Landscapes of New York

Virtual Field TripBy Nick D’Anna

Photos courtesy of Gail & Bret Bennington, A.

Orgonik, & myself

What are landscapes?

3 Major Classifications:•Mountains

•Plains / Lowlands•Plateaus / Uplands

New York has all three!

Notice the Catskills are part of a plateau, and are not really mountains

Mountains / Highlands

• At least 300 meters above the surrounding land.

• Created by a tectonic collision between two landmasses (Orogeny).

• Characterized by distorted rock structures (metamorphic bedrock): a result of the pressures applied during collision.

Plains / Lowlands• Large areas of flat land at low elevations.• Lots of gravel, sand and clay.• HOME SWEET HOME!

Plateau / Uplands• Large areas of flat land at high elevation.• Usually flat, horizontal, sedimentary rock

structures.

Check your note sheet now

Landscapes

Mountains Plateaus Plains

Stop Here!The rocks around the room are from

all over NY. Describe them as best you can. What are the clues in the rock that we can use to answer:

Igneous, Sedimentary, Metamorphic?Environment of formation? Fossils?Mineral Composition?

Landforms are the result of the interaction of tectonic forces and the processes of weathering, erosion, and deposition.

What tectonic events and surface processes were occurring during these times?

Adirondack High Peaks

Correlate page 2 to page 3 of your ESRT

What was happening in NY during the Middle Proterozoic?

Correlate pages 2 & 3 to pages 8 & 9.

No horizontal layering – blocky, chunky, jointed metamorphic rock.

Isolated garnet Isolated garnet crystals like this one, crystals like this one, tell us the rock has tell us the rock has been subjected to a been subjected to a lot of heat and lot of heat and pressure pressure (metamorphism).(metamorphism).

Anorthosite; Anorthosite; composed of composed of large crystals of large crystals of labradorite labradorite feldspar feldspar (another clue of (another clue of metamorphism)metamorphism)..

Distorted bedrock Distorted bedrock structure – result of structure – result of compression forces compression forces during the collision of during the collision of landmasses that landmasses that created the created the supercontinent that supercontinent that came before Pangea.came before Pangea.

Letchworth Gorge

Correlate page 2 to page 3 of your ESRT

What was happening in NY during the Devonian?

Correlate pages 2 & 3 to pages 8 & 9.

During the Devonian the western parts of NY are underwater. The Acadian orogeny occurs mostly to the North (Maine, Newfoundland, Greenland, etc…).

The rising of those mountains produced a lot of erosion of the softer surface sedimentary rocks and the Catskill delta was formed.

Is this a true mountainous region?

Elevated sedimentary rocks being worn down by running water

Watkins Glen

These and other These and other marine fossils tell us marine fossils tell us that the area was that the area was once covered by a once covered by a shallow sea.shallow sea.

Sedimentary rocks, at fairly high elevations, being worn down by running water

Shawangunk Ridge

Notice the layering in the rocks

Conglomerate rock from the Catskills. The Catskills are made of sedimentary rocks, not metamorphic rocks!

Take us home, Mr. D

Correlate page 2 to page 3 of your ESRT

Correlate pages 2 & 3 to pages 8 & 9.

Caumsett State Park, Lloyd’s Neck, LI

Cretaceous Cretaceous ClayClay

Pleistocene Pleistocene Sands & Sands & GravelsGravels

Glacial till

Loess

Thank you for your

cooperation, We’re almost done

Write one thing about a rock you observed that is a clue to the landform it is found in.