Arches National Park resides in the center of Utah just outside of Moab. The park itself is only 119 square miles for comparison Yellowstone National Park is 3,468 square miles. Although the park is dwarfed by some of its cousins it holds some of the most spectacular sights that have ever been seen.
Arches delicate and beautiful rock formations are made almost completely from sandstone. Sandstone is a Sedimentary Rock made almost completely out of you guessed it sand. Sandstone is comprised mostly of Feldspar and Quartz however Arches Sandstone also has a high amount of Iron giving it its reddish tint. Sedimentary rock is formed in layers called Strata witch can be clearly seen in the image above by looking for the horizontal lines in the rock. Sedimentary rock always forms underground with heat and pressure so the rocks that you see have remained as the earth surrounding them eroded away this allows for some very impressive structures to form.
The Delicate sand stone sits lightly atop some major faults the most famous being the Moab Fault.(shown above) This fault cause the valley (in witch the city of Moah resides) to drop almost 2500 feet form the surrounding landscape truly shaping the park.
I've always wanted to visit Arches National Park; it has an extremely beautiful landscape. I did have a question when reading your blog however. I was under the impression that sedimentary rock could be created above ground as well (like layers in a stream being deposited over and over again and then solidifying). I thought your classification of the rocks as being erosion resistant was very accurate though and the blog was well written.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the pictures you posted and the content of your blog was great. The only problem I could find was your spelling and you used some words repeatedly, but other than that great job!
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