Andesite

Um, but this was mesmerizing.

And then as you pan back to the entrance of the cave and you're overlooking the valley below, right in the center is, uh, Basically, I would say this is what looks like an altar or a console that's been crafted out of this andesite stone outcropping.

Andesite is extremely strong like granite.

And this thing is futuristic in nature.

It's got protruding knobs, curved precision angles, and this precision-like drill hole that goes to the center of it.

It was a respectable cascade stratovolcano in its own right.

Not as tall as what stands there now, but substantial, built from andesite lavas and pyroclastic flows accumulated over nearly 300,000 years of intermittent eruption.

Andesite is the signature rock of subduction zone.

Volcanoes.

A grey to dark grey volcanic rock with a silica content of roughly 58 to 63%.

Snow on the upper slopes, rain on the lower flanks.

And then it began a journey downward through the mountain's interior that takes decades.

The volcanic rock through which it travels, Andesite lavas, dacite flows, pyroclastic deposits, the rubble zones and vesicular layers between successive lava flows is porous and fractured.

And by the way, if anybody wants to know how hard those are, andesite is a seven on the Mohs hardness scale.

The Mohs hardness scale goes from a one to a 10, 10 being the hardest possible, diamond.

Andesite is a seven on that scale with basalt being a six to a seven.

So to carve something like that with these type of symbols, it would be almost literally impossible with our-

Right

So instead of this basaltic magma low in silicon, you have...

Andesitic magma.

And Andesitic magma comes from Andes mountains.

So like the name, not the rocks, but just name comes from Andes mountains where it's extremely common to find these rocks.

And it's made mostly from sodium-rich plagioclase feldspar together with darker minerals like pyroxene and horblend.

I mean, it's right on par with stuff we see in Pumapunku, Tiwanaku.

There's even some incredible work in the Vaan region, like Ionis with the Andesite, that is on this kind of level.

It's just amazing.

It's beautiful what they were able to accomplish in these places.

It's a seven-layer deep, 7D, what looks like a portal straight into the mountain.

And this thing is Andesite.

It's at least a seven on the Mohs scale.

The Inca had copper and bronze tools, three to four.