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jfk-lax045.JPG

jfk-lax045.JPG by dsearls.
At the top edge is Valley of the Gods, with Cedar Point overlooking the west end of Goosenecks, the gray canyon formed by the San Juan River which cuts through Comb Ridge in the middle right. At the bottom is the spectacularly colorful Cane Valley. Geologically, what we see here is white and red sandstones of Permian through Triassic and Jurasic age, overlaying gray Pennsylvanian sandstone best exposed by uplift in Goosenecks State Park — all roughly 150 to 300 million years old. The town of Mexican Hat is just left of the center of the picture, taken from about 41,000 feet up. One fascinating piece of this colorful puzzle is what appears to be a volcanic dike cutting across the sedimentary suite of rocks on the floor of Cane Valley, Utah. I learn from here and here and here that this is Moses Rock Dike, which is believed (at the second link) to be "a Tertiary diatreme containing serpentinized ultramafic microbreccia (SUM) located on the Colorado Plateau in Utah. Field evidence indicates that SUM was emplaced first followed by breccias derived from the Permian strata exposed in the walls of the diatreme and finally by complex breccias con- taining basement and mantle-derived rocks. SUM is primarily found dispersed throughout the matrix of the diatreme." Geotech.org defines a diatreme as "A volcanic vent filled with breccia by the explosive escape of gases." These are sometimes cone-shaped, and that appears to be the case here, where one section of the cone is exposed. The country rock it disrupted, all from the Permian Cutler Formation, is labeled in the notes on this "close-up"

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Ctd 2005  Pro User  says:

Good one Doc..
Posted 44 months ago. ( permalink )

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allr1 Taking time off for the Holidays. P&L  Pro User  says:

I bet that you love Google Earth. ME too, and this is
so fun to look at your photos. Love your work.
Posted 25 months ago. ( permalink )

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view photos Uploaded on May 23, 2006
by dsearls

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JFK-LAX 18 May 2006 (Set)

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