People | George
Davis
Geology of Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Bryce Canyon National Park lies along the high
eastern escarpment of the Paunsaugunt Plateau in the Colorado Plateau
region of southern Utah. Its extraordinary geological character is expressed by
thousands of rock chimneys (hoodoos) that occupy amphitheater-like
alcoves in the Pink Cliffs, whose bedrock host is Claron Formation
of Eocene age. The specific location and geologic attributes
of Bryce Canyon National Park reflect the geo-historical interplay
of (1) deposition of colorful Mesozoic and Cenozoic marine and nonmarine
sedimentary rock layers in the Colorado Plateau foreland; (2) multiple
faulting of the sedimentary rock column during Laramide (90 to 50 Ma,
that is, 90 to 50 million years before present), early Miocene (25
to 20 Ma), and Basin and Range (15 Ma to present) deformations; and
(3) the erosional sculpting of the Pink Cliffs by the headwater tributaries
of the Paria drainage system. The interrelationships of these
three factors are quite unique, and thus it is not surprising that
Bryce Canyon is one of a kind.
[Davis, G.H. and Pollock, G., 2001, Geology of Bryce
Canyon National Park,
in Sprinkle, D. (ed.)., Geology of the Utah National Parks and Monuments:
Utah Geological Association, p.37-60.]
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