Yosemite Natural Wonders “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread” (John Muir) In this quote, John Muir is saying that everyone is beautiful. In his nature, he might be referring to Yosemite, since he lived there in the wilderness. In Yosemite, there are many beautiful objects that can’t be found anywhere else. The wonder of Giant Sequoias, world’s largest granite rock formations, and breath taking waterfalls are some of the beautiful and amazing factors of Yosemite. One of Yosemite natural wonders are two giant monoliths known as, Half Dome and El Capitan.
It all began 1.5 billion years ago about 50 miles west of current day Glacier National Park. It was here that sediment was being deposited into a very large shallow lake called a sea basin. Over time these layers of sediment were transformed into sedimentary rock formations. One is known as the Appekunny Formation, colors of light green Argillite (slightly metamorphosed mudstone) can be seen in this formation throughout the park today. A burgundy color of Argillite can also be seen in another formation in the park named Grinnell.
It has a pale gray complex and lies under the turtle back formations (convex crystalline structures) in mountain ranges in the area (namely the Black, Talc and Ibex mtn. ranges). There are also intrusive formations of ancient granite that date back 1.4 billion years ago. About 1.2 billion to 900 million years ago, during a divergent boundary fault zone, the Pahrump Group of sedimentary rock was deposited. Between the 500 million years of the basement rock and the Pahrump group being deposited, there
Samuel Engbring Grand Canyon Paper March 7,2012 Rock Layers of the Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is an amazing place to see many different layers of rock dating all the back from the Precambrian to the more recent (geologically speaking) Mesozoic era. This canyon was starting to form about five to six million years ago by erosion from the Colorado River and other water sources. On our field trip much of this was seen by our two stops at Cameron and desert view. That gave great overviews of the canyons layers. The oldest of the strata is the Unkar group which dates all the way back to 1,100-1,250 million years ago.
How erosion formed the Grand Canyon How erosion formed the Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon was created by the action of the Colorado River over about 6 million years of erosion. The Colorado River basin has developed in the past 40 million years and the Grand Canyon itself is probably less than 6 million years old. The formation of the Grand Canyon was accomplished by the constant erosion of the rock by the Colorado River over some 17 million years. Over time the river was able to carve a very deep channel into the Colorado Plateau. The rock layers in the Grand Canyon range from 250 million to about 2 billion years old.
The Northwest Coast Environmental Area The Northwest Coast environmental area is a natural region located along the coastline of North America and is close proximity to the Pacific Ocean. It also extends from the Gulf of Alaska in the north to the Oregon-California boarder in the south. The strip of the coast is surrounded by distinctly large mountain ranges; and, with the relatively mild climate, moderate rain forests, and vast marine life, the Northwest Coast is considered a highly inhabited area that has grown a lot over the past few decades. The diversified environment of the Northwest Coast includes many traits which make this area a natural haven for people and animals to live. Some of the many traits of this area include inland rivers and lakes; Douglas fir, hemlock, spruce, cedar, and fir forests; many islands; mountains near the coast; deep fjords; and, a variety of beaches that are wide and narrow.
These things are not only useful to us but also to residents and tribes of the rainforest and to the many species that live there. Rain is important to the Amazon because it is how the plants, animals, and people who live there get their water when they do not have access to the river. The Amazon is facing climate change,
Mount St. Helens lies on a Convergent boundary plate. These are the most geologically active plate, the mountain lies mainly on the Continental crust of the Convergent boundary plate. Mount St. Helens is 8,366' or 2,550 m high. The radius of Mount St. Helens is about 6 km at the base, and the elevation of the base is about 1 km above sea level. Before the eruption of May, 1980, the elevation at the top of Mount St. Helens was about 3 km.
As the subducted Juan de Fuca plate is subjected to increasing pressure it becomes hotter and begins to melt. The molten rock, called magma begins to rise towards the surface. When it reaches the surface it erupts and a volcano is formed. Mt St Helens is incidentally an active composite volcano as it is found on a destructive plate margin. Like the other volcanoes found in the Cascade Range, Mt St Helens (MSH) had been dormant for many years.
Today a team of cultural and natural resource specialists work together to protect the park's resources. The wetland ecosystem of the park is has over 150 lakes and 450 miles of streams. Lush plant life and dense wildlife are the symbols of these wet areas that speckle and divide other ecosystems. There are forests of pine and grassy hillsides that dominate the beautiful ecosystem in the park. These areas may be drier than wetland areas, but life is still abundant.