Geology Underfoot in Yosemite National Park

About this book

Few places in the nation rival Yosemite National Park for vertigo-inducing cliffs, plunging waterfalls, and stunning panoramic views of granite peaks. Many of the features that visitors find most tantalizing about Yosemite have unique and compelling geologic stories – tales that continue to unfold today in vivid, often destructive ways. While visiting these more than twenty-seven amazing sites, you'll discover why many of Yosemite's domes shed rock shells like onion layers, what happens when a volcano erupts under a glacial lake, and why rocks seem to be almost continually tumbling from the region's cliffs. With a multitude of colourful photos and illustrations, and prose tooled for the lay reader, Geology Underfoot in Yosemite National Park will help you read the landscape the way a geologist does.

Contents

Preface
Introduction
      Yosemite's Geologic Backdrop
      How Glaciers Work and How They Shaped Yosemite
      What is a Glacier?
      How Glaciers Erode
      Glacial Modification of Landscapes
      What Glaciers Leave Behind
      History of Glaciers in Yosemite
      Modern Glaciers
      Rivers and Streams in Yosemite
      Geologic Study of Yosemite

1. Bones of the Earth: Granite, Granodiorite, and the Bedrock of Yosemite
2. Vertical Exposure: The Geology of Yosemite Climbing
3. Pushed Off a Cliff: The Origin of Yosemite Falls
4. Giant Steps: Vernal and Nevada Falls
5. Free-Falling Granite: The 1996 Happy Isles Rockfall and its Unusual Air Blast
6. That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles: The 1982 Cookie Cliff Rockslide
7. The Walls Came Tumbling Down: Earthquakes and Rock Avalanches in Yosemite Valley
8. How Water Sculpts Yosemite: The Flood of 1997
9. A Natural Dam Across Yosemite Valley: The El Capitan Moraine
10. Cracks in the Earth: The Fissures of Taft Point
11. Half a Dome is Better Than None: Sentinel Dome and Half Dome
12. The Earth as an Onion: Exfoliation Joints
13. The Ice Went Thataway!: The Shaping of Pothole Dome
14. Exotic Erratics: Glacially Transported Boulders at Olmsted Point
15. Why are there Trees Poking Out of Tenaya Lake? The Great Medieval Megadrought
16. Soda Springs: That Fizzy Taste Carries a Geochemical Surprise
17. Runaway Rocks: Metamorphic Rocks at May Lake
18. Root of an Ancient Volcano: Little Devils Postpile
19. Tombstone Rocks, Slate, and Greenstone: Rocks of the Western Approaches
20. Inverted Landscape: The Stanislaus Table Mountain Lava Flow
21. Eocene Erosion: Ancient, Weathered Landscapes of the Sierra Nevada
22. An Ancient, Ice-Bound Sea: Mono Lake and Ancestral Lake Russell
23. An Underwater Volcano: Mono Lake's Black Point
24. Evidence of the Ice Ages: Glacial Deposits in and Around Lee Vining Canyon
25. Dreams of Silver: The Mines of Bennettville and Dana Village

Glossary
Sources of More Information
Index

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