Wall arch before collapse 20030917 094903 1

Wall Arch was a natural sandstone arch in

Arches National Park Arches National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in eastern Utah. The park is adjacent to the Colorado River, north of Moab, Utah. The park contains more than 2,000 natural arch, natural ...

in southeastern

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Before its collapse in 2008, it was ranked 12th in size among the park's over 2,000 arches. At its largest, the opening underneath the span was wide by high. It consisted of

Entrada Sandstone The Entrada Sandstone is a formation (geology), formation in the San Rafael Group found in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Colorado, northwest New Mexico, northeast Arizona, and southeast Utah. Part of the Colorado Plateau, this formation was deposi ...

, specifically the member known as Slick Rock. Wall Arch was first reported and named in 1948 by Lewis T. McKinney. Wall Arch collapsed some time between the night of August 4 and the morning of August 5, 2008, temporarily blocking Devils Garden Trail. No one observed the fall. It was the first collapse of a major arch in the park since sections of Landscape Arch fell in 1991. Officials from the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

and

Utah Geological Survey The Utah Geological Survey is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It also has an office in Cedar City, Utah. It is a division of the Utah Department of Natural Resources and is an applied scientific agency, which creates, interprets, ...

visited the site of the collapsed sandstone arch on August 7 and noted stress fractures in the remaining formation which may cause collapses in the future.

References

External links

{{coord, 38.7925, -109.6066, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-UT, display=title Arches National Park Landforms of Grand County, Utah Collapsed arches