Aerial view, looking south to El Capitan Rock, arid landscape stratified rocks Oljato Mesa, Monument Valley, Utah, USA

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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. El Capitan Rock (also known as Algarth Peak) in the background of the view, is an eroded volcanic plug.

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Size: 4472px × 2211px
Location: Oljato Mesa, looking south to Agathla Peak (El Capitan Rock), Monument Valley, Utah, USA
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: aerial, algarth, america, american, arid, buttes, capitan, cliffs, colorado, desert, el, erosion, erosional, floor, geography, geology, geomorphology, landforms, landscape, mesa, mesas, monument, oljato, panorama, peak, plateau, plug, rock, rocks, semi-arid, strata, stratified, usa, utah, valley, view, volcanic, west