Shawangunk Mountain Formation

To begin, the mouth of the canyon features a hilly landscape with scars from landslides created from the uplifting of land by the Wasatch Fault. The fault, responsible for the creation of the Wasatch Mountains 25 million years ago, is a normal fault (Eldredge, 2014). Unlike some faults, vertical movement of the terrain is limited and slippage only occurs every several hundred or thousand years. Signs of the fault at work can be seen through the mouth of the canyon with the orange Tintic Quartzite which is dated back to the Cambrian Age. Layered beneath the quartzite is tillite from the Precambrian Age. To the west and separate from the Quartzite and tillite by the Wasatch Vault are limestone sections from the Missippian Age. (Rigby, Hintze, 1968, pg 23).

The Slate Belt bioregion is nested within the Great Valley Section of the Valley and Ridge Province that was formed by thrust and fault folding during the Late Ordovician period through and Late Paleozoic era.(Bailey,1992; Geyer, 1979;Van Diver, 1990). During this time Taconian

Starved rock and St. Peter Sandstone are an erosional remnant of Ordovician period. These remnants contain Pennsylvanian clastics that survived the washing out of the Illinois River at the end of the Ice Age. Evidence for swift, turbulent, and deep water includes gravel bars and erosional features as high as 160 feet above the current level of the river, massive cross bedded sand, and gravel deposits along the river course.

Next, we can see that the rock displays a subtle porphyritic texture with plagioclase comprising the phenocrysts. The overall texture of the surrounding groundmass is granoblastic equigranular. Under thin section we also see a weakly defined foliation evidenced in the preferential alignment of actinolite grains and to a lesser extent chlorite grains. Undulose extinction is also observed in quartz indicating the rock was subject to deformation. The normalized quartz, alkali-feldspar, and plagioclase (QAP) values of this rock indicate that it is classified as a grano-diorite according to the IUGS QAPF classification system which is consistent with the hand sample interpretation.

The Ouachita Mountains were also created with the collision of Gondwana as it pushed together seafloor and are tilted or twisted folds of earth crust. Streams usually flow along the folds. Most of the mountains are made up of sandstone and shale from the bottom of the former sea. This region is usually known for unique quartz crystals,

This study classifies the two granites under one unit named the Kilbride Granite, however, the research, which uses both radiometric dating and composition analysis, identifies them as two compositionally separate units with different ages. On the other hand, it is not wrong to say that the granites were related as they are the two latest forming members of the Eastern Red Hills complex. (Bell and Harris, 1986)

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

One of the major things noticeable from the cross section is that quite a few of the rock layers are over turned, where the older rock layers are above the newer rock layers. This is seen in the contact between the Quartz Monzonite of Papoose Flat and the Campito Formation which is also a disconformity. Next there is some fault zones separating the Camptio, Poleta, and Harkless formations. We then see some more overturned layers with the contacts between Saline Spring Valley Formation (lower and upper members) above the Mule Spring Formation along with some inferred folding. With a normal fault separating the inferred folding event, we see where the overturning occurs. In between the Cambrian layers we see Tertiary Basalt nonconformities also being folded, thus with that we know that the folding event was more recent than the formation of the Basalt. Next there is a large Basalt field with a spot of the Harkless formation. Again we see over tuning as the Basalt field ends there are the Devonian and Mississippian rock Layers on top of the basalt. Separating these overturned layers from the Harkless Formation and the Saline valley Formation (upper member), which are not overturned, is a thrust fault. From this information, there was a major stress event sometime after the Tertiary period causing the rock layers to fold and overturn. And from this stress event and from the folding, normal and thrust faults are formed. Finally we see that there were alluvial and landslide deposits from the Quaternary after the folding, faulting, and over

The latest rocks in this region were formed in Pleistocene time as imperfectly consolidated gravel of river terraces and alluvial deposits of the

Robert Tilling, & American Geological Institute (2000, May). Geotimes - May 2000: Feature Mount St

The latter two minerals help give the Bungles their iconic reddish orange stripes through oxidation. The darker stripes on the dome-like structures are because of moisture and clay that aids the breeding of Cyanobacteria and algae. Fungi like Lichen also has a role to play in the colouring of the Bungles. All these different minerals are just a vizard, for the sandstone underneath is white and extremely fragile. These almost act as a shield against erosion and other natural

At both Cienega Amarilla and Cottonwood Canyon, stratum VI consists of a 0.2–1.3-m-thick surface layer of bedded, fluvial sand locally with a very weak soil profile (Figures 3 and 4; Table 3). No radiocarbon dates or plant macrofossils are associated with stratum VI, but radiocarbon dating of underlying stratum V alluvium indicates that stratum VI post-dates ~300 cal BP. Stratum VI alluvium appears to represent arroyo fan deposits associated with historic period arroyo cutting. Accounts from ranchers indicate that arroyo-cutting in this area occurred in the late 1800s or early 1900s, consistent with widespread arroyo formation across the southwest U.S. at this time (Waters and Haynes, 2001).

This formation is a very fine grain Mississippian limestone. To test to see if this was the Bangor formation we used HCL and because there was a reaction we know its limestone. This formation could also be described as gray in color as well as an average thickness of 700 feet. We see the Bangor until stop eight, where we see a very different vertical bedding. Also different at stop eight is the outcrop no longer reacts with HCL. From this we gathered that we had moved into the Hartselle formation. In the Hartselle Formation, Mississippian aged sandstones are dominant. This particular stop had a large amount of jointing. After the Hartselle, we figured the Pride Mountain Formation would be next, however at stop nine we see the Maury Formation present. This stop focused on the rock located inside the creek. Because we were unable to go into the creek to get the strike and dips, we once again had to do a projected orientation. Also found on this stop were natural sulfur springs, easy to notice with the smell that it gives off. The Maury formation consist of Mississippian- Silurian aged shale. At the next stop, stop 10, we encounter the Ft. Payne formation. Although this area location was thickly vegetated, we were able to conduct the acid test and saw that the HCL reacts in some places but not all. From this we concluded that this was the cherty limestone of the Ft. Payne formation. The following stop, 12, we went up section and arrived at the Maury Formation once again. At the final stop, location 13, we see Ft. Payne Formation. All of the metamorphism and deformation in the southernmost Appalachians can be related to the movement of the thrust sheets and stacks (Higgins,

It is currently the largest exposed granite in the world weighing approximately one trillion pounds; although, only one third of the mountain can be seen as a majority of the mountain expands below ground as far as North Carolina. The enormous pluton mountain, as scientifically identified by geologist, was formed by a complex folding and faulting that had subsequently created the Blue ridge mountains. Though what remains as a mystery to many geologist is as to how such a massive granite mountain has become exposed. Although there are several theories that have been publicated to explain such a phenomena none are substantial or advocated the most. While the origins of Stone Mountain are elusive, the correlations of this landmarks with american history are intricately

1. Sedimentary rocks are made from different pieces of rocks and sediments. This happened through the process of erosion and weathering. Every now and then animals get buried under sediments and formed with the rock. As the tissues decay, the bone stay preserved in the rock because of the carbon that release from the corpse. Sedimentary rocks can tell scientists about the fossil's habitat by the size and formation of the rock. For example, one direction ripple marks indicate that the rock formed under a river while ripple marks that move back and forth indicate the rock is formed in an ocean. If a fossil is found in a rock that has one direction ripple marks it is most likely that the animal might have once lived in a river.