Moonshine, hillbillies and a one of kind dialect is what comes to mind when most people think of the Appalachian Mountains and the Appalachia people in the eastern United States. Long identified by the population and commerce found in the area, the Appalachians are also an interesting geologic feature. Running from north to south, the Appalachian Mountain Range is one of the oldest ranges on planet Earth. Beginning to form nearly a billion years ago, the Appalachian Range extends from Alabama to Newfoundland. This paper will discuss the formation of the range in the Paleozoic Era. The different geologic features and patterns found in the northern and southern areas of the range. Finally, the Appalachia people, unique ecosystem and valuable resources found in the region. The Appalachian Mountains provide a unique place to study geological features and process.
The Appalachian Mountain chain is one of the oldest mountain ranges on the Earth. The Appalachians were formed over a series of mountain building events that took place during the Paleozoic Era. The first even was the formation of the Grenville Mountains during the formation of the supercontinent Rodinia (Jamestown). The Grenville Mountains were heavily eroded and became the base of the early Appalachians. Around 450 million years ago, uplift and folding created the Taconic Mountain range which would later become the Northern Appalachian Mountains. Ongoing collisions continued to create mountains to the north in present day Canada and to the south, the southern Appalachian Mountains and to the southwest, the Ozark Plateau and mountain range. The final mountain building event occurred 300 million years ago during the collision of plates forming the supercontinent Pangaea....
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As part of his campaign for Governor, Dwight Green had promised to enforce mining laws. In 1941 Governor Green appointed Robert Medill as Director of the Department of Mines and Minerals. The Mining Board makes the p...
There are three parts in West’s book; the first part focuses on the sociological, ecological and economic relationships of the plains Indians, starting with the first establish culture of North America, the Clovis peoples. Going into extensive detail pertaining to early geology and ecology, West gives us a glimpse into what life on the early plains must have looked to early peoples. With vastly differing flora and fauna to what we know today, the early plains at the end of the first ice age, were a different place and lent itself to a diverse way of life. The Clovis peoples were accomplished hunters, focusing on the abundance of Pleistocene megafauna such as earlier, larger forms of bison. Though, little human remains were found, evidence of their s...
In conclusion these various factors explain the theory that Kaibab Plateau is actually much older than the Colorado River and that the lake overflow theory best explains the multiple processes that contributed to this natural features current landscape. Lake Bidahochi would have flooded from time to time and combined with the lowest elevation on the Kaibab Plateau, the incision would have started. Considering major rivers have the capability to erode materials such as basaltic bedrock, going through the Kaibab Plateau would have proven possible. With circular scarps retreating from the plateau, the meandering of both rivers are explained and the presence of Colorado River limestone in a sequence of ancient basins today prove the river was younger than the uplift that took place in this region.
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The sharp differences in elevation between the Badwater Basin and the surrounding mountains that include the highest point in the continental US (Mt. Whitney at 14,494 feet) stand as a representation of the regions violent tectonic past. The mountains themselves are considered fault block mountain ranges meaning that they were formed when blocks of rocks were squeezed through the Earth's crust along parallel faults or were loosened from the crust when it separated at a fault. In the valley, both of these methods not only were the cause of the current mountains formation less than four million years ago, but also are causing the mountains to be uplifted while the valley floor drops even further. This phenomenon is one of the reasons why the lowest and highest points in the continental...
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Every year, over nine million hikers and adventure seekers travel to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park making it the most visited national park in the United States. There are abundant reasons for this, but many popular reasons include over 150 hiking trails extending over 850 miles, a large portion of the Appalachian Trail, sightseeing, fishing, horseback riding, and bicycling. The park houses roughly ten thousand species of plants and animals with an estimated 90,000 undocumented species likely possible to be present. It is clear why there was a pressing interest in making all this land into a national park. My research was started by asking the question; how did the transformation of tourism due to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park affect surrounding cities such as Gatlinburg and Sevier County, and in return, its effect on the popularity of the park?
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Mountaintop removal, or Mountaintop Mining, is a criticized mining technique that mainly occurs in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. It is a form of surface mining, that is very different from other surface techniques, as it uses very strong and powerful explosives. Mountaintop Mining is the process of blowing the tops off mountains in order to extract the coal inside. This mining process is criticized as coal companies use strong explosives such as dynamite, in order to blow open mountains for coal. Many groups and nature organizations have fought against this technique as it ruins and destroys the environment.
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Gas has many effects in our society, and some of these effects have a negative impact in our life. Our daily lives depend on gas, when we go to work, school and going out. We use gas for electricity, cars and many other things. The effects of gas are direct and very affecting in our lives because of the many forms it can be used in. There are many negative effects of rising gas cutting back in vacation time, prices of everything is going up “inflation”, car companies making more efficient cars.