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Valley of the Gods marks the southeast margin of the topographic Cedar Mesa. The Permian Cedar Mesa Sandstone is resistant and forms a caprock for the mesas and buttes in Valley of the Gods. Underneath, is the slope-forming Permian Halgaito Shale. The USGS maps the flat valley floor as Penn/Perm Rico Fm, it's not obvious out there, because of the red soil and small ledges such as can be see in the lower right of this photo. The Rico Fm (renamed several times) is a resistant limestone and does explain the vast, flat valley floor to Valley of the Gods. The buttes in Valley of the Gods look smiliar to those in nearby Monument Valley with a thick layer of sandstone overlying a thick layer of slope-forming shale. However, this the rocks here are lower in the section that at Monument Valley. Just as the resistant Rico Fm limestone forms the broad valley floor here, the Cedar Mesa Ss forms the broad valley floor at Monument Valley. Click HERE for a larger view of the image |
