Geomorphology, Vegetation, and Patowmack Canal Con struction Problems: Great Falls Park, Potomac Rive r, Virginia: Potomac River Gorge, Virginia, July 1

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Field Trip Guidebooks Series, Volume 236.

The spectacular landscape of the Great Falls of the Potomac River, approximately 25 kilometers northwest of Washington, D.C., is the result of prolonged geological and biological processes. The slow downcutting of the resistant bedrock by the river, controlled in part by faults and jointing, the weathering of the rock, and the continuous growth of the forest have interacted to produce the present landscape. Superimposed on these long, continuous processes has been the effects of 200 years of human activity.