Creation of the Teton Landscape: The Geologic Story of Grand Teton National ParkReed, John C. (John Calvin)
Science
Creation of the Teton Landscape: The Geologic Story of Grand Teton National Park
Reed, John C. (John Calvin)
Geology -- Wyoming -- Grand Teton National Park
[Illustration: Figure 42. _Teton region at the end of Cretaceous
time about 65 million years ago. The ancestral Teton-Gros Ventre
uplift had risen and prominent southeastward drainage from the
Targhee uplift was well established. See figure 41 for State lines
and location map._]
Remains of four-legged horned ceratopsian dinosaurs, possibly
_Triceratops_ (fig. 43), reflecting the last population explosion of
these reptiles, have been found in pebbly sandstone of the Harebell
Formation in highway cuts on the Togwotee Pass road 8 miles east of the
park.
[Illustration: Figure 43. _Triceratops, a horned dinosaur of the
type that inhabited Jackson Hole about 65 million years ago. Sketch
by S. H. Knight._]
Near the end of Cretaceous time, broad gentle uplifts also began to stir
at the sites of future mountain ranges in many parts of Wyoming. The
ancestral Teton-Gros Ventre arch continued to grow. Associated with and
parallel to it was a series of sharp steepsided elongated
northwest-trending upfolds (_anticlines_). One of these can be seen
where it crosses the highway at the Lava Creek Campground near the
eastern margin of Grand Teton National Park.
During these episodes of mountain building, erosion, and deposition, the
dinosaurs became extinct all over the world. The “Age of Mammals” was
about to begin.
TERTIARY—TIME OF MAMMALS, MOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND VOLCANOES
[Illustration: Figure 44. _The last inch of the yardstick, enlarged
to show subdivisions of the Cenozoic Era._]
STRATIGRAPHIC SCALE THE LAST INCH OF ABSOLUTE TIME (million
THE YARDSTICK years ago)
CENOZOIC
QUATERNARY
Recent and 0 0
Pleistocene
TERTIARY
Pliocene 0 0
Miocene ⅛ 12
Oligocene ¼ 25
Eocene ⅜ 40
Paleocene ⁷/₁₆ 55
MESOZOIC
CRETACEOUS ½ 65
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