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You just have to be enthralled by the colors. Here is a pic of layers: http://sed.utah.edu/Stop3_2%20(2).jpg
Chinle Formation- The majority of desert mining is usually undertaken within this stratum. This is also where uranium is usually found. It is in especially large amounts in the Painted Desert in Arizona, which consequently, is also the layer where petrified wood and volcanic ash is usually found. This layer was once part of freshwater lakes, flood plains and rivers. The depth of this layer varies significantly and is usually agreed to be a few hundred (91.5m) feet thick.
As the sea began to return at the beginning of Chinle time, the shallow, meandering river channels filled in with coarse gravel, small rocks and lots of wood. This forms the discontinuous gray Shinarump Conglomerate Formation. At the top of the Moenkopi cliffs these filled stream beds appear as gray lens shaped outcrops about 50 to 90 feet deep and 100 to 250 feet wide. The very thick soft Chinle shale erodes into a not very steep slope gaining depth from its lower edge at the Moenkopi-Shinarump cliff top up to the bottom of the much taller bright red vertical cliffs of Wingate aeolean (wind deposited) sandstone.
At some point millions of years later when the previously named formations were buried under thousands of feet of over-burden, mineralized water was injected into the area. The very fine grained Moenkopi sandstone and Chinle shale were impervious, but the coarse grained Shinarump conglomerate was a good conduit for this water.
The Monitor Butte Member overlies the Shinarump in most areas. The Monitor Butte is an overbank (distal floodplain) facies with lacustrine deposits. This is overlain in western areas by the channel-deposit facies Moss Back Member (Multi-colored slopes of clay with dark brown sandstone ledges).
(Spencer was hot for gold, and the Chinle Shale was where he planned to get it.)
Chinle Formation- The majority of desert mining is usually undertaken within this stratum. This is also where uranium is usually found. It is in especially large amounts in the Painted Desert in Arizona, which consequently, is also the layer where petrified wood and volcanic ash is usually found. This layer was once part of freshwater lakes, flood plains and rivers. The depth of this layer varies significantly and is usually agreed to be a few hundred (91.5m) feet thick.
As the sea began to return at the beginning of Chinle time, the shallow, meandering river channels filled in with coarse gravel, small rocks and lots of wood. This forms the discontinuous gray Shinarump Conglomerate Formation. At the top of the Moenkopi cliffs these filled stream beds appear as gray lens shaped outcrops about 50 to 90 feet deep and 100 to 250 feet wide. The very thick soft Chinle shale erodes into a not very steep slope gaining depth from its lower edge at the Moenkopi-Shinarump cliff top up to the bottom of the much taller bright red vertical cliffs of Wingate aeolean (wind deposited) sandstone.
At some point millions of years later when the previously named formations were buried under thousands of feet of over-burden, mineralized water was injected into the area. The very fine grained Moenkopi sandstone and Chinle shale were impervious, but the coarse grained Shinarump conglomerate was a good conduit for this water.
The Monitor Butte Member overlies the Shinarump in most areas. The Monitor Butte is an overbank (distal floodplain) facies with lacustrine deposits. This is overlain in western areas by the channel-deposit facies Moss Back Member (Multi-colored slopes of clay with dark brown sandstone ledges).
(Spencer was hot for gold, and the Chinle Shale was where he planned to get it.)