Rocks for Dinner: Cabin Fever! Ah!

Today I went on an awesome day trip in AZ! My first stop was Montezuma's Castle! It is a cliff dwelling that was mistaken for a castle built for an Aztec Ruler, hence the name. It is a really short stop but it's cool to see. The structure is built into a limestone cliff using the natural caves in the cliff.

Montezuma's Castle!

Look at all the Limestone!

A river.

A basalt wall! Pretty cool, eh?

My second stop was Montezuma's Well. There are ruins all around the well. The actual well is a sinkhole, the surrounding rock is limestone. I don't know much else about the geology surrounding the area. All the signs are either about the Native American archaeology or some quick fact about the well and then it eludes to the archaeology. That's interesting and all but I would rather learn about geology.

Pit dwelling at Montezuma's Well

Montezuma's Well!

The well is up to 150/160 ft deep, the crater shape is a sinkhole. The surrounding rock is limestone.

Ruins next to the well.

Cool stuff in the limestone!
(I think these are turbidites from worms or something.)

Information signs! The water from the well becomes groundwater for a moment! It is national groundwater week after all!

Where the water from the well goes underground.

Where the water comes out!

Ditch dug but ancient inhabitants in the 1400s.

I'm underwater!

My third stop was Sunset Crater! I thought it was just going to be one cinder cone but it turned out that there were more than ten. I also thought that it would be like a mini Craters of the Moon but that wasn't so. It was similar but there are enough differences and unique things about that made it worth it. And it was active about 900 years ago. That's not very long at all!

Corn imprint in the basalt!

I'm in a crater!

Dominoes?

Hello Sunset Crater!

A squeeze-up!
You can even see striations on the basalt.

And the squeeze-up is born how?

And there are cinder cones everywhere!

I'm surrounded!

Would it be called a "school" of cinder cones?

I've never seen so many together!

Cool.

Handy sign.

My last stop was Wupatki. Wupatki was cool! It's a cluster of ruins. There is a trail you can walk around and look at them up close. There is also this thing which they call the blowhole... It's a tiny hole which opens up to a large cavern in the rock, a wind blows up from the opening.