Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 16, 2004

The fragile spires of the Bryce Canyon, called hoodoos

The exposed geology of the Bryce Canyon area shows a record of deposition that covers the last part of the Cretaceous period and the first half of the Cenozoic era in that part of North America. The ancient depositional environment of the region around what is now Bryce Canyon National Park varied from the warm shallow sea the Dakota Sandstone and the Tropic Shale were deposited in to the cool streams and lakes that contributed to the colorful Claron Formation that dominates the park's amphitheaters. Other formations were also created but were mostly eroded following two major periods of uplift; one around 70 million years ago (creating the Rocky Mountains) and another 10 to 15 million years ago (creating the Colorado Plateaus). (more...)

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