A Geoscience Digital Image Library
A Geoscience Digital Image Library
| Title | Halfome, Yosemite Valley National Park, California |
|---|---|
| Description | View of Half Dome from the top of the Royal Arches, Yosemite Valley National Park, California. Half Dome, one of Yosemites best known features, rises about 4,000 ft (1250 m) from the floor of Yosemite Valley. The summit of Half Dome was never covered by glacial ice, but the sides have been polished by glaciers. The rounded summit is the result of exfoliation caused as rock cracked in sheets parallel to the surface of the exposed granite. A vertical fracture, or joint, forms the steep northwest face. The rock of the “missing half” (more like a missing quarter) was quarried away by the glaciers during the Pleistocene Ice Ages. Peaks in the background are part of the High Sierras. |
| Geologic province | Sierra Nevada Batholith |
| Location | USA ▹ California. Near Merced. Yosemite National Park. |
| Photographer | Dexter Perkins. 1985. |
| Key words | Half Dome, Yosemite, glacier, California |
| Tech details | 682 KB. Vista. Canon FTQL. |
| GeoDIL number | 2509 |
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