|
The landscapes and features of Yosemite National Park inspire awe and wonder in the forces that have created such majesty. Geologists, hydrologists, and geographers investigate and document landscapes to get a sense of the ecosystem as a whole that reaches from below 3,000 feet to over 13,000 feet in elevation.
Geology: Yosemite is a glaciated landscape, and the scenery that resulted from the interaction of the glaciers and the underlying rocks was the basis for its preservation as a national park. Landforms that are the result of glaciation include U-shaped canyons, jagged peaks, rounded domes, waterfalls, and moraines. Glacially-polished granite is further evidence of glaciation, and is common in Yosemite National Park. Granite, because of its massiveness and durability, is shaped into bold forms: the cliffs of Yosemite Valley, many of the higher peaks in the park, and the striking sheeted domes that form only in unlayered rock.
Hydrology: Most people visiting Yosemite gaze upon the 2,425-foot Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America. Water has shaped the Sierra Nevada landscape in the form of glaciers—two of which still remain at Mounts Maclure and Lyell. Spring floods re-shape the land, too, with a natural house-cleaning that scours river channels and re-distributes rock, soil, silt and sand, but summer’s lack of water, especially at the lowest elevations, causes some thirsty plants to go dormant in order to survive.
Geography: New technologies, using complex Geographic Information Systems (GIS), go into mapping Yosemite’s 750,000 acres. By understanding where concentrations of invasive plants take root or where rockfalls occur most frequently, scientists assess management needs, and, in some cases, predict future outcomes. Projections of climate change effects, for instance, reveal why wildlife and plants are moving higher in elevation for suitable habitat. Geography is both a natural and a cultural science. Mapping reveals the relationship, or sense of place, people have with where they live. View national GIS data sets, including from Yosemite National Park, on an NPS Data and Information online clearinghouse. View Yosemite's GIS data sets, covering topics from geology to fire to soils, or California-specific GIS data.
Wilderness: Wilderness, a place unchanged by people; a place of solitude; a place of peace; a place of adventure and learning. Here, you will find no cars, no roads, no electricity, no modern conveniences. Nearly 95 percent of Yosemite is Congressionally designated as Wilderness, which, “in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
- Learn more about Yosemite's research and studies, including ecosystem conditions affecting lichen and black oak tree growth and animals like the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog.
- View a complete list of the park's fact sheets.
|
