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ChromaDepth
Section I: A Tour of Planet Earth
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The United States
Description: The United States with the oceans around it removed
Things to Notice:
- With the water removed, the eastern seaboard looks different. For example,
the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts does not jut out in a thin arc. It is
all filled in. The topography points out that the edge of the continents
is actually at the continental shelf beneath the oceanic water, not at the
seashore
- The Appalachian Mountains are older and more eroded than are the Rockies
- The Appalachian Mountains continue into the southern United States where they are buried by the Mississippi River drainage, but pick up again in Oklahoma.
- It would appear that mountain ranges on the western side of the United States have overprinted the Appalachians -- the Appalachians look like they would (and they do)
run into the mountains on the west coast. So what was deformed when the Appalachian Mountains formed was then re-deformed later on (i.e., there were two collisions).
- The two “grooves” in north central American were worn by glaciers, like fingers making marks on the frosting of a cake.
- The San Andreas system in western Mexico (Baja) and California has torn a piece of the mountain belt off and separated it from the main mountain belt (like a bumper being
ripped off a car after it was deformed by later moving sideways.
- The gentle ramp going up eastern side of Rockies is very different than sharp boundary in California (look at the distance it takes to go from yellow to red).
Go back to Section I here
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