Geology topics

Research about Rockies

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Rockies.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2012

Middle Rockies Ecoregion: Chapter 5 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000

The Middle Rockies Ecoregion—characterized by steep, high-elevation mountain ranges and intermountain valleys—is a disjunct ecoregion composed of three distinct geographic areas: the Greater Yellowstone area in northwest Wyoming, southwest Montana, and eastern Idaho; the Bighorn Mountains in north-central Wyoming and south-central Montana; and the Black Hills in western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming (Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997). The ecoregion covers approximately 90,160 km2 (34,881 mi2), and its three distinct geographic sections are bordered by several other ecoregions (fig. 1). The Yellowstone section abuts the Montana Valley and Foothill Prairies and the Northern Rockies Ecoregions to the north, the Snake River Basin and the Central Basin and Range Ecoregions to the west, and the Wyoming Basin Ecoregion to the south and east. The Bighorn Mountains section lies between the Wyoming Basin Ecoregion to the west and the Northwestern Great Plains Ecoregion to the east, and it abuts the Montana Valleys and Foothill Prairies Ecoregion to the north. The Black Hills section is entirely surrounded by the Northwestern Great Plains Ecoregion. The Continental Divide crosses the ecoregion from the southeast along the Wind River Range, through Yellowstone National Park, and west along the Montana-Idaho border. On both sides of the divide, topographic relief causes local climate variability, particularly the effects of aspect, exposure to prevailing wind, thermal inversions, and rain-shadow effects, that are reflected in the wide variety of flora and fauna within the ecoregion (Ricketts and others, 1999).

Idaho;Montana;South Dakota;Wyoming↗

USGS2012

Northern Rockies Ecoregion: Chapter 7 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000

The Northern Rockies Ecoregion (Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997) covers approximately 162,746 km 2 (63,200 mi 2 ), primarily in Idaho but also including areas in western Montana and northeastern Washington (fig. 1). Canada forms the northern border of the ecoregion. To the west it is bordered by the Columbia Plateau and Blue Mountains Ecoregions, to the south by the Snake River Basin Ecoregion, and to the east by the Canadian Rockies, Middle Rockies, Northwestern Great Plains, and Northwestern Glaciated Plains Ecoregions; also to the east, the Northern Rockies Ecoregion interfingers with the Montana Valley and Foothill Prairies Ecoregion, each enclosing some isolated areas of the other (fig. 1). The ecoregion is composed of a series of high, rugged mountain ranges, mostly oriented northwest-southeast, with intermontane valleys between them (fig. 2). The entire ecoregion was glaciated during the Pleistocene (1,800,000 to 11,400 years ago), and today numerous large lakes occupy basins formed by glacial action (Omernik, 1987; Habeck and Mutch, 1973). Streams draining these mountain ranges provide a water source for many western cities and towns (fig. 3). The Continental Divide, located at the highest elevations along the northern Rocky Mountains, separates rivers that flow westward into the Columbia River watershed from those that flow eastward into the Missouri River watershed.

Idaho;Montana;Washington↗

USGS2012

Southern Rockies Ecoregion: Chapter 8 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000

The Southern Rockies Ecoregion is a high-elevation mountainous ecoregion that covers approximately 138,854 km2 (53,612 mi2), including much of central Colorado and parts of southern Wyoming and northern New Mexico (fig. 1) (Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997). It abuts six other ecoregions: the Wyoming Basin and Colorado Plateaus Ecoregions on the north and west, the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau Ecoregion on the south, and the Northwestern Great Plains, Western High Plains, and Southwestern Tablelands Ecoregions on the east (fig. 1). The ecoregion receives most of its annual precipitation (25–100 cm) as snowfall, which provides a significant amount of high-elevation snowpack that is an important water source for surrounding ecoregions. The Southern Rockies Ecoregion has a steep elevation gradient from low foothills to high peaks, with several hundred summits higher than 3,660 m (12,000 ft). As a southern extension of the larger RockyMountain system, it is composed primarily of seven main north-south trending mountain ranges that are separated by four large intermontane basins. A fifth basin, the San Luis Valley, is outside the ecoregion, forming a northern finger of the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau Ecoregion that lies mostly to the south. To the east, late Tertiary sand and gravel deposits that were eroded from the relatively young Rocky Mountains were carried eastward by streams, forming the nearby Western High Plains Ecoregion and its underlying Ogallala aquifer.

Colorado;New Mexico;Wyoming↗