1. Pikes Peak Colorado
By: Liz Morgan
http://www.visitcos.com/sites/default/files/images/PikesPeakRampartRoad.jpg
2. Elevation: 14, 115 feet
Located 10 miles (16 km) west of the city of Colorado Springs
Pikes Peak is the easternmost fourteen thousand foot peak
in the United States
Most visited mountain in North America
2nd most visited mountain in the world
In 1859, a gold rush occurred at
Pikes Peak, “Pikes Peak or Bust”
Facts About Pikes Peak
http://www.colorado-springs-vacation.com/images/cascade-colorado-
pikes-peak-or-bust.jpg
5. Nearly 1.05 billion years ago, during the Precambrian period,
hot magma pushed up from the Earth’s core and formed a
batholith, or large intrusion of igneous rock.
This rock formation never made it to the Earth’s surface until
the Earth’s crust went through the process of sea floor
spreading at the mid-Atlantic Ridge.
After a period of time when the seawater and additional
sedimentary rock covered the area, another up thrust of the
Earth’s surface occurred. This process, an orogenic uplift
(tectonic plate collisions), caused hardened rock from beneath
Earth’s crust to elevate, creating a dome-like mountain.
Formation of Pikes Peak
http://www.travellogs.us/2006Logs/Colorado%202006/Pikes%20Peak%2028-06/pp_3418.jpg
7. Mechanical weathering and erosion caused by glaciers and their
runoff, or “frost wedging”, has helped to form many features of Pike
Peak Mountain.
Water seeps into the micro fine joints and cracks, causing the
alternation of freezing and thawing inside the rocks, splitting them
apart.
Fluctuation in temperature changes causes expansion and
contraction of the mineral particles found on the mountain, breaking
the minerals apart.
Erosion has occurred from dirt trails and roads made to accompany
off-road vehicle use, hiking, and biking.
Alteration of Pikes Peak by
Erosional Processes
http://letslearngeology.com/website/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/frost-wedging-rock1.jpg
9. Animals such as
squirrels, porcupines, beavers, skunks, rabbits, coyote
s, foxes, elk, black bears and mountain lions play a
factor in rock disintegration on Pikes Peak.
The penetrating growth of plants and their
roots, such as tundra
grasses, mosses, sedges, lichens, grass
meadows, ponderosa pine, pinyon, juniper
woodlands, Goldenrod, Larkspur and Sagebrush
surround the rocks and large boulders, breaking them
apart.
Biological Weathering
http://skywalker.cochise.edu/welle
rr/students/pikespeak/project_files
/image013.jpg
http://pikespeak.us.com/images/ma
rmot_pp_9400.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GC-
ssBUjTkc/TLm2Kl_QwuI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/Ei0K0HGR_NA/s1600/DS
CN0269.jpg
11. About three million years ago, during the Pleistocene
period, large glaciers formed during the ice age.
These glaciers reshaped the surface of Pikes Peak through
the process of erosion, transportation, and deposition.
Erosion: movement of the ice scraping against the bedrock
caused gouges in the rock of the mountain.
Transportation: rock debris that was plucked from the
bedrock was frozen to the bottom of the glacier and
transported with the movement of the glacier.
Deposition: When the glacier melted, the rock debris was
deposited into a completely different region, reshaping the
landscape.
http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/images/glaciation/arete.jpg
Glacial Modification of Pikes Peak
13. Pikes Peak consists entirely of Pink Granite.
The color is due to large amounts of potassium
feldspar found in the granite.
Formed from magma that cooled and crystallized at
least 20 miles beneath Earth’s surface.
Composition of Pikes Peak
http://0.tqn.com/d/geology/1/0/p/A/1/pikespeakspar.jpg http://photos-ak.sparkpeople.com/nw/9/8/l981801155.jpg
14. Berry, Raymond R. "Goethite Inclusions in Quartz from the Pikes Peak Granite." Academic Search
Premier 76, no. 4 (2001): Accessed March 15, 2013.
City of Colorado Springs - HOME. "City of Colorado Springs - History." Last modified 2012.
http://www.springsgov.com/Page.aspx?NavID=86.
Pikes Peak Colorado - The planet's most comprehensive source of information about Pikes Peak -
America's Mountain. "Geology of Pikes Peak." Last modified 2009.
http://pikespeak.us.com/Learn/geology.html.
Hess, Darrel, and Tom L. McKnight. McKnight's Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation,
10th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011.
Pikes Peak Colorado - The planet's most comprehensive source of information about Pikes Peak -
America's Mountain. "Life Zones on Pikes Peak." Last modified 2009.
http://pikespeak.us.com/Learn/life-zones.html.
"Pikes Peak Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." In Pikes Peak. 2013. Accessed March 15, 2013.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikes_Peak.
Bibliography
