Colorado Plateau
The Colorado Plateau [ ˌkɒləˈɹɑːdoʊ plæˈtoʊ ] ( Colorado Plateau ) is a region west of the Rocky Mountains in the southwestern United States , which consists of several plateaus . The area extends over southeast Utah , northern Arizona, and parts of New Mexico and Colorado . With an area of 337,000 km², the Colorado Plateau is almost as large as Germany. It is drained by the Colorado River and its tributaries and hence gets its name.
The area of the Colorado Plateau includes the Markagunt Plateau , on the western edge of which is the Cedar Breaks National Monument , to the east, the Paunsaugunt Plateau , on the eastern edge of which is the Bryce Canyon National Park and again to the east of it the Aquarius Plateau , also the Kaibab Plateau north and the Coconino Plateau south of the Grand Canyon .
The Colorado Plateau, which is shaped like a shallow bowl with faults , canyons , table mountains , arches and pillars, averages 1,500 meters above sea level.
geology
The rock of the Colorado Plateau is built up in layers. The oldest layers emerge in the inner canyon of the Grand Canyon , about 730 m above sea level. They are 600 to over 2000 million years old and date from the Precambrian period .
During this time, a basin was created in the area of today's Colorado Plateau, which began to fill with erosion deposits. Later the basin filled with water and a sea was created. Due to tectonic plate shifts led to formation of mountains with fractures, dislocations and cracks and folds. The result of such a folding can be seen today in the Capitol Reef National Park .
Over time, the old basin rose a good 1,000 meters to today's plateau, while at the same time the Colorado River , the Green River and other rivers drove canyons into the rock. Because of the hardness of the rock in different layers, the erosion progressed differently. In some places unusual formations emerged, for example the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon or the stone arches in Arches National Park .
The geological history of the region can at the Grand Staircase ( Grand Stair be studied). In this extensive layered landscape , layers of rock from different geological ages have been exposed as a result of the elevation of the Colorado Plateau and the resulting increased weathering and erosion . In the area of the Zion Canyon these are 65 to 220 million year old layers of the Mesozoic Era , that is, from the time of the dinosaurs . In the highest part of the Grand Staircase , into which the Bryce Canyon is cut, at over 3000 m , are the youngest rocks that were deposited in the early modern earth era (" Tertiary ").
Several volcanic fields in the area are of more recent origin . These include the San Francisco Volcanic Field and the associated Sunset Crater near Flagstaff in Northern Arizona and the Navajo Volcanic Field in the center of the Colorado Plateau, near Four Corners .
Also of importance is the approximately 50,000 year old Barringer Crater , which was recognized by Eugene Shoemaker in 1960 as the first crater on earth as a trace of a meteorite impact .
climate
The Colorado Plateau is geographically assigned to the Great Basin between the mountains of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada . The area is generally a desert because the annual mean evaporation is higher than the amount of precipitation . Due to the great differences in altitude and the fissures caused by the many canyons and table mountains, the climate is locally very different.
National parks
There are eight US national parks and other protected areas in the Colorado Plateau region , for example:
More places
The following places are located in the Colorado Plateau:
