<P> East--west - directed compression from subduction off the west coast affected the area in later Mesozoic and early Tertiary time by folding and thrust faulting strata . Evidence for the Sevier Orogeny part of this period can be seen in the Taylor Creek area in the Kolob section of the park . Chunks of Moenave strata have been compressed to the point of thrusting themselves over the same formation in the Taylor Creek Thrust Fault Zone, located on the east flank of the Kanarra anticline . </P> <P> Tensional forces forming the Basin and Range physiogeographic province to the west about 20 to 25 million years ago in Tertiary time created the two faults that bound the Markagunt Plateau (which underlies the park): the Sevier Fault on the east and the Hurricane Fault on the west . The Hurricane fault zone is a major, active, steeply west - dipping normal fault that stretches at least 155 miles (250 km) from south of the Grand Canyon northward to Cedar City, Utah . Along the southern boundary of the park, tectonic displacement along this fault is about 3,600 ft (1,098 m). Several other normal faults also developed on the plateau . </P> <P> Subsequent uplift of the Colorado Plateau and tilting of the Markagunt Plateau started 13 million years ago . This steepened the stream gradient of the ancestral Virgin River (Zion Canyon section of the park), and Taylor and La Verkin creeks (Kolob Canyons section of the park), causing them to flow and downcut faster into the underlying Markagunt Plateau . Downcutting continues to be especially rapid after heavy rainstorms and winter runoff when the water contains large amounts of suspended and abrasive sand grains . Uplift and downcutting are so fast that slot canyons (very narrow river - cut features with vertical walls), such as the Zion Narrows, formed . </P> <P> Explosive andesitic volcanism dominated the area to the west of Zion during Oligocene and early Miocene time and probably inundated the region with hundreds of feet of welded tuff that has since eroded away . Three of these tuff layers are preserved on top of Brainhead Peak . About 21 million years ago the Pine Valley laccolith formed . This typical mushroom - shaped laccolith is one of the largest intrusions of this type in the world . Debris flows carried boulders of this intrusion onto the Upper Kolob Plateau indicating that the Hurricane Cliffs could not have been present at the time . </P>

What type of rock is found in zion national park