Bell Hill Mine, Juab County
Photographer: Mark Milligan © 2017
Vibrant purple fluorite, composed of calcium and fluoride, exposed at the Bell Hill mine in the Spor Mountain mining district. Fluorite is chiefly used as flux for steel manufacturing and in making hydrofluoric acid.
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When you commit a crime, it’s not usually a good idea to put your signature on your work. But that’s what happened in an incident that has triggered an investigation by the U.S. Forest Service.
Mo
unt Nebo and the southern Wasatch Range, Juab County, Utah
Photographer: Adam McKean; © 2013
House Range, Juab and Millard Counties, Utah
Photographer: Jim Davis; © 2012
Swasey Mountain and the House Range, Juab and Millard Counties.
Thomas Range, Juab County, Utah
Photographer: Jim Davis; © 2012
Layered volcanic rocks of the Topaz Mountain Rhyolite weather into interesting shapes. The rocks, referred to as stratified tuff, formed as ash fell from the sky and flowed across the ground during the explosive eruption of a volcanic caldera around 7 million years ago.
Middle Springs, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Juab County, Utah
Photographer: Matt Affolter
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.
Juab County, Utah
Photographer: Ken Krahulec
Ore chutes, Eagle & Blue Bell silver-lead-gold mine, Juab County, Utah.
Geologic Information: The Devil seems to have inspired many geographic place names. According to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, 34 geographic features bear the name Devils Kitchen, and three of them are found in Utah. The Devils Kitchen that is the subject of this “GeoSights” article is a relatively small (about 700 feet across) south-facing amphitheater exposing redrock hoodoos at the head of Red Creek in the Wasatch Range, about 14 road miles northeast of the town of Nephi in Juab County.
About 60 to 70 million years ago the rock at Devils Kitchen was gravel, sand, and mud deposited by streams flowing out of a now-long-gone mountain range. Continuing deposition resulted in deep burial which, coupled with deep time, compressed and cemented the sediment, transforming it into rock.
With its red hoodoos, Devils Kitchen looks a bit like a miniature Bryce Canyon. The mineral hematite (iron oxide) creates the red color.
Beginning roughly 17 million years ago, movement of the Wasatch fault slowly uplifted the Wasatch Range, with Devils Kitchen along for the ride. The rise of the Wasatch Range empowered erosion to excavate and expose the rock we see today.
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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.