Mesa Arch — An Arch at the Edge of a Cliff System
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Transcript
Mesa Arch is a relatively small opening compared with the vast landscape visible through it, which is why photographs can make the arch feel like a frame deliberately placed for the view. Its formation is less theatrical. Fractures, weathering and erosion exploited weaknesses in sandstone until an opening remained. The arch sits near the mesa edge, where cliff retreat exposes rock to repeated freeze-thaw cycles, water and gravity. Canyonlands is full of erosion, but erosion does not produce the same landform everywhere. Here it leaves a thin bridge of stone; elsewhere it carves canyons, spires or alcoves. The arch is useful because it turns a huge geologic process into something you can see at human scale.