Gradual cooling of the earth

Ok, need a little help with this one. I am pretty ignorant about geology. Having said that, my grandparents used to collect rocks, and I have a small collection. I am always reaching down to pick up rocks and examine them and wonder how they came to be. Now I am not sure about this, but supposedly a gradual cooling of the earth would leave only horizontal layers in rock formations? well they drained the lake I live on, and I went exploring the shores. I found this rock that has both horizontal and vertical formations in it. Looks like shale and quartz, but I could be wrong about the shale part of it. Take a look at the picture, and maybe someone can help explain how this rock came to be formed? To me, to have opposing layers means it cooled fast.It also does not look like any other rock around the shore of the lake, or the surrounding mountains. Maybe a glacier carried it here? I can go get more pictures if needed. I am in southern NY. Edited by Admin, : Reduce image width.

Well they would start out as horizontal layers, because with a gradual cooling, everything would have a chance to settle by weight. As it shrinks and moves it pushes up, but what you see are layers on their side, without intersecting layers.*edit* Also things that cool fast are prone to cracking.Lava and mud are two different things, lava cools, mud dries out. Lava cools relatively fast so it cracks. Mud just dries out and shrinks fast, there is no contraction due to heat loss.Edited by riVeRraT, : No reason given.

The rock in hand was split open, because I wanted to see if the quartz went all the way through. When I get a chance, I will take some more pictures. And read your article.

Well when I was studying astronomy as a hobby and reading all the things about how solar systems are formed, that is where I remember how they theorize planet formation. As much as I can remember (its been over 15 years) all planets were once molten (non-gaseous planets).I also seem to remember debates about layers in rock and how they point to an earth that has been around a long time, and was part of the explanation for gradual cooling. I guess I am mistaken?But a few points,
to RAZD, when the crust shrinks, the molten rock below pushes up is what I meant.Also where the quartz is, does not look like cracks that were filled as I remember. I took that photo a month ago, I will go find the rock again.To Rahvin, That rock looks nothing like the surrounding rocks. Possibly it was carried by a glacier? Also, are you saying that not one rock on the surface of the earth is left over from the original cooling, that it all has "recycled" already?I don't have a good understanding of geology at all, I just like rocks. Whatever I know is from casual study and what I see on natgeo.