Unit 4b

• Geyser: hot water spring
• Yosemite National Park:

  • Location: Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, USA
  • Western side of the continent
  • Covers an area of 302,694 hectares
• Yosemite was made a national park in 1890 to protect its outstanding natural beauty for future generations, including valleys, granite domes, waterfalls, giant sequoias, and mountain wilderness
• Physical processes that created Yosemite National Park:

  • 50 million years ago: River Merced ran through gently rolling hills
  • 10 to 3 million years ago: Earth movement forced up the land to create Sierra Nevada Mountains, Merced cuts out a deep canyon-like valley
  • 1 million to 25,000 years ago: Glaciers fill the main valley and side ones, deepening and widening them
  • Melting glaciers leave behind a very deep valley, glacial lakes, waterfalls, and roches moutonnées
• Restrictions for visitors in US parks:

  • Not damaging or removing any natural or historic features
  • Not feeding the animals
  • Keeping to marked trails
  • Placing litter and recyclable items in the correct trash cans
• Sequoias: very large coniferous trees found in North America
• Roches moutonnées: very large rocks smoothed by glacial erosion on one side and more rugged on the other
• Granite: hard, crystalline, igneous rock
• Country park: smaller areas of land, often close to towns and cities for recreation and conservation, usually managed by the local council
• Hectare: area of land 100 metres by 100 metres square
• • National park: large protected area of natural beauty