Cretaceous Undersea Landslide
Along Interstate 80 as you travel west through Wyoming there is a very interesting rock formation. A slice of the past frozen in the rock for all to see. The first photo shows folded sedimentary rock at the “downstream” end of an undersea landslide. It is the Cretaceous Blair Formation of the Mesa Verde Group. The fold occurs because the landslide has not detached yet at the leading end.
The second photo is of a completely detached under water landslide as it appears in cross section. This too is in the Cretaceous Blair Formation of the Mesa Verde Group. The part that you see is the trailing end of the landslide, the leading or front part has detached and slid further out to sea to the right and is not seen here.
Photo number three is a close up detail of the second slide. The result of these undersea landslides is that they form layers that have strata that are all jumbled up and mixed with each other. All three of these examples can be found together along I-80 at the Superior Exit 122.
Another cool discovery is that if you go to Google maps and place yourself in street view you can walk up and down this formation without the danger of getting plastered by a semi.
Enjoy
This article was written by clove
1 comment:
How amazing! Thanks for sharing!