Geologically, Waterpocket Fold is a monocline, a structure in which the rock layers have been folded up or down on one side. (Structures in which the rock layers are folded on both sides– either bent up like a U-shaped smile or down like frown– are called synclines and anticlines, respectively.).
Between 75 million and 35 million years ago, the tectonic forces that boosted the Rocky Mountains also buckled older rocks listed below Capitol Reef. The rock layers above did not break, however bent, like a table linen draped over a table edge. The bend in this drape forms the Waterpocket Fold. More recently, rains, flash floods, and freeze-thaw cycles have actually worn down and shaped the cliffs, canyons, bridges, and domes into what we see today.
Capitol Reef informs a geologic story of hundreds of countless years of disintegration, deposition, and uplift– punctuated by episodes of volcanism and glaciation. The park boasts an almost total series of rock layers spanning from the late Permian Period (about 290 million years ago) to the end of the Mesozoic Era (66 million years ago). Deposited along and in a shallow sea and ancient delta, these rocks hold an almost constant record of life and environments here from before the increase of the dinosaurs through their death.
Today, they are some of the most well-known rocks of the Colorado Plateau, consisting of the Moenkopi, Chinle, Navajo, Entrada, and Dakota formations. Several of these are visible in the below image of Big Thomson Mesa within Capitol Reef. The photo was handled June 14, 2009, by the crew on the International Space Station.
Huge Thomson Mesa. June 14, 2009.
Capitol Reef likewise hosts part of the biggest and earliest fossil megatracksite in North America. Numerous of the trackways at Capitol Reef were formed when fish dragged their reptiles or fins scraped their feet, toes, or claws as they swam along an ancient shoreline or traversed a tidal mudflat.
In May 2022, park officials reported the loss of part of a rare fossil trackway. After publishing a picture of a rock outcrop on social media, park officials were alerted to the missing tracks by a paleontologist who recognized with the site. An assessment of previous images of the website exposed the fossils had actually been eliminated sometime in between August 2017 and August 2018.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, utilizing Landsat information from the U.S. Geological Survey. Astronaut photograph ISS020-E-9861 was gotten on June 14, 2009, with a Nikon D3 digital camera fitted with an 800 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space. The image was taken by the Expedition 20 crew. The image in this post has actually been cropped and enhanced to enhance contrast. Lens artifacts have been eliminated. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take photos of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely readily available on the Internet.
Capitol Reef National Park in south-central Utah is not home to either a capitol or a reef. Between 75 million and 35 million years back, the tectonic forces that uplifted the Rocky Mountains likewise buckled older rocks listed below Capitol Reef. The park boasts a nearly complete series of rock layers spanning from the late Permian Period (about 290 million years ago) to the end of the Mesozoic Era (66 million years ago). Capitol Reef also hosts part of the largest and oldest fossil megatracksite in North America. After posting a picture of a rock outcrop on social media, park officials were notified to the missing out on tracks by a paleontologist who was familiar with the website.
Capitol Reef National Park in south-central Utah. May 2, 2022.
In the Utah desert, the red rocks, cliffs, and canyons of this nautically named national forest– and many of its well-known fossils– owe their presence to water.
Capitol Reef National Park in south-central Utah is not house to either a capitol or a reef. It was called rather for 2 geologic features: the popular white domes of Navajo Sandstone, which advised early inhabitants of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.; and a powerful ridge of rocky cliffs that provided a barrier to passage. The inhabitants (some likely taking a trip in grassy field schooners) compared it to the maritime navigational threat of an ocean reef.
The ridge, called Waterpocket Fold, runs north-south for 90 miles (140 kilometers). It shows up in the image above, which was acquired on May 2, 2022, by the Landsat 9s Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2).
By Sara E. Pratt, NASA Earth Observatory
May 28, 2022
