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49-429: West Rock Ridge is popular for recreation and known for its microclimate ecosystems, rare plant communities, and expansive views from cliffs that tower up to 500 feet (152 m) above the surrounding landscape. The ridge is traversed by a network of hiking trails including the 7-mile (11 km) Regicides Trail , whose northern terminus begins as a spur off the 21-mile (34 km) Quinnipiac Trail . Judges' Cave and

98-460: A developed industrial park may vary greatly from a wooded park nearby, as natural flora in parks absorb light and heat in leaves that a building roof or parking lot just radiates back into the air. Advocates of solar energy argue that widespread use of solar collection can mitigate overheating of urban environments by absorbing sunlight and putting it to work instead of heating the foreign surface objects. A microclimate can offer an opportunity as

147-505: A drop in temperature and/or humidity can be attributed to different sources or influences. Often a microclimate is shaped by a conglomerate of different influences and is a subject of microscale meteorology . Examples of the cold air pool (CAP) effect are Gstettneralm Sinkhole in Austria (lowest recorded temperature −53 °C (−63 °F)) and Peter Sinks in the US. The main criterion on

196-603: A flood control pond located at the north end of the park called Farm Brook Reservoir. The Wilbur Cross Parkway ( Route 15 ) passes through the south central side of the ridge in the West Rock Tunnel , also known as the Heroes Tunnel . A network of suburban streets abut the ridge on all sides. The 1.6 mile long Regicide Drive leads from Wintergreen Avenue south along the ridge to the South Overlook with

245-405: A microclimate study. Microclimates can also refer to purpose-made environments, such as those in a room or other enclosure. Microclimates are commonly created and carefully maintained in museum display and storage environments. This can be done using passive methods, such as silica gel , or with active microclimate control devices. Usually, if the inland areas have a humid continental climate ,

294-433: A negative effect on the microclimates as well as on the geological and archeological findings. Factors that play into the deterioration of these environments include nearby deforestation, agriculture operations, water exploitation, mining, and tourist operations. The speleogenetic effect of normal caves tends to show a slow circulation of air. In unique conditions where acids are present, the effects of erosion and changes to

343-407: A period of crystallization that may be very distinct or may have coincided with or overlapped the period of formation of some of the other ingredients. Earlier crystals originated at a time when most of the rock was still liquid and are more or less perfect. Later crystals are less regular in shape because they were compelled to occupy the spaces left between the already-formed crystals. The former case

392-688: A small growing region for crops that cannot thrive in the broader area; this concept is often used in permaculture practiced in northern temperate climates. Microclimates can be used to the advantage of gardeners who carefully choose and position their plants. Cities often raise the average temperature by zoning , and a sheltered position can reduce the severity of winter. Roof gardening , however, exposes plants to more extreme temperatures in both summer and winter. In an urban area, tall buildings create their own microclimate, both by overshadowing large areas and by channeling strong winds to ground level. Wind effects around tall buildings are assessed as part of

441-708: A spur to Judges Cave. The 5.6 mile long Baldwin Drive heads north from Regicide Drive, ending at West Shepard Avenue in Hamden. Several communications towers sprout from the ridge crest. The Metacomet Ridge extends north from West Rock Ridge as Mad Mare Hill and Mount Sanford and northeast as Rocky Top and Sleeping Giant . East of West Rock Ridge, the Metacomet Ridge spreads out into a series of low, parallel ridges toward Saltonstall Mountain in Branford, Connecticut ;

490-540: A substantial network of hiking trails and park roads, cliffs, rugged woodlands, scenic ponds and reservoirs, and waterfalls. Two noteworthy hiking trails cross the ridge: the Regicides Trail which traverses the summit crest from end to end, and the Quinnipiac Trail which crosses the northern summit of the ridge and extends north over Sanford Mountain and east over Sleeping Giant. Both are maintained by

539-423: A variety of understory grasses and ferns. Eastern red cedar , a dry-loving species, clings to the barren edges of cliffs. Lower eastern slopes tend to support oak-hickory forest species common in the surrounding lowlands. Narrow ravines support eastern hemlock that block sunlight, creating damp, cooler growing conditions with associated cooler climate plant species. These hemlocks have suffered from infestation by

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588-430: Is a dark colored rock, but the iron within it weathers to a rusty brown when exposed to the air, lending the ledges of West Rock Ridge a distinct reddish hue. The rock, which formed 200 million years ago during the late Triassic and early Jurassic periods, frequently breaks into octagonal and pentagonal columns, creating a unique "postpile" appearance. Huge slopes made of fractured rock scree are visible beneath many of

637-409: Is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often slightly but sometimes substantially. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square meters or smaller (for example a garden bed , underneath a rock, or a cave) or as large as many square kilometers. Because climate is statistical , which implies spatial and temporal variation of the mean values of

686-499: Is common in lavas but very rare in plutonic rocks. Muscovite is confined to intrusions. These differences show the influence of the physical conditions under which crystallization takes place. Hypabyssal rocks show structures intermediate between those of extrusive and plutonic rocks. They are very commonly porphyritic, vitreous , and sometimes even vesicular . In fact, many of them are petrologically indistinguishable from lavas of similar composition. Plutonic rocks form 7% of

735-408: Is described as miarolitic texture . Because their crystals are of roughly equal size, intrusive rocks are said to be equigranular . Plutonic rocks are less likely than volcanic rocks to show a pronounced porphyritic texture, in which a first generation of large well-shaped crystals are embedded in a fine-grained ground-mass. The minerals of each have formed in a definite order, and each has had

784-553: Is one of the two ways igneous rock can form. The other is extrusion , such as a volcanic eruption or similar event. An intrusion is any body of intrusive igneous rock, formed from magma that cools and solidifies within the crust of the planet . In contrast, an extrusion consists of extrusive rock, formed above the surface of the crust. Some geologists use the term plutonic rock synonymously with intrusive rock, but other geologists subdivide intrusive rock, by crystal size, into coarse-grained plutonic rock (typically formed deeper in

833-401: Is said to be idiomorphic (or automorphic ); the latter is xenomorphic . There are also many other characteristics that serve to distinguish plutonic from volcanic rock. For example, the alkali feldspar in plutonic rocks is typically orthoclase , while the higher-temperature polymorph, sanidine , is more common in volcanic rock. The same distinction holds for nepheline varieties. Leucite

882-487: The Earth's crust in batholiths or stocks ) and medium-grained subvolcanic or hypabyssal rock (typically formed higher in the crust in dikes and sills). Because the solid country rock into which magma intrudes is an excellent insulator, cooling of the magma is extremely slow, and intrusive igneous rock is coarse-grained ( phaneritic ). However, the rate of cooling is greatest for intrusions at relatively shallow depth, and

931-730: The Grotta Grande del Vento cave in Ancona, Italy . As pointed out by Rudolf Geiger in his book not only climate influences the living plant but the opposite effect of the interaction of plants on their environment can also take place, and is known as plant climate . This effect has important consequences for forests in the midst of a continent; indeed, if forests were not creating their own clouds and water cycle with their efficient evapotranspiration activity, there would be no forest far away from coasts, as statistically, without any other influence, rainfall occurrence would decrease from

980-1110: The QAPF diagram . Dioritic and gabbroic rocks are further distinguished by whether the plagioclase they contain is sodium -rich, and sodium-poor gabbros are classified by their relative contents of various iron - or magnesium -rich minerals ( mafic minerals) such as olivine , hornblende , clinopyroxene , and orthopyroxene, which are the most common mafic minerals in intrusive rock. Rare ultramafic rocks , which contain more than 90% mafic minerals, and carbonatite rocks, containing over 50% carbonate minerals, have their own special classifications. Hypabyssal rocks resemble volcanic rocks more than they resemble plutonic rocks, being nearly as fine-grained, and are usually assigned volcanic rock names. However, dikes of basaltic composition often show grain sizes intermediate between plutonic and volcanic rock, and are classified as diabases or dolerites. Rare ultramafic hypabyssal rocks called lamprophyres have their own classification scheme. Intrusive rocks are characterized by large crystal sizes, and as

1029-459: The hemlock woolly adelgid . Talus slopes are especially rich in nutrients and support a number of calcium-loving plants uncommon in eastern Connecticut. Because the ridge generates such varied terrain, it is the home of several plant and animal species that are state-listed or globally rare. West Rock Ridge is also an important seasonal raptor migration path. West Rock Ridge is an outdoor recreation resource popular among residents and visitors of

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1078-425: The non-profit Connecticut Forest and Park Association . West Rock Ridge State Park occupies most of the ridgeline as well as the undeveloped Lake Wintergreen on the east side of the mountain. The park is open daily from 8 a.m. to sunset for a variety of recreational uses, including hiking, bicycling, fishing, car-top boating, horseback riding, dog walking, picnicking, and other passive pursuits. Regicides Drive to

1127-687: The Bishop Estate and Darling House Trails, a 160-acre (0.65 km) property on the west flank of the ridge. The property offers a network of trails, historic buildings, gardens, and bridges over the West River. Named for Thomas Darling (1720–1789), active in the American Revolution and a friend and contemporary of Benjamin Franklin , the estate is open to passive activities such as hiking, picnicking, and bird watching. Trails on

1176-573: The Regicides Trail receive their names from judges Edward Whalley and his son-in-law William Goffe , who had signed the death warrant of Charles I of England in 1649. His son Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, and the two judges fled to the area to avoid arrest. They hid in a boulder cave on the crest of the ridge intermittently over the summer of that year. Nineteenth-century landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church portrayed

1225-519: The South Overlook and Judges Cave is open daily to vehicle traffic from the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend through the last Sunday in October. Park access is free of charge for all users. Baldwin Drive is permanently closed to the public, but is used by maintenance crews to access the towers on the ridge. The City of New Haven owns and manages the 43-acre (170,000 m) West Rock Nature Center on

1274-550: The West Rock Ridge conservation area and to permit increasing the size of the park, which is about 1,820 acres (7.4 km). West Rock Ridge, located in the Connecticut municipalities of New Haven , Hamden , Woodbridge , and Bethany , is 1 mile (1.6 km) wide at its widest point. Notable peaks on the ridge include the high point, alternately called High Rock or York Mountain , est. 700 feet (213 m), at

1323-440: The cave atmosphere, air pressure, geochemistry of the cave rock as well as the waste product from these species can combine to make unique microclimates within cave systems. The speleogenetic effect is an observed and studied process of air circulation within cave environments brought on by convection. In phreatic conditions the cave surfaces are exposed to the enclosed air (as opposed to submerged and interacting with water from

1372-682: The coast towards inland. Planting trees to fight drought has also been proposed in the context of afforestation . Artificial reservoirs as well as natural ones create microclimates and often influence the macroscopic climate as well. Another contributing factor of microclimate is the slope or aspect of an area. South-facing slopes in the Northern Hemisphere and north-facing slopes in the Southern Hemisphere are exposed to more direct sunlight than opposite slopes and are therefore warmer for longer periods of time, giving

1421-415: The coastal areas stay much milder during winter months, in contrast to the hotter summers. This is the case in places such as British Columbia , where Vancouver has an oceanic wet winter with rare frosts, but inland areas that average several degrees warmer in summer have cold and snowy winters. Two main parameters to define a microclimate within a certain area are temperature and humidity . A source of

1470-459: The describing parameters , microclimates are identified as statistically distinct conditions which occur and/or persist within a region. Microclimates can be found in most places but are most pronounced in topographically dynamic zones such as mountainous areas, islands, and coastal areas. Microclimates exist, for example, near bodies of water which may cool the local atmosphere, or in heavy urban areas where brick , concrete , and asphalt absorb

1519-521: The environment within that system. Air density within caves, which directly relates to the convection processes, is determined by the air temperature, humidity, and pressure. In enclosed cave environments, the introduction of bacteria, algae, plants, animals, or human interference can change any one of these factors therefore altering the microenvironment within the cave. There are over 750 caves worldwide that are available for people to visit. The constant human traffic through these cave environments can have

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1568-448: The individual crystals are visible, the rock is called phaneritic . There are few indications of flow in intrusive rocks, since their texture and structure mostly develops in the final stages of crystallization, when flow has ended. Contained gases cannot escape through the overlying strata, and these gases sometimes form cavities , often lined with large, well-shaped crystals. These are particularly common in granites and their presence

1617-497: The ledges of West Rock Ridge. The ridge is the product of a huge feeder dike that supplied several massive lava flows hundreds of feet deep that welled up in faults created by the rifting apart of North America from Eurasia and Africa over a period of 20 million years. Erosion occurring between the eruptions deposited deep layers of sediment between the lava flows and around the dike, which formed sedimentary rocks . The resulting "layer cake" of igneous and sedimentary sheets

1666-481: The metropolitan New Haven region. Views from the clifftops span New Haven, the rural landscape to the west as far as the Berkshires , Long Island Sound, and Long Island . Most of the ridge is within the public domain as state and town park land, conservation easement , and watershed property. Housing developments are prevalent on the northern slopes of the ridge but do not reach to the summit crest. The ridge boasts

1715-473: The microenvironment can be drastically enhanced. One example is the effect of the presence of hydro sulfuric acid ( H 2 S ). When the oxidized hydrosulfuric acid chemically alters to sulfuric acid( H 2 SO 4 ), this acid starts to react with the calcium carbonate rock at much higher rates. The water involved in this reaction tends to have a high pH of 3 which renders the water almost unlivable for many bacteria and algae. An example of this can be found in

1764-446: The near ground temperature. On the other hand, if soil has many air pockets, then the heat could be trapped underneath the topsoil, resulting in the increased possibility of frost at ground level. Intrusive rock Intrusive rock is formed when magma penetrates existing rock, crystallizes, and solidifies underground to form intrusions , such as batholiths , dikes , sills , laccoliths , and volcanic necks . Intrusion

1813-403: The north terminus of the ridge; the southern prominence with a summit parking lot, picnic tables, and observation area, usually referred to as West Rock , 400 feet (122 m), and popularly known as the South Overlook; and several knobs in between those two points. Judges Cave is also located near the southern end of the ridge. West Rock Ridge is an important aquifer. The ridge is bordered on

1862-467: The only noteworthy summit in between is East Rock which looms over New Haven from the north. The west side of West Rock Ridge drains into West River , then into Long Island Sound; the east side into Belden Brook thence to West River, and the north side into Mill River thence to New Haven Harbor and Long Island Sound. The fault-block ridge of West Rock is composed of diabase (sometimes referred to as trap rock ), an intrusive volcanic rock. Diabase

1911-419: The property link up with the Regicides Trail on the ridge. The towns of Bethany , Hamden , and Woodbridge are also invested in the conservation of West Rock Ridge and its viewshed . Nearby summits include Mount Sanford to the north, Sleeping Giant to the northeast and East Rock to the east. AN ACT CONCERNING WEST ROCK RIDGE STATE PARK] Microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate )

1960-532: The ridge in 1849, and George Henry Durrie painted it numerous times. The Connecticut General Assembly established the park in 1975 when the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) (now the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection) purchased 600 acres (2.4 km) from New Haven . This act gives the DEEP the right of first refusal to purchase private land within

2009-689: The rock in such intrusions is often much less coarse-grained than intrusive rock formed at greater depth. Coarse-grained intrusive igneous rocks that form at depth within the Earth are called abyssal or plutonic while those that form near the surface are called subvolcanic or hypabyssal . Plutonic rocks are classified separately from extrusive igneous rocks, generally on the basis of their mineral content. The relative amounts of quartz , alkali feldspar , plagioclase , and feldspathoid are particularly important in classifying intrusive igneous rocks, and most plutonic rocks are classified by where they fall in

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2058-422: The slope a warmer microclimate than the areas around the slope. The lowest area of a glen may sometimes frost sooner or harder than a nearby spot uphill, because cold air sinks, a drying breeze may not reach the lowest bottom, and humidity lingers and precipitates , then freezes . The type of soil found in an area can also affect microclimates. For example, soils heavy in clay can act like pavement, moderating

2107-595: The southeast side of the mountain. The center offers interpretive programs on local ecology, outdoor skills workshops, and features laboratories, gardens, interpretive trails, a visitor's center, and classroom facilities, which are open for scheduled events. The center has been in operation since 1946 and is listed on the State Register of Historic Places by the Connecticut Historical Commission. The town of Woodbridge owns and manages

2156-456: The sun's energy, heat up, and re-radiate that heat to the ambient air: the resulting urban heat island (UHI) is a kind of microclimate that is additionally driven by relative paucity of vegetation . The terminology "micro-climate" first appeared in the 1950s in publications such as Climates in Miniature: A Study of Micro-Climate Environment (Thomas Bedford Franklin, 1955). The area in

2205-448: The threshold wind speed. The presence of permafrost close to the surface in a crater creates a unique microclimate environment. Caves are important geologic formations that can house unique and delicate geologic/biological environments. The vast majority of caves found are made of calcium carbonates such as limestone . In these dissolution environments, many species of flora and fauna find home. The mixture of water content within

2254-492: The water table in vadose conditions). This air circulates water particles that condense on cave walls and formations such as speleothems . This condensing water has been found to contribute to cave wall erosion and the formation of morphological features. Some examples of this can be found in the limestone walls of Grotta Giusti ; a thermal cave near Monsummano , Lucca, Italy. Any process that leads to an increase or decrease in chemical/physical processes will subsequently impact

2303-621: The west by property owned by the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority; reservoirs include Lake Dawson and Lake Watrous. Konolds Pond, which is not used as a water source, is located just north of Rt. 15 in an industrial area. The main body of water inside the park is Lake Wintergreen, 44 acres (180,000 m), located east of the ridge. There is also a small fishing pond called Belden Brook Diversion Pond located near Mountain Road, and

2352-596: The wind speed v {\displaystyle v} in order to create a warm air flow penetration into a CAP is the following: where F r {\displaystyle \mathrm {Fr} } is the Froude number , N {\displaystyle N} — the Brunt–Väisälä frequency , h {\displaystyle h} — depth of the valley, and F r c {\displaystyle \mathrm {Fr} _{c}} — Froude number at

2401-520: Was later faulted and tilted upward. Subsequent erosion wore away the weaker sedimentary layers a faster rate than the lava layers, leaving the abruptly tilted edges of the lava sheets exposed, creating the distinct linear ridge and dramatic cliff faces visible today along the Metacomet Ridge. West Rock Ridge hosts a combination of microclimates unusual in New England . Dry, hot upper ridges support oak savannas , often dominated by chestnut oak and

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