Lost Canyon, Needles District, Canyonlands
National Park, San Juan County, Utah.
Photographer: Robert Blackett
Backpackers traverse a “slick rock” rim of the Permianage Cedar Mesa Sandstone.
Tag Archive for: Canyonlands National Park
The La Sal Mountains viewed through Mesa Arch in the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park, San Juan County, Utah
Photographer: Taylor Boden
Island in the Sky District, Canyonlands National Park, San Juan County, Utah
Photographer: Lance Weaver
Deep canyons display headward erosion at Island in the Sky District, Canyonlands National Park.
Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands National Park, Utah, is a colorful circular “belly button,” unique among the broad mesas and deep canyons of the Colorado Plateau.
The rim of Upheaval Dome is 3 miles across and over 1000 feet above the core floor. The central peak in the core is 3000 feet in diameter and rises 750 feet from the floor.
Since the late 1990s, the origin of the Upheaval Dome structure has been considered to be either a pinched-off salt dome or a complex meteorite impact crater; in other words the “belly button” is either an “outie” (dome) or “innie” (crater).
Both origin hypotheses account for the overall structure of Upheaval Dome, assuming approximately a mile of overlying rock has been eroded. The main differences between the two hypotheses are the amount of time and the pressures needed to produce the structure.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE UTAH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
The Utah Geological Survey (UGS) is a division of the Utah Department of Natural Resources. Several specialized programs comprise the UGS: Data Management, Energy & Minerals, Geologic Hazards, Geologic Information & Outreach, Geologic Mapping, Groundwater & Wetlands, and Paleontology.