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Home/Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Geology/Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Geology

Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Geology

Storm over Lake Powell | Photo by Gary Ladd
Storm over Lake Powell | Photo by Gary Ladd

By Gary Ladd

An extraordinarily beautiful river canyon lay where today’s Lake Powell shimmers. There was nothing else like it on earth with its isolation, twisting and mysterious side canyons, Indian ruins, and gentle, idyllic landforms. But, in the mid-1950s, the US Congress voted to utilize the canyon, not for its beauty and historic properties but its water-storage capacity as a reservoir site. A great deal of beauty and history was lost beneath Lake Powell but, it must be admitted, much remains beyond the reach of the lake even today, 50 years later.

Alcoves, natural bridges, arches, desert varnish, slot canyons—Glen Canyon’s list of interesting geologic phenomena is both intriguing and plentiful in the Lake Powell area. To set the stage for the region’s amazing landscape features let’s review the characteristics of the Colorado Plateau Geologic Province, a region of northern Arizona, southern Utah, and smaller parts of Colorado and New Mexico, about the size of France all together of which Glen Canyon and Lake Powell are a part.

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Published on: October 10, 2012

Categories: Lake Powell and Glen Canyon GeologyTags: Colorado Plateau, geology, Glen Canyon, Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell, reservoir, water storage

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Lake Powell & Glen Canyon Geology

Storm over Lake Powell | Photo by Gary Ladd

Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Geology

By Gary Ladd An extraordinarily beautiful river canyon lay where today’s Lake Powell shimmers. …

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

The Back Story

By Gary Ladd Just downstream from Glen Canyon lies Grand Canyon, a somewhat better known …

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Moon rise over Glen Canyon | Photo by Gary Ladd

Glen Canyon Rock Layers

By Gary Ladd Glen Canyon area rocks were laid down during the Mesozoic Era, a period of time …

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

Monoclines

By Gary Ladd The Colorado Plateau is characterized by a thick sequence of mostly sedimentary …

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Flaming Sunset on Sandstone Cliffs | Photo by Gary Ladd

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

By Gary Ladd Throughout the middle and downstream sections of Lake Powell about a dozen rock …

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

Glen Canyon’s Striking Landscape Features

By Gary Ladd Glen Canyon hosts a wonderful array of interesting landforms. They include the …

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Navajo Mountain | Photo by Gary Ladd

Laccoliths—Underachieving Volcanoes

By Gary Ladd The mountains that stand near Glen Canyon are quite unusual. They are known as …

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Glen Canyon Dam | Photo by Gary Ladd

The Future of Lake Powell

By Gary Ladd Like all lakes, both natural and man-made, Lake Powell will eventually fall …

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