HOME





Aspen Anomaly
Aspen anomaly is a geological structure in Colorado, United States. It consists of a low- seismic velocity anomaly in the mantle which underpins the highest sector of the Rocky Mountains. Characteristics The Aspen anomaly is a seismic velocity anomaly in the mantle beneath central Colorado (in the region of Aspen, Colorado), which appears to reach down into the upper mantle. Helium with isotope ratios indicative of mantle origin emanates from the terrain above the anomaly. The Aspen anomaly coincides with the highest region of the Rocky Mountains (such as the San Juan Mountains and the Sawatch Range) and divergent drainages ( Arkansas River, Colorado River and Gunnison River) which have cut deep gorges. This region underwent significant uplift during the Cenozoic starting from 10-5 million years ago and was subsequently eroded by the Colorado River. Ongoing present-day uplift of the San Juan Mountains may be linked to the Aspen anomaly. River knickpoints in Gore C ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Colorado, United States
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, eighth most extensive and List of U.S. states and territories by population, 21st most populous U.S. state. The 2020 United States Census, 2020 United States census enumerated the population of Colorado at 5,773,714, an increase of 14.80% since the 2010 United States Census, 2010 United States census. The region has been inhabited by Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans and their Paleo-Indians, ancestors for at least 13,500 years and possibly much longer. The eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains was a major migration route for early peoples who spread throughout the Americas. "''Colorado''" is the Spanish adjective meaning "ruddy", the color of the Fo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Knickpoint
In geomorphology, a knickpoint or nickpoint is part of a river or channel where there is a sharp change in channel slope, such as a waterfall or lake. Knickpoints reflect different conditions and processes on the river, often caused by previous erosion due to glaciation or variance in lithology. In the cycle of erosion model, knickpoints advance one cycle upstream, or inland, replacing an older cycle. A knickpoint that occurs at the head (furthest upstream extent) of a channel is called a headcut. Headcuts resulting in headward erosion are hallmarks of unstable expanding drainage features such as actively eroding gullies. Knickpoints also occur on other planetary bodies that previously had or currently have surface liquids, namely Mars and Titan. On Mars, the knickpoints have a common elevation that suggest a common sea level for a former Martian ocean. On Titan, mountain valleys adjacent to the present-day hydrocarbon seas show evidence of knickpoints and recent sea-lev ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Colorado Mineral Belt
The Colorado Mineral Belt (CMB) is an area of ore deposits from the La Plata Mountains in Southwestern Colorado to near the middle of the state at Boulder, Colorado and from which over 25 million troy ounces (778 t) of gold were extracted beginning in 1858. The belt is a "northeast-striking zone defined by: a Proterozoic shear zone system (McCoy, 2001); a suite of Laramide-aged plutons and related ore deposits ( Tweto and Sims, 1963); a major gravity low (Isaacson and Smithson, 1976); low- crustal velocities; and high heat flow (Decker et al., 1988)." Mining districts includ * Central City-Idaho Springs district * Leadville mining district, named for Leadville, Colorado * Sneffels-Red Mountain-Telluride district The belt lies within a zone that has been geologically active at intervals beginning from near the time of crustal accretion in central Colorado at least 1.6 billion years ago until the present. Parts of the CMB follow shear zones of Precambrian age and the Paleozoi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Lester Mountain
Lester is an ancient Anglo-Saxon surname and given name. Notable people and characters with the name include: People Given name * Lester Bangs (1948–1982), American music critic * Lester W. Bentley (1908–1972), American artist from Wisconsin * Lester Bird (1938–2021), second prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda (1994–2004) * Lester Cotton (born 1996), American football player * Lester del Rey (1915–1993), American science fiction author and editor * Lester Flatt (1914–1979), American bluegrass musician * Lester Gillis (1908–1934), better known as Baby Face Nelson, American gangster * Lester Holt (born 1959), American television journalist * Lester Charles King (1907–1989), English geomorphologist * Lester Lanin (1907–2004), American jazz and pop music bandleader * Lester Lockett (1912–2005), American Negro League baseball player * Lester Maddox (1915–2003), governor and lieutenant governor of the U.S. state of Georgia * Lester Patrick (1883–1960 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Vertical Displacement
In tectonics, vertical displacement refers to the shifting of land in a vertical direction, resulting in uplift and subsidence. The displacement of rock layers can provide information on how and why Earth's lithosphere changes throughout geologic time. There are different mechanisms which lead to vertical displacement such as tectonic activity, and isostatic adjustments. Tectonic activity leads to vertical displacement when crust is rearranged during a seismic event. Isostatic adjustments result in vertical displacement through sinking due to an increased load or isostatic rebound due to load removal. Tectonic causes of vertical displacement Vertical displacement resulting from tectonic activity occurs at divergent and convergent plate boundaries. The movement of magma in the asthenosphere can create divergent plate boundaries as the magma begins to rise and protrude weaker lithospheric crust. Subsidence at a divergent plate boundary is a form of vertical displacement whic ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Seismic Tomography
Seismic tomography or seismotomography is a technique for imaging the subsurface of the Earth with seismic waves produced by earthquakes or explosions. P-, S-, and surface waves can be used for tomographic models of different resolutions based on seismic wavelength, wave source distance, and the seismograph array coverage. The data received at seismometers are used to solve an inverse problem, wherein the locations of reflection and refraction of the wave paths are determined. This solution can be used to create 3D images of velocity anomalies which may be interpreted as structural, thermal, or compositional variations. Geoscientists use these images to better understand core, mantle, and plate tectonic processes. Theory Tomography is solved as an inverse problem. Seismic travel time data are compared to an initial Earth model and the model is modified until the best possible fit between the model predictions and observed data is found. Seismic waves would travel in straight line ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Leadville, Colorado
The City of Leadville is a statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 2,602 at the 2010 census and an estimated 2,762 in 2018. It is situated at an elevation of . Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States and it is surrounded by two of the tallest 14,000 foot peaks in the state. Leadville is a former silver mining town that lies among the headwaters of the Arkansas River within the Rocky Mountains. The Leadville Historic District, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, contains many historic structures and sites of Leadville's mining era. In the late 19th century, Leadville was the second most populous city in Colorado, after Denver. History Settlement The Leadville area was first settled in 1859 when placer gold was discovered in California Gulch during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Prospectors panned for gold in ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Pluton
In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and compositions, illustrated by examples like the Palisades Sill of New York and New Jersey; the Henry Mountains of Utah; the Bushveld Igneous Complex of South Africa; Shiprock in New Mexico; the Ardnamurchan intrusion in Scotland; and the Sierra Nevada Batholith of California. Because the solid country rock into which magma intrudes is an excellent insulator, cooling of the magma is extremely slow, and intrusive igneous rock is coarse-grained ( phaneritic). Intrusive igneous rocks are classified separately from extrusive igneous rocks, generally on the basis of their mineral content. The relative amounts of quartz, alkali feldspar, plagioclase, and feldspathoid is particularly important in classifying intrusive igneous rocks. Intrusio ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Chemolithotrophic
Lithotrophs are a diverse group of organisms using an inorganic substrate (usually of mineral origin) to obtain reducing equivalents for use in biosynthesis (e.g., carbon dioxide fixation) or energy conservation (i.e., ATP production) via aerobic or anaerobic respiration. While lithotrophs in the broader sense include photolithotrophs like plants, chemolithotrophs are exclusively microorganisms; no known macrofauna possesses the ability to use inorganic compounds as electron sources. Macrofauna and lithotrophs can form symbiotic relationships, in which case the lithotrophs are called "prokaryotic symbionts". An example of this is chemolithotrophic bacteria in giant tube worms or plastids, which are organelles within plant cells that may have evolved from photolithotrophic cyanobacteria-like organisms. Chemolithotrophs belong to the domains Bacteria and Archaea. The term "lithotroph" was created from the Greek terms 'lithos' (rock) and 'troph' (consumer), meaning "eaters of ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transparent to visible light but absorbs infrared radiation, acting as a greenhouse gas. It is a trace gas in Earth's atmosphere at 421  parts per million (ppm), or about 0.04% by volume (as of May 2022), having risen from pre-industrial levels of 280 ppm. Burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of these increased CO2 concentrations and also the primary cause of climate change.IPCC (2022Summary for policy makersiClimate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA Carbon dioxide is soluble in water and is found in groundwater, lakes, i ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Geyser
A geyser (, ) is a spring characterized by an intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. As a fairly rare phenomenon, the formation of geysers is due to particular hydrogeological conditions that exist only in a few places on Earth. Generally all geyser field sites are located near active volcanic areas, and the geyser effect is due to the proximity of magma. Generally, surface water works its way down to an average depth of around where it contacts hot rocks. The resultant boiling of the pressurized water results in the geyser effect of hot water and steam spraying out of the geyser's surface vent (a hydrothermal explosion). A geyser's eruptive activity may change or cease due to ongoing mineral deposition within the geyser plumbing, exchange of functions with nearby hot springs, earthquake influences, and human intervention. Like many other natural phenomena, geysers are not unique to Earth. Jet-like eruptions, often referred to as cry ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Hot Spring
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circulation through faults to hot rock deep in the Earth's crust. In either case, the ultimate source of the heat is radioactive decay of naturally occurring radioactive elements in the Earth's mantle, the layer beneath the crust. Hot spring water often contains large amounts of dissolved minerals. The chemistry of hot springs ranges from acid sulfate springs with a pH as low as 0.8, to alkaline chloride springs saturated with silica, to bicarbonate springs saturated with carbon dioxide and carbonate minerals. Some springs also contain abundant dissolved iron. The minerals brought to the surface in hot springs often feed communities of extremophiles, microorganisms adapted to extreme conditions, and it is possible that life on Earth ha ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]