The Rocky Mountains are an incredible mountain range located in North America in the Western Hemisphere. The mountain range stretches from northern Colorado and into southwestern Canada. It is home to a diverse ecosystem, both geographically and biologically and is revered as a monumental landform worldwide.
The geologic history of the Rocky Mountains has come about as an aggregation of millions of years. Briefly speaking, the formation of the Rockies transpired from hundreds and millions of years of uplift by tectonic plates and millions of years of erosion and ice have helped sculpt the mountains to be what we see today. The majority of the rocks that make up the Rocky Mountains began as simple shale, siltstone, and sandstone accompanied by smaller amounts of volcanic rock which formally built up for approximately 1.8 to 2 billion years in the ancient sea. By 1.7 to 1.6 billion years, these sedimentary rocks got caught in the zone of collision between parts of the earth’s crust and its tectonic plates. The incredible heat at the core of the mountain range then recrystallized the rock into metamorphic rock by the heat and pressure of the collision forces. Eventually, the shale would be transformed into both schist and gneiss. It is believed that granite found in the Rocky Mountain parks came from pre-existing metamorphic rock created shortly after the formation of the earth. Ultimately, the high mountains of the period were slowly eroded away to a flat surface exposing metamorphic rocks and granite. This process occurred around the period of 1,300 to 500 million years ago. This flat surface would become covered with shallow seas and rocks from the Paleozoic period and would be deposited and eventually cover the surface. There is...
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...sted of tents and then tents became ranches and farms. Forts and train stations eventually grew into towns and some towns were then able to grow into cities.
Works Cited
http://traveltips.usatoday.com/physical-characteristics-colorado-rocky-mountains-56639.html http://cires.colorado.edu/news/press/2011/rockies-origin.html http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/romo/ http://www.mountainnature.com/Ecology/ http://www.mountainnature.com/Wildlife/WildlifeEcology.htm http://www.frommers.com/destinations/rocky-mountain-national-park/787037 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document: T.J. Stohlgren. "Rocky Mountains".
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Marshak, S. (2009) Essentials of Geology, 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, ch. 11, p. 298-320.
The majestic ranges of western North America – the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, the cascades, and the Coast Ranges – arose more recently.
...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.
They were characterized by densely populated permanent communities (villages) governed by a political leader, the chief at the central location. Roads and bridges linked the communities. The cities were well planned to encourage urban development and offer sustainable growth. The villages also formed social groups with the same political and social territories.
Miesse, Willian C. "Mount Shasta Geology and History." USGS: Volcano Hazards Program - Mount Shasta Geology and History. College of the Siskiyous Library, n.d. Web. 01 May 2014.
... Each of our group members contributed information they researched and I compiled the final product of the PowerPoint, which aided in the presentation that we delivered to the class. Works Cited "Mount Rainier, Tallest Mountain in Contiguous United States." Online posting of the ad. The Cardinal.
Later after the sea finally retreated occurred volcanic activity. Mountains rose through laccoliths, which also resemble volcanoes. These laccoliths differ in that they do not erupt. They shifted layers of rock upward in the shape of a dome. This specific piece of geologic morphology occurred at the end of the Cretaceous time. This marked the beginning of the Laramide Orogeny, which was a well-known period of mountain formation in western North America.
Hess, D., McKnight, T. L., & Tasa, D. (2011). McKnight's physical geography (Custom ed. for California State University, Northridge ; 2nd Calif. ed.). New York: Learning Solutions.
...the only major geologic event in the history of the Appalachians. Several glaciers have covered parts of the Northern Appalachians over the last three million years. (Appalachian tales) The mountains have been there ever since and that is how they were formed.
During the Late Cretaceous a period of mountain building occurred along the west coast of North America. This is called the Laramide orogeny that started the Rocky Mountains growth about seventy-five million years ago. The Laramide orogeny was different from orogenies that had happened before hand. What caused the Laramide Orogeny is uncertain but there are many theories about what caused it. One big thing to better understand the Laramide orogeny is the theory of Uniformitarianism.
plant life grow. Then the settlers grew crops, and to solve the issues of droughts and floods,
More food made larger populations possible. Larger populations caused larger villages, which combined into real cities. A true city had real power, including alliances, bargaining, and trading.
living center and therefore raided settled towns and cities for food and riches. Because of
...e people began to settle in villages the beginning of social class and government were formed to maintain order and a sense of security as a community. Other technological advances were made as well including the making of bronze to form stronger weapons and permanent homes.