"Spot the Rock" April 10, 2014

We’re back with another round of “Spot the Rock”! Where do you think these red rocks reside?

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UPDATE: Location Revealed

We’re not sure if last week’s “Spot the Rock” was too easy or too hard since we only got one guess (though that one guess was correct…so contrats!) This is a view of part of Sheep Creek Canyon Geological Area, located west of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area in Daggett County.

The deep red rock layers at left in the photo belong to the 770 to 1,600 million year old Uinta Mountain Group. The ridge forming gray rocks immediately to the right are part of the roughly 330 to 354 million year old Madison Limestone (this cliff is locally called The Palisades). Separating the two units is a 450 million year unconformity and the southwest branch of the Uinta fault zone.

This road-side overlook also provides a somber view of the site of Utah’s most deadly landslide. On June 9, 1965 a debris flow swept through the former Palisade campground (bottom left of photo) destroying the campground and killing seven campers.

For more information, a geologic road guide for the area can be found here:http://www.utahgeology.org/road_logs/uga-29_first_edition/OP_guide/sheepcrk.pdf