More on the Geology of Glacier

Sorry for the poor grammar in the last post.

Now more on Glacier.

The structure that the Glaciers in the Park have carved amazing valleys out of is known as a thrust belt. This means basically that older rocks due to a compressional force find a plane of weakness and move up and over younger rocks which they sit beneath. The maximum extent of this movement has been estimated through illite crystallography to be around 100km. If you consider that one earthquake registering 8.0-9.0 (a world class earth quake) on the Richter scale general moves rocks only about 1 meter you start to realize that the amount of force it takes to build up mountains like that. The end result if you can imagine the world 60-65 million years ago would have been mountains about 5km higher than they are today's erosional level.

We didn't get to spend too much time talking about the Glaciers but evidence of them abounds the park. Unfortunately, according to NP research all the Glaciers will be gone by 2020.

Some of you may have heard of the channelized scablands in Washington state. It has been hypothesized, as early as 1903, that they were caused by a rapidly melting glacier. Today, we got to see some of the best evidence supporting the idea that glacial lakes, glacial melt water clogged up by a moraine (a huge pile of dirt deposited at the maximum extent of glaciation), breaching their confines caused the release of water needed to create the scablands. Research done on antidunes (they were 30 feet tall) and dunes created by the bursting of Paleo-lake Missoula suggest that a lake larger than lake Eire (spelling) emptied towards Washington in under 2 days. Additionally, it is entirely possible this has happened more than once.

Really really cool stuff huh.

Okay, I am going to go review some notes and hit the sack.

Dad and Mom, I got both of your letters. Thanks!