Monday, March 7, 2011

AW #32. Favorite images The anticline overlook

Ann said the festivities don't start until tomorrow night so I have a chance to hand this in late! Thanks!

This was taken from the appropriately named "Anticline Overlook" of the Canyon Rims Recreation Area in eastern Utah. The anticline is obvious, you can see the upward curve of the rock units. I love the part where the river cuts through the anticline making a natural road cut.

The river cuts through the Permian age Cutler formation, the left overs from the formation of the Ancestral Rockies. The upward arching of these rocks is from the squishing (a very technical term) of a buried salt layer. Far below the Cutler lies the Pennsylvanian Paradox formation, a mile thick layer of salt that has a tendency to move about creating some fun landscapes in the desert southwest. The buildings and ponds you see in the picture are a potash mine. Water is pumped underground into the Paradox layer, dissolves the salts and the brine is pumped back to the surface into the blue evaporation ponds in the background. The water evaporates away leaving the salts for transport.

The fun part of this area are the roads. They are barely visible in the picture but they travel hundreds of miles through the red rock desert . A mountain biking heaven!


2 comments:

Rockdawg said...

The parade is up and rolling at
http://theaccretionarywedge.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/aw32-a-parade-of-geological-images/
Thank you for submitting a beautiful picture to make the parade so special.

Malcolm V L said...

Are you showing a very gentle, wide sweeping anticline?