Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah
Photographer: Marshall Robinson; © 2015
Delicate Arch, a 65-foot-tall natural arch in Arches National Park, Grand County, is composed of Jurassic-age sandstone including the Slick Rock Member of the Entrada Sandstone (base and pedestals) and Moab Member of the Curtis Formation (bridge).
Wishing our Tuesday was spent out there! The weather just gets nicer and nicer by the day. What Utah places do you want to explore this year?
Capitol Reef National Park, Wayne County, Utah
Photographer: Tyler Knudsen; © 2015
Fluted crimson walls of Jurassic-age Entrada Sandstone rim Cathedral Valley in the remote northern part of Capitol Reef National Park. The near-vertical Entrada walls owe their existence to the overlying white Curtis Formation that serves as a protective cap rock.
Cathedral Valley Overlook, Capitol Reef National Park, Wayne County, Utah
Photographer: Gregg Beukelman; © 2015
Light-brown sandstone of the Jurassic-age Curtis Formation caps the underlying reddish siltstone of the Entrada Formation in Cathedral Valley. In places, only boulders remain of the resistant cap rock as the Curtis Formation slowly weathers away.
San Rafael Swell, Emery County, Utah
Photographer: Taylor Boden; © 2014
Erosion has exposed and sculpted Jurassic-age sedimentary rocks in the southern San Rafael Swell. Near Goblin Valley State Park, towering Wild Horse Butte comprises the Morrison and Summerville Formations (top cliff layers), Curtis Formation (middle slope layer), and Entrada Sandstone (bottom reddish layer).
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.