Minnesota Earth Science Quick Facts

Page snapshot: Minnesota State Geologic Map; Fossil; 3D models; Rock; Mineral; Gem; Highest and Lowest Elevations; Places to Visit; and Additional Resources.

Image above: Archean-aged (~2.7 Ga) banded iron formation at Soudan, Minnesota. Photograph by James St. John (Flickr; Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license; image cropped and resized).

Geologic Map of Minnesota

Geologic map of Minnesota showing maximum ages of mappable units. Image by Jonathan R. Hendricks for the Earth@Home project developed using QGIS and USGS data (public domain) from Fenneman and Johnson (1946) and Horton et al. (2017).

Minnesota State Fossil: None

Minnesota does not yet have an official state fossil.

3D Models of fossils from Minnesota

Cephalopod: Westonoceras sp. (PRI 70364) by Digital Atlas of Ancient Life on Sketchfab

Fossil specimen of the discosorid cephalopod Westonoceras sp. from the Ordovician Galena Formation of Fillmore County, Minnesota (PRI 70364). Specimen is from the collections of the Paleontological Research Institution. Maximum length of specimen (not including surrounding rock matrix) is approximately 5.5 cm.

Trace fossil: Rauffella palmipes (PRI 76853) by Digital Atlas of Ancient Life on Sketchfab

Trace fossil specimen of Raufella palmipes from the Ordovician Decorah Shale of St. Paul, Minnesota (PRI 76853). Specimen is from the research collections of the Paleontological Research Institution, Ithaca, New York. Length of specimen is approximately 7.5 cm.

Angiosperm: Fossil leaf (Cornell Univ.) by Digital Atlas of Ancient Life on Sketchfab

Fossil angiosperm leaf from the Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone of south central Minnesota. Specimen is from the Cornell University Paleobotanical Collection (CUPC), Ithaca, New York (#2076.10). Length of specimen is approximately 12.5 cm.

Minnesota State Rock: None

Minnesota does not yet have an official state rock.

Minnesota State Mineral: None

Minnesota does not yet have an official state mineral.

Minnesota State Gem: Lake Superior agate

Characteristically red, Lake Superior agate originates near its namesake lake, but glaciers have redistributed enough of the stone that it may be found throughout much of the state.

Photograph of a bright-red Lake Superior agate specimen.

A Lake Superior agate from Duluth, Minnesota. Photograph by Lech Darski (Wikimedia Commons; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).

Minnesota's Highest and Lowest Elevations

Topographic map of Michigan with physiographic regions and point of highest elevation identified. Topographic data are derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM GL3) Global 90m (SRTM_GL3) (Farr, T. G., and M. Kobrick, 2000, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission produces a wealth of data. Eos Trans. AGU, 81:583-583).