Olympic National Park: Building Earth's Landscapes

(Olympic Mountains, image: onlinephotolibrary.experiencewashington.com)

The majority of the Olympic Mountains are part of Olympic National Park. The mountains themselves are the result of the subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate. The Olympic Mountains aren't very tall. The tallest is Mount Olympus at about 8,000 ft. The mountains are made up of mostly basaltic and oceanic sedimentary rock. According to www.olympic.national-park.com, the sedimentary rock is the result of sediments being washed from the land to the sea. The sediments then became shale and sandstone. The mountains also have many glaciers. Most of the glaciers on the mountains are fairly small, but the glaciers on Mount Olympus are larger. While there are a few volcanoes in the state of Washington, there are no volcanoes in Olympic National Park. There are no volcanoes on the Olympic Peninsula. The closest volcanoes to the park are Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens, which are both located just southeast of the peninsula. The forest and the coast of Olympic National Park are also very geographically interesting. A lot of debris is washed up on the coast from the Pacific Ocean. The temperate rain forests contain many different rock types, as well as record size trees and a variety of animal species.



Sources:
"Potentially Active Volcanoes in Washington." Dynamic Maps. National Atlas of the United States, Web. 9 Dec 2010. <http://www.nationalatlas.gov/dynamic/dyn_vol-wa.html>.
Uhler, John William. Olympic National Park. Web. 8 Dec 2010. <http://www.olympic.national-park.com/>.