If you've ever been or thinking about visiting Colorado watch the geologic history.

[SteveSS]

It obviously doesn't look like it did in the past, but if you're going to visit you can see what happened by the rocks on the surface.

Basics: A Pacific plate slid under the North American boiling rocks and sending them upward. Then erosion then uplifts etc.


When they talk about the Morrison Formation that's our Bandimere drag strip. The dinosaur footprints are there.

 

[WheelsOfTerror]

I sure miss rippin' down Bandimere in my old A-body. Didn't know the geology there- thanks for the link!

 

[moparmarks]

Yep the Colorado Plateau is some the oldest land in North America.

 

[Budnicks]

yep some really old **** there

 

[SteveSS]

D

Do you see the diagonal rock formations? That was the beach dinosaurs walked on. Then the uplift of the mountains tilted them just like a really slow explosion from underneath.

It became a natural setting for bleachers.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Makes you wonder how footprints is sand/dirt became fossilized into rock. You would think that a few rain storms back then would have leveled the earth out.

 

[SteveSS]

Most did but these were covered quickly then buried under layers of sediment. It wasn't until the mountains uplifted and those layers washed away by erosion that these 60 million-year-old footprints can be seen. It's the same process for all fossils big or small the world over. Consider this fish within a fish from the great plains. Something buried it fast.

Coal, oil, and gas are just buried organic matter. It can be miles deep. Limestone is just dead shellfish and calcareous matter from the oceans. I'm sure you've seen massive Limestone layers wherever you are. It's actively happening in the oceans off South Florida right now.


BTW when you chew up a Tums or an antacid you are just eating Limestone, CaCO3.

 

[SteveSS]

You have to wrap your mind around the geologic time scale and that's hard for people that live 100 years or less. Consider these river valleys and they are geologically new.

 

[WileE]

yep some really old **** there

Hey... I resemble that remark.....

 

[BLK 68 R/T]

Very cool. I love geology and learning about the land. Where I’m from we are very unique. Floods of lava about 15-16 million years ago, up to 3 miles deep in places. Then floods of water from lake Missoula 15 thousand years ago. 11 times the amount of all the freshwater rivers spilled out across central and southeast Washington.

 

[Budnicks]

Yep I live on top of a shitload of granite & clay
like most of the 'oldest mountains here'
are comprised of, some are far less stable shale/sandstone

 

[BLK 68 R/T]

Yep I live on top of a shitload of granite & clay
like most of the 'oldest mountains here'
are comprised of, some are far less stable shale/sandstone

It’s my understanding that the Sierra mountains are all uplifted granite batholiths, meaning that the granite used to be underground magma chambers that hardened and now have been uplifted.

 

[Budnicks]

Yosemite Valley about 2 ridges over, 50-60 miles SSW as the crow flies

 

[BLK 68 R/T]

Yosemite Valley about 2 ridges over, 50-60 miles SSW as the crow flies
View attachment 1106067

Very beautiful.

 

[Budnicks]

Ansal Adams Wilderness, Island Pass

about 20-30 miles upcountry
Kennedy Meadows, Chimney Creek

it's truly Gods Country

 

[Richard Cranium]

Beautiful!

 

[SteveSS]

Granite just had time to cool off before it erupted. The minerals had time to clump together forming crystals. It always just a battle of uplifting vs. erosion. The silica or Quartz gets eroded last and tumbles all the way down to the seashore creating our beach sand.