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.
Wasatch Range, Morgan County, UtahPhotographer: Ashley H. Elliott
Glaciated peaks and cirques on the east side of the Wasatch Range
Zion National Park, Washington County, Utah
Photographer: Lance Weaver
Zion Canyon viewed from Observation Point, showing Angels Landing and The Great White Throne.
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.
Island in the Sky District, Canyonlands National Park, San Juan County, Utah
Photographer: Mike Hylland
Desert primrose blooms in thin, gravelly soil along the White Rim Trail. The Permian-aged White Rim Sandstone forms a broad, nearly flat bench above the adjacent Green and Colorado Rivers and below towering cliffs (visible in the distance) of the Triassic-Jurassic-aged Wingate Sandstone and thin cap of Jurassic Kayenta Formation. In the middle distance, Candlestick Tower consists of Kayenta Formation and Wingate Sandstone above sloping Chinle Formation (Triassic) on a base of Moenkopi Formation (Triassic), which overlies the White Rim Sandstone. The gentle tilt of the strata reflects their location on the southwestern flank of the broad downwarp of the Grays Pasture syncline.
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.
ksl.com
Mexican paleontologists say they have uncovered 50 vertebrae believed to be a full dinosaur tail in the northern desert of Coahuila state.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History says the tail is about 15 feet (5 meters) long and resembles that of a hadrosaur or crested duckbill dinosaur.
washingtonpost.com
Once in a great while, I stumble upon extreme weather video unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Today’s example? A large, violent debris flash flood that gutted a creek basin in southern Utah Thursday afternoon (south of Bryce Canyon National Park, about eight miles north of Lake Powell).
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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