Shiprock
Appearance
Shiprock | |
---|---|
![]() Shiprock | |
Highest point | |
Elevation | 7,177 ft (2,188 m) |
Prominence | 1,583 ft (482 m) |
Geology | |
Age of rock | 27 million years |
Mountain type | Volcanic breccia and minette |
Climbing | |
First ascent | 1939 by David Brower, Raffi Bedayn, Bestor Robinson and John Dyer[1][2] |
Shiprock is the remains of an extinct volcano in the U.S. state of New Mexico.
Shiprock is composed of fractured volcanic breccia and black dikes of igneous rock. It is the erosional remnant of the throat of a volcano. The exposed rock was probably formed 2,500–3000 feet (750–1,000 meters) below the Earth's surface, but exposed after millions of years of erosion.
Radiometric dating of the rock shows that the volcanic rocks solidified about 27 million years ago. Shiprock is in the northeastern part of the Navajo Volcanic Field. El Capitan in Monument Valley is another prominent volcanic neck in this field.[3][4]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Audrey Salkeld 1998. World mountaineering. Bulfinch.
- ↑ Herbert E. Ungnade 1965. Guide to the New Mexico Mountains. Sage Books, pp. 170–172.
- ↑ Steven C. Semken 2001. The Navajo Volcanic Field, in Volcanology in New Mexico, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 18, p. 79–83. ISSN 1524-4156
- ↑ Paul T. Delaney 1987. Ship Rock, New Mexico: The vent of a violent volcanic eruption. Geological Society of America Centennial Field Guide—Rocky Mountain Section, pp. 411–415.