| Rainbow Mountain | |
|---|---|
  Rainbow Mountain Madison county, Alabama, US | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 1,142 ft (348 m) [1] |
| Coordinates | 34°44′5.05″N86°43′44.82″W / 34.7347361°N 86.7291167°W [1] |
| Geography | |
| Location | Madison county, Alabama, US |
| Topo map | USGS Grant |
Rainbow Mountain is a mountain in Madison county, Alabama. The mountain's name is derived from the name of Elisha Rainbolt, who settled on the mountain around 1810. [2]
Like overwhelming majority of geological features in the Highland region, Rainbow Mountain is characterized by sedimentary rocks (mostly limestone) from middle to late Paleozoic filled with fossils of corals and bryozoans. This is unsurprising, as almost all of contemporary Alabama's landmass was submerged under the Tethys Seaway and served as the ground for splendid coral reef ecosystems. All the strata of Rainbow Mountain are from Mississippian. The stratigraphy of Rainbow Mountain is such, from older to younger ( also lower to higher in altitude):
1.Below the main elevated mass of the mountain is Fort Payne Chert.
2.Tuscumbia Limestone.
4.On the very top sits Hartselle Sandstone. [3]
Fossils found there are Archimedes, rugose corals, and crinoids. Local minerals, excluding ones composing aformentioned rocks, are dolomite, calcite, fluorite, and sphalerite. Some rocks have ripple marks on them. The landscape is karstic, riddled with sinkholes and small grottos. [4]
Paleoindian arrowheads were reportedly found on the Rainbow Mountain. It would make sense that local people found shelter in the limestone crevices. [5]
A 65-acre nature preserve owned by the City of Madison is located on the mountain. The preserve has over three miles of hiking trails, which are managed by the Land Trust of North Alabama. [6] [7]
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Paleontology in Georgia refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Georgia. During the early part of the Paleozoic, Georgia was largely covered by seawater. Although no major Paleozoic discoveries have been uncovered in Georgia, the local fossil record documents a great diversity of ancient life in the state. Inhabitants of Georgia's early Paleozoic sea included corals, stromatolites, and trilobites. During the Carboniferous local sea levels dropped and a vast complex of richly vegetated delta formed in the state. These swampy deltas were home to early tetrapods which left behind footprints that would later fossilize. Little is known of Triassic Georgia and the Jurassic is absent altogether from the state's rock record. During the Cretaceous, however, southern Georgia was covered by a sea that was home to invertebrates and fishes. On land, the tree Araucaria grew, and dinosaurs inhabited the state. Southern Georgia remained submerged by shallow seawater into the ensuing Paleogene and Neogene periods of the Cenozoic era. These seas were home to small coral reefs and a variety of other marine invertebrates. By the Pleistocene the state was mostly dry land covered in forests and grasslands home to mammoths and giant ground sloths. Local coal mining activity has a history of serendipitous Carboniferous-aged fossil discoveries. Another major event in Georgian paleontology was a 1963 discovery of Pleistocene fossils in Bartow County. Shark teeth are the Georgia state fossil.
Paleontology in Florida refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Florida. Florida has a very rich fossil record spanning from the Eocene to recent times. Florida fossils are often very well preserved.
Paleontology in Alabama refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Alabama. Pennsylvanian plant fossils are common, especially around coal mines. During the early Paleozoic, Alabama was at least partially covered by a sea that would end up being home to creatures including brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, and graptolites. During the Devonian the local seas deepened and local wildlife became scarce due to their decreasing oxygen levels.
Paleontology in New Hampshire refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of New Hampshire. Fossils are very rare in New Hampshire because so much of the state's geology is highly metamorphic. The state's complicated geologic history has made dating its rocks and the fossils they contain "a difficult task." The state's Devonian rocks are especially metamorphosed, yet its Mississippian rocks formed too recently to have been subject to the same metamorphism. Nevertheless, despite the geologic complications some fossils have been discovered in the state.
Paleontology in Texas refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Texas. Author Marian Murray has said that "Texas is as big for fossils as it is for everything else." Some of the most important fossil finds in United States history have come from Texas. Fossils can be found throughout most of the state. The fossil record of Texas spans almost the entire geologic column from Precambrian to Pleistocene. Shark teeth are probably the state's most common fossil. During the early Paleozoic era Texas was covered by a sea that would later be home to creatures like brachiopods, cephalopods, graptolites, and trilobites. Little is known about the state's Devonian and early Carboniferous life. Evidence indicates that during the late Carboniferous the state was home to marine life, land plants and early reptiles. During the Permian, the seas largely shrank away, but nevertheless coral reefs formed in the state. The rest of Texas was a coastal plain inhabited by early relatives of mammals like Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus. During the Triassic, a great river system formed in the state that was inhabited by crocodile-like phytosaurs. Little is known about Jurassic Texas, but there are fossil aquatic invertebrates of this age like ammonites in the state. During the Early Cretaceous local large sauropods and theropods left a great abundance of footprints. Later in the Cretaceous, the state was covered by the Western Interior Seaway and home to creatures like mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and few icthyosaurs. Early Cenozoic Texas still contained areas covered in seawater where invertebrates and sharks lived. On land the state would come to be home to creatures like glyptodonts, mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, titanotheres, uintatheres, and dire wolves. Archaeological evidence suggests that local Native Americans knew about local fossils. Formally trained scientists were already investigating the state's fossils by the late 1800s. In 1938, a major dinosaur footprint find occurred near Glen Rose. Pleurocoelus was the Texas state dinosaur from 1997 to 2009, when it was replaced by Paluxysaurus jonesi after the Texan fossils once referred to the former species were reclassified to a new genus.
Paleontology in California refers to paleontologist research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of California. California contains rocks of almost every age from the Precambrian to the Recent.
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The Pahasapa Formation is a geological unit of primarily limestone and dolomite that is exposed in the Black Hills of South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming, and underlies parts of Nebraska, in the United States. Also referred to as the Pahasapa Limestone, this unit is analogous to the Madison Limestone, the Lodgepole Limestone, and the Burlington Limestone, other Mississippian-aged limestones and dolomites in the midwestern United States. Some recent literature has grouped stretches of the Pahasapa into the Madison Group. The formation is of local importance, as it contains the Madison aquifer, and two of the ten longest caves in the world.
Monte Sano Nature Preserve is, at 1,107 acres (448 ha), one of the largest urban nature preserves in the US and is located on Monte Sano Mountain in Huntsville, Alabama. The Land Trust of North Alabama manages the nature preserve and Land Trust volunteers have created 23+ miles of public trails. Residents and visitors alike enjoy the multi-use trails for hiking, biking, running, bird watching, environmental education, and general recreation. The trail system was honored in 2011 by the Department of the Interior as National Recreation Trails making them the first NRT trails in Madison County.