How tall is sierra nevada mountains

Photo by Mark McCormick. Click here for larger-size photo. Photo by Grant Myers. Keeler Needle Keeler Needle Photo by Serguei Okountsev. Starlight Peak Rapping off the "Milk Bottle" Photo by Terry Flood. Photo by Weiwei Yin. Photo by James Barlow.

The mule deer and the mountain lion also live in the foothills. Many animal species are in decline, however. And there are said to be only 50 Sierra Nevada Red Foxes remaining.

Yosemite Falls, found in the Sierra Nevada, is the tallest waterfall in the United States, and has a vertical drop of 2, feet. People also read How to best view Niagara Falls However commercialised Niagara Falls has become, it is still a magnificent waterfall that has to be seen to be believed and a trip to […].

Which US state has the best walking opportunities? The Best Beaches in Sunny, Southern California Southern California is home to some of the best beaches in the US and is known for its beautiful, sunny climate year round which […]. An impressive 12 million acres of public land is tucked within the Sierra Nevada, and conservation groups are continually working to find ways to protect more of the range. Currently, three National Parks, two national monuments, ten national forests, and 26 wilderness areas are protected in the Sierra.

At 1, feet m deep, Lake Tahoe is the second deepest lake in the United States and the sixteenth deepest lake in the world. Renowned for its crystalline waters and mountainous views, Lake Tahoe is understandably a major tourist attraction. Kings Canyon in particular, has the greatest riverbed-to-summit height differential of any canyon in North America.

Here is a link to the video instead. Though considered a young range in comparison to other notable North American mountain ranges, the oldest rocks in the Sierra Nevada are believed to be over million years old.

The shape of the Sierra Nevada has been heavily influenced by both the shifting of tectonic plates beneath the surface of the Earth and repeated glaciation. The core of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is composed of a large batholith, or intrusive igneous rock. The Sierra Nevada Batholith is composed of individual masses of rock that formed during volatile episodes of magma intrusion millions of years ago.

The batholith was exposed as tectonic forces initiated the formation of the Basin and Range geologic province, including the Sierra Nevada. Over millions of years, erosion wore down the material covering the batholith. Though most of the batholith remains below the surface, the imposing, granitic peaks in the Sierra Nevada are an incredible display of the exposed portions of the batholith. The Sierra Nevada ecoregion contains an extraordinary range of habitat types and sustains many unusual plant and animal species.

The western and eastern Sierra Nevada have significantly different flora and fauna, because the east lies in the rain shadow of the crest. The southern Sierra contains the highest concentration of species and rare endemic species, but the eastern slope, west of the Owens River Valley, also contains many unusual plant species. Six unique biotic zones exist in the western Sierra Nevada: The foothill woodlands and chaparral zone, lower montane forest, mid-montane Forest, upper-montane forest, subalpine forest, and alpine zone.

The northern portion has slightly lower summits, with peaks reaching a height of 2,, meters. The peaks located between Lake Tahoe and Fredonyer Pass have an average elevation of 1,, meters. The range rises over 3, meters further south, with Mount Lyell in Yosemite National Park as the highest peak at 3, meters. It rises over 4, meters near Bishop, California, and over 4, meters in Lone Pine, with Mount Whitney as the tallest peak, at 4, meters.

The Sierra Nevada is part of the American Cordillera and is drained by several rivers discharging into the surrounding water bodies. The Central Valley watershed drains the western slope and feeds into the Pacific Ocean.

The block is bounded in the east by a fault zone, along which the mountain range was uplifted. The block was uplifted abruptly, with the erosive agents like wind, rain, frost, temperature change, and ice cutting the eastern escarpment. Although the uplifting began millions of years ago, the major events that shaped the Sierra Nevada took place about two million years ago. The events were associated with the crustal extension of the Basin and Range Province.

The oldest rocks in the Sierra Nevada are the metasedimentary rocks, which comprise schists, marbles, slates, and hornfels. California's Mediterranean climate also influences the Sierra Nevada's weather patterns. Winter temperature below degrees Celsius is common in the valleys and rare on the mountain slopes.

The summer days are generally dry, with short periods of thunderstorms in the afternoon.