Sedimentary Rock Short Paper

Brittany DelaCruz

9/18/2019

PHY 205

The Great Basin National Park

Historical impact of sedimentary rocks

The Great Basin National park can trace its beginnings to around 550 million years ago.

The park is made up of a diversified mix of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rock. This

was not always the case. The entire area used to be a continental shelf that sloped downwards to

the west. Sand, silt, and clay deposits lithified into giant deposits of shale, argillite, and sandstone.

Limestone did not start to form until the Cambrian period when sea creatures were abundant.

Enormous amounts of limestone were created at this time. The Pogonip Group exposed in the

Snake Range is primarily made up of this limestone and is 530-730 m thick. It is these processes

that built the foundations of the Great Basin National Park (National, 2014).

Tectonic movements in the area are the source of all the changes that have occurred since

then. The tectonic plates move toward and away from each other in an eternal game of tug of war.

A cycle begins to become evident in the history of the rocks. Sea level drops as the rocks are

uplifted and pushed together. They begin to buckle and fold under extreme pressure and heat. Our

sedimentary rocks are undergoing metamorphism. Sandstone turns into quartzite, shale into slate,

and limestone into marble. As the cycle begins again the tectonic plates pull away from each other

causing the rocks to stretch and thin. The fault lines create valleys between the peaks and sea levels
rise again. It is estimated that the park went through 4 to 5 mountain building events. The photo

below illustrates the cycle of sea level rise and fall as a result of plate tectonics (National, 2014).

Photo Source:

(National, 2014)

When the limestone was uplifted by tectonic movements it kickstarted the formation of

karst topography. This is the creation of caves. The rise and fall of the water table combined with

acids present in rainfall are responsible for carving out huge sections of limestone and marble. The

results are shockingly beautiful and complicated cave formations. The geologic formations that

we see today are a direct result of the sedimentary foundation of the park that began 550 million

years ago (National, 2014).

Location of sedimentary rocks

To the right is a geologic map of the Great Basin

National Park provided by the National Park Service. It

shows the major formations and rock types that are found in

the park. The yellow is alluvium left behind by glacial

processes. The grays are quartzite and the greens are granite.

If you focus on the lower half of the map you will see that

this is the area, we are interested in. It is dominated by

purples, pinks, and blues. The majority of these colors are

limestones, dolostones, and shales. Although there are some

Photo Source: (Miller, 2007)
metamorphic rocks mixed in, they are not very abundant. The location of these formations are the

direct result of the push and pull of the tectonic plates over time (National, 2014).

Economic value

Sedimentary rocks make up the majority of the rocks we see on the surface of the Earth

(Tarbuck). Not only are they beautiful to look at, they also have incredible economic value as well.

The industrial use of sedimentary rock is mostly limestone but can include any rock that is

“composed mostly of calcium carbonate (CaCO3)” (Bliss, 2008). The most common use of

industrial limestone is Portland cement. The value of industrial limestone was estimated at more

than $25 billion dollars in 2007 (Bliss, 2008). Portland cement isn’t the only thing we use limestone

for. Marbles and travertine are used for decorative building. They can be used for countertops,

statues, flooring, and roofing. Other uses include but are not limited to treating soils, smelting

copper, breakfast cereals, purifying water, paint, and paper (Bliss, 2008).

In the Great Basin National Park alone, there have been 291 mining claims. Only one

remains active today (The Diggins, 2019). Although the need for limestone is apparent and

deposits of limestone are abundant in the U.S., there seems to be occasional shortages that cost the

American people a lot of time and money. Limestone is mined in quarries and there is a decade of

red tape to go through before investors can open any new ones. Communities are inherently against

them because of environmental hazards, dust, and noise. There are also competing uses for the

land, like housing developments and parks (Bliss, 2008). Limestone has great economic potential

and it doesn’t look like humans will slow their use of it any time soon.
References

Bliss, J., Hayes, T., & Orris, G. (2008). Limestone: The Calcium Carbonate Chemical

Sedimentary Rock. Retrieved from https://geology.com/usgs/limestone/

Miller, E.L, and the Stanford Geological Survey. 2007 (mapping 1993-1997). Geologic Map of

Great Basin National Park and Environs, Southern Snake Range, Nevada (1:24,000 scale).

Stanford Geological Survey.

National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior. (2014). Great Basin National Park.

Retrieved from http://npshistory.com/publications/grba/nrr-2014-762.pdf

Tarbuck, E. J., Lutgens, F. K., Tasa, D. G. Earth. [MBS Direct]. Retrieved from

https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780134286389/

The Diggins. (2019). The United States Active Mining Claims. Retrieved from

https://thediggings.com/lands/npsl-134/claims?disposition=a