The Geologic Story of Arches National Park: Geological Survey Bulletin 1393Lohman, Stanley William
Science
The Geologic Story of Arches National Park: Geological Survey Bulletin 1393
Lohman, Stanley William
Arches National Park (Utah); Geology -- Utah -- Arches National Park -- Guidebooks
All the bridges in Natural Bridges N.M. were carved from the Permian
Cedar Mesa Sandstone Member of the Cutler Formation, also one of the
stars in Canyonlands N.P. In Canyon de Chelly (pronounced dee shay) N.M.
and Monument Valley (neither a national park nor a national monument, as
it is owned and administered by the Navajo Tribe), the De Chelly
Sandstone Member of the Cutler Formation—a Permian member younger than
the Cedar Mesa—plays the starring role.
Wupatki N.M. near Flagstaff, Ariz., stars the Triassic Moenkopi
Formation. Petrified Forest N.P. (which now includes part of the Painted
Desert) has but one star—the Triassic Chinle Formation, in which are
found many petrified logs and stumps of ancient trees. The
Triassic-Jurassic Glen Canyon Group (fig. 19), which includes the
Triassic Wingate Sandstone, the Triassic(?) Kayenta Formation, and the
Triassic(?)-Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, receives top billing in recently
enlarged Capitol Reef N.P., but the Triassic Moenkopi and Chinle
Formations enjoy supporting roles.
The Triassic(?)-Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, which has a supporting role
in Arches N.P., is the undisputed star of Zion N.P., Rainbow Bridge
N.M., and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, despite the fact that
the latter is the type locality of the entire Glen Canyon Group. The
Navajo also forms the impressive reef at the east edge of the beautiful
San Rafael Swell, a dome, or closed anticline, now crossed by Highway
I-70 between Green River and Fremont Junction, Utah.
As we journey upward in the time spiral (fig. 59), we come to the
Jurassic Entrada Sandstone, which stars in Arches N.P., with help from
the underlying Navajo Sandstone, and a supporting cast of both older and
younger rocks. The Entrada also forms the grotesque erosion forms called
“hoodoos and goblins” in Goblin Valley State Park, north of Hanksville,
Utah.
Moving ever upward in the spiral, we come to the Cretaceous—the age of
the starring Mesaverde Group, in which the caves of Mesaverde N.P. were
formed, and which now house beautifully preserved ruins once occupied by
the Anasazi, the same ancient people who once dwelt in Arches N.P. and
nearby areas.
This brings us up to the Tertiary Period, during the early part of which
the pink limestones and shales of the Paleocene and Eocene Wasatch
Formation were laid down in inland basins. Beautifully sculptured
cliffs, pinnacles, and caves of the Wasatch star in Bryce Canyon N.P.
and in nearby Cedar Breaks N.M. This concludes our climb up the time
spiral, except for Quaternary volcanoes and some older volcanic features
at Sunset Crater N.M., near Flagstaff, Ariz.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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