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They have this series on TV called Drain the Oceans. I would like to see what this and places like Sedona looked like as the water drained.
Here you can see curved rocks and singular boulders in various shapes standing up.
WHO PILED UP ALL THOSE ROCKS?
Roads and trails lead you through a jumble of stacked boulders where you can use your imagination to see unlikely shapes.
The rock piles began underground eons ago as a result of volcanic activity. Magma—in this case a molten form of the rock called monzogranite—rose from deep within the Earth. As it rose, it intruded the overlying rock, the Pinto gneiss formation.
As the granite cooled and crystalized underground, cracks (joints) formed horizontally and vertically. The granite continued to uplift, where it came in contact with groundwater. Chemical weathering caused by groundwater worked on the angular granite blocks, widening cracks and rounding edges. Eventually the surface soil eroded, leaving heaps of monzogranite scattered across the land like careless piles of toy blocks.
As ground water percolated down through the monzogranite’s joint fractures, it began to transform some hard mineral grains along its path into soft clay, while it loosened and freed grains resistant to solution. Rectangular stones slowly weathered to spheres of hard rock surrounded by soft clay containing loose mineral grains. Imagine holding an ice cube under the faucet. The cube rounds away at the corners first, because that is the part most exposed to the force of the water. A similar thing happened here but over millions of years, on a grand scale, and during a much wetter climate. https://www.nps.gov/jotr/learn/nature/g ... r%20joints.
Here you can see curved rocks and singular boulders in various shapes standing up.
WHO PILED UP ALL THOSE ROCKS?
Roads and trails lead you through a jumble of stacked boulders where you can use your imagination to see unlikely shapes.
The rock piles began underground eons ago as a result of volcanic activity. Magma—in this case a molten form of the rock called monzogranite—rose from deep within the Earth. As it rose, it intruded the overlying rock, the Pinto gneiss formation.
As the granite cooled and crystalized underground, cracks (joints) formed horizontally and vertically. The granite continued to uplift, where it came in contact with groundwater. Chemical weathering caused by groundwater worked on the angular granite blocks, widening cracks and rounding edges. Eventually the surface soil eroded, leaving heaps of monzogranite scattered across the land like careless piles of toy blocks.
As ground water percolated down through the monzogranite’s joint fractures, it began to transform some hard mineral grains along its path into soft clay, while it loosened and freed grains resistant to solution. Rectangular stones slowly weathered to spheres of hard rock surrounded by soft clay containing loose mineral grains. Imagine holding an ice cube under the faucet. The cube rounds away at the corners first, because that is the part most exposed to the force of the water. A similar thing happened here but over millions of years, on a grand scale, and during a much wetter climate. https://www.nps.gov/jotr/learn/nature/g ... r%20joints.