Overheard a park ranger in Moab say the red rock isn't actually red

I was hiking near the Delicate Arch viewpoint last weekend and caught a ranger talking to a group. She said the famous red color is just a thin coating of iron oxide, like rust, on the surface of the sandstone. The rock underneath is mostly a pale tan or white. I mean, I always just thought the whole rock was red through and through. It kind of blew my mind a little. Has anyone else had a moment where a simple fact totally changed how you looked at a landscape?

2 comments

2 Comments

wyatt_green18d agoMost Upvoted

Man, that reminds me of finding out most sand is just tiny bits of quartz. It's basically all the same clear stuff, just stained different colors by other junk. Makes a beach feel less special somehow.

nora1018d ago

Read a geology blog that explained how the color in places like the Painted Desert is basically just a sunburn. The deep rock is a dull grey, but the surface gets baked and the minerals rust. It made me look at all those striped cliffs differently, like they're not solid color but more like a paint job that chips off. Saw a fresh rockfall in a canyon once and the broken pieces inside were a totally different, lighter color than the outside. Felt like seeing behind the scenery.