1.
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
2.
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
3.
Wind River Range
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The Wind River Range, is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in western Wyoming in the United States. The range runs roughly NW-SE for approximately 100 miles, the Continental Divide follows the crest of the range and includes Gannett Peak, which at 13,804 feet, is the highest peak in Wyoming. There are more than 40 other named peaks in excess of 13,000 feet, with the exception of the Grand Teton in the Teton Range, the next 19 highest peaks in Wyoming after Gannett are also in the Winds. Two large National Forests including three wilderness areas encompass most of the mountain range, Shoshone National Forest is on the eastern side of the continental divide while Bridger-Teton National Forest is on the west. Both National Forests and the mountain range are an integral part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Portions of the range are also inside the Wind River Indian Reservation, indigenous peoples of the Great Basin, such as the Shoshones and Absarokas Native Americans, lived in the range beginning 7000 and 9000 years ago. Villages as high as 10,000 feet in elevation, dating from 700 to 2000 BC, have recently studied by archaeologists. These villages were established by the Sheepeater band of Shoshone during pine nut harvesting season, one, dubbed High Rise, has 60 lodges over a space of 26 acres and was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. Climbing was pursued in the mid to late 1800s by men such as John C, fremont, typically for the purpose of surveying the region. Early climbers to come purely for recreation began arriving in the 1920s, Gannett Peak, the range and Wyomings tallest, was first climbed by Arthur Tate and Floyd Stahlnaker in 1922. Most of the climbing in the region focused around the Titcomb Basin. Today, the Titcomb Basin remains one of the areas busiest recreation attractions along with the Cirque of the Towers to the south, the Winds are composed primarily of a granitic batholith which is granite rock formed deep under the surface of the Earth, over one billion years ago. Over hundreds of millions of years, rocks that were once covering this batholith eroded away, as the land continued to rise during the Laramide orogeny, further erosion occurred until all that remained were the granitic rocks. The ice ages beginning 500,000 years ago began carving the rocks into their present shapes, several of these are the largest glaciers in the U. S. Several major rivers have headwaters on either side of the range, the Green and Big Sandy rivers drain southward from the west side of the range, while the Wind River drains eastward through the Shoshone Basin. These lakes range in size from less than 3 acres to over 200 acres, historically, the lakes and streams of the Bridger Wilderness were devoid of fish, as were most alpine lakes throughout the Rocky Mountains. The first known transplant of fish into the area took place in 1907 when Colorado River cutthroat trout were introduced into North Fork Lake. Considerable fish stocking by individuals, the U. S. Forest Service, the Winds are known to have a small grizzly bear population, primarily in the northernmost areas
4.
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
5.
Wyoming
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Wyoming /waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/ is a state in the mountain region of the western United States. The state is the tenth largest by area, the least populous, Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city in Wyoming, the state population was estimated at 586,107 in 2015, which is less than the population of 31 of the largest U. S. cities. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were some of the inhabitants of the region. Southwestern Wyoming was included in the Spanish Empire and then Mexican territory until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War. The region acquired the name Wyoming when a bill was introduced to Congress in 1865 to provide a government for the territory of Wyoming. The territory was named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, with the name ultimately being derived from the Munsee word xwé, wamənk, the mineral extraction industry—especially coal, oil, natural gas, and trona—along with the travel and tourism sector are the main drivers behind Wyomings economy. Agriculture has historically been an important component of the economy with the main commodities being livestock, hay, sugar beets, grain. The climate is generally semi-arid and continental, being drier and windier in comparison to the rest of the United States, except for the 1964 election, Wyoming has been a politically conservative state since the 1950s, with the Republican party winning every presidential election. Wyoming is one of three states to have borders along only straight latitudinal and longitudinal lines, rather than being defined by natural landmarks. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. It is the tenth largest state in the United States in total area, from the north border to the south border it is 276 miles, and from the east to the west border is 365 miles at its south end and 342 miles at the north end. The Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, the state is a great plateau broken by many mountain ranges. Surface elevations range from the summit of Gannett Peak in the Wind River Mountain Range, at 13,804 feet, to the Belle Fourche River valley in the states northeast corner, at 3,125 feet. In the northwest are the Absaroka, Owl Creek, Gros Ventre, Wind River, in the north central are the Big Horn Mountains, in the northeast, the Black Hills, and in the southern region the Laramie, Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges. The Snowy Range in the central part of the state is an extension of the Colorado Rockies in both geology and appearance. The Wind River Range in the west central part of the state is remote and includes more than 40 mountain peaks in excess of 13,000 ft tall in addition to Gannett Peak, the highest peak in the state. The Big Horn Mountains in the central portion are somewhat isolated from the bulk of the Rocky Mountains
6.
Absaroka Range
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The Absaroka Range (/əbˈsɔərkə/ or local /əbˈsɔərki/ is a sub-range of the Rocky Mountains in the United States. The range borders the Beartooth Mountains to the north and the Wind River Range to the south, the northern edge of the range rests along I-90 and Livingston, Montana. The highest peak in the range is Francs Peak, located in Wyoming at 13,153 ft, there are 46 other peaks over 12,000 ft. The range is drained by the Yellowstone River and various tributaries and it is only open during the summer. U. S Route 14/16/20 follows the Shoshone River from Cody through the range to the gate of the park. The range is named after the Absaroka Indians, the name is derived from the Hidatsa name for the Crow people, it means children of the large-beaked bird. John Colter, who may have been the first white person to visit the area, early explorers also included Gustavus Cheyney Doane and Nathaniel P. Langford, who climbed the summit of Colter Peak in 1870. USS Absaroka was named after this mountain range, geologically, the section of the range in Wyoming consists of volcanic breccia, whereas there is a transition to granite and gneiss bedrock further north of the state line. Igneous rocks of the Absaroka Volcanic Province cover an area of approximately 23,000 km2 in southwestern Montana and these extrusive rocks were erupted during the Eocene Epoch of the Paleogene Period. Radiometric dating has shown that eruptive activity lasted from about 53 to 43.7 million years ago, the eroded remnants of many large stratovolcanoes are found in the area. The dissection of these long extinct volcanoes by erosion allows geologists to see structures that are impossible to see in active volcanoes. Many terms now used in volcanology originated in nineteenth century field studies of these ancient volcanoes. Mountains and mountain ranges of Yellowstone National Park List of mountain ranges in Montana List of mountain ranges in Wyoming
7.
Barronette Peak
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Barronette Peak el.10,354 feet is a mountain peak in the northeast section of Yellowstone National Park in the Absaroka Range. The peak is named for Collins Jack Baronette and it was named by the Hayden Geological Survey of 1878. When named, the name was misspelled Barronette and it retains the official misspelled name today, Jack Baronette was an early Yellowstone guide and entrepreneur. He built and operated the first bridge across the Yellowstone River near the confluence of the Lamar River in 1871 to service miners traveling to Cooke City, in 1870, as a resident of Helena, Montana he participated in the search for and rescue of Truman C. Everts, lost during the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition of 1870, in 1884, he was considered for the superintendency of Yellowstone. Mountains and mountain ranges of Yellowstone National Park
8.
Mount Doane
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Mount Doane el.10,551 feet is a mountain peak in the Absaroka Range in Yellowstone National Park. The peak is named for Lieutenant Gustavus Cheyney Doane, a U. S. Army cavalry officer who escorted the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition into Yellowstone in 1870, during that expedition, Doane and Nathaniel P. Langford ascended several peaks east of Yellowstone Lake. Henry D. Washburn, the leader of the expedition named a peak for Doane, Doane also participated in the 1st Hayden expedition in 1871. Doanes account of his and Langfords ascent into the Absaroka Range, Mountains and mountain ranges of Yellowstone National Park
9.
Bighorn Mountains
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They are separated from the Absaroka Range, which lie on the main branch of the Rockies in western Wyoming, by the Bighorn Basin. The Bighorns were uplifted during the Laramide orogeny beginning approximately 70 million years ago, there is an unconformity where Silurian strata were exposed to erosion and are missing. Following the uplift, large volumes of sediments, rich in early Tertiary fossils, were deposited in the adjoining basins. Though many cirques, U-shaped valleys and glacial lakes can be found in the range, the only remaining active glacier is the Cloud Peak Glacier. The highest peaks within the Bighorns are located in Wyoming in the 1.12 million acre Bighorn National Forest, two peaks rise to over 13,000 feet Cloud Peak and Black Tooth Mountain. There are a dozen more that rise to over 12,000 feet, from the east the mountains present a vertical relief of over 8,000 feet, rising abruptly from the plains. Overall, the Bighorns are more rounded than their mountain ranges to the west. The Cloud Peak Wilderness is the centerpiece of a block of land around 189,000 acres in size. The Wilderness is surrounded by unprotected acreage of U. S National Forest as well as Bureau of Land Management, state, most of the Cloud Peak Wilderness is above the tree line, the unprotected lands surrounding it are lower in elevation and covered in coniferous forests. Mule deer, elk, moose, black bear, and mountain lion are found throughout the area, two more large roadless areas remained in the Bighorns as of 1992. It is unknown whether these areas have since been reduced in size by road-building, both areas straddle the Montana-Wyoming state line, in the northern part of the range. One area, north of U. S. Route 14A and this little-known region features subalpine terrain cut by steep canyons. Pronghorn inhabit the area, as it includes a portion of the Great Plains, what little human use it receives is from hunters and fishermen. The second roadless area is located mainly on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, in this part of the range, semidesert prairie is cut by steep canyons leading to Yellowtail Reservoir, and high, Douglas-fir cloaked ridges top out at over 9,000. Rocky Mountain juniper and limber pine are scattered on lower elevations, and wildlife includes pronghorn, rattlesnake, golden eagle, ferruginous hawk, the Crow Indians manage a wild bison herd on this portion of the Bighorns. The Crow lands are an area, and thus are off-limits to non-tribal members. The three highways traversing the Bighorns are designated Scenic Byways by the US Forest Service and the State of Wyoming, the range is the location of the headwaters of the Little Bighorn, Tongue, and Powder rivers. Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area consists of approximately 120,000 acres within the Bighorn Mountains and it includes Bighorn Lake, a reservoir damming the Bighorn River
10.
Black Hills
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The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk Peak, which rises to 7,244 feet, is the ranges highest summit, the Black Hills encompass the Black Hills National Forest. The name Black Hills is a translation of the Lakota Pahá Sápa, the hills were so-called because of their dark appearance from a distance, as they were covered in trees. Native Americans have a history in the Black Hills. After conquering the Cheyenne in 1776, the Lakota took over the territory of the Black Hills, however, when settlers discovered gold there in 1874, as a result of George Armstrong Custers Black Hills Expedition, miners swept into the area in a gold rush. As the economy of the Black Hills has shifted from natural resources since the late 20th century, locals tend to divide the Black Hills into two areas, The Southern Hills and The Northern Hills. Attractions in the Northern Hills include Spearfish Canyon, historic Deadwood, the first Rally was held on August 14,1938 and the 75th Rally in 2015 saw more than 1 million bikers visit the Black Hills. Devils Tower National Monument, located in the Wyoming Black Hills, is an important nearby attraction and was the United States first national monument. Scientists have been able to utilize carbon-dating to evaluate the age of tools found in the area, stratigraphic records indicate environmental changes in the land, such as flood and drought patterns. For example, large-scale flooding of the Black Hill basins occurs at a probability rate of 0.01, however, during The Medieval Climate Anomaly, or the Medieval Warm Period, flooding increased in the basins. The Arikara arrived by AD1500, followed by the Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, the Lakota arrived from Minnesota in the 18th century and drove out the other tribes, who moved west. They claimed the land, which they called Ȟe Sápa, the mountains commonly became known as the Black Hills. François and Louis de La Vérendrye probably travelled near the Black Hills in 1743, fur trappers and traders had some dealings with the Native Americans. European Americans increasingly encroached on Lakota territory, in this treaty, they protected the Black Hills forever from European-American settlement. Both the Sioux and Cheyenne also claimed rights to the land, saying that in their cultures, it was considered the axis mundi, an official announcement of gold was made by the newspaper reporters accompanying the expedition. The following year, the Newton-Jenney Party conducted the first detailed survey of the Black Hills, the surveyor for the party, Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, was the first European American to ascend to the top of Black Elk Peak. This highest point in the Black Hills is 7,242 feet above sea level, during the 1875–1878 gold rush, thousands of miners went to the Black Hills, in 1880, the area was the most densely populated part of the Dakota Territory. Three large towns developed in the Northern Hills, Deadwood, Central City, around these were groups of smaller gold camps, towns, and villages
