Pikes Peak
Geography and geology
Pikes Peak is one of Colorado's 54 fourteeners, mountains more than 14,000 feet (4,267.2 m) above sea level. The massif rises over 8,000 ft (2,400 m) above downtown Colorado Springs. Pikes Peak is a designated National Historic Landmark. It is composed of a characteristic pink granite called Pikes Peak granite. The color is due to a large amount of potassium feldspar.
Geography and geology
It is thought that the granite was once magma that crystallized at least 20 miles (32 km) beneath the Earth's surface, formed by an igneous intrusion during the Precambrian, approximately 1.05 billion years ago, during the Grenville orogeny. Through the process of uplifting, the hardened rock pushed through the Earth's crust and created a dome-like mountain, covered with less resistant rock. Years of erosion and weathering removed the soil and rock leaving the exposed mountain.
Geography and geology
Soils on Pikes Peak above the timberline (approximately 12,000 ft or 3,700 m) are classified as cirque land). Forests at lower altitudes mostly lie over the brown stony, sandy, loams of the Catamount loam or Ivywild loam series.
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