Yosemite Crack Research Paper

Rockfalls are a very dangerous phenomenon. In class we learned that anything that is not at a 30 degree angle or less is unstable, and will tend to fall. This is how rocks and any type of earth falls. At the Yosemite National park, there is a crack in a cliff that measures 19 meters long, that is a little over 62 feet long. This crack fluctuates in width by about a centimeter from day to day. The widest the crack ever has gotten is 12 centimeters. Scientist can measure this width by using a device that is anchored to both sides of the crack. As the crack moves the device will measure the movement. There is evidence that when there are cooler temperature the gap in the rock will tend to shrink. However when there are warmer temperatures in the area, the crack tends to widen. This fluctuation is hard on the rocks, and can weaken the rock around the crack even more that it already is. Over the last few years there has been a widening trend more than a shrinking trend. This widening is causing some damaging consequences. Rockfalls are occur more often in the summer months because of this widening trend. So far there has been 25,000 tons of rocks that have fallen from the slopes in Yosemite. That is enough rock to fill three olympic sized swimming pools. With fifteen percent of all rockfalls occurring on the hottest days of the year, this
huge crack could trigger even more. Not only will the amount of rockfalls increase, the number of cracks like the one mentioned in the article will also increase over time. Rockfalls are dangerous to everyone who might be caught around one. Falling rocks can cause injury and even death depending on how severe the rock fall was. This is a problem that needs to be looked at especially in the Yosemite area, as the nation park draws in many people for its hiking. Rock falls can also change the shape of the land. When a rockfall, or landslide happens, all of the rock on top, slides to the bottom in an effort to become stable. Doing this can cause the slopes from which the rock falls from to look different after such event. This could also become a problem for hikers in the area, as trails could become blocked, and major landmarks could become distorted, which could lead to people getting lost. A change in the landscape is not only a problem for hikers in the Yosemite area, this could also be a problem for the wildlife.
A huge amount of rock falls from one of the cracks, or steep slopes in the national park could make it hard for many animals to get to resources, or hunting grounds. Animals could be affected by a rockfall more so that humans because of this. If animals only know one way to get food or water, and they get cut off from that because of an event such as a rockfall, the population of animals in the area could die off. Whereas humans have plenty of other resources we can gather from to get our food and
water. Any huge amount of falling Earth is dangerous for the all of the living organisms around it. It is important to monitor the growing number of cracks in the granite rock of Yosemite, and monitor the number of rock and landslides that are occurring, and see if there is anything we can do to stop it, without damaging the landscape.