Snow Canyon State Park, Washington County, Utah
Photographer: Michael Vanden Berg
Cross-bedded Navajo Sandstone in evening light, Snow Canyon State Park, Washington County, Utah
Tag Archive for: geology
Three Canyon, Emery County, Utah
Photographer: Sonja Heuscher
Flood-sculpted Navajo Sandstone in Three Canyon, Emery County, Utah
deseretnews.com
At any given moment in the foothills of Salt Lake City, DNA sequencing of a tiny kernel of corn could unlock new information about ancient agriculture in Utah.
By: Kurt Katzenstein, Ph.D
This 43-page report presents new Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) analysis of ground water subsidence in Cedar Valley in Iron County, Utah. This analysis is based on InSAR data from the ERS-1/2 satellites from 1992 to 2000, and the Envisat satellite from 2004 to 2010. A stack of five consecutive interferograms from the 1992-2000 time period and a stack of four consecutive interferograms from the 2004-2010 time period are included in this report; however, decorrelation in the vicinity of the Enoch graben makes an estimate of total deformation impossible using the stacks. In total, surface deformation has impacted approximately 256 km² (100 mi²) in Cedar Valley. Subsidence rates in the vicinity of the Enoch graben increased from approximately 0.5-1.0 cm/yr to roughly 1-2 cm/yr after 1999. Similarly, rates in central Cedar Valley show a general increasing trend after 1999, but rates appear to be more erratic than the other two sites. The spatial distribution of deformation in Cedar Valley correlates well with both the location of observed fissuring as well as the location of both municipal and private groundwater production wells. The fissuring observed near Quichapa Lake, as well as within the Enoch graben, is likely a direct result of groundwater pumping in these areas.
Zion National Park, Washington County, Utah
Photographer: Matt Affolter
Iron oxide staining highlights cross-bedding in the Navajo Sandstone, Zion National Park, Washington County, Utah
Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Kane County, Utah
Photographer: Tyler Knudsen
Powerful and turbulent flash floods carved this convoluted slot canyon into the Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone along Willis Creek. Differential weathering of alternating weak and more resistant sandstone layers formed the horizontal grooves etched into the canyon’s walls.
Dead Horse Lake, Uinta Mountains, Summit County, Utah
Photographer: Corey Unger
Dead Horse Lake and West Fork of the Blacks Fork drainage, Uinta Mountains, Summit County, Utah
Spinners Reservoir, Wasatch Plateau, Sanpete County, Utah
Photographer: Greg McDonald
Spinners Reservoir in the Muddy Creek drainage basin, Wasatch Plateau, Sanpete County, Utah
By: V. E. Langenheim, N.D. Athens, B.A. Churchel, H. Willis, N.E. Knepprath, J. Rosario, J. Roza, S.M. Kraushaar, and C.L. Hardwick
A new isostatic residual gravity map of the Newfoundland Mountains and east of the Wells 30×60 quadrangles of Utah is based on compilation of preexisting data and new data collected by the Utah and U.S. Geological Surveys. Pronounced gravity lows occur over Grouse Creek Valley and locally beneath the Great Salt Lake Desert, indicating significant thickness of low-density Tertiary sedimentary rocks and deposits. Gravity highs coincide with exposures of dense pre-Cenozoic rocks in the Newfoundland, Silver Island, and Little Pigeon Mountains. Gravity values measured on pre-Tertiary basement to the north in the Bovine and Hogup Mountains are as much as 10mGal lower. Steep, linear gravity gradients may define basin-bounding faults concealed along the margins of the Newfoundland, Silver Island, and Little Pigeon Mountains, Lemay Island and the Pilot Range.
A cast of part of the track slab showing several trackways of two different sizes of pterosaurs.
A 900 lb. slab of rock with some of the best preserved pterosaur (flying reptile) tracks ever recognized was discovered on State Land in the San Rafael Swell near the town of Ferron by a team from Marietta College (Ohio). This slab of rock from the Jurassic Summerville Formation preserves at least 9 separate trackways of 2 different sizes of pterosaurs that were walking along a tidal flat near the shore of the Curtis Sea. We know the tracks were made by pterosaurs because, in addition to the hind foot prints, there are tracks made by the wings. So, unlike birds that walk bipedally on their hind feet while folding their wings against their bodies, pterosaurs walked quadrupedally using their folded up wings to support the front of their bodies. This site and the tracks were documented in a scientific publication in 2004 (Mickelson and others, 2004).
Because of the scientific importance of this slab, a team from the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) collected it in 2004 so that it could be placed in the Natural History Museum of Utah (the repository for all of the fossils collected by the UGS from public lands in Utah). Due to its large size, this slab has been stored at the UGS’s Utah Core Research Center since collection.
Recently, the Natural History Museum of Utah agreed to loan the slab to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City for display in a new exhibit on pterosaurs. On November 14, a team from Terry Dowd Inc. (a fine art packing company) came to the UGS to package the slab in a custom crate so that it could be transported by truck to New York. The slab was cradled in ethafoam so that it will be well protected during the long drive to New York which began on November 19. Eventually, the slab will be returned to the Natural History Museum of Utah for display.
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.
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