Hello all!! Here are some more pictures oF Navada 's landscape as I am moving now down the hwy from red rock down the road to the great Keystone thrust!... The light was hard here because there wasnt much of it left that evening but i managed to capture this dirt road and pathway to this great geological mystery here is a liitle info on it for you!! The Keystone Thrust is a famous as geological curiosity which has it's strata turned upside down. Normally we would expect that younger strata are found on top of older strata. The Keystone Thrust defies common sense. The dark red streaks that run through light gray limestone can be seen from the far reaches of the Las Vegas Valley. These streaks or strata are topped by the older limestone's. As with many of the exposed strata in this region, and much of mountainous Western North America the Keystone Thrust was 'constructed' by a process whereby huge tectonic plates shifted, ground into each other and did all kinds of things to mess up the clean geological sequence. For most years, this part of the Southwest was under a deep ocean. Sediments accumulated over the vast time span resulting in the limestone formations we see today. Years and years ago , the movements of the Earth's crust caused this now deep sea-bed to rise slowly. As the 'plates' which make up the Earth's crust continued to move and the sea-bed continued to rise until it became a set of huge lush plains. Streams criss-crossed these plains eroding them in some places and depositing debris in others. The tectonic plates upon which the surface of the earth floats on, continued to move, push and pull the western North American continent. , this area had become a vast red, desert. It continued that way for thosans of years. At that time the shifting of the continental plates again began to lift, stretch, compress and pull the Earth's surface. This activity continued in earnest . Since then there has been isolated activity. The term 'orogeny' refers to the process of mountain building. The shifting and collision of tectonic plates causes strata to be pushed against other strata , causing some of the strata to rise/ pushed under other strata, causing the top strata to rise, or volcanic activity. In western North America the set of tectonically related events that created much of the topography from Northern Mexico to Alaska is referred to as the 'Laramide'. The effects are visible today from Southern Nevada to the Northern Rockies. The continental plates were basically pushed pulled and shoved around. Once level strata were pushed up making them angular and tilted. At other times the strata were pulled apart causing whole valley's to slowly drop. The result today is the north - south orientation of the mountains and valleys in the Great Basin. As the various strata were pushed together, then pulled apart and then shoved back together again, we get the Keystone Thrust. Through all this movement over the countless years, the older limestone's which were created from ocean bottoms, was folded over the younger sandstones . Thus the 'Polyphase Laramide Orogeny' is the mountain building, resulting from shifting tectonic plates,. The result of this symphony of events is the Great Basin topography and places like the Keystone Thrust Thank you for all your comments and time and most of all support it continually encourages me to create.., and maens the world to me!!!! Love to you all ! great big hug!! ♥ Kimmers! :O)