Exploring the Burro Mesa Locale, Part 4: A Columnar Close-up | Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA

Taken along the Burro Spring Trail, in the same locale as that shown in Part 3 of this set.

Plants residing on this slope include Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia spp.) and Lechuguilla (Agave lechuguilla).

In the previous description I surmised that the vertically jointed bedrock in the foreground and middle ground is part of the same Oligocene rhyolite intrusion that makes up the hill that the Burro Spring Trail circles around.

The National Park Service description of this hiking path and locale says that the rhyolite is red, and leaves it at that. But as I recall even positively identified outcrops were at best a rusty-brownish-kind-of-red. As this stone is.

In any case, we have a small but striking example of columnar jointing, a feature found in solidified lavas and near-surface magmas. The cracks between the sections start at the top, where the rock cools and shrinks most quickly, and then gradually propagate downward as the interior temperature decreases as well. The result is a group of stacked and usually polygonally sided columns.

One other point of interest, and a somewhat enigmatic one, is what seems to be a small wall of stacked stone, not at all cairnlike, on the image's right margin a little below center. Could it be just the exposed face of tightly packed colluvium or a landslide deposit?

Personally, I'm going to go with what is obviously the most parsimonious hypothesis: it's the remains of a hitherto unknown, microlithic civilization that learned the art of mortarless masonry from space aliens. Just call me Occam Junior.

To see the other photos and descriptions in this set and my other Big Bend series, visit my my Exploring the Burro Mesa Locale album.

Taken in: United States / Texas / Lunas (show map)

Taken on: March 14, 2002

Tags:

geology

nature

rock

rocks

stone

Texas

Burro Spring Trail

Big Bend National Park

Trans-Pecos Texas

rhyolite

columnar jointing « less

Sets appears in: • Exploring the Burro Mesa Locale | Big Bend National Park, Texas • Mountains & Hills; Mesas & Buttes; Hogbacks, Cuestas, & Flatirons more » • Natural History: Big Bend Region & All of Trans-Pecos Texas • Pillow Lavas & Columnar Jointing • Rock Forms, Rock Formations « less

Camera: MAKER NAME 96660, ISO 50 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	MAKER NAME 96660
ISO:	50
Flash:	Auto, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Metering Mode:	Average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Inpaint
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