Untitled Document List of Slides for Yosemite NP Half Dome , Yosemite's most famous landmark, draws the immediate attention of anyone entering Yosemite Valley from the west.
Exfoliation occurs when deeply-buried rock is exposed at the earth's surface by erosion.
Removal of the overlying layers causes the rock to expand slightly, cracking in sheets parallel to the surface . Here exfoliation affects a granite outcrop. North Dome , Half Dome, and others in the park have thus formed as concentric layers split away from the exposed granite surface. Yosemite lies within the largest mountain range in the United States - the Sierra Nevada. This range consists of an enormous granitic batholith , shown in red on the map, as well as many smaller igneous plutons.