Bryce Canyon, Hoodoos in Utah

by Aurelia Schanzenbacher

Title

Bryce Canyon, Hoodoos in Utah

Artist

Aurelia Schanzenbacher

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

Hoodoos are found mainly in the desert in dry, hot areas. In common usage, the difference between hoodoos and pinnacles (or spires) is that hoodoos have a variable thickness often described as having a “totem pole-shaped body”. A spire, on the other hand, has a smoother profile or uniform thickness that tapers from the ground upward. Hoodoos, which may range from 1.5 to 45 metres (4.9 to 147.6 ft), typically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the elements. They generally form within sedimentary rock and volcanic rock formations.

Hoodoos range in size from the height of an average human to heights exceeding a 10-story building. Hoodoo shapes are affected by the erosional patterns of alternating hard and softer rock layers. Minerals deposited within different rock types cause hoodoos to have different colors throughout their height.Unfortunately hoodoos don’t last very long. The same processes that create hoodoos are equally aggressive and intent on their destruction. The average rate of erosion is calculated at 2-4 feet (0.6-1.3 m) every 100 years.

Hoodoos are formed by two weathering processes that continuously work together in eroding the edges. of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. The weathering is frost wedging. In the winter, melting snow, in the form of water, seeps into the cracks and freezes at night expands by almost 10%, bit by bit prying open cracks, making them ever wider. Rain is also the chief source of erosion (the actual removal of the debris). In the summer, monsoon type rainstorms travel through the area, bring short duration high intensity rain and erodes the Hoodoos.

Uploaded

January 27th, 2022

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