Needle Rock Natural Area
is located at the western edge of the
West Elk Mountains of
Colorado. The surrounding terrain is characterized by
laccolithic mountains flanked by precipitous cliffs, extensive talus aprons, forested mesas, canyons, and spacious, well-watered intermontane basins.
Needle Rock is an intrusive plug of
monzonite porphyry[Noe, D. C., and Alexander T. Klink. “OF-15-06 Geologic Map of the Crawford Quadrangle, Delta and Montrose Counties, Colorado.” Geologic, 1:24,000. Open File Report. Golden, CO: Colorado Geological Survey, 2015.] cropping out east-northeast (
bearing 68°) of the
Town of Crawford in
Delta County,
Colorado,
United States. At an elevation of ,
[The elevation of Needle Rock includes an adjustment of +1.473 m (+4.83 ft) from NGVD 29 to NAVD 88.] the towering rock spire stands tall above the floor of the
Smith Fork of the
Gunnison River valley. The massive rock feature originated in the
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
geological epoch
The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochronol ...
when
magma intruded between existing
sedimentary rocks as the crown of a buried laccolith
or possibly the underlying conduit of a laccolith.
Subsequent erosion has exposed the prominent rock formation seen in the natural area today.
The Needle Rock Natural Area is managed by the
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...
.
BLM Needle Rock Natural Area Webpage
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See also
* West Elk Mountains
* List of Colorado mountain ranges
* List of Colorado mountain summits
** List of Colorado fourteeners
** List of Colorado 4000 meter prominent summits
** List of the most prominent summits of Colorado
* List of Colorado county high points
References
External linksNeedle Rock Article - summitpost.org
West Elk Mountains
Mountains of Delta County, Colorado
Protected areas of Delta County, Colorado
Mountains of Colorado
North American 2000 m summits
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