At the summit of Turtleback Mt (Castle in the Clouds) you find this rare example of columnar jointing, a rare, sometimes marvelous, creation of columns of solid rock made by lava cooling under rarely-occurring, near-perfect conditions. This web site explains how Devils Post Pile, a similar mountain site and now world-famous for its columnar jointing example, was created - Turtleback's creation would have been similar http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/depo/dpgeol5.html At Turtleback the columns are buried in the ledge and cannot be seen, except for their very tops, and they are imperfect in shape as cooling conditions were not perfect here; further down the south slope of Turtleback are some columns exposed and lying on the ground, in plain view. Google "Devils Post Pile" and you will see a national mounument where near-perfect columnar jointing occurred similar to the less-than-perfect Turtleback Mt example. Turtleback Mt apparently got its name from some turtles whose backs have similar patterns to these.
· Date: Mon July 12, 2010 · Views: 2691 · Filesize:32.0kb, 237.9kb · Dimensions: 1116 x 744 ·
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