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West Elk Mountains
The West Elk Mountains are a high mountain range in the west-central part of the U.S. state of Colorado. They lie primarily within the Gunnison National Forest, and part of the range is protected as the West Elk Wilderness. The range is primarily located in Gunnison County, with small parts in eastern Delta and Montrose counties. The West Elks are surrounded by tributaries of the Gunnison River. The range is bounded on the north by the North Fork of the Gunnison and on the east by the East River, another tributary of the Gunnison. On the south and west it is contiguous with Black Mesa and Fruitland Mesa, both part of the uplift in which sits the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. On the northeast it is contiguous with the Elk Mountains, being separated from them by Anthracite Creek and Coal Creek. Nearby towns include Gunnison, Paonia, and the ski resort of Crested Butte. Geology The northern and southern West Elk Mountains have contrasting geologic histories and surface features ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whetstone Mountain
Whetstone Mountain, elevation , is a summit in the Gunnison National Forest of western Colorado. The mountain is located south of Crested Butte in Gunnison County. Whetstone Mountain is one of several prominent laccoliths found in the West Elk Mountains. Geology Whetstone Mountain is a laccolith, formed when magma intruded into sedimentary strata of Mancos Shale and the Mesaverde Formation approximately 30 million years ago. Subsequent erosion has removed the softer, overlying sedimentary rock thereby exposing the more resistant igneous rock that characterizes the mountain today. The mountain is composed of quartz monzonite porphyry and granodiorite porphyry. Whetstone Mountain was glaciated, and the most prominent glacial cirques are located on the north side of the mountain. The mountain's name stems from rock collected in the area by the Hayden Survey during the early 1870s. Whetstones (also called hornfels) are contact metamorphic rocks useful for sharpening tools. Hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal Creek (Crested Butte, Colorado)
Coal Creek may refer to: Australia *Coal Creek, Queensland, a locality in the Somerset Region *Coal Creek, Victoria, a town Canada *Coal Creek (British Columbia), a creek *Coal Creek, British Columbia, a ghost town United States Populated places * Coal Creek Historic Mining District, in Coal Creek, Alaska * Coal Creek, Boulder County, Colorado, a census-designated place * Coal Creek, Fremont County, Colorado, a town * Coal Creek, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Coal Creek Station, a power plant in North Dakota * Rocky Top, Tennessee, originally named Coal Creek * Coal Creek, Washington, an unincorporated community Rivers and streams * Coal Creek (Henry County, Missouri), creek in Missouri * Coal Creek (Susquehanna River), creek in Pennsylvania * Mahanoy Creek, known locally as Coal Creek, Pennsylvania * Coal Creek (Clinch River tributary), a tributary stream of the Clinch River in Tennessee * Coal Creek (Iron County, Utah) a stream in Cedar Valley, Utah * Coal Cree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East Beckwith Mountain
East Beckwith Mountain is a prominent mountain summit in the West Elk Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The peak is located in the West Elk Wilderness of Gunnison National Forest, west by south ( bearing 264°) of the Town of Crested Butte in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. Geology East Beckwith Mountain is a laccolith, formed when magma intruded into Mancos Shale approximately 30 million years ago. Subsequently, the softer, overlying sedimentary rock has eroded away, exposing the more resistant igneous rock. East Beckwith Mountain is one of over a dozen laccoliths in the West Elk and adjacent Elk Mountains. Of these laccoliths, East Beckwith Mountain is noted for its distinctive glacial landforms. On the north side of this elongated, east–west oriented mountain, there are five glacially carved cirques with intervening arêtes, and moraines fan out from the mountain's base. Historical names *East Beckwith Mountain *Mount Beckwith See als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Gunnison
Mount Gunnison is a prominent mountain summit in the West Elk Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The peak is located in the West Elk Wilderness of Gunnison National Forest, west by south ( bearing 260°) of the Town of Crested Butte in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. The mountain is named in honor of John Williams Gunnison who explored the area. Mountain See also * List of Colorado mountain ranges * List of Colorado mountain summits **List of Colorado fourteeners ** List of Colorado 4000 meter prominent summits **List of the most prominent summits of Colorado *List of Colorado county high points This is a list of all 64 counties of the U.S. State of Colorado by their points of highest elevation. Of the 50 highest county high points in the United States, 30 are located in Colorado. The highest point in Colorado is the summit of Mount ... References External links West Elk Mountains Mountains of Gunnison County, Color ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcellina Mountain
Marcellina Mountain is a prominent mountain summit in the West Elk Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The peak is located in the Raggeds Wilderness of Gunnison National Forest, west by north ( bearing 287°) of the Town of Crested Butte in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. Mountain See also * List of Colorado mountain ranges * List of Colorado mountain summits **List of Colorado fourteeners ** List of Colorado 4000 meter prominent summits **List of the most prominent summits of Colorado *List of Colorado county high points This is a list of all 64 counties of the U.S. State of Colorado by their points of highest elevation. Of the 50 highest county high points in the United States, 30 are located in Colorado. The highest point in Colorado is the summit of Mount ... References External links West Elk Mountains Mountains of Gunnison County, Colorado Gunnison National Forest Mountains of Colorado North American 3000 m s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sedimentary Rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles to settle in place. The particles that form a sedimentary rock are called sediment, and may be composed of geological detritus (minerals) or biological detritus (organic matter). The geological detritus originated from weathering and erosion of existing rocks, or from the solidification of molten lava blobs erupted by volcanoes. The geological detritus is transported to the place of deposition by water, wind, ice or mass movement, which are called agents of denudation. Biological detritus was formed by bodies and parts (mainly shells) of dead aquatic organisms, as well as their fecal mass, suspended in water and slowly piling up on the floor of water bodies (marine snow). Sedimentation may also occur as dissolved minerals precipitate from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian reptiles, like the dinosaurs; an abundance of conifers and ferns; a hot Greenhouse and icehouse earth, greenhouse climate; and the tectonic break-up of Pangaea. The Mesozoic is the middle of the three eras since Cambrian explosion, complex life evolved: the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic. The era began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the largest well-documented mass extinction in Earth's history, and ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, another mass extinction whose victims included the non-avian dinosaurs, Pterosaur, pterosaurs, Mosasaur, mosasaurs, and Plesiosaur, plesiosaurs. The Mesozoic was a time of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mancos Shale
The Mancos Shale or Mancos Group is a Late Cretaceous (Upper Cretaceous) geologic formation of the Western United States. The Mancos Shale was first described by Cross and Purington in 1899 and was named for exposures near the town of Mancos, Colorado. Geology The unit is dominated by mudrock that accumulated in offshore and marine environments of the Cretaceous North American Inland Sea. The Mancos was deposited during the Cenomanian (locally Albian) through Campanian ages, approximately from 95 million years ago ( Ma) to 80 Ma. Stratigraphically the Mancos Shale fills the interval between the Dakota and the Mesaverde Group. The lower marine Mancos Shale conformably intertongues with terrestrial sandstones and mudstones of the Dakota and in its upper part grades into and intertongues with the Mesaverde Group. The shale tongues typically have sharp basal contacts and gradational upper contacts. Whereas in the plains east of the Rocky Mountains certain mappable marine sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intruded
Intrusive rock is formed when magma penetrates existing rock, crystallizes, and solidifies underground to form '' intrusions'', such as batholiths, dikes, sills, laccoliths, and volcanic necks.Intrusive RocksIntrusive rocks accessdate: March 27, 2017.Igneous intrusive rocks, accessdate: March 27, 2017.Britannica.comintrusive rock , geology , Britannica.com accessdate: March 27, 2017. Intrusion is one of the two ways igneous rock can form. The other is extrusion, such as a volcanic eruption or similar event. An intrusion is any body of intrusive igneous rock, formed from magma that cools and solidifies within the crust of the planet. In contrast, an ''extrusion'' consists of extrusive rock, formed above the surface of the crust. Some geologists use the term plutonic rock synonymously with intrusive rock, but other geologists subdivide intrusive rock, by crystal size, into coarse-grained plutonic rock (typically formed deeper in the Earth's crust in batholiths or stocks) an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magma
Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural satellites. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and gas bubbles. Magma is produced by melting of the mantle or the crust in various tectonic settings, which on Earth include subduction zones, continental rift zones, mid-ocean ridges and hotspots. Mantle and crustal melts migrate upwards through the crust where they are thought to be stored in magma chambers or trans-crustal crystal-rich mush zones. During magma's storage in the crust, its composition may be modified by fractional crystallization, contamination with crustal melts, magma mixing, and degassing. Following its ascent through the crust, magma may feed a volcano and be extruded as lava, or it may solidify underground to form an intrusion, such as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laccolith
A laccolith is a body of intrusive rock with a dome-shaped upper surface and a level base, fed by a conduit from below. A laccolith forms when magma (molten rock) rising through the Earth's crust begins to spread out horizontally, prying apart the host rock strata. The pressure of the magma is high enough that the overlying strata are forced upward, giving the laccolith its dome-like form. Over time, erosion can expose the solidified laccolith, which is typically more resistant to weathering than the host rock. The exposed laccolith then forms a hill or mountain. The Henry Mountains of Utah, US, are an example of a mountain range composed of exposed laccoliths. It was here that geologist Grove Karl Gilbert carried out pioneering field work on this type of intrusion. Laccolith mountains have since been identified in many other parts of the world. Description A laccolith is a type of igneous intrusion, formed when magma forces its way upwards through the Earth's crust b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crested Butte, Colorado
Crested Butte is a home rule municipality located in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 1,639 at the 2020 United States Census. The former coal mining town is now called "the last great Colorado ski town". Crested Butte is a destination for skiing, mountain biking, and outdoor activities. The Colorado General Assembly in 1990 designated Crested Butte the wildflower capital of Colorado. History The East River Valley where Crested Butte is located was once used as a summer residence by the Ute people. However, they were quickly displaced when European-Americans first entered the area. The first white people to explore the valley were beaver trappers, shortly followed by surveyors. Captain John Gunnison, after whom Gunnison County is named, was one of the early explorers to enter the area. In the 1860s and 1870s coal and silver mines began to open in the surrounding area, and many little mining towns formed. However, when silver mining began to d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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