Existing comment:
The Amazing Balanced Rock:
Around 300 million years ago, the Ancestral Rockies once stood here. Over time, the forces of wind and water eroded the magnificent peaks into swift streams of sediments. These sediments were eventually pressed and cemented into solid rock. The new rocks took the form of:
* Sands full of iron oxide created red sandstone rock,
* Muds forming softer, more delicate shales, and
* A mixture of sand and pebbles called conglomerate.
Balanced Rock was exposed more than 60 million years ago when the existing Rocky Mountains rose. To make its current shape, the soft, bottom layer of shale eroded much faster than the harder sandstone and conglomerate above. Amazingly, the narrow pedestal supporting Balanced Rock has held the 700-ton weight for thousands of years. |