Portal:Geography/Featured article/June, 2006

Zion National Park is a United States National Park located near Springdale, Utah in the southwestern United States. The principal feature in the 229-square-mile (593 km²) park is Zion Canyon, 15 miles (24 km) long and up to half a mile (800 m) deep, which was cut through the reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone by the North Fork of the Virgin River. Other notable park features include the Great White Throne, Checkerboard Mesa, Kolob Arch, Three Patriarchs, and the Virgin River Narrows. The geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area includes nine formations that together represent 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation. At various periods in that time, warm, shallow seas, streams, ponds and lakes, vast deserts and dry near-shore environments covered the area. Uplift associated with the creation of the Colorado Plateaus lifted the region 10,000 feet (3000 m) starting 13 million years ago. (more...)