Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains (often called The Rockies) are a range of mountains in the western United States and Canada. They stretch from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. Part of the mountain range in Colorado is a national park, called Rocky Mountain National Park. The Rocky Mountains are more than 3,000 m (4,800 km) long .The highest point in the Rocky Mountains is Mount Elbert. Mount Elbert, at 14,433 ft (4,401 m).
| Elevation | 14,440 feet (4401.2 m)[1] |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Geology | |
| Age of rock | Precambrian and Cretaceous |
The Rocky Mountains are relatively new and were formed from 55 million to 80 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny. North America began to move westwards as Pangaea broke up. A number of tectonic plates began to slide under the North American plate. The angle of subduction was shallow and resulted in a broad belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers have sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks and valleys.
The rocks in the Rocky Mountains had been formed long before the mountains were raised. The oldest rock is Precambrian metamorphic rock, which forms the core of the North American continent. There is also Precambrian sedimentary argillite, dating back to 1.7 billion years ago. During the Paleozoic, western North America lay underneath a shallow sea, which deposited many kilometers of limestone and dolomite.[2]
In the southern Rocky Mountains, near present-day Colorado, the ancestral rocks were disturbed by mountain building about 300 million years ago, during the Pennsylvanian. The mountain building produced the ancestral Rocky Mountains. They consisted largely of Precambrian metamorphic rock forced upward through layers of the limestone. The limestone had been laid down in a shallow sea.[3] The mountains eroded throughout the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, leaving extensive deposits of sedimentary rock.
Rocky Mountains Media
The summits of the Teton Range in Wyoming
Mount Robson in British Columbia
Glaciers, such as Jackson Glacier in Glacier National Park, Montana, as shown here, have dramatically shaped the Rocky Mountains.
Tilted slabs of sedimentary rock in Roxborough State Park near Denver
Great Sand Dunes of Colorado
Tundra in the mountains of Colorado
Bighorn sheep (such as this lamb in Alberta) have declined dramatically since European-American settlement of the mountains
Mesa Verde ruins in Colorado
Cherokee Trail near Fort Collins, Colorado, from a sketch taken June 7, 1859
References
- ↑ Error: no id specified when using {{cite ngs}}
- ↑ Gadd, Ben (2008). "Geology of the Rocky Mountains and Columbias" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-04-20. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
- ↑ Chronic, Halka (1980). Roadside Geology of Colorado. ISBN 0-87842-105-X.
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