Olympic National Park: Shaping Earth's Landscapes

The main biome of Olympic National Park is a temperate rain forest biome. These rainforests in Olympic National Park include the Hoh Rain Forest and the Quinault Rain Forest, both named for rivers of the same name and the American Indian Tribes of the same name that have lived in the area for many years. The rain forest receives about 150 inches of precipitation annually. A temperate rain forest and tropical rain forest differ in that a tropical rain forest receives similar amounts of precipitaion all throughout the year while a temperate rain forest has more precipitation in the winter and less in the summer. A temperate rain forest also has more coniferous trees as opposed to tropical trees, and while there are many different species of plants and animals in a temperate rain forest, a tropical rain forest has much more.

(All three photos taken by myself on a hike in Olympic National Park)

Another major landscape in Olympic National Park are the Olympic Mountains, which contain many glaciers. There are a little over 250 glaciers on the Olympic Mountains. The movement of glacial ice on the mountains has created many different features such as lake basins, U-shaped valleys, jagged peaks, and cirques (http://www.olympic.national-park.com/). The most popular glaciers in Olympic National Park are the Blue Glacier and the Anderson Glacier.

Sources:
Class notes
Uhler, John William. Olympic National Park. Web. 8 Dec 2010. <http://www.olympic.national-park.com/>.