When one thinks of Death Valley National Park in California, the first image that comes to mind is usually an endless desert of dry, cracked terrain or rippling sand with little wildlife or vegetation. While that is what you’ll find in most of Death Valley today, it wasn’t always so. During the Holocene Eon and the Pleistocene ice ages, Death Valley had its fair share of streams and rivers, many of which originated from the nearby mountains. In fact, the driest area of Death Valley today was once an island! During that time, glaciers had formed in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and water from the rivers cascaded into the area now known as Shoreline Butte, forming Lake Manly; a lake that was estimate to be almost 600 feet deep! The evidence of Lake Manly’s depth can be found in the flat terraces formed along the hillside which could only have formed after the lake level stabilized over a period of thousands of years.
Presently, visitors will only see small, salty pools of water in low lying areas of the park unless they’re lucky enough to visit just after a rare but significant rain storm. This is especially true in Badwater, where the height of the terrain in the area approximately -282 feet! Badwater is also home to some of the oldest rocks in the park. Found in the Black Mountains, visitors have the rare opportunity to see the physical evidence of our earth’s history, dating as far back as the Precambrian Eon, 1.8 billion years ago. During this time, volcanic and sediment rocks were infused with magma and then transformed into gneiss. At Titus Canyon in the Grapevine Mountains, the walls show evidence if limestone dating back to the Cambrian Era when Death Valley was not a parched desert but a thriving subtropical landscape!
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...he premises for National Parks like Death Valley that are not easily accessible. However, I do not feel there is a need for a resort swimming pool and golf course! You can golf and swim anywhere, but you can only experience the Earth’s geologic history at a handful of sites around the country. I also don’t feel that humans should be tapping into the beauty of the natural oasis in the park unless it’s a matter of survival. Human interaction could very well cause these natural springs to dry up in the future if they’re not looked after properly right now. The whole idea behind a National Park is to preserve the Earth’s history; natural springs included. If humans are allowed to continue doing things like diverting natural springs for their pleasure (i.e. filling a swimming pool), they could destroy the very nature these parks are attempting to preserve.
Many people know ‘Lake’ Powell as a fact of life. Since its creation in 1963, the reservoir, known as Lake Powell, is just there. Few people that are alive today have had the opportunity to see the true beauty of Glen Canyon, which rivals the Grand Canyon. Glen Canyon, equivalent to one hundred eighty river miles with dozens of side canyons, was flooded for the purpose of power and water resources. ‘Lake’ Powell also generates an enormous cash flow due to the tourism it receives. Although the ‘lake’ has a few reasons to remain in existence, there are many more reasons to drain it.
It is a sad comparison to the past John Muir, who first documented Yosemite Valley, to today’s reality. The condition of Yosemite National Park should be introduced to the American public in order to protect its historic beauty and significance, eliminate current pollution, and prevent future repercussions. In
...ion that the proposal to drain Lake Powell is not a very good one " First off two Club members in page, AZ quit the club over the Lake Powell proposal" (www.glencanyon.net/club). The writer thinks that the board is wrong to propose such an idea "Lake Powell violated the club's policy that major decisions should start at the ground and work their way up" (www.glencanyon.net/club).
The Little Missouri River eroding the mountain range is the reason that the park is as it looks today. The park is believed to be <60 million years old. Over 60 million years ago volcanos all over the west were erupting and spitting out amounts of ash. The rivers near the volcanos were gathering. The rivers began to dry out, leveeing the ash behind. The ash was being dried in layers and turned into sandstone, siltstone and mudstone while the ash layers became bentonite clay. This Bentonite clay is dangerous because it gets people stuck, like quick sand it is located throughout the park. It can pull the car tires un...
Yosemite and its history, young to old the story of an area of land that is doomed to be mined, forcibly stripped naked of its natural resources. In 1864 Yosemite land grant was signed into act by president Abraham Lincoln, the first area of land set aside for preservation and protection. Yosemite being a very important historical plot of land, some time ago president Theodore Roosevelt visited the park managing to disappear from the secret service with John Muir. Through the years the contrast of ideas between the industrialists and the preservationists have clashed, Yosemite’s history both interesting and mysterious but more importantly inevitable .
Not many people know of the used-to-be 150-mile excursion that the Glen Canyon had to offer. Not many people know how to sail a raft down a river for a week. Not many people know how to interact with nature and the animals that come with it. We seem to come from a world that is dependent on time and consumed in money. Edward Abbey is what you would call an extreme environmentalist. He talks about how it was an environmental disaster to place a dam in which to create Lake Powell, a reservoir formed on the border of Utah and Arizona. He is one of the few that have actually seen the way Glen Canyon was before they changed it into a reservoir. Today, that lake is used by over a million people, and is one of the biggest recreation hot spots in the western United States.
Yosemite National Park, is a beautiful piece of nature it is a 195 mile nature getaway from the urban life that is lived San Francisco, CA and 315 miles away from the fast pace and overwhelming life that is lived in Los Angeles CA. This place is like no other in the beauty of its nature. The park is “747,956 acres, and is the home to hundreds of wildlife species and thousands of Yosemite plants” (U.S. Nat. Park Service). Yosemite is known for so many beautiful features, from its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves and biological diversity. And also for its two rivers which are the Tuolumne and Merced rivers. These rivers begin in the park and flow as far as west to the Central Valley.
... environmentally safe. Second I think it is important to keep our national parks open to the people but this has shown the need to protect them to a point so our children and grandchildren can enjoy these National Parks in the future. Third, It is nice to see that the case studies go on. Without this research we would not have a direction to go although expensive, I think it is well worth it. The research needs to be compiled correctly by professionals and have no bias or slanted opinions contaminate the overall conclusion to the study.
...cFadden, Leslie D., 1988, Climatic Influences on rates and processes of soil development in Quaternary deposits of Southern California: Geological Society of America Special Paper 216, p. 153-175
These types of rocks include metamorphosed volcanic rock, schist, quartzite, Phyllite, and marble. The marble rocks in the Sequoia and Kings National Parks contain different caves. This is different from Yosemite National Park because Yosemite does not have any caves (United States National Park Service, “Geology”, 2015). This marble however is metamorphosed limestone and Sequoia and Kings Canyon combined contain over 200 marble caves. These caves only form under special conditions which include the right kind of rock, fractures or spaces that are in the rock and enough water that can erode underground spaces or passages. These two parks contain the longest cave in California which is Lilburn Cave. Lilburn Cave has nearly 17 miles of surveyed passage and it is a very complex cave with blue and white-banded marble (United States National Park Service, “Overview”, 2015). Nearby mines cause the cave to also occasionally have displays of rare or colorful minerals such as green malachite and blue
John muir and Roosevelt went on a trip to Yosemite Valley, John Muir was a famous outdoorsman and preservationist. Muir Quickly discovered that the President deeply loved the outdoors and had a great understanding of nature. My topic of my paper is That you might think theres nothing in common with you and a friend but you dont know until you guys hangout. Just like President Roosevelt and John they didnt know they had the same favorite bird until they went to Yosemite together. Three things I will discuss are Birds, Yosemite National Park, and a adventure.
The geology, its history, and the presence of past civilizations contribute to much of the significance of Mesa Verde National Park. The interconnectedness of these aspects should also be noted. If not for the weathering processes and changes in sea level this formation would not exist. Without it, the ancient people would not have been able to reside within Mesa Verde. This National Park now serves as a tool to help conserve the remains of these past civilizations as well as to help educate today’s society on the significance behind this astonishing geologic
By placing this emphasis on beauty in the wilderness the American people expected to see a beautiful wilderness, although in reality these two are not mutually exclusive. Muir supported a form of natural improvement in which alterations to the natural world are made, but not with any economic value in mind. Interestingly, Muir suggests that our wildness is a commodity to which, we are glad to see how much of even the most destructible kind is still unspoiled”. (Muir) By the time the National Park Service was founded in 1916 the American people wanted to be entertained by, and in, nature
“… It is apparent, then, that we cannot decide the question of development versus preservation by a simple referral to holy writ or an attempt to guess the intention of the founding fathers; we must make up our own minds and decide for ourselves what the national parks should be and what purpose they should serve.”-Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
This anthropocentric theme continues throughout his narrative but is personified on a societal level. This matter is first introduced in the chapter “Polemic: Industrial Tourism and The National Parks.” In this chapter Abbey notes the expansionist nature of the industrial economy and how it is affecting the national parks. Abbey critiques arguments for uni...