|
Pegunungan Rocky biasanya didefinisikan membentang dari [[Liard River]] di British Columbia, sampai ke [[Rio Grande]] di New Mexico. Pegunungan ini dapat juga dianggap membentang dari [[Alaska]] atau [[Mexico]], namun pegunungan tersebut lebih dianggap sebagai bagian dari seluruh [[American cordillera]] daripada bagian dari ''Rockies''.
Bagian termuda dari pegunungan Rocky terangkat semasa jaman [[Cretaceous]] akhir (140 juta-65 juta tahun yang lalu), meskipun sebagian pegunungan sebelah selatan terangkat pada jaman [[Precambrian]] (3.980 juta-600 juta tahun yang lalu). Kondisi geologinya terdiri dari kompleks [[batuan beku]] dan [[batuan metamorf]]; yang termuda adalah [[batuan sedimen]] (berada di sepanjang batas selatan pegunungan Rocky), dan batuan vulkanik dari jaman [[Tersier]] (65 juta-1.8 juta tahun yl.) berada di daerah [[Pegunugan San Juan]] dan di beberapa daerah lain. Millennia of severe erosion in the [[Wyoming Basin]] transformed intermountain basins into a relatively flat terrain. The [[Tetons]] and other north-central ranges are magnificent granitic intrusions of folded and faulted rocks of [[Paleozoic]] and [[Mesozoic]] age (Peterson 1986; Knight 1994).
Periods of glaciation occurred from the [[Pleistocene]] Epoch (1.8 million-70,000 years ago) to the [[Holocene]] Epoch (fewer than 11,000 years ago). Recent episodes included the [[Bull Lake Glaciation]] that began about 150,000 years ago and the [[Pinedale Glaciation]] that probably remained at full glaciation until 15,000-20,000 years ago (Pierce 1979). Ninety percent of Yellowstone National Park was covered by ice during the Pinedale Glaciation (Knight 1994). The "little ice age" was a period of glacial advance that lasted a few centuries from about 1550 to 1860. For example, the Agassiz and Jackson glaciers in [[Glacier National Park]] reached their most forward positions about 1860 during the little ice age (Grove 1990).
Water in its many forms sculpted the present Rocky Mountain landscape (Athearn 1960). Runoff and snowmelt from the peaks feed Rocky Mountain rivers and lakes with the water supply for one-quarter of the United States. The rivers that flow from the Rocky Mountains eventually drain into three of the world's five [[Oceans]]: the [[Atlantic Ocean]], the [[Pacific Ocean]], and the [[Arctic Ocean]]. These rivers include:
[[Image:RockyMountainsLocatorMap.png|thumb|300px|right|Peta yang menunjukkan lokasi pegunungan Rocky.]]
* [[Arkansas River]]
* [[Athabasca River]]
* [[Colorado River (U.S.)|Colorado River]]
* [[Columbia River]]
* [[Fraser River]]
* [[Kootenay River]]
* [[Missouri River]]
* [[Peace River (Canada)|Peace River]]
* [[Platte River]]
* [[Rio Grande]]
* [[Saskatchewan River]]
* [[Snake River]]
* [[Yellowstone River]]
The [[Continental Divide]] is located in the Rocky Mountains and designates the line at which waters flow either to the [[Atlantic]] or [[Pacific]] Oceans. [[Triple Divide Peak (Montana)|Triple Divide Peak]] (8020 feet/2444 m) in [[Glacier National Park (US)]] is so named due to the fact that water which falls on the mountain reaches not only the Atlantic and Pacific, but the [[Arctic]] Ocean as well.
==Sejarah Manusia==
Since the last great Ice Age, the Rocky Mountains were a sacred home first to [[Paleo-Indians]] and then to the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes of the [[Apache]], [[Arapaho]], [[Bannock (tribe)|Bannock]], [[Blackfoot]], [[Cheyenne]], [[Crow]]. [[Flathead]], [[Shoshoni]], [[Lakota|Sioux]], [[Ute Tribe|Ute]], and others (Johnson 1994). Paleo-Indians hunted the now-extinct [[mammoth]] and [[ancient bison]] (an animal 20% larger than modern bison) in the foothills and valleys of the mountains. Like the modern tribes that followed them, Paleo-Indians probably migrated to the plains in fall and winter for bison and to the mountains in spring and summer for [[fish]], [[deer]], [[elk]], [[root]]s, and [[berry|berries]]. In Colorado, along the crest of the Continental Divide, rock walls that Native Americans built for driving game date back 5,400-5,800 years (Buchholtz 1983). A growing body of scientific evidence indicates that Native Americans had significant effects on mammal populations by hunting and on vegetation patterns through deliberate burning (Kay 1994).
Recent human history of the Rocky Mountains is one of more rapid change (Lavender 1975; Knight 1994). The Spanish explorer [[Francisco Vásquez de Coronado]]--with a group of soldiers, missionaries, and African slaves--marched into the Rocky Mountain region from the south in [[1540]]. The introduction of the horse, metal tools, rifles, new diseases, and different cultures profoundly changed the Native American cultures. Native American populations were extirpated from most of their historical ranges by disease, warfare, habitat loss (eradication of the bison), and continued assaults on their culture.
[[Image:Rockies USA1.jpg|thumb|300px|Colorado Rockies]]
The [[Lewis and Clark expedition]] (1804-1806) was the first scientific reconnaissance of the Rocky Mountains. Specimens were collected for contemporary botanists, zoologists, and geologists (Jackson 1962). The expedition was said to have paved the way to (and through) the Rocky Mountains for European-Americans from the East, although Lewis and Clark met at least 11 European-American mountain men during their travels.
Mountain men, primarily French, Spanish, and British roamed the Rocky Mountains from 1720 to 1800 seeking mineral deposits and furs. After 1802, American [[fur trader]]s and explorers ushered in the first widespread [[Whites|white]] presence in the Rockies. The more famous of these include Americans included [[William Henry Ashley]], [[Jim Bridger]], [[Kit Carson]], [[John Colter]], [[Thomas Fitzpatrick]], [[Andrew Henry]], and [[Jedediah Smith]]. On [[July 24]], [[1832]], [[Benjamin Bonneville]] led the first [[wagon train]] across the Rocky Mountains by using [[Wyoming]]'s South Pass.
The [[Mormon]]s began to settle near the [[Great Salt Lake]] in [[1847]]. In [[1859]], [[gold]] was discovered near [[Cripple Creek, Colorado]], and the regional economy of the Rocky Mountains was changed forever. The [[transcontinental railroad]] was completed in 1869, and [[Yellowstone National Park]] was established in 1872. While settlers filled the valleys and mining towns, conservation and preservation ethics began to take hold. [[Benjamin Harrison|President Harrison]] established several forest reserves in the Rocky Mountains in 1891-1892. In [[1905]], [[Theodore Roosevelt|President Theodore Roosevelt]] extended the [[Medicine Bow Forest Reserve]] to include the area now managed as [[Rocky Mountain National Park]] (Buchholtz 1983). Economic development began to center on [[mining]], [[forestry]], [[agriculture]], and [[recreation]], as well as on the service industries that support them (Lavender 1975). Tents and camps became ranches and farms, forts and train stations became towns, and some towns became cities.
== Industri and pembangunan ==
|
