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| This airliner view of the high peaks and glaciated valleys of the Sierra Nevada in the Kings Canyon National Park (southeastern Fresno County). Whereas the valleys were carved by alpine glaciers in the recent Ice Ages of the Pleistocene Epoch (about 11,000 to 2 million years ago), a fresh winter snow cover highlight how the over-steepened slopes are susceptible to avalanches. Avalanche chutes extend from high slopes, cutting through forests on the lower slopes to the valley floor where snow, rock, and other material accumulate. In many ways, the ancient alpine glaciers that once filled these valleys behave like great slump-like landslides. In fact, glacial deposits share many similar landscape features associated with large landslides. |
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