Join us for the Utah Friends of Paleontolgy Annual Meeting, April 27–29, at the Natural History Museum of Utah. This year’s theme is A DECADE OF DISCOVERY. Guest speaker is Joe Sertich, PhD, curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Visit www.utahpaleo.org/annual-meeting.html for details and registration.
UFOP is a statewide non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to preserving Utah’s fossil resources through public education and volunteer support of sponsoring institutions. Visit the new website at www.utahpaleo.org/index.html
Did you know that Utah has the third lowest price for home-heating natural gas in the nation and Utah is one of only five states that generates electricity from geothermal sources? Utah also enjoys the second lowest industrial electricity rate in the nation.
These are just some of the interesting facts found in the Utah Geological Survey’s (UGS) newly updated Utah’s Energy Landscape – a booklet designed to assist people in becoming more familiar with Utah’s diverse energy portfolio.
“With energy use and development at the forefront of many citizens’ minds, we thought it would be important for us to update this booklet, providing valuable, balanced energy information for the state of Utah,” said Mike Vanden Berg, UGS geologist.
Other interesting facts: in 2010, the majority of energy produced in Utah was from natural gas, surpassing coal for the first time in history and Utah has been a net-exporter of energy since 1980.
New geologic hazard maps of western Salt Lake Valley have just been released by the Utah Geological Survey (UGS). The 10 maps include the town of Magna and portions of Salt Lake City, West Valley City, Kearns, and West Jordan to the south.
“This area is expected to experience a significant population increase in the next several decades. As urbanization expands into areas less suited for development, geo hazards become of increasing concern in the planning, design, and construction of new facilities,” says Jessica Castleton, a UGS geologist.
The ten maps show the hazards of earthquakes, landslides and rock falls, floods, indoor radon, shallow groundwater, and problem soil and rock. Historically, flooding has been the most widespread and frequent hazard in the area. Landslides and rock falls will be of increasing concern as development moves into hill slope areas. And, earthquake hazards (mainly ground shaking, liquefaction, and surface fault rupture) have the potential for producing catastrophic property damage, economic disruption, and loss of life.
This Issue contains:
The “Glad You Asked” article, What is the correct name of…?, in a previous issue of Survey Notes addressed how to find the correct names of Utah’s geographic features using the U.S. Geological Survey’s Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
This article addresses how to propose a new name or change an existing geographic feature name.
Policies for naming geographic features have been established by the Domestic Names Committee (DNC) of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. Want to name a geographic feature after your boss or favorite geologist? First, wait until they have been deceased five years as features cannot be named after the living or recently deceased.
Additionally, they need to have had a direct and long-term association with the feature (tragic death at a site does not normally qualify). Exceptions are made for those who have made a significant contribution to the area or state and those “with an outstanding national or international reputation.”
Plants can enlighten geologists as to the rock beneath. Geobotany, also called phytogeography, is the scientific study of the distribution of plants.
Climate is considered the primary control on plant life, but within a particular climatic region the rock beneath soil—known as the parent material of soil—is typically the key factor influencing the vegetation growing above. Rock ultimately determines soil moisture characteristics, nutrient availability, and concentrations of essential elements.
Therefore, certain plants are associated with specific rock types. Limestone, dolomite, shale, gypsum, chert, gabbro, rock salt, and ultramafic rocks (e.g., dunite, peridotite, serpentinite), for example, are known for their distinctive floras. Since before the advent of agriculture humans have used plants as a guide to find sought-after rocks and minerals. Today, the methodologies of geobotany are still applicable, practical, and even cost-effective to the geologist.
Dramatic changes in vegetation can occur with changes in geology. In mountain ranges of the Great Basin, big sagebrush growing on sandstone abruptly transitions to bristlecone pine on dolomite. The distribution of the California poppy in Arizona closely correlates with copper mineralization, which in turn corresponds with fault lines.
Among the more commonly asked questions we receive at the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) are those dealing with the correct names of Utah’s geographic features.
Perhaps the best tool for answering these questions is a searchable database established and maintained by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which is part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This database, called the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), is available online at geonames.usgs. gov.
Following the American Civil War, a surge of exploration, mining, and settlement of western territories created many inconsistencies and contradictions in geographic names, which became a serious problem for surveyors, map makers, and scientists.
To address this problem, President Benjamin Harrison signed an executive order that created the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in 1890 (the current form of the board was established by a 1947 law). Technology, such as geographic information systems, global positioning systems, and the Internet increases the need for standardized data on geographic names, but it also makes accessing that data quick and easy through the GNIS.
What is an ice age? An ice age is a long interval of time (millions to tens of millions of years) when global temperatures are relatively cold and large areas of the Earth are covered by continental ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Within an ice age are multiple shorter-term periods of warmer temperatures when glaciers retreat (called interglacials or interglacial cycles) and colder temperatures when glaciers advance (called glacials or glacial cycles).
At least five major ice ages have occurred throughout Earth’s history: the earliest was over 2 billion years ago, and the most recent one began approximately 3 million years ago and continues today (yes, we live in an ice age!).
Currently, we are in a warm interglacial that began about 11,000 years ago. The last period of glaciation, which is often informally called the “Ice Age,” peaked about 20,000 years ago. At that time, the world was on average probably about 10°F (5°C) colder than today, and locally as much as 40°F (22°C) colder.
examiner.com
As it turns out, the limping squirrel idea (see earlier article) wasn’t too far off in guessing what animal made the tracks on the stones in Memory Grove’s sidewalk. According to University of Utah student Tracy Thompson, the tracks were most likely made during the early Jurassic period, about 190 million years ago. Tracy, and Jim Davis of the Utah Geological Survey, helped to track down relevant information such as the probable origin of the rocks – from a quarry in the Wasatch Front, above Red Butte Gardens or near Oakley. Tracy suggests they are from the Nugget formation, a northern relative of the Navaho red rock formations so prominent in southern Utah, as in Zion Canyon, and Arizona.
The Utah Geological Survey (UGS) is a division of the Utah Department of Natural Resources. Several specialized programs comprise the UGS: Data Management, Energy & Minerals, Geologic Hazards, Geologic Information & Outreach, Geologic Mapping, Groundwater & Wetlands, and Paleontology.
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