Why Is This Massive Wyoming Eyeball Staring Back At You?

Stare down at Wyoming and you might just see Wyoming staring back.

What is that weird eyeball-shaped thing?

You won't see it if you're driving Highway 287. That's because you're going to drive through it. It is a beautiful drive.

That eyeball is BIG!

So, what are we looking at here? Or rather, what's looking back at us?

If we examine the west side of this landscape we will see the rocks have been pushed up to the west.

If we drive a mile or so up the road we will see the same types of rocks, but they are pushed up to the east.

All of this is sandstone and mudstone.

Some of the rocks have ripples in them.

The evidence points to a coastal area with a beach that was sometimes underwater, then exposed again.

The layers were created during a time when much of Wyoming was underwater, but that water was getting more shallow as the climate and landscape changed.

This slow process continues to this day.

So are the never-ending natural cycles of our planet's climate and geology.

Geology professor Shawn Willsey recently visited this area and made a YouTube video showing what's going on.

To get this shape a force pushed the land up in the middle.

This created the effect of rocks pointing in different directions on all sides and a bulge in the middle

This type of fold is called an anticline.

While Wyoming used to be at the bottom of a shallow ocean, the state continues to be squeezed from both sides and pushed up from underneath.

This is why our region continues to get higher and dryer.

Wyoming has some of the most interesting geological features in North America.

The evidence lies exposed all around us if you know what to look at.