It is hard to explain Valle de la Luna other than it looks a lot like what you would expect the surface of the moon to look like, except with a lot more color.
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It was hard to capture space, size and color with the camera. It was truly a unique site to see.
Weird Rocks
The main claim to fame of Valle de la Luna are the weird rock formations with clever names like the submarine, the sphinx, and the mushroom.
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How did that happen
Valle de la Luna was formed when two continental plates hit. One plate decided to shoot straight up, while the other goes down. The one that went up forms the Andes. In the process, this exposed sediment from the dinosaur time. In the photos, the lighter colored rocks are from the first period of dinosaurs and the red/orange color is from the second period of dinosaurs. They are basically horizontal because the terrain went from being flat to being vertical. It’s hard for a layman like me to explain…
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Anyway, the point of this story is that the valley is sandwiched between two eras of dinosaurs and the first era, it is believed, was started in this very valley. The oldest dinosaur remains were found in Valle de la Luna.
All-in-all, it was a long, but very interesting day spent in the land of dinosaurs, crazy rocks, and the backdrop for a bad sci-fi movie.
Click to continue reading “Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon)”
