The uplift of the Rocky Mountains spanned tens of millions of years from the Cretaceous to the early Cenozoic and was driven by tectonic compressional forces along the western plate boundary of North America, affecting all of western North America from Alaska to Mexico. When mountain-building ended around 50 million years ago, the landscape of southwest Montana did not look like the spectacular, snowcapped mountains we see today. Glaciers later carved the Rockies into the jagged peaks we see today. Over the last 50 million years, western Montana experienced several phases of regional extension and block-faulting, resulting in the creation of modern Basin-and-Range topography. The crest of the Bridger Range arch slowly down-dropped one earthquake at a time to form the modern Gallatin Valley. Thick layers of mid and late Cenozoic sedimentary rocks and more recent stream deposits have been deposited in the Gallatin Valley, producing the fertile landscape that Native Americans called the “Valley of Flowers” – the Gallatin Valley.
To log this Earthcache please send me an email with the text "GC2T4V4 Surrounded by Mountains” on the first line and the answers to the following questions (The answers can be found on the informational sign and by making observations about the surrounding geology. Please do not post answers in your log.)
1. What four mountain ranges can you see from this location?
2. What kinds of things can you pick out that makes these four mountain ranges look different from each other?
3. What caused these mountain ranges to look different from each other?
4. The peaks of the Gallatin Range were carved how many years ago?
5. Looking at your GPS, what does it say the elevation is at the posted coordinates?
After sending your email go ahead and log this Earthcache as a find. I will only respond if you have incomplete logging requirements. Any logs submitted without completing the additional logging requirements will be DELETED.