| Caprock conglomerate of the Florissant Formation |
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Imagine ancient Lake Florissant, waters tinged slightly yellow from abundant diatoms. Past eruptions from the Guffey Volcanic Center sent ash into the air, but for now, it's relatively peaceful. In the distance, Guffey erupts and the area begins to violently shake. Snow that had been on the flanks of Guffey now is gone, and a deep rumble is heard in the distance, but it's not the volcano. A lahar made of pebbles, cobbles, ash, and pumice is moving swiftly down the mountain towards the lake, spilling into the lake and creating waves larger than the lake had ever witnessed. The jumbled mess of fragments from just about every rock in the area, and the occasional plant or animal, begins to compact at the bottom of the lake creating water escape structures, the main indicator that the caprock conglomerate entered waters of the second lake. The lake had experienced a violent event, but did not end until much later.
Views of the caprock conglomerate - click on the images at left.
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A view of the caprock conglomerate on a road cut on Teller County 1 south of the Visitor Center entrance. Scale is in centimeters. |
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A close-up view of the caprock conglomerate at the same locality. Scale is in centimeters. |
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A view of the caprock conglomerate overlying the middle shale unit on the Petrified Forest Walk near the Visitor Center. |
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The Scudder Pit as seen along the Petrified Forest Walk. Here visitors can observe the middle shale unit and the caprock conglomerate. Samuel H. Scudder (1837 - 1911) was one of the first paleontologists to visit Florissant and publish on its fossils. |
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A view of "Big Stump" along the Petrified Forest Walk. Visitors can observe the lower mudstone that encases the fossil stumps, the middle shale unit, and the caprock conglomerate. You can also see the two saw blades that were embedded in Big Stump when collectors failed in their attempt to cut it up and haul it away. |
