Mix-up Peak
Mix-up Peak known as Mixup Peak, is a summit located on the shared boundary of Skagit County and Chelan County in Washington state. It is part of the North Cascades Range and is situated one mile south of Cascade Pass on the shared border of North Cascades National Park and Glacier Peak Wilderness; the nearest higher peak is 1.02 miles to the east-southeast. Mix-up Peak is at the northern end of the Ptarmigan Traverse, an alpine route to remote mountains such as Mount Formidable and Dome Peak; the Cache Glacier occupies a cirque below its eastern flank. Surface runoff on the east side the mountain drains into the Stehekin River, whereas precipitation runoff drains into the Cascade River from the west side. Mix-up Peak is located in the marine west coast climate zone of western North America. Most weather fronts originate in the Pacific Ocean, travel northeast toward the Cascade Mountains; as fronts approach the North Cascades, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Cascade Range, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall onto the Cascades.
As a result, the west side of the North Cascades experiences high precipitation during the winter months in the form of snowfall. During winter months, weather is cloudy, due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is little or no cloud cover during the summer; because of maritime influence, snow tends resulting in high avalanche danger. The North Cascades features some of the most rugged topography in the Cascade Range with craggy peaks and ridges and deep glacial valleys. Geological events occurring many years ago created the diverse topography and drastic elevation changes over the Cascade Range leading to the various climate differences; these climate differences lead to vegetation variety defining the ecoregions in this area. The history of the formation of the Cascade Mountains dates back millions of years ago to the late Eocene Epoch. With the North American Plate overriding the Pacific Plate, episodes of volcanic igneous activity persisted.
In addition, small fragments of the oceanic and continental lithosphere called terranes created the North Cascades about 50 million years ago. During the Pleistocene period dating back over two million years ago, glaciation advancing and retreating scoured the landscape leaving deposits of rock debris; the "U"-shaped cross section of the river valleys are a result of recent glaciation. Uplift and faulting in combination with glaciation have been the dominant processes which have created the tall peaks and deep valleys of the North Cascades area. North Cascades National Park National Park Service
Lake Chelan National Recreation Area
Lake Chelan National Recreation Area is a U. S. National Recreation Area located about 35 miles south of the Canada–US border in Chelan County, Washington, it encompasses an area of 61,958 acres including the northern end of Lake Chelan and the surrounding area of the Stehekin Valley and the Stehekin River. The area is managed by the U. S. National Park Service as part of the North Cascades National Park Service Complex. Lake Chelan NRA is adjacent to the North Cascades National Park South Unit. There are no roads that lead into Lake Chelan NRA; the recreation area and Stehekin, a small town located within the park with fewer than 100 permanent residents, are accessible only by floatplane or passenger ferry from the south end of Lake Chelan near the town of Chelan, Washington. The area can be accessed by hiking trails through the Cascade Range during the summer months. During the summer, an off-road bus service operated by the NPS carries weary hikers to the town from the Pacific Crest Trail. Visitors to Lake Chelan NRA can get general information about the area at the Golden West Visitor Center located near the ferry landing.
The Buckner Homestead Historic District, Purple Point-Stehekin Ranger Station House, the one-room Stehekin School are located within the Lake Chelan NRA. They are all listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Ecology of the North Cascades National Park Service: Lake Chelan National Recreation Area
Buckner Mountain
Buckner Mountain is a tall peak in the North Cascades of Washington state and in the Stephen Mather Wilderness of North Cascades National Park. At 9,114 feet in elevation it is the highest in Skagit County and one of about ten of Washington's non-volcanic peaks above 9,000 feet high, it is ranked as the 14th highest peak in the state, the third highest peak in North Cascades National Park. The mountain has two summits of nearly the same elevation, separated by a ridgeline of a few hundred feet. Sources differ over the exact height of the southwestern summit; the current United States Geological Survey quadrangle shows the southwest summit to have an elevation between 9080 and 9119 feet. According to Peakbagger.com the southwestern peak is the higher one, at 9,114 ft, based on Edward Earl's pixel analysis of the height of the peak as derived from a digital photograph. The broader northeastern peak is agreed to be 9,112 ft. Noted climber Fred Beckey claims in his Cascade Alpine Guide books that the Southwest summit is two feet higher but gives no source for the claim and this approximation is second-hand since Beckey has never summitted Buckner.
Most mountain climbers visit the southwest peak since it is arrived at first via the standard Horseshoe Basin route. Buckner Mountain, with a prominence of 3,034 feet, is the 51st most prominent peak in Washington state; the nearest higher peak is 4.13 miles to the east. Buckner Mountain is located on the border between Skagit counties, it is connected to Horseshoe Peak, Boston Peak, Sahale Mountain to the west by Ripsaw Ridge, which marks the county line for several miles. Cascade Pass is located a few miles south of Sahale Mountain. Boston Glacier, the largest glacier of the North Cascades, covers the entire region north of Ripsaw Ridge. South of Ripsaw Ridge the terrain slopes down into the vast Horseshoe Basin, from which some the headwater tributaries of the Stehekin River flow. Long high ridges extend from Buckner Mountain east to Park Creek Pass, south to Booker Mountain and Park Creek Ridge. Other glaciers near Buckner Mountain include Thunder Glacier, to the north, Buckner Glacier, to the south.
Buckner Mountain marks the boundary between the Skagit River watershed, to the west, the Columbia River watershed, to the east, via the Columbia's tributaries: Chelan River, Chelan Lake and Stehekin River. Buckner Mountain is one of the more accessible high peaks of Washington, being located just east of Cascade Pass and a well-maintained trail. Boston Glacier, on the mountains northern face, has become one of the best known ice climbs in the North Cascades. Buckner Mountain is named for Henry Freeland Buckner, who in the early 20th century managed a mining company which had claims in Horseshoe Basin, southwest of the peak. List of mountains of the United States List of mountains by elevation "Mount Buckner". SummitPost.org. Retrieved 2009-06-06
North Cascades
The North Cascades are a section of the Cascade Range of western North America. They span the border between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U. S. state of Washington and are named in the U. S. and Canada as the Cascade Mountains. The portion in Canada is known to Americans as the Canadian Cascades, a designation that includes the mountains above the east bank of the Fraser Canyon as far north as the town of Lytton, at the confluence of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers, they are predominantly non-volcanic, but include the stratovolcanoes Mount Baker, Glacier Peak and Coquihalla Mountain, which are part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. The U. S. section of the North Cascades and the adjoining Skagit Range in British Columbia are most notable for their dramatic scenery and challenging mountaineering, both resulting from their steep, rugged topography. While most of the peaks are under 10,000 feet in elevation, the low valleys provide great local relief over 6,000 feet; the summits of the rest of the Canadian Cascades are not glaciated in the same way and feature rock "horns" rising from plateau-like uplands, with the Manning Park and Cathedral Park areas known for their extensive alpine meadows, as is the case with the eastern flank of the US portion of the range.
Portions of the US side of the range are protected as part of North Cascades National Park. The large amount of precipitation, much of it in the form of snow, the resulting glaciation, combine with the regional uplift to create a dramatic landscape in the western part of the range. Deep, U-shaped valleys carved by glaciers in Pleistocene time separate sharp ridges and peaks carved into steep shapes by more recent snow and ice; the eastern and northernmost parts of the range are much more plateau-like in character, though in the case of the northernmost areas graven by deep valleys along the flank of the Fraser Canyon, notably that of the Anderson River. The Fraser River and the adjoining lowland on its south bank form the northern and northwestern boundary of the range. On the east, the Okanogan River and the Columbia River bound the range in the United States, while the northeastern boundary of the range departs the Thompson via the Nicoamen River and runs via Lawless Creek, the Tulameen River and Copper Creek to the Similkameen River.
On the west, the foothills of the range are separated by a narrow coastal plain from Puget Sound except along Chuckanut Drive between Bellingham and Mount Vernon, where they abut the Sound directly. The southern boundary of the North Cascades is less definite. For the purposes of this article, it will be taken as U. S. Highway 2, running over Stevens Pass, or equivalently, the Skykomish River, Nason Creek, the lower Wenatchee River; this follows Beckey's geologic division in Cascade Alpine Guide and the definition used by Peakbagger.com. Sometimes the southern boundary is defined by Snoqualmie Pass and the approximate route of Interstate 90. Sometimes the term "North Cascades" or "northern Cascades" is used for the entire range north of the Columbia River. Geologically, the rocks of the North Cascades extend south beyond Stevens Pass and west into the San Juan Islands; the significance of the geologic transitions to the Okanagan Highland to the east and the Interior Plateau and Coast Mountains to the north are less agreed upon.
The climate in the North Cascades varies by location and elevation. The western slope of the range is cool, with 60 to 250 inches of precipitation per year; this produces a temperate rain forest climate in the low valleys, which grades into montane and alpine climates on mountain slopes and peaks. Summers are comparatively dry, with far less precipitation than in winter. Sometimes, the storms move downwind into lowland cities; the eastern slope lies in the rain shadow of the range, since prevailing winds and most moisture come from the west, hence is drier than the western side of the main divide, becoming semi-arid in the eastern lowlands. As with most mountainous areas, precipitation increases with increasing elevation; as a result, there is a great deal of winter glaciation in the high North Cascades. The eastern slopes and mountain passes can receive significant snowfall. Cold Arctic air can flow south from British Columbia through the Okanogan River valley into the bowl-like basin east of the Cascades.
Cold air damming causes this Arctic air to bank up along the eastern Cascade slopes into the lower passes, such as Snoqualmie Pass and Stevens Pass. The milder, Pacific-influenced air moving east over the Cascades is forced aloft by the cold air held in place in the passes due to cold air damming; as a result, the passes receive more snow than higher areas in the Cascades. This effect makes the low elevation ski resorts at Snoqualmie Pass and Stevens Pass possible. North Cascades Skagit Range Picket Range Chuckanut Mountains Entiat Mountains Chelan Mountains Methow Mountains Skagit River Group Canadian Cascades Skagit Range Hope Mountains Cheam Range Hozameen Range Bedded Range Okanagan Range Coquihalla Range Llamoid Group Anderson River Group The bulk of the North Cascades consists of "deformed and metamorphosed, structurally complex pre-Tertiary rocks"; these originated in diverse locations around the globe: the area is built of several different terranes of different ages and origins. These terranes are separated by a series of ancient faults, the most significant being the Straight Creek
Agriculture
Agriculture is the science and art of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities; the history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Pigs and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture into the twenty-first. Modern agronomy, plant breeding, agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, technological developments have increased yields, while causing widespread ecological and environmental damage. Selective breeding and modern practices in animal husbandry have increased the output of meat, but have raised concerns about animal welfare and environmental damage.
Environmental issues include contributions to global warming, depletion of aquifers, antibiotic resistance, growth hormones in industrial meat production. Genetically modified organisms are used, although some are banned in certain countries; the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers and raw materials. Food classes include cereals, fruits, meat, milk and eggs. Over one-third of the world's workers are employed in agriculture, second only to the service sector, although the number of agricultural workers in developed countries has decreased over the centuries; the word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, "field", which in its turn came from Greek αγρός, cultūra, "cultivation" or "growing". While agriculture refers to human activities, certain species of ant and ambrosia beetle cultivate crops. Agriculture is defined with varying scopes, in its broadest sense using natural resources to "produce commodities which maintain life, including food, forest products, horticultural crops, their related services".
Thus defined, it includes arable farming, animal husbandry and forestry, but horticulture and forestry are in practice excluded. The development of agriculture enabled the human population to grow many times larger than could be sustained by hunting and gathering. Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, included a diverse range of taxa, in at least 11 separate centres of origin. Wild grains were eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Rice was domesticated in China between 11,500 and 6,200 BC with the earliest known cultivation from 5,700 BC, followed by mung and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 11,000 years ago. Cattle were domesticated from the wild aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey and Pakistan some 10,500 years ago. Pig production emerged in Eurasia, including Europe, East Asia and Southwest Asia, where wild boar were first domesticated about 10,500 years ago.
In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, llamas and guinea pigs. Sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago. Cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, was independently domesticated in Eurasia. In Mesoamerica, wild teosinte was bred into maize by 6,000 years ago. Scholars have offered multiple hypotheses to explain the historical origins of agriculture. Studies of the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies indicate an initial period of intensification and increasing sedentism. Wild stands, harvested started to be planted, came to be domesticated. In Eurasia, the Sumerians started to live in villages from about 8,000 BC, relying on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and a canal system for irrigation. Ploughs appear in pictographs around 3,000 BC. Farmers grew wheat, vegetables such as lentils and onions, fruits including dates and figs.
Ancient Egyptian agriculture relied on its seasonal flooding. Farming started in the predynastic period at the end of the Paleolithic, after 10,000 BC. Staple food crops were grains such as wheat and barley, alongside industrial crops such as flax and papyrus. In India, wheat and jujube were domesticated by 9,000 BC, soon followed by sheep and goats. Cattle and goats were domesticated in Mehrgarh culture by 8,000–6,000 BC. Cotton was cultivated by the 5th-4th millennium BC. Archeological evidence indicates an animal-drawn plough from 2,500 BC in the Indus Valley Civilisation. In China, from the 5th century BC there was a nationwide granary system and widespread silk farming. Water-powered grain mills were in use followed by irrigation. By the late 2nd century, heavy ploughs had been developed with iron mouldboards; these spread westwards across Eurasia. Asian rice was domesticated 8,200–13,500 years ago – depending on the molecular clock estimate, used – on the Pearl River in southern China with a single genetic origin from the wild rice Oryza rufipogon
River mouth
A river mouth is the part of a river where the river debouches into another river, a lake, a reservoir, a sea, or an ocean. The water from a river can enter the receiving body in a variety of different ways; the motion of a river is influenced by the relative density of the river compared to the receiving water, the rotation of the earth, any ambient motion in the receiving water, such as tides or seiches. If the river water has a higher density than the surface of the receiving water, the river water will plunge below the surface; the river water will either form an underflow or an interflow within the lake. However, if the river water is lighter than the receiving water, as is the case when fresh river water flows into the sea, the river water will float along the surface of the receiving water as an overflow. Alongside these advective transports, inflowing water will diffuse. At the mouth of a river, the change in flow condition can cause the river to drop any sediment it is carrying; this sediment deposition can generate a variety of landforms, such as deltas, sand bars and tie channels.
Many places in the United Kingdom take their names from their positions at the mouths of rivers, such as Plymouth and Great Yarmouth. Confluence River delta Estuary Liman
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous 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 and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
