We’ve been driving for the past three days through Morocco. We’ve seen bits of the Atlas Mountains, Anti-Atlas and Western Sahara. I’ve been struck at every turn by the geological similarities to the American southwest. At times, if I didn’t know better, I would have sworn that we were in Southern Utah or even Nevada.

It’s a strange reminder of the fact that the continents were all squished together once. Makes me want to better understand how the plates separated and moved and what used to be joined where.

Then today, as we bumped our way through the Sahara Desert, our guide stopped in a field of black rocks. He pulled out a bottle of water and started pouring it on certain rocks. What appeared was unexpected and one of the highlights of the day: sea fossils. It was so unexpected in the middle of a desert, but again a reminder of the region’s geological past.

It’s beyond cool to be standing in the middle of a desert and be able to see and touch the fossil evidence that this part of the world was once under the ocean.