...range[6]) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Basin and Range Province. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily in Nevada. The Sierra Nevada is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the western "backbone" of North America, Central America, South America and Antarctica. The Sierra runs 400 miles (640 km) north-to-south, and is approximately 70 miles (110 km) across east-to-west. Notable Sierra features include Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America; Mount Whitney at 14,505 ft (4,421 m),[1] the highest point in the contiguous United States; and Yosemite Valley sculpted by glaciers out of one-hundred-million-year-old granite. The Sierra is home to three national parks, twenty wilderness areas, and two national monuments. These areas include Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks; and Devils Postpile National Monument. The Sierra Nevada range is the highest mountain range in the contiguous United States. The character of the range is shaped by its geology and ecology. More than one hundred million years ago during the Nevadan orogeny, granite formed deep underground. The range started to uplift four M.A. (million years) ago, and erosion by glaciers exposed the granite and formed the light-colored mountains and cliffs...
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...Abstract Central Texas contains Precambrian rocks, which were exposed due to the Llano uplift. This paper looks further into the Devil’s Waterhole of Ink’s Lake to get a better understanding of the area. First the geology of the Llano uplift is studied to get a better understanding of how the rocks in the area were formed. The rocks in the area, which consists of Valley Springs Gneiss and Town Mountain Granite, are studied even further to see the composition of each and how each was formed. The Valley Spring Gneiss is split into amphibolite, biotite gneiss, quartz-feldspar gneiss, and quartzite. Each of the five different rock samples were observed and studied in the area to give us a better understanding of their compositions, how they were formed, and what their protoliths are. The Devil’s Waterhole of Ink’s lake is the area of focus in studying Precambrian rock. Throughout the Ink’s Lake region we will take focus on the Precambrian metamorphic rock that was exposed due to the Llano uplift. The Llano uplift contains some of the oldest rocks in North America and is exposed in Ink’s Lake, Texas. This is exposed due to the oceanic-continent collision, which drove the Llano uplift upward. After the weathering away of the younger rock on top, the currently exposed metamorphic rock is more easily observed. Following the Llano uplift exposure, there was an intrusion of the Town Mountain Granite, which we will also look further into. We also observe the areas reactions such as...
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...The Grand Canyon is a notable topographic feature in Northern America. It has nearly 2, 000 meters of rock layers exposed on the surface with twelve major rock units and occupies a region of broad continental crust. Despite its vastness, how it exactly became as it is now remains a question to scientists who study the area. The Grand Canyon is located specifically at the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau in Arizona. It begins at Lee’s Ferry and ends at the Grand Wash Cliffs. It reaches up to 18 miles wide. The Colorado River system runs across the canyon, from Lee’s Ferry with an elevation of 3,086 feet to Lake Mead which is 235 miles from Lee’s Ferry where the elevation is about 1157 feet. This gives an average gradient of 8.3 ft/mi....
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...place and subject only to vertical movements, such as those observed during mountain uplift. In recent years, however, a sound body of evidence in support of a modified form of the drift theory has been found. Ideas are becoming precise and unified, with emphasis on a moving, evolving ocean floor. The new theory is called plate tectonics. Early Theories Soon after the Atlantic Ocean had been mapped, about three hundred years ago, it was noticed that the opposite coasts had similar shapes, but it was not until the middle of the 19th century that accurate maps were published demonstrating that the two coasts could be fitted together quite closely. Some geologists then suggested that the fit of the coasts was not an accident--that the continents were once joined and had subsequently drifted apart. None of the suggestions were taken seriously. In 1912, however, the German meteorologist Alfred Wegener investigated the fit of the Atlantic coasts more carefully than had his predecessors and grouped all the continents together into one great land mass, which he called Pangaea. He supposed that the mass began to break apart about 200 million years ago. He also showed that some geological features on the opposite coasts could have fitted together, and that there were many striking similarities between the fossil plants and reptiles on the opposite coasts, particularly the coasts of Africa and South America. If the continents were pushed together, the geological, fossil, and other lines...
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...After looking at how these canyons have evolved over millions of years, we can easily see how these formations became to be such spectacular sights. Works Cited BH. How old is the grand canyon. Science. 2007; 318: 1039. Lee JP, Kelley SA, Pederson JL, Karlstrom KE, Ehlers TA. New thermochronometric constraints on the tertiary landscape evolution of the central and eastern grand canyon Arizona. Geological Society of America: Bulletin. 2013; 9(2): 216-228. Moores, EM, Vahl FM. The art of geology. Geological Society of America: Abstracts with Program. 1988: 31, 114. Pelletier, JD. Numerical modeling of the late cenozoic geomorphic evolution of grand canyon, arizona. Geological Society of America: Bulletin. 2010; 595-608. Thouret JC, Worner G, Gunnell Y, Singer B, Zhang X, Souriot T. Geochronologic and stratigraphic constraints on canyone incision and Miocene uplift of the central andes in peru. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 2007; 263:151-166. Nature and science [Internet]. National Park Service (US); 2014. Available from: http://www.nps.gov/grca/naturescience/index.htm Canon del colca [Internet]. The Summit Post; c 2007. Available from:...
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...Cretaceous’ rock units were quartz diorites, granodiorites, quartz, and monozonites. Subduction and plate convergence off the coast of western North America can also be seen in the Mesozoic Era causing large lateral transport and contrast of the volcanic and sedimentary topographies. The Nevadan orogeny produced mountains such as the great North American Cordillera. This mountain building was also accompanied by immense erosion, a pause in tectonic activity, and the probable beginning of cave development. The Cenozoic Era showed unrelenting intense erosion and slower tectonic activity causing the Sierra Nevada to uplift and tilt westward. Later in the Cenozoic Era, severe glaciation could be seen in the northern Sierra due to high precipitation on the western slopes. In the...
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...1964, and 10 times stronger compared to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. 2. Geographic location of New Madrid, MO: New Madrid was formed in 1808. It is situated on the Mississippi River and interstate 55. It has a population of 3154 residents, and it is considered as a small community in United States. New Madrid, MO is located at 36.59° North latitude, 89.53° West longitude and about 89 meters altitude above the sea level. Geographic coordinates: Latitude: 36.59° North Longitude: 89.53° West Altitude: 89 m [pic] 3. General geologic setting: A state’s general geologic setting basically includes what types of rock has build up the overall region, what structural features that state has, like, mountains and faults. It also includes plate tectonic setting and also an overall geologic map. 3.1. Geologic map: [pic] 3.2. Plate tectonic setting: The middle of the North American tectonic plate actually contains the new Madrid fault zone. One of the attribute of this plate is, this plate is thinner and weaker near to its center. As a result, it formed a rift zone....
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...subduction zone? al Ⅲ What two types of plate boundaries exist in northern California today? th Ⅲ What are terranes, how do they originate, and why are they important in northern California? Northern California.2 The Sierra Nevada: California’s Geologic alifornia’s Ge Backbone Ⅲ What is the Sierra Nevada batholith? rra batholi Ⅲ What kinds of rocks surround the Sierra Nevada batholith? ra Ⅲ When and how was the modern Sierra Nevada uplifted? e Ⅲ What types of gold deposits occur in the Sierra Nevada? e? Ⅲ What is the Mother Lode? Northern California.3 The Klamath M Mountains t ath an Ne evada Ⅲ In what ways are the Klamath Mountains and the Sierra Nevada similar? ds ro o ath M Ⅲ What kinds of rocks comprise the ophiolites in the Klamath Mountains and what tectonic events do they signify? ineral occu th ntai Ⅲ What mineral resources occur in the Klamath Mountains? Northern California.4 The Gr Ca rnia e Great Valley fa s th i he Valle Ⅲ What factors have led to the formation of fertile soils in the Great Valley? at t ime y Grea Seq Ⅲ What was the origin of the sedimentary rocks in the Great Valley Sequence? ori l p duced Gr Ⅲ What is the origin of the natural gas produced in the Great Valley? y Gre chron ooding Ⅲ Why is the Great Valley so prone to...
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... I will also discuss the origin and causes of earthquakes, relation to the shifting plates to the natural process of mountain building, relation of earthquakes to plate tectonics and faults in Los Angeles. I will share some historical disasters associated with past earthquakes and discuss potential of future earthquake events. Descriptions of hazards associated with earthquakes in Los Angeles Earthquakes occurs and it occurs where there are tectonic plates or fault lines. The main earthquake hazard is the effect of ground shaking. The ground shaking can create hazards with buildings that may potentially collapse, roads may be unleveled, ground may split open. Because of Los Angeles being a large city with large population of people and buildings, there are gas lines running underneath the city. If an earthquake occurs, it may cause rupturing of the pipe line which could lead to fires and explosions. (Michigan Tech, n.d.). Origin and causes of Earthquakes “The earthquakes in California in general are caused by the movement of huge blocks of the earth’s crust – the Pacific and the North American plates.” (Earthquake County, n.d.). What happens in this case is that the Pacific plate is really moving in the direction of northwest. Because of the Pacific plate moving northwest, it is scraping horizontally past North America at the rate of about 50 millimeters, or two inches, per year. According to Earthquake County, “About two-thirds of this...
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...the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance James Mercer Langston Hughes. A pioneer of modern black literature, Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist who devoted his writing career to revealing the attitudes, experiences, and language of everyday black African American. He called this period "the negro was in vogue". As a teenage I can recall reading Langston Hughes work , one that always stayed in printed in my mind is “Mother to Son” one of his poems from his first collections of short stories “The Way of White Folks’, which was published in the year 1934. These collections of stories focus on the interaction between whites and blacks. Langston Hughes main goal with in is writing was to uplift his people. He stressed the saying “black is beautiful” in that current time African Americans was criticized and prejudices based on skin color within the black community. For...
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...The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document.] | I’ve lived in Connecticut my whole life and until now I was unaware of its geological history. Admiring the landscape of the state has always been one of my great pleasures. When I traveled around the country I would compare the natural wonders of each state to my own. Besides the rocky mountains in Colorado and the white mountains of New Hampshire few places match Connecticut’s regal terrain. Growing up in Bristol I would hike up to Pinnacle Mountain in Plainville, my friends and I would stand in awe of the magnificent rock structures. In the summer I would go on vacation to Old Lyme, it was there I fell in love with the earth’s most beautiful contrasts, the ocean meeting the rock and vice a versa. But until now I never educated myself on how all this magnificence came about. In this paper I will chronologically describe the eras and events that formed Connecticut’s geologic history. The oldest rocks provide a window through time telling a story of continental collisions so powerful that they raised mountains thousands of feet high. Others reveal evidence of a slow but constant attack from the elements that wore down those same majestic peaks (Mchone 2004). Giant monoliths stand testament to a time when the earths crust was cracked and lava flowed over the state. Beaches and enormous boulders are the remains of when Connecticut was frozen beneath a sheet of ice (Mchone2004)...
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...“I want to be a poet—not a Negro poet” (Hughes 348). In his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Langston Hughes covers many important points but his hook is one to mention. This hook focuses a lot on the main issue of the essay itself. The issue is that the negro poets want to write like the white poets implying that colored artists want to be white. This then leads to the fact that the white audiences turned to the artists of color and saw them as stereotypical entertainment mainly because these black artists were afraid of being themselves. Langston Hughes’s poem, “The Weary Blues” engages with themes of the Harlem Renaissance and the content of the poem expresses various issues Hughes discussed in “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” The poem, “The Weary Blues” is a powerful poem because it highlights the cultural traditions of the African American descent during a time of the Harlem Renaissance. The audience is able to...
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...The Theory of Plate Tectonics Melissa Schroeder Columbia College For millions of years, tectonic plates have been determinate of changes in the physical face of the earth, and they continue to do so today. These massive plates move underneath the surfaces of the oceans and the continents, producing earthquakes, volcanoes and uplifts. This paper will discuss the composition, movement and history of tectonic plates, the theory of plate tectonics and its history, and tectonic plates affect the surface of the earth today and will continue to do so in the future. The earth is divided into three main layers: the core, the mantle and the crust. The core is further divided into the solid inner core and the liquid outer core. This layer is mostly iron and nickel and is extremely hot. The mantle is divided into the lower and upper mantle and is composed mostly of iron, magnesium, silicon, and oxygen. The outermost layer, which contains all life on earth, is the crust. This layer is rich in oxygen and silicon as well as aluminum, iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and sodium. It is in between the crust and the mantle that we find tectonic plates. The outermost layers of the earth are divided into two categories based on their physical properties. The asthenosphere is the lower of these categories, composed of clastic or flowing mantle. The upper layer is known as the lithosphere and contains both the top, rigid layer of the mantle and the crust. The lithosphere is what makes up...
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...Must one argue that America was built on the values of freedom? If this is true, which history has already proven it is, then why are we stripping the rights of our youth by requiring them to participate in mandatory volunteering? Before one can even begin to answer this they must also ask what is volunteering? In short it is offering to do something “freely”. Schools should not force our students to participate in volunteering, because they are inevitably causing the youth to be rebellious and devaluing the appreciation for true volunteering. While volunteering may be a seemingly good thing, mandatory volunteering causes young adolescents to rebel against community service and volunteer work. According to the Cognitive Evaluation Theory study, people tend to resist and lose interest in what is being asked of them when they feel they are being controlled by an outside source because of the human nature of individualism(Pearce 1).This is already seen in other school situations, such as with homework. Many children will often refuse to do rudimentary or simple homework assignments. Throughout history, volunteering has evolved into a cultural connection; a common characteristic of humans on a local, national, and global level is the desire to help one another. Although this statement is not necessarily true for every individual, most people feel an urgency to assist friends, family members, coworkers, and/or strangers in need or in crisis. Why should we volunteer? Many people...
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...Name(s): __________________ and _____________________________ Section (lab day) _________ Lab 2: Plate Tectonics & the Origin of Magma – AGI 9th ed. Read Lab 2 p31-56. The aim of the lab is: A. To investigate some aspects of the plate tectonic model. B. To interpret rates and directions of plate movement C. To analyze data and associated geological processes & features. The theory of plate tectonics is a powerful and far-reaching theory encompassing many aspects of geology. The theory explains such diverse phenomena as mountain building on continents, the evolution of ocean basins, magma chemistry, the long-term migration of plants and animals, climatic change and the movement of continents. Turn to Lab 2 in the lab manual and read the introduction to each Part, then answer the questions in the manual in the corresponding spaces provided below. Introduction: Earth’s Size, Continents & Ocean Basins 1.1.a Read p 31-32. What was Alfred Wegener’s observation that led him to propose the Continental Drift Hypothesis ___________________________________. (1) 1.1.b Why was this rejected?___________________________________________. (1) Why did anti-drift scientists oppose this and what was their evidence or bias? _____________________________________________________________. (1) 1.1.c What alternative hypothesis did Bernard Lindemann (1927) and Otto Hilgenberg (1933) propose? _______________________________________________....
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