The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1912-11-08
YOSEMITE VALLEY
OWES ITS ORIGIN
IN STREAM ACTION
OPINION OF PROF. WHITNEY,,
FIRST SCIENTIST TO STUDY
THE SIERRA.
GLACIER ACTION ALSO EFFECTIVE
Explosion of Number of Close Set
Domes of Molten Rock Smoothed
Out Chasm to Present Form.--Sub-
terranean Ruptures and Ice Epcc

1 That the wonderful gorge known as
Yosemite Valley owed it's origin to
both the action of streams and Of
glaciers is the conclusion reached in
a publication entitled Sketch of
Yosemite National Park" recently
issued by the Department of the In
terror. During the sixty years that
the valley has been known to the
white man many theories have teen
put forward to account for its orr
gin and the most important of these
are reviewed in the publication re-
ferred to.
Prof. J. d. Whitney, the first
scientist to study the Sierra, thought
the deeply incased character of the
Yosemite Valley to be the result of
the sinking of a local block o. the
earth's crust having the exact out
lines of the valley. Glaciers, he
stoutly asserted. had never SO much
as entered it. Galen Clark believed
the valley to have originated by the
exploding Of number of close-set
domes of molten rock, subsequent
stream and ice erosion smoothed out
the chasm to its present form Prof.
Silliman considered the Yosemite as
a great rapture caused by subterran-
can forces-a rent later partly filed
with rock debris Clarence King
was the first to point out the promin
ent role which the ice Of the glacial
epochs must have played in the ella,
boration Of the Yosemite Valley.
John Muir goes further and holds
that the Yosemite, like all the can
yon and other features of the Sierra
was sculptured almost who'll
Iy by ancient glaciers. In contrast
to this view is that of H. w. Turner |
and several others, according to
whom the Yosemite Is nothing but |
a stream-cut valley " hich has suf- |
fered little If any modification at the
hands of the ice, but which owes |
much of it's peculiar shaping to the |
influence of the strong vertical joints
displayed in it's walls.
Willard D. Johnson, a close stu
dent of ice erosion, considers the
Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy Valleys
to be products of streah erosion, sub
widened by the character
Istic sapping action Of the ice.
Others, notably E.. G.. Andrews, of
New South Wales, and Douglas w.
Johnson, have followed, all uniting
considerable importance
o glacial erosion, but differing some
what in their estimates OF the
AMOUNT Of work they believe should
,e assigned to it.
The most probable explanation is
hat the Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy
Valleys both have been developed
through stream erosion and have
ater been greatly deepened and en-
arged by repeated ice invasions;
urther, that they owe their strange
y clean-cut, moat-like forms and the
diversified sculpturine OF their cliffs
o the structure Of the country rock,
which has locally consrolled the &C
ion of the eroding agent.
This publication, which may be
purchased from the Superintendent
Il Documents, Government Printing
)ffice, Washington, D. c., fo- 10l
,ents, contains fine illustrations of
he wonderful natural features of the
Yosemite Park II is written in
language so that 1t
nay be readily understood by the
eader without scientific training.