![]() NPS photo ~175-170 million years ago
The Temple Cap Formation in Zion consists of sandstone and a layer of mudstone formed by coastal sand dunes and tidal flats during the incursion of a shallow inland sea.
![]() Paleogeographic map courtesy of Ron Blakey, Colorado Plateau Geosystems, Inc. A shallow sea (specifically the Sundance Sea) encroached into the area, leaving in its wake a wide-range of rock types. These range from red mudstones deposited on a tidal flat, to sandstones deposited by small wind-blown, or aeolian, dunes left on sandy beaches, to limestones deposited when the area was briefly under sea level.
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Last updated: June 13, 2015