Posted on 08/10/2008 7:20:14 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE
ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, Utah — One of the largest and most photographed arches in Arches National Park has collapsed.
Paul Henderson, the park's chief of interpretation, said Wall Arch collapsed sometime late Monday or early Tuesday.
The arch is along Devils Garden Trail, one of the most popular in the park. For years, the arch has been a favorite stopping point for photographers.
Henderson said the arch was claimed by forces that will eventually destroy others in the park: gravity and erosion.
"They all let go after a while," he said Friday.
He said it's the first collapse of a major arch in the park since nearby Landscape Arch fell in 1991. No one has reported seeing it fall.
Like others in the park, Wall Arch was formed by entrada sandstone that was whittled down over time into its distinctive and photogenic formation.
The arch, first reported and named in 1948, was more than 33 feet tall and 71 feet across. It ranked 12th in size among the park's estimated 2,000 arches.
Rock has continued to fall from the remaining arms of the arch forcing the closure of a portion of the trail.
Officials from the National Park Service and the Utah Geological Survey visited the site Thursday, noting stress fractures in the remaining formation. The trail won't be opened until the debris is cleared away and it's safe for visitors, Henderson said.
This was obviously a controlled demolition.
Well, nuts. At least Monument Valley’s still in one piece.
Don’t you mean the Law of Gravitas?
Arches is a fantastic park and another one, Canyonlands, is just down the road a bit. Utah overall has spectacular scenery.
Thanks for the ping.
A couple of years ago an eons old ‘Natural Bridge’ collapsed on the island of Aruba.
Just found the blinker, testing it out on you.
Not familiar with that. I do know about the Law of Gravitass, butt I am willing to learn more, even if it is a big-ass world out there.
I don’t see no blinkin’. Do I need to cover one eye or somefin’?
Really? On mine you are blinking. Is it the difference between the Firefox I am using and your web browser?
LOL. Oh, okay, thanks for setting me straight. Not only am I blinkin’, but I’m winkin’ and noddin’ at the same time. It’s kinda creepy.
Interesting that the html on Firefox isn’t translated to IE.
There are a lot of people out there who have been missing some things, IMO. BTW, that is simply ‘blink’. And I had to go h2 font blink to get it to work (in that order)
.....Seriously, I always wanted to see that, all the pictures were beautiful.......
Change the tense..... to “ I want to see all that.”
There are lots of arches still there. The one in question was rather crude and did not posess the nice graceful lines of most of the others.
It might seem far away, but it’s not really.
A case of fallen arches..
Landscape Arch is STILL standing and is considered to be the longest natural arch in the world, with a measured span of 290.1 feet(88.4 m). Since 1991, however three slabs of sandstone measuring 30, 47, and 70 feet (9.1,14,and21m long) have fallen from the thinnest section of Landscape Arch, prompting the Park Service to close the trail that once passed beneath it.
So, Landscape Arch still stands, despite what the MSM tries to say.
For more info and picture of Landscape Arch, See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_Arch
Did you hit it?
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