Everything about Canyonlands National Park totally explained
Canyonlands National Park is located in the
American state of
Utah, near city of
Moab and preserves a colorful landscape eroded into countless canyons, mesas and buttes by the Colorado River and its tributaries. The rivers divide the park into four districts: the Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze and the rivers themselves. While these areas share a primitive desert atmosphere, each retains its own character. The park covers 527.5 mi² (
1,366 km²). Canyons are carved into the
Colorado Plateau by the
Colorado River and
Green River.
Geography
Island in the Sky is a broad and level
mesa to the north of the park between
Colorado and
Green river with many overlooks over the White Rim, a sandstone bench below the Island, and the rivers which are another below the White Rim.
The Needles district is named after the red and white banded rock pinnacles which dominate it but various other forms of naturally sculptured rock like canyons, grabens, potholes, and a number of arches similar to the ones of the nearby
Arches National Park can be found as well. Unlike Arches National Park, however, where many arches are accessible by short to moderate hikes or even by car, most of the arches in the
Needles district lie in backcountry canyons and take long hikes or
four-wheel-drive trips to reach.
This area was once home of the
Ancestral Puebloan Indians of which many traces can be found. Although the items and tools they used have been largely taken away by looters, many of their stone and mud dwellings are well-preserved. The Ancestral Puebloans also left traces in the form of
petroglyphs, most notably on the so-called
Newspaper Rock near the Visitor Center at the entrance of this district.
The Maze district west of the Colorado and Green rivers is the most remote and inaccessible section.
The detached unit to the north, the Horseshoe Canyon unit, contains panels of rock art made by hunter-gatherers of the Late Archaic Period who predated the Ancestral Puebloans.
Geology
basin and nearby uplifting
mountain range (the Uncompahgre) existed in the area in
Pennsylvanian time. Seawater trapped in the subsiding basin created thick
evaporite deposits by Mid Pennsylvanian. This, along with eroded material from the nearby mountain range, become the Paradox Formation, itself a part of the Hermosa Group. Paradox salt beds started to flow later in the Pennsylvanian and probably continued to move until the end of the
Jurassic. Some scientists believe
Upheaval Dome was created from Paradox salt bed movement, creating a
salt dome, but more modern studies show that the
meteorite theory is more likely to be correct.
A warm shallow sea again flooded the region near the end of the Pennsylvanian.
Fossil-rich
limestones,
sandstones, and
shales of the gray-colored Honaker Trail Formation resulted. A period of
erosion then ensued, creating a break in the geologic record called an
unconformity. Early in the
Permian an advancing sea laid down the
Halgaito Shale. Coastal lowlands later returned to the area, forming the
Elephant Canyon Formation.
Large
alluvial fans filled the basin where it met the
Uncompahgre Mountains, creating the
Cutler red beds of
iron-rich arkose sandstone. Underwater
sand bars and
sand dunes on the coast inter-fingered with the red beds and later became the white-colored cliff-forming Cedar Mesa Sandstone. Brightly-colored
oxidized muds were then deposited, forming the Organ Rock Shale. Coastal sand dunes and marine sand bars once again became dominate, creating the White Rim Sandstone.
A second unconformity was created after the Permian sea retreated. Flood plains on an expansive lowland covered the eroded surface and mud built up in tidal flats, creating the
Moenkopi Formation. Erosion returned, forming a third unconformity. The Chinle Formation was then laid down on top of this eroded surface.
Increasingly dry climates dominated the Triassic. Therefore, sand in the form of sand dunes invaded and became the
Wingate Sandstone. For a time climatic conditions became wetter and streams cut channels through the sand dunes, forming the Kayenta Formation. Arid conditions returned to the region with a vengeance; A large
desert spread over much of western
North America and later became the Navajo Sandstone. A fourth unconformity was created by a period of erosion.
Mud flats returned, forming the
Carmel Formation and the
Entrada Sandstone was laid down next. A long period of erosion stripped away most of the San Rafael Group in the area along with any formations that may have been laid down in the
Cretaceous period.
The
Laramide orogeny started to uplift the
Rocky Mountains 70 million years ago and with it the Canyonlands region. Erosion intensified and when the Colorado River Canyon reached the salt beds of the Paradox Formation the overlying strata extended toward the river canyon, forming features such as The Grabens. Increased precipitation during the
ice ages of the
Pleistocene quickened the rate of canyon excavation along with other erosion. Similar types of erosion are ongoing, but occur at a slower rate.
External links
Further Information
Get more info on 'Canyonlands National Park'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://canyonlands_national_park.totallyexplained.com">Canyonlands National Park Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
