Windows into the earth the geologic story of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks - Smith, Robert Baer (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002
Includes bibliographical references and index
Preface; Acknowledgments; 1 A Land of Scenery and Violence; 2 In the Wake of the Yellowstone Hotspot; 3 Cataclysm!: The Hotspot Reaches Yellowstone; 4 How Yellowstone Works; 5 The Broken Earth: Why the Tetons Are Grand; 6 Ice over Fire: Glaciers Carve the Landscape; 7 Future Disasters; 8 Grand Teton Tour; 9 Yellowstone Tour; Internet Sites; References; Index
Millions of years ago, the North American continent was dragged over the world's largest continental hotspot, a huge column of hot and molten rock rising from the Earth's interior that traced a 50-mile wide, 500-mile-long path northeastward across Idaho. Generating cataclysmic volcanic eruptions and large earthquakes, the hotspot helped lift the Yellowstone Plateau to more than 7,000 feet and pushed the northern Rockies to new heights, forming unusually large glaciers to carve the landscape. It also created the jewel of the U.S. national park system: Yellowstone. Meanwhile, forces stretching a