Tag Archive for: Utah Geology

Utah Geological Survey

Special POTD submission, August 29, 2013: Fremont Indian State Park, Sevier County, Utah.

Despite the lingering heat, another summer in Utah is coming to a close. The canyons will soon be ablaze with fall colors and the valleys won’t be far behind. In this spirit we have selected another photo from Gerard Dauphinais to give us a little taste of fall. This photo was taken near Fremont Indian State Park, located in west Sevier County. The park is famous for containing many instances of Fremont Indian rock art.

The Sevier Formation contains most of the major rock outcrops seen in the park. A notable feature of the Sevier Formation is the 19-million-year-old Joe Lott Tuff. This tuff (a welded is a welded volcanic-ash) was produced by an explosive volcanic eruption. The massive eruption created the Mount Belknap caldera located about 10 miles south of Clear Creek Canyon. The surface of the originally white, pink, and gray tuff has weathered to darker colors and serves as a “blackboard” for Fremont Indian rock art.

In this picture we see some of the sedimentary rocks that overly the Joe Lott tuff. The rest of the Sevier River Formation consists of sandstones, siltstones, conglomerates,  and additional volcanic ashes, and lava flows that were deposited about 5 to 14 million years ago, when the present topography of the Basin and Range area began forming. The Sevier River Formation was uplifted and tilted around 5 million years ago.

Thanks again for the great photo Gerard! Click through for the full resolution image and click here for more information on Fremont Indian State Park. Remember, you can always submit your photos to us at ugssmedia@gmail.com, on Facebook, or on Twitter.

Utah Geological Survey

POTD August 29, 2013: Notch Peak, House Range, Millard County, Utah

Notch Peak, House Range, Millard County, Utah
Photographer: Michael Vanden Berg

Abundant trilobite fossils, including  Elrathia kingi shown here, can be found  within the Wheeler Shale east of Notch Peak in the House Range.

Many of the dry desert peaks of western Utah tell a story of shallow tropical seas. As much as 500 million years of deep burial, uplift, and erosion have changed layers of organic mud to cliffs and ledges of layered limestone. Closer inspection reveals abundant fossils, evidence of ancient sea life.

Utah Geological Survey
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New Publications M-261DM and OFR-605

Geologic map of the Johnson Lakes quadrangle, Kane County, Utah, and Coconino County, Arizona,

By: Janice M. Hayden

The Johnson Lakes quadrangle includes parts of the Chocolate (Shinarump) and Vermilion Cliff steps of the Grand Staircase in the southwest part of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Reddish-brown Lower Jurassic strata of the Vermilion Cliffs dominate the map area. Overall, strata dip gently to the northwest. They are cut by the Paunsaugunt fault at the east edge of the map area, and by several minor, mostly down-to-the-west normal faults. A variety of surficial deposits locally conceal bedrock, including broad alluvial and eolian surfaces deeply incised by modern arroyos. “Picture stone” from the Shinarump Conglomerate Member of the Chinle Formation is quarried locally.

This CD contains geographic information system (GIS) files in ESRI file geodatabase and shapefile formats. Also included are two plates-the geologic map at 1:24,000 and the explanation sheet-both in PDF format. The latest version of Adobe Reader is required to view the PDF files. Specialized GIS software is required to use the GIS files.


M-261DM……………………………….$24.95

BUY IT HERE
Hydrogeochemistry, geothermometry, and structural setting of Thermal Springs in northern Utah and southeastern Idaho,

By:Brennan Young, Katherine, Shervais, Moises Ponce-Zepeda, Sari Rosove, James Evans

This CD contains a 29-page report conducted by undergraduate researchers at Utah State University during 2010 and 2011 under the direction of Dr. James P. Evans. It includes data collected from hot springs in northern Utah and southeastern Idaho, including location, temperature, acidity, salinity, cation concentrations, and maximum reservoir temperature estimates acquired through the application of several cation geothermometers.


OFR-605…………………………………..$14.95

BUY IT HERE

 



Utah Geological Survey

POTD August 28, 2013: Notch Peak National Natural Landmark, House Range, Millard County, Utah

Notch Peak National Natural Landmark, House Range, Millard County, Utah
Photographer: Matt Affolter

Cambrian- to Ordovician-aged carbonate rocks (limestone and dolomite) make up Notch Peak, where a 2,200-foot cliff (possibly the tallest carbonate cliff in North America) leads to a deep canyon on the west side of the peak. Pink, Jurassic-aged granite is exposed at the foot of the mountain, and scattered deposits of white, clayey marl deposited in Lake Bonneville during the late Pleistocene are present on the valley floor.

Utah Geological Survey
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POTD August 27, 2013: Dinosaur Tracks near Moab, Grand County, Utah

Near Moab, Grand County, Utah
Photographer: Carole McCalla

During Jurassic time, a sauropod walked across mud, sinking deeply into it. The footprints can be seen preserved in the rock near Moab in Grand County. BLM interpretive site.

Utah Geological Survey

Mudslide damages Alpine home; more flooding possible

heraldextra.com

Torrential rains caused a major mudslide in Alpine just before midnight on Thursday, putting 18 inches of mud into the basement of one home. Kaitlyn Dix was home alone around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday when tragedy was compounded by hardship. She had just gotten a call from her mother, Dixie Dix, saying that her grandmother had died. Within five minutes, the mudslide swept through the yard, breaking through a bathroom window and inundating the basement. Firefighters arrived on the doorstep just as her sister, Nicole, arrived home from a concert, and the women were told they had “30 seconds” to evacuate. They spent the night at a neighbor’s home.

READ MORE

Utah Geological Survey
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POTD August 26, 2013: Hanksville-Burpee Quarry, Wayne County, Utah

Hanksville-Burpee Quarry, Wayne County, Utah
Photographer: James I. Kirkland

Not a logjam, but a “legjam” of dinosaur bones left in a channel of Jurassic-aged river is being excavated at the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry in Wayne County. BLM interpretive site.

Utah Geological Survey

Special POTD submission, August 23, 2013: Henry Mountains viewed through Summerville Formation hills, Emery, Wayne, & Garfield Counties

This photo was submitted to us by Dennis Udink. You can see the Henry Mountains viewed through Summerville Formation hills near the Little Wild Horse road (Goblin Valley area in Emery county).

The Henry Mountains were formed around 31 to 25 million years ago when partially molten rock, from the Earth’s interior, forced its way into overlying sedimentary rocks forming huge domes called laccoliths. Subsequent erosion has exposed the igneous rocks which make up the high peaks of the mountains. Mt Ellen is one of Utah’s highest peaks (outside the Uinta Mountains) at 11,522ft.  The domed and arched sedimentary rocks form the flanks of the range.

One of the more notable inhabitants of the range are the Henry Mountains Bison Herd, which wildlife scientists believe to be only one of four free-roaming, genetically pure bison herds in North America.

Great photo Dennis! Remember, you can always submit photos to the Utah Geological Survey at ugssmedia@gmail.com, on Facebook, or on Twitter.

Utah Geological Survey

POTD August 23, 2013: Poison Strip area, east of Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah

Poison Strip area, east of Arches National Park, Grand County, Utah
Photographer: Don DeBlieux

A geologist examines a sequence of Early Cretaceous-aged paleosols (ancient soils) in the Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation. Many dinosaur fossils are found in these rocks, and the study of paleosols can provide valuable
information about the environments in which these dinosaurs lived.

Utah Geological Survey

Misplaced Piece of the Cretaceous Returns to Utah, August 2013

Utah State Paleontologist, Jim Kirkland, is happily reunited with this unique (the first fully intact) shark coprolite from the Cedar Mountain Formation.

In August, the UGS received an important piece of Utah history in the form of an Early Cretaceous coprolite.  A coprolite is a fossil feces; and in this example a fully intact feces from an Early Cretaceous fresh water spiny (hybodont) shark. Although discovered in the early 1990s, the fossil had been missing for about 20 years.

The discovery goes back to when Utahraptor had first been discovered; I was exploring the outcrops of the upper Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation with geologist Dan Howe (Howe Resources, Buena Vista, CO) who picked up an unusual blob of rock that included fish scales within it. Fragments of such things were not uncommonly found in this interval throughout the area and were an important line of evidence that these rocks had been deposited in a lake. A spiral, layered structure indicated these lumps were coprolites from a fish with a spiral intestine (spiral valve). Of the fish known from these beds only lungfish and hybodont sharks had spiral intestines and only hybodont shark coprolites were apt to consistently include fish scales within them. However, this was, and still is, the only complete example of this kind of fossil known from these rocks. Later, I called Dan and asked him where the fossil was and he assured me he had given it to me. After an intensive search through all my sample bags, it did not turn up. So, I assumed I had stupidly put it down and walked off without it.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from Dan who had stumbled across it going through some boxes (he had moved his life a few times across three states).  Dan quickly sent it back over to Utah.

While, future scientific studies of these coprolites can be carried out on the many fragmentary specimens, this remains the sole specimen for which the complete external morphology can be appraised. This specimen will be added to the Natural History Museum of Utah’s collections, where it may be examined by students and researchers in perpetuity.

Yellow Cat Road Section with Hybodont Shark level indicated.