[meteorite-list] "The Wave, " A Sight To see While in Arizona

From: Paul H. <oxytropidoceras_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 7 Jan 2012 10:47:05 -0600
Message-ID: <20120107114705.1EOCV.273278.imail_at_eastrmwml214>

For meteorite collectors going to Tucson, Arizona, a very
popular and beautiful rock formation to visit in northeast
Arizona is the "The Wave" (rock formation). This rock
formation consists of an outcrop of deeply eroded,
large-scale, eolian cross-beds in the Navajo Sandstone
in the Paria Canyon- Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness, in
Coconino County, Arizona. It is so popular that there is
a daily online and onsite lottery that held to determine,
who can visit it on any specific day. A popular article
about it is:

Arizona's Wave rock formation a stone-cold stunner
by Hugo Mart?n, Times, November 20, 2007,
http://www.venturacountytrails.org/News/0182-TheWaveVermilionCliffs/NewsPage.htm

More Photographs of "The Wave"
1. http://www.zionnational-park.com/images/album2/index59.htm
2. http://www.zionnational-park.com/images/album2/index4.htm
and 3.
http://www.venturacountytrails.org/News/0182-TheWaveVermilionCliffs/photos/_Page\
.html

Details about it are found in:
1. http://www.zionnational-park.com/coyote-buttes-paria.htm
and 2. http://www.zionnational-park.com/map-paria-canyon.htm

The geology of "The Wave" is discussed in:

Seiler, W. M., 2008, Jurassic Navajo sandstone of Coyote
Buttes, Utah/Arizona : coloration and diagenetic history,
preservation of a dinosaur trample surface, and terrestrial
analogs to Mars. Unpublished M.S. thesis, Dept. of
Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake
City, Utah.

The 67 MB PDF file is available from
http://content.lib.utah.edu/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/us-etd2&CISOPTR=10965\7&CISOMODE=print

On pages 65 - 66, it states;

"Geomorphically, the Wave marks the convergence of two
wind-scoured troughs (Loope et al., 2008; Figure 2.14A).
The N-S oriented feature is approximately 96 m in 66
length---the wider, U-shaped trough is 19 m wide by 36 m
long. The narrower trough measures 16 m in length by
~2 m in width (Loope et al., 2008). These troughs expose
large foresets of rhythmic and cyclic alternating grainflow
and windripple laminae reflecting Jurassic paleoclimate
conditions (Chan and Archer, 2000; Loope et al., 2001;
Figure 2.14F). The troughs expose a 10.2 m thick eolian
set with a mean cyclic foreset thickness of 0.78 m. Well
defined, m to sub-m scale, downward plunging soft
sediment deformation on the southern flanks of the Wave
may represent fluid escape structures, however, the size,
spacing, and presence of dinosaur footprints in the area,
suggest that these soft sediment deformation features
may be vertebrate in origin (Figure 2.14E).

The geology of "The Wave" is also discussed by;

Loope, D. B., W. M. Seiler, J. A. Mason, and M. A.
Chan, 2008, Wind scour of Navajo Sandstone at the Wave
(central Colorado Plateau, U.S.A.) Journal of Geology.
vol. 116, pp. 173-183.

Link to PDF file at;
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/geosciencefacpub/215/

The 1.4 MB PDF file is available from;
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1216&context=geoscienc\efacpub

The geology of the area is discussed in detail in

Caputo, M. V., 2003, Geology of the Paria Canyon-
Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Utah and Arizona. in
D.A. Sprinkel, T.C. Chidsey Jr., and P.B. Anderson,
eds., Geology of Utah's Parks and Monuments. Utah
Geological Association, Salt Lake City, Utah

Table of Contents at http://www.utahgeology.org/uga28-2Titles.htm

and by

Bryant,G., and A. Miall, 2010, Diverse products
of near-surface sediment mobilization in an
ancient eolianite: outcrop features of the early
Jurassic Navajo Sandstone. Basin Research.
vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 578-590.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2117.2010.00483.x/abstract

There are also some dinosaur tracks reported from
having been found nearby as discussed in:

Seiler, W. M., and M. A. Chan, 2007, A Wet
Interdune Dinosaur Trampled Surface in the
Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, Coyote Buttes,
Arizona: Rare Preservation of Multiple Track
Types and Tail Traces. PALAIOS. vol. 23,
no. 10, pp. 700-710.
http://palaios.sepmonline.org/content/23/10/700.short

and "Telling a dinosaur footprint from a hole in the
ground" by Chris Rowan at:
http://all-geo.org/highlyallochthonous/2008/10/telling-a-dinosaur-footprint-from-a-hole-in-the-ground/

Best wishes,

Paul H.
Received on Sat 07 Jan 2012 11:47:05 AM PST