Trona

Trona is a special type of rock that comes from underground. It is made up of a bunch of different minerals that have been mixed together over a very long time. People use trona for lots of different things, like making glass and baking soda!

To get trona out of the ground, people have to dig really deep holes and then use special machines to break it up and bring it to the surface. Once they have the trona, they mix it with water to make a kind of slushy mixture.

Then, they put the trona mixture into big tanks and add some special chemicals. The mixture starts to bubble and fizz like a science experiment! After a while, the bubbles and fizz go away, and what is left is a white powdery substance called soda ash.

Soda ash is used for lots of things, like making glass, soap, and even laundry detergent! So, even though trona might seem like just a boring old rock, it actually helps make a lot of the things we use every day. Cool, huh?