Grand+Mesa 2B

The Grand Mesa By:Tabitha Rink,Kenton Teske,Devon Kloehn

Introduction to the grand mesa The grand mesa is located in Grand Junction. The mesa is exactly 10,000 feet above the sea level. Some people say it is the largest mesa in the world. Its area is nearly 53 square miles round. Some of the early layers contain Mancos shale. The Grand Mesa has a flat top not a peak. The grand mesa’s type is a plateau. The best photo they have of the grand mesa is during midday; the best times to visit is the early summer to fall. The time needed is two hours to hike certain trails if you go straight forward and don’t stop.

The Grand Mesa was formed of igneous rock. The Grand Mesa has a volcanic basalt layer on the top of it. The top layer rests on a thick sequence of tertiary, sandstone and shale. Sandstone is made out of sand eroding and compressed together with cementation and compaction to make a stone. Shale is made out of sedimentary rock made of mud that is a mixture of flakes and clay minerals and tiny fragments. The Grand Mesa has a beautiful purplish bluish top color. Google Earth Picture Destructive Forces Destructive forces are what partly made the Grand Mesa. Erosion happened when water and wind and glaciers pushed rocks away into canyons. Weathering happened when mechanical and chemical forces broke and dissolved rocks away. And how did the Mesa get made by water and wind? It took millions and millions of years. Mechanical means that rocks hit other rocks. That is how destructive forces part of the Grand Mesa.