Yosemite Valley The Yosemite Valley is the prod

As more snow falls on the firn, it spills over into the valley below, filling it with ice. As this ice moves across the landscape, it collects rock debris, which polishes and scours the valley walls and floor. This scratching action leaves a definitive calling card in the form of grooves that identify glacially scoured land. The glacier also changes the shape of the valley from its original V-shaped cross section to the U-shape of the glacial trough (3:156).

Glacial erosion shears off spurs that project into the valley, making the valley walls even steeper and transforming tributary streams into "free-leaping" waterfalls such as Yosemite's Bridalveil Fall, which is 620 feet (189 meters) high (1:308). Most of the highest waterfalls in the United States are in Yosemite National Park (1:306), with Bridalveil Fall among the highest, along with Yosemite Falls, 2,435 feet (740 meters); Ribbon Fall, 1,612 feet (491 meters); Staircase Falls, 1,300 feet (396 meters); Nevada Fall, 594 feet (181 meters); Illilouette Falls, 370 feet (113 meters); a

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evident; some early deposits were buried or destroyed by later ice advances. Severe erosion also was taking place during this time, sculpting giant staircases, hanging valleys, basins, and other geologic features. Interestingly enough, little evidence of the most recent Wisconsin glaciation's actions can be seen today. Although the last of the glaciation melted only about 10,000 years ago, "weathering has roughened and destroyed considerable areas once highly polished. In such places, only the deeper gouges still persist" (5:55). During the El Portal glaciation, ice in the Yosemite Valley was probably about 6,000 feet (1,800 meters ) deep; geologists have calculated its depth from the fact that the glaciation excavated bedrock 2,000 feet (600 meters) below the present valley floor. The El Portal glacier was probably about 37 miles (60 kilometers) at its longest. For the visitor to the Yosemite Valley, those same markings and signs that are read so easily by the geologist appear only as visually entertaining or aesthetically pleasing designs, much as hieroglyphics would appear to someone who cannot decipher them. Yet, even the most casual visitors can learn to read rather than merely to see the features that abound in the
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2580
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)