My Science School

Yellowstone National Park is widely regarded as the first national park in the world. Yellowstone is unique in many ways. It is the largest remaining nearly intact ecosystem in the Earth’s northern temperate zone.

The Park has a range of ecosystems comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges.

Yellowstone is famous for geysers and hot springs. A geyser is a type of hot spring. Yellowstone hosts the Old Faithful Geyser, the world’s most famous geyser. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America. It surrounds a huge ancient volcano, whose remains are called the Yellowstone Caldera, one of the largest volcanic systems in North America.

The wildlife of Yellowstone is famous, especially the big mammals.

 

Picture Credit : Google

The Redwood National and State Parks is a group of several state parks and one national park located in California. As the name suggest, it was set up to protect the remaining redwood forests.

The redwood trees are one among the tallest, oldest, and one of the most massive tree species on Earth. Along with the redwood forests, the parks preserve other indigenous flora, fauna, grassland prairie, cultural resources, portions of rivers and other streams, and 60 kilometres of pristine coastline.

The Redwood National and State Parks is made of the Redwood National Park and California’s Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks. At the time when these parks were set up, almost 90 per cent of the native redwood trees were logged off. The revival works are progressing successfully.

 

Picture Credit : Google

The Grand Canyon is one of the most visited places in Arizona. It is a gorge of the Colorado river. This rocky structure is at least 17 million years old. The river had eroded the canyon since then to form what we see today.

The Grand Canyon is 446 km long, up to 29 km wide and is around 2 km deep in some places. The narrowest point us more than six kilometres wide. Nearly 40 major sedimentary rock layers are exposed in the Grand Canyon. These layers contain millions of years of geological history. Some of these layers are two billion years old.

The Grand Canyon was designated a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1979.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Braulio Carillo National Park in Costa Rica exists within a volcanic conservation area. The Park was built in order to limit the developments in the area after the construction of the Limon Highway, a road of industrial importance.

The Park hosts the Barva Volcano, several other dormant volcanoes, various rivers and crater lakes. More than 90 per cent of the Park is covered with forests. The vegetation in the Park varies according to the altitude; there are cloud forests in high altitudes and tropical rainforests in lowlands.

Braulio Carillo has one of the highest levels of biodiversity in Costa Rica. More than 600 species of trees, 530 species of birds and 135 species of mammals thrive here.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Banff National Park of Canada has mesmerized thousands of people with its otherworldly beauty. It is the first and oldest national park of Canada.

With the terrain shifting from glaciers and ice fields to coniferous forests and picturesque lakes, Banff is located in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta. The mountains here were formed 80 million years ago, when the sedimentary rocks were pushed over to a side to form a new rock strata. Glaciers had covered most of the Park earlier.

Now, they are found only on the mountain slopes. They include the Columbia Icefield, the largest uninterrupted glacial mass in the Rockies. The current shape of the mountains can be credited to erosion from water to ice. Banff National Park has a subcratic climate, it spreads over three eco regions- the montane, subalpine, and alpine.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Cabo Pulmo is home to the only Pacific coral reef in the Sea of Cortez which is estimated to be at least 20,000 years old. It is in fact one of the oldest and the northernmost coral reef in the Pacific Ocean.

The reef system in Cabo Pulmo supports at least 200 tons of fish of great commercial value. The Park is surrounded by rocky outcrops that are at least a thousand years old. There are also layers of sandstone that hold a lot of fossils.

For many years, this precious place was unprotected. But through the tenacious efforts of the Cabo Pilmo community, in 1995, the waters offshore from Cabo Pulmo were designated a National Marine Park by the Mexican government.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Every year, scores of migratory aquatic birds including spoonbills, flamingos and pelicans come to nest in the marshy lands of Cuba’s Caguanes National park. But, the number of these birds declined in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Sugar mills around the Park polluted the Park and this was the reason behind the decline in their numbers. Three sugar mills were shut down after this in order to reduce pollution. As a result, the number of migratory birds visiting the Park is increasing since then.

Caguanes National park covers the Caguanes peninsula as well as the Guayaberas swamps and mangroves. There are many caves, arches and niches that open to the sea. This Park is home to 200 varieties of animals out of which 24 are endemic. 112 species of birds nest in the marsh and coastal areas.

 

Picture Credit : Google

Mount Fuji remains as a symbol of Japan. Renowned around the world for its beauty, Mt. Fuji is the tallest of Japan’s mountains. This magnificent mountain is located in Japan’s Fuji Hakone-Izu National Park.

Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park consists of Mount-Fuji, Fuji Five Lakes, Hakone, the Izu Peninsula, and the Izu Islands. Quite a long list indeed! The Park holds a variety of landscapes and geological formations ranging from hot springs to volcanic islands. One can find coastlines, mountainous areas, swamps, plateaus, hot springs, lakes, and more than 1000 volcanic islands in the Park. No wonder, it is the most visited national park in Japan.

Speaking of vegetation, the forests of the Park range from broad-leaf deciduous forests to coniferous forests. It is home to the famous Japanese to beach trees. The Izu Islands are a stopping point for many migratory birds.

 

Picture Credit : Google

There is an underground river in Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park in Philippines. Unlike other rivers of the world, this river emerges directly into the sea, and its lower portion is subject to tidal influences. St. Paul’s Underground River Cave is more than 24 kilometres long. It has an 8.2-kilometre-long underground section too.

The site contains a full mountain-to-the-sea ecosystem. In fact, it holds one of the most important forests in Asia. There is a range of forests formations in the Park representing eight of the thirteen forest types found in tropical Asia.

The mountains in the Park have a thick cover of rainforest. The vegetation changes near the limestone karst. Most of the threatened and restricted range birds of the Palawan Endemic Bird Area have been found here. These birds including the Palawan pheasant peacock and Philippine cockatoo can be found mostly near the lowlands.

 

Picture Credit : Google