Rock Canyon in Utah

As mentioned before, water was a major agent in the creation of these caves. Geologists say that the formation of these caves can be traced back all the way to the Cambrian period which was about six hundred million years ago. Back in the time which is present day Nevada and western Utah, the land was covered by shallow, warm, inland sea. There were msny thick layers of sediments located at the sea bottom. Some of the layers consisted of silt, others were sand, and there were others that were made up of a limy substance that came from minute shell creatures’ decomposed bodies. In one of those limy layers was to formulate into limestone to create the Lehman Caves. That limy layer was compacted by the weight of other latter sediments deposited on top of it. Since there was so much pressure, eventually that limy layer started to turn into limestone. Limestone is a cystalline or bioclastic rock that is composed of calcite. Later on as there was an increase in heat and pressure, some of the limestone formulated into some low-grade marble. Marble is a nonfoliated, metamorphic that is composed of calcite and/or dolomite. Its texture is fine to coarse. According to “The Formation of Lehman Caves”, “Later, great forces under the earth’s crust caused the layers of the rock to buckle. This mountain range (the buckle) rose gradually until its peaks were thousands of feet above the valley

Geologically the canyon is carved into the tholeiitic and post-shield calc-alkaline lavas of the canyon basalt. The lavas of the canyon provide evidence for massive faulting and collapse in the early history of the island. The west side of the canyon is all thin, west-dipping lavas of the Napali Member, while the east side is very thick, flat-lying lavas of the Olokele and Makaweli Members. The two sides are separated by an enormous fault along which a large part of the

Little Cottonwood Canyon is a site bursting with geological history, rock formations earthquake potential on the fault, prehistoric glacial formations, landslides, and many hazards associated with it. The Wasatch fault is bound to have a enormous earthquake in the future and has left behind numerous scars. The mountains have been engraved by glacial formations dated back to the Ice Age (~14,000 years ago). Rock falls and landslides have left hefty boulders as indication of erosion and moisture in the rocks. The hazards on this mountain range are mass wasting, radon, earthquakes, and flooding of Little Cottonwood Creek.

First, we must examine the sedimentary formations; when they were formed, how they were formed, and what materials they consist of. About ninety-three to one hundred million years ago, the Western Interior Seaway rolled through the North American continent, eventually reaching the geographical area of today’s Mesa Verde National Park (National Park Service 2005). This sea deposited a thick, hard sandstone base that is called Dakota Sandstone, although this layer is not exposed in the park

A description of the grand canyon rock layers would include the Colorado River running at the bottom of the inner gorge with flats on both sides which consist of tapeat sandstone layers. There is also the Vishnu Complex, consisting of rocks that have been changed by heat and are buried at the lowest layers. These are tilted and are called the “Grand Canyon Supergroup” the Grand Canyon supergroups are at least 12,000 ft in thickness. These rocks or (the “Inner Gorge”) are usally steep and narrow with hard deep cuts in the lower tilted layers which raise above sea level.

Mesa Verde National Park, located in Montezuma County, Colorado, was established in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt. This United States landmark was designated for the preservation of several Puebloan archeological sites and the vast geologic history exhibited within the 52,485 acres of land occupied by Mesa Verde. The Ancestral Puebloans, or Mesa Verdeans, associated with the archeological sites of Mesa Verde National Park, lived in the Mesa Verde region from the mid-sixth century to the end of the thirteenth century.[3]

Our hike will start here, at the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We will go all the way to the bottom of the canyon. But first, a description of this area. The Grand Canyon is one on the most visited and studies sites for geologists on Earth. There are almost forty major sedimentary rock layers exposed in the Grand Canyon. Some of these rocks layers are two hundred million years old or two billion years old. Most of the sediment that makes up the rocks was deposited by oceans and seas, which now, are long gone. We know this because there are many fossils and and other records on large bodies of water in the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is found in the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado Plateau is lifted almost two miles, or four and a fifth kilometers. It started to lift up seventy-five million years ago. This started a mountain-building period of time called the Laramide orogeny. During this period, the Rocky Mountains were created. The main types of rocks found in the Grand Canyon are limestone, siltstone, shale, and sandstone. Many of the layers are made up of limestone. Some examples of these are the Kaibab Limestone, the Redwall Limestone the Temple Butte Limestone, and the Muav

Here are some reasons that the government should make Providence Canyon a national park. The first reason I think they should make it a national park is because it could help students learn more about it and it could help them in the future. Another reason is that people could go there to see the amazing sites and to be entertained. The last reason I think the government should make the Providence Canyon a national park is because it is very historical and it needs to be shown off to the world.

Weathering, geologic processes such as erosion, and climatic shifts allow for this immense desert ecosystem to continually evolve and change which has taken place for millions of years. This geologically wealthy environment is composed of alternating flat-lying layers of soft and hard deposits of mostly sedimentary rocks. Interchanging slopes and cliffs along the landscape helped form these layers of rock which can be seen fully exposed in areas of the mesa. Deposition of this landscape mainly occurred during the Permian, Pennsylvanian, Triassic and Jurassic time periods. The assortment of warm hues of sandstone were produced by varying levels of iron oxide minerals during formation.

A period of volcanism resulted in igneous intrusions within the Raton Basin-Sierra Grande Uplift Province that was sourced from the upper mantle about 26. 6 billion years ago and is associated with parallel dikes and sills (Higley, 2007). Igneous rocks are common within the Raton Basin and include Tertiary dikes and sills that range in age from 6.7 to 29 5 million years ago (Flores and Bader, 1999). One of the main differences between dikes and sills is that dikes are longer lived magma conduits and sills are features that form when magma is in neutral buoyancy with the surrounding rock (Rooper et al., 2006). These volcanic events are associated with hydrothermal alteration of coal within the basin (Higley, 2007).

The objective of the trip to Blount Springs, Alabama was to observe and gather data on the geological structure of the area. Blount Springs is located in the northern part of Alabama just 33 miles north of Birmingham, and lies on the southernmost part of the Appalachian fold belt. The field work began on the morning of Saturday April, 7th at 8:50am. The weather was cloudy with temperatures in the mid 40’s, and the area was wet from rain the previous night. Our materials included a map of the area, list of formations, a Brunton compass, and a Rite in the Rain field book. The procedure of the field work involved 12 stops at outcrops to gather data, one stop was omitted from the original plans. This data gathered included bedding and joint orientations

However, Hildebrand, (2009, 2013) affiliate the pre Cretaceous rocks, particularly the Neoproterozoic rocks crops out in central and east Utah, to the microcontinent Rubia, but such interpretation needs translation of rocks for a very long

The Grand Canyon has plenty of volcanic rocks near the bottom and the top. ICR, Institute for Creative Research, has been involved in a project for years to date these volcanic rocks. this study has come a long way to show that many of the Grand Canyon strata could have formed rapidly, and that the erosion of the Canyon by the Colorado River has not been going on for millions of years.

The Wasco oil field produces mainly from the Oligocene Vedder Formation and Eocene sandstones within the Kreyenhagen Formation in the San Joaquin basin, California. The Vedder and Kreyenhagen sandstones in the Wasco oil field consist of fine-to coarse-grain, very poor to well sorted, angular to sub round, arkosic arenites. Porosity development in these deeply buried sandstones was significantly affected by compaction, dissolution of framework grains, and precipitation of authigenic minerals. These diagenetic processes controlled the quality of the Vedder and Kreyenhagen sandstone reservoirs.

Grand Canyon National Park is the fifteenth site in the United States to have been named a national stop. Named as UNESCO World Heritage Sitein 1979, the recreation center is situated in northwestern Arizona.