The Final Blog

The Paint Mines Interpretive Park in Calhan, CO is an arid landscape, which exists today due to prehistoric tectonic forces. Fifty-five million years ago, the park was a tropical forest, but as the plates shifted great uplifting occurred on the Front Range. This uplifting caused the Pikes Peak granite of the area to become exposed and then erode on the surface (1, 4). The resulting badlands full of colorful clay spires which occurred due to oxidized iron deposits, then eroded into white sandstone called Dawson Arkose (1,2). 

Photo 1 shows a geological timeline of the area. 

These are various images of the park’s features, each will act as a visual aid in the discussion of the park’s future. If the fluvial processes shaping this landscape continue throughout the thousands of years, features like these veins of erode rock will become flat or perhaps even concave

I believe in the theory of uniformitarianism: the theory that changes in the earth's crust during geological history have resulted from the action of continuous and uniform processes (5). With that I believe the park will continue to experience fluvial erosion until another great uplifting occurs. In accordance with photo 1, in one thousand years and assuming fluvial processes continue, the landscape will remain relatively the same, but will slowly continue to break down exposing prehistoric rock. In ten thousand years the slow continuation of erosion will occur and the beginnings of the Paleosol layer will show. The Paleosol layer is a stratum or soil horizon that was formed as a soil in a past geological period (3). In one million years the badlands will have eroded down into the Paleosol layer of the earth. Continuing with the theory of uniformitarianism I am further going to predict that in fifty-five million  years there will be another tectonic shift in the area causing another uplift and the fluvial cycle will start over. 

1. Paint Mines Interpretive Park. Calhan: El Paso County, n.d. Print.

2. "Paint Mines Interpretive Park." Paint Mines Interpretive Park. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2012.

3. "Paleosol." Def. 1. N.p.: Dictonary, n.d. Print.

4. "UCCS | Geomorphology - Calhan Paint Mines." UCCS | Geomorphology - Calhan Paint Mines. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2012

5.. "Uniformitarianism." Def. 1. N.p.: Dictionary, n.d. Print.

Clouds and Climate

I must first start this post off with an apology for my tardiness; I am ashamed to admit that I was recently diagnosed with a disease and just started a medication that seems to make me sick.

On that note, I am posting about cloud cover and the general climate in Calhan, CO
I made a trip to my location this past friday to do some cloud watching and snapped a few photos of the cloud cover.

I took this picture right when I got to the Paint Mines at 10am. This is a combination of cumulus clouds (low-level puffy) and stratus clouds (low-level shapeless). If you look close enough you can also see a bit of virga (evaporated clouds) in those clouds closest to the horizon line.

This is an altocumulus cloud (mid-level puffy).

This is a nice plump combination of a stratocumulus and cumulus clouds.

After a bit of simply research, I discovered some average climates for Calhan from weatherspark.com, which compiled data from the city's weather station, the Elicot-B Afa from 2008-2012. I found a few graphs, one displaying the average dew point and one displaying wind speed. 

With dew point we know that lower dew points are drier and higher dew points are humid. This graph shows the dew point over the course of a year. July clearly sees the most rainfall and plays the largest factor in the evolution of the Paint Mines Interpretive Park. 

Dew Point

Wind Speed

This graph shows the typical wind speeds over the course of the year with speeds varying from 0 mph to 25 mph. Wind does not play a factor in the evolution of the Paint Mines' landscape.

Weathering Processes

Frost weathering, basal weathering, and mass wasting on both a large and a small scale are dominant weathering processes that still continue to shape the Paint Mines Interpretive Park in Colorado Springs, CO.

Frost weathering is the occurrence of water freezing and expanding within joints(cracks) in rocks.
This chemical process exerts a force from within the rock, which causes it to fracture over time. The image below displays a prime example of frost weather (1).

http://www.uccs.edu/Images/geomorph/CPM/CPM04.jpg

http://www.thecohiker.com/colorado-hiking-trails/colorado-plains-east/P8240050.JPG?attredirects=0

The link above will take you to an image displaying basal weather, which is another dominant feature. Basal weathering is a process of salt build up around the base of rocks which erodes over time due to the lack of sufficient alluvial wasting (1).

Mass wasting, which is the downward sloping of angular material, occurs all throughout the park (2).

Mass wasting floods through the Paint Mines on both a small and a large scale depending on the permeable and impermeable areas of the landscape. Debris slides, flows, rock slides, falls, and slumping of land masses and rocks are the main forms of mass wasting, which occur periodically (2).

The image below portrays a mudslide flowing through the river bed of the mines. This river bed is actually part of the trail and could potentially overflow during intense storms.

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6111/6228042574_266d8f6826_b.jpg

1. Allen, Casey. "Decay of Earth's Rocks." Reading

2. Allen, Casey. "Mass Wasting." Reading

A Mild Geological Breakdown-

Around 55 million years ago a large pluton of metamorphic rock burst through the earth's crust due to subduction stresses. In the eastern plains of Colorado, the Paint Mines Interpretive Park stands as a result of this subduction shift in the earth's lithosphere.
Weathering and erosion are evident among the metamorphosed sedimentary rocks. This image shows the 3 distinct strata layers, which appear to be a combination of siltstone and sandstone; based on the flaking and crumbling nature of the rocks.

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6111/6228042574_266d8f6826_b.jpg

Triangular facets are a defiant feature among the paint mines interpretive park. This large scale topographical map compliments of GoogleMaps displays these facets and possibly some alluvial fans. This second image gives us a clearer view of these triangular facets.

http://images.summitpost.org/original/479010.JPG

Getting to know your location

It is clear to see that the paint mines interpretive park is a geographical wonder located right here in our backyard. However, its mysterious creation holds a vast history that I know nothing about and want to study. I have visited this park once and have discovered through posted kiosks the formation's usage by the indigenous people of the region, but nothing more. Three distinct layers; pink, white and yellow dominant the hundreds of clay spires. Each layer must be older than the one above it; I am most interested in dating these formations and further discovering how much longer they will maintain their integrity.  

Pictures to come...