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WHY IS BEAR LAKE SO BLUE? AND OTHER COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS OF THE WONDERS OF BEAR LAKE

kcsg.com

Beautiful Bear Lake is called “the Caribbean of the Rockies” because of its vivid turquoise-blue water, but why is Bear Lake so Blue? A new booklet published by the Utah Geological Survey answers this and 16 other commonly asked questions about the lake.

The 41-page booklet is filled with dozens of photographs, maps, and figures. It contains information on geology, biology, hydrology, weather, recreation, history, the Ice Age, the modern and prehistoric connection to the Bear River, and laws and regulations governing the use of the lake. Those with a keen eye might even spot the mysterious Bear Lake Monster hidden within its pages.

In addition to its scenic splendor, Bear Lake is a scientific wonder. It is Utah’s deepest and one of North America’s oldest lakes, older than Great Salt Lake, older than the Great Lakes. Bear Lake’s great age makes it a history book of past climates and environments, a hot topic as of late. For this reason the lake was recently the subject of intensive scientific study. Cores drilled in lake-bottom mud show a continuous record back some 250,000 years, but the lake-bottom mud continues beyond what the deepest core (393 feet) could penetrate, and the lake is likely twice that old, perhaps even several million years old. Why is Bear Lake So Blue? highlights this and other findings of the study.

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SNAKE VALLEY GROUND WATER DATA AVAILABLE ONLINE

ksl.com

Water watchers worried about wells in Snake Valley — the focus of a controversial plan to pump water from an aquifer that straddles the Utah-Nevada border — can with just a few clicks track water level trends out in Utah’s Great Basin region.

The Utah Geological Survey is making its ground-water monitoring data available online for Snake Valley and adjacent areas as well as the water level in wells near landslides along the Wasatch Front.

Users can find wells and springs using a map interface, view graphs of the data and even download graphic data in several formats.

Critics fear taking the water will drawn down the aquifer, jeopardizing the needs of area water users, which include ranchers and farmers in Utah.

A press release by the survey said it has made the information available in part due to a groundswell of interest in a proposed water-development project in Snake Valley, which straddles the border of western Utah and eastern Nevada.

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APRIL SHOWERS BRING UTAH MUDSLIDES

deseretnews.com

With moisture-laden soil across the state receiving fresh bursts of precipitation this week, it’s not just floods that loom as a threat for Utahns, but mudslides as well.

“It’s not too soon to say there are potential problem areas,” said Rich Giraud, senior geologist with the Utah Geologic Survey’s geologic hazards program.

April is typically the month along the Wasatch Front for slide activity, but Giraud said there have already been some problems reported, with slides in North Salt Lake and on transportation corridors such as I-80 at Parleys Summit.

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CEDAR HILLS CLARIFIES REQUIREMENT FOR BUILDING ON HILLSIDES

heraldextra.com

The recent earthquakes and tsunamis in other parts of the world have made some people along the Wasatch Front wonder if they are ready for a natural disaster in their own community. Many have checked their emergency kits, food storages and even building foundations in preparation.

In Cedar Hills, there is a different worry involving a recurring landslide, with the latest occurrence in August 2005 that caused the evacuation of many homes and families.

As part of precautions, the Cedar Hills Planning Commission took action on Tuesday to recommend adding a new paragraph to the current City Code describing how to measure the required 30 percent grade for building.

The code was made to stop developments from inching up toward dangerous ground and onto areas that may be affected by the landslide.

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EXPLORE UTAH'S TERRAIN AT THE TOUCH OF AN APP

www.univers.byu.edu

You are in Moab for the weekend, you have slick-rocked all day and now you consult your new smart phone application to find the next place to see and adventure to be had.

The “Utah GeoSites” app allows students to navigate to more than 30 geological sites across Utah right from the touch of an Android phone.

The GeoSites app is free to download and provides three interactive maps detailing how to get to sites, interesting facts about how the sites were formed and what cool things there are to explore on location.
“I have been down in Escalante and Moab and have been stuck down there without knowing what to do. It would be nice knowing what’s around,” said Olivia Crellin, BYU student and avid road-tripper from Colorado. “If I had an Android phone I would for sure use the app because there are books and maps that have specific info to regions, but it would be nice to have everything in one database.”

Marshall Robinson, creator of the Android app, surveys Utah geological sites year round for the Utah Geological Survey. With each site he visits, Robinson uploads the history of each natural land creation, the photos he’s taken and other interesting facts about the area to the Utah Geological Survey website.

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JAPAN QUAKE PROMPTS WARNING FOR UTAHNS NEAR FAULT

abc4.com

Japan’s magnitude-8.9 earthquake has promptedwarnings from experts that a major temblor along Utah’s Wasatch Front could kill thousands of people and cause billions of dollars in damage.

While Utah is unlikely to experience a quake as powerful as the one that devastated Japan, the state could be rocked by one of up to a magnitude of 7.5, the Standard-Examiner of Ogden reported.

Adolph Yonkee, a Weber State University geosciences professor, said that kind of quake could be produced by the Wasatch fault line and could strike tomorrow or 500 years from now. The fault runs about 240 miles south of Idaho to central Utah.

“We don’t have as big of earthquakes here, but a major earthquake in Utah would still be serious and produce a lot of damage,” Yonkee said.

Tony Lowry, a Utah State University geophysicist, said a major quake would devastate Utah and destroy many buildings, especially those built before quake safety requirements were imposed in 1989.

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DO YOU HAVE EARTHQUAKE INSURANCE

sltrib.com

Thinking a bit about earthquakes today? A lot of people don’t realize that earthquake damage is not covered by basic homeowner’s insurance policies. If an earthquake damages or destroys your home and you don’t have earthquake coverage, you’re still obligated to pay your mortgage – even if you can no longer live in your home.

Whether or not earthquake insurance makes sense for you, however, depends a few things, such as where you live and how worried you are about earthquakes. Your financial situation is another factor, because earthquake coverage isn’t cheap. Many people pay $300 to $500 or more per year to be covered in the event of earthquakes. That’s in addition to the cost of your basic homeowner’s insurance policy. (Many major insurance companies do not actually sell earthquake insurance in Utah, but they can refer you to a specialty company that does sell the coverage.)

For more information about the risk of earthquakes in Utah, go here. The Utah Geological Survey also has a lot of good information here. The Utah Department of Insurance also has some information you may want to read here. Another good source of information is your homeowner’s insurance agent.

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NEW STUDY RELEASED ON 'THUNDER THIGHS' DINO IN UT

deseretnews.com

Fossil remains of an athletic sauropod with a potentially mighty kick found in eastern Utah offer a rare bounty of clues into how four-legged herbivores thrived, according to a new study of the discovery.

The results, published this week in the British journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, show that an unusually large hip bone compared to other sauropods could mean that the Brontomerus Mcintoshi had powerful hind legs to kick away predators, such as raptors.

“This is a very exciting discovery, because a majority of sauropods were known to have lived during the Jurassic period, but these fossils show us that they lived well into the early Cretacious period,” said Mathew Wedel, an assistant professor of anatomy at the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif.

The fossils were excavated by American scientists in the mid-1990s.

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*correction: Jim Kirkland is the state paleontologist for the Utah Geological Survey.

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HOUSE DAMAGED IN LANDSLIDE TORN DOWN

ksl.com

Crews tore down a house that fell victim to a slow-moving landslide in North Salt Lake.

The home was one of several in the Spring Hill development in North Salt Lake that suffered damage with the slow movement of the hill.

It took demolition crews less than an hour to tear down a home on Spring Hill Circle Thursday.

Just before noon, they collapsed the home into the foundation. They will then grind up the debris before hauling it away. At a later date, crews will return to the site of the home and remove the foundation and the concrete.

The company that has been working on the demolition have been contracted by the bank that now owns the home after the resident owners moved out about six months ago.

The contractor told KSL the home was coming down one way or another because of the slow-moving landslide that’s been plaguing this area for the past decade and forced many families in the area to leave their homes.

The landslide has already caused a lot of damage. Back in 2009, geologists estimated the landslide was moving about 2 inches a week, equal to about 9 feet a year.

Neighbors say this home is the second in the neighborhood to come down. It’s unclear at this time whether or not other home are scheduled to be demolished.

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CREWS PREPARE TO DEMOLISH LANDSLIDE-DAMAGED NORTH SALT LAKE HOME

ksl.com

Demolition crews today are preparing to knock down a house damaged by a slow-moving landslide in the Springhill area.

City manager Barry Edwards said a recent report from the Utah Geological Survey indicated there had been “significant movement of the ground” in the past 30 days, creating additional damage to homes in the North Salt Lake neighborhood.

“There’s movement underneath the house,” Edwards said. “It’s pushing the house down the hill.”

Front pillars recently have fallen from the bank-owned home near 150 South and 400 East. In addition, the floor has buckled, and windows have broken.

“It’s getting in a position where the house itself poses somewhat of a safety hazard,” he said.

The bank obtained a demolition permit from the city, and crews were waiting for the gas to be shut off to the home before beginning demolition work.

Edwards said there are other houses in the area that are in similar condition and also should be torn down. However, owners of those homes haven’t yet said that’s what they want to do.

“We haven’t pressed (the issue) because the people who lived in those houses have already been financially stressed,” he said. “We don’t want to add any financial burden on them right now.”

According to the Utah Geological Survey’s website, the state agency has been monitoring conditions in the Springhill neighborhood since 1998. Residents first began noticing cracks related to minor movement in their homes about a year earlier.

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