(Left the real Matterhorn Mountain in
the Alps and next to it is the Matterhorn Expedition built to 1/100th
the scale)
Between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland sits Matterhorn
Mountain. The “plates” of these two
lands converged against one another forming a Fold Mountain made of genesis. When the plates hit they wrinkled lifting the
mountain to the surface causing the folds.
The evaporation of a nearby body of water was carried to the mountain
top where it was released as snow.
The waterfall running down the mountain side was created by
a young river formed from the melting snow. It runs over the bedrock causing erosion to
happen slowly reaching downstream where it occurred rapidly. At the edge there’s an increase of velocity
increasing erosion quickly as the waterfall carves deeper into the side of the
mountain.
The cave nearby was formed from water slowly seeping through
the rock absorbing carbon dioxide. When
the water and carbon dioxide’s mixed it became a chemical reactant of carbonic
acid. This acids very weak and takes a
long time to dissolve the rock away. The
minerals from the acid are usually re-deposited to create stalagmites or
stalactites.
Here stalagmite crystals sit on the cave’s floor where water
percolated through the layers of rock dissolving minerals on the way down. The water drips off the roof of the cave
landing on the ground where it’s eventually evaporates leaving the minerals it
picked up behind. Thousands to millions
of years later the minerals accumulate and the crystal are formed and continues
to grow.
(Plaque reads: Cast of footprint
discovered by Matterhorn Expedition, South Side May 27, 1978)
Proof of the Yeti’s existence sits a
trace fossil of its footprint. Impressions usually fossilize quickly then are
buried by minerals and fine grained sediment. Pressure from the mountain increases
with the burial of more materials until the trace is preserved forming a
fossil.
Photo Courtesies
(in order):
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geography-of-disneyland/#/matterhorn-v1_21651_600x450.jpg
Makenna
Wahl http://www.flickr.com/photos/piratetinkerbell/3702807565/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coreydorsey/5145817135/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Video
by TheCoasterViews http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DucDBAHGahQ
First off, I love your choice of location; I love Disneyland. I really enjoyed reading about the parallels between Disneyland's Matterhorn Mountain and the real one. The side-by-side pictures were good examples of scale. I liked how you talked about both the interior and exterior structure of the ride, analyzing the formation of the stalagmites and the formation of the waterfall. My location centers around a waterfall, so reading about this particular formation helped solidify the concept for me. Overall I thought you did a really nice job explaining the formation of both the mountain and the forms within it.
ReplyDeleteThe only time I've ever been to Disneyland, I had chicken pox! None the less, I think I had a good time. It never really occurred to me to examine the details of a thrill ride. I particularly like your explanations on the formation of stalagmites and stalactites, very clear and concise, and the section about the yeti's footprint is fun! (Although I wonder if you could catch one around Anaheim...) Maui also has a ton of waterfalls and I'm interested to see the difference in formation between this, and the one's in the tropics. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteI really like that you chose to do Disneyland because there is so much that we as kids never realized had to do with geography until now. The pictures and descriptions are really good and detalied wit the ride and geography. You did a really good job with the detail of the ride.
ReplyDelete