1 February 2013
Friday fold: Mosaic Canyon Monster
Posted by Callan Bentley
While out in Death Valley with my Field Studies students last March, we encountered an extraordinary fold in Mosaic Canyon.
Check this thing out:
The rock is the Noonday Dolostone (“Noonday Dolomite” in mineralogically biased argot). It may be hard to make out what’s what there… So let me assist with a little annotation, tracing out the bedding:
Wild, eh? That’s an extraordinarily messed up rock. “Goopey” is the adjective that comes to mind to describe how this rock behaved during deformation.
And, being a human with a predilection for pareidolia, I can’t help but see a monstrous creature lurking in the wall:
Happy Friday!
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.
When I take people up Mosaic Canyon to show them this formation, I always splash some water on it which really brings out the detail in the dolomite. When the more folded portions are wet, it looks like wood cut on a bias with the grain showing.