Tag Archive for: Utah County

Spanish Fork Peak, Utah County, Utah
Photographer: Buck Ehler; © 2012

Spanish Fork Canyon and Spanish Fork Peak, Utah County.

Cascade Mountain, Wasatch Range, Utah County, Utah
Photographer: Adam McKean; ©2011

The last rays of sunshine catch the snowy southern limestone cliff face of Cascade Mountain, which was glaciated on the northern side during the Ice Age. Wasatch Range, Utah County.

Wasatch Range, Utah County, Utah
Photographer: Adam McKean; © 2011

A colorful mosaic of fall colors on Provo Peak (11,068 feet), composed of Mississippian- and Pennsylvanian-age rock layers, Wasatch Range, Utah County.

Mount Timpanogos, Wasatch Range, Utah County, Utah
Photographer: Grant Willis; ©2011

White traces of early snow dust prominent sandstone and limestone rock layers on Mount Timpanogos and contrast with lower-elevation yellow-tinted aspen trees. The sedimentary rocks are the Pennsylvanian-age Bear Canyon Member of the Oquirrh Formation that have been transported eastward over 30 miles on thrust faults.

Pittsburg Lake, Utah County, Utah
Photographer: Sonja Heuscher

Pittsburg Lake, a glacial tarn formed in a cirque carved into the Cambrian-age Tintic Quartzite in upper American Fork Canyon, Utah County.

Lone Peak, Salt Lake and Utah Counties, Utah
Photographer: J. Lucy Jordan

Differential weathering creates unusual patterns on the Little Cottonwood quartz monzonite, Lone Peak, Salt Lake and Utah Counties.

Mineral Basin, Utah County, Utah
Photographer: Grant Willis

Tilted Paleozoic strata in the “Bookends” area  of Mineral Basin, Utah County, Utah.

Lone Peak Wilderness, Wasatch Range, Salt Lake and Utah Counties, Utah
Photographer: J. Lucy Jordan

Wildflowers on Lone Peak bloom among quartz monzonite (granitic) boulders of the Oligocene-aged Little Cottonwood stock. Near-vertical cliffs on the skyline form part of the glacier-carved cirque near the summit of the 11,253-foot-high peak.

In Christchurch, New Zealand in February, 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck six miles from the city center. The sandy type of soil present in the area caused the ground to basically liquefy during shaking.

UGS Geologist Chris DuRoss is interviewed by KCPW: Explore Utah Science to discuss the hazard of liquefaction we face right here in the the Salt Lake Valley.

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Earthquake Risk in the Salt Lake Valley

Michael Hylland, a geologist at the Utah Geological Survey, examines disruptions in the subsurface soil at a trench dug through a section of the Wasatch Fault

 

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

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