2. How was Pikes Peak created?
• The following helped create Pikes Peak
▫ Batholiths
▫ Plate Tectonics
▫ Erosion and Weathering
▫ Glaciations
3. Batholiths
• Pikes Peak is made of a pink granite called Pikes
Peak granite. The reason the granite is pink is
due to the large quantity of potassium feldspar.
The granite was originally magma (hot molten
rock) that crystallized beneath the earth’s
surface by an igneous intrusion approximately 1
billion years ago. The hardened rock began
uplifting and pushed through the earth’s crust
creating this mountain.
5. Glaciations
• Huge glaciers that existed on Pikes Peak helped
create this mountain. During the ice age the
glaciers existed however after the ice age ended
these large glaciers came down the mountain
valleys eroding the valley sides and bottom of
the mountain.
6. Erosion and Weathering
• As the granite in Pikes Peak cools, cracks in the
rock develop. These cracks let water in which
increase the speed of mechanical weathering
that work to further break down the rock. Frost
wedging would be very common in Pikes Peak
during the winter. When the water freezes, it
expands. The expanding wedge of ice splits the
rock. Repetition of the alternation of freezing
and thawing are an important agent of
mechanical weathering.
7. Bibliography
• Agar, Charles, Insiders Guide to Colorado's
Mountains, Fourth Edition, Guilford, CT: Morris Book
Publishing, LLC: 2007, 2009
• Heos, Bridget, Colorado Past and Present, New
York, NY: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc, 2011
• Pikes Peak - America's Mountain, 2009-2012
http://pikespeak.us.com/Learn/geology.html
• Pikes Peak Country Attractions
http://pikes-peak.com/
• Wikipedia, Pikes Peak, October 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikes_Peak
• Wikipedia, Pikes Peak Granite, April 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikes_Peak_granite
