Flying back to Denver, yesterday, we changed planes in Seattle. On that second flight, we took off to the south, soon passing the massive bulk of Mt. Ranier, to our east. Curving southeastward, we then caught sight of the remnant cone of Mt. St. Helens to our southwest and, within a few minutes, flew over the snowy crest of Mt. Adams. Next came the distinctive form of Mt. Hood, across the Columbia River Valley, and other prominent summits farther south; unfortunately, haze obscured the distant horizon and I was unable to locate Mt. Shasta, in Northern California.
Having formed over the past 36 million years, as the Farallon and its remnant Juan de Fuca Plate have been subducting beneath the North American Plate, the Cascades stretch from west-central Washington to Northern California and continue to form today. Indeed, many Cascade volcanoes have developed and eroded (or exploded) away during that time and the prominent volcanic peaks mentioned above are less than 2 million years old; the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, in 1980, was a clear indication that the range is still evolving.
East of the Cascades, is the high, dry desert of the Great Basin, stretching from eastern Oregon and California across Nevada, southernmost Idaho and western Utah. Fault-block ranges, running north to south, are separated by broad valleys which harbor sage grasslands, seasonal rivers, sinks, ephemeral lakes and a few large saline lakes. Unfortunately, clouds obscured the mountains of Utah and Colorado until we crossed the Front Range above Rocky Mountain National Park and descended into Metro Denver.
Having formed over the past 36 million years, as the Farallon and its remnant Juan de Fuca Plate have been subducting beneath the North American Plate, the Cascades stretch from west-central Washington to Northern California and continue to form today. Indeed, many Cascade volcanoes have developed and eroded (or exploded) away during that time and the prominent volcanic peaks mentioned above are less than 2 million years old; the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, in 1980, was a clear indication that the range is still evolving.
East of the Cascades, is the high, dry desert of the Great Basin, stretching from eastern Oregon and California across Nevada, southernmost Idaho and western Utah. Fault-block ranges, running north to south, are separated by broad valleys which harbor sage grasslands, seasonal rivers, sinks, ephemeral lakes and a few large saline lakes. Unfortunately, clouds obscured the mountains of Utah and Colorado until we crossed the Front Range above Rocky Mountain National Park and descended into Metro Denver.
