middle
of a mining community,

and I--
I just asked 'em

if they'd like to have
a part-time instructor,

and so
they were very welcoming.

And so I've been--
had my little class

for the last two months,
and it's just awesome.

Alex is great.

He really knows
what he's talkin' 'bout,

and he helps explain to us
very well,

to where we know
what we can talk about

and to help us
get a better understanding.

From the first day, uh,

I really just fell in love
with the class.

He's just very patient
and very kind,

and you can tell
that he's really interested

in what he does,
and he's very excited about it,

and it makes you excited
about it too.

[piano patterns
lead mellow chords]

I've never looked at rocks
in the same way,

and I don't think
anyone else will.

If they ever
take a course in geology,

especially from Alex, they're--

they're gonna look at rocks
entirely differently.

[shuffling leaves]

(narrator)
Now matter how instructive

the classroom experience
may prove,

most of this man's teaching
happens in the field...

because that's
where the rocks are.

So join the class
for a short while

and experience Alex Glover
for yourself,

where he's at his best

and where you
can learn the most.

The next stop
on the field trip

is an abandoned mine
that once provided minerals

for early Native Americans

and later supplied

the pioneers
of the carbon age.

We're in the Hoot Owl Mine.

We're in Mitchell County.

This mine is a large pegmatite

of the Spruce Pine
pegmatite district.

This mine is named
after the two big portals,

which look
like hoot owl eyes.

The rock is actually
lukogranodiuriticmetatonalite,

and our class has--
they have fun with that name,

but it's really composed
of quartz, feldspar, and mica.

The quartz in this rock

is the most pure quartz
on earth,

and you can't make
a semiconductor,

a computer chip,

without the quartz
from this rock.

(narrator)
The quartz is also used
in automobile lights,

street lights,
and solar panels.

The feldspar is used
in ceramics, putty, caulks,

sealants, even paints.

And the mica,
once used by Native Americans

for ornamentation and makeup,

is now a primary ingredient
for Sheetrock mud.

[sparkling arrangement]

(narrator)
Almost everything
we clever humans have created

in the last half-century

has a little
Spruce Pine inside.

(narrator)
The Hoot Owl Mine,

while small
by today's standards,

is like a small playground
for Alex and his class.

These days,
people come to this area more

with the idea of fun in mind
than mineral mining,

but sometimes they're after
riches of another kind.

(man)
Whoa, look at that pretty,
pretty blue one right there.

See that pretty blue one?

♪

(child)
Oh, Mom, look at this one!

(narrator)
There are places
to hunt for gems

on and off the road,

tucked in and around bends
in the North Toe River

as it curls through
Mitchell and Yancey Counties

where towns have names
like Bandana, Wing,

and, of course, Micaville.

Matt Housley can tell you
about all of it

here at the Spruce Pine
Gemstone Mine jewelry shop.

He grew up in these parts

and hunted gems
with his family.

Well, my grandfather
used to say

that rocks had flavors.

So we look for
a specific sort of blend

of certain minerals, uh,

or flavors
as he would call it,

and if you have that blend,
then it's an indicator

that you have the
right building blocks

to have whatever you're
lookin' for gemstonewise.

This area is known
for the largest variety

of gems and minerals
of anywhere on planet earth.

There are veins
around this, uh, area

that produce
31 different types

of gems and minerals,
which is unheard of

in most places
in the world.

Usually a mine produces

one or two or maybe three
different things,

and so 31 is just
a crazy number, um.

This area has just about
every precious gemstone.

We have ruby;
we have sapphire.

We have emerald;
we have aquamarine.

We have beautiful garnets,
beautiful kyanite, uh,

moonstone, amazonite--

it just goes on
and on and on.

(narrator)
And where else on this planet

could you actually
scramble around

on the earth's mantle--
heh, heh, heh!

These are actually mantle
deposits, uh.

This is below the crust.

This is a dunite
or an olivine deposit.

They're mainly iron-based.

They're very rare,
and during subduction,

when you had
the Eurasian continent bumpin'

into the North American
continent, uh,

the ocean floor
was bein' subducted down.

Ocean floor is material

that comes up
from the mantle and spreads,

which is what causes
the mid-Atlantic Ridge.

So you had pieces
comin' over here

and bein' subducted down,

and a few pieces
were scraped off right here.

So if this were a knife edge

and this were a chunk o' cheese
goin' down like this,

a piece of that cheese
was scraped off.

And so this is

high-temperature
mantle material

that is not
where it's supposed to be.

So this is very, very rare.

(narrator)
Our final stop:

just a short walk
down the tracks,

a marble deposit
with an unusual heritage.

(Alex)
This is the Bandana marble,

and this is rare marble
in western North Carolina.

There are other--
are other marbles,

but this is a rare
white crystalline,

coarsely crystalline marble,
and it's beautiful.

This is actually
a dolomitic marble,

so it's magnesium rich.

But it's about
ten feet thick,

and it was a lens
inside of this.

All of this rock is foliated
and dipping this way.

Then later,
380 million years ago,

the Spruce Pine pegmatites,
which is right here,

came in and intruded
through all of it.

So this is a rare event,

to see
an early calcareous marble

in an oceanic deposit,
debris...

that's cut
by a Spruce Pine pegmatite.

So there are many things.

I could have a whole week's
worth of classes

here at this deposit.

(narrator)
Unfortunately,
we don't have that much time,

so we'll leave the class
to learn more about the rocks

under their feet
and over their heads--

like us, visitors
to this part of our state,

only from hundreds
of millions of years back.

And since
we've learned something too,

we'll now no doubt
all be open

to learning even more
about North Carolina's

far distant and endlessly
fascinating past.

You could be lucky enough
to find a gem or two

on your next visit
to the area.

And should you
really luck out,

you may even encounter
this knowledgeable fellow,

who can sum up
the amazing geologic history

of Spruce Pine
in just one word.

Awesome!