news.nationalgeographic.com

Imagine sunrise on the last day of the Mesozoic era, 66 million years ago. Shafts of sunlight rake through the swamps and coniferous forests along the coast of what is now Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. The blood-warm seas of the Gulf of Mexico teem with life.

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B-136 Insert

By: Thomas C. Chidsey, Jr.

This report (241 pages of text, 187 figures, 30 tables, and 21 appendices) presents the shale-gas potential of the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian Manning Canyon Shale/Doughnut Formation and the Pennsylvanian Paradox Formation (Chimney Rock, Gothic, and Hovenweep shales) of central and southeastern Utah, respectively. Shale beds within these formations are widespread, thick, buried deep enough to generate dry gas (or oil in some areas of the Paradox Basin), and sufficiently rich in organic material and fractures to hold significant recoverable gas reserves. This study provides a detailed evaluation of these potential shale-gas reservoirs including (1) drilling history, (2) identification and mapping/ correlating the major shale intervals, (3) characterization of the geologic, petrographic, geochemical, and petrophysical rock properties of those reservoirs from cores, (4) burial histories and organic maturation models, and (5) descriptions of outcrop analogs. Collectively, this study delineates the areas with the greatest gas potential (“sweet spots”) and offers recommendations for the best completion practices to develop these targeted shale-gas reservoirs.

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inverse.com

Late last month, a nearly complete mounted Stegosaurus skeleton was put up for auction in Germany. The piece was a showstopper, valued at $2.7 million and described as the most complete skeleton of its species ever assembled. And even then, there was more, because the fossils showed battle wounds proving the beast had used its tail to successfully defend itself against a predator. Not only was this a Stegosaurus, it was a battle-hardened one.

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Sunset on Gooseberry Mesa shines golden light on cliffs of Triassic-age Shinarump Conglomerate and the underlying slope-forming Moenkopi Formation. White cliffs and peaks in the distance are thrones and temples of Zion National Park, formed of Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone. Gooseberry Mesa, Washington County, Utah Photographer: J. Lucy Jordan; © 2016

POTD 5-31-16 Washington County

Gooseberry Mesa, Washington County, Utah
Photographer: J. Lucy Jordan; © 2016

Sunset on Gooseberry Mesa shines golden light on cliffs of Triassic-age Shinarump Conglomerate and the underlying slope-forming Moenkopi Formation. White cliffs and peaks in the distance are thrones and temples of Zion National Park, formed of Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone.

Fathers Day Utah Fishing

Father’s Day is around the corner. Get Dad hooked on fishing this summer with these awesome books! Find these and other great outdoor maps and guides in our Map & Bookstore.

Fishing Utah: An Angler’s Guide to More than 170 Sites

Duraguide: Freshwater Fishing

good4utah.com

We often talk about “the big one,” hitting the Beehive State.  But now we’re learning it it happens it could mean trouble for Kennecott’s facility on the south slope.

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How much do you know about geologic hazards? Find out!

usgs.gov

TAKE THE QUIZ

huffingtonpost.com

Long-necked Sauropods, like Brontosaurus, were the largest animals on earth, but their brain, not their leg strength, is what kept them from getting any bigger.

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Lake Powell’s Gunsight Bay as seen from Alstrom Point, Kane County. Alstrom Point, Kane County, Utah Photographer: Marshall Robinson; © 2016

5-24-16

Alstrom Point, Kane County, Utah
Photographer: Marshall Robinson; © 2016

Lake Powell’s Gunsight Bay as seen from Alstrom Point, Kane County.

nationalgeographic.com

This loop out of St. George, Utah, explores an out-of-the-way corner of the U.S. Southwest. Even in the shadows of Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks, it’s easy to lose the crowds and find your own relatively private pocket of high desert—including a campsite on the rim of America’s most famous gorge that you might very well have all to yourself. So grab a coffee and sandwich en route at River Rock Roasting Company in La Verkin (dig the view off the back patio) and head east into a sandstone wonderland.

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