Mass Wasting: Beautiful, Powerful, and Sometimes Deadly

Mass wasting is classified into four different categories: slides, topples, falls, and flows. Mass wasting events can leave one in awe, or mesmerized at their sheer mass and power displayed. Because of this fact, one should be very aware of his/her surroundings in able to stay away from possible mass wasting events.

The deadliness of mass wasting can be seen in the story of four men from Connecticut who were hiking near Hagerman Peak, 11 miles South of Aspen Mountain on August 25, 2012. The hikers found themselves caught in the middle of an enormous rockslide that left one hiker dead, and placed another in critical condition. Rockslides are mainly composed of large sedimentary rock particles, with a small amount of other debris matter such as ground soil, small plants and sometimes trees. In this case, an exact cause of the rockslide could not be determined, but one can certainly theorize in the name of science. 

Location of Rockslide With Respect to Aspen

Rocks near the peak of a mountain can suffer tremendously through the processes of weathering, and erosion. Aspen had received large amounts of rainfall in the weeks leading up to August 25, 2012. This abnormal amount of rainfall caused the ground soil to lose its rigidity, and become more viscous. Rainfall cut rills out of the soil, destabilizing it even further. Rocks sitting on top of the soil began to stress until they finally cracked, in what is referred to as a Translational Slide. The force of gravity then caused tons of these rocks to plummet down the steep mountain face. The slide gained momentum and continued to collect more rock and other debris until it came to rest on a flat rock face. When the rocks settled, it formed a large group of talus cones (triangular shaped rock debris characteristic of a slide). These talus cones are responsible for crushing the hikers beneath them. 

Example of Transitional Rockslide 

                                                                     Video of Translational Rockslide

Actual Picture of Hagerman Rockslide with Talus Visible

Works Cited: 

"Body of Hiker Discovered Near Snowmass Mountain."Topnewstoday.org n.pag. Web. 11 Oct 2012.                                                                                                   <http://www.topnewstoday.org/i5/6/75/81/img_3181756_620.jpg>.

Mitchell, Bill, dir. CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Rock Slide Closes TN Highway 64 in Polk Co. Dir. Fairbanks allen, and .  Youtube.com, Film. 11 Oct 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVYGJYnJTi0>.

Allen, Casey. RockslidebasicAfter. N.d. Photograph. clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu, Denver. Web. 11 Oct 2012. 

Geolographical Formation of Aspen Mountain

             Aspen Mountain is a small fragment of the larger surrounding Rocky Mountains. There has been much debate, and deliberation regarding the exact geological processes that formed the Rocky Mountains. We will discuss the most prevalent theory, regarding plate tectonics.There are two very large tectonic plates known as the Pacific Plate, and the North American plate. The Pacific plate moves north and the North American plate moves south along the fault line. As the Pacific plate began to move north approximately 300 million years ago, the crust over which it moved was forced down by the North American Plate, back towards the Earth's core in a process called plate convergence.

                                                       North American and Pacific Plates


             Along with this collision came extremely intense forces that began to compress the Western coast of North America. As the shockwave moved eastward, it forced colossal amounts of rock to crack and slide up over surrounding rocks. This process is called thrust faulting, and it was the strongest force driving the formation of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. The shock wave caused the western ranges to converge, followed by the main ranges approximately 200 million years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgPy_bXNA-Y
Plate Convergence video.



            Once the Ancestral Rockies were formed, they slowly began to erode in a process called weathering. Weathering is the process that produces changes to the surface of rocks that have been exposed to both the atmosphere and hydrosphere, in most situations. This weathering caused large portions of the Ancestral Rockies to erode away, leaving large amounts of sedimentary rock. The current Rocky Mountains are comprised of this sedimentary rock left from the Ancestral Rockies, and newer rock that pushed its way through the surface and combined with the Ancestral sedimentary rock. Aspen Mountain is one of many beautifully formed mountains that make up the Rocky Mountains.

                                                        Maroon Bells. Aspen, Colorado

N.d. Photograph. n.p. Web. 20 Sep 2012. <http://visearth.ucsd.edu/VisE_Int/aralsea/images/fig1.gif>

SciVis - Plate Tectonic Project Oceanic - Continental Convergence Test. N.d. Video. youtube.com Web. 20 Sep 2012.

Cameron, Ward. "The Formation of the Rocky Mountains." Mountain Nature n.pag. Web. 20 Sep 2012.

Allen, Casey. Landforms Made by Faulting. clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu, Web. 20 Sep 2012.

Aspen Introduction

Hey there! My name is Wesley Cumpston, I was born and raised in beautiful Colorado. Being a native, I have always taken advantage of the activities and sports Colorado has to offer. During the spring and summer you can find me downhill mountain-biking, hiking, and camping all over Colorado. During the winter you can almost certainly find me somewhere in the Area-51 terrain park at Keystone, Freeway terrain park at Breckenridge or playing hockey. Apart from sports, I am a junior majoring in Business Management and Economics and hope to one day own my own consulting firm. Family, friends, and faith are the underlying forces that drive me to succeed.

 

The first reason I chose to use Aspen Snowmass is because of personal experience. The first time I saw Aspen, all I could do was take in all the beauty and majesty it had to offer. The gigantic pillows of snow that cover Snowmass between December and March are a beautiful sight for any snowboarder or skier. Intricate snowflakes falling through the trees top off a beautiful landscape for as far as the eyes can see. Aspen offers nature in raw form, rock and tree formations cap off this rugged landscape. Geographically, Aspen has so much to offer and I look forward to further discovering its intricacies.