Yosemite National Park is among the largest parks found in east-central California, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The park is located 160km south of Sacramento and 225km east of San Francisco City (Petcher, n.dd.). The Yosemite Village found in Yosemite Valley is the location for the park's headquarters. The park was established in 1890 after it was accredited by Congress and approved by President Benjamin Harrison, and under the stewardship of environmental trailblazer John Muir. The park is famous for its natural resources like the ancient sequoia trees, El Captain with its granitic cliffs, and the Half Dome, among others. The park is also renowned for its epic restaurants, shops, and Yosemite Museum. The park covers approximately an area of 3,029- kilometer square and sits in four counties of California State. Due to its natural and unique features, the park is the most famous in the Sierra Nevada. The park is surrounded by national forest lands covering nearly, 1,189 miles. Yosemite National Park was selected as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984 due to its composition. The park has many perks in the southern area like the Mount Lyell, which is approximately 3,997 meters in height and hence is the tallest summit in the park (Abbey et al., 2019). Other tall perks that cover Yosemite National Park include Mount Dan, Kuna Perk, Rodgers Peak, Mount Maclure, and Mount Gibbs. Valleys cover a significant portion of the park. Many Mountains in the park are higher than 3.700 m, thus are the tallest mountains in California. Apart from other beautiful natural fascinations in Yosemite National Park are many pristine lakes. The lakes provide aquatic life with shelter and water source for plants growing in the park. Some of the lakes in the park include Mirror Lake, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, Tenaya Lake, and many small lakes around Tuolumne Meadows and White Wolf. The Yosemite Valley stretches approximately 12.8km from west to east. This valley has granitic walls with a height that beats that of the Empire Building in double measure. It is believed to be one among the wonders of the world. This feature has been shaped by both erosion and weathering and glacial dynamics for over 30 million years, and few other places on the planet bear such a remarkable reputation. Getting a view of the valley for the first time as an individual leaves Wawona Tunnel is quite striking. The viewer gets a rare opportunity to visualize a long stretch to Half Dome., it is advised that a tourist should take a 1.2-mile hike on the upper parking lot of the tunnel to catch a glimpse of the valley's true beauty. The valley has significant landmarks including waterfalls like the Bridalveil Fall which has delicate white water falling 188.9m below a cliff with granitic rocks as seen in the image below. There is also the Cathedral beach attached to Yosemite Valley, and where one can stare at 1095m of El Capitan loom high above the valley (Yogerst, 2020). One would describe this spectacular view of Yosemite as a Holy Grail. The current geologic research of Yosemite National Park reveals that two major surface processes have been the source of most oceans, rivers, and waves. First, hard metamorphic rocks are deposited then deformed, which happens during the Mesozoic and Paleozoic phases, leading to the formation of rocks in the park. Erosion and glaciation are other processes that contribute to the formation of lakes, rivers, and oceans in the park (Abbey et al., 2019). The Yosemite topography has been primarily shaped by glacial activity. Ice Age glaciers significantly contributed to shaping the landscape of Yosemite, including valleys, mountains, cliffs, among others, through the natural warming process over 100 decades ago. In the most recent Little Ice Age, glaciers were formed at the highest peak of Maclure and Lyell, which have remained to date. Apart from providing water year-round, these glaciers play a vital role in creating new features through glaciation like glacial horns and cirques. River action also plays an essential role in shaping the topography of Yosemite National Park in many ways. Due to the variations in seasons, rivers flowing across the Yosemite landscape initiate erosive capabilities creating features like V-shaped valleys that are later reshaped by glacial activity in winter to form U-shaped valleys. This is the process by which Yosemite Valley was formed and has continually been shaped over the years. Approximately 80 million years ago, the initial speculation of what California would look like changed when this landmass underwent significant subduction. Magnificent slabs of what is believed to be older formations and Calaveras were scrapped down against North America's granites. Some of these granite materials were stuck into the moving rock mass. Sections of seafloor basalt are currently shown as bands of serpentinite in rocks after being scraped off. This process occurred intermittently over a long period as new sediments got formed at sea. The newly formed rocks are referred to as tombstone rocks or Mariposa plates which are seen along the Merced road in Yosemite. Approximately 60 million years ago, there was a significant change in plate boundaries. The North American plates and Pacific plates started moving Northwestward in California's vicinity (Avedesian, 1978). The North American Plate moved slower than the Pacific plate and a boundary formed at the San Andreas Fault. Rotational movements began after subduction stopped. Both plates are moving in the same manner, but the Sierra side is believed to be moving more to the coastal and southeastern sides. Historically, the park's location is associated with various tectonic processes resulting in natural calamities such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Recent research reveals that no significant volcanic eruption has been reported at the park for an extended period (Kamoroff et al., 2020). However, a low-magnitude volcanic eruption was reported on the park's northern side, which produced volcanic deposits. The volume of volcanic deposits was insignificant; thus, it does not lead to mass destruction, as reported in the Western of the United States, where many Volcanic eruptions occur (Kamoroff et al., 2020). There are reports that there is an impending volcanic eruption in the Yosemite area. According to an article in the Washington Post by Joel Achenbach (2018), the Yosemite National Park is likely to have a volcanic eruption due to its allegiance to the Yellowstone National Park which sits on top of a massive volcanic eruption. It may not have a massive explosion like the one Yellowstone might have, but these eruptions may occur in small portions but as a series. These eruptions are equally dangerous and disruptive according to a caretaker scientist who foresees the USGS California Volcano Observatory, Mangan. Mangan believes that California has seven volcanic regions with potent molten rock simmering underneath. If a volcanic eruption occurs in California, it will cause an earthquake because of the predicted magnitude of 6, which may distort the San Andreas Fault. However, the worry in California is not close to the volcanic eruptions. Instead, Californians worry about the earthquakes and tsunamis that may occur due to the volcanic eruptions. According to Scofield (2020), an earthquake is one of the most prevalent tectonic processes which frequently occur in California. Earthquakes are active tectonic processes in the Sierra Nevada, but they usually come at different magnitudes. The recent earthquakes near the park were reported near Yosemite Valley, located in northern California. Over the last 30 days, a total of 52 earthquakes has been reported near the park marking the site an area of active tectonic processes (Schofield et al., 2020). Geological stories about Yosemite National Park reveals that most of the park's components like rocks and minerals are formed through tectonic processes such as erosion and glaciation. These processes cause the weathering of mountains to form minerals and rocks. Even though erosion is rampant at the park, the recent glaciation started approximately 50,000 years ago (Schofield et al., 2020). Each glaciation adds a new layer of complexity and depth to the park's landscape, resulting in thousands of dazzling new natural features.
Ecological stories about the park also disclose that the site has ancient rocks. However, the vast majority of the park is covered by plutonic igneous rocks. These rocks are formed when large rocks solidify and allow crystals to form (Jenkins et al., 2019). The park comprises of volcanic igneous rocks and minerals formed when volcanic deposits and molten rocks form small crystals such as granite, granodiorite, quartz monzonite, and tonalities. Metamorphic rocks are also found in the park. These rocks are formed from sedimentary and volcanic rocks through metamorphosis (Gutierrez & Bursztyn, 2019). Lastly, tectonic processes of the earth's inner core lead to the formation of lakes and seas at the park leaving behind striking natural features.
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According to the National Park Service, Yosemite is dominated by granitic rocks. For example, Mount Hoffman is a mass of granitic rock that solidified beneath the surface and got exposed through erosion. Because of the durability of granite and its resistance to erosion, these rocks have evolved to form the cliffs of Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valley. Despite the dominance of these granitic rocks, they are a composite of various molten material that developed from a series of intrusions into other rock boulders or masses. Over time, the Yosemite National Park has evolved under the influence of various activities like glaciation. A prominent geological story posits that about 65 million years ago, when the Cretaceous time ended, and the granitic rock got exposed, the Yosemite area had a lower elevation compared to today mountains. Then, approximately 25 million years ago, the land started tilting and uplifting toward the southwest, and the Sierra Nevada was eventually formed. The gradient of the flow of the southwestward streams began to increase as the degree of the southwest tilt grew. The cutting aspect of fast-flowing streams continually formed deeper canyons. When an eruption occurred 10 million years ago, the canyons were buried, and the rivers were forced to change course (National Park Service, 2020). About three million years ago, the Sierra Nevada had risen to proportional levels and was capable of initiating significant impacts of glacial action that led to the formation cirques, V-shaped hill-side valleys, among others.
Yosemite National Park has been experiencing changes in weather and climate condition. However, the Mediterranean is the common climatic condition experienced in the park (Booth et al., 2020). The park also undergoes unpredicted weather changes characterized by hot and dry summers and mildly wet and cold winters. Summers are usually long with high temperatures characterized by little rainfall. Temperatures sometimes shoot to 90° F in July, when summer is at its peak, and lowers immensely during winter seasons up to 25 °F in January ( Booth et al., 2020). On the other hand, the park's elevation range between 2,000 feet to 13,000 feet above sea level and it experiences different climatic conditions with elevation changes. There is a fall in temperature, an upsurge in rain and snowfall as the altitude levels increase. Therefore, the park's management encourages tourists to confirm the park's weather and climate conditions before visiting. Between November and March, there is an abundance of snowfall of up to 1651mm. The worst time that an individual can consider visiting Yosemite is between November and March when the ground is soggy with snow. Trails are often impassable during this period because most rainfall also falls during this winter season (Yu Media Group, n.d.). The primary weather hazard in the park is forest fires which often occur during the long dry summers. Most of the rainfall happens in winter as the park receives about 94.9% of its precipitation, mostly between October and May and above 75% between March and April (Danforth et al., 2020). High altitude areas, above 2600 meters above sea level experience high rainfall than other places, sometimes up to 1270mm each year. Yosemite Park experiences blanketed snow from November through May during the winter, characterized by heavy rains and storms. Higher elevations receive more snow rising to more than 40 feet in winter months. The weather improves between autumn and spring in comparison with winter and summer months. Autumn months are characterized by cold nights and warm temperatures during the day while in spring the landscape experiences dramatic changes as snow begins to melt, and waterfalls increase in intensity and at the peak of their power occur in May. Spring temperatures shift from 70 °F during the day only to deep below zero in night. In the wake of climate change, specifically global warming, the glaciers on the tops of Yosemite's several mountains are likely to decline significantly. This change implies that the rate at which the glaciers are melting will increase unproportionally and release more water into the rivers and lakes around and increase the rivers' erosive action to shape the landscape even further. The tree line will also rise from the current level to higher levels in the mountains because the ice and glaciers shall be no more and the conditions in the elevated areas of the park become favorable for growth. Consequently, the Yosemite landscape will lose its aesthetic value and the landmass used for winter sporting shall also reduce, thus crippling tourism.
Conclusion
In summary, Yosemite National Park is one of the largest national parks in California with striking natural features. It is located in the scenic mountain region in east-central California comprised of mountains, lakes, sea, oceans, rivers, and rocks. The park covers a significant area that provides shelter for its inhabitants. Geological stories reveal that tectonic processes at the park lead to the formation of lakes, rivers, and rocks. The park experiences Mediterranean climatic conditions and weather changes annually with the summer months being hot and dry with most of the precipitation occurring during the winter months. Changes in the climatic conditions brought about by global warming continue to shape the landscape at Yosemite National Park. Glaciers are melting at a higher rate than they replenish opening up higher altitudes to tree cover as the increased water volume of the park rivers accelerates the shaping of the river valleys and galleys.
References
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