Thursday, January 31, 2013

Ship Rock






Ship Rock is located in New Mexico. The main part is a volcanic neck that remained after the rest of the volcano eroded away. The radial lines are dikes that fed magma to the volcano. Ship Rock is nearly 1,400 feet (470 m) high, and the dikes form large walls across the desert.

Ship Rock New Mexico, United States One of America's most spectacular and famous landforms, Ship Rock is a volcanic neck with dikes radiating from it. The ancient volcanic cone that once surrounded Ship Rock has been removed by erosion. The dikes acted as feeders and probably fed flank eruptions. Ship Rock is part of the Navajo Volcanic Field, which lies in the Four Corners area (intersection of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico) covering about 7,810 squares miles (20,000 km2). The igneous bodies have an unusual composition and occur as either diatremes (kimberlites) or tuff pipes. The activity occurred from about 30 to 25 million years ago, and erosion has proceeded ever since.

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