Moab Fault Viewpoint

About This Attraction

From the roadside pullout, look west across Highway 191—the rock layers on the opposite side abruptly offset from the younger strata where you're standing, revealing a 140-million-year age gap at a glance. This is the Moab Fault, a miles-long structural break created when regional tectonic forces 240 million years ago buckled and fractured the deep crust. You can see the mechanism in the rocks: vertical displacement of 0.8 kilometers has juxtaposed ancient strata against younger layers. Additional smaller faults are visible too, particularly above the Visitor Center where rock layers no longer align horizontally.

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