Trip report: a few days in the Southern Sierra
We just got back from a few days in the south end of Sequoia National Park -- here is a link to our blog, if you have a few minutes to spend: Blog post
Forum Discussion
OK it's been awhile since I read this book, but from what I recal California mountains were not formed by rising plutons like the Colorado Rockies. Instead imagine the western shoreline way east at Utah or eastern Nevada. There were a series of large Japan sized islands in the western sea and plate tectonics were pushing those islands into the continent.
So a series of slow motion big collisions occurred, those collisions pushed up mountain ranges at the zone of impact. If you look at a map you'll a series of mountain ranges running north-south from the Sierras east into Utah. Lots of ranges, the space inbetween the ranges is called a basin. And that landform is called--Range and Basin or visa versa.
John Mcphee wrote a series of very readable--non technical books on this and the one you should read is:
Assembling California
The series describes in a very interesting format the geology of the US starting at the east end of I-80 and following it to the end of I-80 in California.
He sets the books up as a drive east on I-80 and in each book he finds a local field geologist to set the action around.
BK
So a series of slow motion big collisions occurred, those collisions pushed up mountain ranges at the zone of impact. If you look at a map you'll a series of mountain ranges running north-south from the Sierras east into Utah. Lots of ranges, the space inbetween the ranges is called a basin. And that landform is called--Range and Basin or visa versa.
John Mcphee wrote a series of very readable--non technical books on this and the one you should read is:
Assembling California
The series describes in a very interesting format the geology of the US starting at the east end of I-80 and following it to the end of I-80 in California.
He sets the books up as a drive east on I-80 and in each book he finds a local field geologist to set the action around.
BK