Tag Archive for: geology

Utah Geological Survey

UTAH ELECTRICITY RATES AMONG LOWEST IN THE WEST

deseretnews.com

Paying to keep the lights on can put a strain on many a household budget. But some Utahns might be surprised to learn that their electricity rates are among the lowest in the West.

Last week, Rocky Mountain Power announced it would be seeking a $232.4 million general rate hike, which would increase the typical household power bill by about $10 per month.

The company said the reasons for the rate hike request are the ever-increasing costs to produce electricity and heavy investments in equipment to serve customers. The funding is also needed to maintain and upgrade existing facilities as well as increase capacity to meet increasing customer demand.

That would seem all well and good, but the announcement was met with skepticism by some ratepayers who thought their rates were already high enough. The Utah Public Service Commission will have 240 days from the date of submission to review the request before deciding how much of an increase will be implemented sometime this fall.

While some Utahns may believe they pay a pretty penny to power their homes, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration would suggest otherwise when compared to neighboring states and the rest of the country.

Among eight states that make up the Mountain Region, Utah paid the second lowest residential electricity rates at 8.51 cents per kilowatt-hour as of October 2010. Only Idaho had a lower residential rate at 8.02 cents per kilowatt-hour — also the lowest in the nation — while Nevada paid the highest regional residential rates at 12.18 cents per kilowatt-hour.

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Utah Geological Survey

REPORT FINDS UTAH SCHOOLS AT RISK IN EARTHQUAKE

necn.com

A volunteer panel that assesses earthquake risks in Utah said it examined nearly 130 school buildings in the state and found more than half fail to meet federal earthquake safety guidelines.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported Friday that 77 of 128 Utah school buildings examined by the Utah Seismic Safety Commission failed the so-called sidewalk surveys last fall.

Officials say most school buildings are made of unreinforced bricks and blocks. They’d be unlikely to stand up to a significant temblor.

The 15-member commission — made up of engineers, architects, government officials and others — reviews earthquake hazards and advises lawmakers, and state and local agencies. Its latest findings are in a report called “Utah Students at Risk: The Earthquake Hazards of School Buildings.”

Using a computerized seismic evaluation tool approved by FEMA, the engineers found that 51 of the 128 school buildings were strong enough to withstand a significant temblor. Another 77 buildings had a 1-in-100 chance of collapsing during the biggest earthquake that is considered likely.

The Utah Geological Survey and U.S. Geological Survey have said an earthquake about 500 years ago tore a deep gash along a 35-mile section of the Wasatch Fault known as the Weber segment.

The quake was likely a magnitude 6.5 or 7 — large enough to cause major damage if it occurred today.

Project engineer Barry Welliver says all 1,000 school buildings in the state need to be checked.

“We’re trying to say you can’t afford to do nothing,” said Welliver, a member of the Structural Engineers Association of Utah, which co-sponsored the report.

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Utah Geological Survey

NEW DINOSAURS DISCOVERED

thefutureofthings.com

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and the Utah Geological Survey in Salt Lake City discovered and classified the skeletons of two new species of dinosaurs. Dated to the Early Cretaceous Epoch (approximately 145.5 to 99.6 million years ago), both are beaked herbivorous dinosaurs classified as iguanodonts. The two skeletons were found at different sites in Utah, one near Green River and the other near Arches National Park.

The first new species of dinosaur is hippodraco scutodens. The first part of the name means “horse dragon,” and the second “shield tooth.” The scientists chose the name because the shape of the skull resembles that of a horse and its tooth crowns look much like oblong shields. The dinosaur also has a shelf of bone extending along the lower jaw parallel to its teeth, something not found in other iguanodonts. Paleontologists recovered nearly the entire skeleton, including the skull, vertebrae, and limbs, although many of the bones were crushed. It is estimated at 15 feet long, although scientists do not think the dinosaur was fully grown when it died, so adult hippodraco dinosaurs may have been larger. The dinosaur discovered in Utah is believed to be approximately 125 million years old.

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Utah Geological Survey

IS TAR SAND MINING VIABLE IN UTAH

newwest.net

Tar sands development often conjures images of a bleak northeast Alberta landscape, scraped and scalped of its vegetation after being converted to sprawling strip mines from which much of Canadian oil imports to the United States originate.

But if a proposal by Alberta-based Earth Energy Resources survives environmentalists’ appeal, eastern Utah’s canyon country could become a backdrop for the only tar sands mine in the United States.

In 2009, Utah mining regulators approved EER’s proposed PR Spring Mine on state institutional trust land in Uintah and Grand counties northwest of Grand Junction, Colo. If the mine is successful, it could prove the viability of a Utah tar sands industry, possibly bringing a new level of energy development to the Colorado Plateau.

Tar sand, also called oil sand, bituminous sand or asphaltic sandstone, is oil-laden sedimentary rock most commonly extracted in Canada. Utah’s tar sands, however, are generally half as rich as Canada’s and require more processing to extract the oil.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that Utah tar sands harbor between 12 billion and 19 billion barrels of oil, with at least 2 billion barrels to be found at PR Spring.

The push to develop tar sands in Utah is a fairly recent phenomenon.

Determined to find a way for American oil shale and tar sands to become sources of domestic energy production, Congress required the U.S. Department of Energy to start up a tar sands and oil shale leasing program as part of the 2005 Energy Policy Act.

In 2008, the DOE completed an environmental study of its tar sands and oil shale program, outlining 11 potential tar sands development areas in Utah, the only state in which tar sands are thought to be economically recoverable.

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Utah Geological Survey

MIDSIZE QUAKE HITS SOUTHWESTERN UTAH MONDAY MORNING

sltib.com

A 4.6 magnitude earthquake hit southwestern Utah early Monday morning.

The 5:06 a.m. quake could be felt in the sparsely populated area about eight miles northwest of Circleville and eight miles west of Junction. Several people called the Seismograph Stations at the University of Utah to report they experienced the pre-dawn shaking. No damage or injuries have been reported.

“It’s a moderate-sized earthquake, so we’re unlikely to have significant damage,” said Keith Koper, director of the U.’s Seismograph Stations. “But people will definitely be aware of it if they are relatively close to the epicenter.”

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Utah Geological Survey

LATEST UTAH DINOSAUR BRINGS NUMBER OF NEW SPECIES NAMED IN 2010 TO EIGHT

sltrib.com

Had Utah’s newest dinosaur not gone extinct, it might have evolved into a highly intelligent creature, scientists speculate.

“Its skull is six times larger than other dinosaurs,” said Scott Foss, regional paleontologist with the Bureau of Land Management.

But Geminiraptor suarezarum’s large brain case is not its only unique feature. It had an inflatable upper jaw bone and feathers on its arms and legs and, as Utah’s eighth new dinosaur species of the year, it’s a record breaker, too.

“One [find] is unusual, eight is outstanding,” said Scott Foss, regional paleontologist with the Bureau of Land Management, of the newest creature featured in a paper published Wednesday in the online journal PLoS ONE.

The upper jaw bone of the meat-eating creature, small enough to fit in the palm of the hand, was discovered in 2004 in a formation in the Crystal Geyser area near Green River, where it lived 125 million years ago. It is the oldest species found in North America belonging to the “raptor-like” troodon group of dinosaurs.

Foss said worldwide there about 700 named dinosaurs.

“This string of dinosaur descriptions means that a full one percent of all known dinosaur species were described from lands in Utah during 2010,” said Foss. “That’s what’s interesting and fun about this.”

Seven of the new species were found on BLM land and one in Dinosaur National Monument.

State paleontologist Jim Kirkland, who co-authored the paper and was at the site when the discovery was made, said the jawbone is hollow and could be inflated “like a balloon.”

Kirkland said he is unaware of such a characteristic in other fossilized dinosaurs and can only speculate on its purpose.

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Utah Geological Survey

TWO NEW DINOSAUR SPECIES FOUND AT UTAH SITE

sltrib.com

Utah’s Cedar Mountain Formation has yielded two new species of iguanodont, cousins of the famous iguanodon, the plant-eating, beaked-mouthed dinosaur known for its ability to walk on its hind legs.

Working on federal land in two eastern Utah sites, teams led by the Utah Geological Survey discovered the two specimens in 2004. It took years of careful fieldwork to extract the bones, which include a nearly complete skull, and prepare them for study.

The most carefully dated of the two was discovered near Arches National Park by Andrew Milner, of the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site. It was estimated to be 124 million years old and dubbed Hippodraco.

The survey’s Don DeBlieux discovered the other specimen near Green River. This one was dubbed Iguanacolossus.

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Utah Geological Survey

APPLIANCE REBATE PROGRAM TO END SOON

deseretnews.com

A state incentive program that gives cash to people who trade in their old, energy inefficient appliances is coming to a close.

Cash for Appliances, a popular program that has helped more that 12,000 people cut energy costs by upgrading to Energy Star rated appliances, has less that 10 percent of its funds remaining. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and operated by the Utah State Energy Program.

Applications for the program are available at www.cashforappliancesutah.com and must be completed, signed and accompanied by all required documentation including model and serial numbers for all new appliances.

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Utah Geological Survey

73 UTAH SCHOOLS TO GET SOLAR PANELS TO GENERATE ENERGY, TEACH CHILDREN

deseretnews.com

A wet and gloomy Monday, the sun nowhere in sight, was the setting for the announcement at Hillside Middle School that 73 solar panels will be installed atop 73 schools across Utah.

The solar photovoltaic arrays will be placed on the roof of at least one school in each of Utah’s 41 school districts to generate renewable energy for the schools and teach schoolchildren about energy efficiency and alternatives.

“I think it’s really cool that as a school, we can make a difference by being ‘green’ and not wasting as much energy,” seventh-grader Annie Connolly said. “It’s cool that we are different from other schools that pollute the earth.”

“This is an incredibly exciting day,” said Gil Sperling, a U.S. Department of Energy senior adviser for energy efficiency and renewable energy. “As far as I know, Utah is the first state in the country to systematically implement this kind of program.”

Educating students and teachers about energy is one of the main goals of the Solar for Schools programs.

“Solar for Schools gives us an opportunity to educate students about the role of energy in their lives,” said Elise Brown, renewable energy coordinator for the Utah Department of Natural Resources. “It is our hope that students who benefit from this program will go on to inform and inspire others about this very important topic.”

More than 200 Utah teachers will attend a class this year sponsored by the National Energy Foundation. They will learn how solar, wind and geothermal energies work, with a special focus on the implications of renewable energy in Utah.

Sperling said the Solar for Schools program has four major benefits — strengthening the economy by reducing dependence on imported oil, offsetting carbon emissions by the increased use of solar energy, creating jobs, and increasing awareness and education about energy efficiency.

The DOE estimates that over a 20-year span, the effect of the Solar for Schools program will be the equivalent of planting 11,000 trees.

“This program is about educating students, teachers, parents and the community at large,” Sperling said. “People are going to look at these panels and say, ‘This is what we ought to be doing.’ ”

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Utah Geological Survey

PREPARE YOUR FAMILY FOR A DISASTER IN YOUR AREA

mormontimes.com

If highway construction projects have taught commuters anything, it’s that even a single lane restriction can bring traffic to a crawl. Now imagine the impact on your commute because of a unexpected force of nature — like a strong earthquake, a blizzard, flooding rains or a tornado.

Along Utah’s Wasatch front, a fault spans 240 miles, and 80 percent of Utah residents live along its path.

The Utah Geological Survey notes the fault “has the dubious distinction of being one of the longest and most active normal faults in the world.”

Other areas of the country are also near fault lines. And along the Wasatch fault, several dozen freeway overpasses cross the main corridors near which the fault travels.

Other areas are more prone to conditions that tornadoes form in. And others live in the paths of hurricanes. Still, blizzards, fires and other storms can prompt evacuations or paralyze an area.

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