Hoodoo (geology)

As Hoodoo rock columns are named from sandstone in the western United States that have formed by wind. They were created within the last 40 to 60 million years before concentrating on the high plateaus of the Colorado area and the Northern Great Plains. Some of the famous hoodoos are in Bryce Canyon National Park.

Generally, hoodoos tall, narrow spiers, which occur mainly in arid and semi-arid climates. You can reach heights of 1.5mm up to 45 meters. Unlike other pinnacles hoodoos have a wind- shaped " profile ", which comes through different thicknesses at different heights about. Thus they get the shape of a totem pole. The basis of this appearance, the different hard sediment layers, which also give the hoodoos by embedded minerals different colors. Important are still hard rock strata in the upper part, which largely protects the pinnacles by erosion from above.

Formation

The basis for the Hoodoos sedimentary limestones, which are characterized by different hard sediment layers. These deposits originate in the case of Bryce Canyon National Park from a large lake that covered a large part of western Utah some 40 million years ago. The formation is called the Claron Formation, the non-existent lake as " Lake Claron ".

The emergence of the crags of this sedimentary rock is caused by frost, water and wind erosion. By about 200 freeze-thaw cycles in the rock is brittle and so provides targets for the wind ( corrasion ), which removes crumbling stones. Then there is the little rain that is slightly acidic due to carbon dioxide absorption from the air and contributes to the resolution of limestones. Thus, the partially rounded profiles form from. In the areas where harder rocks or minerals are embedded in the limestone, erosion is less strong, especially through the water. Thus, many of the durable hoodoos of a magnesium-rich limestone or dolomite. The major part of the dissolved and broken rock is eroded by monsoon rains in the summer.

According to recent calculations, the erosion caused an erosion of up to 1.3 meters every 100 years. The most famous hoodoos in Bryce Canyon are "Thor 's Hammer ", "The Hunter " and " Queen Victoria".