page_title: Geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area
section_title: Navajo Sandstone (Lower to Mid Jurassic)
hierarchical_section_title: Geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area / Deposition of sediments / Navajo Sandstone (Lower to Mid Jurassic)
caption_attribution_description: English: View in the Kolob Canyons. Kolob Canyons is the northwest section of Zion National Park, Utah, United States. The Kolob Canyons are part of the Colorado Plateau region of the Zion National Park and are noted for their colorful beauty and diverse landscape. This part of Zion National Park is accessed by a park road about 20 miles south of Cedar City, Utah off Interstate 15. Deutsch: Blick in den Kolob Canyons. Kolob Canyons ist der nordwestliche Teil vom Zion National Park, Utah, USA. Er gehört zu dem hochgelegenen Colorado-Plateau und ist bekannt geworden durch die prächtigen Farben seiner Gebirgslandschaft. Er wird trotz seiner Schönheit selten aufgesucht, weil es in dem Zion National Park keine Straße gibt, die dorthin führt. Die Straße in den Kolob Canyons beginnt an der Interstate_15 etwa 20 Meilen südlich der Stadt Cedar City. Français&#160;: La région des canyons de Kolob Canyons dans le parc national de Zion. Italiano: Panorama nei Kolob Canyon, nella zona nordoccidentale del Parco nazionale di Zion, Utah, Stati Uniti d'America. 中文（简体）‎: 美国锡安国家公园科罗布峡谷。
context_page_description: The geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area includes nine known exposed formations, all visible in Zion National Park in the U.S. state of Utah. Together, these formations represent about 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation in that part of North America. Part of a super-sequence of rock units called the Grand Staircase, the formations exposed in the Zion and Kolob area were deposited in several different environments that range from the warm shallow seas of the Kaibab and Moenkopi formations, streams and lakes of the Chinle, Moenave, and Kayenta formations to the large deserts of the Navajo and Temple Cap formations and dry near shore environments of the Carmel Formation.
  Subsequent uplift of the Colorado Plateau slowly raised these formations much higher than where they were deposited. This steepened the stream gradient of the ancestral rivers and other streams on the plateau. The faster-moving streams took advantage of uplift-created joints in the rocks to remove all Cenozoic-aged formations and cut gorges into the plateaus. Zion Canyon was cut by the North Fork of the Virgin River in this way.
context_section_description: Approximately 190 to 136 million years ago in the Jurassic the Colorado Plateau area's climate increasingly became arid until 150,000 square miles (388,000 km²) of western North America became a huge desert, not unlike the modern Sahara. For perhaps 10 million years sometime around 175 million years ago sand dunes accumulated, reaching their greatest thickness in the Zion Canyon area; about 2,200 feet (670 m) at the Temple of Sinawava (photo) in Zion Canyon.
  Most of the sand, made of 98% translucent, rounded-grain quartz, was transported from coastal sand dunes to the west, in what is now central Nevada. Today the Navajo Sandstone is a geographically widespread, pale tan to red cliff and monolith former with very obvious sand dune cross-bedding patterns (photo). Typically the lower part of this remarkably homogeneous formation is reddish from iron oxide that percolated from the overlaying iron-rich Temple Cap formation while the upper part of the formation is a pale tan to nearly white color. The other component of the Navajo's weak cement matrix is calcium carbonate, but the resulting sandstone is friable (crumbles easily) and very porous.  Cross-bedding is especially evident in the eastern part of the park where Jurassic wind directions changed often. The crosshatched appearance of Checkerboard Mesa is a good example (photo).
  Springs, such as Weeping Rock (photo), form in canyon walls made of the porous Navajo Sandstone when water hits and is channeled by the underlying non-porous Kayenta Formation. The principal aquifer in the region is contained in Navajo Sandstone. Navajo is the most prominent formation exposed in Zion Canyon with the highest exposures being West Temple and Checkerboard Mesa. The monoliths in the sides of Zion Canyon are among the tallest sandstone cliffs in the world.
caption: The reddish colored Navajo Formation in the Kolob Canyons. This part of Zion National Park is accessed by a park road about 20 miles south of Cedar City, Utah off Interstate 15.
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