The Geologic Story of Colorado National Monument: Revised EditionLohman, Stanley William
Science
The Geologic Story of Colorado National Monument: Revised Edition
Lohman, Stanley William
Colorado National Monument (Colo.); Geology -- Colorado -- Colorado National Monument
The Slick Rock Member was named from its occurrence at and near the
mining town of Slick Rock, Colo., which originally was named after the
appearance of the rock because it generally forms slick, smooth cliffs.
It reminds one of the chicken and egg conundrum. The Slick Rock is
composed mainly of sand dunes that were piled up on the eastern shore of
the Jurassic sea by winds blowing from the northeast. Occasional rainy
spells created lakes and ponds in which some of the sand was laid down
in level beds. This pile of sand later hardened into the cliff-forming
Slick Rock Member, which looks something like the Wingate but is
generally only half as thick, weathers into less abrupt cliffs, is
mostly salmon red, and is almost free of joints. The joints in the
Wingate (fig. 11) probably resulted from the uplift and tilting of the
Plateau before the long period of pre-Entrada erosion; whereas the land
seems to have been more stable during Entrada time. The Slick Rock is
cemented with calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), which is soluble even in weak
acid, such as rain or snow water containing dissolved carbon dioxide.
For this reason solution openings or pits occur in some of the cliff
faces, the most striking of which are those shown near the top of figure
15.
The Slick Rock Member of the Entrada Sandstone forms a line of cliffs
and isolated monoliths that are second in height and grandeur only to
those of the Wingate. The Member is best displayed southwest of Rim Rock
Drive between the Visitor Center and the Coke Ovens and along the
western arm of Ute Canyon (fig. 16). It also forms the Saddlehorn just
south of the camp and picnic grounds near the Visitor Center (fig. 50).
Most of the smooth cliff faces show both the steeply dipping crossbeds
of the old sand dunes and the flat-lying beds of the lake or pond
deposits.
[Illustration: ENTRADA SANDSTONE, just above normally dry waterfall
in west arm of Ute Canyon. Note smooth unjointed cliff of Slick Rock
Member protected at left by overhanging basal bed of Moab Member,
which forms about lower half of slope in distance. Upper part of
distant slope is the Summerville Formation overlain by Salt Wash
Member of the Morrison Formation. Note Slick Rock at left resting
upon eroded crossbedded sandstone in Kayenta Formation, in which the
canyon was cut. (Fig. 16)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account