Geology of the National Parks Through Pictures - Wupatki National Monument

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You can find more Geology of the National Parks Through Pictures as well as my Geological State Symbols Across America series at my website Dinojim.com.

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Wupatki National Monument

The obligatory entrance sign. The park is located on the edge of the San Francisco Volcanic field and the Painted Desert. This means that ancient people within the area likely had to contend with volcanic eruptions, as seen at the nearby Sunset Crater mentioned previously, as well as the arid desert environment.

Here is a distant view of the Wupatki pueblo. Although mostly an archaeological park, there is tons of geology to be seen from all of the rock formations to the desert climate itself. The pueblos are built on top of and out of the Moenkopi Formation. These are sandstones, siltstones, and shales from a Triassic tidal environment (~240 million years old). This means that it was pretty close to the shoreline but also contained floodplain deposits.

Here is a closer view of the Wupatki Pueblo. The rocks in the Moenkopi have a high iron oxide content giving them a strong brown and red color to them.

Here is another of the pueblos, the Citadel Pueblo.

Closer, a little more abstract view of the Citadel Pueblo.

Close up view of the Moenkopi bricks.