COLORADO NATIONAL MONUMENT

A Presentation

by Jaime Sandberg

For GEO-111

Physical Geographical Sub-topic 1

Fluvial Deposition in Arid Lands

Physical Geographical Sub-topic 2

Fluvial Erosion in Arid Lands

Coastal Processes

Physical Geographical Sub-topic 3

Devil’s Kitchen

The Uncompahgre Highland rises to mountainous heights…

Coke Ovens

then is worn down over millions of years to a nearly level plain. (These ancient crystalline rocks - granite, gneiss, schist - which were at the core appear today in the canyon floors.) …

Balancing Rock

Great bodies of water follow, depositing layer upon layer of soft, sedimentary rocks as distant mountains give themselves up, grain by grain, to be reformed.

The Canyon Floor contains dark purple Proterozoic rock

Rock-fall deposits cover most of the red

Chinle Formation at the base of the cliffs

of Wingate Sandstone…

Independence Monument

Inside Devil’s Kitchen

The Kayenta Formation caps the cliffs with

resistant silica-cemented rocks…

Devil’s Kitchen in No Thoroughfare Canyon showing erosional remnants of caps of Kayenta

Formation on pedestals of the Wingate Sandstone…

Classifying the Deposits of the Monument

http://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i-2740/i-2740.pdf .

How Thick Are They?

http://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i-2740/i-2740.pdf .

Layers in time

http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/coloradoplateau/colorado_strat.htm

Bibliography

• “Colorado National Monument,” National Park Service, accessed December 7, 2011.http://www.nps.gov/colm/index.htm .

•  • “Colorado National Monument,” Frommers, accessed December 7, 2011.

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/grandjunction/1468024512.html .•  • Robert B. Scott, Anne E. Harding, William C. Hood, Rex D. Cole, Richard F. Livaccari, James B.

Johnson, Ralph R. Shroba, and Robert P. Dickerson, “Geologic Map of Colorado National Monument and Adjacent Areas, Mesa County, Colorado,” Geologic Investigations Series, I-2740, 2001. http://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i-2740/i-2740.pdf .

•  • Judith Kohler, “Colorado National Monument: A pocket-size Grand Canyon,” Summit Daily via

Associated Press, January 9, 2011. http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20110109/NEWS/110109839 .•  • “Should Colorado National Monument become national park?” Denver Post via Associated Press,

March 26, 20111.• http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_17707430?source=rss .•  • Stewart Green, “John Otto Climbs Independence Monument,” accessed December 7, 2011.

http://climbing.about.com/od/historyofclimbing/ss/OttoAndIndy_2.htm .