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View west toward Grand Teton on skyline. Hedrick’s Pond surrounded by “knob and kettle” topography is in foreground, tree-covered Burned Ridge moraine is in middle distance, and extending from it to foot of mountains is gray flat treeless glacial outwash plain. _National Park Service photo by W. E. Dilley._
[Illustration: View west up Cascade Canyon, with north face of Mt. Owen in center. _National Park Service photo by H. D. Pownall._]
_To Fritiof M. Fryxell, geologist, teacher, writer, mountaineer, and the first ranger-naturalist in Grand Teton National Park._
_All who love and strive to understand the Teton landscape follow in his footsteps._
_CREATION OF THE TETON LANDSCAPE_ The Geologic Story of Grand Teton National Park
_By J. D. LOVE AND JOHN C. REED, JR. U.S. Geological Survey_
_Library of Congress Catalogue Card No._: 68-20628 _ISBN_ O-931895-08-1
Reprinted 1979 Reprinted 1984 Reprinted 1989
Grand Teton Natural History Association Moose, Wyoming 83012
Foreword 6 THE STORY BEGINS 8 First questions, brief answers 9 An extraordinary story 10 An astronaut’s view 12 A pilot’s view 14 A motorist’s view 15 View north 15 View west 18 View south 19 A mountaineer’s view 20 CARVING THE RUGGED PEAKS 24 Steep mountain slopes—the perpetual battleground 24 Rock disintegration and gravitational movement 24 Running water cuts and carries 26 Glaciers scour and transport 28 Effects on Jackson Hole 30 MOUNTAIN UPLIFT 36 Kinds of mountains 36 Anatomy of faults 38 Time and rate of uplift 40 Why are mountains here? 41 The restless land 43 ENORMOUS TIME AND DYNAMIC EARTH 45 Framework of time 45 Rocks and relative age 45 Fossils and geologic time 46 Radioactive clocks 47 The yardstick of geologic time 48 PRECAMBRIAN ROCKS—THE CORE OF THE TETONS 51 Ancient gneisses and schists 51 Granite and pegmatite 55 Black dikes 58 Quartzite 63 A backward glance 64 The close of the Precambrian—end of the beginning 64 THE PALEOZOIC ERA—TIME OF LONG-VANISHED SEAS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE 66 The Paleozoic sequence 66 Alaska Basin—site of an outstanding rock and fossil record 66 Advance and retreat of Cambrian seas; an example 69 Younger Paleozoic formations 74 THE MESOZOIC—ERA OF TRANSITION 79 Colorful first Mesozoic strata 79 Drab Cretaceous strata 81 Birth of the Rocky Mountains 82 TERTIARY—TIME OF MAMMALS, MOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND VOLCANOES 86 Rise and burial of mountains 88 The first big lake 92 Development of mammals 95 Volcanoes 98 QUATERNARY—TIME OF ICE, MORE LAKES, AND CONTINUED CRUSTAL DISTURBANCE 102 Hoback normal fault 103 Volcanic activity 103 Preglacial lakes 104 The Ice Age 105 Modern glaciers 112 THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE 113 APPENDIX 115 Acknowledgements 115 Selected references—if you wish to read further 116 About the authors 117 Index of selected terms and features 118