Invasive Stones of Kane Creek, Moab, UT

"I was looking at a river bed

And the story it told of a river that flowed

Made me sad to think it was dead"

Back to 1971, America sings of river beds. Though not dead, this particular creek is generally quite tranquil, sleepy... but October rains whipped up the red rushing creek bed this time around!
Below...

...the site of my momentary confusion surrounding mystery igneous material in a sandstone-dominated landscape three miles west of Moab, UT along Kane Creek. The poor Colorado River and its tributaries are afflicted by a Civil War era idea lacking foresight... yep, here we go again with another such story: introduced as an ornamental tree, the tamarisk tree now swallow river and stream shores!

Tamarix aphylla creates a wall of hell along riparian tributaries of the Colorado River, complicating water access for deer and infiltrating soils with salty ions incapable of supporting most other plant
varieties. So, I found myself chainsawing these hell tree-weeds to the ground one wet, dreary October weekday. Sandstones as far as the eye can see, so when an igneous fragment caught my eye, I paused. This particular creek drainage originates from no igneous terrain, the only possible nearby source being the La Sals (a 24 million year young diorite laccolith), which is drained by Fisher Creek, Mill Creek and a plethora of other thirsty channels.

Location A below is our dreary October worksite, along a tributary leading to the Colorado River; B is the terminal of Kane Creek tributary, and the arrow the direction of flow. The La Sals stand innocently by to the east, incapable of contributing to my morning igneous confusion.

I followed my mind upward, to the roadbed. The road fill gravels, of course!

I could have called the local DOT for a roadfill source report. but I didn't.

But, compare the roadfill and creekbed material below!

*insert image*

I like to think of this as bioturbation; that geologic processes (gravitational incentives, freeze-thaw processes, chelation, etc.) are not the only forces redistributing lithologic material around the continents. Movement of geologic material is inspired by anthropogenic sources- road fill, granite countertop installation, shale tile roofing.

While my momentary confusion was pieced together within a few seconds of deductive reasoning, future geologists may be in for a head-scratching surprise!

P.S.:
Past mountain ranges (in other words, sediment sources) include the 300 Ma (Pennsylvanian) Uncompahgre Uplift, part of the Ancestral Rockies:

Sediment source for several deposits (Cutler formation, anyone?!) around the Colorado Plateau, but not necessarily the source for my Kane Creek conglomerates! Note Moab on the map for reference. (Modified from Rasmussen and Rasmussen).

P.S.S.:

Driving southwest from the Uncompahgre Uplift locale (RIP, 300-150 Ma), you'll notice sediment size decrease in the Cutler outcrops visible (1). Who and what speaks to this ancient mountain chain, you ask?

To be continued...

References

1. Channel fill deposits and their connection to the past http://plantsandrocks.blogspot.com/2015/07/beautiful-stones-battered-relics.html

Hudson, S., 2017. Source within the seal—Distribution and implications of organic shale-bearing stringers within the Onion Creek diapir, northern Paradox Basin, Utah, https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Regional-map-showing-trends-of-major-salt-structures-associated-with-the-Paradox-Basin_fig1_326500562

Rasmussen, L., and Rasmussen, D.L., 2009, Burial history analysis of the Pennsylvanian petroleum system in the deep Paradox Basin fold and fault belt, Colorado and Utah, in Houston, W.S., Wray, L.L., and Moreland, P.G., editors, The Paradox Basin re-visited—new developments in petroleum systems and basin analysis: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists Special Publication, p. 24–94.