Post by 1dave on Jun 8, 2024 12:12:02 GMT -5
I was studying Roberts Rift this morning and realized one of the first known places it inters is Bride Canyon.
Roberts Rift crossing US 161 about 6 miles before you get to Moab:
Brides Canyon:
As for Roberts Rift, it starts in Arches national park, crosses Us 161, enters Brides Canyon, crosses Little Canyon road near RR-6, and fades into the distance some 60 miles away at No Man's Land where the land has eroded away.
Roberts Rift varies in width from 1 inch wide to many yards where widened by erosion, over 60 miles long and 2,500 feet deep, penetrating down through the Morrison, Entrada, Navajo, Kayenta, Wingate, Chinle, Moenkopi, White Rim, Organ Rock, Cutler, into the fossils of the Upper Hermosa Group fossil deposits which a steam explosion has tossed to the Morrison surface. The sides of the rift have been steam bleached white.
Late Pennsylvanian conodont faunas were dominated by idiognathodids historically assigned to Idiognathodus (flat P1) or Streptognathodus (troughed P1). Recent work suggests clades arose iteratively, through time, from unrelated ancestors in different geographical regions. The end-Desmoinesian extinction event terminated two major genera, Swadelina (troughed) and Neognathodus (long carina), and comparable new morphotypes developed from surviving Idiognathodus species in the early Kasimovian, especially in North America. True Streptognathodus (troughed) and Heckelina n. gen (asymmetric, eccentric groove) appeared in North America in the mid-Kasimovian.
My theory: shock waves meeting return waves reflecting off the Colorado River Fault created a standing Wave that stored heat until the groundwaters on all levels exploded, creating the long rift.
Roberts Rift crossing US 161 about 6 miles before you get to Moab:
Brides Canyon:
As for Roberts Rift, it starts in Arches national park, crosses Us 161, enters Brides Canyon, crosses Little Canyon road near RR-6, and fades into the distance some 60 miles away at No Man's Land where the land has eroded away.