Yosemite National Park By: Griffin Simmons

Earth Scientists – look at this playground! Come and research! Come and enjoy! Help us keep the beauty!

Here’s Where Yosemite is at!

Yosemite National Park The Yosemite Valley became a national park in It became a national park because people were worried the Yosemite Valley would be destroyed by: grazing (farm and wild game animals) T timber use (people cutting down trees)

Yosemite National Park 500 million years ago the Sierra Nevada was beneath an ancient sea (1). The sediment bottom and molten rock – rose over time to form granite. Glaciers carved valleys a river cut a canyon The park is 2,000 feet to 13,000 feet above sea level in the earth’s crust. There are giant sequoia trees, waterfalls, cliffs and rock formations in this park.

The park mostly is made up of many varieties of granite rock (mostly over time from magna material). There is a little bit of metamorphic rock (2).

The Sierra Nevada Mountain range is in the park. The park has flat lands or meadows that are at sea level along its west edge and the mountains go up to 13,000 feet above sea level. The highest peak in the continental United States is Mount Whitney is in the park. Also the granite is shaped into landforms like cliffs, Hetch Hetchy Valleys, higher peaks in the park, and domes of rock. There are many lakes in the park. All lakes in the park are made from glaciers (2).

The Park is Changing: Glaciers and Spring floods are reshaping the land. The floods move rocks and soil.

Environmental Issues Global warming is making the plants and animals move to higher area to stay cool. Meadows, riverbanks, and oak woodlands are sensitive and have been hurt by human use over time. Many people visit the park every year. This is causing the erosion of roads and paths over time. New plants and animals that have not lived in Yosemite before are slowly moving in and changing things (scientist fear the New Zealand mud snail which can cover a riverbed changing the current ecosystem.). (3)

Technology Preserving Yosemite Over ½ of all of the State of California’s water supply comes from the high elevation of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the run off from snow- melt. “However, new sensor and wireless communication technologies designed for low maintenance operation, low power consumption and small, unobtrusive footprints are providing new opportunities to monitor mountainous watersheds. Such technologies will allow a significant expansion of data collection vital for understanding, predicting and informing about the variability of climate and water resources in the State and the Nation.” (Picture shows Park HydroMet monitoring system.) (4)

Yosemite National Park Bibliography (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)