Monday, March 4, 2013

Geo 365: March 4, Day 63: Faulty Overhang

The last four photos in this series were taken looking at the fairly flat surface under the overhang visible above. The lighter-colored layer under the hammer's head is probably fine enough to be called sand, but it's marginal; the grain size is verging on lapilli. And, as you can see, just to the right of the hammer, a small fault offsets that layer by a few inches. The reason for that flat area I'd been looking at so closely for a few minutes is likely that it broke off from that small fault. Which, in turn, means that all that overhanging rock is likely to fall off itself, sometime in the not-too-distant future. Now the chances of that happening during the few minutes I was standing there were quite low, but the consequences would have been quite nasty, and easily fatal.

The moral? Pay attention to your surroundings!

Photo unmodified. August 20, 2011. FlashEarth Location.

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