National Parks formed by Mountain Building & Uplift

1. National Parks formed by Mountain Building & Uplift Grand Teton National Park Great Smoky National Park

2. Mountain Building and Uplift • Mountains usually form in ranges, long but narrow zones. • Accumulation of sediment • Orogenesis • Folding, thrust faults, meta, intrusions • Adjustment • Extension, block-faulting, uplift • many ranges -> mountain belts

3. Formation of Appalachians • 300 mya collision • Erosion • 180 mya rifting

4. Mountain Belts of North America

5. Grand Teton National Park FVH 07 AUG 2005

6. Vital Statistics • Northwest Wyoming • ~310,000 acres • ~480 square miles

7. Human History • 5000 BC - Native Americans in area as early as this • 1800’s Blackfeet, Crow, Flathead, Gros Ventre, Nez Perce, Shoshone, Ute Tribes • 1820’s – 1840’s “Mountain Men” trappers

8. Human History • 1870’s Hayden Geological Surveys • 1880’s Settlers • 1929 established as NP

9. Geologic Features • Fault Block Mountains • Cross-cutting Relationships • Glacial Features

10. Tilting of Fault-Block Mountain

11. Teton Fault

12. Teton Fault

13. Geologic Features • Fault Block Mountains • Cross-cutting Relationships • Glacial Features

17. Geologic Features • Fault Block Mountains • Cross-cutting Relationships • Glacial Features

18. Glacial FeaturesU-shaped Valleys

19. Glacial features - moraine

20. Glacial features - moraine

21. Geologic History • 2800 mya Precambrian: seds and vol, later meta • 2500 mya igneous intrusions • 1400 mya basalt intrusions dike • Pz shallow water sediments • Mz marine and continental sediments • Mz ~70 mya uplift Larimide Orogeny

22. Geologic History (con’t) • Cenezoic • 40-55 mya uplift and volcanism • 25-40 mya volcanism lessens, faulting • 8-10 mya lake, volcanism, major block faulting • Pleistocene – erosion • Pleistocene – glaciation • Most melted by 8,000 years ago • Reformed by 4,000 years ago

23. Great Smoky Mountains National Park

24. Vital Statistics • Straddles NC/TN border • ~517,000 acres • ~815 square miles • 5000-6000 ft elevation

25. Human History • Cherokee Tribes • 1540 de Soto named Appalachian Mts • 1700’s settlers, mostly English or Scot-Irish • 1815 Gold discovered • 1838-39 winter Cherokee evicted • Trail of tears

26. Human History • 1899 NP first suggested • 1920 traction by motor clubs • 1926 Bill passed to authorize a Park • 1934 enough land was purchased • 1940 Dedicated by FDR

27. Features • The “smoke” in Smoky • Moisture • Terpenes • The Balds (treeless areas) • Grass balds • Heath balds

28. Geologic Features • Basement Complex • Folded Rocks • Faulting • Fenster • Inliers

29. Geologic Features • Outliers • Metamorphic zones • Granitization • The Sinks • Sedimentary features

30. Geologic History • Pre-Cambrian • 1000 mya formation of basement complex • Ocoee rocks mostly sandstone and conglomerate • Paleozoic Marine Limestones with some shales • Late Pz folding and faulting • Appalachian Orogeny • Mz & Cz erosion and uplifts • .5 mya to 20,000 glaciations