Final Assessment

Grand Teton National park is very recent mountain range on a geological time scale.  The geologic story of the Teton Range began more than 2.7 billion years ago.  About ten million years ago the mountain range was created by massive earthquakes along the Teton fault.  The earthquakes shifted the mountains upwards about 7,000 feet and the valley downward.  The fault runs about 40 miles along the base between the mountains and the valley.  So far movement has measured some 30,000 vertical feet, most of it from the subsidence of Jackson Hole.  Grand Teton National Park is very unique because it has many different types of rocks and experiences all four seasons. 

…Grand Tetons 10,000 years from now

From the 1850's to the present, we have been in an interglacial period.  An interglacial period is a period of warmer global temperatures between periods of glaciation where glaciers retreat and vegetation spreads.  During the Little Ice Age, glaciers are retreating. The Teton Glacier has lost up to 40% of its surface area since the 1960's.  With that being said, I believe the glaciers will be melted in the next 10,000 years.  The mountain range will also grow.  Mountains grow about 3.2 inches per year.  So, over the next 10,000 years the mountains should grow at least 2,600 feet.   The rocks will become more jagged because of weathering and erosion due to water. 

Weathering of rocks at Grand Teton National Park 

http://www.discovergrandteton.org/teton-geology/

…Grand Tetons 1,000,000 years from now

Looking back on the geological time scale of Grand Teton National Park, between 500,000 and 2 million years ago ice sheets covered most of the Northern Hemisphere.   The mountains should grow about 260,000 feet or 50.5 miles, which is very hard to imagine.  The mountains may not grow as much because of weathering to the rocks. 

…Grand Tetons 100,000,000 years from now

In 100,000,000 years from now the rocks will be extremely decayed.   Frost wedging is common in Grand Teton National Park and it occurs when water seeps into a crack in a rock, freezes, expands and forces the crack open.  Many earthquakes should have happened in the last 100,000,000 years causing the valley to fall down even more. 

Overall I believe Grand Teton National Park will grow and shrink at the same time due to faulting and weathering.  With many earthquakes that will happen over the next 100,000,000 years, the mountains will shift upwards, but also the rocks will decay from weathering and harsh weather conditions that will happen. 

References   

http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/national-parks/grand-teton-national-park/

http://www.discovergrandteton.org/teton-geology/

http://www.nps.gov/grte/forkids/upload/student_guide_09_web.pdf

Weather and Clouds

Grand Teton National Park experiences all of the four seasons, which comes along with a wide range of weather.  Two types of precipitation are common in the park. Those types are rain (liquid) and snow (solid).  Rain happens when the condensation process is above the freezing point and snow’s process happens when the sublimation process is below the freezing point. 

Snow on the Tetons

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/grand-teton-snow-halos-stephen-vecchiotti.html

Thunderstorms are common in the Spring and Summer and occur with moisture and unstable air.  There are three stages in creating a thunderstorms: 1) Updraft Cumulus Stage, 2) Mature Stage and 3) Dissipating Stage.  Hail, rain, and sleet come along with thunderstorms.  Hail is a product of thunderstorms that forms when strong warm updrafts force rain drops above the freezing point. When the rain is above the freezing point it builds on layers of ice and then cold downdrafts return the frozen droplets to below the freezing line.  This process happens over and over until the hail finally drops.   

Lightning also occurs when there is a discharge of electricity between large volumes of excess positive and negative charge that often accumulate in cumulonimbus clouds.

 

Lightning

http://www.outdoorsafetyinstitute.com/index.php/news/single/lightning_incident/

Clouds are classified into different categories based on the levels they are formed.  Cloud levels are determined by three altitude ranges and their distance from base height.  Low-Level clouds go from the base up to about 7,700 feet.  The main Low-Level clouds are stratus, nimbus, cumulus, and fog.  Mid-Level clouds go from about 7,700 feet from the base to 23,000 feet.   The main Mid-Level clouds are lenticular, altocumulus and altostratus.  High-Level clouds go from 23,000 feet and above.  There are two main types of high level clouds as well which are cirrus and contrails.  

One of the coolest clouds, in my opinion, is a lenticular cloud.  They are “pancake clouds” that form over all mountain ranges because of strong winds blowing upwards and forcing moist air up to cooler elevations, and the moisture condenses.

Great display of Lenticular clouds with stratocumulus clouds below

http://imgur.com/gallery/hQurH

References: 

http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Climate/Weather/Weather.html

http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Climate/Moisture/WaterMoistureClouds.html

http://www.ecologydictionary.org/LENTICULAR_CLOUDS 

Weathering and Mass Wasting

In my opinion, Grand Teton National Park is one of the best places to study and observe many of the great aspects of geology, but for this blog entry I will first be focusing on weathering of rocks and later I will be focusing on mass wasting.

Beautiful Teton Mountain range in the morning.

http://www.rockymtnrefl.com/SchwabacherLanding3.html

Grand Teton National Park is a great example of weathering. Weathering of rocks, also known as rock decay, is the breaking down of rock in situ (in place). Joints (fissures) are cracks in rocks which provide free space for physical and chemical weathering to occur.  Physical weathering is the disintegration of rocks and minerals by a physical of mechanical process.  Chemical weathering is a chemical decomposition of rocks or minerals.  One type of physical weathering that occurs in the park is called frost decay (frost wedging).  Frost decay happens when water enters joints in the rocks, freezes, and finally expands and exerts force on its surroundings.

Frost decay creates beautiful alpine scenery.

http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Battle/Destroy/Wx/Wx.html

Two other types of weathering that occur at the park are pressure release and exfoliation.  Pressure release and exfoliation are similar, but deal with different sizes of rock. Pressure release is when massive rocks snap off in slabs because of quick erosion.  Exfoliation is the same concept, but instead the rocks slabs are very small.  Pressure release and exfoliation are sometimes apart of mass wasting.

Mass wasting also occurs all over in Grand Teton National Park.  Mass wasting is the down-slope movement of angular slope material, and it occurs because of gravity.  It comes in four forms: falls, topples, slides and flows.  The easiest mass wasting concept to understand is rock fall.  The first step in rock fall is detachment.  After the rock is detached, and has fallen, it creates talus, which sometimes will form a talus cone. Talus cones are usually made up of scree, which are small loose stones. 

Great example of a talus cone made up of scree in Grand Teton National Park.

http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/grte/grte_geology/sec2.htm

References: 
http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Battle/Destroy/Wx/Wx.html
http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Battle/Destroy/Wx/Wx.html
http://www.discovergrandteton.org/teton-geology/geologic-forces/

Faults Created The Teton Range

Grand Teton National Park was established February 26, 1926. It is weird to think that the mountains in the park were not always there; in fact the mountains were created starting about 10 million years ago due to massive earthquakes along the Teton fault, which were extension faults.  The massive earthquakes, which were measured up to magnitude 7.5, shifted the mountains upward and the valley downward.  

Great example of the Tetons and the valley.

The left mountain is Mt. St. John and the right is Rockchuck Peak.

http://www.astronomynotes.com/nature/teton5.htm 

Faults happen along the fault line, creating the foot wall and the hanging wall to separate along the fault plane.  The footwall (mountains) rises, and the hanging wall (valley) drops creating space in-between the foot wall and the hanging wall called the fault scarp. 

Diagram to show extension faulting.

http://en.openei.org/wiki/Major_Normal_Fault 

The Teton fault us about 40 miles long along the base of the range.  The tallest mountain in the range is 13,770 which is an astonishing 7,000 feet above the valley.  The total distance between the foot wall and hanging wall is up to 30,000 feet.  Jackson Hole dropped around 20,000 feet while the mountains rose.  

In my opinion, Grand Teton National Park is one of the best examples of faulting in the United States!  It is so incredible that faulting creates an entire mountain range. 

Arial view of the Teton Mountain range.

http://www.skyimagelab.com/skyimage-page.html 

 

 References 

http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Battle/Build/Faulting/Faulting.html 

http://www.astronomynotes.com/nature/teton5.htm

http://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/upload/geology12.pdf

http://www.nps.gov/grte/naturescience/geology.htm

Introduction

Hi everybody!  My name is Brooke Hayward and I am currently in my fourth year of college.  I transferred from Colorado State University and this is my second year attending UCD.  Criminal Justice is my major and I love it.  I chose to make my blog about Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.  I chose to make it here because it is absolutely breath taking.  I also went here when I was younger and it has always been a place I would love to go back to!  

Grand Teton National Park in the fall

http://www.wyomingtourism.org/thingstodo/detail/Grand-Teton-National-Park/3135