Drunk on Geology: Drunk on Geomorphology

The next Drunk on Geology is for the Castle Creek Winery Monument Red out of Moab, UT.

Along with the previous post about the Castle Creek Winery Cabernet Sauvignon, the Monument Red is also from the Castle Creek Winery, a winery that appears to no longer be open. However, the geology on the bottle was way too good to pass up a chance to talk about.

The bottle itself displays several artistic representations of rock structures from the nearby region. The first rock structure on the front of the bottle is from Arches National Park, also in Moab, Utah. This is the iconic Balanced Rock, towards the entrance of the park.

This particular structure is created by more resistant rocks, the Entrada Sandstone, overly softer rocks, the Carmel Formation. The Entrada Sandstone, a Jurassic age (~150 million years old) sandstone, formed from a coastal dune environment and is the most dominant rock formation within Arches National Park. The underlying Carmel Formation is a slightly older, Jurassic age, series of mudstones, siltstones, and sandstones, formed in a tidal flat environment. Having a much higher percentage of mud in the rocks, makes these rocks much softer and therefore easier to erode than the overlying Entrada Sandstone.

The next picture on the bottle actually takes us to Monument Valley Tribal Park, one of the Navajo Nation Tribal Parks, with this particular formation also in Utah.

Here is a view of Monument Valley from the north, looking south. This also happens to be the spot where Forest Gump ran by.

Image from Joseph C. Filer Fine Art Photography, Artist Point, Monument Valley.

The above image perfectly captures the rock formations as used for the artistic rendering on the bottle. These rock formations are known as (from left to right) The Castle, Bear & Rabbit, and the Stagecoach. This view is from the south looking north from Artist Point, looking past the more well known Mittens.

The Utah Geological Survey has a nice mark up (below) of the different rock formations within Monument Valley with the rock units outlined. The rocks associated with the formations within Monument Valley, from youngest to oldest, are the Shinarump, the Moenkopi, the De Chelly Sandstone, and the Organ Rock Shale.

Monument Valley geology. Image courtesy of the UGS.

The Shinarump, is part of the Chinle Formation, a Late Triassic (~225 million years old) yellow-grey river-deposited sandstone and conglomerate.

Below the Shinarump is the Moenkopi formation. The Moenkopi Formation is an Early to Middle Triassic formation (~245 million years old) that is is predominantly made up of the reddish-brown shale. The Moenkopi was deposited within an intertidal environment, with alternating sea levels producing thinly bedded layers of mud (shale) and sand (sandstone).

Below the Shinarump is the De Chelly Sandstone. The De Chelly Sandstone is a Permian age (~200 million years old) aeolian sandstone. Aeolian means that it is formed by blowing wind, in particular sand dunes, or a desert environment. When sand dunes are frozen in time, such as when they become rocks, and eroded you can see features termed cross-bedding. These rock preserve an ancient sand sea desert, known as an erg, that used to be located here. Sandstones are also frequently extremely hard rocks that are resistant to weathering. When they weather, they fracture into regular joints. Those are the vertical line patterns of the rocks as seen in the image above. It is also what produces the shear-walled rock mesas as we know them today.

Below the De Chelly Sandstone, is the more erodible Organ Rock Shale. You can tell it erodes much more easily by the smooth slope that forms from the edge of the overlying sandstone. If the sandstone wasn't there to protect the shale, the shale would have eroded long ago. The Organ Rock Shale is another Permian formation (~270 million years old), that mainly comprised of mudstone (shale) and siltstones. They were deposited by streams within a tidal flat environment. The Organ Rock Shale then underlies much of the surrounding landscape which is then covered over with much, much younger (Quaternary) sediment (known as alluvium) transported in by winds and water from these and other surrounding rock formation.

Text from the bottle:

Created in the heartland of the American Southwest, Monument Red is a tribute to the beauty of this landscape and all those who come to enjoy the open air, big skies, and amazing red cliffs that make the landscape to stunning. Whenever out west come visit our spectacular view of the mighty Colorado River and the Monoliths that surround us.

Elephant Butte in Arches National Park. Image courtesy of Alamy.

The final picture on the bottle here I am uncertain of. I feel like it might be Elephant Butte in Arches National Park (pictured above), but it is different enough that I can't be certain. Elephant Butte, like Balanced Rock above, is also formed from the Entrada Sandstone.

References
https://www.alamy.com/sandsteinformationen-garden-of-eden-elephant-butte-arches-national-park-moab-utah-usa-image259237941.html

https://www.josephfiler.com/photo/utah-monument-valley-artist-point/

https://www.thegeologypage.com/2020/07/geology-of-national-parks-through_27.html

https://geology.utah.gov/nature-up-close-monument-valley/monument-valley-formation-labels-verne-lehmberg-620/

https://www.thegeologypage.com/2021/04/geological-destination-monument-valley.html