Aerial view Castle Butte, Saddleback Mesa, Setting Hen Butte, Eagle Mesa rising brown green valley floor, Monument Valley, Utah

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The Monument Valley region of the Colorado Plateau is characterised by a large number of mesas and buttes, the largest rising 300 metres (1000 feet) above the valley floor, which is itself 5000-6000 feet above sea level. The Monument valley buttes are stratified, as seen here. The reddish brown mudstones and siltstones of the Permian Organ Rock Shale is exposed at the base of the mesas and buttes. Forming massive cliffs above is the Permian DeChelly Sandstone, a fine-grained, quartz-rich sandstone that has a reddish colour due to haematite iron salts coating the sand grains. Thin sandstone and siltstone beds of the Triassic Moenkopi Formation cap the buttes. The northern half of the valley (seen here) lies in Utah.

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Size: 4592px × 2556px
Location: Castle Butte, northern end Monument Valley, Utah, USA
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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