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Ansel Adams Wilderness
The Ansel Adams Wilderness is a wilderness area in the Sierra Nevada of California, United States. The wilderness spans ; 33.9% of the territory lies in the Inyo National Forest, 65.8% is in the Sierra National Forest, and the remaining 0.3% covers nearly all of Devils Postpile National Monument. Yosemite National Park lies to the north and northwest, while the John Muir Wilderness lies to the south. History The wilderness was established as part of the original Wilderness Act in 1964 as the Minarets Wilderness. The Minarets Wilderness was created by enlarging and renaming the Mount Dana-Minarets Primitive Area. In 1984, after his death, the area was expanded and renamed in memory of Ansel Adams, well-known environmentalist and nature photographer who is famous for his black-and-white landscape photographs of the Sierra Nevada. Geography and geology The Ansel Adams wilderness spans in elevation from , forming the northern end of the High Sierra. The centerpiece of the Ansel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madera County, California
Madera County (), officially the County of Madera, is a County (United States), county located at the geographic center of the U.S. state of California. It features a varied landscape, encompassing the eastern San Joaquin Valley and the central Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada, with Madera, California, Madera serving as the county seat. Established in 1893 from part of Fresno County, California, Fresno County, Madera County reported a population of 156,255 in the 2020 census. "Madera," meaning "wood" in Spanish, signifies the county's historical ties to the lumber industry. With a section of Yosemite National Park within its borders, Madera County has leveraged tourism as a key economic driver. Additionally, it has established itself as a leading agricultural center, renowned for its substantial production of almonds, grapes, and pistachios. Despite these economic advantages, Madera County encounters socioeconomic challenges, including a median household income that falls bel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landscape Photography
Landscape photography (often shortened to landscape photos) captures the world's outdoor spaces, sometimes vast and unending and other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on human-made features or disturbances of the land. Landscape photography is created for a variety of reasons, one of the most common being capturing the experience of the outdoors.Caputo, Robert"Landscape Photography Tips" ''National Geographic,'' August 2007, (from ''Photography Field Guide: Landscapes and Ultimate Photography Field Guide: Landscapes'')McNeal, Kevin with interviewer Dimitri Vasileiou"In Conversation... Kevin McNeal", ''Landscape Photography Magazine'', 2014 Edition, p.34Ellement, Brad (U.K."Featured Artist: Brad Ellement", ''Landscape Photography Magazine,'' 2014 Edition, p.56Vasilakis, Konstantinos"Portfolio", ''Landscape Photography Magazine'', 2014 Edition, p.88 Many landscape photographs show little to no human activity and are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lodgepole Pine
''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine, but is rare in lowland rain forests. Like all pines (member species of the genus ''Pinus''), it is an evergreen conifer. Description Depending on subspecies, ''Pinus contorta'' grows as an evergreen shrub or tree. The shrub form is krummholz and is approximately high. The thin and narrow-crowned tree can grow high and achieve up to in diameter at chest height. The ''murrayana'' subspecies is the tallest. The crown is rounded and the top of the tree is flattened. In dense forests, the tree has a slim, conical crown. The formation of twin trees is common in some populations in British Columbia. The elastic branches stand upright or overhang and are difficult to break. The branches are covered with short shoots that are easy to rem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fellfield
A fellfield or fell field comprises the environment of a slope, usually alpine or tundra, where the dynamics of frost (freeze and thaw cycles) and of wind give rise to characteristic plant forms in scree interstices. Soil dynamics The freeze-thaw cycles tend to push plants out of the soil. In addition, the high porosity of the soil makes a fellfield a difficult place for plants to grow. Fellfields often have typical patterns of rocks: lines of rocks that have been pushed out of the soil, and slid into a low region. Botany In botany the term "fellfield" describes an ecoregion, ecosystem, habitat, or plant community. The term frequently used is alpine fellfield. Fellfield is usually applied to an alpine tundra region of high altitude mountains, or high latitude islands, and the alpine plants there. Flora Fellfields are typically populated by cushion plants: perennials that grow close to the ground. Cushion plants are well-adapted to the dryness and short growing season of a fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpine Meadow
Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine tundra gets lower until it reaches sea level and merges with polar tundra. The high elevation causes an adverse climate, which is too cold and windy to support tree growth. Alpine tundra transitions to sub-alpine forests below the tree line; stunted forests occurring at the forest-tundra ecotone are known as ''krummholz''. With increasing elevation it ends at the snow line where snow and ice persist through summer. Alpine tundra occurs in mountains worldwide. The flora of the alpine tundra is characterized by dwarf shrubs close to the ground. The cold climate of the alpine tundra is caused by adiabatic cooling of air, and is similar to polar climate. Geography Alpine tundra occurs at high enough altitude at any latitude. Portions of montane gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Valley (California)
The Central Valley is a broad, elongated, flat valley that dominates the interior of California, United States. It is wide and runs approximately from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and parallel to the Pacific coast. It covers approximately , about 11% of California's land area. The valley is bounded by the California Coast Ranges, Coast Ranges to the west and the Sierra Nevada to the east. The Central Valley is a region known for its agricultural productivity. It provides a large share of the food produced in California, which provides more than half of the fruits, vegetables, and nuts grown in the United States. More than of the valley are irrigated via reservoirs and canals. The valley hosts many cities, including the state capital Sacramento, California, Sacramento, as well as Redding, California, Redding, Chico, California, Chico, Yuba City, California, Yuba City, Woodland, California, Woodland, Davis, California, Davis, Stockton, California, Stockton, M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mammoth Mountain
Mammoth Mountain is a lava dome complex partially located in the town of Mammoth Lakes, California, in the Inyo National Forest of Madera County, California, Madera and Mono County, California, Mono counties. It is home to a large Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, ski area primarily on the Mono County side. Mammoth Mountain was formed in a series of eruptions that ended 57,000 years ago. Mammoth still produces Mazuku, hazardous volcanic gases that kill trees. Geology Mammoth Mountain is a lava dome complex in Mono County, California. It lies in the southwestern corner of the Long Valley Caldera and consists of about 12 rhyodacite and dacite overlapping domes. These domes formed in a long series of eruptions from 110,000 to 57,000 years ago, building a volcano that reaches in elevation. During this time, massive dacite eruptions occurred roughly every 5000 years. The volcano is still active with minor eruptions, the largest of which was a minor phreatic (steam) eruption 700 years ago. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Columnar Basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of all volcanic rock on Earth is basalt. Rapid-cooling, fine-grained basalt is chemically equivalent to slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro. The eruption of basalt lava is observed by geologists at about 20 volcanoes per year. Basalt is also an important rock type on other planetary bodies in the Solar System. For example, the bulk of the plains of Venus, which cover ~80% of the surface, are basaltic; the lunar maria are plains of flood-basaltic lava flows; and basalt is a common rock on the surface of Mars. Molten basalt lava has a low viscosity due to its relatively low silica content (between 45% and 52%), resulting in rapidly moving lava flows that can spread over great areas before cooling and solidifying. Flood basalts are thick sequenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Joaquin River
The San Joaquin River ( ; ) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. An important source of irrigation water as well as a wildlife corridor, the San Joaquin is among the most heavily dammed and diverted of California's rivers. People have inhabited the San Joaquin Valley for more than 8,000 years, and it was one of the major population centers of pre-Columbian California. Starting in the late 18th century, successive waves of explorers then settlers, mainly Spanish and American, emigrated to the San Joaquin basin. When Spain colonized the area, they sent soldiers from Mexico, who were usually of mixed native Mexican and Spanish birth, led by Spanish officers. Franciscan missionaries from Spain came with expeditions to evangelize the natives by teaching them about the Catholi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minarets (California)
The Minarets are a series of jagged peaks located in the Ritter Range, a sub-range of the Sierra Nevada in the state of California. They are easily viewed from Minaret Summit, which is accessible by auto. Collectively, they form an arête, and are a prominent feature in the Ansel Adams Wilderness which was known as the Minaret Wilderness until it was renamed in honor of Ansel Adams in 1984. The peaks were named in 1868 by the Josiah Whitney#California Geological Survey, California Geographical Survey, which reported: "To the south of Mount Ritter are some grand pinnacles of granite, very lofty and apparently inaccessible, to which we gave the name of 'the Minarets.'" Seventeen of the Minarets have been given unofficial names, including Michael Minaret, Adams Minaret, Leonard Minaret, and Clyde Minaret. Clyde Minaret, named after Norman Clyde, is the tallest of the spires. The Southeast Face Route of Clyde Minaret is a technical rock climbing, rock climb featured in ''Fifty Clas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Ritter
Mount Ritter is the highest mountain in Madera County, California, in the Western United States, at an elevation of . It is also the highest and most prominent peak of its namesake, the Ritter Range, a subrange of the Sierra Nevada in the Ansel Adams Wilderness of the Inyo and Sierra National Forests. Mount Ritter is the 15th highest mountain peak in California with at least 500 meters of topographic prominence. Geography Mount Ritter is made of strikingly dark rock and is quite prominent due to its height and isolation. It is in the middle of the Ritter Range, which includes neighboring Banner Peak and the Minarets. The prominent and memorable shape of the Ritter–Banner pair is visible from high elevations far to the north and south in the Sierra Nevada. Mount Ritter was named by Josiah Whitney, chief of the California Geological Survey, for Carl Ritter, who had been a teacher of his when he was a student in Berlin during the 1840s. Climate See also * List of hig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
