Twofold rise and fall of the Appalachians

To tell the story of our local mountains, we have to venture to the Ordovician Period, about 475 million years ago. This was the period following the Cambrian Period when a great variety of living things arose, judging from the numerous hard shelled fossils deposited then.

At this time, the Iapetus (sea) crustal plate dove under (subducted) the North American plate, giving rise to a huge amount of volcanism and great volcanic mountains, the first appearance of the Appalachians. This new mountain range rivaled the present Himalayas (just north of India).

Over the next 250 million years, erosion wore down this first Appalachian range into rolling foothills. (Erosion of the mountain tops is typically a few millimeters/century, a few meters every 100,000 years and a few kilometers (1 kilometer = 1,000 meters) in a 100 million years.)

This was the time of Pangea when all the continents were joined together. But the plates (on which the continents were anchored) collided, causing a rumpling of the surface. Again our region was thrust upward; this upheaval stretched over 4,000 miles, starting near our Gulf Coast into Quebec, and splitting in two branches. One branch became the Caledonia range of northeastern Europe and the other branch went into Northern Africa. (The Atlas mountains of Morocco have many of the same minerals as our Appalachian range.)

The Atlantic Ocean formed from a rift that began 80 million years ago. In the middle of the Atlantic is a vast rift where molten magma oozes out, pushing Africa and Europe a few centimeters further away from us each year. This creeping plate movement is confirmed by laser beams shoot to the lunar reflectors left by the Apollo missions. Iceland, the newest land mass along this Atlantic Ridge has much geothermal energy.

After the rebirth of the Appalachians, erosion again went to work, whittling them down over the next 200 million years. Throughout much of the Cretaceous Period (142 to 65 million years ago), there was a huge Bearpaw Sea, separating North America into two giant islands (East Coast and West Coast). Present day Florida, Mexico and Central America were underwater.

Then 65 million years ago, Earth was hit by a six-mile wide asteroid off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with an energy of 100 million megatons of TNT. Most life forms in North America, including our Appalachian forests, were carbonized. There were huge tsunamis across the northern and equatorial regions. There were several years of darkness due to the huge amount of soot and sulfur thrown into the atmosphere.

During this time, all animals whose adult weight is over 60 pounds became extinct, including the dinosaurs. Then about 35 million years ago, a smaller asteroid hit the Atlantic coast, creating a crater 50 miles wide. The heat of impact would have razed the trees and killed many animals on this side of North America. Today, this crater lies in Chesapeake Bay, buried under heavy sediment. The depression of this crater (occurred then on dry land), led to water inflow and the formation of the Bay there at the end of the most recent Ice Age.

So our Appalachian mountains or hills have witnessed the great expansion of life on Earth. Are these mountains in danger from humans? From the large wind turbines? From devices with a mass of a hundred tons while the mountains below have masses of millions of tons? It is clear that in southern West Virginia and Kentucky, the mountains are being destroyed through mountain top gouging.

Each day, millions of pounds of TNT are being used to blow off the top of the mountains to get to the coal beneath. The large earth-moving machines can scoop up 100 tons at a time. The overburden (top of mountains) is just dumped in nearby valleys. Already 1,000 miles of creeks have been buried. Five hundred square miles of mountain tops have been removed (nearly the area of Allegany County).

Of course the coal must be washed of impurities, resulting in over 600 large sludge ponds in Appalachia, in which nothing can live. The stripped areas are being seeded with a fast growing Asian weed that is toxic to local animals. The original soil is gone, so heavy rains bring on flash floods that have ruined thousands of houses and killed dozens of people.

Visit YouTube and view “The Hidden Destruction of Appalachian Mountains: Part 1 and Part 2” and you’ll see that the above is no exaggeration but reality to many poor counties in Appalachia. Outspoken foes of wind turbine farms (now the only significant green electricity source) are ignoring the destruction of mountains elsewhere and the resulting loss of habitat of many species of animals and plants. Insisting on preserving our mountain views while destructive mountain gouging elsewhere feeds coal burning electric plants is a Faustian bargain.

Tropical skies and meeting

Now featured at the Frostburg State Planetarium is “Tropical Skies” with free public programs on Sundays at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. in Tawes 302. Our programs begin with a informal tour of the current evening sky with free monthly sky charts available.

After our 45-minute program, any visitors are invited to tour our Science Discovery Center in the nearby Compton Building. The Cumberland Astronomy Club will meet this Friday, February 20th at 7:30 p.m. at the LaVale Public Library to see a video on a historic telescope. Telescopic observing afterwards will follow (weather permitting). All interested are invited to attend.

Bob Doyle invites any reader’s comments; email him at rdoyle@frostburg.edu or phone at (301) 687-7799.