Transcript Yosemite - bishopcook09

Yosemite
BY: EVAN GRATHWOHL
Landscape and
When It Was
Founded
Yosemite was founded as a
national park on October 1st,
1890. (18 years after
Yellowstone) It was chosen to
be a national park because, of
it’s amazing landscape
including, Glaciers, narrow
canyons, high alpine meadows
that moved down the river
valleys, and after the huge ice
age about 1 million years ago it
created a U-shaped valley which
is one of the main attractions. El
Capitan, a huge granite cliff that
hangs over Yosemite Valley, it is
one of the most popular rock
climbing destinations in the
world because of its amazing
range of climbing routes in
addition to its year-round
access.
How It Was
Formed
About 10 million years ago,
the Sierra Nevada was
uplifted and then tilted to
form its relatively gentle
western slopes and the more
dramatic eastern slopes. The
uplift increased the steepness
of stream and river beds,
resulting in formation of
deep, narrow canyons.
About 1 million years ago, a
huge ice age occured, forming
glaciers at the higher alpine
meadows that moved down
the river valleys. Ice thickness
in Yosemite Valley may have
reached 4,000 feet (1,200 m)
during the early glacial
episode. The down slope
movement of the ice masses
cut and sculpted the Ushaped valley that attracts so
many visitors to Yosemite
today.
Rock’s That
Can Be Found
In Yosemite
The terrane of Yosemite
National Park is characterized
by abundant light-colored and
less common dark-colored rocks
that crystallized slowly from
molten rock kilometers beneath
the Earth’s surface. Almost all of
the landforms in the Yosemite
area are cut from the granitic
rock of the Sierra Nevada
Batholith (a batholith is a large
mass of intrusive igneous rock
that formed deep below the
surface). About 5% of the park's
landforms (mostly in its eastern
margin near Mount Dana) are
metamorphosed volcanic and
sedimentary rocks. These rocks
are called roof pendants
because they were once the roof
of the underlying granitic rock.
What’s Happening Right Now In Yosemite
Yosemite is losing trees
and fast to prove that
look at this.
From the 1930s to the
1990s, Yosemite's largediameter tree density
decreased 24%,
according to a study by
researchers at the U.S.
Geological Survey and
the University of
Washington. Scientists
compared the park's
earliest records (19321936) with records from
1988-99.
Who knows what
changes occured before
those earlier records.
Environmental
Issues In
Yosemite
Over the past 15 years, the
level of visitation to Yosemite
has increased dramatically, to
over four million visitors per
year, causing a huge difference
in Yosemite’s habitat. It has
also caused more pollution
and littering. The land is now
becoming more and more
urban, leaving less space for
the animals. The food chain
has been disrupted and now
more animal attacks are taking
place. There are only about
one, every year in Yosemite
but it still is happening ,
geologists think that the attack
rate will increase rapidly. The
fatal attacks that are taking
place are mostly by either Bear
or Mountain Lions.
How We Try
To Preserve It
A company named
Greenpath is aware of
some issues in Yosemite
and they are
determined to help out.
Examples include the
adoption of
approximately 30 sites
impacted by
deteriorating storage
tanks, a statewide and
nationally recognized
recycling program, and
a golf course that is
certified as an Audubon
Cooperative Sanctuary.
Pictures of Yosemite
This picture shows the Ushaped valley.
This is a map of Yosemite’s
roads and cities.
Photo Album
Bibliography
•C A R L S O N , D A N E . Y O S E M I T E B L O G . R E P . W E B .
<HTTP://WWW.GOOGLE.COM/IMGRES?IMGURL=HTTP://FAR
M4.STATIC.FLICKR.COM/3466/3347363493_C0F98A325E.JPG
&IMGREFURL=HTTP://YOSEMITEBLOG.COM/2009/08/05/YOS
EMITE-TREES-GETTINGSMALLER/&USG=__WTHUH8AAECXEMEG0W6SABQ171DU=&H
=500&W=333&SZ=208&HL=EN&START=12&UM=1&ITBS=1&TB
NID=FQNT88V_1S_VM:&TBNH=130&TBNW=87&PREV=/IMAGES%3FQ%3DT
REES%2BIN%2BYOSEMITE%26UM%3D1%26HL%3DEN%26RLS%
3DCOM.MICROSOFT:EN-US%26TBS%3DISCH:1>.
•W I K I P E D I A
HARRIS, DAVID V., ED. YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARKS. REP.
PRINT.
Bibliography
JUSTIN, BRENT MATHEW. OUR TRIP TO YOSEMITE, JUNE
2005. REP. WEB.
<HTTP://WWW.GOOGLE.COM/IMGRES?IMGURL=HTTP://W
WW.MATTHEWWEATHERS.COM/YEAR2005/YOSEMITE/IMG
_3348_YOSEMITE_FALLS.JPG&IMGREFURL=HTTP://WWW.
MATTHEWWEATHERS.COM/YEAR2005/YOSEMITE1.HTM&U
SG=__UZBCYN0FPBLXP778BGH4HMCYZKW=&H=508&W=5
00&SZ=94&HL=EN&START=3&UM=1&ITBS=1&TBNID=EMFJ
GAYMCI6UAM:&TBNH=131&TBNW=129&PREV=/IMAGES%3F
Q%3DYOSEMITE%26UM%3D1%26HL%3DEN%26RLS%3DCOM.
MICROSOFT:EN-US%26TBS%3DISCH:1>.
YOSEMITE. REP. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, 29 MAY 2010.
WEB. <HTTP://WWW.NPS.GOV/YOSE/INDEX.HTM>.