At one time this overlying layer of rock may have been more than a mile thick. Much of this debris was cemented into rock. Over millions of years, the salt bed was covered with the residue of floods and winds as the oceans returned and evaporated again and again.
Thousands of feet thick in places, the Paradox Formation was deposited over 300 million years ago when seas flowed into the region and eventually evaporated. How did all this come to be? Here's how the Park Service explains the geologic forces at work:Īrches National Park lies atop an underground salt bed called the “Paradox Formation” which is responsible for the arches, spires, balanced rocks, fins and eroded monoliths common throughout the park. Over the millennia erosion has created more than 2,000 arches in the park, ranging from small, three-foot spans to Landscape Arch, which measures 306 feet from base to base. In fact, it still isn't finished, as erosional forces continue to sculpt and chip away at the landscape. We’ve got all of it – mesas, buttes, needles, goblins, natural bridges – and it happens to be a really cool palette of colors.”Īrches National Park was under construction for millions of years. “Nowhere else will you see the assemblage of geology that we’ve got here. “From (writers) Edward Abbey to Terry Tempest Williams, there’re all kinds of people who talk about red-rock country,” Paul Henderson, the operations chief for the National Park Service’s Southeastern Utah Group that includes Arches, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges National Monument and Hovenweep National Monument told me when I asked him to explain the lure of southeastern Utah. How would you describe Arches National Park to someone who had never been to the Southwest? You could try to explain the landscape by comparing it to the old Flintstones cartoons, but what if they weren't familiar with the Flintstones? Do you think they'd believe you if you said Arches was a cathedral of rocks, where gravity doesn't always work, where the sunsets stain the cliffs? Oil Trains Pose A Significant Threat To National Parks.The Care And Keeping Of History Within The National Park System.Wastewater And Sewer Facilities Failing In National Parks.Private Philanthropy Fills The Gaps Of Deferred Maintenance.National Park Roads And Bridges Impacted By Lack Of Maintenance.NPS Is Running $670 Million Behind On Caring For Maintained Landscapes.Mixing Energy Development And National Parks.Maintenance Backlog Impacts Historic Structures In National Parks.
Lack Of Dollars Crippling National Park Facilities For Staff And Visitors.Invasive Species A Plague On the National Park System.Groups Continually At Work To Acquire Private Lands Key To National Parks.
0 kommentar(er)
