| This view shows a rock pinnacle named Balanced Rock located in Fruita Canyon about a mile from the park entrance. This view shows the gentle dip of the strata. Colorado National Monument encompasses part of a great fold in the Earth's crust called a monocline (see right). A monocline typically forms where solid, dense rock, like granite, is broken by a normal fault at depth. However, younger overlying sedimentary rocks, like shale, will bend and fold rather than break. The Mesozoic age sedimentary rocks exposed at Colorado National Monument display a monoclinal fold. However, erosion has cut through the sedimentary cover and has locally exposed both the granite basement rock and a fault responsible for the monocline (Scott and others, 2001). |
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