National Parks: Mammoth Cave Dedicated scientists and park administrators choose to preserve the Mammoth Cave, located in the heart of Kentucky, for its significance of being incontestably the vastest cave system the world has ever seen. With an area of fifty-two-thousand, eight-hundred and thirty acres, (that’s more than forty-thousand football fields!) the Mammoth Cave became a National Park on the first of July, in the year of 1941. This National Park was and is still being formed by limestone dissolving in water seeping through the ground. There are two layers of stone located under the topsoil in the hills of southern Kentucky. The upper of which is a sandstone cap that, in certain places, posses a thickness of fifty feet. This layer creates …show more content…
The Mammoth Cave is one of America’s haziest National Parks, as the estimated average visibility is one-hundred and thirteen miles; however, due to air pollution, average visual range is only fourteen miles. Moreover, ozone pollution effectively serves as a horrific threat to the Mammoth Cave, ranking the park as the fifth-most ozone-polluted park in America. Additionally, agencies began to monitor the levels of mercury at the National Park and can conclude that a concern is apparent about its impacts on the seven endangered species located in the Mammoth Cave. Due to this contamination, the cave has been affected by a fish-consumption advisory. Equally important, fine particle pollution threatens the park as it becomes increasingly apparent, as a consequence, serves as a source of significant risks to human health. The Mammoth Cave positions itself as one of the top National Parks in particle pollution. Lastly, local power plants contribute to the increasing levels of pollution, furthermore raising concerns amongst
The paper talked about the new mud glyph cave art site the was discovered in northern Alabama. It is believe that the artifacts and the images that is located in the cave linked back to the Early and Middle Woodland periods. The cave was named “19th Unnamed Cave” by a naming system that was used be University of Tennessee. Other main points in this paper include the 19th Unnamed Cave, the mud glyph art that it contains, and how the mud glyph contributes to the understanding of mud glyph assemblage preservation, and it helps illuminates the chronological placement of the art form. The cave is located in northern Alabama with a cave mouth of 25 m in diameter and with more than 5 km of underground passageways. The article hypothesized that since the entrance of the cave had some fluvial action, there would no archaeological material that would have been preserved.
Illinois State Geological Survey, 2005, Time Talks – The Geology of Starved Rock and Matthiessen State Parks
As if there weren’t enough problems for scientists trying to save the Great Lakes Eco System. Many non-native species have entered the eco system and many of them are harmful. Every species in itself has played a role in the eco system. These non-native species make it increasingly difficult for the Great Lakes Eco System to be regulated.
The entire tour requires a lot of walking, so wearing tennis shoes is recommended. Dress prepared for a cool environment because while inside the cave you will experience temperatures from 50-60 degrees. As you walk along the tour of the Bristol Caverns, a tour guide will inform you about the history of the cave: such as the original entrance place to the caverns used by the Cherokee Indians and how an early pioneer would store his fruit in the cave for extended freshness (tour guide). While the guide leads you through the cave of the caverns, you can view many formations and scenes. The formations are called stalagmites and stalagtites, which are created by the moisture and minerals in the cave hardening. One inch of these formations lengths can take from 150-300 years to form (tour guide). During the tour you will venture through different levels of the cave.
Canyonlands National Park, immense amounts of wilderness and rock, is located at the heart of the Colorado Plateau (Canyonlands National Park-Geology). Millions of years have formed specific features to the rock and surrounding wilderness that make it so special. Throughout the park, you will find that the sedimentary rock has formed many features such as hundreds of colorful canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches, and spires. The Green and Colorado rivers have played a major role in the formation of many of these features. These rivers cut through the park forming two massive canyons. This further splits the park into three distinct zones. “Island in the Sky” sits to the north while “The Maze” sits off to the west and “The Needles” to the east (Canyonlands National Park Information Guide). “Island in the Sky” serves as Canyonlands’ observation tower; it allows tourists to see overwhelming vistas of the rest of the land. “The Maze,” as hinted at by the name has been described as a “30 square mile puzzle in sandstone” (NPS: Nature & Science» Geology Resources Division). This section of the park often ranks as one of the most remote and inaccessible areas of the United States. Lastly, “The Needles” is known for its diversity in rock features. Throughout this land, features such as sculptured rock spires, arches, canyons, grabens, and potholes can be seen. The varying names hint at the diversity of the land as a whole. As said by The National Park Service’s Geology Resources Division, “Traces of the Anasazi can be found in almost every canyon in the Needles. Many of their stone and mud dwellings and storehouses are remarkably well-preserved. Tower Ruins, built high on a cliff ledge in a side canyon of Horse Canyon, is an outstanding ex...
National Park Services, U.S. Department of Interior. Nps.gov, 27 Dec. 2004. Web. The Web. The Web.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park was formed the same way that most other valleys were. It is believed that long before the ice age occurred an ancient river carved through this area. This river left behind deposits that after millions of years transformed into the parks sandstone bedrock. As the ice age came into effect, this river froze and became part of a glacier that had an even bigger effect on the landscape of the valley. These glaciers scraped through northeastern Ohio and in the process left behind deposits that now make up the parks fertile soil (“Rock, Ice, and River”).
Print. United States. National Park Service. " Air Quality.
Both Mystery and Niagara Cave are made of limestone. Limestone is formed when areas that used to be covered with water, would have contained shelled animals and other organisms. When the animals died, their bodies along with waste matter from other organisms, floated down to the bottom of the water. Over time, it was compressed and formed limestone. Caves are usually made of limestone because it is easily carved out by water. This is the case for Mystery and Niagara
Valley Region of the Appalachian Mountains and Subsequent Karst Regions in the State of Virginia
In 1810, when Daniel Boone was seventy-six years old, he went and visited Kentucky and he said he could even tell that it was his state(Wharton pg 39)! There has been so much change when Daniel Boone first founded the state of Kentucky and thirty years later when he went back to it. Back then the Kentucky did not even have “bluegrass” in the environment when Boone first settled there, he said that the savanna-woodlands were used for a different purpose as shaded pastures carpeted by an introduced species known as bluegrass ( Patrick). So the people that settled there after Boone, they planted this special seed to make it a bluegrass. The type and scope of ecological change shifted dramatically when Europeans landed on the Atlantic seaboard. Their arrival on the North American coast, touched off changes that decimated local Native cultures and altered local environmental conditions long before the first European ventured into the region that became known as the Bluegrass. The next wave of transformation began during the 1770s when white settlers and enslaved African Americans introduced domesticated plant and animal species, new ideas about proper land use,
would allow it to scavenge for its own food, so no special feedings would be
Latham, A., Wright, E., & Tsang, A. (n.d.). Pollution's Effects on the Great Lakes Ecosystem: Introduction and Background. Pollution's Effects on the Great Lakes Ecosystem: Introduction and Background. Retrieved May 28, 2014, from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/section5group1/introduction_and_background
According to World WildLife Fund, many ecosystems around the world are being destroyed, eliminating many plant and animal species that inhabit them (“Pollution”).
Efforts to improve the standard of living for humans--through the control of nature and the development of new products--have also resulted in the pollution, or contamination, of the environment. Much of the world's air, water, and land is now partially poisoned by chemical wastes. Some places have become uninhabitable. This pollution exposes people all around the globe to new risks from disease. Many species of plants and animals have become endangered or are now extinct. As a result of these developments, governments have passed laws to limit or reverse the threat of environmental pollution.