List of Slides for Great Smoky Mountains NP
- A natural haze of mist, vapor and fog gives the Great
Smoky Mountains their name.
- They are located at the southern end of the Blue
Ridge province of the Appalachian Mountains.
- The Visitors Center welcomes people
to the park.
- Clingman's Dome is the highest point
in the park at 6642 feet above sea level.
- The rock of Clingman's Dome is a resistant sandstone
of late Precambrian age.
- These rocks were probably deposited on continental shelves, where submarine
landslides produced graded bedding.
- Grain size changes from coarse at the
bottom of graded beds to fine at the top.
- The rocks were later metamorphosed and deformed into folds such as
the Ocoee Syncline.
- Logging in the early 1900s stripped forests from the sides
of Clingman's Dome and other mountains in the park. This spurred concerned
citizens to push for establishment of the park.
- The deformation that affected rocks of GSMNP included thrust
faults, along which older rocks were pushed miles over younger rocks.
- Cade's Cove and other coves in the mountain
are sheltered open valleys surrounded by ridges.
- These coves are generally oval in shape.
- Cade's Cove is a "window," a technical term explained in
this poster.
- High precipitation feeds the Little River
and other streams in the park. Early settlers harnessed these streams for
power to turn water wheels.
- Because the coves are fertile, protected, and
well-watered, they support a variety of plants, including some rare
species.
- Springtime blossoms in GSMNP.
- Looking east from the Valley & Ridge province, the
Smokies are visible in the distance.
- Farther west yet is the Cumberland
Plateau.
- Ducktown, TN, near Chattanooga, lies southwest
of GSMNP.
- Hillsides erode near Ducktown.
- Over the long term, erosion produces landscapes
that are nearly all in slope (mature stage of landscape development), as
in the Appalachian Plateau.