Natural Skyscrapers
At Bryce Canyon, hoodoos range in size from that of an average human to heights exceeding a 10-storey building. Formed in sedimentary rock, their shapes are affected by the erosional patterns of alternating hard and softer rock layers. The name given to the rock layer that forms hoodoos at Bryce Canyon is the Claron Formation. This layer has several rock types including siltstones and mudstones but is predominantly limestone. Minerals deposited within different rock types cause hoodoos to have different colours throughout their height.
Bryce Canyon National Park is located in south-western Utah. Despite its name, Bryce Canyon is not actually a canyon, but rather a giant natural amphitheatre created by erosion along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.
The area shows a record of deposition that spans from the last part of the Cretaceous period and the first half of the Cenozoic era. The Claron Formation, from which the park's delicate hoodoos are carved, was laid down as sediments in a system of cool streams and lakes that existed from 63 to about 40 million years ago (from the Paleocene to the Eocene epochs). Different sediment types were laid down as the lakes deepened and became shallow and as the shoreline and river deltas migrated. Hoodoos are composed of soft sedimentary rock and are topped by a piece of harder, less-easily-eroded stone that protects the column from the elements. Bryce Canyon has one of the highest concentrations of hoodoos of any place on Earth.
The formations exposed in the area of the park are part of the Grand Staircase. The oldest members of this supersequence of rock units are exposed in the Grand Canyon, the intermediate ones in Zion National Park, and its youngest parts are laid bare in Bryce Canyon area. A small amount of overlap occurs in and around each park.
Seen from Sunset Point in a late-afternoon photograph, scanned from a negative.
Natural Skyscrapers
At Bryce Canyon, hoodoos range in size from that of an average human to heights exceeding a 10-storey building. Formed in sedimentary rock, their shapes are affected by the erosional patterns of alternating hard and softer rock layers. The name given to the rock layer that forms hoodoos at Bryce Canyon is the Claron Formation. This layer has several rock types including siltstones and mudstones but is predominantly limestone. Minerals deposited within different rock types cause hoodoos to have different colours throughout their height.
Bryce Canyon National Park is located in south-western Utah. Despite its name, Bryce Canyon is not actually a canyon, but rather a giant natural amphitheatre created by erosion along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.
The area shows a record of deposition that spans from the last part of the Cretaceous period and the first half of the Cenozoic era. The Claron Formation, from which the park's delicate hoodoos are carved, was laid down as sediments in a system of cool streams and lakes that existed from 63 to about 40 million years ago (from the Paleocene to the Eocene epochs). Different sediment types were laid down as the lakes deepened and became shallow and as the shoreline and river deltas migrated. Hoodoos are composed of soft sedimentary rock and are topped by a piece of harder, less-easily-eroded stone that protects the column from the elements. Bryce Canyon has one of the highest concentrations of hoodoos of any place on Earth.
The formations exposed in the area of the park are part of the Grand Staircase. The oldest members of this supersequence of rock units are exposed in the Grand Canyon, the intermediate ones in Zion National Park, and its youngest parts are laid bare in Bryce Canyon area. A small amount of overlap occurs in and around each park.
Seen from Sunset Point in a late-afternoon photograph, scanned from a negative.