Near the base of Notch Peak, pink Jurassic-age granite intrudes much older thinly bedded gray argillite and white marble of the Cambrian-age Marjum Formation. Deep in the Earth’s crust 170 million years ago, high heat and fluids from the granite metamorphosed the surrounding rock, turning limestone into marble and shale into argillite.
House Range, Millard County, Utah. Photo by Mark Milligan.
House Range, Millard County, Utah
Photographer: J. Lucy Jordan; © 2014
Where’s winter? On the upside, today feels a little like this photo—it is gorgeous out there. The mid-week peak is here with another weekend on the way. Who’s got outdoor adventures in their forecast??
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Hidden away in the House Range 50 miles west of Delta, nearly to the Nevada border, is one of the highest cliffs in North America with a vertical drop of 2,200 feet!
House Range, Juab and Millard Counties, Utah
Photographer: Jim Davis; © 2012
Swasey Mountain and the House Range, Juab and Millard Counties.
Happy New Year, everyone!! Here’s a beautiful photo to start out the new year.
House Range, Millard County, Utah
Photographer: Tyler Knudsen
Sawtooth Mountain, which exhibits desert varnish and spheroidal weathering along joints, is a granitic intrusion in the House Range, Millard County.
House Range, Millard County, Utah.
Photographer: Michael Vanden Berg
The Notch Peak quartz monzonite (foreground) was magma during Jurassic times and intruded into Cambrian limestone and dolomite hundreds of millions of years after the Cambrian rock was deposited as sediment in tropical seas.
Notch Peak, House Range, Millard County, Utah
Photographer: Michael Vanden Berg
Abundant trilobite fossils, including Elrathia kingi shown here, can be found within the Wheeler Shale east of Notch Peak in the House Range.
Many of the dry desert peaks of western Utah tell a story of shallow tropical seas. As much as 500 million years of deep burial, uplift, and erosion have changed layers of organic mud to cliffs and ledges of layered limestone. Closer inspection reveals abundant fossils, evidence of ancient sea life.
Notch Peak National Natural Landmark, House Range, Millard County, Utah
Photographer: Matt Affolter
Cambrian- to Ordovician-aged carbonate rocks (limestone and dolomite) make up Notch Peak, where a 2,200-foot cliff (possibly the tallest carbonate cliff in North America) leads to a deep canyon on the west side of the peak. Pink, Jurassic-aged granite is exposed at the foot of the mountain, and scattered deposits of white, clayey marl deposited in Lake Bonneville during the late Pleistocene are present on the valley floor.
Trilobite, House Range, Millard County, Utah
Photographer: Michael Vanden Berg
Cambrian-age shales from western Utah’s House Range contain millions of fossilized trilobites, such as this specimen of Elrathia kingi.
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.