preview

Honors Earth And Space Science

Better Essays

Gemma Morrison
Mr. Replogle
Honors Earth and Space Science
7 December 2016
Bryce Canyon Bryce Canyon National Park is a one of a kind, grand formation located in southern Utah, east of neighboring Zion National Park and north of Grand Canyon National Park. All three of these parks share a place on the Colorado Plateau but Bryce is the only one to feature natural hoodoos, extensive wildlife, and an environment prime for any person to surround themselves with the artwork of mother nature. Ever since 1915, when the park was first founded, people from all pieces of the country have come to see the amazing sights within the park but there is so much more to it than the gorgeous pictures that can only capture now. Thanks to J. W. Humphery, a …show more content…

The beginning of the formation of these rock pillars (figure 1) and the entire park can be dated back to the Cretaceous Period, between 144 and 63 million years ago. During this time the Colorado Plateau was merely a freshwater basin. There were no rivers to transport out water or sediment so sediment, mainly iron-rich limestone, collected at the bottom of this basin and other lakes. The Colorado Plateau consists of several smaller regions and plateaus such as the Paunsaugunt Plateau where Bryce Canyon is located. Five million years ago the Colorado Plateau was pushed upward between 4,000 and 6,000 feet in some places. This rising of the entire Colorado Plateau is considered an epeirogenic uplift meaning it is not a mountain building phenomenon and instead only moved the region vertically. Once risen, the prior basin drained and left behind the sediments that had built up over millions of years. These sediments then lithified into rocks such as limestone, siltstone, dolomite, and mudstone in the layers in which they were deposited. Each of these rocks erodes in a different way because they have different compositions. Mudstone is a soft material and when wet it coats the rocks and makes it very hard for the wind to erode the rocks. Water in the form of a river was not the cause of erosion in Bryce either, technically making it not a canyon. Instead, Bryce gained its many hoodoos from frost wedging. Cracks in the

Get Access