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Home/Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Geology/Glen Canyon’s Prominent Rock Units: The Aeolian Sandstones Plus One

Glen Canyon’s Prominent Rock Units: The Aeolian Sandstones Plus One

Flaming Sunset on Sandstone Cliffs | Photo by Gary Ladd
Flaming Sunset on Sandstone Cliffs | Photo by Gary Ladd

Throughout the middle and downstream sections of Lake Powell about a dozen rock units can be seen. All are sedimentary in origin. Of these, only about four are exceptionally prominent, and three of them are Aeolian (wind-deposited) sandstones.

The Aeolian Sandstones of Glen Canyon

Wingate Sandstone is about 205 million years old. It is the first of three aeolian sand dune environments to occupy the future site of the Glen Canyon area in the early and middle Jurassic Period, a time of recurring extreme droughts.

The Wingate is a cliff-former and is usually orange in color (and is often therefore mistaken for the Navajo Sandstone).

Navajo Sandstone is about 190 million years old. It rests upon the Kayenta Sandstone which rests upon the slightly older Wingate Sandstone.

The Navajo is undoubtedly the most widely recognized and important of Glen Canyon’s rock units because it is thick (over 1,000 feet in this area), and it often forms imposing cliffs draped with desert varnish. (It also plays important roles in other Colorado Plateau parks, forming the largest part of the walls of Zion National Park, makes major ridges in Capitol Reef National Park, is the sculpted rock of Rainbow Bridge, and plays important roles in Navajo National Monument, Canyonlands, and other locations.)

It is believed that the quartz sand grains that compose the Navajo Sandstone probably originated in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Those mountains were already 50 million years old at the time and were actively weathering and falling apart.

Some of their rock particles were being carried westward by a river system that eventually dispersed in a desert area that is now Utah. Winds distributed the sand grains over a large area of the western US including Glen Canyon to become today’s Navajo Sandstone.

Entrada Sandstone is about 160 million years old and is separated from the underlying Navajo Sandstone by the Carmel Formation (evidence of another incursion of a sea).

It appears white in the Wahweap area of Lake Powell but transitions to red in the vicinity of Padre Bay. It represents the third and last of the great wind-blown deserts of the middle Mesozoic.

And the Amazing Chine Formation

The final important rock unit of the Glen Canyon area is the Chinle Formation. In the upper reaches of Lake Powell and especially along its San Juan River arm, the Chinle Formation appears intermittently.

It’s about 225 million years old and is most easily identified by its crumbling, multi-colored (gray, green, blue, and brown) slopes. It was deposited in streams and, less often, in lakes. Some portions contain volcanic ash beds. It’s made of sandstones, mudstones, and shales.

Most interestingly, the lower levels within the Chinle Formation often contain an abundance of petrified wood. In fact, south of Glen Canyon it is the Chinle Formation that gives Petrified Forest National Park its huge collections of petrified logs.

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Gary Ladd’s Publications

Photographing Grand Canyon: Where, When, and How to Capture the Best Photos
Photographing Grand Canyon: Where, When, and How to Capture the Best Photos
  • Gary Ladd (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 64 Pages - 03/30/2016 (Publication Date) - Grand Canyon Conservancy (Publisher)
$18.77
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Grand Canyon: Views beyond the Beauty
Grand Canyon: Views beyond the Beauty
  • Used Book in Good Condition
  • Ladd, Gary (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 82 Pages - 09/01/2008 (Publication Date) - Grand Canyon Association (Publisher)
$1.59
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Lake Powell: A Photographic Essay of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Companion Press...
Lake Powell: A Photographic Essay of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Companion Press...
  • Used Book in Good Condition
  • Markward, Anne (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 96 Pages - 08/01/2009 (Publication Date) - Mountain Press Publishing Company (Publisher)
$1.96
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Glen Canyon: Images of a Lost World
Glen Canyon: Images of a Lost World
  • Used Book in Good Condition
  • Nichols, Tad (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 176 Pages - 01/30/2023 (Publication Date) - Museum of New Mexico Press (Publisher)
$520.57
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Gary Ladd's Canyon Light: Grand Canyon & Lake Powell (Cerca Book)
Gary Ladd's Canyon Light: Grand Canyon & Lake Powell (Cerca Book)
  • Used Book in Good Condition
  • Hardcover Book
  • Ladd, Gary (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 160 Pages - 01/01/2010 (Publication Date) - Stephens Press LLC (Publisher)
$7.03
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Grand Canyon: Time Below the Rim
Grand Canyon: Time Below the Rim
  • Used Book in Good Condition
  • Hardcover Book
  • Childs, Craig Leland (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 192 Pages - 01/29/1999 (Publication Date) - Arizona Highways (Publisher)
$22.99
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Last update on 2023-01-29 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Published on: October 10, 2012

Categories: Lake Powell and Glen Canyon GeologyTags: Aeolian sandstone, Chinle Formation, Colorado Plateau, Entrada Sandstone, Glen Canyon, Jurassic, Kayenta Sandstone, Lake Powell, Mesozoic, Navajo Sandstone, Wingate Sandstone

About Gary Ladd

Gary Ladd is a renowned Southwest photographer and author of numerous books including “Page, Arizona: Hub of the Visual Universe”, "Glen Canyon: Images of a Lost World", "Grand Canyon: Time Below the Rim", and "Lake Powell: A Photographic Essay of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area."

A resident of Arizona for over thirty years, Gary has spent the last twenty-five years seriously hiking, exploring, and photographing the astonishing beauty of the Colorado Plateau, particularly Glen and Grand Canyons.

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Lake Powell & Glen Canyon Geology

Storm over Lake Powell | Photo by Gary Ladd

Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Geology

An extraordinarily beautiful river canyon lay where today’s Lake Powell shimmers. There was nothing …

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Glen Canyon Maze formed by damming of Colorado River | Photo by Gary Ladd

The Back Story

Just downstream from Glen Canyon lies Grand Canyon, a somewhat better known segment of Colorado …

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Moon rise over Glen Canyon | Photo by Gary Ladd

Glen Canyon Rock Layers

Glen Canyon area rocks were laid down during the Mesozoic Era, a period of time that followed the …

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Aerial View of Glen Canyon showing angles of rock layers | Photo by Gary Ladd

Monoclines

The Colorado Plateau is characterized by a thick sequence of mostly sedimentary rock layers that …

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Flaming Sunset on Sandstone Cliffs | Photo by Gary Ladd

Glen Canyon’s Prominent Rock Units: The Aeolian Sandstones Plus One

Throughout the middle and downstream sections of Lake Powell about a dozen rock units can be seen. …

Continue Reading about Glen Canyon’s Prominent Rock Units: The Aeolian Sandstones Plus One

Rainbow Bridge with Navajo Mountain in the background | Photo by Gary Ladd

Glen Canyon’s Striking Landscape Features

Glen Canyon hosts a wonderful array of interesting landforms. They include the following: Alcoves …

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Navajo Mountain | Photo by Gary Ladd

Laccoliths—Underachieving Volcanoes

The mountains that stand near Glen Canyon are quite unusual. They are known as laccolithic mountains …

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Glen Canyon Dam | Photo by Gary Ladd

The Future of Lake Powell

Like all lakes, both natural and man-made, Lake Powell will eventually fall victim to sedimentation. …

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