Q 01/05

Arches National Park sits just north of which small Utah town?

A) Moab

B) Kanab

C) Springdale

D) Torrey

Answer · why

A) Moab

The park entrance is about 4 miles up US 191 from the town, which is also the base for Canyonlands, the Slickrock mountain-bike trail and the annual J...

Q 02/05

Roughly how many natural sandstone arches has the park catalogued?

A) More than 200

B) More than 2,000

C) More than 500

D) More than 10,000

Answer · why

B) More than 2,000

That is the highest density of natural arches anywhere in the world, and new ones are still forming while old ones fall.

Q 03/05

What lies underground beneath the whole park and is the main reason its arches, fins and spires exist?

A) A dormant volcano

B) A limestone cave system

C) A thick salt bed

D) An ancient glacier's moraine

Answer · why

C) A thick salt bed

The evaporite layer, thousands of feet thick in places, was left behind when a sea flooded the Paradox Basin and dried up around 300 million years ago...

Q 04/05

Most of the park's arches are carved from which rock formation?

A) Navajo Sandstone

B) Mancos Shale

C) Kayenta Formation

D) Entrada Sandstone

Answer · why

D) Entrada Sandstone

The salmon-coloured Entrada sits in layer-cake fashion on the buff-coloured Navajo; both are Jurassic desert deposits.

Q 05/05

Hoover protected Arches as a national monument in 1929 using powers from which 1906 law?

A) The Organic Act

B) The Antiquities Act

C) The Homestead Act

D) The Wilderness Act

Answer · why

B) The Antiquities Act

The monument was two small, disconnected sections meant to protect the rock formations for their scientific value; full park status did not come for a...