Mount Whitney

The Mount Whitney is the uppermost peak in the Sierra Nevada and the neighboring America, with a height of 14,505 feet (4,421 meters). The peak is on the border between the Tulare and Inyo counties of California, 136.2 km (84.6 miles) west-northwest of the lowest spot in North America at Badwater in the National Park of the Death Valley at 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level. The western slope of the Mount Whitney is in the Sequoia National Park and the peak is the southern end of the John Muir Trail that runs 341.0 km (211.9 miles) from Happy Isles in the Yosemite Valley. The eastern slope of the mountain lies in the Inyo National Forest in the Inyo County.

The top of Whitney lies on the Sierra Crest and close to several of the highest mountains of the Sierra Nevada. The mountain rises 10,778 feet (3,285 meters) or just in excess of two miles on top of the Lone Pine town, 24 km (15 miles) to the eastern part of the Owens Valley. The mountain noticeably goes up 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) above the Owens Valley’s ground. It goes up more slowly on the western side, positioning 3,000 feet (910 meters) only on top of the John Muir Trail at the Guitar Lake.

Mount Whitney is over the tree line and contains an alpine type of weather and ecosystem. Only a few plants cultivate close to the peak, such as the Sky Pilot, a pad plant that develops low to the ground. The only mammals are transitory, such as the Gray-topped Rosy Finch and Parnassius Phoebus, a butterfly species.

The estimated height of the peak of Mount Whitney has distorted over the years. The know-how of height measurement has turned out to be more sophisticated and, more significantly, the perpendicular coordinate system has distorted. The mountain was generally said to be at 14,494 feet (4,418 meters) and this is the height printed on the United States Geological Survey brass benchmark disk on the peak. An older sign on the peak, which is a metallic sheet with black color writing on white enamel, reads that the elevation of the peak is 14,496.811 feet (4418.6 meters), but this was projected, employing the older upright datum from 1929. Since then the form of the Geoid has been projected more exactly. Using a fresh perpendicular datum established during 1988, the benchmark is currently estimated to be at 14,505 feet (4,421 meters).

The eastern gradient of the Mount Whitney is steeper than its western angle because the whole Sierra Nevada is the consequence of a fault-block, which is similar to a basement door, and the door is pivoted on the west and is gradually rising on the eastern side. The rise is due to a normal fault system that runs down the eastern foot of the Sierra, below the Mount Whitney. Therefore, the granite, which forms the Mount Whitney, is identical to the granite, which forms the Alabama Hills, and the granite is a part of the batholiths of Sierra Nevada. During the last two to ten million years, the Sierra was pushed up that allowed glacial and river corrosion to shred the upper rock layers to expose the resistant granite, which makes up the current Mount Whitney.