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Introduction
Tectonic processes shape the landscape and form some of the most spectacular structures found in national parks, from the highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains to the faulted mountains and valleys in the Basin and Range Province. Understanding a park's plate tectonic history and setting can help you make sense of the landforms and scenery you see.
For more information on Plate Tectonics, visit:
Tectonic Landforms and Features
The motions of the plates have a tremendous ability to shape and deform rocks through a variety of processes that include faulting, folding, extension, and on a massive scale, mountain building.
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- Geologic Resources Division
Horst and Graben
- Offices: Geologic Resources Division
Horst and Graben (valley and range) refers to a type of topography created when the earth's crust is pulled apart. This process, called extension, can stretch the crust up to 100% of its original size. As the crust is strained in this way, normal faults develop and blocks of the crust drop down to form grabens, or valleys.
- Geologic Resources Division
Faults and Fractures
- Offices: Geologic Resources Division
Faults are cracks in the earths crust along which movement occurs. Fractures are cracks with no movement.
Mountain Building—Fault-block Mountains
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When divergent plate motion occurs beneath a continental crust, rift structures and normal faults form. This continental rifting causes valleys floors to drop down along fault lines. The combination of down dropped basins and adjacent fault-block mountains can produce dramaic range fronts.
Saguaro National Park, Arizona
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Tuscon Basin.
Credit: NPS photo.
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Feature labels.
Example above modified from “Parks and Plates: The Geology of our National Parks, Monuments and Seashores,” by Robert J. Lillie, New York, W. W. Norton and Company, 298 pp., 2005, www.amazon.com/dp/0134905172.
Featured Video—Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
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- Geologic Resources Division
Basin and Range Province
The Basin and Range province has a distinct topography characterized by alternating steep elongate mountain ranges and flat, dry deserts. This pattern extends from eastern California to central Utah, and from southern Idaho into the state of Sonora in Mexico. The combination of the arid climate and the tensional stress applied to the crust over the past 30 million years formed the horst and graben topography found in this province today.
Mountain Building—Fold Mountains
Folded mountains can form at collisional plate boundaries. Structurally, the folds are alternating anticlines and synclinces that run nearly parallel with each other. These long narrow folds are sometimes overturned, overthrust or are plunging folds.
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- Geologic Resources Division
Valley and Ridge Province
The Valley and Ridge province is a set of northeast-southwest trending valleys and ridges that stretch from central Alabama to New York. These ridges and valleys are the result of folded Paleozoic sedimentary beds that were eventually eroded away.
Mountain Building—Volcanic Mountains
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A volcanic arc may form in a subduction zone. As the subducting plate reaches depths where it “sweats” hot water, the rising water can melt rock in its path and form a volcanic arc on the overrriding plate. A hot spot is area of concentrated heat in the mantle that produces magma that rises to the Earth’s surface to form volcanic features. The volcanic activity of the Hawaiian Islands is one example. Hot spots may persist for millions of years.
Oregon
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Feature labels. (Click on arrows and slide left and right to see labels.)
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Crater Lake.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Robert J. Lillie.
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- Geologic Resources Division
Cascade-Sierra Mountains Province
These two mountain ranges formed by different geological forces and processes. The Sierra Nevada mountains can be thought of as an enormous tilted fault block with a long slope westward to California's Central Valley and steep eastern slope. The Cascades form an arc-shaped band extending from British Columbia to Northern California with 13 major volcanic centers that lie in sequence.
Tectonic Settings of NPS Sites
In the master list below you will find parks that share in common geologic landforms and features based on similar plate tectonic origins.
Learn More—Plate Tectonics
Parks and Plates Textbook
Parks and Plates: The Geology of Our National Parks, Monuments & Seashores. Lillie, Robert J., 2005.
W.W. Norton and Company.
ISBN 0-393-92407-6
9" x 10.75", paperback, 550 pages, full color throughout
Ever have questions about the fascinating natural dynamics working in our national parks? This book aims to provide answers to some of them. The spectacular geology in our national parks provides the answers to many questions about the Earth. The answers can be appreciated through plate tectonics, an exciting way to understand the ongoing natural processes that sculpt our landscape. Parks and Plates is a visual and scientific voyage of discovery!
Last updated: December 28, 2020