Colorado National Monument - Balanced Rock

This view shows a rock pinnacle named Balanced Rock located in Fruita Canyon about a mile from the park entrance. This view also shows the gentle dip of the strata that was once horizontal. Colorado National Monument encompasses part of a step-like fold in these strata called a monocline. A monocline typically forms where solid, dense rocks, such as the very old Proterozoic metamorphic rocks in the Monument area, are broken by a fault at depth. However, younger overlying sedimentary rocks, like shale, will bend and fold rather than break. The Mesozoic age sedimentary rocks exposed at Colorado National Monument display a monoclinal fold. However, erosion has cut through the sedimentary cover and has locally exposed both the basement rock and a fault responsible for the monocline (Scott and others, 2001).