Pikes Peak – The Formation

Who would have guessed Pikes Peak came well before the Rocky Mountains. As you already know, the rocks forming Pikes Peak are well over 2.3 billion years old. The formation of the Rocky Mountains was only recently formed about 300 million years ago. Going back one billion years a dome of hot molten rock, called magma was pushed from the earth’s core to form a batholith. This formation never did make it to the surface remaining hidden for millions of years. During the first stages of the formation of the Rocky Mountains, the earth’s crust went through sea floor spreading at the mid-Atlantic Ridge. The stresses on the North American Plate eventually faulted along what is now known as the Rocky Mountains. It was during this time that the huge mass of Pikes Peak made its first appearance. After this a stage of intensive erosions took place. This is about the time places like Garden of the Gods was born. Another period when seawater and additional sediments layered the area another up-thrust of the earth’s crust formed the Rockies and along with it pushed the once sunken batholith of Pikes Peak. Since then, many of the mountains features have been carved out by glaciers and their runoff during the Pleistocene Ice Age.

Source: Pikes Peak. (n.d.). The Geology of Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak – America’s Mountain. Retrieved October, 24, 2010 from http://www.pikespeak.us.com/Learn/geology.html.