Brittle deformation and hoodoo development in Bryce Canyon National Park

Abstract:

Bryce Canyon is a dramatic southeast-facing escarpment located in the transition zone between the Basin and Range Province and the Colorado Plateau. Stream erosion of the Paleocene-to-Eocene Claron Formation generates vast amphitheaters and alcoves replete with elaborate fins, windowed walls, and hoodoos from Fairyland to Bryce Point. Geomorphic models of hoodoo development describe the influence of differential weathering and ice wedging along systematic vertical fractures formed during uplift of the Colorado Plateau. Conjugate shear fractures in the footwall of the south-vergent Rubys Inn thrust fault may provide additional preexisting weaknesses intersecting the predominantly flat-lying strata. During a summer 2015 GeoCorps^TM America internship, we investigated the contribution of joint sets to focused erosion of exposed fins and hoodoo development in Bryce Canyon National Park. Our field mapping documents the nature and spatial distribution of known fractures as well as a previously undocumented third generation characterized by steeply-dipping conjugates and zones of distributed deformation. Evidence for normal reactivation of contractional structures in the Sevier River drainage (MacLean, 2014) suggests that distributed deformation evolved during Basin and Range extension, possibly associated with the nearby Paunsaugunt fault. Cross-cutting relations among fracture sets suggest modest uplift and vertical jointing prior to collapse of the Marysvale volcanic complex (~22-20 Ma) and more recent Basin and Range extension. Spatial trends in fracture density illustrate a systematic increase in vertical, shear fractures, and reactivated zones to the north, proximal to thrust faulting. The increase in fracture density leads to accelerated weathering and erosion, with a corresponding increase in windows, hoodoos, and gentle slopes. While erosional windows commonly develop along vertical fractures intersecting relatively weak lithologies, approximately 60% of the 130 windows also coincide with shear fractures or reactivated zones. South of Bryce Point, high vertical cliffs record the response of relatively competent limestone-rich facies to increased fracture spacing distal from the Rubys Inn thrust.