Slickrock Trail near Moab, Grand County, Utah
Photographer: Jim Davis
Giant weathering pits or potholes like this one (about 16 feet across at the bottom) in the Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone typically form along fractures and joints atop fins, knolls, and rounded domes. Potholes are created through a combination of physical, chemical, and biological processes that weather and erode the rock and are home to a remarkable array of ancient aquatic organisms.
Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Kane County, Utah
Photographer: Tyler Knudsen
The narrow defile of Round Valley Draw exposes layers of ancient petrified dunes of the Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone. This is one of numerous slot canyons in Utah’s canyon country formed by the scouring action of infrequent but powerful flood waters.
Trilobite, House Range, Millard County, Utah
Photographer: Michael Vanden Berg
Cambrian-age shales from western Utah’s House Range contain millions of fossilized trilobites, such as this specimen of Elrathia kingi.
Mount Timpanogos, Wasatch Range, Utah County, Utah
Photographer: Jason Berry
Thousands of years of precipitation, wind, and glacial erosion have sculpted the east face of the Mount Timpanogos massif. The steep cliffs and snow-covered ledges of the Oquirrh Formation exposed on Roberts Horn (10,953 feet) are reminiscent of the Canadian Rockies.
San Rafael Reef, Emery County, Utah
Photographer: Tom Chidsey
The steeply dipping east flank of the San Rafael Swell is part of a large fold that formed in Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary time.
Wasatch-Cache National Forest, Weber County, Utah
Photographer: Ken Krahulec
Prominent cliffs of gently dipping Mississippian-age Deseret (upper) and Gardison (lower) Limestone are exposed along the walls of Ogden Canyon. These strata are part of a thrust sheet emplaced during the Sevier orogeny, a regional mountain-building event that affected much of western Utah between about 140 and 50 million years ago.
Crystal Geyser, Green River, Grand County, Utah.
Photographer: Taylor Boden
Colorful travertine (calcium carbonate) is deposited around cold-water, carbon-dioxide-driven Crystal Geyser.
Dixie National Forest, Kane County, Utah
Photographer: Tyler Knudsen
Golden aspen, blue sky, and dark basaltic lava provide dramatic contrast along the Navajo Lake Loop Trail on the Markagunt Plateau. The geologically young Quaternaryage lava erupted from a nearby cinder cone and flowed across Duck Creek, creating a natural dam that formed Navajo Lake.
Navajo Indian Reservation, San Juan County, Utah
Photographer: Phil Powlick
The wind has formed ripples on the surface of a dune in Monument Valley along the Utah-Arizona border.
Kolob Canyons, Zion National Park, Washington County, Utah
Photographer: Michael Vanden Berg
Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone forms the massive red cliffs of the often-overlooked Kolob Canyons area of Zion National Park. Hanging valleys are present where relatively small tributary streams have eroded downward at a slower rate than the larger trunk stream.
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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