Harpers Corner Trail Stop 15

The view of Mitten Park Fault dramatizes the geology of the monument.

NPS Photo/Conrad Provan

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Scenic View/Photo Spot

Seashells far above the sea, great blocks of rock bent and broken, deep and tortuous canyons - was this land the site of some great cataclysm? To us, accustomed as we are to thinking in terms of minutes, hours, and days, the scene may look like the result of some chaotic upheaval but it wasn’t. All around us the forces that shaped it are still in action. Rivers deepen their channels grain by grain; minor earth tremors occur daily in one place or another; and lands have risen or fallen, slowly but measurably, within historic times. We measure our history in years, but the Earth measures time in millions of years, enough time for each tiny change to be multiplied over and over into a major change. The upturned layers of the Mitten Park Fault below you dramatize such a change. This is the same fault noted at stop number seven, but here the Green River has sliced through it to reveal the broken rocks in cross section. Movement along the fault probably began with the uplifting of the region around 50 million years ago, and may have continued off and on almost to the present. Each shift, perhaps accompanied by what we would call a major earthquake, might have been only a few inches, but over the ages many little shifts added up to a total displacement of about 3,000 feet (920 meters) from one side of the fault to the other.