Zion National Park



Zion National Park is located in the USA at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin and Mojave Desert provinces. It features 229 square miles of dramatic landscape and stunning scenery marked by some of the highest sandstone cliffs in the world. The West Temple has the greatest thickness of Navajo Sandstone in the park, about 2,000 feet.

Zion is an ancient Hebrew word meaning a place of refuge or sanctuary. Protected within the park by its unique geography of sculptured canyons and soaring cliffs is a variety of biomes which make Zion significant as a place of unusual plant and animal diversity. Geological features include the Temple of Sinawava, Zion Narrows, Checkerboard Mesa, the Kolob Arch, Towers of the Virgin, West Temple, and East Temple.

Strata

 * Main Article: Strata



One of the most outstanding features of Zion National Park are the layers of sedimentary rock called strata that have been exposed by the erosion event that carved this immense canyon system. Layers of sedimentary rocks hundreds of feet thick blanket the world, and can be traced across entire continents and even correlated with layers on other continents. By comparing the sequence of layers from various areas, the cross section of strata known as the geological column was developed.

Landslides
Landslides are said to be quite common in Zion National Park. For example, on April 12, 1995, approximately 200,000 cubic yards of earth and rock temporarily dammed the Virgin river, which dug a new channel a few hours later. Some have questioned why geological formations thought to be millions of years old should be so unstable as to allow frequent landslides. Theories of canyon formation after the Flood recognize the importance of dam formation and breaching for sudden canyon erosion.(Williams, p197)