Green River, Canyonlands, UT

Russ spoke with French tourists.

In one explanation, researchers believe this is a salt dome.  Some geologists trace the origin of Upheaval Dome to the impact of huge meteorite.  But others see evidence of a more gradual development, controlled by forces below the ground.  Beneath Upheaval Dome lies a massive body of salt which evaporated form ancient seas.  Over the salt were laid hundred of feed of sediments which later formed the rock layers of this area.  According to the salt dome theory, the buried salt, which is plastic under pressure, flowed upward here, pushing up the overlying rocks to form a dome.  Erosional forces then stripped away the top of the dome, exposing the deformed layers we see today.

A more recent theory proposes that a huge meteor streaking through space at many times the speed of sound pierced the earth's atmosphere directly above this point.  It may have been debris from a comet--a chunk of dirty ice 1/3-mile in diameter, its exterior set ablaze by the friction of the earth's atmosphere.