The Backbone of America
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
Above Utah (I think). I’ve seen this view before and it never ceases to amaze me. I can’t tell if it’s an escarpment or the remains of a glacier that left a backbone-like debris trail behind when it receded. Whatever it is, it sure looks like vertebrae and given that it runs north-south and is in the approximate middle of the United States, I’d say it qualifies.
As far as I can judge from the photo these are layers of harder rock that are at an angle. Some of the layers are softer and have been eroded away. Your backbone clearly is not as hard as the higher escarpements around it, but slightly hard then the other parts of the valley. Glaciers would not leave these kind of traces.
David: sounds about right given that the matrix could be soft rock and the bumps harder, erosion seems like the process. If I only had a GPS active when I took this…