Upheaval Dome: Utah’s ‘belly button’ that has divided scientists since its discovery – Livescience.com
543603744
Upheaval Dome is a giant rock formation in southeastern Utah with two potential origin stories, although most scientists think it was created by an ancient meteor strike.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Name: Upheaval DomeLocation: Canyonland National Park, UtahCoordinates: 38.438193588115844, -109.92852113574894Why it’s incredible: The dome looks like a belly button from above.Upheaval Dome is a rock formation in Utah with jagged peaks carved into concentric rings. Astronauts on board the International Space Station photographed the structure in 2007, sparking comparisons between the giant dome and a belly button.Upheaval Dome stretches 3 miles (5 kilometers) across and 1,000 feet (300 meters) high. Its origin remains somewhat controversial, but the presence of shocked quartz crystals at the site suggests the dome mushroomed after a meteorite smashed into Earth 60 million years ago.Related: ‘Alien plant’ fossil discovered near Utah ghost town doesn’t belong to any known plant families, living or extinctGeologists think the meteorite impact initially left a bowl-shaped hollow in the ground, and that the edges of this hollow were unstable and eventually collapsed. Underlying rocks may then have risen to fill the void, creating the ridged structure we see today.But not everyone agrees with this interpretation. Some scientists believe that Upheaval Dome was formed by a mountain of salt rising beneath southeastern Utah’s sandstone layers.A thick layer of salt originating from ancient landlocked seas sits beneath Canyonlands National Park. Salt is relatively light and can move around in rocks, much like ice can migrate at the bottom of a glacier, according to the National Park Service (NPS).Salt is also less dense than sandstone, so it could have created a giant “bubble” that shoved the rocks aside as it surged upwards, according to the NPS.Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.—The Bungle Bungles: Towering domes in the Australian outback that contain traces of the earliest life-forms on Earth—Antarctica ‘pyramid’: The strangely symmetrical mountain that sparked a major alien conspiracy theory—Eye of the Sahara: Mauritania’s giant rock dome that towers over the desertUpheaval Dome is unlikely to be the salt bubble itself covered in sandstone, because erosion probably stripped several layers off the structure over the eons. Instead, the dome’s center is considered to be a rocky base that formed beneath the salt bubble due to rocks falling into cracks around the edges of the bubble. These rocks may have rolled down along the sides of the bubble and piled up beneath the salt, creating the craggy feature we see today.If true, the salt bubble theory would make Upheaval Dome the most deeply eroded salt structure in the world.But the discovery of the shocked quartz crystals is the last published investigation into the origins of Upheaval Dome. It’s unclear whether research is ongoing to settle the case once and for all.Discover more incredible places, where we highlight the fantastic history and science behind some of the most dramatic landscapes on Earth.Sascha is a U.K.-based staff writer at Live Science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Southampton in England and a master’s degree in science communication from Imperial College London. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and the health website Zoe. Besides writing, she enjoys playing tennis, bread-making and browsing second-hand shops for hidden gems.Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.Pamukkale: Turkey’s ‘cotton castle’ of white limestone that inspired an ancient cultThe Bungle Bungles: Towering domes in the Australian outback that contain traces of the earliest life-forms on EarthCould we travel to parallel universes?
Livescience is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.
©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
