FOSSIL ENVIRONMENTS IN UTAH
Carole McCalla
Colorful images show Utah’s different environments over the past 500 million years. Selected fossils from each environment are identified and range from ocean trilobites, to fresh-water fish, to plants, to dinosaurs, and Ice Age mammals.
1 p. (2 sided) flyer
PI-93……….free
Does Utah have the biggest natural arch in the world? Yes. Sort of. Depends on your definition of “biggest”.
Mapping geologists with the Utah Geological Survey recently published an article in the May 2009 edition of Survey Notes that attempts to answer that question. “In nearly three decades of working in Utah’s geology, I have been asked many times, ‘What is the largest/longest/biggest arch in the world?'” says Grant Willis, article author and UGS mapping geologist. “For years I told people it was Landscape Arch in Arches National Park.”
Related Links
Natural Arch and Bridge Society Web site
Survey Notes- May 2009 article
Local wet conditions in northern Utah have caused some landslides to reactivate along with other types of shallow slope failures. Areas with active landslides in early 2009 include Ogden Valley in eastern Weber County, western Morgan County, southeastern Davis County, and Spanish Fork Canyon in Utah County. Examples include:
1. reactivation or acceleration of persistently moving historical landslides,
2. minor movement of landslides in highway cut slopes,
3. local highway embankment and rock-wall failures, and
4. local shallow slides on steep slopes in pre-existing landslides.
GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE WEST MOUNTAIN QUADRANGLE, UTAH COUNTY, UTAH
Donald L. Clark
The West Mountain quadrangle covers West Mountain and parts of Utah and Goshen Valleys along the Interstate 15 corridor. Improvements were made to the bedrock structure and stratigraphy, and to mapping of Quaternary surficial deposits. The mountain consists of folded and faulted Paleozoic strata, largely of the Oquirrh Group. The valleys are mostly covered by Quaternary deposits related to the Bonneville lake cycle, as well as by some younger deposits of Utah Lake and other surficial processes. A large aggregate quarry is located at the south end of the mountain at Keigley. This map is part of ongoing work by the UGS to complete a regional-scale map of the Provo 30′ x 60′ quadrangle.
3 pl., 1:24,000, ISBN 1-55791-784-1
M-234……….$15.95
Geologists are digging into the Washington fault about three miles south of the Utah-Arizona border in Arizona. “The fault is three miles east of St. George and runs through the nearby city of Washington,” said Bill Lund, UGS senior geologist. “There is evidence of surface rupturing earthquakes. Our goal is to figure out how often the fault has moved and how large the earthquakes have been. That will help us understand the potential for future earthquake activity.”
GEOLOGIC MAP OF PART OF THE LEES FERRY AREA, GLEN CANYON NATIONAL RECREATION AREA, COCONINO COUNTY, ARIZONA
D.A. Phoenix
This CD contains a digital dataset of a geologic map of the Lees Ferry area, Arizona, and is one of several maps that together provide complete GIS geologic map coverage of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The Utah Geological Survey Geologic Mapping Program produced the map from U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1137, scale 1:24,000, published in 1963. Geographic Information System (GIS) files are provided as ESRI® file geodatabase and shapefiles. Metadata, PDF, text, and image files are included to help the user view, evaluate, and utilize the spatial data. Adobe Reader® is required to view the PDF files and can be downloaded at www.adobe.com. Specialized GIS software is required to utilize the GIS files.
CD (2 pl., 1:24,000 [contains GIS files]), ISBN 1-55791-809-0
MP-09-2DM……….$24.95
The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was signed into law as of February 17, 2009. Portions of the ARRA energy funds will be directly administered by the Utah State Energy Program (USEP).
GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE KELTON PASS QUADRANGLE, BOX ELDER COUNTY, UTAH, AND CASSIA COUNTY, IDAHO
Michael L. Wells
The Kelton Pass quadrangle, located at the east end of the Raft River Mountains, is a classic metamorphic core complex, in part exemplified by the Raft River detachment fault. The area contains Archean metamorphic, Proterozoic metasedimentary, and Paleozoic carbonate and clastic rocks that were intensely deformed and thinned by alternating episodes of contraction and extension during the late Mesozoic to Cenozoic. Miocene to Quaternary sediments fill structural basins, and late Pleistocene Lake Bonneville deposits blanket low areas.
CD (22 p., 3 pl.), ISBN 1-55791-807-4
MP-09-3……….$19.95
PROVISIONAL GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE TINTIC MOUNTAIN QUADRANGLE, JUAB AND UTAH COUNTIES, UTAH
Jeffrey D. Keith, David G. Tingey, Judith L. Hannah, Steven T. Nelson, Daniel K. Moore, Teresa M. Cannan, Alexander P. MacBeth, and Tamalyn Pulsifer
15 p., 1 pl., 1:24,000
OFR-545……….$9.95
PROVISIONAL GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE CHAMPLIN PEAK QUADRANGLE, JUAB AND MILLARD COUNTIES, UTAH
Janice M. Hayden, Timothy F. Lawton, and Donald L. Clark
The Champlin Peak quardrangle is located in central Utah within the eastern Basin and Range Province, and includes the northern Canyon Mountains, southeastern Gilson Mountains, and Sevier and Leamington Canyons. The map area displays structures of the Sevier fold-thrust belt, including the Canyon Range syncline, Leamington Canyon fault, Tintic Valley thrust fault, and Leamington antiform. Cretaceous conglomerate, derived from thrust sheets durin Sevier deformation, unconformably overlies Cambrian strata of the Canyon Range thrust plate. Surficial deposits include alluvial fans, fluvial sediments of the Sevier River, and deltaic sediments of Lake Bonneville. Limestone, shale, and quartzite are quarried for use in a local cement plant.
This CD contains three plates: the geologic map at 1:24,000 scale and two explanation plates, all in PDF format. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required for viewing the plates and can be downloaded at www.adobe.com.
CD(3 pl., 1:24,000), ISBN 1-55791-779-5,
MP-08-1………$14.95
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.