Yosemite is a beautiful National Park, with amazing rock formations, mountains, plants, animals, and entertainment. Yosemite National Park is a part of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, extending to almost 80.5-128.7 kilometers long. From the highest peak in Yosemite, Mount Whitney, the altitude, from near sea level, is more than 13,000 feet. There are many different types of granite rock that make up the Yosemite Valley. This granite was formed by hundreds of smaller forms of granite rock that have been solidified by of molten rock and constantly broken down from its overlying rocks for more than 100 million years. Differences in granite rock come from the response to weathering and erosion and in appearance. Only five percent of the Yosemite park is made up of metamorphic rock, which grew over the granite rock many years ago, and later eroded away. After the granite rock was fully revealed, almost 25 million years ago, the enormous mountain range cracked along its eastern fault, leaning and lifting the western end. As the tilting augmented over time, it created rivers and canyons that cut deeper into the mountain. After being covered by volcanic lava flows and …show more content…
These formations surfaced from by the cooling of plutonic rock far below the earth’s surface. This solidification of huge granite with magma, happened repeatedly through the Cretaceous period. Granite was pushed up through erosion, forming the mountains that are known today in Yosemite. The youngest mountain in Yosemite is Half Dome, reaching more than 2,695 meters, and it is made up of Plutonic granite. Half Dome looks like a round dome that doesn't have its northwest half. Half Dome passes many beautiful waterfalls, including Vernal and Nevada Falls. Following the amazing falls, it passes Little Yosemite Valley where many hikers stop overnight, and then continue toward the northwest ridge of Half
...e morphed it into the quartzite that is seen surrounding the butte (4). Rocks that undergo this process are called metamorphic rock, which is the same as the rock seen years ago by dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. The quartzite rocks were formerly seafloor sediment that was forced upwards, and then surrounded by lava basalt flows. Once erupted through fissures and floods through out most of the area, lava flow eventually created enough basalt to form a thickness of about 1.8 kilometers (1). All of this basalt flow eventually led to the covering of most mountains, leaving the buttes uncovered. The igneous lava flows and loess is reasons that the Palouse consists of such sprawling hills, and rich soil for farming (2). In result of the lava flows, the Precambrian rock Quartzite was formed. And lastly covered by the glacial loess, which were carried by the wind.
Katmai National Park and Preserve encompasses 3,674,529.68 acres of land. It would fit in the state of Pennsylvania about eight times. Katmai National Park and Preserve is located on the northern tip of the Alaskan Peninsula and is made up of six active volcanoes and the surrounding forests, lakes, and mountains. Maybe the most well known of the volcanoes are Novarupta and Mount Katmai, famous for their eruption in 1912.
There exists the Dome of Yosemite by Albert Bierstadt, with dramatic rock outcroppings, the sun burst...
Stone Mountain is an igneous intrusion often referred to as a geological pluton. The granite pluton is part of the Piedmont Plateau region of the Appalachian Mountains and was formed along the same geological fault line that created the Blue Ridge Mountains but is not part of the Blue Ridge chain. Northern and Eastern Georgia have relatively frequent seismic activity with ten quakes recorded in 2013. These quakes occurred at an average depth of 9.6 km which make them less obvious and cause less property damage. This same seismic activity created Stone Mountain 300 million years ago during the last stages of the Alleghenian Orogeny when massive tectonic plate shifting allowed a large mass of magma from beneath the earth’s crust to well up . Flow structure markings on the mountain show the stone was formed underground after several eruption pulses failed to break through and then cooled to form, ultimately creating granite mass that rises 825 feet above ground, extends 9 miles underground and has a circumference of 5 miles at its base, making it the largest exposed dome in the world . Rising 1683 feet above sea level the summit of the dome is bare stone with rock pools and an unobstructed view that extends to Kennesaw Mountain, Amicacola Falls and Mt. Yonah state parks, including a breathtaking view of the Atlanta Skyline.
" National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. “Yosemite National Park.”
Located in the popular Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Falls is the tallest waterfall in California. Every year, mother nature’s breathtaking beauty attracts millions of people from around the world. People hike for three long and fatiguing hours in anticipation of witnessing forceful water rushing down the steep mountain from 2,425 feet above. Last summer, my family and I backpacked through the Yosemite Falls Trail and I came to learn what a truly exhausting experience it is.
The Teton Wilderness borders the south end of Yellowstone, the western side of Washakie Wilderness, the eastern side of Grand Teton National Park, and the northern region of the Mt Leidy Highlands. This wilderness area spans for 584,708 acres and is located in the state of Wyoming. The Continental Divide runs straight through Teton Wilderness which constructs one of the most interesting hydrological features across the country. This feature is called Two Oceans Pass. The reason why this place is so amazing is because there is a place where water is actually covering the Continental Divide which allows fish to swim from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean drainages. This wilderness area is managed by the Forest Service, and it was declared a wilderness area by Congress in 1964.
First, one must know a little information about this volcano. Mount Shasta is located in Siskiyou County, California. This volcano is the second highest peak in the southern end of the Cascade Range and is still active, though not enough for people to notice. At 14,179 feet it is also the most voluminous stratovolcano located in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. The mountains complex shape is due to the four overlapping volcanic cones it consists of, including the most prominent, main summit, Shastina. The other cones include: Sargents Ridge cone, Misery Hill cone, and Hotlum cone. Sargents Ridge cone is the oldest of all the cones that make up the mountain. Though it is now dissected by a glacial valley, a portion of it can still be seen on the mountain. Misery Hill makes up a large part of the present mountain. the fourth cone, the Hotlum cone is formed from eruptive products and is located on the northeastern side of Mount Shasta. Three of the four major vents on the mountain are aligned with a north trending zone that passes through the mountains summit. This linear alignment parallels local faults, which suggests that the bedrock structure has influenced and partially controlled the dimensions in which Mount Shasta develops (Mie...
Yellowstone Park is the world’s first national park and the 8th largest national park in the United States. The park is primarily located in Wyoming and parts of Idaho and Nevada (56 Interesting Facts About . . . Var Addthis_config = ) It is a tourist attraction due it’s 5,000 to 15,000 years old geysers, over 45 waterfalls, canyons, rivers, hot springs, and its massive concentration of natural wildlife. Two of the most popular park attractions are the Old Faithful geyser and the Grand Prismatic springs. ("Fun Facts." - 32 Interesting Facts Yellowstone National Park.)
57 people were killed, and 200 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles (24 km) of railways and 185 miles (300 km) of highway were destroyed. The eruption blew the top of the mountain off, reducing its summit from 9,677 feet to 8,364 feet in elevation and replacing it with a mile-wide horeshoe-shaped crater. Like most of the other volcanoes in the Cascade Range, St. Helens is a great cone of rubble, consisting of lava rock interlayered with ash, pumice and other deposits. Volcanic cones of this internal structure are called composite cones or stratovolcanoes. Mount St. Helens includes layers of basalt and andesite through which several domes of dacite lava have erupted.
This trip starts from Denver, Colorado to Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. “Natural landform” is the main theme for this trip. I will explore the mystery of geothermal features in Yellowstone National Park.
Deep in the heart of the Smokey Mountains, Ramsey Cascades is located about 4 Miles away from Gatlinburg. It is known as one of the more tedious hikes in the Smokey’s because of its rapid change of elevation, “The trail to the waterfall gains over 2,000' in elevation over its 4 mile course and the 8-mile round-trip hike is considered strenuous in difficulty” (Ramsey Cascades 1). It is very popular with most hikers and can be done easily in one day. “This waterfall in the Greenbrier area has gone by two different spellings. Historically, the park used to spell the name as "Ramsay". However, in more recent publications, and on their website, the park is now spelling it as "Ramsey". The revised version properly reflects the correct spelling, since the cascades are named after the Ramsey family that once lived in this area” (Ramsey Cascades 1). It runs next to the Ramsey Prong, and slopes up the side of the second highest mountain in the National Park, Mount Guyout. It is about 8 miles round trip and, at the end of the trail; there is the largest waterfall in the park.
As the crust cracks, blocks of rock rise or fall, forming fault-block mountains. Examples of these mountains are the Sierra Nevada in California and the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Dome mountains are formed by the same kind of molten rock that forms volcanic mountains. As magma comes up in a crack in the Earth’s crust, it does not come to the surface, but the molten rock pushes the ground up into a dome. Examples include Yosemite’s Half Dome, the Adirondacks in New York, and the Black Hills in South Dakota.
The truth is that no one knows for sure exactly how it was formed, but with scientific research and theories most scientists agree to the same basic ideas. The most powerful forces impacting the creation are erosion and weathering. Which is heavily due to the Colorado River running right down the majority of the canyon. Since the Grand Canyon is located in a desert climate the soil in the Grand Canyon is baked by the sun and it tends to become very hard and cannot absorb water, when the rain come. So while the Colorado River is gushing through the rocks and the root systems are pretty weak over time the erosion really builds up. The Grand Canyon is basically an enormous sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock is formed from other rocks being weathered, either chemically or mechanically into sediments or rock fragments. These rocks are then gone through erosion, which is the process of moving sediments from one place to another. Then, these sediments are deposited all at one place and over time they start to converge and cement as layers which are also known as strata. As time keeps going new sediments deposit and cement together over old ones forming new layers. The process just keeps repeating itself and then finally there are all these layers that make up a Sedimentary
the composite volcano is the last type of volcano this is the tallest type of volcano and can grow as high as a mountain.A composite volcano is also known as a strato volcano. The composite volcano is made of layers of hardened rock. Composite volcanoes are called Composite volcanoes because of their composite layered that build up from constant eruptives. Famous examples of composite cones are Mayon Volcano in the Philippines, Mount Fuji in Japan, and Mount Rainier, Washington, U.S.A. these are all very common types of volcano's.