![]() ![]() ![]() This combination of uplift and tilt, which is the underlying geologic process that created the present range, is still occurring today.ĭigital elevation model (left) and satellite imagery (right) of the Sierra Nevada, showing the location of Yosemite National Park. ![]() Geologically, the Sierra Nevada is a huge block of the Earth's crust that is bounded on its east side by a fault system, along which the Sierra has been uplifted and tilted westward. Mount Lyell, the highest peak in Yosemite National Park, rises 13,114 feet above sea level. The highest peak in the Sierra Nevada, and in the continental United States, is 14,505-foot-tall Mount Whitney in Sequoia National Park. It is 50 to 80 miles wide and extends in elevation from near sea level along its western edge to more than 13,000 feet along the crest in the Yosemite area, and more than 14,000 feet along the crest in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. It is an asymmetric mountain range with a long, gentle western slope and a short, steep eastern escarpment. Trending northwest–southeast for more than 300 miles, the Sierra Nevada traverses half the length of California, with the Central Valley to the west and the Basin and Range Province to the east. Yosemite National Park is located within the heart of the Sierra Nevada, the largest fault-block mountain range in the United States. Looking east from Glacier Point at some of the characteristic geological features of Yosemite National Park: U-shaped valleys, granite domes, and waterfalls. ![]()
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