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Generalized geologic map of the Yosemite area. (Based on a USGS image) The exposed geology of the Yosemite area includes primarily granitic rocks with some older metamorphic rock. The first rocks were laid down in Precambrian times, when the area around Yosemite National Park was on the edge of a very young North American continent.
Johnson Peak is the highest mountain, in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park. [2] Johnson Peak is made of eroded granite. At 85 Ma, the Johnson Granite Porphyry is the youngest granite rock in the Yosemite National Park, though the entire peak formed beneath the Earth's crust. It broached the surface much later, via subduction. [3]
El Capitan Granite is a type of granite (also see granodiorite), in a large area near El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park, California, United States. The granite forms part of the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite (also known as Tuolumne Batholith), one of the four major intrusive suites within the Sierra Nevada. El Capitan granite is mostly unjointed ...
Its area is estimated at 1,100 square kilometres (420 sq mi), the exposed area covering roughly 40 square kilometres (15 sq mi). [2] Johnson Granite Porphyry is part of the Tuolumne Batholith. [3] Its boundaries are difficult to trace, and are irregular. [1] It is both the youngest, and the most siliceous rock of Tuolumne Intrusive Suite. [4] [5]
Yosemite Valley represents only one percent of the park area, but it is where most visitors arrive and stay. More than half a dozen creeks tumble from hanging valleys at the top of granite cliffs that can rise 3,000–3,500 feet (910–1,070 m) above the valley floor, which itself is 4,000 ft (1,200 m) [ 3 ] above sea level .
Almost all of the landforms in the Yosemite area are cut from the granitic rock of the Sierra Nevada Batholith (a batholith is a large mass of intrusive igneous rock that formed deep below the surface). [2] About 5% of the park's landforms (mostly in its eastern margin near Mount Dana) are metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rocks. [3]