Geology and Minerals

Elaterite Butte

Elaterite Butte is a 6,552-foot (1,997-meter) elevation summit located in The Maze District of Canyonlands National Park, in Wayne County, Utah. Elaterite Butte is situated 6 mi (9.7 km) southwest of Ekker Butte, and the Maze Overlook is situated 2.5 mi (4.0 km) to the northeast. Elaterite Butte is composed of hard, fine-grained Wingate Sandstone, which is the remains of wind-borne sand dunes deposited approximately 200 million years ago in the Late Triassic. This Wingate sandstone overlays a 432-foot thick layer of the softer Chinle Formation. The top of this geological formation rises over 1,400 feet above Elaterite Basin. The butte and basin are named for elaterite, which is a dark brown, tar-like, elastic mineral resin that seeps from parts of the nearby White Rim Sandstone. Access to the remote butte is via a four-wheel drive road in Elaterite Basin. Precipitation runoff from Elaterite Butte drains into the nearby Green River, which in turn is within the Colorado River drainage basin.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸1815 eruption of Mount Tambora
• ▸Ashangi Basalts
• ▸Boring (earth)

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.