The Story in the Rocks How Rainbow Bridge Came to Be

• Published in: Rainbow Bridge p. 11
• Main Author: Hassell, Hank
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United States Utah State University Press 01.04.2001; University Press of Colorado
• Subjects: Alluvial landforms; Alluvial plains; Bedforms; Canyons; Clastic sedimentary rocks; Dunes; Earth sciences; Erosional landforms; Floodplains; Flow structures; Fluvial landforms; Geochronology; Geography; Geologic time scale; Geology; Geomorphology; Highlands; History of the Americas; Landforms; Mesozoic era; Mud; Mudrocks; NATURAL HISTORY, COUNTRY LIFE & PETS; Petrology; Physical sciences; Plateaus; REFERENCE, INFORMATION AND INTERDISCIPLINARY SUBJECTS; Rocks; Sandstones; Sedimentary petrology; Sedimentary rocks; Sedimentary structures; Sediments; Shales; Tectonic landforms; Topography; Triassic period
• DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt46nwq7.8
• ISBN: 0874212669; 9780874212662

At the dawn of the Triassic period, approxi mately 225 million years ago,* the region we know as the Colorado Plateau was markedly different in appearance from the way we see it today. The vast oceans, which covered the whole region during the middle Permian era, had finally retreated off to the south and west, and so most of what is today southern Utah and northern Arizona was at last above the sea level. For the next 50 million years the region would remain as part of a large prehistoric continent, receiving in this period the rich and colorful sandstones