Utah Geological Survey
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Special Presentation on July 16 “Microbes, Mars & Moqui Marbles”

sunews.net

Bureau of Land Management has rescheduled the presentation “Microbes, Mars & Moqui Marbles” on Tuesday, July 16. The program is a special Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) Walks and Talks Lecture Series presentation to be held at the BLM Kanab Visitor Center, located at 745 East Hwy 89, in Kanab, Utah.

Beginning at 7 p.m., Dr. David Loope will reveal new insights into how microbes affect geology. Based on his recent research on the Navajo Sandstone within GSENM, Dr. Loope will explain how microbes, that have lived just below Earth’s surface for at least three billion years play an important part in the development of Moqui Marbles on Earth, as well as other planets, including Mars.

 

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Utah Geological Survey
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Earthquake Risk in the Salt Lake Valley

kcpw.org

You wouldn’t know it from experience, but the Wasatch Front is one of the most seismically at risk areas in Utah and in the Intermountain West. Scientists are looking at thousands of years of earthquake history to learn more about the hazard we face. Kim Schuske has this story.

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Utah Geological Survey
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Silver Island peaks are gold to those who love exploring remote Utah

sltrib.com

Early explorers and pioneers often found precisely the right words to describe land formations as they named features they encountered while trekking west.

On July 27, 1850, for example, Robert Chalmers led a group of about 300 gold miners headed to California across the Bonneville Salt Flats using the Hastings Cutoff. Seeing a mountain range devoid of perennial streams and with sparse vegetation, he called them the Barren Mountains.

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Utah Geological Survey
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Estonia company wants to pull 2.6 billion barrels of oil from Utah

deseretnews.com

An Estonia company that claims it has perfected turning oil shale into fuel oil during the past 30 years wants to mine rock from a remote region of the Uintah Basin, tapping 2.6 billion barrels of oil in the decades to come.

That staggering production, 50,000 barrels of oil per day, would represent one-third of Utah’s liquid fuel consumption and is touted to emerge from a processing and refining plant that would put power back into the energy grid.
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Utah Geological Survey
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Unconventional Uteland Butte Sparks New Utah Activity

aapg.org

Geologic intervals that may have looked a bit ho-hum when pierced by the drill bit on its way to the Real Target can, on second look, yield some pleasant surprises.

The Uteland Butte Member of the Eocene Green River Formation in the Uinta Basin in Utah is one of these.

It’s the basal member of the Green River, above the Upper Paleocene to Lower Eocene Wasatch Formation, which is predominantly a sandstone with red, green and gray shales deposited in a fluvial setting.

In contrast, the Uteland Butte is indicative of a lacustrine environment and is mainly limestone, dolomite, organic rich calcareous mudstone and siltstone, with some thin sandstones, according to AAPG member Michael Vanden Berg.

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Utah Geological Survey

Resource Potential and Best Practices for an Emerging Shale-Gas Play

Cretaceous Mancos Shale, Uinta Basin, Utah

A research team from the Utah Geological Survey and the University of Utah presented the results of their on-going work in the Uinta Basin to members of the petroleum industry recently. Meeting in Denver on June 28, the UGS and university geologists discussed their research on the oil and gas potential of the Cretaceous Mancos Shale, which lies several thousand feet below the surface in most of the Basin. Although oil and gas from shale have made energy headlines in many states, production from the Mancos will be a challenge, due in part to its thickness compared to other U.S. shale plays. About 20 geologists and engineers representing 10 companies with interests in the Uinta Basin attended the meeting. The research is being funded by the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America, through a contract from the U.S. Department of Energy.

See http://geology.utah.gov/emp/shalegas/cret_shalegas/index.htm for more information about the project.

Utah Geological Survey

Granite Mountain Hot Shot Crew Tribute

The Department of Natural Resources, The Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, and The Lone Peak Hot Shot Crew, honor the 19 Fire Fighters of the Granite Mountain Hot Shot Crew from Arizona who gave their lives serving others.

Utah Geological Survey

Chasing After Allosaurus

nationalgeographic.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little more than a year ago, in the corner of a Salt Lake City tattoo parlor spattered with sci-fi ephemera and fantasy art, I watched as artist Jon McAffee inked an Allosaurus onto my arm. The bloody art was a celebration of a dream realized and a promise to myself.
The giant, sauropod-rending theropod Allosaurus is the state fossil of Utah, and a symbol of why I transplanted myself to the state. I moved west for the dinosaurs. But the tattoo represents more than that. I’m not content only writing about dinosaurs. I need to seek them out; to dig them from their resting places and contribute something to our understanding of prehistory. Allosaurus – the most common terror of 150 million year old Utah – was at the top of the list of the dinosaurs I wanted to meet among the badlands.

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Utah Geological Survey
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Massive rockslide closes part of Dinosaur National Monument

fox13now.com

A massive rockslide closed part of Dinosaur National Monument.

The National Park Service says the slide is still active and rocks have been falling since Tuesday.

NPS says that on Tuesday, fishermen reported large boulders falling in the area. Park rangers investigated, but found no further activity.

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