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University of Missouri Department of Geological Sciences

Rock type:      Sandstone
Location:        near Grants, NM

This sandstone comes from the Abo formation, in the Zuni Hills, a few miles southwest of Grants

NM. It is made of small grains of quartz and feldspar, held together by iron-rich natural cement

that gives it a characteristic red color. The Abo formation is from the Permian Period (300 to

250 million years ago), which came at the end of the Paleozoic Era. At this time, much of the

land was covered in deserts, around which the ancestors of the dinosaurs roamed. 

Photo by Alan Whittington, MU Geology

MU Geology Department
http://geology.missouri.edu/