300 million-year-old Sombrero?

During the Laramide Orogeny, while the ancestral Rocky Mountains were being uplifted, there was a rock formation taking a siesta (short nap) and wearing a sombrero ??? Is that WHAT you're tellin' me ? Nope. This view is of Mexican Hat - a prominant weathered rock formation (in the "Four Corners" region of southern UT) for which the nearby town Mexican Hat gets its name. Mexican Hat Rock is the remnant of a sandstone layer of the Halgaito Formation, formed from sediments deposited on a coastal plain next to a shallow seaway during early Permian time. The ridge line in the distance is the crest of Raplee Anticline, a long narrow folded upwarp that formed during the Laramide Orogeny. (Source - USDI - USGS - 2005) April 26, 2009