Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
>> This is Dinosaur Ridge.
I'm Keith Patton with Regis and we're
on the west side of Denver, Colorado just north
of the little town of Morrison and south of Golden.
Dinosaur Ridge is a national natural landmark designated
to such by the National Park Service
and it's also a Colorado natural area.
The maintenance of Dinosaur Ridge is carried
out by the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge,
a non-profit organization, which in addition to taking care
of the Ridge provides guides for the general public
and also provides educational programs for elementary,
junior high, high school students,
and the Ridge is also visited
by university students throughout the area.
The Ridge is what is known in geology as a hog back,
and a hogback is simply a name
for the back of a razor back hog.
As you can see here this ridge along the hog's back is,
in fact, what Dinosaur Ridge is considered to be.
It's considered to be a hog back.
Dinosaur Ridge is important for several reasons.
First of all, it's the site of a well preserved dinosaur tracks,
which date back to the Cretaceous, about 90 million,
100 million years ago.
And it's also the site
where dinosaur bones were collected back
in the late 1800's.
In addition to that and of particular interest
to us this morning it provides us with an opportunity
to examine the products
of certain depositional processes that have gone on.
We can use certain fundamental geological principles
and see how those principles work here at the Ridge
to interpret the geology of the area.
And when we come back we'll take a look
at some fundamental geological principles including
uniformitarianism, super-position,
original horizontality and cross-cutting relationships.