30 Days to Save the Mountains |
| Published: October 13, 2007, 2:59 pm |
| Tags: clean water protection act, mountaintop removal mining, science, environment |
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Four hundred million years ago, the outline of North America wasn't recognizable on the map. The continents were tumbled together in an unfamiliar mass, and the great landmarks that we know today did not exist and wouldn't for many millions years to come. But in the eastern portion of the area that would become the United States, a drastic change was underway. An island chain -- something like Japan today -- was pressing up against the continent. Under the terrible pressure, a deep ocean trench -- a geosyncline -- was folding back on itself, the layers of sediment where being being distorted and twisted as gradually the down fold reversed. Slowly, slowly, coral reefs were pushed up into the air. Trilobites and great shelled cephalopods and the armor-plated fish were forced to retreat as mud and sand and stone rose from the Ordovician Sea. For a hundred million years and more, the land kept rising. Rains that fell on the western part of [ Full article ] |
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