Factory Butte, Wayne County, Utah
Photographer: Stevie Emerson; © 2012
The Muley Canyon Sandstone Member of the Cretaceous-age Mancos Shale forms a protective cap at the top of Factory Butte, allowing it to tower 1,500 feet above badlands of the easily erodible Blue Gate Shale Member. These rocks record the existence of an inland sea covering much of Utah around 90 million years ago.
It’s Thursday, and that means “Spot the Rock”!
Can any of you geo-sleuths tell us where this is?
House Range, Juab and Millard Counties, Utah
Photographer: Jim Davis; © 2012
Swasey Mountain and the House Range, Juab and Millard Counties.
sltrib.com
With geologic hazards along State Road 9 clearly mapped in a new report and a population expanding sixfold in the corridor by 2035, community leaders face tough decisions about development in their scenic, but often dangerous, landscape.
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.
usgs.gov
Newly released US Topo maps for Utah now feature a new commercial road data provider. The latest highway, road and street data from HERE has been added to the 1,476 revised US Topo quadrangles for the state.
my.news.yahoo.com
Not only did John Wesley Powell row down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, he did it with only one arm. Before that, he had already fought through a war, walked across Wisconsin and rowed down the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Illinois Rivers. Later in his life, he would direct the US Geological Survey and the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution. But it was his quest to research the American West that really made him famous as one of America’s most intrepid travelers.
We can’t say “no” to Monday mornings when they feature both Utah’s red-rock and grand mountains!
Warner Valley, Washington County, Utah
Photographer: Tyler Knudsen; © 2012
Red hues of rippled sands and nearby Sand Mountain (Navajo Sandstone-capped cliff in middle ground) intensify in the lateafternoon sun. The snow-capped Pine Valley Mountains, the eroded remains of a massive Miocene-age igneous intrusion, rise high above the surrounding red-rock desert.
mesquitecitizen.com
Friends of Gold Butte presented its monthly lecture at the Mesquite Community Theatre on March 19, featuring geologist Marc Deshowitz. Having presented several other lectures on geologic history to the group, Deshowitz was literally brought back by “popular demand” of the audience.
By: Charles G. Oviatt
This 20-page report summarizes observations of sediments and shorelines of the Gilbert episode in the Bonneville basin of northwestern Utah. Lake Bonneville dropped to altitudes similar to those of modern Great Salt Lake by 13,000 years ago, remained low for about 1400 years, then rapidly rose about 50 ft (15 m) during the Gilbert episode (about 11,600 years ago). The Gilbert lake was probably less extensive than shown by previous mapping of the Gilbert shoreline. The lake reached altitudes of 4250-4255 ft (1295-1297 m), and its shoreline, which is not well defined anywhere in the basin, was probably not deformed by residual isostatic rebound associated with removal of the Lake Bonneville water load. Holocene Great Salt Lake has not risen as high as the Gilbert-episode lake.
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.
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