Tag Archive for: Photo of the Day

Island in the Sky District, Canyonlands National Park, San Juan County, Utah
Photographer: Taylor Boden

The La Sal Mountains laccolith (a shallow, mushroom-shaped igneous intrusion) of Oligocene age rises above the red Mesozoic and Paleozoic sedimentary rocks exposed in the Colorado River drainage. Washer Woman Arch, visible in the upper part of the small butte in the middle foreground, is eroded out of the Triassic-Jurassic-aged Wingate Sandstone.

Special thanks to Burke McClure for the submission!

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Lake Powell, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Kane County, Utah
Photographer: Lance Weaver

 

Wahweap Bay at the south end of Lake Powell, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Lake Mountains, Utah County.
Photographer: J. Lucy Jordan

UGS geologists provide oversight and run downhole geophysical logs during ground-water monitoring-well drilling.

San Rafael Swell, Emery County, Utah
Photographer: Taylor Boden

Boulders of Cretaceous-age Ferron Sandstone, eroded from the top of a distant butte, have come to rest on the Cretaceous-age Mancos
Shale on the west flank of the San Rafael Swell.

Slickrock Trail near Moab, Grand County, Utah
Photographer: Jim Davis

Giant weathering pits or potholes like this one (about 16 feet across at the bottom) in the Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone typically form along fractures and joints atop fins, knolls, and rounded domes. Potholes are created through a combination of physical, chemical, and biological processes that weather and erode the rock and are home to a remarkable array of ancient aquatic organisms.

Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, Kane County, Utah
Photographer: Tyler Knudsen

The narrow defile of Round Valley Draw exposes layers of ancient petrified dunes of the Jurassic-age Navajo Sandstone. This is one of numerous slot canyons in Utah’s canyon country formed by the scouring action of infrequent but powerful flood waters.

 

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.

San Rafael Reef, Emery County, Utah
Photographer: Tom Chidsey

The steeply dipping east flank of the San Rafael Swell is part of a large fold that formed in Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary time.

Crystal Geyser, Green River, Grand County, Utah.
Photographer: Taylor Boden

Colorful travertine (calcium carbonate) is deposited around cold-water, carbon-dioxide-driven Crystal Geyser.