Mesa Verde Park - Essat - Essay Example

Mesa Verde is very important to the structure of the alcoves where the cliff dwells also providing a spectacular and significant preservation of the parks architecture. The alcoves are formed in specific ways that make them appear large with arched depressions, which can be observed in cliff walls (Hopkins and Hopkins 157). There are differences between the alcoves and the cave, with the caves having underground chambers that are not popular in mesa Verde while the alcoves are formed after the water that is seeped into the cracks, freezes leading thawing later on, expansion, eventually pushing the rocks to fall apart.

Some portions of the rocks drop in blocks, forming very attractive alcoves in Mesa Verde Park. Formation of alcoves is highly assisted by water that is soaked up and penetrates through stomas in the sand stone. The water, which finally reaches a layer of shale, with less absorbent power than the sandstones making it impossible for the water to pass through it with ease but gravity guides it to the face cliff. The cliff face provides unremitting source of water for the people who live along the alcoves as well as the undying beauty of the same to the tourists who vat the place.

Excessive calcium carbonate in the area is dissolved by the constant water that flows through the area ensuring that the sandstones are held together at all times (Chronic and Chronic 97). However, the continuous process eventually leads to the sandstone falling apart to single grains of sand which are blow away by the wind or washed away through rainstorms. The silt collected during the process has been used for various reasons one of them is to make mortar mix. Alcove formation is a continuous process that is still taking place up to today the reason why stabilization process in very significant for Mesa Verde preservation.

Deep canyons and other attractive scenes are what make Mesa Verde one of the most beautiful plateaus in the world. The landscape was constantly swamped by the seas, submerged below the water, crossed by powerful rivers and scorched by windblown dunes (Hopkins and Hopkins 170). The above process led to formation of sediment layers, which have very conspicuous strata observed in Mesa Verde Park canyons. As rocks repeatedly eroded, uplifted, folded and faulted by the boiling magma, the buried explosives led to eruption of the volcanoes leading to geologic formation of sediment rocks.

The erosion of some highlands led to stripping of overlying sedimentary layers exposing the basement core of the rocks pushing everything out of range. Taken together, all the sedimentary rocks in Mesa Verde Park are still stuck together in a uniformed manner that makes them attractive for a period of time. Though there are sufficient numbers of layers that have eroded away over the years or have been deposited in local areas, the sedimentary rocks making the geology of the place admirable can still be observed from bottom t top without much critic.

About 10 million years ago, the rate of uplift and