- Needle Rock
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Needle Rock Colorado Elevation 800 feet (244 m) Location Location Crawford, Colorado, USA Range West Elk Mountains, San Juan Mountains Coordinates 38°43′28″N 107°32′59″W / 38.724446°N 107.54972°WCoordinates: 38°43′28″N 107°32′59″W / 38.724446°N 107.54972°W Topo map USGS Needle Rock Geology Type Composite volcano Age of rock c.a. 28 Ma Climbing Easiest route rock Needle Rock is an intrusive of rhyodacite volcanic plug[1] located at the west border of the Gunnison National Forest, in the Needle Rock Natural Area near Crawford in the U.S. state of Colorado. It stands 800 feet (240 m) tall above the floor of the Smith Fork of the Gunnison River valley. It originated as the throat of a large volcano about 28 million years ago in the Miocene geological epoch, when molten rock intruded between existing sedimentary rocks.[2] The plug may represent the eroded conduit of a laccolith.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b "MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE WEST ELK WILDERNESS and vicinity, Delta and Gunnison Counties, Colorado: Open-file report 77-751" (PDF). DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR: UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 1977. pp. 16, 85, 98. http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1977/0751/report.pdf.
- ^ "America's Volcanic Past: Colorado". Vancouver, Washington: USGS: Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO). http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/VolcanicPast/Places/volcanic_past_colorado.html.
Categories:- Canyons and gorges of Colorado
- Geography of Delta County, Colorado
- Mountains of Colorado
- Protected areas of Delta County, Colorado
- Colorado geography stubs
- Colorado protected area stubs
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