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Geologic Trip, Yosemite
Valley El Capitan The huge
granite monolith of El Capitan is the tallest unbroken cliff in the world,
measuring 3,593 feet from base to summit. Although El Capitan stood directly
in the path of the many Pleistocene glaciers that carved out Yosemite Valley,
the monolith consists of unusually hard granite and withstood the
repeated onslaught of these powerful glaciers. Most of El Capitan consists of the El
Capitan Granite, one of the oldest granites in
Yosemite Valley. The grains
in the granite are large, and the
granite has a high
percentage of quartz. Granites of this type
tend to be resistant
to fracturing and jointing, and it is these
characteristics that enabled
El Capitan to withstand the quarrying action of the glaciers that flowed down Yosemite Valley. Exterior Websites National Park Service: USGS: _____ |