1. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park Mike Chasten Elias Patino Cole Smith

2. General Information The park has free admission. It is the most popular park in the United States National Park System. The park has the highest population of salamanders in the United States.

3. Smoky Mountain Rock Composition The main rock composition found in the Smokies is metamorphosed sedimentary rock. Quartz is formed by igneous processes and is found all around the park. Schist is formed by metamorphosed processes of siltstone and is lineated. Gneiss is formed by metamorphism of granite and has large, vivid bands. Metamorphosed rock is caused by heat and pressure altering the composition of the rock. Sedimentary rock is caused by a cycle of erosion and deposition of small particles. Igneous rocks are formed by the cooling of magma and lava.

4. Plate Tectonics The ancient North American and African Plate were joined as part of Pangaea. The two plates slowly drifted apart, with an ocean forming between them. In this newly formed ocean, rose the Avalon and Piedmont Terrane. The Piedmont Terrane started to collide with the North American Plate, leaving land on top of the plate. The Avalon Terrane, an island arc formation, came soon after. Lastly, the African Plate collided with the North American Plate causing the buildup of the ancient and new land deposited by the past collisions to create many thrust faults. The effect of this happening was the formation of the Appalachian Mountain Chain which includes Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smokey Mountains National Park; the Great Smoky Mountains are two- hundred to three- hundred million years old, leaving them to be the some of the oldest formation in the world.

5. Erosion in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park The Great Smoky Mountains National Park contains large amounts of erosion, many of the forms of erosion appear in alluvial features. Alluvial features form at the mouth of rivers and streams. The result of all this erosion is the transport of sediment down the Mississippi River. The sediment can be found at the southernmost tip of the Mississippi, which contains the more popular beaches in the Gulf of Mexico.

6. Thrust Faults Thrust faults were the main cause of the buildup of the Appalachian Mountain Chain. A thrust fault is a horizontal break among plates in which one sheet of sediment moves on top of another sheet. In this example, the rocks cover thousands of miles and are thousands of feet thick, resulting in mountain size blocks of rock. The hinterland, being one block of earth, and the foreland, the other block collide to make these faults. The foreland, in the case of the Smokies, being the North American Plate collided with the hinterland Avalon, Piedmont, and African pieces of earth. As each terrane and lastly the African plate collide with the North American Plate, they caused vast uplift of the hinterland earth, causing mountain structures.

7. Geologic Features Clingman's Dome is the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. At 6,643 feet high, it is also the highest point in Tennessee. Guests are able to see sweeping views of the Smokies from an observation deck on top of the dome. However, guests have to take a half of a mile hike to get to the summit. Newfound Gap is the lowest drivable pass in the Smokies. Newfound Gap Road was placed in this low elevation gap and connects Cherokee, North Carolina to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Cades Cove is the most popular tourist destination in the Great Smoky Mountains. The attractions at this stop include wildlife viewing, hiking, bicycling, and the tourism of local historic sites. Cades Cove is a large, verdant valley with mountains all around. The area was once home to the Cherokee Indians.

8. Air Quality Air quality is a huge problem in the Smoky Mountains. Ground level Ozone (Made of nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and sunlight) is a pollutant. Power plants, automobiles, and factories contribute to this issue.

9. Works Cited Cades Cove - Great Smoky Mountains National Park. (n.d.). U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America. Retrieved April 8, 2012, from http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/cadescove.htm E, K., & D, H. (1999). 17. Geology of U.S. parklands (5th ed., pp. 814-830). Danvers: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Air Quality (U.S. National Park Service). (n.d.). U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America. Retrieved March 28, 2012, from http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/air-quality.htm Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Clingmans Dome (U.S. National Park Service). (n.d.). U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/clingmansdome.htm Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Geology (U.S. National Park Service). (n.d.). U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/geology.htm Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Newfound Gap (U.S. National Park Service). (n.d.). U.S. National Park Service - Experience Your America. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/nfg.htm Harris, A. G., Tuttle, E., & Tuttle, S. D. (2001). Geology of national parks (6th ed.). Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Pub. Co.. Horton, J., & Zullo, V. (1991). Blue Ridge Geologic Province. The geology of the Carolinas (p. 34). Knoxville: The University of Tennessee/ Knoxville. Lillie, R. J. (2005). Parks and plates: the geology of our national parks, monuments, and seashores. New York: W.W. Norton. Lynn, F., & Steve, B. (2000, September 13). A Primer on Appalachian Structural Geology. The Geologic Evolution of the Virginia and Mid-Atlantic Region. Retrieved April 8, 2012, from http://csmres.jmu.edu/geollab/vageol/vahist/struprimer.html Matmon, A., Bierman, P., Larsen, J., Pavich, M., Finkel, R., & Caffee, M. (n.d.). Erosion of an Ancient Mountain Range, The Great Smoky Mountains, North Carolina and Tennessee. American Journal of Science. Retrieved March 30, 2012, from http://www.ajsonline.org/content/303/9/817.abstract