White Pocket Update
Saturday, April 25, 2026 – 10am
A Cosmopolitan Event at Silver Reef
White Pocket, Arizona, which resides on the Paria Plateau, is the ultimate outdoor classroom where one can study our beloved Navajo Sandstone, which comprises most of the rock exposures within Snow Canyon State Park, Zion National Park, and beyond. The Navajo Sandstone was deposited in a vast regional desert which implies that the climate during the Navajo time was mostly arid. However, it appears that the White Pocket region was a bit different. This is due to a combination of 1) differences in local climate conditions and 2) earthquake activity from regional tectonic forces. The combination of these two factors are not seen anywhere else in the Navajo Sandstone to this magnitude.
Video of Presentation
About the Presenter
Marc Deshowitz is originally from Boston where he did his undergraduate studies in Geology at Salem State University. He then went on to do his graduate work at Southern Illinois University and upon completion, went to work for Shell Oil Company in the Gulf Coast Region where he explored for oil and gas accumulations globally for 30 years. He retired to St. George in 2008, where he and his wife Chrystal led educational Road Scholar excursions in national parks across Utah and Arizona through Utah Tech University for 12 years.
Tour White Pocket
Click the picture below to go on a virtual video tour of White Pocket. It also provides a general background about White Pocket’s geology and directions how to get there.
What White Pocket Looks Like
