SURFICIAL GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE SALT LAKE CITY SEGMENT AND PART OF ADJACENT SEGMENTS OF THE WASATCH FAULT ZONE, DAVIS, SALT LAKE, AND UTAH COUNTIES

This map shows the surficial deposits and the faults that offset them along the Salt Lake City segment and adjacent parts of the Weber and Provo segments of the Wasatch fault zone in north-central Utah.  The map area includes the central and eastern parts of the Salt Lake Valley, including metropolitan Salt Lake City and its southern suburbs.  Although a major surface-faulting earthquake has not occurred on the Wasatch fault zone since the state was settled in 1847, the geologic record contains abundant evidence of large earthquakes during Holocene and late Pleistocene time.  The size, age, and distribution of fault scarps produced by these prehistoric earthquakes can be used to determine the most likely sites for future earthquakes, and are therefore the principal focus of the map.

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GROUND-WATER SENSITIVITY AND VULNERABILITY TO PESTICIDES, BERYL-ENTERPRISE AREA, IRON WASHINGTON, AND BEAVER COUNTIES, UTAH

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recommended that states develop Pesticide Management Plans for four agricultural chemicals—alachlor, atrazine, metolachlor, and simazine—herbicides used in Utah in the production of corn and sorghum, and to control weeds and undesired vegetation (such as along right-of-ways or utility substations). This 28-page report and two accompanying plates are intended to be used as part of these Pesticide Management Plans to provide local, state, and federal government agencies and agricultural pesticide users with a base of information concerning sensitivity and vulnerability of agricultural pesticides in the Beryl-Enterprise area, Iron, Washington, and Beaver Counties, Utah.

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Even though we are a “desert” state, Utah’s rivers are world-renowned among river runners and geoscientists. Several of America’s early geologists, including G.K. Gilbert, W.M. Davis, C.E. Dutton, and J.W. Powell contributed to theories of stream evolution from observations made in Utah.

Rivers typically originate in the mountains, flow away from them in a more-or-less constant direction, enter increasingly broad river plains, and terminate at an ocean. But many rivers in Utah flow toward and across mountains, run contrary to valleys, make U-turns, and many never reach the ocean.

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What are those groovy rocks and how did they get that way?

On a hike around Lake Blanche below Sundial Peak in Big Cottonwood Canyon, a group of hikers came across long, straight, parallel grooves on a smooth, polished rock surface. Recalling another location where they had seen similar features at the foot of the mountains north of downtown Salt Lake City, they wondered if these markings were formed in the same way. Indeed, what exactly are they and how were they formed?

Although the smooth, grooved surfaces at these two locations are similar, they were actually formed in very different ways.

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Objectives included: assessing the potential impacts of pumping on ground water and spring flow in Utah; evaluating flow patterns in the aquifer from Snake Valley to Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge; determining baseline water-level and chemical trends in local and regional ground-water flow systems; and, measuring the capacity of the aquifers to transmit and store ground water.

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RELATED LINKS

The 2010 calendar from the Utah Geological Survey is now available. The ‘Calendar of Utah Geology 2010′ features photographs of geologic vistas from around Utah. UGS staff took all of the photos in the Calendar.

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PALEOSEISMIC INVESTIGATION OF THE NORTHERN WEBER SEGMENT OF THE WASATCH FAULT ZONE AT THE RICE CREEK TRENCH SITE, NORTH OGDEN, UTAH

This report presents new paleoseismic information for the northern Weber segment of the Wasatch fault zone, collected as part of a joint Utah Geological Survey and U.S. Geological Survey fault-trench investigation at Rice Creek. This research, which was partially funded through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, expands the record of Weber-segment paleoearthquakes into the early Holocene, provides new timing and displacement data for the most recent earthquake, and helps reduce uncertainties in earthquake timing, recurrence, displacement, and vertical slip rate. These results are important for understanding segmentation of the northern Wasatch fault zone and for improving earthquake-hazard evaluations of the region.

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INTERIM GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE EPHRAIM 7.5-MINUTE QUADRANGLE, SANPETE COUNTY, UTAH

The Ephraim quadrangle is located about 140 miles south-southeast of Salt Lake City in Sanpete County in central Utah. A diagonal line, extending NE-SW across the quadrangle, divides Sanpete Valley to the northwest, from the Wasatch Plateau. Sanpete Valley is a structural feature in which the San Pitch River flows south along its west margin. Quaternary fans form a gently sloping surface from the plateau front to the floodplain of the river.

Bedrock units are mostly of early Tertiary age. These include the (ascending) North Horn Formation (1100+ feet thick), Flagstaff Limestone (500–1000 feet thick), Colton Formation (1400+ feet thick), Green River Formation (620+ feet exposed), and the Crazy Hollow Formation (less than 50 feet exposed). Of these, the North Horn Formation may also have some Late Cretaceous strata at the base. The older three units are exposed in the Wasatch Plateau, the other two along the plateau-valley margin.

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GEOLOGIC HAZARDS IN UTAH

This issue contains:

New Geologic Hazards Mapping in Utah

*Landslide Inventory Mapping in Twelvemile
Canyon, Central Utah
*Second Damaging Y Mountain Rock Fall in
Four Years
*Large Rock Fall Closes Highway Near
Cedar City, Utah
*Logan Landslide
*Teacher’s Corner
*GeoSights: Utah’s belly button, Upheaval Dome
*Glad You Asked: What should you do if you find a fossil?
Can you keep it? Should you report it?
*Energy News: Carbon Dioxide Sequestration Demonstration
Project Underway in Utah!
*Survey News
*New Publications

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PAST ISSUES

SNOWMELT-INDUCED GROUND-WATER FLUCTUATIONS IN SELECTED NORTHERN UTAH LANDSLIDES—PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM THE 2007–08 LANDSLIDE WATER YEAR

The relationship between ground-water levels and late winter/early spring snowmelt was evaluated at selected northern Utah landslides where ground-water observation wells had previously been installed. The period of investigation between September 2007 and August 2008 was characterized by generally wetter-than-normal conditions in the fall and early winter and subsequent drier-than-normal conditions. Snowfall in early winter resulted in a sustained snowpack that lasted through early 2008 at low elevation and into the spring at higher elevation. Ground-water levels predictably rose with melting snow, but the proportion of the rise attributable to melting of the winter snowpack varied. Peak  ground-water levels consistently followed the onset of snowmelt, and locally occurred subsequent to local snowmelt around the vicinity of the observation well. At some locations, high ground-water levels were sustained for weeks or longer despite dry conditions in the spring and early summer.

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OFR-550……….$8.95

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