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Geological Formation

Bryce Canyon Amphitheater

Hoodoos and Rock Pillars

The Bryce Amphitheater is the largest of several natural amphitheaters carved into the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau within Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, cut into the soft limestone, siltstone and mudstone of the Claron Formation, laid down roughly 50 to 40 million years ago in ancient lakes. The amphitheater is famous for its dense concentration of hoodoos, tall, thin spires of rock left standing after frost wedging and rainwater dissolution eroded away the surrounding softer rock along vertical joints in the plateau's rim; differing mineral content within the layered Claron rock produces the hoodoos' characteristic banding of pink, orange and white. Because the region undergoes more than 200 freeze-thaw cycles a year, the amphitheater's hoodoos continue to be actively shaped, and the rim is estimated to be retreating at roughly a foot every 50 to 65 years, making it one of the fastest-eroding named formations in North America.

Facts
Classification
Protected Status
National Park or Reserve 1
Connections

Associated With

Cenozoic, Eras
Source Wikipedia: Bryce Canyon National Park, Wikipedia
Cretaceous, Eras
Source Wikipedia: Bryce Canyon National Park, Wikipedia
Sandstone, Materials
Source Wikipedia: Bryce Canyon National Park, Wikipedia
Shale, Materials
Source Wikipedia: Bryce Canyon National Park, Wikipedia

Caused By

Erosion, Processes
Source Wikipedia: Bryce Canyon National Park, Wikipedia
Weathering, Processes
Source Wikipedia: Bryce Canyon National Park, Wikipedia

In Discipline

Geomorphology, Disciplines
In the Other Atlases

Found In

United States

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Bryce Canyon National Park, Wikipedia
  • Introduction, first sentence
    is a national park of the United States located in southwestern Utah.
  • Associated With: Cenozoic, Article text, age Cenozoic
    Instead headward erosion excavated large amphitheater-shaped features in the Cenozoic-aged rocks of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.
  • Associated With: Cretaceous, Article text, age Cretaceous
    The Bryce Canyon area experienced soil deposition that spans from the last part of the Cretaceous period and the first half of the Cenozoic era.
  • Associated With: Sandstone, Article text, rock Sandstone
    The ancient depositional environment varied. Dakota Sandstone and Tropic Shale were deposited in the warm, shallow waters of the advancing and retreating Cretaceous Seaway (outcrops of these rocks are found just outside park borders).
  • Associated With: Shale, Article text, rock Shale
    The ancient depositional environment varied. Dakota Sandstone and Tropic Shale were deposited in the warm, shallow waters of the advancing and retreating Cretaceous Seaway (outcrops of these rocks are found just outside park borders).
  • Caused By: Erosion, Article text, process Erosion
    Instead headward erosion excavated large amphitheater-shaped features in the Cenozoic-aged rocks of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.
  • Caused By: Weathering, Article text, process Weathering
    Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos, formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake bed sedimentary rock.
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