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Long Mountain (Hampshire County, Massachusetts)
Long Mountain, feet above sea level, is a traprock mountain of the Holyoke Range, part of the greater Metacomet Ridge which stretches from Long Island Sound to nearly the Vermont border. The mountain rises steeply from the surrounding landscape below and consists of five distinct peaks, from east to west: , , , , the high point, and the eastern summit, . It is located within the towns of Amherst and Granby, Massachusetts. The Metacomet-Monadnock Trail and the Robert Frost Trail traverse the mountain. The Holyoke Range continues to the west as Mount Norwottuck and to the east as Harris Mountain. Geology and ecology Long Mountain, like much of the Metacomet Ridge, is composed of basalt, also called traprock, a volcanic rock. The mountain formed near the end of the Triassic Period with the rifting apart of the North American continent from Africa and Eurasia. Lava welled up from the rift and solidified into sheets of strata hundreds of feet thick. Subsequent faulting and eart ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Norwottuck
Mount Norwottuck or Mount Norwottock, above sea level, is the highest peak of the Holyoke Range of traprock mountains located in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts and part of the greater Metacomet Ridge which stretches from Long Island Sound to nearly the Vermont border. The peak rises steeply from the valley below and offers sweeping views of the surrounding countryside. It is located within the towns of Amherst and Granby, Massachusetts. Description and history Mount Norwottuck received its name from Edward Hitchcock, a former professor of geology at Amherst College with a colorful history. Hitchcock coined the term "Scenographical Geology" in 1841 to describe the dramatic geologic landscape of the Holyoke Range. Originally called Hilliard Knob, Hitchcock applied the Native American name '' Norwottuck'' to the mountain. Norwottuck is the Indian name of the village of Hadley. Hitchcock is also famous for suggesting that local dinosaur tracks discovered in the T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean. Because it is on the North American Plate, North American Tectonic Plate, Greenland is included as a part of North America geographically. North America covers an area of about , about 16.5% of Earth's land area and about 4.8% of its total surface. North America is the third-largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the list of continents and continental subregions by population, fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 579 million people in List of sovereign states and dependent territories in North America, 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of the world's population. In Americas (terminology)#Human ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mountains Of Hampshire County, Massachusetts
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher than a hill, typically rising at least 300 metres (1,000 feet) above the surrounding land. A few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in mountain ranges. Mountains are formed through tectonic forces, erosion, or volcanism, which act on time scales of up to tens of millions of years. Once mountain building ceases, mountains are slowly leveled through the action of weathering, through slumping and other forms of mass wasting, as well as through erosion by rivers and glaciers. High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level at similar latitude. These colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains: different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raymo, Chet
Chet Raymo (born September 17, 1936 in Chattanooga, Tennessee) is a noted writer, educator and naturalist. He is Professor Emeritus of Physics at Stonehill College, in Easton, Massachusetts. His weekly newspaper column ''Science Musings'' appeared in the Boston Globe for twenty years. This is now a daily blog by him. Raymo espouses his Religious Naturalism in ''When God is Gone Everything is Holy – The Making of a Religious Naturalist'' and frequently in his blog. As Raymo says – "I attend to this infinitely mysterious world with reverence, awe, thanksgiving, praise. All religious qualities." Raymo has been a contributor to ''The Notre Dame Magazine'' and ''Scientific American''. His most famous book is the novel entitled ''The Dork of Cork'', which was made into the feature-length film ''Frankie Starlight''. Raymo is also the author of ''Walking Zero'', a scientific and historical account of his wanderings along the Prime Meridian in Great Britain. Raymo was the recipient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Holyoke Range State Park
Mount Holyoke Range State Park is a state-owned, public recreation area encompassing the eastern half of the Holyoke Range in the Pioneer Valley region of Massachusetts. The state park is adjacent to J. A. Skinner State Park, which occupies the western half of the Holyoke Range. Both are managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. History According to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR), the Mount Holyoke Range State Park grew out of "a long-standing desire by the public and the Commonwealth to protect the range," and the state had been acquiring land in the area since 1940. Starting in 1975, the DCR made more focused efforts to acquire land or easements to create the park." Activities and amenities Park trails are used for hiking, horseback riding, and cross-country skiing. Trails include sections of the long-distance Metacomet-Monadnock and Robert Frost trails. A visitors center is located near "The Notch" on Route 116 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort River (Massachusetts)
The Fort River is a river in Western Massachusetts and is a tributary of the Connecticut River and runs through the towns of, Amherst, Massachusetts, and ends in Hadley, Massachusetts. The Fort technically begins as Adams Brook which begins at a pond near Atkin's Reservoir in Shutesbury, Massachusetts (however the ponds aren't part of the reservoir), and flows south-west ward until it reaches the spot where Amythest Brook flows into it, where it becomes the "Fort River." Although it has no dams or man-made structures on the river, some of the Fort's tributaries have reservoirs. The Fort River has a wide variety of wildlife due to it being the longest free-flowing tributary (having no dams or other man made changes made to the rivers shape or flow) of the Connecticut River. Because of this there is a lot of wildlife making it one of the 3 most diverse rivers in the state. Mussels, Eastern Pearlfish, Sea Lampreys, and American Eel The American eel (''Anguilla rostrata'') is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microclimate
A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square meters or square feet (for example a garden bed or a cave) or as large as many square kilometers or square miles. Because climate is statistical, which implies spatial and temporal variation of the mean values of the describing parameters, within a region there can occur and persist over time sets of statistically distinct conditions, that is, microclimates. Microclimates can be found in most places but are most pronounced in topographically dynamic zones such as mountainous areas, islands, coastal areas. Microclimates exist, for example, near bodies of water which may cool the local atmosphere, or in heavy urban areas where brick, concrete, and asphalt absorb the sun's energy, heat up, and re-radiate that heat to the ambient air: t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scree
Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically have a concave upwards form, where the maximum inclination corresponds to the angle of repose of the mean debris particle size. The exact definition of scree in the primary literature is somewhat relaxed, and it often overlaps with both ''talus'' and ''colluvium''. The term ''scree'' comes from the Old Norse term for landslide, ''skriða'', while the term ''talus'' is a French word meaning a slope or embankment. In high-altitude arctic and subarctic regions, scree slopes and talus deposits are typically adjacent to hills and river valleys. These steep slopes usually originate from late-Pleistocene periglacial processes. Notable scree sites in Eastern North America include the Ice Caves at White Rocks National Recreation Area in southern Ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those that are so weak that they cannot be felt, to those violent enough to propel objects and people into the air, damage critical infrastructure, and wreak destruction across entire cities. The seismic activity of an area is the frequency, type, and size of earthquakes experienced over a particular time period. The seismicity at a particular location in the Earth is the average rate of seismic energy release per unit volume. The word ''tremor'' is also used for Episodic tremor and slip, non-earthquake seismic rumbling. At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by shaking and displacing or disrupting the ground. When the epicenter of a large earthquake is located offshore, the seabed may be displaced sufficiently to cause ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fault (geology)
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic forces, with the largest forming the boundaries between the plates, such as the megathrust faults of subduction zones or transform faults. Energy release associated with rapid movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes. Faults may also displace slowly, by aseismic creep. A ''fault plane'' is the plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault. A ''fault trace'' or ''fault line'' is a place where the fault can be seen or mapped on the surface. A fault trace is also the line commonly plotted on geologic maps to represent a fault. A ''fault zone'' is a cluster of parallel faults. However, the term is also used for the zone of crushed rock along a single fault. Prolonged motion along closely spaced faults can blur the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lava
Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or underwater, usually at temperatures from . The volcanic rock resulting from subsequent cooling is also often called ''lava''. A lava flow is an outpouring of lava during an effusive eruption. (An explosive eruption, by contrast, produces a mixture of volcanic ash and other fragments called tephra, not lava flows.) The viscosity of most lava is about that of ketchup, roughly 10,000 to 100,000 times that of water. Even so, lava can flow great distances before cooling causes it to solidify, because lava exposed to air quickly develops a solid crust that insulates the remaining liquid lava, helping to keep it hot and inviscid enough to continue flowing. The word ''lava'' comes from Italian and is probably derived from the Latin word ''labes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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