Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Majestic Landscapes within Guyana


Guyana also nicknamed the Land of Many Waters features various mountainous borders, which add character to Guyana’s majestic landscape. Some of the mountainous features within the land include The Kanuku Mountains, Mount Ayanganna, Pakaraima Mountains, and  Mount Roraima.

The Pakaraima Mountains were developed through processes such as: erosion, and weathering. Weathering is any of the chemical or mechanical processes by which rocks exposed to weather, undergo chemical decomposition and mechanical disintegration. Erosion on the other hand is the gradual wearing away of land surface material such as: rock, sediments and soil, by the movement of water, wind or a glacier, or the simple transport of weathered material.



Above is an image of Mount Ayanganna, a sand stone tepui in the Pakaraima Mountains. Tepui's “House of the Gods” are tabletop mesas derived from a large sandstone plateau that have been weathered and eroded.
The photo above is a great example of joints created by weathering. Joints are regularly spaced cracks or fractures in rock. In this particular photo the joints are the free spaces best seen right above the fractured edge of green or moss, depicted as small spaces that travel vertically up the mountain. 

Another example of weathering would be Frost Weathering. Frost Weathering is a mechanical process that occurs upon freezing. When there is an increase in the volume of the water, the water freezes, expands and exerts a force on its surroundings, the hydraulic pressure exerted by water deep inside the crack the water freezes at the top to create a seal. This can be exemplified in the photo on the left. Which is a photo of Mount Roraima. Frost weathering fractures can be seen at the top of the mountain as well as along the far right side of the mountain wear the rock is broken, creating a jagged stair case.
<---Closer Look at The Table Top Mountains of Guyana