• 70,447 acres (110 square mi)
• Established 1947
• TR lived and worked in the area
• Maltese Cross Ranch
• Elkhorn Ranch
• Conservation
• A memorial to TR
Theodore Roosevelt National Park
• Western North Dakota
• North and South Units
• Medora
• Medora Musical
• Chateau deMores
• Maah Daah Hey Trail
Theodore Roosevelt Geology
• Fort Union Group
• Paleogene Period, Paleocene Epoch - 65 to 57 Ma
• Tongue River and Sentinel Butte Formations
• Sandstone, mudstone, siltstone, lignite, and bentonite
• Rivers with wetlands on the floodplains
• Tropical EnvironmentFort Union Group - Fossils
• Rivers and wetlands - tropical environment
• Petrified stumps - cypress
• Mammals
• Birds, fish, turtles
• Champsosaurus
Lignite = soft coal
• How do we know that the Fort Union Group represents deposition in a
tropical environment?
• Lignite = soft coal
Lignite = soft coal
• How does coal form?
• Tropical forest/ wetland
• diagenesis
• Peat - decay in acidic water
• Burial and heating
• grade
Lignite
• Lightning strike and grass fires - lignite beds burn
• Clinker -scoria
North Dakota Lignite
• North America = 1/5 of worlds total reserves of coal
• Burning fossil fuels - power generation
• Sulfur
• Carbon Dioxide
• Mercury
Other Geologic Features