Acadia National Park

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Acadia National Park

• Mark Martell, Candi Santiago, Mike Robar

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Park Features

• 47,000 acre preservation including granite
  mountains, woodlands, ocean shoreline, lakes,
  ponds, and an abundance of plants and animals
• Located on coast of Maine called Mount Desert
  Island
• Cadillac Mountain - 1,530 Ft. Highest point on
  Atlantic Coast
• There are 45 miles of dirt roads and 115 miles to
  hike or mountain bike that range from easy to
  difficult
• They also have 20 miles of paved roads for
  driving the scenic views

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Park Features

• They also have many activities at the park which
  include

• Bird walks
• Boat cruises
• Evening slide programs
• Stargazing
• Short talks
• Nature walks, that are available from late May to
  mid-October.
• Fishing
• Boating
• Carriage rides

• During the winter, the carriage roads and the
  closed portions of the Park Loop Road are ideal
  for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.

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History

• Deep shell heaps indicate American Indian
  encampments dating back 6,000 years in Acadia
  National Park
• The first written descriptions of Maine coast
  Indians, recorded 100 years after European trade
  contacts began, describe American Indians who
  lived off the land by hunting, fishing,
  collecting shellfish, and gathering plants and
  berries
• The first written descriptions of Maine coast
  Indians, recorded 100 years after European trade
  contacts began, describe American Indians who
  lived off the land by hunting, fishing,
  collecting shellfish, and gathering plants and
  berries

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History

• George B. Dorr, the parks first superintendent,
  devoted 43 years of his life, energy, and family
  fortune to preserving the Acadia landscape
• Dorr and many others helped Acadia become the
  first national park established east of the
  Mississippi.

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Geological History

• 420 to 370 million years ago when Pangaea was
  being formed different tectonic plates were
  moving together.
• The Catskill Delta is being subducted underneath
  the Avalon Terrane (New England). This is when
  Acadia National Park formed.
• Geologists have named this activity the Acadian
  Orogeny
• Orogeny means the folding, faulting, and uplift
  of the earths crust to form mountain ranges,
  often accompanied by volcanic and seismic
  activity.

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Acadias Rock Units

• Ellsworth Schist.
• This type of metamorphic rock was formed by,
  accumulated sedimentary layers of marine and
  volcanic Debris in the Ordovician Period.
• In the late Ordovician and early Silurian Periods
  the sedimentary layers were deformed, compressed,
  and metamorphosed, forming the rocks now
  presently known in Acadia as
• This rock, which is very thick and compressed of
  mostly mica schist and dense gneiss, is usually
  only found at the north end of the park.

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Ellsworth Schist
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Cranberry Island Series

• It is also a little more complex as to how this
  series was formed. It mainly started when hot
  lava and more sediment covered the Ellsworth
  Schist and a first deformation occurred.
  Deformation is merely stress and strain on rocks
  that cause them to change there shape.
• Then, mild uplift metamorphism and erosion
  metamorphosed the sediments into the true
  Cranberry Series.
• Today on Acadia, the Cranberry Series is
  identified by rocks with pyroclasts, and
  brecciated fragments

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Cranberry Island
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Bar Harbor Series

• This metamorphic rock comes from sediments of
  sand, silt, and gravel overlain by a shallow sea.
• This is an early Devonian deposition that
  metamorphosed under a
• time of great heat and pressure. Today it
  is seen overlying the
• Cranberry Series and Ellsworth Schist, and
  is broken into
• shingled pieces on the beaches.
• One interesting fact that is unique of the Bar
  Harbor series is that large quantities of
  diorite, which is just a dark colored, granite
  textured rock
• that contains little quartz, penetrated the
  Bar Harbor series causing sills and dikes to form
  throughout the series. These sills and dike can
  be up to one hundred feet thick and up to
• fifty feet wide respectively.

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Bar Harbor Series
Dikes