Tag Archive for: UGS

Utah Geological Survey

MP-13-3 Paleoseismology of Utah, Volume 23 – Compilation of U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Final Technical Reports for Utah

by Steve D. Bowman and William R. Lund

This compilation includes 20 reports pertaining to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)-funded National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) paleoseismic investigations conducted between 1978 and 2012, one report that predates the NEHRP program, and 36 annual to semi-annual Summaries of Technical Reports authored by funded NEHRP investigators. These reports contain information on some of the first paleoseismic investigations conducted on the Wasatch fault zone. Original authors made few copies of these reports, and many are very difficult to locate. This publication makes these otherwise hard-to-find legacy reports easily accessible to scientists, government policy makers, and the general public.

MP-13-3         $14.95

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Landslides and flooding as Utah's 'monsoon season' arrives early

deseretnews.com

Residents and agencies are racing to fight debris and water flow caused by an unusually wet “monsoon season” in Utah that has caused slides and the threat of slides from Huntington to Alpine and across the Wasatch Front.

Salt Lake City averages 0.61 inches of rain in July, according to National Weather Service readings taken at Salt Lake airport. As of July 17, readings there totaled 1.15 inches and the month has weeks to go.

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Utah Geological Survey

POTD July 18, 2013: Wasatch-Cache National Forest, Weber County, Utah

Wasatch-Cache National Forest, Weber County, Utah
Photographer: Ken Krahulec

Prominent cliffs of gently dipping Mississippian-age Deseret (upper) and Gardison (lower) Limestone are exposed along the walls of Ogden Canyon. These strata are part of a thrust sheet emplaced during the Sevier orogeny, a regional mountain-building event that affected much of western Utah between about 140 and 50 million years ago.

Utah Geological Survey

POTD July 17, 2013: Crystal Geyser, Green River, Grand County, Utah

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

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

Utah Geological Survey
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Special Presentation on July 16 “Microbes, Mars & Moqui Marbles”

sunews.net

Bureau of Land Management has rescheduled the presentation “Microbes, Mars & Moqui Marbles” on Tuesday, July 16. The program is a special Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) Walks and Talks Lecture Series presentation to be held at the BLM Kanab Visitor Center, located at 745 East Hwy 89, in Kanab, Utah.

Beginning at 7 p.m., Dr. David Loope will reveal new insights into how microbes affect geology. Based on his recent research on the Navajo Sandstone within GSENM, Dr. Loope will explain how microbes, that have lived just below Earth’s surface for at least three billion years play an important part in the development of Moqui Marbles on Earth, as well as other planets, including Mars.

 

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Utah Geological Survey
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Earthquake Risk in the Salt Lake Valley

kcpw.org

You wouldn’t know it from experience, but the Wasatch Front is one of the most seismically at risk areas in Utah and in the Intermountain West. Scientists are looking at thousands of years of earthquake history to learn more about the hazard we face. Kim Schuske has this story.

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Utah Geological Survey

POTD July 16, 2013: Dixie National Forest, Kane County, Utah

Dixie National Forest, Kane County, Utah
Photographer: Tyler Knudsen

Golden aspen, blue sky, and dark basaltic lava provide dramatic contrast along the Navajo Lake Loop Trail on the Markagunt Plateau. The geologically young Quaternaryage lava erupted from a nearby cinder cone and flowed across Duck Creek, creating a natural dam that formed Navajo Lake.

Utah Geological Survey
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Estonia company wants to pull 2.6 billion barrels of oil from Utah

deseretnews.com

An Estonia company that claims it has perfected turning oil shale into fuel oil during the past 30 years wants to mine rock from a remote region of the Uintah Basin, tapping 2.6 billion barrels of oil in the decades to come.

That staggering production, 50,000 barrels of oil per day, would represent one-third of Utah’s liquid fuel consumption and is touted to emerge from a processing and refining plant that would put power back into the energy grid.
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Unconventional Uteland Butte Sparks New Utah Activity

aapg.org

Geologic intervals that may have looked a bit ho-hum when pierced by the drill bit on its way to the Real Target can, on second look, yield some pleasant surprises.

The Uteland Butte Member of the Eocene Green River Formation in the Uinta Basin in Utah is one of these.

It’s the basal member of the Green River, above the Upper Paleocene to Lower Eocene Wasatch Formation, which is predominantly a sandstone with red, green and gray shales deposited in a fluvial setting.

In contrast, the Uteland Butte is indicative of a lacustrine environment and is mainly limestone, dolomite, organic rich calcareous mudstone and siltstone, with some thin sandstones, according to AAPG member Michael Vanden Berg.

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