| Kinzua Dam from Jakes Rocks |
| Next: Kinzua Bridge |
Glaciers, seas, and trilobites. View from Jakes Rocks shows the Kinzua Dam, Kinzua Lake,
and Allegheny River at Big Bend. Although these hills definitely look like mountains, they
really aren't. This is called The Allegheny Plateau, which was made pretty much
impenetrable to colonial settlers after the watershed carved out all the steep valleys. The
northern plateau was covered by glaciers, which explains why you see huge rocks, some of
them geometric, just lying around--that's where the retreating ice left them. Before that, in
geologic time, this area was completely covered by water. It's not unusual to find a prefectly
preserved fossil of a trilobite or sea shell here, some of them a million years old or
something ridiculous like that. Notice how no one hill stands out taller than another and you
can begin to visualize a plateau here instead of mountains.
and Allegheny River at Big Bend. Although these hills definitely look like mountains, they
really aren't. This is called The Allegheny Plateau, which was made pretty much
impenetrable to colonial settlers after the watershed carved out all the steep valleys. The
northern plateau was covered by glaciers, which explains why you see huge rocks, some of
them geometric, just lying around--that's where the retreating ice left them. Before that, in
geologic time, this area was completely covered by water. It's not unusual to find a prefectly
preserved fossil of a trilobite or sea shell here, some of them a million years old or
something ridiculous like that. Notice how no one hill stands out taller than another and you
can begin to visualize a plateau here instead of mountains.
Copyright 2005-2007 by theAllegheny.com unless otherwise noted. From Warren, PA
photo copyright 2005
by crolla
by crolla