Tag Archive for: geological

Utah Geological Survey

Glad You Asked—Glacial Striations and Slickensides

slickensidesWhat are those groovy rocks and how did they get that way?
Carole McCalla

On a hike around Lake Blanche below Sundial Peak in Big Cottonwood Canyon, a group of hikers came across long, straight, parallel grooves on a smooth, polished rock surface. Recalling another location where they had seen similar features at the foot of the mountains north of downtown Salt Lake City, they wondered if these markings were formed in the same way. Indeed, what exactly are they and how were they formed?

Although the smooth, grooved surfaces at these two locations are similar, they were actually formed in very different ways.

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Utah Geological Survey

Snake Valley Well Data Now Online

snake-valley-drillA 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.

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Utah Geological Survey

Calendar of Utah Geology 2010

The 2010 calendar from the Utah Geological Survey is now available. The ‘Calendar of Utah Geology 2010’ features photographs of geologic vistas from around Utah. UGS staff took all of the photos in the Calendar.

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Utah Geological Survey

SPECIAL STUDY 130

ss-130PALEOSEISMIC INVESTIGATION OF THE NORTHERN WEBER SEGMENT OF THE WASATCH FAULT ZONE AT THE RICE CREEK TRENCH SITE, NORTH OGDEN, UTAH
Christopher B. DuRoss, Stephen F. Personius, Anthony J. Crone, Greg N. McDonald, David J. Lidke

This report presents new paleoseismic information for the northern Weber segment of the Wasatch fault zone, collected as part of a joint Utah Geological Survey and U.S. Geological Survey fault-trench investigation at Rice Creek. This research, which was partially funded through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, expands the record of Weber-segment paleoearthquakes into the early Holocene, provides new timing and displacement data for the most recent earthquake, and helps reduce uncertainties in earthquake timing, recurrence, displacement, and vertical slip rate. These results are important for understanding segmentation of the northern Wasatch fault zone and for improving earthquake-hazard evaluations of the region.

CD (27 p. + 9 p. appendices, 2 pl.)

SS-130……….$19.95

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Utah Geological Survey

OPEN-FILE REPORT 556

ofr-556INTERIM GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE EPHRAIM 7.5-MINUTE QUADRANGLE, SANPETE COUNTY, UTAH
Hellmut H. Doelling, Paul A. Kuehne, and Douglas A. Sprinkel

The Ephraim quadrangle is located about 140 miles south-southeast of Salt Lake City in Sanpete County in central Utah. A diagonal line, extending NE-SW across the quadrangle, divides Sanpete Valley to the northwest, from the Wasatch Plateau. Sanpete Valley is a structural feature in which the San Pitch River flows south along its west margin. Quaternary fans form a gently sloping surface from the plateau front to the floodplain of the river.

Bedrock units are mostly of early Tertiary age. These include the (ascending) North Horn Formation (1100+ feet thick), Flagstaff Limestone (500–1000 feet thick), Colton Formation (1400+ feet thick), Green River Formation (620+ feet exposed), and the Crazy Hollow Formation (less than 50 feet exposed). Of these, the North Horn Formation may also have some Late Cretaceous strata at the base. The older three units are exposed in the Wasatch Plateau, the other two along the plateau-valley margin.

35 p., 1 pl., scale 1:24,000

OFR-556……… $9.95

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Utah Geological Survey

SURVEY NOTES volume 41, number 3

snt41-3GEOLOGIC HAZARDS IN UTAH

This issue contains:

    New Geologic Hazards Mapping in Utah

*Landslide Inventory Mapping in Twelvemile
Canyon, Central Utah
*Second Damaging Y Mountain Rock Fall in
Four Years
*Large Rock Fall Closes Highway Near
Cedar City, Utah
*Logan Landslide
*Teacher’s Corner
*GeoSights: Utah’s belly button, Upheaval Dome
*Glad You Asked: What should you do if you find a fossil?
Can you keep it? Should you report it?
*Energy News: Carbon Dioxide Sequestration Demonstration
Project Underway in Utah!
*Survey News
*New Publications

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Utah Geological Survey

OPEN-FILE REPORT 550

ofr-550SNOWMELT-INDUCED GROUND-WATER FLUCTUATIONS IN SELECTED NORTHERN UTAH LANDSLIDES—PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM THE 2007–08 LANDSLIDE WATER YEAR
Francis X. Ashland

The relationship between ground-water levels and late winter/early spring snowmelt was evaluated at selected northern Utah landslides where ground-water observation wells had previously been installed. The period of investigation between September 2007 and August 2008 was characterized by generally wetter-than-normal conditions in the fall and early winter and subsequent drier-than-normal conditions. Snowfall in early winter resulted in a sustained snowpack that lasted through early 2008 at low elevation and into the spring at higher elevation. Ground-water levels predictably rose with melting snow, but the proportion of the rise attributable to melting of the winter snowpack varied. Peak  ground-water levels consistently followed the onset of snowmelt, and locally occurred subsequent to local snowmelt around the vicinity of the observation well. At some locations, high ground-water levels were sustained for weeks or longer despite dry conditions in the spring and early summer.

print on demand (19 p.)

OFR-550……….$8.95

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Utah Geological Survey

A Tale of Two Breccia Types in the Mississippian Leadville Limestone, Lisbon and Other Fields, Paradox Basin, Southeastern Utah

David E. Eby, Thomas C. Chidsey, Jr., Douglas A. Sprinkel, & Michael D. Laine

Presented at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists annual convention, Denver, CO, June 2009.

ABSTRACT

Breccia associated with sediment-filled cavities is relatively common throughout the upper third of the Mississippian Leadville Limestone in Lisbon and other fields, Paradox Basin, southeastern Utah. These cavities or cracks are related to karstification of the Leadville during exposure in Late Mississippian time. Infilling of the cavities by detrital carbonate and siliciclastic sediments occurred before deposition of the Pennsylvanian Molas Formation. The transported material consists of poorly sorted detrital quartz grains, chert fragments, and clasts of carbonate and clay. The carbonate muds infilling the karst cavities are very finely crystalline and non-porous dolomites.

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Utah Geological Survey

The Gothic Shale at Greater Aneth Oil Field, Paradox Basin, Southeastern Utah: Seal for Hydrocarbons and Carbon Dioxide Geological Sequestration

Thomas C. Chidsey, Jr., Stephanie Carney, Jason Heath, and Thomas Dewers

Presented at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists annual convention, Denver, Colorado, June 9, 2009.

ABSTRACT

Greater Aneth oil field, Utah’s largest oil producer, was discovered in 1956 and has produced over 451 million barrels (bbls) of oil. Located in the Paradox Basin of southeastern Utah, Greater Aneth is a stratigraphic trap producing from the Pennsylvanian Paradox Formation. Because it represents an archetype oil field of the western U.S., Greater Aneth was selected to demonstrate combined enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and carbon dioxide (CO2 ) sequestration. The Aneth Unit in the northwestern part of the field has produced 149 million bbls of the estimated 450 million bbls of OOIP—a 33% recovery rate. The large amount of remaining oil made the Aneth Unit ideal to demonstrate both CO2 storage capacity and EOR by CO2 flooding.

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Utah Geological Survey

New Geologic Maps of Parts of Utah Valley and Adjacent Areas

The Utah Geological Survey’s newest geologic maps could prove useful in efforts to address geologic hazard and resource issues in Utah County. The maps cover parts of central and southern Utah Valley and surrounding areas.

The maps, each of which covers an area of about 55 square miles, include the Goshen Valley North (Map 230), Lincoln Point (Map 232), Provo (Map 233), Soldiers Pass (Map 235), and West Mountain (Map 234) 7.5’ quadrangles. Collectively, the maps include West Mountain, the southern part of the Lake Mountains, and parts of Goshen and Utah Valleys, as well as parts of the communities of Provo, Springville, Spanish Fork, and Payson.

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M-230
M-232
M-233
M-234
M-235