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Granite dome
A granite attic is a attic - shaped mountain or hill of granite that has eroded in concentrical layers , result in a rounded attic shape . They are also get laid as scurf domes and are a common lineament in the American West , specially in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California . The feature article above is bed asHalf Dome and is locate in Yosemite National Park . The crest of Half Dome has an aggrandizement of 8,840 feet ( 2,694 m ) and sits some 4,737 feet ( 1,444 m ) above the Yosemite Valley base .
Cinder cones
Cinder strobile are a common feature of the landscape of the American West . They are the simple type of vent built from particle of lava that have been ejected from a single , volcanic vent . Mostcinder coneshave a bowl human body crater at the summit and are usually no more than a thousand feet ( about 300 molar concentration ) above their surrounding landscape painting . The movie above shows a serial publication of cinder cone found in the Springerville Volcanic Field of northeastern Arizona that consist of 405 volcanic vent sprinkle over 1,200 straightforward miles ( 3,000 satisfying kilometre ) , making it the third largest volcanic field in the continental United States .
Volcanic plugs
Volcanic plugsare formed when molten magma solidifies in the pipe or neck opening of an active vent . Over clock time the agents of eating away wear the softer surrounding sediments of the volcanic cone away . The volcanic plug shown here is Agathla Peak , also know by the soubriquet " El Capitan " due to it location just to the south of Monument Valley , Utah . It is composed of volcanic breccia thought to be some 25 million years older . This volcanic wad go up some 1,500 feet ( 457 metre ) above the surrounding high desert plains .
Gooseneck
A gooseneck is a common name for a rare geologic establishment known as an entrenched meander . A gooseneck is originally formed when a river flows over a flat plain and lazily loops back on itself . When the plain begin to rise , the river begins to flow more quickly and cut deeper into its ancient streambed . The picture above is of a gooseneck on the Colorado River as seen from Dead Horse Point State Park , Utah .
Anticlines & synclines
Anticlines and synclines are commonly seen rock formations in the canyon of the West . They are visual testaments to the unbelievable mountain building forces that shaped this nation . An anticline is a convex fold in which the rock typically splosh upwardly . The sometime of rocks in an anticline are at its core . Pictured above is the Raplee Anticline locate near Mexican Hat , Utah . This is a sandstone formation deposited on a coastal plain near a shallow seaway during the recent Pennsylvanian time ( 70 million to 50 million year ago ) .
Syncline
A syncline is typically a concave fold in which the tilt slopes downward . In a syncline the youngest of John Rock are found near the center of the sheepcote . The photograph shows the balance rock and roll known as Mexican Hat with the Mexican Hat Syncline showing in the background . The Mexican Hat Syncline lies parallel to the Raplee Anticline along the San Juan River in southerly Utah .
Canyonlands
Canyonlands are often discover as deep eroded landscape made up of unconscionable walled valleys with low valley floor and extensive rock outcrop of bedrock formed into drop , shelf or steep slopes . Canyonlands typically have sparse vegetation and the action of the forces of eroding is encompassing . show above is a single horizon of one of the one thousand of canyons found inCanyonlands National Park , Utah . The Green River flow through this beautiful panorama .
Go West
The many geologic formations found across the American West have shape a landscape of harsh terrains and yet great beaut . It is a land best seen by foot or hogback , but driving through it is well than not seeing it at all . It is a vast land that can not be seen in a individual trip , so the need to visit over and over again is one of living ’s great hypothesis . " Go West , young man , go West , " was effective advice think to have been first give by journalist John B.L. Soule in an column for the Terra Haute Express in 1851 . It was upright advice then and certainly right advice today , to see and come across theAmerican West . Shown above is Weaver ’s Needle , combine volcanic ash that has been hard eroded into a steeple , find oneself in the Superstition Wilderness of the Tonto National Forest , Ariz.
