Mammoth Change

A photomanipulation of the Florissant valley in winter

NPS/GIP: Mariah Slovacek

Geoheritage Highlight!

The heritage of our planet and the life that lives here, including us, has been driven over the ages by climate change. The Earth’s environment has changed during geologic time and it continues to change at an unusually rapid rate today. Human activities can have an impact on how climate changes. The heritage that we leave for the Earth’s future will be strongly influenced by what we do today.

 

Mammoths in Florissant?

The warm greenhouse world of the Eocene abruptly transitioned to an icehouse world at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, as permanent ice began to develop on a previously ice-free Antarctica. In less than a million years, the giant redwoods and many hardwoods of the Florissant Formation became uncommon in the landscape. Rather, cold-hardy spruces, firs, and pines came to dominate the Oligocene Antero formation of South Park, 30 miles to the west of here. Global temperatures continued to cool into the Pleistocene Ice Age. Glaciers developed on Pikes Peak, though not in the Florissant valley. However, it was still cold enough that animals like Columbian mammoth once lived here.