The formation of the Uluru Stone (Uluru), Australia's most iconic natural landscape, also tells a story as special as creation, destruction and reconstruction.
The Uluru Stone (and Catachuta Kata Tjuta) dates back to about 500 million years ago, roughly at the same time as the formation of Australia's mainland.
The moving aggregation of the mainland plate formed the Australian island, a process similar to India's push towards today's Eurasian mainland, where the Indian plate moved as a result of the formation of Himalayan-sized range..
The rock bodies that eventually formed Uluru and Catachuta are located on one of the Peterman range (Petermann Ranges) 's range.
The creation and destruction of range
Earth was a completely different world at that time, without land plants and dinosaurs only 250 million years later.
"in such an ancient time, the whole scene was very different, when there were no land plants, and we thought that the climate at that time, after a few glaciers, might have been a desert climate. "said Dr. Marita Bradshaw, a geologist, (Dr Marita Bradshaw). Dr. Bradshaw worked for the Australian Earth Science Agency (Geosciences Australia).
The newly formed Peterman range is similar in size to the French Alps range or Himalayan range. But because there is no vegetation cover, they are quickly eroded.
"the mountains then had granite outcrops and gravel falling off, eventually forming the kind of rock we see in Catachuta today," Dr. Bradshaw said.
The sediment that formed the Catachusta was washed into an alluvial fan by the river.
However, the sand from the feldspar sandstone that eventually formed the Uluru boulder was discarded at the bottom of range.
"what we see now in Ururuli is almost all the granite that has fallen," Dr. Bradshaw said.
"it has large feldspar crystals in it, which means it's close to the source, and it hasn't been in a large river system for a long time, and it hasn't been moved, so there's not much chemical or mechanical erosion on it."
Rock reconstruction is what it is today.
After a long period of rapid orogeny and erosion, the heart of Australia formed an inner sea, and a sedimentary period began in what is now the (Amadeus Basin) of the Armadis Basin.
"the Armadis basin was deposited with limestone and sand mud, which buried feldspathic sandstone and gravel and eventually formed Ururu and Catachuta," Dr. Bradshaw said.
About 400 million years ago, the gravel of Ururu and Catachuta was buried so deep and under so much pressure that they changed from sedimentation to rock.
Around this time, another mountain-building movement, called the Alice Springs mountain-building (Alice Springs Orogeny)., began. Over the next millions of years, the mountain-building movement created large-scale surface ups and downs. If you fly over central Australia today, you can see these ups and downs from the sky. The rocks that formed Ururu and Catachuta were also affected by the orogenic movement.
"the rocks that formed Ururu and Catachuta were squeezed [in the orogenic movement] and overlapped," she said.
After hundreds of millions of years of long erosion, Ururu and Catachuta finally emerged from the softer rocks.
"it's gathered together to become a tightly intertwined rock that, for tens of millions of years, has been eroded and polished into what we see today as a beautiful Ururu."
Special Uluru.
The "folds" on Uluru are derived from the eroded deposits of Peterman range, which have been erected. / Getty Images / Geoffrey Clifford
"there is something unique about the primordial sediments that form Ururu and Catachuta," Dr. Bradshaw said. "because they all come from the large range."
"and then its deformation was very special, and it really clung together to become a rock."
The sediments were set up during deformation, so the formerly transverse sand layer (also known as "bedding planes" in the layer) is now vertical.
And the rock is extremely hard.
"you thought Uluru would start to break down these now vertical layers, but it didn't, so it really fastened up."
These linked rocks are now closely intertwined, Dr. Bradshaw said, which may be why the rock itself is so hard, corrosion-resistant and self-contained.
"at the top of these folds are the places where the pressure is greatest and where the solidified and conglutinated fluids are concentrated."
Why is Uluru red?
Dr. Bradshaw said Ururu was red because the rock had been exposed to desert air for hundreds of thousands of years as a result of the rust oxidation of iron-bearing minerals inside it.
"the color of the newer rocks that do not have long-term contact with the air is gray."
As far as the original Peterman range, is concerned, Dr. Bradshaw said, you can still see the "little drum bags" left behind by the once spectacular range.