1.
Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
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The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, also known as The Race to the Clouds, is an annual automobile and motorcycle hillclimb to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado, USA. The track measures 12.42 miles over 156 turns, climbing 4,720 ft from the start at Mile 7 on Pikes Peak Highway, to the finish at 14,110 ft, on grades averaging 7. 2%. It used to consist of gravel and paved sections, however as of August 2011, the highway is fully paved. The race is sanctioned and has taken place since 1916. It is currently contested by a variety of classes of cars, trucks, motorcycles, There are often numerous new classes tried and discarded year-to-year. On average there are 130 competitors, the PPIHC operates as the Pikes Peak Auto Hill Climb Educational Museum to organize the annual motorsports event. The first Pikes Peak Hill Climb was promoted by Spencer Penrose, the first Penrose Trophy was awarded in 1916 to Rea Lentz with a time of 20,55.60. The event was part of the AAA and USAC IndyCar championship from 1946 to 1970, while Schanche failed to set a new track record, due to a flat right front tire, Mouton won the Open Rally category, but also failed to break the current overall track record. In 1989, a short film about the 1988 event was released by French director Jean-Louis Mourey. The local authority paved approximately 10% of the each year after the order. The 2011 event was the last race with dirt sections, comprising approximately 25% of the course, Hill Climb champion Rod Millen warned at the time that paving the road would put an end to the race. However, the 2012 race saw over 170 racer registrations by December 2011, the 2012 race saw numerous unusual occurrences, namely a larger field than ever before and the longest race day in the races known history. Jeremy Foley flew off the road at Devils Playground and totaled his Mitsubishi Lancer, the race also saw the first ever motorcycle to achieve a sub 10 minute time with Carlin Dunne in the 1205 Division riding a Ducati pulling out a 9,52.819. Due to the postponement, weather also caused issues. Towards the end of the raceday, freezing rain and snow closed in on the summit, causing a race stoppage and the eventual relocation of the finish line to Glen Cove. 2013 saw the nine-minute barrier shattered by WRC legend Sébastien Loeb, with a time of 8,13.878, while Rhys Millen ended up second with 9,02.192, beating his own record by more than 44 seconds. Jean-Philippe Dayrault finished third with a time of 9,42.740,2015 was the first time in the history of the race that an electric car won in all classes. Second place was earned by a car, too
2.
Summit
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A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a maximum in elevation. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak, and zenith are synonymous, the UIAA definition is that a summit is independent if it has a prominence of 30 metres or more, it is a mountain if it has a prominence of at least 300 metres. This can be summarised as follows, A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top, Summit may also refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route. In many parts of the western United States, the term refers to the highest point along a road, highway. For example, the highest point along Interstate 80 in California is referred to as Donner Summit while the highest point on Interstate 5 is Siskiyou Mountain Summit, geoid Hill List of highest mountains Maxima and minima Nadir Summit accordance Peak finder
3.
Topographic prominence
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It is a measure of the independence of a summit. A peaks key col is a point on this contour line. By convention, the prominence of Mount Everest, the Earths highest mountain, is taken to equal the elevation of its summit above sea level, if the peaks prominence is P metres, to get from the summit to any higher terrain one must descend at least P metres. Together with the convention for Mount Everest, this implies that the prominence of any island or continental highpoint is equal to its elevation above sea level, for every ridge connecting the peak to higher terrain, find the lowest point on the ridge. The key col is defined as the highest of these cols, the prominence is the difference between the elevation of the peak and the elevation of the key col. The following mental exercise may illustrate the meaning of topographic prominence, imagine you are standing at the top of a peak and imagine that an imaginary sea level rises to your feet. Now slowly lower the sea level and an imaginary island appears beneath your feet. Your island will grow and will merge with other islands that emerge, the parent peak may be either close or far from the subject peak. The summit of Mount Everest is the parent peak of Aconcagua at a distance of 17,755 km, the key col may also be close or far from the subject peak. The key col for Aconcagua is the Bering Strait at a distance of 13,655 km, the key col for the South Summit of Mount Everest is about 100 m distant. Prominence is interesting to many mountaineers because it is a measurement that is strongly correlated with the subjective significance of a summit. Peaks with low prominences are either subsidiary tops of some higher summit or relatively insignificant independent summits, peaks with high prominences tend to be the highest points around and are likely to have extraordinary views. Only summits with a sufficient degree of prominence are regarded as independent mountains, for example, the worlds second-highest mountain is K2. While Mount Everests South Summit is taller than K2, it is not considered an independent mountain because it is a subsummit of the main summit, many lists of mountains take topographic prominence as a criterion for inclusion, or cutoff. John and Anne Nuttalls The Mountains of England and Wales uses a cutoff of 15 m, in the contiguous United States, the famous list of fourteeners uses a cutoff of 300 ft /91 m. Also in the U. S.2000 feet of prominence has become a threshold that signifies that a peak has major stature. This generates lists of peaks ranked by prominence, which are different from lists ranked by elevation. Such lists tend to emphasize isolated high peaks, such as range or island high points, one advantage of a prominence-ranked list is that it needs no cutoff, since a peak with high prominence is automatically an independent peak
4.
Topographic isolation
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The topographic isolation of a summit is the minimum great-circle distance to a point of equal elevation, representing a radius of dominance in which the peak is the highest point. It can be calculated for small hills and islands as well as for major mountain peaks, the following sortable table lists the Earths 40 most topographically isolated summits. The nearest peak to Germanys highest mountain, the 2, 962-metre-high Zugspitze, the distance between the Zugspitze and this contour is 25.8 km, the Zugspitze is thus the highest peak for a radius of 25.8 km around. Its isolation is thus 25.8 km, because there are no higher mountains than Mount Everest, it has no definitive isolation. Many sources list its isolation as the circumference of the earth over the poles or – questionably, after Mount Everest the Aconcagua, highest mountain of the American continents, has the greatest isolation of all mountains. There is no land for 16,534 kilometres when its height is first exceeded by Tirich Mir in the Hindu Kush. Mont Blanc is the highest mountain of the Alps, the geographically nearest higher mountains are all in the Caucasus. The Kukurtlu, which rises near the Elbrus, is the peak for Mont Blanc. com Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia peakbagger. com peaklist. org peakware. com World Mountain Encyclopedia summitpost. org
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Colorado
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Colorado is a state in the United States encompassing most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is part of the Western United States, the Southwestern United States, Colorado is the 8th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the 50 United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Colorado was 5,540,545 on July 1,2016, the state was named for the Colorado River, which Spanish travelers named the Río Colorado for the ruddy silt the river carried from the mountains. The Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28,1861, Colorado is nicknamed the Centennial State because it became a state in the same year as the centennial of the United States Declaration of Independence. Colorado is noted for its landscape of mountains, forests, high plains, mesas, canyons, plateaus, rivers. Denver is the capital and the most populous city of Colorado, residents of the state are properly known as Coloradans, although the term Coloradoan has been used archaically and lives on in the title of Fort Collins newspaper, the Coloradoan. Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are the states which have boundaries defined solely by lines of latitude and longitude. The summit of Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet elevation in Lake County is the highest point in Colorado, Colorado is the only U. S. state that lies entirely above 1,000 meters elevation. The point where the Arikaree River flows out of Yuma County, Colorado and this point, which holds the distinction of being the highest low elevation point of any state, is higher than the high elevation points of 18 states and the District of Columbia. A little less than one half of the area of Colorado is flat, East of the Rocky Mountains are the Colorado Eastern Plains of the High Plains, the section of the Great Plains within Nebraska at elevations ranging from roughly 3,350 to 7,500 feet. The Colorado plains were mostly prairies, but they have many patches of forests, buttes. Eastern Colorado is presently covered in farmland and rangeland, along with small farming villages. Precipitation is fair, averaging from 15 to 25 inches annually, corn, wheat, hay, soybeans, and oats are all typical crops, and most of the villages and towns in this region boast both a water tower and a grain elevator. Irrigation water is available from the South Platte, the Arkansas River, and a few other streams, however, heavy use of ground water from wells for irrigation has caused underground water reserves to decline. As well as agriculture, eastern Colorado hosts considerable livestock, such as cattle ranches. Roughly 70% of Colorados population resides along the edge of the Rocky Mountains in the Front Range Urban Corridor between Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Pueblo, Colorado. This region is protected from prevailing storms that blow in from the Pacific Ocean region by the high Rockies in the middle of Colorado. The Front Range includes Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Greeley and other townships, on the other side of the Rockies, the significant population centers in Western Colorado are the cities of Grand Junction, Durango, and Montrose
7.
El Paso County, Colorado
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El Paso County is one of the 64 counties of the U. S. state of Colorado. The 2014 Census recorded a population of 663,519 for El Paso County, the Census Bureaus 2014 estimate indicates it is the second most populous county in Colorado, after the City and County of Denver. The county seat is Colorado Springs, the second most populous city in Colorado, El Paso County is included in the Colorado Springs, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. El Paso County is located in Colorados 5th congressional district, the Democratic Party won El Paso County four additional times prior, and the Populist Party won in 1892, with General James B. Together with state funding for COSMIX and the I-25 interchange with Highway 16, in 2010 and 2014 the county voted pro-marijuana. In July 1858, gold was discovered along the South Platte River in Arapahoe County and this discovery precipitated the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Many residents of the region felt disconnected from the remote territorial governments of Kansas and Nebraska. The following month, the Jefferson Territorial Legislature organized 12 counties for the new territory including El Paso County, El Paso County was named for the Spanish language name for Ute Pass north of Pikes Peak. Colorado City served as the county seat of El Paso County, the Jefferson Territory never received federal sanction, but on February 28,1861, U. S. President James Buchanan signed an act organizing the Territory of Colorado. El Paso County was one of the original 17 counties created by the Colorado legislature on November 1,1861, part of its western territory was broken off to create Teller County in 1899. Originally based in Old Colorado City, El Paso Countys county seat was moved to Colorado Springs in 1873. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 2,130 square miles. Douglas County - north Elbert County - northeast Lincoln County - east Crowley County - southeast Pueblo County - south Fremont County - west Teller County - west Interstate 25 U. S. Highway 24 U. S, the population density was 243 people per square mile. There were 202,428 housing units at a density of 95 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 81. 19% White,6. 51% Black or African American,0. 91% Native American,2. 53% Asian,0. 24% Pacific Islander,4. 70% from other races, and 3. 91% from two or more races. 11. 30% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,23. 90% of all households were made up of individuals and 6. 10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the family size was 3.11. In the county, the population was out with 27. 60% under the age of 18,10. 50% from 18 to 24,32. 50% from 25 to 44,20. 70% from 45 to 64
8.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
9.
Mountain range
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A mountain range is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically related. Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys, individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earths land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Andes is 7,000 kilometres long and is considered the worlds longest mountain system. The Alpide belt includes Indonesia and southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, the belt also includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, mountain ranges outside of these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the Scandinavian Mountains, the Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains. If the definition of a range is stretched to include underwater mountains. The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, the sub-range relationship is often expressed as a parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains, equivalently, the Appalachians are the parent of the White Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, and the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are children of the Appalachians. The position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow, when air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation. As the air descends on the side, it warms again and is drier. Often, a shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. Mountain ranges are constantly subjected to forces which work to tear them down. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted and long after until the mountains are reduced to low hills, rivers are traditionally believed to be the principle erosive factor on mountain ranges, with their ability of bedrock incision and sediment transport. The rugged topography of a range is the product of erosion. The basins adjacent to a mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock. The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example and this mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift
10.
Front Range
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It is the first mountain range encountered moving west along the 40th parallel north across the Great Plains of North America. The Front Range runs north-south between Casper, Wyoming and Pueblo, Colorado and rises nearly 10,000 feet above the Great Plains, Longs Peak, Mount Evans, and Pikes Peak are its most prominent peaks, visible from the Interstate 25 corridor. The area is a destination for mountain biking, hiking, climbing. Millions of years ago the present-day Front Range was home to ancient mountain ranges, deserts, beaches and this urban corridor benefits from the weather-moderating effect of the Front Range mountains, which help block prevailing storms. About 1 billion years ago, the earth was producing massive amounts of rock that would one day amalgamate, drift together and combine. In the Colorado region, this molten rock spewed and cooled, over the next 500 million years, little is known about changes in the sedimentation after the granite was produced. However, at about 500 –300 million years ago, the region began to sink, eroded granite produced sand particles that began to form strata, layers of sediment, in the sinking basin. Sedimentation would continue to place until about 300 million years ago. Around 300 million years ago, the sinking suddenly reversed, over the next 150 million years, during uplift the mountains would continue to erode and cover themselves in their own sediment. Wind, gravity, rainwater, snow, and ice-melt supplied rivers that ultimately carved through the granite mountains, the sediment from these mountains lies in the Fountain Formation today. Red Rocks Amphitheater outside of Denver, Colorado, is set into the Fountain Formation. At 280 million years ago, sea levels were low and present-day Colorado was part of the super-continent Pangaea, sand deserts covered most of the area spreading as dunes seen in the rock record, known today as the Lyons Sandstone. These dunes appear to be cross-bedded and show various fossil footprints,30 million years later, the sediment deposition was still taking place with the introduction of the Lykins Formation. This formation can be best attributed to its layers of muddy limestone. 250 million years ago, the Ancestral Rockies were burying themselves while the shoreline was present during the break-up of Pangaea and this formation began right after Earth’s largest extinction 251 million years ago at the Permian-Triassic Boundary. Ninety percent of the marine life was destroyed and a great deal on land as well. After 100 million years of deposition, a new environment brought rise to a new formation, the Morrison Formation contains some of the best fossils of the Late Jurassic. It is especially known for its tracks and sauropod bones among other dinosaur fossils
11.
Pikes Peak
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Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America. The ultra-prominent 14, 115-foot fourteener is located in Pike National Forest,12.0 miles west by south of downtown Colorado Springs, the mountain is named in honor of American explorer Zebulon Pike, who was unable to reach the summit. The summit is higher than any point in the United States east of its longitude, Pikes Peak is one of Colorados 53 fourteeners, mountains more than 14,000 feet above sea level. The mountain rises 8,000 ft above downtown Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak is a designated National Historic Landmark. Tava or “sun, ” is the Ute word that was given by these first people to the mountain that we now call Pikes Peak, the band of Ute people who called the Pikes Peak region their home were the Tabeguache, meaning the People of Sun Mountain. The Ute people first arrived in Colorado about 500 A. D. although their traditions say they were created on Pikes Peak, in the 1800s, when the Arapaho people arrived in Colorado, they knew the mountain as Heey-otoyoo’ meaning Long Mountain. Early Spanish explorers named the mountain El Capitán meaning The Leader, American explorer Zebulon Pike named the mountain Highest Peak in 1806, and the mountain was later commonly known as Pikes Highest Peak. American explorer Stephen Harriman Long named the mountain James Peak in honor of Edwin James who climbed to the summit in 1820, the mountain was later renamed Pikes Peak in honor of Pike. The name was simplified to Pikes Peak by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1890, Pikes Peak is composed of a characteristic pink granite called Pikes Peak granite. The color is due to an amount of potassium feldspar. Through the process of uplifting, the hardened rock pushed through the Earths crust and created a dome-like mountain, years of erosion and weathering removed the soil and rock leaving the exposed mountain. Soils on Pikes Peak are classified as Cirque Land above timberline, the first Europeans to discover Pikes Peak were the Spanish in the 1700s. The first American sighting is credited to members of the Pike expedition. After a failed attempt to climb to the top in November 1806, Pike wrote in his journal. here we found the snow middle deep, the thermometer which stood at 9° above 0 at the foot of the mountain, here fell to 4° below 0. The first European-American to climb the peak came 14 years after Pike, Edwin James, a young student who had just graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont, signed on as the relief botanist for Stephen Harriman Longs expedition after the first botanist had died. The expedition explored the South Platte River up as far as present-day Denver, then turned south, James and two other men left the expedition, camped on the plains, and climbed the peak in two days, encountering little difficulty. Along the way, James was the first to describe the blue columbine, Gold was discovered in the area of present-day Denver in 1858, and newspapers referred to the gold-mining area as Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak or Bust became the slogan of the Colorado Gold Rush and this was more due to Pikes Peaks visibility to gold seekers traveling west across the plains than any actual significant gold find anywhere near Pikes Peak
12.
Topographic map
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Traditional definitions require a topographic map to show both natural and man-made features. A topographic map is published as a map series, made up of two or more map sheets that combine to form the whole map. A contour line is a line connecting places of equal elevation, however, in the vernacular and day to day world, the representation of relief is popularly held to define the genre, such that even small-scale maps showing relief are commonly called topographic. The study or discipline of topography is a broader field of study. Topographic maps are based on topographical surveys, performed at large scales, these surveys are called topographical in the old sense of topography, showing a variety of elevations and landforms. This is in contrast to older cadastral surveys, which primarily show property, the first multi-sheet topographic map series of an entire country, the Carte géométrique de la France, was completed in 1789. Topographic surveys were prepared by the military to assist in planning for battle, as such, elevation information was of vital importance. As they evolved, topographic map series became a resource in modern nations in planning infrastructure. Excluding borders, each sheet was 44 cm high and up to 66 cm wide, although the project eventually foundered, it left an indexing system that remains in use. TIGER was developed in the 1980s and used in the 1990, digital elevation models were also compiled, initially from topographic maps and stereographic interpretation of aerial photographs and then from satellite photography and radar data. Since all these were government projects funded with taxes and not classified for security reasons. Initial applications were mostly professionalized forms such as innovative surveying instruments, by the mid-1990s, increasingly user-friendly resources such as online mapping in two and three dimensions, integration of GPS with mobile phones and automotive navigation systems appeared. As of 2011, the future of standardized, centrally printed topographical maps is left somewhat in doubt, the various features shown on the map are represented by conventional signs or symbols. For example, colors can be used to indicate a classification of roads and these signs are usually explained in the margin of the map, or on a separately published characteristic sheet. Topographic maps are commonly called contour maps or topo maps. In the United States, where the national series is organized by a strict 7. 5-minute grid. Topographic maps conventionally show topography, or land contours, by means of contour lines, contour lines are curves that connect contiguous points of the same altitude. In other words, every point on the line of 100 m elevation is 100 m above mean sea level
13.
United States Geological Survey
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The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its resources. The organization has four science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology. The USGS is a research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior, the USGS employs approximately 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, the current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is science for a changing world. The agencys previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its anniversary, was Earth Science in the Public Service. Prompted by a report from the National Academy of Sciences, the USGS was created, by a last-minute amendment and it was charged with the classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain. This task was driven by the need to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the legislation also provided that the Hayden, Powell, and Wheeler surveys be discontinued as of June 30,1879. Clarence King, the first director of USGS, assembled the new organization from disparate regional survey agencies, after a short tenure, King was succeeded in the directors chair by John Wesley Powell. Administratively, it is divided into a Headquarters unit and six Regional Units, Other specific programs include, Earthquake Hazards Program monitors earthquake activity worldwide. The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines detects the location, the USGS also runs or supports several regional monitoring networks in the United States under the umbrella of the Advanced National Seismic System. The USGS informs authorities, emergency responders, the media, and it also maintains long-term archives of earthquake data for scientific and engineering research. It also conducts and supports research on long-term seismic hazards, USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast. The USGS National Geomagnetism Program monitors the magnetic field at magnetic observatories and distributes magnetometer data in real time, the USGS operates the streamgaging network for the United States, with over 7400 streamgages. Real-time streamflow data are available online, since 1962, the Astrogeology Research Program has been involved in global, lunar, and planetary exploration and mapping. USGS operates a number of related programs, notably the National Streamflow Information Program. USGS Water data is available from their National Water Information System database
14.
Geologic time scale
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The table of geologic time spans, presented here, agrees with the nomenclature, dates and standard color codes set forth by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. Evidence from radiometric dating indicates that Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, the geology or deep time of Earth’s past has been organized into various units according to events which took place in each period. Older time spans, which predate the reliable record, are defined by their absolute age. Some other planets and moons within the Solar System have sufficiently rigid structures to have preserved records of their own histories, for example, Venus, Mars, dominantly fluid planets, such as the gas giants, do not preserve their history in a comparable manner. Apart from the Late Heavy Bombardment, events on other planets probably had little influence on the Earth. Construction of a scale that links the planets is, therefore, of only limited relevance to the Earths time scale. The existence, timing, and terrestrial effects of the Late Heavy Bombardment is still debated, the largest defined unit of time is the supereon, composed of eons. Eons are divided into eras, which are in turn divided into periods, epochs, the terms eonothem, erathem, system, series, and stage are used to refer to the layers of rock that correspond to these periods of geologic time in Earths history. Geologists qualify these units as early, mid, and late when referring to time, and lower, middle, for example, the lower Jurassic Series in chronostratigraphy corresponds to the early Jurassic Epoch in geochronology. The adjectives are capitalized when the subdivision is formally recognized, and lower case when not, thus early Miocene but Early Jurassic. Geologic units from the time but different parts of the world often look different and contain different fossils. For example, in North America the Lower Cambrian is called the Waucoban series that is subdivided into zones based on succession of trilobites. In East Asia and Siberia, the unit is split into Alexian, Atdabanian. A key aspect of the work of the International Commission on Stratigraphy is to reconcile this conflicting terminology, the term Anthropocene is used informally by popular culture and a growing number of scientists to describe the current epoch in which we are living. The term was coined by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in 2000 to describe the current time, others say that humans have not even started to leave their biggest impact on Earth, and therefore the Anthropocene hasnt even started yet. Whatever the case, the ICS has not officially approved the term, leonardo da Vinci concurred with Aristotles interpretation that fossils represented the remains of ancient life. The 11th-century Persian geologist Avicenna and the 13th-century Dominican bishop Albertus Magnus extended Aristotles explanation into a theory of a petrifying fluid. Avicenna also first proposed one of the principles underlying geologic time scales, the Chinese naturalist Shen Kuo also recognized the concept of deep time
15.
Granite
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Granite is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock that is granular and phaneritic in texture. Granites can be white, pink, or gray in color. The word granite comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the structure of such a holocrystalline rock. By definition, granite is a rock with at least 20% quartz. The term granitic means granite-like and is applied to granite and a group of igneous rocks with similar textures and slight variations in composition. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a texture is known as a granite porphyry. Granitoid is a general, descriptive field term for lighter-colored, coarse-grained igneous rocks, petrographic examination is required for identification of specific types of granitoids. The extrusive igneous rock equivalent of granite is rhyolite, Granite is nearly always massive, hard and tough, and therefore it has gained widespread use throughout human history, and more recently as a construction stone. The average density of granite is between 2.65 and 2.75 g/cm3, its compressive strength usually lies above 200 MPa, and its viscosity near STP is 3–6 •1019 Pa·s. The melting temperature of dry granite at ambient pressure is 1215–1260 °C, it is reduced in the presence of water. Granite has poor primary permeability, but strong secondary permeability, true granite according to modern petrologic convention contains both plagioclase and alkali feldspars. When a granitoid is devoid or nearly devoid of plagioclase, the rock is referred to as alkali feldspar granite, when a granitoid contains less than 10% orthoclase, it is called tonalite, pyroxene and amphibole are common in tonalite. A granite containing both muscovite and biotite micas is called a binary or two-mica granite, two-mica granites are typically high in potassium and low in plagioclase, and are usually S-type granites or A-type granites. A worldwide average of the composition of granite, by weight percent, based on 2485 analyses. Much of it was intruded during the Precambrian age, it is the most abundant basement rock that underlies the relatively thin veneer of the continents. Outcrops of granite tend to form tors and rounded massifs, granites sometimes occur in circular depressions surrounded by a range of hills, formed by the metamorphic aureole or hornfels. Granite often occurs as small, less than 100 km² stock masses
16.
First ascent
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In climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First ascents are notable because they entail genuine exploration, with risks, challenges. The person who performs the first ascent is called the first ascensionist, the details of the first ascents of even many prominent mountains are scanty or unknown, sometimes the only evidence of prior summiting is a cairn, artifacts, or inscriptions at the top. Today, first ascents are generally recorded and usually mentioned in guidebooks. Overwhelmingly, the idea of a first ascent is a one, especially in places such as Africa. There may be little or no evidence or documentation about the climbing activities of indigenous peoples living near the mountain. The term is used when referring to ascents made using a specific technique or taking a specific route, such as via the North Face. In rock climbing, some of the earlier first ascents, particularly for difficult routes, involved a mix of free, as a result, purist free climbers have developed the designation first free ascent to acknowledge ascents intentionally made more challenging by using equipment for protection only. Some other first ascents could be recorded for particular mountains or routes, one is the First Winter Ascent, which is, as the name easily suggests, the first ascent made during winter season. This is most important where the climate of winter is a factor in increasing the difficulty grade of the route, in the Northern Hemisphere conventional winter ascents are made between December 21 and March 21 and are not related to the conditions. Also in the Himalayan area, although Nepal and Chinas winter season permits start on December 1, another is the First Solo Ascent, which is the first ascent made by a single climber. This is most important on high-level rock climbing, when the climber has to provide his own security or even when climbing without any protection at all, another type of ascent, also known as FFA is the first female ascent. The term last ascent has been used to refer to an ascent of a mountain or face that has changed to such an extent – often because of rockfall – that the route no longer exists. It can also be used facetiously to refer to a climb that is so unpleasant or unaesthetic that no one would willingly repeat the first ascent partys ordeal. List of first ascents List of first ascents in the Alps List of first ascents in the Himalaya Glossary of climbing terms Alpinist Magazine – Peter Mortimers First Ascent, Issue 17
17.
Barr Trail
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Barr Trail is a 13-mile trail in the Pike National Forest that begins in Manitou Springs, Colorado and ends at the Pikes Peak summit. The high elevation trail with a long sustained grade is rated more difficult by the U. S. Forest Service. With a 7,800 feet elevation gain to reach the summit and it is used for the Pikes Peak Marathon and the Barr Trail Mountain Race. The 12.6 course for the Barr Trail Mountain Race course starts at the trailhead to Barr Camp, a trail was first created by a prospector in the mid-1800s, but the trail did not allow for travel by burro from Mount Manitou to the summit of Pikes Peak. Beginning in 1914, Fred Barr built the trail, with a maximum 12% grade to the top of the peak for his burro train business. He hiked the trail and made it to the top of Pikes Peak on Christmas Eve,1918. Barr Camp was built by Barr between 1922 and 1924 and it was used by Barr and his burro train customers for an overnight stay between Manitou Incline and the summit. Staffed by year-round caretakers, the continued to provide overnight accommodations for Barr Trail hikers. In 1948, the U. S. Forest Service rebuilt the trail, burro trains were used to transport people along the trail until the 1960s. The 13-mile trail was designated a National Recreation Trail in 1979 and it is one of the most frequently used trails in Colorado. Points along the trail include, On average, it can take six to ten hours to reach the summit from the trailhead. Many people schedule their hikes and/or overnight stays so that they are on the summit by noon in the summer, other considerations are managing altitude, temperature, and weather changes. For instance, regardless of the season it may be 40 degrees colder on the summit than at the trail head, another factor is carrying sufficient potable water for the 13 mile hike. Dogs are allowed on the trails, but bikes are not, the Hike, Barr Camp The Barr Trail
18.
Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway
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The Broadmoor Pikes Peak Cog Railway is an Abt rack system cog railway with 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in standard gauge track in Colorado, USA, climbing the well-known mountain Pikes Peak. The base station is in Manitou Springs, Colorado near Colorado Springs, the railway is the highest in North America by a considerable margin. It was built and is operated solely for the tourist trade, the railway was started by Zalmon G. Simmons, inventor and founder of the Simmons Beautyrest Mattress Company. The company was founded in 1889 and limited service to the Halfway House Hotel was started in 1890, the summit was reached the following year. A number of locomotives were built for the line by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. Operating steam locomotives on such a line was back-breaking work and expensive, so more modern forms of traction became available. A gasoline-powered railcar was constructed in 1938 and it was designed to be a cheaper alternative to the steam locomotives enabling economic service during quieter times of the year. Proving a huge success, the railway soon bought more internal combustion engined trains and this car is still in operation on the mountain, though it is a different color from original. The next were five streamlined diesel locomotives from General Electric, which were equipped with matching passenger cars and these slowly supplanted the steam locomotives, though some steam operations persisted until the 1960s as backup power and to operate the snow-clearing train. A number of the locomotives are now on static display, in Manitou and elsewhere, and the Railway still has an operational steam locomotive. The steam locomotive was put out of service for years before being retrieved from a museum. In 1964 the railway needed more equipment, but General Electric was not interested in the business, the railway went abroad, to Switzerland, home of most of the worlds cog railways. In 1964, the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works in Winterthur provided two bright red railcars, very similar to equipment used on many Swiss railways, units 14 and 15 were delivered and began service in 1964. Two more were provided in 1968 when the first two proved their worth, as of 2012 all four original Swiss trains are still in operation at the Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway. All M&PPRy railcars are now powered by biodiesel, as tourism increased in the 1970s the railway needed more capacity. In 1976 M&PPRy took delivery of two larger two-car articulated railcars from the Swiss Locomotive Works of Winterthur, designated Train 18, passing sidings were built in several places at about the same time, allowing trains to pass at various points on the mountainside. Trains could previously pass only at the Mountain View siding, permitting three trains a day up the mountain. Eight trains per day became possible with the new equipment and sidings, only the Swiss-built railcars carry regular passengers
19.
Pikes Peak Highway
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The Pikes Peak Highway is a 19-mile toll road that runs from Cascade, Colorado to the summit of Pikes Peak in El Paso County, at an altitude of 14,115 feet. It is at least partially open year-round, weather permitting, i. e. open up to the altitude where snow removal becomes excessively difficult, the Pikes Peak Highway was constructed in 1915 and financed by Spencer Penrose at a cost of $500,000. An earlier road up the mountain, the Pikes Peak Carriage Road, thousands of tourists traveled along the Pikes Peak Carriage Road up to Pikes Peaks summit. It was opened by the Cascade Town Company in 1888 and closed in 1902, today, the road is maintained by the city of Colorado Springs. The highway has been home to an automobile and motorcycle race called the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb since 1916. Another race is the Pikes Peak Cycling Hill Climb, first held in 2010, the 2016 edition will also be the first edition of the USA Cycling Hill Climb National Championship. Litigation was pursued by the Sierra Club in 1998-1999, on grounds of environmental damage from the portion of the road. The environmental damage was caused primarily by the 150,000,000 pounds of gravel that washes away annually, the same amount needed to be hauled up the mountain each year in order to maintain the road surface. Environmental damage includes alpine ponds and wetlands becoming filled with gravel, the paving project was completed on October 1,2011. Pikes Peak Hillclimb champion Rod Millen warned that paving the road would put an end to the race, however, the race went ahead normally in 2012 and has continued ever since. Colorado Springs, Colorado Southern Rocky Mountains Mountain peaks of Colorado Pikes Peak Official website by the City of Colorado Springs The Pikes Peak Web site M. E. Salek Roads of Colorado
20.
Rocky Mountains
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The Rocky Mountains, commonly known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States. Within the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are somewhat distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges, the Rocky Mountains were initially formed from 80 million to 55 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny, in which a number of plates began to slide underneath the North American plate. The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers have sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks, at the end of the last ice age, humans started to inhabit the mountain range. The first mention of their present name by a European was in the journal of Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre in 1752, the Rocky Mountains are commonly defined as stretching from the Liard River in British Columbia south to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The United States definition of the Rockies includes the Cabinet and Salish Mountains of Idaho and their counterparts north of the Kootenai River, the Columbia Mountains, are considered a separate system in Canada, lying to the west of the huge Rocky Mountain Trench. This runs the length of British Columbia from its beginnings in the middle Flathead River valley in western Montana to the bank of the Liard River. The Rockies vary in width from 70 to 300 miles, also west of the Rocky Mountain Trench, farther north and facing the Muskwa Range across the trench, are the Stikine Ranges and Omineca Mountains of the Interior Mountains system of British Columbia. A small area east of Prince George, British Columbia on the side of the Trench. In Canada geographers define three main groups of ranges, the Continental Ranges, Hart Ranges and Muskwa Ranges, the Muskwa and Hart Ranges together comprise what is known as the Northern Rockies. The western edge of the Rockies includes ranges such as the Wasatch near Salt Lake City, the Great Basin and Columbia River Plateau separate these sub-ranges from distinct ranges further to the west, most prominent among which are the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range and Coast Mountains. The Rocky Mountain System within the United States is a United States physiographic region, the Rocky Mountains are notable for containing the highest peaks in central North America. The ranges highest peak is Mount Elbert located in Colorado at 14,440 feet above sea level, Mount Robson in British Columbia, at 12,972 feet, is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The Continental Divide of the Americas is located in the Rocky Mountains, triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park is so named because water that falls on the mountain reaches not only the Atlantic and Pacific, but Hudson Bay as well. Farther north in Alberta, the Athabasca and other rivers feed the basin of the Mackenzie River, see Rivers of the Rocky Mountains for a list of rivers. Human population is not very dense in the Rocky Mountains, with an average of four people per square kilometer, however, the human population grew rapidly in the Rocky Mountain states between 1950 and 1990. The 40-year statewide increases in range from 35% in Montana to about 150% in Utah
21.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
22.
Ultra-prominent peak
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An ultra-prominent peak, or Ultra for short, is defined as a mountain summit with a topographic prominence of 1,500 metres or more. There are approximately 1,524 such peaks on Earth, some peaks, such as the Matterhorn and Eiger, are not Ultras because they are connected to higher mountains by high cols and therefore do not achieve enough topographic prominence. The term Ultra is due to earth scientist Stephen Fry, from his studies of the prominence of peaks in Washington in the 1980s and his original term was ultra major mountain, referring to peaks with at least 5,000 ft of prominence. Currently,1,515 Ultras have been identified worldwide,637 in Asia,355 in North America,209 in South America,119 in Europe,84 in Africa,69 in Australasia and 39 in Antarctica. Many of the worlds largest mountains are Ultras, including Mount Everest, K2, Kilimanjaro, Mont Blanc, on the other hand, others such as the Eiger and the Matterhorn are not Ultras because they do not have sufficient prominence. In British Columbia, some of the mountains listed do not even have generally recognized names, a number of Ultras have yet to be climbed, with Sauyr Zhotasy, Mount Siple, and Gangkar Puensum being the most likely candidates for the most prominent unclimbed mountain in the world. All of the Seven Summits are Ultras by virtue of the fact that they are the points of large landmasses. Each has its key col at or near sea level, resulting in a value almost equal to its elevation. List of peaks by prominence gives the 125 most prominent peaks worldwide
23.
Fourteener
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In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a fourteener is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. Colorado has the majority of fourteeners in the contiguous United States, followed by California, climbing all of Colorados fourteeners is a popular pastime among peak baggers, another popular target is climbing all of the fourteeners in the contiguous United States. Various ski mountaineers have completed ski descents of all the Colorado fourteeners, the summit of a mountain or hill may be measured in three principal ways, The topographic elevation of a summit measures the height of the summit above a geodetic sea level. The topographic prominence of a summit is a measure of how high the summit rises above its surroundings, the topographic isolation of a summit measures how far the summit lies from its nearest point of equal elevation. Not all summits over 14,000 feet qualify as fourteeners, summits which qualify are those considered by mountaineers to be independent. Objective standards for independence include topographic prominence and isolation, or a combination of the two, however, fourteener lists do not always consistently use such objective rules. A rule commonly used by mountaineers in the contiguous United States is that a peak must have at least 300 feet of prominence to qualify, by this rule, Colorado has 53 fourteeners, California has 12, and Washington has two. According to the Mountaineering Club of Alaska, it is standard in Alaska to use a 500-foot prominence rule rather than a 300-foot rule, by this rule, Alaska has at least 21 peaks over 14,000 feet and its 12 highest peaks exceed 15,000 feet. The following table lists the 96 mountain peaks of the United States with at least 14,000 feet of topographic elevation, of these 96 fourteeners,53 rise in Colorado,29 in Alaska,12 in California, and two in Washington. The 22 highest fourteeners all rise in Alaska, the table above uses a minimum topographic prominence criterion of 300 feet and includes 97 peaks. The number of peaks included depends upon the minimum topographic prominence criterion, a criterion of 100 meters includes 90 peaks,500 feet includes 77 peaks,1000 feet includes 63 peaks, and 500 meters includes 46 peaks. The following U. S. summits have 14,000 feet of elevation and it is unclear why this became included on some fourteener lists. Prominence = 195–235 feet. com Peakbagger. com Peaklist. org Peakware. com Summitpost. org
24.
Pike National Forest
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The Pike National Forest is located in the Front Range of Colorado, United States, west of Colorado Springs and including Pikes Peak. The forest encompasses 1,106,604 acres within Clear Creek, Teller, Park, Jefferson, Douglas, the major rivers draining the forest are the South Platte and Fountain Creek. Rampart Reservoir, an artificial body of water, is located within the forest. The forest is named after American explorer Zebulon Pike, much of the bedrock within Pike National Forest is made up of the coarse, pink to orange Pikes Peak granite. There are local district offices located in Colorado Springs, Fairplay. The dry climate of Pike National Forest makes it prime wildfire territory, the first recorded fires occurred in the 19th century, and the forest was recently the location of the Hayman Fire of 2002 and the Waldo Canyon Fire of 2012. The former burned 138, 114-acre and 133 homes while the latter burned 18, the Pike and San Isabel National Forest was recently awarded a major reclamation project to fix the damage from the Hayman wildfire. The project was sponsored by The National Arbor Day Foundation, in conjunction with several university bookstores, Pike and San Isabel was voted the winner from a group of three separate forests. The vote took place at www. buildaforest. com, there are three officially designated wilderness areas lying within Pike National Forest that are part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Two of them extend into neighboring National Forests, even in the summer, nights are cool due to the forests high elevation. Temperatures and precipitation vary widely throughout the forest, depending on elevation, most of the forest receives more than 100 inches of snow a year. United States Army Pike’s Peak Research Laboratory Devils Head Lookout Culturally modified trees Pike and San Isabel National Forests and Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands
25.
Colorado Springs, Colorado
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Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in the east central portion of the state and it is situated on Fountain Creek and is located 60 miles south of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. At 6,035 feet the city stands over 1 mile above sea level, Colorado Springs is situated near the base of one of the most famous American mountains, Pikes Peak, rising above 14,000 feet on the eastern edge of the Southern Rocky Mountains. The city is home to 24 national governing bodies of sport, the United States Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Training Center. The city had an population of 456,568 in 2015, ranking as the second most populous city in the state of Colorado, behind Denver. The Colorado Springs, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an population of 712,327 in 2016. The city covers 194.9 square miles, making it the most extensive municipality in Colorado, Colorado Springs was ranked number five by U. S. News & World Report on the list of 2016 Best Places to Live in the USA. The Ute, Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples were the first to inhabit the area which would become Colorado Springs, part of the territory included in the United States 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the current city area was designated part of the 1854 Kansas Territory. In 1859, after the first local settlement was established, it part of the Jefferson Territory on October 24. Colorado City at the Front Range confluence of Fountain and Camp creeks was formally organized on August 13,1859 during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. It served as the capital of the Colorado Territory from November 5,1861, until August 14,1862, in 1871 the Colorado Springs Company laid out the towns of La Font and Fountain Colony, upstream and downstream respectively, of Colorado City. Within a year, Fountain Colony would be renamed Colorado Springs, the El Paso County seat shifted from Colorado City in 1873 to the Town of Colorado Springs. On December 1,1880, Colorado Springs expanded northward with two annexations, the second period of annexations was during 1889–90, and included Seaveys Addition, West Colorado Springs, East End, and another North End addition. In 1891 the Broadmoor Land Company built the Broadmoor suburb, which included the Broadmoor Casino, and by December 12,1895, by 1898, the city was designated into quadrants by the north-south Cascade Avenue and the east-west Washington/Pikes Peak avenues. From 1899 to 1901 Tesla Experimental Station operated on Knob Hill, alexander Airport north of the city opened in 1925, and in 1927 the original Colorado Springs Municipal Airport land was purchased east of the city. In World War II the United States Army Air Forces leased land adjacent to the municipal airfield and this was only one of several military presences in and around Colorado Springs during the war. In November 1950, Ent Air Force Base was selected as the Cold War headquarters for Air Defense Command. The former WWII Army Air Base, Peterson Field, which had been inactivated at the end of the war, was re-opened in 1951 as a U. S. Air Force base
26.
Zebulon Pike
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Zebulon Montgomery Pike was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado was renamed. As a U. S. Pikes expeditions coincided with other Jeffersonian expeditions, including the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis expedition. Pikes second expedition crossed the Rocky Mountains into southern Colorado, which led to his capture by the Spanish, later in 1807, Pike and some of his men were escorted by the Spanish through Texas and released near American territory. In 1810, Pike published an account of his expeditions, a book so popular that it was translated into Dutch, French, and German, for publication in Europe. He later achieved the rank of general in the Army and served during the War of 1812. Pike was born during the Revolutionary War, on January 5,1779, near Lamberton, now called Lamington, in Somerset County, New Jersey. The younger Pike grew to adulthood with his family at a series of outposts in Ohio and he was commissioned as a second lieutenant of infantry in 1799 and promoted to first lieutenant later that same year. Pike was descended from John Pike, who immigrated from England as a child in 1635 and helped found Woodbridge, Pike, though he left no male descendants. This paternal line descends from an ancestor of the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. Zebulon Pike, Jr. married Clarissa Harlow Brown in 1801 and they had one child who survived to adulthood, Clarissa Brown Pike, who later married President William Henry Harrisons son, John Cleves Symmes Harrison. Pikes military career included working on logistics and payroll at a series of frontier posts, General James Wilkinson, appointed Governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory and headquartered there, became his mentor. In 1805, Wilkinson ordered Pike to find the source of the Mississippi River, so Pike traveled into the northern Louisiana Territory, newly purchased from France. Over 100 years later, France released official records showing General Wilkinson received personal trade concessions, additional objectives of this exploratory expedition into the southwestern part of the Louisiana Territory were to evaluate natural resources and establish friendly relations with Native Americans. Beginning July 15,1806, Pike led what became known as the Pike Expedition, General Wilkinsons son James served as one of his lieutenants, although it now seems that Wilkinson planned that the Spanish who controlled Mexico would capture him and his men. In early November 1806, Pike and his team sighted and tried to climb to the summit of the later named after him. They made it as far as Mt. Rosa, located southeast of Pikes Peak and they had already gone almost two days without food. They then continued south, searching for the Red Rivers headwaters, however, they had crossed the border, whether through confusion or deliberation. Spanish authorities captured Pike and some of his party in what was then northern New Mexico on February 26,1807
27.
National Historic Landmark
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A National Historic Landmark is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Of over 85,000 places listed on the countrys National Register of Historic Places, a National Historic Landmark District may include contributing properties that are buildings, structures, sites or objects, and it may include non-contributing properties. Contributing properties may or may not also be separately listed, prior to 1935, efforts to preserve cultural heritage of national importance were made by piecemeal efforts of the United States Congress. The first National Historic Site designation was made for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on March 17,1938. In 1960, the National Park Service took on the administration of the data gathered under this legislation. Because listings often triggered local preservation laws, legislation in 1980 amended the procedures to require owner agreement to the designations. On October 9,1960,92 properties were announced as designated NHLs by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton, more than 2,500 NHLs have been designated. Most, but not all, are in the United States, there are NHLs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Three states account for nearly 25 percent of the nations NHLs, three cities within these states all separately have more NHLs than 40 of the 50 states. In fact, New York City alone has more NHLs than all but five states, Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, there are 74 NHLs in the District of Columbia. Some NHLs are in U. S. commonwealths and territories, associated states, and foreign states. There are 15 in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other U. S. commonwealths and territories,5 in U. S. -associated states such as Micronesia, over 100 ships or shipwrecks have been designated as NHLs. About half of the National Historic Landmarks are privately owned, the National Historic Landmarks Program relies on suggestions for new designations from the National Park Service, which also assists in maintaining the landmarks. A friends group of owners and managers, the National Historic Landmark Stewards Association, works to preserve, protect, if not already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, an NHL is automatically added to the Register upon designation. About three percent of Register listings are NHLs, american Water Landmark List of U. S
28.
Ute people
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Ute people /ˈjuːt/ are Native Americans of the Ute tribe and culture. They are now living primarily in Utah and Colorado, the Ute are in the Great Basin classification of Indigenous People. They have three Ute tribal reservations, Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah, Southern Ute in Colorado, and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, the majority of Ute are believed to live on one of these reservations. The State of Utah is named after these people, the primary language of the Ute people is English. However, some of the people speak their ancestral Ute language. It is related to the Southern Paiute language and belongs to the Southern subdivision of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, a dictionary and grammar have been written for the language, and the Bible has been translated into Ute. Several orthographies exist, but the language is written in the Latin script, different ideas about the phonetic spelling of many names and some words has caused confusion about the spelling, so many names are often spelled in several different ways. An example is Timpanogos, which has also been spelled as Toompahnahwach, Tumpanuwac, Tumpanawach, Timpanog, Tumpipanogo or Timanogos, from this area, speakers of Uto-Aztecan languages gradually diffused northward and southward. The Ute, Paiute, Shoshone, Comanche and some belong to what is called the Numic subdivision within the Uto-Aztecan language family. It is believed that this Numic group originated near the border of Nevada and California, then spread North, the Numic group is divided into 3 main subdivisions - Southern, Central and Western. Not all of the languages are mutually intelligible, especially those in different subdivisions, Ute and Southern Paiute are Southern Numic Languages, while Shoshone, Gosiute and Comanche are Central Numic, and Northern Paiute and Bannock are Western Numic. The Numic-speaking tribes share many cultural, genetic and linguistic characteristics, many of the tribes met and merged with each other or divided from each other at various times. For instance, the Comanche split off from the Shoshone in about the mid-1600s, since the mid-1800s, some Ute bands merged with Southern Paiute bands to become Paiute. Some possibly Shoshonean tribes, such as the Timpanogos, merged with the Ute and it is also true that there were many times when the tribes did not get along. The name Comanche is from the Ute name for them, kɨmantsi, before Mexican settlers arrived, the Utes occupied significant portions of what are today eastern Utah, western Colorado, including the San Luis Valley, and parts of New Mexico and Wyoming. The Utes were never a group within historic times, instead. Some of the largest known groups were the Capote, Moache, Moanumts, Parianuche, Taviwach, Weeminuche, also the Uintah or Uinta, Uncompahgre tribe and White River Utes. The last partial migration of the Utes within this area was in the year 1885, “In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln signed an executive order establishing the original Uintah Valley Reservation in the eastern part of the Utah territory
29.
Arapaho
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The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota, the Arapaho language, Heenetiit, is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early offshoot of the Arapaho. Blackfeet and Cheyenne are the other Algonquian-speakers on the Plains, by the 1850s, Arapaho bands formed two tribes, the Northern Arapaho and Southern Arapaho. Since 1878, the Northern Arapaho have lived with the Eastern Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and are recognized as the Arapahoe Tribe of the Wind River Reservation. The Southern Arapaho live with the Southern Cheyenne in Oklahoma, together, their members are enrolled as the federally recognized Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. It is uncertain where the word Arapaho came from and it may have come from the Pawnee word for trader, iriiraraapuhu, or it may have been a corruption of a Crow word for tattoo. The Arapaho autonym is Hinonoeino or Inun-ina, when referring to the tribe they use Hinonoeiteen and they were also known as Hitanwoiv or Hetanevoeo/Hetanevoeoo by their Cheyenne allies or Mahpíyato by Dakota, Maȟpíya thó by Lakota and Assiniboine. The Caddo called them Detsekayaa, the Wichita Niarharis-kûrikiwaahûski, and the Comanche Saria Tʉhka / Säretika, to Pawnee, Ute and other tribes they were also known as “dog-eaters”. The Northern Arapaho were also known as BSakuunena, the Cheyenne adapted the Arapaho terms and referred to the Northern Arapaho as Vanohetan or Vanohetaneo/ Vánoétaneoo and to the Southern Arapaho as Nomsennat or Nomseneo. The Arapaho recognize among themselves five main divisions, each speaking a different dialect and apparently representing as many originally distinct, through much of Arapaho history, each tribal-nation maintained a separate ethnic identity, although they occasionally came together and acted as political allies. Each also spoke mutually intelligible dialects, but there existed a degree of difference from Arapaho proper, dialectically, the Haaninin, Beesowuunenno, and Hinonoeino were closely related. Arapaho elders claimed that the Hánahawuuena dialect was the most difficult to comprehend of all the dialects, Hánahawuuena, Hananaxawuunenan or Aanûnhawa, occupying territory adjacent to, but further north of the Nanwacinahaana, spoke the now extinct Haanahawunena dialect. Hinonoeino or Hinanaeinan, they spoke the Arapaho language Beesowuunenno, Baasanwuunenan or Bäsawunena and their war parties used temporary brush shelters like the dome-shaped shade or Sweat lodge of the Great Lakes Algonquian peoples. They are said to have left their old homes more recently than the other Arapaho tribes, before their historic geo-political ethnogensis, each tribal-nation had a principal headman. The exact date of the fusion or fission of each social division is not known. Both sacred objects traditionally were kept by the Beesowuunenno, the different tribal-nations lived together and the Beesowuunenno have dispersed for at least 150 years among the former distinct Arapaho tribal groups. They keep the sacred tribal articles, and are considered the nucleus or mother tribe of the Arapaho and they absorbed the historic Hánahawuuena and Beesowuunenno. There are still about 50 people of Beesowuunenno-lineage among the Northern Arapaho, Southern Arapaho, Náwunena or Noowunenno, are called by the Northern Arapaho Nawathineha, the Kiowa know them as Ähayädal, the name for the wild plum
30.
Stephen Harriman Long
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Stephen Harriman Long was a U. S. army explorer, topographical engineer, and railway engineer. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives and he was also one of the most prolific explorers of the early 1800s, although his career as an explorer was relatively short-lived. He covered over 26,000 miles in five expeditions, including an expedition in the Great Plains area. Long was born in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, the son of Moses and he received an A. B. from Dartmouth College in 1809 and an A. M. from Dartmouth in 1812. In 1814, he was commissioned a lieutenant of engineers in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Upon the reorganization of the Army in 1816, he was appointed a Major on 16 April, in 1817, Major Long headed a military excursion up the Mississippi River to the Falls of St. Anthony near the confluence with the Minnesota River. As a result of his recommendations, the Army established Fort Snelling to guard against Indian incursions against settlers in the Upper Mississippi Valley, Long recorded his experiences of the expedition in Voyage in a Six-oared Skiff to the Falls of St. Anthony, in 1860. In March 1819 he married Martha Hodgkiss of Philadelphia, the sister of Isabella Hodgkiss Norvell, soon afterwards he led the scientific contingent of the 1819 Yellowstone Expedition to explore the Missouri River. In 1820 he was appointed to lead an expedition through the American West. The specific purpose of the voyage was to find the sources of the Platte, Arkansas, during this time he determined the northern boundary at the 49th parallel at Pembina. Following his official military expeditions, Major Long spent several years on detached duty as an engineer with various railroads. Initially he helped to survey and build the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in 1826 he received his first patent for his work on railroad steam locomotives. Long received many patents for locomotive design and worked with other Army engineers in planning and building the railroad. In 1832, along with William Norris and several business partners. The business was dissolved in 1834 due to the difficulties in placing Longs locomotive designs into production, however a then provision in the Maine Constitution which prohibited public loans for purposes such as building railroads as well as the financial panic of 1837 intervened to kill the project. Colonel Long received a leave of absence to work on the newly incorporated Western & Atlantic Railroad in Georgia. His yearly salary was established at $5,000, the contract was signed May 12,1837 and he arrived in north Georgia in late May and his surveying began in July and by November he had submitted an initial report which the construction followed almost exactly. In 1838 he was appointed to a position in the newly separated U. S
31.
United States Board on Geographic Names
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The United States Board on Geographic Names is a federal body within the United States Geological Survey, an agency of the Department of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of names throughout the federal government of the United States. The Board was created in 1890, its present form derives from a law of 1947, under the U. S. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, National Mapping Division, the BGN was created by presidential order. Mendenhall, superintendent of the U. S. President Benjamin Harrison signed an Executive Order on September 4,1890, to this Board shall be referred all unsettled questions concerning geographic names. The decisions of the Board are to be accepted … as the authority for such matters. The Board was given authority to resolve all unsettled questions concerning geographic names, Decisions of the Board were accepted as binding by all departments and agencies of the federal government. The Board has developed principles, policies, and procedures governing the use of domestic and it also deals with the names of geographical features underseas and in Antarctica. Although its official purpose is to resolve problems and new name proposals for the federal government. Any person or organization, public or private, may make inquiries or request the Board to render decisions on proposed new names, proposed name changes. Generally, the BGN defers federal name use to comply with local usage, for example, in rare cases where a locally used name is very offensive, the BGN may decide against adoption of the local name for federal use. In federal mapping and names collection efforts, there is often a phase lag where a delay occurs in adoption of a locally used name, sometimes the delay is several decades. Volunteers in the Earth Science Corps are used to assist the U. S. Geological Survey in collecting names of geographic features. The Geographic Names Information System, developed by the BGN in cooperation with the U. S. Geological Survey, includes topographic map names, the names of books and historic maps which confirm the feature or place name are cited. Variant names, alternatives to official federal names for a feature, are also recorded, the BGN has members from six federal departments as well as the Central Intelligence Agency, the Government Publishing Office, the Library of Congress, and the U. S. Postal Service. The BGN rules on hundreds of naming decisions annually and stores over two million records in its databases at geonames. usgs. gov. State and local governments, and private mapping organizations usually follow the BGNs decisions, the BGN has an executive committee and two permanent committees with full authority, the 10 to 15-member Domestic Names Committee and the 8 to 10-member Foreign Names Committee. The BGN does not create a name, the BGN responds to proposals for names from federal agencies, state, local, and tribal governments. The BGN does not translate terms, but instead accurately uses foreign names in the Roman alphabet, for non-Roman languages, the BGN uses transliteration systems or creates them for less well-known languages
32.
Pikes Peak granite
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The Pikes Peak granite is a 1.08 billion year old widespread geologic formation found in the central part of the Front Range of Colorado. It is a pink to light red syenogranite with minor gray monzogranite. The granite gets its name from the 14, 115-foot Pikes Peak mountain, the Pikes Peak granite was emplaced in three major intrusive events in the southern Front Range, now exposed in Colorados Lost Creek Wilderness, Buffalo Peaks Wilderness, and Pikes Peak. Over the next years, the now cooled granite was gradually exposed through erosion of overlying rocks. Pikes Peak, like portions of Colorado Rockies is still being uplifted today as a part of larger tectonic processes effecting the Western United States. Today, the Pikes Peak Batholith and Granite is exposed over a part of the central Front Range of Colorado. It is found as far north as the slopes of Mount Evans west of Denver, west to South Park. The batholith is about 80 miles long in the north-south direction, even more of it remains hidden underground. Geologists have found the granite at the bottom of wells on the plains. The granite ranges in color light pink to almost red. The pink color is due to amounts of microcline feldspar. The long cooling time and the composition of the original magma allowed large crystals to precipitate out of the magma. As a result, in places the granite is very coarse grained, made up almost entirely of large crystals of feldspar. This makes the granite easily weathered and very crumbly, almost every hill and slope in the Pikes Peak region is covered with thick blankets of loose gravel made up of marble-sized grains of feldspar. In some places, the process lasted long enough to form pegmatites that contain large. The chemistry of the magma produced a complex and unique mineralogy that attracts collectors from around the world. Smoky quartz crystals and topaz are found in places in the Pikes Peak granite. Probably the most famous mineral from the area is amazonite, a form of microcline feldspar that is relatively rare in other parts of the world
33.
Orthoclase
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Orthoclase, or orthoclase feldspar, is an important tectosilicate mineral which forms igneous rock. The name is from the Ancient Greek for straight fracture, because its two planes are at right angles to each other. It is a type of potassium feldspar, also known as K-feldspar, the gem known as moonstone is largely composed of orthoclase. Orthoclase is a constituent of most granites and other felsic igneous rocks and often forms huge crystals. Typically, the pure potassium endmember of orthoclase forms a solution with albite. While slowly cooling within the earth, sodium-rich albite lamellae form by exsolution, the resulting intergrowth of the two feldspars is called perthite. The higher-temperature polymorph of KAlSi3O8 is sanidine, sanidine is common in rapidly cooled volcanic rocks such as obsidian and felsic pyroclastic rocks, and is notably found in trachytes of the Drachenfels, Germany. The lower-temperature polymorph of KAlSi3O8 is microcline, adularia is a low temperature form of either microcline or orthoclase originally reported from the low temperature hydrothermal deposits in the Adula Alps of Switzerland. It was first described by Ermenegildo Pini in 1781, the optical effect of adularescence in moonstone is typically due to adularia. The largest documented crystal of orthoclase was found in Ural mountains. It measured ~10×10×0.4 m and weighed ~100 tons, together with the other potassium feldspars, orthoclase is a common raw material for the manufacture of some glasses and some ceramics such as porcelain, and as a constituent of scouring powder. Some intergrowths of orthoclase and albite have an attractive pale luster and are called moonstone when used in jewellery, most moonstones are translucent and white, although grey and peach-colored varieties also occur. In gemology, their luster is called adularescence and is described as creamy or silvery white with a billowy quality. It is the gem of Florida. Orthoclase is one of the ten defining minerals of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, nASAs Curiosity Rover discovery of high levels of orthoclase in Martian sandstones suggested that some Martian rocks may have experienced complex geological processing, such as repeated melting
34.
Magma
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Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals, dissolved gas and sometimes gas bubbles. Magma often collects in magma chambers that may feed a volcano or solidify underground to form an intrusion, magma is capable of intruding into adjacent rocks, extrusion onto the surface as lava, and explosive ejection as tephra to form pyroclastic rock. Magma is a complex high-temperature fluid substance, temperatures of most magmas are in the range 700 °C to 1300 °C, but very rare carbonatite magmas may be as cool as 600 °C, and komatiite magmas may have been as hot as 1600 °C. Environments of magma formation and compositions are commonly correlated, environments include subduction zones, continental rift zones, mid-ocean ridges and hotspots. Despite being found in such locales, the bulk of the Earths crust. Except for the outer core, most of the Earth takes the form of a rheid. Magma, as liquid, preferentially forms in high temperature, low pressure environments within several kilometers of the Earths surface, magma compositions may evolve after formation by fractional crystallization, contamination, and magma mixing. By definition rock formed of solidified magma is called igneous rock, melting of solid rocks to form magma is controlled by three physical parameters, temperature, pressure, and composition. Mechanisms are discussed in the entry for igneous rock, as a rock melts, its volume changes. When enough rock is melted, the small globules of melt link up, under pressure within the earth, as little as a fraction of a percent partial melting may be sufficient to cause melt to be squeezed from its source. The degree of melting is critical for determining what type of magma is produced. The degree of partial melting required to form a melt can be estimated by considering the relative enrichment of incompatible elements versus compatible elements, incompatible elements commonly include potassium, barium, cesium, and rubidium. Rock types produced by small degrees of melting in the Earths mantle are typically alkaline. Typically, primitive melts of this composition form lamprophyre, lamproite, kimberlite and sometimes nepheline-bearing mafic rocks such as alkali basalts, pegmatite may be produced by low degrees of partial melting of the crust. Some granite-composition magmas are eutectic melts, and they may be produced by low to high degrees of melting of the crust. At high degrees of melting of the crust, granitoids such as tonalite, granodiorite and monzonite can be produced. Being only the time in recorded history that magma had been reached, IDDP decided to invest in the hole. A cemented steel case was constructed in the hole with a perforation at the close to the magma
35.
Precambrian
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The Precambrian is the earliest period of Earths history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is a supereon that is subdivided into three eons of the time scale. It spans from the formation of Earth about 4.6 billion years ago to the beginning of the Cambrian Period, about 541 million years ago, the Precambrian accounts for 89% of geologic time. Relatively little is known about the Precambrian, despite it making up roughly seven-eighths of the Earths history, the Precambrian fossil record is poorer than that of the succeeding Phanerozoic, and fossils from that time are of limited biostratigraphic use. This is because many Precambrian rocks have been metamorphosed, obscuring their origins, while others have been destroyed by erosion. A stable crust was apparently in place by 4,412 Ma, the term Precambrian is recognized by the International Commission on Stratigraphy as a general term including the Archean and Proterozoic eons. It is still used by geologists and paleontologists for general discussions not requiring the more specific eon names and it was briefly called the Cryptozoic eon. A specific date for the origin of life has not been determined, carbon found in 3.8 billion year old rocks from islands off western Greenland may be of organic origin. Well-preserved microscopic fossils of bacteria older than 3.46 billion years have found in Western Australia. Probable fossils 100 million years older have been found in the same area, there is a fairly solid record of bacterial life throughout the remainder of the Precambrian. The oldest fossil evidence from that era of such complex life comes from the Lantian formation of the Ediacarian period, a very diverse collection of soft-bodied forms is found in a variety of locations worldwide and date to between 635 and 542 Ma. These are referred to as Ediacaran or Vendian biota, hard-shelled creatures appeared toward the end of that time span, marking the beginning of the Phanerozoic era. By the middle of the following Cambrian period, a diverse fauna is recorded in the Burgess Shale. The explosion in diversity of lifeforms during the early Cambrian is called the Cambrian explosion of life, while land seems to have been devoid of plants and animals, cyanobacteria and other microbes formed prokaryotic mats that covered terrestrial areas. Evidence of the details of plate motions and other activity in the Precambrian has been poorly preserved. It is generally believed that small proto-continents existed prior to 4280 Ma, the supercontinent, known as Rodinia, broke up around 750 Ma. A number of glacial periods have been identified going as far back as the Huronian epoch, one of the best studied is the Sturtian-Varangian glaciation, around 850–635 Ma, which may have brought glacial conditions all the way to the equator, resulting in a Snowball Earth. The atmosphere of the early Earth is not well understood, most geologists believe it was composed primarily of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and other relatively inert gases, and was lacking in free oxygen
36.
Grenville orogeny
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The Grenville orogeny was a long-lived Mesoproterozoic mountain-building event associated with the assembly of the supercontinent Rodinia. Its record is a prominent orogenic belt which spans a significant portion of the North American continent, from Labrador to Mexico and these orogeny events are also known as the Kibaran orogeny in Africa and the Dalslandian orogeny in Western Europe. The problem of timing the Grenville orogeny is an area of contention today. The timescale outlined in Toby Rivers’ recent work is derived from the well-preserved Grenville Province, due to the great size of the area affected by Grenville events, there is some variance in timing across the orogenic belt. Regional variations below discusses local deviations from Rivers’ timeline, presented here, ages are approximated from the magmatic activity associated with the individual cycles of the orogeny. The gaps in the ages of the cycles and isotope analysis of hornblende, biotite. Rivers 2008 paper has now examined the timing of the different periods of the orogeny, the Andes of South America are considered a modern analogue. 1190–980 Ma two separate continental blocks collided with Laurentia, both of these collision events are thought to be analogous to the collision driving modern-day growth of the Himalaya range. For some time one of the blocks was believed to be the continent of Amazonia and these periods of thrusting and metamorphism were not continuous, but rather interrupted by comparatively quiet periods, during which AMCG plutons were intruded into the country rock. Polarities of subduction vary by region and time, some island arc remnants were emplaced on the Laurentian margin, and some were accreted during orogeny. Timing of these events is constrained by cross-cutting relations observed in the field as well as SHRIMP, the first period of tectonic activity was the accretion of an island arc at some point during the Elzevirian Orogeny. Before the accretion of the arc took place, subduction between a continental plate and presumably an oceanic plate was taking place. Slab pull and far-field drivers such as ridge push were aiding in closing the distance between the arc and the continent. Depending on the angle of deformation of the continental crust was already taking place. By 1.19 Ga the Elzevir back arc basin was closing, from 1.18 to 1.14 Ga extension was occurring in the area. Whether due to cooling, also known as thermal subsidence. The extension is marked by the ages of the previously mentioned rocks. Additionally there is the formation of sedimentary basins which means the margin was quiescent enough that sediments could accumulate, however, in some areas from 1.16 to 1.13 Ga, coeval with extension, there is evidence there was still thrusting and emplacement of terranes occurring
37.
Tectonic uplift
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Tectonic uplift is the portion of the total geologic uplift of the mean Earth surface that is not attributable to an isostatic response to unloading. One should also take into consideration the effects of denudation, within the scope of this topic, uplift relates to denudation in that denudation brings buried rocks closer to the surface. This process can redistribute large loads from a region to a topographically lower area as well – thus promoting isostatic response in the region of denudation. The timing, magnitude, and rate of denudation can be estimated using pressure-temperature studies, crustal thickening has an upward component of motion and often occurs when continental crust is thrust onto continental crust. The process of nappe stacking can only continue for so long, although the raised surfaces of mountain ranges mainly result from crustal thickening, there are other forces at play that are responsible for tectonic activity. All tectonic processes are driven by force when density differences are present. A good example of this would be the large-scale circulation of the Earths mantle, lateral density variations near the surface also drive plate motion. The dynamics of mountain ranges are governed by differences in the potential energy of entire columns of lithosphere. The highest rates of working against gravity are required when the thickness of the crust changes, lithosphere on the oceanward side of an oceanic trench at a subduction zone will curve upwards due to the elastic properties of the Earths crust. Orogenic uplift is the result of collisions and results in mountain ranges or a more modest uplift over a large region. Perhaps the most extreme form of uplift is a continental-continental crustal collision. In this process, two continents are sutured together and large mountain ranges are produced, the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates is a good example of the extent to which orogenic uplift can reach. Heavy thrust faulting and folding are responsible for the suturing together of the two plates, the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates not only produced the Himalaya, but is also responsible for crustal thickening north into Siberia. The Pamir Mountains, Tian Shan, Altai, Hindu Kush, deformation of continental lithosphere can take place in several possible modes. The Ozark Plateau is an uplifted area which resulted from the Permian Ouachita Orogeny to the south in the states of Arkansas, Oklahoma. Another related uplift is the Llano Uplift in Texas, a location named after its uplift features. The Colorado Plateau which includes the Grand Canyon is also the result of tectonic uplift followed by river erosion. The removal of mass from a region will be compensated by crustal rebound
38.
Erosion
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In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes that remove soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earths crust, then transport it away to another location. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, the rates at which such processes act control how fast a surface is eroded. Feedbacks are also possible between rates of erosion and the amount of eroded material that is carried by, for example. Processes of erosion that produce sediment or solutes from a place contrast with those of deposition, while erosion is a natural process, human activities have increased by 10-40 times the rate at which erosion is occurring globally. At well-known agriculture sites such as the Appalachian Mountains, intensive farming practices have caused erosion up to 100x the speed of the rate of erosion in the region. Excessive erosion causes both on-site and off-site problems, on-site impacts include decreases in agricultural productivity and ecological collapse, both because of loss of the nutrient-rich upper soil layers. In some cases, the end result is desertification. Off-site effects include sedimentation of waterways and eutrophication of bodies, as well as sediment-related damage to roads. Intensive agriculture, deforestation, roads, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion, however, there are many prevention and remediation practices that can curtail or limit erosion of vulnerable soils. Rainfall, and the surface runoff which may result from rainfall, produces four types of soil erosion, splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion. Splash erosion is generally seen as the first and least severe stage in the erosion process. In splash erosion, the impact of a falling raindrop creates a crater in the soil. The distance these soil particles travel can be as much as 0.6 m vertically and 1.5 m horizontally on level ground. If the soil is saturated, or if the rate is greater than the rate at which water can infiltrate into the soil. If the runoff has sufficient flow energy, it will transport loosened soil particles down the slope, sheet erosion is the transport of loosened soil particles by overland flow. Rill erosion refers to the development of small, ephemeral concentrated flow paths which function as both sediment source and sediment delivery systems for erosion on hillslopes, generally, where water erosion rates on disturbed upland areas are greatest, rills are active. Flow depths in rills are typically of the order of a few centimetres or less and this means that rills exhibit hydraulic physics very different from water flowing through the deeper, wider channels of streams and rivers. Gully erosion occurs when water accumulates and rapidly flows in narrow channels during or immediately after heavy rains or melting snow
39.
Weathering
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Weathering is the breaking down of rocks, soil, and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with the Earths atmosphere, waters, and biological organisms. Two important classifications of weathering processes exist – physical and chemical weathering, mechanical or physical weathering involves the breakdown of rocks and soils through direct contact with atmospheric conditions, such as heat, water, ice and pressure. While physical weathering is accentuated in very cold or very dry environments, chemical reactions are most intense where the climate is wet, however, both types of weathering occur together, and each tends to accelerate the other. For example, physical abrasion decreases the size of particles and therefore increases their surface area, the various agents act in concert to convert primary minerals to secondary minerals and release plant nutrient elements in soluble forms. The materials left over after the rock breaks down combined with organic material creates soil, in addition, many of Earths landforms and landscapes are the result of weathering processes combined with erosion and re-deposition. Physical weathering, also recognized as mechanical weathering, is the class of processes that causes the disintegration of rocks without chemical change, the primary process in physical weathering is abrasion. However, chemical and physical weathering often go hand in hand, physical weathering can occur due to temperature, pressure, frost etc. For example, cracks exploited by physical weathering will increase the area exposed to chemical action. Abrasion by water, ice, and wind loaded with sediment can have tremendous cutting power, as is amply demonstrated by the gorges, ravines. In glacial areas, huge moving ice masses embedded with soil and rock fragments grind down rocks in their path, plant roots sometimes enter cracks in rocks and pry them apart, resulting in some disintegration, Burrowing animals may help disintegrate rock through their physical action. However, such influences are usually of importance in producing parent material when compared to the drastic physical effects of water, ice, wind. Physical weathering is called mechanical weathering or disaggregation. Thermal stress weathering results from the expansion and contraction of rock, for example, heating of rocks by sunlight or fires can cause expansion of their constituent minerals. As some minerals expand more than others, temperature changes set up differential stresses that cause the rock to crack apart. Because the outer surface of a rock is often warmer or colder than the more protected inner portions and this process may be sharply accelerated if ice forms in the surface cracks. When water freezes, it expands with a force of about 1465 Mg/m^2, disintegrating huge rock masses, thermal stress weathering comprises two main types, thermal shock and thermal fatigue. Thermal stress weathering is an important mechanism in deserts, where there is a diurnal temperature range, hot in the day. The repeated heating and cooling exerts stress on the layers of rocks
40.
Pike expedition
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The Pike Expedition was a military party sent out by President Thomas Jefferson and authorized by the United States government to explore the south and west of the recent Louisiana Purchase. Roughly contemporaneous with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, it was led by United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike and it was the first official American effort to explore the western Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains in present-day Colorado. Pike contacted several Native American tribes during his travels and informed them of the new US rule over the territory, the expedition documented the United States discovery of Pikes Peak. After splitting up his men, Pike led the contingent to find the headwaters of the Red River. A smaller group returned safely to the US Army fort in St. Louis, Pikes company made several errors and ended up in Spanish territory in present-day Southern Colorado, where the Americans built a fort to survive the winter. Although he and most of his men were released because the nations were not at war, some of his soldiers were held in Mexican prisons for years, despite US objections. In 1810, Pike published an account of his expeditions, which was so popular that it was translated into French, German, and Dutch for publication in Europe. Pike left Fort Bellefontaine near St. Louis, Missouri on July 15 with a detachment of 20 soldiers and 50 Osage hostages, the expedition followed the Missouri River and the Osage River to the Osage Nation village at the present-day border of Kansas and Missouri. On August 15, Pike returned the hostages and parleyed with the natives, striking northwest, the group made for the Pawnee territory on the Republican River in southern Nebraska. At the Pawnee village on September 29, Pike met with the Pawnee tribal council and he announced the new protectorship of the United States government over the territory. He instructed the Pawnee to remove a Spanish flag from their village, the expeditionary force turned south and struck out across the prairie for the Arkansas River. After reaching it on October 14, the party split in two, one group was led by Lieutenant James Biddle Wilkinson, son of the General. They traveled downstream along the length of the Arkansas to its mouth and back up the Mississippi, Pike led the other, larger group upstream, to the west, toward the headwaters of the Arkansas. When Stephen Long led an expedition to the area in 1820, on November 15, Pike recorded the first sight of the distant mountain he called Grand Peak. It has since been called Pikes Peak in his honor, Pike tried to climb the peak, hoping to get a view of the surrounding area to record on maps, the 14, 000-foot summit. Pikes group ascended a lesser summit nearby—likely Mount Miller, which was named for Theodore Miller, with winter threatening, Pike pressed onward up the Arkansas, and on December 7 the party reached Royal Gorge, a spectacular canyon on the Arkansas at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Pike next intended to travel to the headwaters of the Red River and head downstream to the Mississippi, but, the company had gotten confused in its bearings, and they made several blundering steps trying to find the river. They were not equipped for an expedition, nor for hard winter weather
41.
Middlebury College
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Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont. The college was founded in 1800 by Congregationalists making it the first operating college or university in Vermont, the college currently enrolls 2,526 undergraduates from all 50 states and 74 countries. Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts, humanities, literature, foreign languages, social sciences, the college is the first American institution of higher education to have granted a bachelors degree to an African-American, graduating Alexander Twilight in the class of 1823. Middlebury was also one of the first formerly all-male liberal arts colleges in New England to become a coeducational institution, in 1886, May Belle Chellis was the first woman to graduate and she was the valedictorian. Middlebury was listed as tied for the fourth-best liberal arts college in the U. S. in the 2016 U. S. News & World Report rankings, Middleburys 31 varsity teams are known as the Middlebury Panthers and compete in the NCAA Division IIIs NESCAC conference. The school is known for its programs that focus on language, political science. Middlebury received its charter on November 1,1800, as an outgrowth of the Addison County Grammar School. The Colleges first president—Jeremiah Atwater—began classes a few later, making Middlebury the first operating college or university in Vermont. One student named Aaron Petty graduated at the first commencement held in August 1802, the Colleges founding religious affiliation was loosely Congregationalist. Yet the idea for a college was that of town rather than clergymen. Chief among its founders were Seth Storrs and Gamaliel Painter, the credited with the idea for a college. In addition to receiving a diploma upon graduation, Middlebury graduates also receive a replica of Gamaliel Painters cane, Painter bequeathed his original cane to the College and it is carried by the College President at official occasions including first-year convocation and graduation. At its second commencement in 1804, Middlebury granted Lemuel Haynes an honorary masters degree, the first female graduate—May Belle Chellis—received her degree in 1886. As valedictorian of the class of 1899, Mary Annette Anderson became the first African American woman elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the College’s centennial in 1900 began a century of physical expansion beyond the three buildings of Old Stone Row. York and Sawyer designed the Egbert Starr Library, a Beaux-Arts edifice later expanded and renamed the Axinn Center, growth in enrollment and the endowment led to continued expansion westward. The national fraternity Kappa Delta Rho was founded in Painter Hall on May 17,1905, Middlebury College abolished fraternities in the early 1990s, but the organization continued on campus in the less ritualized form of a social house. Due to a policy at the school against single-sex organizations, the house was forced to coeducate during the period as well. The German Language School, founded in 1915 under the supervision of then-President John Martin Thomas, Middlebury President Paul Dwight Moody began the American tradition of a National Christmas Tree in 1923 when the College donated a 48-foot balsam fir for use at the White House
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Vermont
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Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It borders the other U. S. states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Lake Champlain forms half of Vermonts western border with the state of New York, Vermont is the 2nd-least populous of the U. S. states, with nearly 50,000 more residents than Wyoming. The capital is Montpelier, the least populous state capital in the U. S, the most populous municipality, Burlington, is the least populous city in the U. S. to be the most populous within a state. As of 2015, Vermont continued to be the producer of maple syrup in the U. S. It was ranked as the safest state in the country in January 2016, for thousands of years inhabited by indigenous peoples, including the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and Mohawk, much of the territory that is now Vermont was claimed by Frances colony of New France. France ceded the territory to Great Britain after being defeated in 1763 in the Seven Years War, for many years, the nearby colonies, especially the provinces of New Hampshire and New York, disputed control of the area. Settlers who held land titles granted by New York were opposed by the Green Mountain Boys militia, ultimately, those settlers prevailed in creating an independent state, the Vermont Republic. Founded in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War, the republic lasted for 14 years, aside from the original 13 states that were formerly colonies, Vermont is one of only four U. S. states that were previously sovereign states. Vermont was also the first state to join the U. S. as its 14th member state after the original 13, while still an independent republic, Vermont was the first of any future U. S. state to partially abolish slavery. It played an important geographic role in the Underground Railroad, sights in Vermont Vermont is located in the New England region of the northeastern United States and comprises 9,614 square miles, making it the 45th-largest state. It is the state that does not have any buildings taller than 124 feet. Land comprises 9,250 square miles and water comprises 365 square miles, making it the 43rd-largest in land area, in total area, it is larger than El Salvador and smaller than Haiti. The west bank of the Connecticut River marks the eastern border with New Hampshire. 41% of Vermonts land area is part of the Connecticut Rivers watershed, Lake Champlain, the major lake in Vermont, is the sixth-largest body of fresh water in the United States and separates Vermont from New York in the northwest portion of the state. From north to south, Vermont is 159 miles long and its greatest width, from east to west, is 89 miles at the Canada–U. S. Border, the narrowest width is 37 miles at the Massachusetts line, the states geographic center is approximately three miles east of Roxbury, in Washington County. There are fifteen U. S. federal border crossings between Vermont and Canada, the origin of the name Vermont is uncertain, but likely comes from the French les Verts Monts, meaning the Green Mountains
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South Platte River
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The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U. S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and it joins the North Platte River in western Nebraska to form the Platte, which then flows across Nebraska to the Missouri. The river serves as the source of water for eastern Colorado. In its valley along the foothills in Colorado, it has permitted agriculture in an area of the Colorado Piedmont and Great Plains that is otherwise arid. The river is formed in Park County, Colorado, southwest of Denver in the South Park grassland basin by the confluence of the South Fork and Middle Fork, approximately 15 miles southeast of Fairplay. Both forks rise along the flank of the Mosquito Range, on the western side of South Park. From South Park, it passes through 50 miles of the Platte Canyon, here, it is joined by the North Fork before emerging from the foothills southwest of the Denver suburb of Littleton. At Littleton, the river is impounded to form Chatfield Reservoir, the river flows north through central Denver, which was founded along its banks at its confluence with Cherry Creek. The valley through Denver is highly industrialized, serving generally as the route for both the lines, as well as Interstate 25. On the north side of Denver it is joined somewhat inconspicuously by Clear Creek, North of Denver it flows through the agricultural heartland of the Piedmont. East of Greeley it turns eastward, flowing across the Colorado Eastern Plains, past Fort Morgan and Brush and it continues past Sterling, and runs into Nebraska between Julesburg, Colorado and Big Springs, Nebraska. In Nebraska, it passes south of Ogallala and joins the North Platte River near the city of North Platte. The South Platte River through Denver is on the U. S. EPAs list of impaired waterbodies for pathogen impairment, other water issues involve the appearance of the New Zealand Mud Snail and of the Zebra Mussel. The South Platte was originally called Niinéniiniicíihéhe by the native Arapaho people who lived on its banks, the early Spanish explorers called it the Rio Chato. The South Platte River also served as a water source in Colorado. Long before the city of Denver was created many travelers came to the South Platte River to escape the arid Great Plains and these people could survive the heat but not without the vital water source that the South Platte River gave them. Buckets and wells sufficed as a system for a while. In an arid region of the United States, the South Platte is marked with several dams, the first notable water impoundment on the South Platte is Antero Reservoir
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Aquilegia coerulea
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Aquilegia coerulea is a species of Aquilegia flower native to the Rocky Mountains from Montana south to New Mexico and west to Idaho and Arizona. Its common name is Colorado blue columbine, sometimes it is called Rocky Mountain columbine and it is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 20–60 cm tall. The flowers are variable in color, from pale blue to white, pale yellow and pinkish, very commonly the flowers are bicolored. Aquilegia coerulea is the flower of Colorado. It is also a plant in gardens, with numerous cultivars selected for different flower colors. USDA Plant Profile, Aquilegia coerulea Colorado state flower Aquilegia coerulea Genome sequencing
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Denver
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Denver, officially the City and County of Denver, is the capital and most populous municipality of the U. S. state of Colorado. Denver is in the South Platte River Valley on the edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile above sea level, making it the highest major city in the United States. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich, the reference for the Mountain Time Zone. Denver is ranked as a Beta- world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. With a 2015 estimated population of 682,545, Denver ranks as the 19th-most populous U. S. city, and with a 2. 8% increase in 2015, the city is also the fastest-growing major city in the United States. The 10-county Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 2,814,330 and ranked as the 19th most populous U. S. metropolitan statistical area. The 12-city Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 3,418,876, which ranks as the 16th most populous U. S. metropolitan area. Denver is the most populous city of the 18-county Front Range Urban Corridor, Denver is the most populous city within a 500-mile radius and the second-most populous city in the Mountain West after Phoenix, Arizona. In 2016, Denver was named the best place to live in the USA by U. S. News & World Report and this was the first historical settlement in what was later to become the city of Denver. The site faded quickly, however, and by the summer of 1859 it was abandoned in favor of Auraria, Larimer named the townsite Denver City to curry favor with Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver. Larimer hoped the name would help make it the county seat of Arapaho County but, unbeknownst to him. The location was accessible to existing trails and was across the South Platte River from the site of seasonal encampments of the Cheyenne, the site of these first towns is now the site of Confluence Park near downtown Denver. Larimer, along with associates in the St. Charles City Land Company, sold parcels in the town to merchants and miners, Denver City was a frontier town, with an economy based on servicing local miners with gambling, saloons, livestock and goods trading. In the early years, land parcels were often traded for grubstakes or gambled away by miners in Auraria, in May 1859, Denver City residents donated 53 lots to the Leavenworth & Pikes Peak Express in order to secure the regions first overland wagon route. Offering daily service for passengers, mail, freight, and gold, in 1863, Western Union furthered Denvers dominance of the region by choosing the city for its regional terminus. The Colorado Territory was created on February 28,1861, Arapahoe County was formed on November 1,1861, Denver City served as the Arapahoe County Seat from 1861 until consolidation in 1902. In 1867, Denver City became the territorial capital, with its newfound importance, Denver City shortened its name to Denver
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