Chapter 2

An interesting geographic piece of Sedona is Devil's Kitchen Sinkhole. A sinkhole, also known as a sink, snake hole, swallow hole, swallet, doline or cenote, is a natural depression or hole in the Earth's surface caused by karst processes - the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks or suffosion processes for example in sandstone. This sinkhole can even be seen from satellites taking pictures of the earth's crust (picture below).

There have been numerous geological studies done on this sink hole. One of the interesting things about this sinkhole is the fact that it does not contain limestone unlike most sink holes. There is more information at  http://www.azgs.az.gov/arizona_geology/winter09/article_devilskitchen.html about the geological explorations and findings of the Devil's Kitchen Sinkhole.





Another interesting fact about Sedona is the color change in the rocks. There are layers of different colors on all of the mountainous rocks seen in Sedona. Millions of years ago Sedona was a delta under the sea. The erosion that these rocks have gone through in the past millions of years have resulted in deposits of iron from the water. This iron causes the rocks to have a red color. The sedimentary rocks allow geologists and viewers to see the past ecosystems and environments that once resided in Sedona.