Devils Tower

Emily McRae

The Devils Tower in Wyoming has a long and somewhat elusive history dating as
far back as the Triassic period. The formation of this strange monument can be told
through analysis of its sedimentary and igneous rocks, and the erosion of its landscape.
I will begin by briefly describing the general history of the sedimentary rocks
around Devils Tower. Since sediment is deposited on the surface, these layers will tell us
about the exposed terrain and environment around the Devils Tower region through time.
Beginning about 240 million years ago, during the Triassic, the continents were all, for
the most part, joined together. The Devils Tower future location was that of an inland
desert. Gypsum, which forms when the saline water evaporates in hot dry conditions, can
be seen as white layers in what is called the Spearfish formation. The rest of this
formation is bright red mudstone, due to the presence of iron in the sediments, which
have oxidized in the desert conditions of the era.
The next layer of sedimentary rock, which formed about 150 million years ago
during the Jurassic when the continents were beginning to split apart, is called the
Gypsum Spring Formation. It can be seen only as the thin white band above the Spearfish
formation. Gypsum is a very soft rock that is easily eroded. It forms in saline waters,
indicating that this region mustve been under water or near to it, since saline water
evaporates very quickly in desert environments. Also, considering the fact the Rocky
Mountains were not yet formed, the environment at this time was that of a coastal desert,
or a tidal flat, which allowed the gypsum to form.
The last sedimentary formation of Devils Tower is the Sundance Formation. This
formation was also deposited during the Jurassic, so it was also deposited along the
coastline. This is a layer of sandstone that was deposited along the coast of the Sundance

Sea, which covered much of the region where the Rocky Mountains would later be. In
this layer you can find many fossils of marine animals, such as oysters and shells. Despite
the fact that this is during the age of dinosaurs, there are no dinosaur fossils found around
the Devils Tower.
Having covered the history of the major sedimentary layers of the Devils Tower, it
is important to mention that none of these layers actually make up the tower, they just
once covered it and can be seen today around it. Their importance is to tell the history of
the past environments that covered the tower, but now I will describe the actual formation
of the Devils Tower itself, which is composed entirely of a uniform igneous rock called
phonolite porphyry. Igneous rock is rock that forms from magma as it cools. The tower
itself is actually the remains of a plum of magma that never breached the surface, but
hardened about 50 million years ago during the Eocene, at a depth of about 1.5 miles
under sediment layers that would later be eroded away. All along the tower you can see
columns or striations called columnar joints. These form because, as the magma cools
and solidified, is also contracts, causing fractures. The largest column is 600ft tall and 15
feet wide. The presence of these columnar joints indicates that it is composed of a
homogenous material, so that when it cools, it does so all at the same rate. The ends of
these columns look like hexagons, but are not easily seen at Devils Tower because the top
is covered in vegetation, but there are several of these similar formations in the area. One
of which, known as the Devils Postpile in California, clearly shows the hexagonal shape
to the columns.
The history of the Devils Towers actual formation is speculative. There are three
primary hypothesis that describe it. One describes a laccolith, or a mushroom shaped

magma plume, which would mean that the tower used to be much larger but was eroded
away. The second theory describes a tower that was actually once connected to an active
volcano. This would mean that the tower was significantly larger, actually penetrating the
surface. This hypothesis has little ground though, considering that no traces of volcanic
ash or lava have ever been found at the surface, and no magma remains have been found
in the overlaying rock layers. The third hypothesis is that the tower was larger, almost
reaching the surface, but never quite making it. The remaining solidified magma chamber
would be eroded away through time as it was exposed and this is what is left.
Now I will go over the way in which the sedimentary rock layers that covered the
Devils Tower were eroded away. During the Eocene, the time when the igneous rock of
the tower cooled beneath the ground, the Rocky Mountains had already formed due to the
Laramide Orogeny, a mountain building event in tectonic history. This also created the
Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains, and the Powder River Basin, located to the west
of Devils Tower, to a lower area. This uplift caused the Devils Tower to be raised higher
as well, allowing for erosion to strip away sedimentary layers. About 5 million years ago,
the Rocky Mountain region is again uplifted, bring the Devils Tower to an elevation
between 5 and 6 thousand feet above sea level. It is important to mention the Belle
Fourche River, which played a primary role in exposing the Devils Tower. Having been
raised above sea level too, the river begins to flow downward rapidly, carrying away
sediments as it goes. Eventually, this carried all the sediments off of the tower to expose
the brilliant formation of igneous rock we see today. The top of the tower is visibly more
narrow and cracked than the base. This is due in part to having been weathered and
eroded longer, and also in part to the depth at which the rock solidified; the deeper the

magma cools, the slower it cools. Since the magma closer to the surface had less time to
cool, its crystals formed more quickly and are weaker, causing the top of the tower to
crack more easily than the bottom. Along the base of the tower is a large pile of rocks
composed of pieces of fallen columns. No columns have fallen in the last 100 years, so
the process of erosion that way must be very slow.
The Devils Tower is a great example of the use of the scientific method,
because it is a big mysterious object and one must use clues and reasoning to deduce how
it got there. As previously mentioned, there are three instances in which the scientific
method was used to understand the tower, and the fact that three viable hypothesis exist
show that the formation of the tower is not fully understood or agreed upon. My
hypothesis to describe the formation of the Devils Tower is as follows. The tower was
formed by the cooling of magma beneath the surface, but the original structure was larger
than it is today by some percentage that is comparable to erosion rates of the sediment
around the tower as it was exposed. As it was uplifted and eroded, the tower became what
it is today. To test this I would have to go to the region and look at the rock layers around
the tower and try to identify any kinds of magma around it that might be mixed in with
sediment. I also would try to see if any younger layers of sediment had fallen into the
older layers of sediment, because if it was once larger, it is possible that the sediment
layers directly around it would have fallen into the older layers when the igneous rock
contracted or when it was being eroded.
To summarize the relation of sedimentary rocks, igneous rocks, and erosion in the
formation of the Devils Tower, sedimentary rocks formed along the ground. Many of
them piled up, then, due to tectonic activity, magma chambers began to rise through this

sediment. At least one of which did not make it to the surface, and cooled and hardened
beneath the ground as igneous rock. Time and tectonic activity eroded and uplifted the
landscape enough to expose the giant tower of igneous rock, and this is the Devils Tower
as we know it today. Still being subject to these same forces which exposed and shaped it,
it is likely that the tower will continue to change and may one day not even exist.