Mountain Building & Structural Geology
What is the accumulation stage?
This stage of mountain building involves sediment and volcanic material piling up.
What is the Grand Teton National park?
This park's mountains rise sharply along a 40 mile long normal fault
What are Joshua Trees?
These iconic desert plants give Joshua Tree National Park its name
What are giant sequoias?
These trees in Sequoia NP are the largest by volume on Earth
What is Hot Springs National Park?
This smallest national park protects naturally heated waters that are warmed by deep circulation, not magma.
What is the orogenic stage?
Folding and faulting occur during this mountain-building stage
What are Precambrian gneiss and diabase?
Most of the Teton Range consists of these ancient crystalline rocks
What is spheroidal weathering?
Rounded granite boulders in Joshua Tree form through this style of weathering
What is Mt. Whitney?
This peak located in Sequoia-Kings Canyon, is the highest in the lower 48 states
What are the Appalachian Orogenies?
The rocks in Shenandoah were thrust over Paleozoic sediments during a series of events known as these.
What is an anticline?
An arch-shaped fold with the oldest rocks in the center
What are bristlecone pines?
These ancient trees in Great Basin National Park can live 3,000-5,000 years
What is the Basin and Range Province?
This tectonic province, shared by both parks, contains alternating fault-block mountains and basins.
What is Redwood National park?
The tallest trees on Earth grow in this Northern California national park.
What is Greenstone?
This is metamorphosed basalt, common in Shenandoah, called the greenish rock.
What is a reverse fault?
This fault occurs when the hanging wall moves up due to compression.
What are cirques?
These bowl shaped glacial landforms and their rock-glacier remnants occur high in Great Basin NP
What is Badwater Basin?
At -282 ft, this is the lowest point in North America
What is exfoliation?
Granite domes in Sequoia-Kings canyon form through the peeling of rock layers known as this
This valley in the Smokies exposes softer paleozoic limestone and became fertile farmland
What are joints?
These cracks form with no movement and are common at Arches and Bryce Canyon.
What is chemical weathering (dissolution)?
Lehman Cave formed when uplifted limestone was dissolved by this process.
What are alluvial fans?
These cone-shaped sediment deposits form where desert canyons empty into valley floors in Death Valley.
What is an accretionary melange?
Redwood NP sits on top of these chaotic blocks of oceanic crust scraped off a subducting plate
What is chemical weathering?
High rainfall in the Great Smoky Mountains leads to this intense type of weathering that produces many waterfalls