NORTH AMERICAN REGIONS

VI. Rocky Mountains b. Colorado

Key
  

RedRed-Term to define and remember YellowYellow-Place to locate and remember Bright Green-Agricultural product Green(crop), resource or another thing to locate and remember White and Blue - Narration to help understanding

Rocky Mountains
Most of the Rocky Mountains are Fault Block mountains.

www.gps.caltech.edu/~ehlers/presentations/

Which end up looking like . . .

www.gps.caltech.edu/~ehlers/presentations/

Gore Range

Colorado

Front Range

Rockies P l a i n s

The sedimentary rock of the plains is pushed up by the Rockies. This is called a hogback. Note how modern transportation uses the gap or pass. pass.

Hogback
If you would take a slice through the hogback what would it look like?
Note the upturned sedimentary strata.

If you would turn 180 you would see . . . 180

Lake Dillon

. . . and something else.

Another fault

If youGround 180 you see . . . return 180 Water Seeping

I-70 Road Cut

Exposing sedimentary rock

fault

What problem might there be with having a fault close to a dam?

If you climb a nearby peak you would see . . .

Dillon Reservoir Silverthorne

Red Peak (13,189)

. . .real estate values are dam . . . And below the significantly The
lower here than they are above the dam.

Silverthorne, Colorado

Economy
Tourism/Recreation 2. Mining 3. Lumbering 4. Agriculture
1.

Tourism

Beaver Run Resort Breckinridge, Colorado

Most tourists come in the winter in order to . . .

lift

Ski

Keystone Resort
Whats going on here?

Cutting down trees for new . . . Ski Slopes The ski industry changes the environment a little.

Dillon Reservoir

More changes occur from building residences for the tourists. condos Road cut

Ski

Lift

Some tourists add less money to the local economy.

Mining

The first mineral to bring Europeans into the Rockies.

Underground (Hard Rock) Mining

Mt. Lincoln Veins of quartzite (14,284) Colorado has 54 mountains over 14,000: none over 14,500

Look here
reservoir which provides water to Colorado Springs Gold stamping mill (closed) Hoosier Pass

talus

Gold prospect hole

Collapsed Mine

tailings

Blue River Tailings are the leftovers of a dredge which is mining. doing placer mining.

More Tailings

Operating Gold Mine

Placer Mine
Prospect hole

Magdalene silver mine (closed) talus

Small silver mine near the Continental Divide

Open Pit Mine at Climax, Colorado

(near the Continental Divide) Divide)

What are they mining?

molybdenum

The whole mountain has been removed.

What could we be mining here?

iron

talus

Lumbering

These forests have been harvested.

Since the soil is poor trees are allowed to grow here. Even though the trees grow slowly in this short growing season, they are cut down.

The Denver Suburbs

Many people live like this.

But the view is worth it.

Hint

What is this land used for?

Cattle are the most important agricultural product of the Rocky Mountains.

What is growing here?

Hay is virtually the only thing that will grow in the short growing season.

Mt. Princeton is near Mt. Columbia, Mt. Yale and Mt. Harvard. This mountain range is naturally called the . . . Mt. Princeton (14,197')

Collegiate Peaks

Could you live here? In winter?

In Colorado these large open areas between the mountains are called . . . parks This is the largest one and is named South Park.

Cattle Guard

Definitions


 

 

Fault block a type of mountain formed by a part of the Earths crust pushed up by tectonics forces Fault a crack in the Earths crust Hogback a tilted up sedimentary ridge next to mountains Pass a low spot between mountains Talus loose rocks that have been weathered off a mountain Park in the Rocky Mountains, a large meadow

Natural Landscapes Glacial Valleys  Timberline / Treeline  Mountain Top Experiences



Glacial Valley

U-shaped

Why should a road have switchbacks? switchbacks?

Whats this?

They reduce the slope.

Height

D i s t a n c e

Pikes Peak (14,110) talus road ?

Evidence of Glaciation

Found where a smaller, tributary glacier met a larger valley glacier.

Buffalo Mountain (12,777)

tarns

Wolf Creek Pass, San Juan Mountains

timberline
No trees

trees

Pikes Peak

Near the Timberline

Note the deformed trees!

Missouri Mtn. 14,076

At the Timberline

Near the timberline Englemann spruce Wind direction look like . . . Flag trees Line of snow accumulation These deformed trees Englemann Spruce Trunk is are called krumholz. krumholz.
here! Gray Jay

A species of tree that grows very slowly pine. near the timberline is the bristlecone pine.

In the Sierra Nevada some bristlecone pines are over 2000 years old!

Mt. Massive
14,421 feet (2nd highest)

timberline

Geographers exploring the area above the timberline.

What symptoms of altitude sickness should these people be wary of?

The first thing to grow in areas most recently lichen uncovered by ice combination of Which is a symbiotic is . . .
fungus and algae

After enough lichen die and add their nutrients to the pieces of rock, soil is created. Then small plants can grow.

Above 12,000, the elevation of the timberline in this part of Colorado, the air is 36 36 colder than at sea level (3 per 1000). It is too cold for trees to grow. The plants are short because the air above them is thin and cool.

Lens cap for comparison

Inches above the ground the temperatemperature may be 10 10 colder than the surface!

At this elevation temperatures drop below freezing at night, even in August.

The resulting biome (combination of climate tundra. and vegetation) is alpine (mountain) tundra.

You could call this the setting of . . . Little House on the Tundra

Plants have to grow, bloom and set seed in a very short growing season, so for a month or two the meadows are colorful.

Youve probably heard of these. The Colorado Columbine

Columbine grows in granite rock in remote locations.

Animals are found here, too.

What animal do you see evidence of? lodge

Whats this?

Ptarmigan

To really experience the mountains you must get out of your car and . . .

Red Peak (13,189)

Plan your route of ascent.

Warning! Dont walk through the talus! It is all loose!

The Summit

What do you do when you reach the summit of a Note mountain? that the mountain
top is not solid!

Look Down!

The rocks are broken by water freezing: weathering!

Weathering has caused rocks to break off and tumble onto vehicles. Here strong netting has been draped over the rock cut to prevent damage.

What has caused these scars on the hillside?

Rock avalanches caused by mass wasting

These are snow avalanche scars

If these little whippersnappers can climb to this ridge, so can you!

Hes searching for one more mountain to climb.

How about Mount Belford 14,197 feet The 19th highest peak in Colorado

Camp #1

A good source of drinking water. But you better filter it. Giardia! Giardia!

This is what a source of a river looks like.

Dont eat the pink snow either It contains a toxin that could make you sick.

The Continental Divide

Lets stand here Missouri Basin

Resting in a cirque next to a

tarn

Mt. Belford

Time to climb

Mt. Belford from base camp

The Arkansas Valley

He made it!

Definitions
 

Glacial valley a U-shaped alpine valley Upreviously enlarged by ice Switchbacks a zigzag-shaped road that climbs zigzagslopes; hairpin turns Tarns lakes located at the head of glacial valleys Timberline the point beyond which trees cannot grow due to cold Bristlecone pine a tree that grows very slowly in extreme environments Alpine tundra an area of low growing plants located in high elevations on mountains

NORTH AMERICAN REGIONS

VI. Rocky Mountains
b. Colorado

The End