Concise details of how Pike Peak was formed through Earth's processes

1. Stefanie Michaelson 2012
Pikes Peak
The transformation
Jessica Atkins
Geography 111

2. Stages and Processes
 Introduction
 Pikes Peak has evolved into the modern day
peak by many earth processes
 Pikes Peak was created in about four major
stages: batholiths, sea floor spreading, erosion
and weathering, and glaciations.

3. Vocabulary
 Batholiths  Glaciations
 An immense dome of hot molten  A glacial period (or alternatively
rock, called magma pushed up from glacial or glaciations) is an interval of
the earth’s core to form what time (thousands of years) within an
geologists call a batholiths ice age that is marked by colder
temperatures and glacier advances.
 Sea Floor Spreading
 Seafloor spreading is a process that
 Weathering
occurs at mid-ocean ridges, where  Weathering is the breaking down of
new oceanic crust is formed through rocks, soils and minerals as well as
volcanic activity and then gradually artificial materials through contact
moves away from the ridge. with the Earth's atmosphere, and
waters.
 Erosion
 Erosion is the process by which soil
and rock are removed from the
Earth's surface by natural processes
such as wind or water flow, and then
transported and deposited in other
locations.

4. First Stage
 Batholiths
 About one billion
years ago, the magma
cooled about 20 miles
under the Earth’s
surface creating the
pink granite that
forms Pikes Peak.
Andrew Alden 2009

5. Second Stage
 Sea Floor Spreading
 The second stage is what
created the ancestral
Rocky Mountains. The
Rocky Mountains were
under a warm shallow sea.
Historical Pikes Peak
explains the process of
uplifting, “The Earth’s crust
went through some rather
intensive sea floor
spreading at the mid-
Atlantic ridge. Unable to
absorb the crust as fast as
it was being created” www.geology.ohio-state.edu/~vonfrese/gs100/lect26/
(Pikes Peak 2009).

6. Third Stage
 Glaciations
 After the modern day Pikes
Peak raised, the Pleistocene
Ice Age 3 million years ago
began to shape the
mountain. City of Colorado
Springs describes the effect
of the ice age, “Acting like a
giant cookie cutter, the
powerful bodies of ice
gouged out the rock and left
deep, straight-walled basins
[…]. The u-shaped canyons
that lead down Pikes Peak
were carved by the flowing
‘rivers of ice’” (City of
Colorado Springs 2009).
www.Waternrocks.blogspot.com/2009/06/pikes-
peak-or-im-going-to-die-volume-1.html

7. Fourth Stage
 Weathering and
Erosion
 “The weathered
fragments of rocks
break apart from the
exposed rock from
freeze-thaw action
and collect as angular
blocks of talus
material” (Bruce
Molnia 2005)

8. Conclusion
 The formation of Pikes Peak has been through
many stages for just over one billion years.
The Earth’s processes and weathering has
created the Rocky Mountains and the pink
dome shaped Pikes Peak. All the stages are
important because Pikes Peak would not exist
without these processes, erosion and
weathering. In the Rocky Mountains there are
91 peaks that are over 14,000 feet. Colorado
has 54 of those peaks including Pikes Peak.

9. Bibliography
 Alden, Andrew. Pikes Peak Pink Granite. N.d. Photograph. N.p.
 "Batholiths." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 07 Aug. 2012. Web. 25 July 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batholiths>.
 City of Colorado Springs. Pikes Peak/History. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2012. <http://www.springsgov.com/Page.aspx?NavID=86>.
 "Erosion." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 July 2012. Web. 25 July 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erosion>.
 Michaelson, Stefanie. Pikes Peak. 2012. Photograph. N.p.
 Molnia, Bruce. "Weathering, Erosion, and Mass-Wasting Processes." N.p., 2005. Web. 25 July 2012.
<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CFwQFjAE&url=ftp%3A%2F%2Fftpdata.dnr.sc.g
ov%2Fgeology%2FEducation%2FPowerPoint%2FWeathering%2520and%2520Erosion.ppt&ei=ZyIQUMfOL6HoiwKZvoDIAw&usg=
AFQjCNHrXPc4oflR8u0mSk575T7NFdwR9g>.
 "Pikes Peak." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 July 2012. Web. 25 July 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikes_Peak>.
 "Pikes Peak-America's Mountain." Pikes Peak. N.p., 2009. Web. 17 July 2012. <http://pikespeak.us.com/Learn/geology.html>.
 "Rocky Mountains." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 July 2012. Web. 25 July 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountains>.
 Roy. Pikes Peak Evidence of Glaciation. 2009. Photograph. Blogspot. 2009. Web. 25 July 2012.
<waternrocks.blogspot.com/2009/06/pikes-peak-or-im-going-to-die-volume-1.html>.
 Sea Floor Spreading. Digital image. Ohio State University, n.d. Web. 25 July 2012. <www.geology.ohio-
state.edu/~vonfrese/gs100/lect26/>.
 "Seafloor Spreading." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 July 2012. Web. 25 July 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seafloor_spreading>.
 "Weathering." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 July 2012. Web. 25 July 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weathering>.
 "Wikipedia: Glaciation." Wikipedia: Glaciation. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2012.
<http://www.factbook.org/wikipedia/en/g/gl/glaciation.html>.