Hardscrabble Canyon Stratum

Hardscrabble Canyon Stratum. A Geological Intrigue. , Located at the merger of the mountains with the plains, today the Wetmore area reveals a remarkable record of the geologic past., Precambrian bedrock makes up the bulk of the Wet Mountains and its fractured and weathered rock serves as an important aquifer. The oldest Precambrian bedrock consists primarily of banded metamorphic rocks (Gneisses) and igneous intrusions. , Granite-like igneous rocks, approximately 1.4 billion years old, intrude gneisses in exposures along the valley of South Hardscrabble Creek. Formerly called “San Isabel Granite”, these granite-like intrusives, are now classified as quartz monzonite, a close relative of granite. These intrusive bodies solidified from slow-cooling magma, deep below the Earth's surface. , Gneiss forms the core of the Wet Mountains and is at least 1.7 billion years old. Much of the Gneiss terrain in the Wet Mountains is described as migmatitic Gneiss (composite rocks with both igneous and metamorphic components or appearances). These Gneisses were formed by metamorphism of ancient sedimentary strata and layered volcanics. , [photo captions] , . Boulder-bearing alluvium from the Pleistocene Ice Age can be seen near the Wetmore Baptist Church. , . A dark-colored dike cuts across banded Precambrian gneisses in the Canyon southwest of Wetmore. , . Greenwood has folded Dakota and Purgatoire formations that produced a prominent hogback along Hwy 96. , . Lovers Leap is underlain by resistant Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks. , . Exposures of Pierre Shale are visible at Jackson Hill east of Wetmore.