Progress on 73 VGE - Kermit

[P911E70]

dear brian,
thks the picture from the speedo meter was not taken while driving up the mountain road but on my trip from zurich to amsterdam a few weeks ago.
friday i drove down to holland and saturday afternoon back home. 1800 km in two days, no problem, fuel about 12 ltr per 100 km and average speed 130 km including refueling!!
but as you an see, at that speed the car realy goes! and it was not at full rev! 6200 rpm and i think about 140 miles or slightly more.

but definetly it is more fun to drive the susten or klausen pass with no traffic!

martin

[silver911]

The 'flat part of the valley is a 'morraine' or debris field left as the glacier melted after the ice age (I forget which one, probably the first). It is not solid rock, rather a very densely packed rock debris. When the glacier expanded again during the second ice age it was 'flattened' by the ice going back over it.

The valley then raises rapidly (the hair pins at the bottom of the photo) to the current 'morraine' which is just below the level of the glacier (which is gradually retreating as it melts). Again there you can see the make up of thius morraine as rock and fragments as opposed to the solid rock sides of the valley.

Well that's what I recall from the geologist who told us all about it about 15 years ago...somebody here must know more about geology and glacial erosion than that and can hopefully explian more fully.

[ckissick]

As a geologist, I must go OT on this one, to answer Randy's question.

Based on the appearance of the photo, here's the story. The flat valley is the site of the lowermost extent of the old glacier. That's why the valley is V-shaped downstream of it. The flat valley with the braided stream used to be a lake, and is now filled in with sediment. Braided streams form with shallow gradients and high sediment flow. Yosemite Valley is almost the same: U-shaped valley upstream of El Capitan, V-shaped at El Portal, and Yosemite Valley used to be a lake. Because of the lower sediment load (just clean granite upstream), the Merced River is not braided.

OK, now, there will be a test on this next week.