Photos for Unaweap Canyon

More Photos for Unaweep Canyon

View of the contact between the Uncompahgre uplift and the Chinle Formation. Relatively resistant beds of the Wingate Sandstone are present along the skyline. This photo is taken from Highway 141 looking toward Divide Road.

Purple-grey rocks at the base of the photo are the Precambrian granite and granite gneiss of the Uncompahgre. Note the prominent light-colored dikes. Above the igneous and metamorphic rocks the nonresistant Chinle Formation is present. The cross-bedded Wingate Sandstone is the resistant unit at the top of the photo. This photo is taken near the junction between Divide Road and Highway 141. Why are some rocks more resistant than others? What characteristics of these three formations could make them differ in their resistance to weathering? How did these different rock units form?

Close up of the contact between the Uncompahgre and the Chinle Formation. Note photo scale in center right of photo. Where exactly is the contact? Why do the two rock units appear so similar?

Prominent dikes in the Uncompahgre Uplift. Chinle Formation directly overlies the Precambrian uplift and Wingate Sandstone is present along the skyline. How does the composition of the dikes differ from that of the rest of the Uncompahgre rock? Did the dikes form before or after the surrounding rock? Where did the dikes come from?

Unaweap Canyon is extremely wide and is U-shaped. This canyon was probably not cut by glaciers, so how did it form? Look at topographic maps of both the canyon and the surrounding region (as far away as Grand Junction) before you decide.

This view from the top of the La Sal Mountains toward the west (into Canyonlands) shows that there is a lot of red rock present to the west of the Uncompahgre. Much of this rock came from the Uncompahgre originally. Can you estimate the original size of the Uncompahgre Uplift?