Middle Springs, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Juab County, Utah
Photographer: Matt Affolter
Tag Archive for: Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge
Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Juab County, Utah.
Photographer: Michael Vanden Berg
Baked by the summer sun, clay on the floor of an ephemeral pond in Utah’s west desert produces an expanse of mud cracks. Such playas, or pans, are common throughout the Great Basin; many, like the Bonneville Salt Flats, are floored by saline minerals.
A new interactive map of Snake Valley with all of the well data, has recently been added to the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) Web site. The West Desert Ground-Water Monitoring Network is almost complete and updates are available on a newly developed Google Earth™ interactive map. The network will monitor ground water for more than 50 years in Snake Valley, western Millard County and adjacent areas. The $3.5 million network is a response to planned ground-water development in east-central Nevada. The Utah Geological Survey will upload data onto its Web site.
Objectives included: assessing the potential impacts of pumping on ground water and spring flow in Utah; evaluating flow patterns in the aquifer from Snake Valley to Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge; determining baseline water-level and chemical trends in local and regional ground-water flow systems; and, measuring the capacity of the aquifers to transmit and store ground water.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE UTAH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
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.