GeoSnaps - Image of the Day
Geologic snapshots capturing Arizona’s geologic setting and mining history with a picture of the day from 1 January through 31 December 2013.
Check out previous GeoSnaps/Images of the Day.

Nov. 7, 2013 | Papago Buttes | Phoenix, Arizona - Photo & caption by Wayne Ranney
The Papago Buttes are situated about five miles east of downtown Phoenix Arizona and contain such outstanding landforms that they were formally declared Papago Saguaro National Monument in 1914 (but withdrawn in 1930). The buttes are composed of steeply tilted beds of the Camels Head Formation, a mid-Tertiary well-consolidated sedimentary breccia with fluvial conglomerate, sandstone and siltstone. The beds tilt down to the southwest and strike northwest/southeast. These sediments were trapped between half-grabens that formed when the South Mountain Metamorphic Core Complex developed during the Mid-Tertiary Orogeny in central Arizona. The Buttes are now protected within Papago Park, jointly managed by the cities of Phoenix and Scottsdale.