Local geology:
A Physiographic Region is a region of which all parts are similar in geologic structure and climate and which has consequently had a unified geomorphic history; a region whose patterns of relief features or landforms differs significantly from that of adjacent regions. This area is part of The High Plains which are a sub-region of the Great Plains mostly in the Western United States. Due to low moisture and high elevation, the High Plains commonly experiences wide ranges and extremes in temperature. The region is known for the steady, and sometimes intense, winds that prevail from the west. The winds add a considerable wind chill factor in the winter.
This Escarpment stretches for a little over 26 miles from Colorado into New Mexico and then the pan handle of Oklahoma.
Escarpment:
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from faulting and resulting erosion and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations. Usually escarpment is used interchangeably with scarp. But some sources differentiate the two terms, where escarpment refers to the margin between two landforms, while scarp is synonymous with a cliff or steep slope. The surface of the steep slope is called a scarp face. Scarps are generally formed by one of two processes: either by differential erosion of sedimentary rocks, or by vertical movement of the Earth's crust along a geologic fault. Most commonly, an escarpment is a transition from one series of sedimentary rocks to another series of a different age and composition.
Escarpments are also frequently formed by faults. When a fault displaces the ground surface so that one side is higher than the other, a fault scarp is created. This can occur in dip-slip faults, or when a strike-slip fault brings a piece of high ground adjacent to an area of lower ground. (Easterbrook)
Erosion
Erosion is the process by which soil and rock are removed from the Earth's surface by natural processes such as wind or water flow, and then transported and deposited in other locations. In this particular area at GZ, Water has caused most of the Erosion here.
Types of Erosion:
Splash Erosion: Small soil particles are detached and sent airborne through the impact of raindrops on soil.
Sheet Erosion: Raindrops break apart the soil structure and it's moved down-slope by water that flows overland as a sheet rather than definitive channels. This occurs frequently during cloud bursts.
Rill Erosion: This process develops small, short-lived, concentrated flow paths. These paths create a sediment source and delivery system for hill-slope erosion. Areas where precipitation rates exceed soil infiltration rates are more prone to this type of erosion.
Gully Erosion: Water flows in narrow channels during or directly following heavy rains or melting snow. The gullies can erode to considerable depths.
Valley or Stream Erosion: Continual water flow alongside land (along a linear feature) creates this type of erosion. It extends downward, deepening a valley, and head-ward, extending the valley into the hillside. This occurs most frequently in times of flooding.
Bank Erosion: Over time, banks of rivers and streams are naturally worn down.
Freezing and thawing: Cold weather causes water trapped in tiny rock cracks to freeze and expand, breaking the rock into several pieces.
Wind erosion is a major geomorphological force, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Wind erosion is of two primary varieties: deflation, where the wind picks up and carries away loose particles; and abrasion, where surfaces are worn down as they are struck by airborne particles carried by wind.
Mass movement is the downward and outward movement of rock and sediments on a sloped surface, mainly due to the force of gravity. Mass movement is an important part of the erosional process, and is often the first stage in the breakdown and transport of weathered materials in mountainous areas. It moves material from higher elevations to lower elevations where other eroding agents such as streams and glaciers can then pick up the material and move it to even lower elevations. Mass-movement processes are always occurring continuously on all slopes; some mass-movement processes act very slowly; others occur very suddenly, often with disastrous results.
Source: (water)
Sources
**Logging requirements**
DO NOT POST ANSWERS IN YOUR LOG.
Send the following answers to me via email.
- The text "GC5F9G3 Escarpment or Scarp?" on the first line
As you drive between here and the next waypoint note the following
- What Two primarily dominate but totally different colors are in the rock wall?
- What does the wall look like? (A = Almost straight dropping cliff, B= Gentle sloping with lots of gullies and rill erosion, C = Clear lines of sedentary strata rock.)
- What is the elevation at waypoint “end”?
- What is the primary erosion of the valley floor?
- What two types of erosion are occurring along the wall?
- Is this an “Escarpment” or “scarp”?
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