Entries by Utah Geological Survey

The Colorado Plateau: A Geological Wonderland

livescience.com The Colorado Plateau is a geological wonderland that encompasses 130,000 square miles (337,000 square kilometers) centered around the Four Corners area of the American West and within the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. It ranges in elevation from slightly over 2,000 feet (600 meters) along the Colorado River in the Grand […]

POTD August 28, 2013: Notch Peak, House Range, Millard County, Utah

Notch Peak, House Range, Millard County, Utah Photographer: Matt Affolter Cambrian- to Ordovician-aged carbonate rocks (limestone and dolomite) make up Notch Peak, where a 2,200-foot cliff (possibly the tallest carbonate cliff in North America) leads to a deep canyon on the west side of the peak. Pink, Jurassic-aged granite is exposed at the foot of […]

Ancient Dunes Preserve Signs of Dinosaur-Shaking Earthquakes

livescience.com Long ago, when the Earth had only one continent and one ocean, an earthquake rippled through western North America’s great sand sea. The early Jurassic earthquake left its mark in the vast dunes that now form the famous red cliffs of Zion National Park in Utah, a new study finds. READ MORE

USU graduate student goes deep for geology research

standard.net Kirsten Bahr spent much of her summer enduring near-freezing temperatures, visiting the site of an ancient sea, and squeezing through rock passages that twisted and plunged deep into the earth. All without leaving Cache County. READ MORE

Mudslide damages Alpine home; more flooding possible

heraldextra.com Torrential rains caused a major mudslide in Alpine just before midnight on Thursday, putting 18 inches of mud into the basement of one home. Kaitlyn Dix was home alone around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday when tragedy was compounded by hardship. She had just gotten a call from her mother, Dixie Dix, saying that her […]

Special POTD submission, August 23, 2013: Henry Mountains viewed through Summerville Formation hills, Emery, Wayne, & Garfield Counties

This photo was submitted to us by Dennis Udink. You can see the Henry Mountains viewed through Summerville Formation hills near the Little Wild Horse road (Goblin Valley area in Emery county). The Henry Mountains were formed around 31 to 25 million years ago when partially molten rock, from the Earth’s interior, forced its way into overlying […]

Misplaced Piece of the Cretaceous Returns to Utah, August 2013

Utah State Paleontologist, Jim Kirkland, is happily reunited with this unique (the first fully intact) shark coprolite from the Cedar Mountain Formation. In August, the UGS received an important piece of Utah history in the form of an Early Cretaceous coprolite.  A coprolite is a fossil feces; and in this example a fully intact feces […]