![Story logo](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/ESWbW7DWazyLW54Il75nR.png?w=200)
UGA Geosites
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/EFy370XOkkNlQ6Hxrsjhy.png?w=200)
Young volcanism in Millard County - Ice Springs volcanic fields
Young volcanism in Millard County - Ice Springs volcanic fields. Click to expand.
Geoscientists, naturalists, and rock-hound enthusiasts have explored Ice Springs volcanic field (ISVF) for nearly 130 years because it is one of the youngest, extension-related volcanic centers in Utah and the Southwest U.S.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/UVW5K4tjzRKQ0xQlYq95_.png?w=200)
Ophir Anticline - A 30-minute Drive Through 300 Million Years of Bedrock
Ophir Anticline - A 30-minute Drive Through 300 Million Years of Bedrock. Click to expand.
Anticlines are not unusual features, but the Ophir anticline is exceptional. The Ophir anticline is unusual as its limbs and crest can be viewed in their entirety, exposed in cross-section on Ophir Canyon’s walls.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/9Tq0b3ivNBG9cUFASninB.png?w=200)
Brian Head Peak, Iron County
Brian Head Peak, Iron County. Click to expand.
Brian Head peak, the highest point on the west edge of the Markagunt Plateau at 11,307 feet (3447 m), provides stunning views westward into the Great Basin.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/wFyaQlw0PxptJc3zlwDUU.png?w=200)
Cedar Breaks National Monument, North View Overlook
Cedar Breaks National Monument, North View Overlook. Click to expand.
Cedar Breaks National Monument straddles the western rim of the Markagunt Plateau, and, at over 10,000 feet (3050 m) in elevation, offers spectacular views westward into the adjacent Great Basin.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/ne1KDGdEZBoRNmMAVvWAg.png?w=200)
Hurricane Fault
Hurricane Fault. Click to expand.
The Hurricane fault is the big earthquake fault in southwestern Utah. It stretches at least 155 miles (250 km) from south of the Grand Canyon northward to Cedar City and is capable of producing damaging earthquakes of about magnitude 7.0.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/mtFHg_3sbNhNbmk6Q_cbc.png?w=200)
Virgin Anticline and Quail Creek Reservoir
Virgin Anticline and Quail Creek Reservoir. Click to expand.
The first thing most visitors to Quail Creek State Park notice, apart from the improbably blue and refreshing waters of the reservoir itself, are the brightly colored, layered rocks of the surrounding cliffs. The park lies cradled in the eroded core of the Virgin anticline, a long upwarp of folded rock that trends northeast through south-central Washington County. The fold is breached by erosion along its crest, creating a window into the geologic past. \
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/PNvHSwqckoQGwAtWg1QQG.png?w=200)
Sevier Fault at Red Canyon
Sevier Fault at Red Canyon. Click to expand.
The Sevier fault is spectacularly displayed on the north side of Utah Highway 12 at the entrance to Red Canyon, where it offsets a 500,000-year-old basaltic lava flow. The fault is one of several active, major faults that break apart the western margin of the Colorado Plateau in southwestern Utah.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/ih15dGWELTyn46J8qS8vx.png?w=200)
Landscape Arch, Delicate Arch, and Double Arch in Arches National Park, Southeastern Utah
Landscape Arch, Delicate Arch, and Double Arch in Arches National Park, Southeastern Utah. Click to expand.
Arches National Park in southeastern Utah has the greatest concentration of natural rock arches in the world. The park is located in a geologic region called the Paradox fold and fault belt in the northern Paradox Basin and showcases spectacular and classic Colorado Plateau geology with its colorful sedimentary rocks, ancient sand dunes, cliffs, domes, fins, and pinnacles, as well as the arches.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/3TnRjPC8mNl8NhNoIBmjQ.png?w=200)
A Breccia Pipe in the Deseret Limestone, South Flank of the Uinta Mountains, Northern Utah
A Breccia Pipe in the Deseret Limestone, South Flank of the Uinta Mountains, Northern Utah. Click to expand.
A breccia pipe is a cylindrical- or irregular-shaped mass of brecciated rock. A breccia consists of broken, angular fragments of rock cemented together by a fine-grained matrix.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/rgyL3NGJSeh9zys7dS9cX.png?w=200)
Dead Horse Point, Southeastern Utah
Dead Horse Point, Southeastern Utah. Click to expand.
The Dead Horse Point geosite, within the state park by the same name, is located in the heart of the Canyonlands region of Utah between Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. The views are spectacular, sublime, awe-inspiring, and majestic, and hard to surpass anywhere on the Colorado Plateau.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/v1TMif5kLpaNI9NtSpGVY.png?w=200)
Northern Cedar Mountains Red Beds, Tooele County
Northern Cedar Mountains Red Beds, Tooele County. Click to expand.
Recent mapping for the Tooele 30' x 60' quadrangle geologic map revealed more information about interesting exposures of red beds cropping out in an 11-mile (18-km) swath along the northwestern flank of the Cedar Mountains. They are unusual because such rocks are seldom preserved in northwestern Utah, an area known for thick thrust sheets of Paleozoic marine carbonate and sandstone.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/1VLh3H2zqBTNtnAdTe18t.png?w=200)
Rock Canyon
Rock Canyon. Click to expand.
Rock Canyon near Provo, Utah is an ideal outdoor laboratory. The canyon has been known and explored for many years by scientists and students for its fascinating geology, biology, and botany. It is also a favorite location for rock climbers, hikers, and other outdoor enthusiasts.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/kpOE79ocSy3ykmwm65yBu.png?w=200)
Rinded, Iron-Oxide Concretions in Navajo Sandstone Along the Trail to Upper Calf Creek Falls, Garfield County
Rinded, Iron-Oxide Concretions in Navajo Sandstone Along the Trail to Upper Calf Creek Falls, Garfield County. Click to expand.
Concretions are hard rock masses, usually spheroidal, but commonly oblate or discoidal, that are formed by strongly localized precipitation of minerals in the pores of an otherwise weaker sedimentary rock (see Bates and Jackson, 1980, for a more extensive definition).
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/zkynHhig4xp8b3bKaASD2.png?w=200)
Plant Root Systems Preserved in the Permian Cedar Mesa Sandstone at Moki Dugway, Southeastern Utah
Plant Root Systems Preserved in the Permian Cedar Mesa Sandstone at Moki Dugway, Southeastern Utah. Click to expand.
Rooted green plants represent the base of the food chain for most terrestrial ecosystems, but, compared to animal burrows, root systems are relatively rarely recognized in ancient sedimentary rocks. Plant roots that penetrate unconsolidated sand dunes, especially those containing not only quartz grains, but also abundant grains of calcite (CaCO) are commonly replaced by fine crystals of calcite (Klappa, 1980).
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/Ce8DA5wnd7UDr3oM7qZZJ.png?w=200)
Cut, Fill, Repeat: Slot Canyons of Dry Fork, Kane County
Cut, Fill, Repeat: Slot Canyons of Dry Fork, Kane County. Click to expand.
The slot canyons of southern Utah have become popular destinations for hikers, climbers, and photographers. For most of these canyons, the geology is simple: sediment carried by flowing water abrades a thick, homogeneous sandstone. As time passes, the rate of down- cutting is rapid compared to the rate of cliff retreat. End of story. The strange abundance and configuration of the slot canyons along Dry Fork Coyote (a tributary of Coyote Gulch and the Escalante River), however, have a convoluted geologic history that is climate-driven and involves canyon cutting, canyon filling, and more canyon cutting.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/fLHDtsRRNQOYcVHJFilKF.png?w=200)
Hexagonal Fracture Patterns On Navajo Sandstone Crossbeds At Yellow Knolls, Washington County
Hexagonal Fracture Patterns On Navajo Sandstone Crossbeds At Yellow Knolls, Washington County. Click to expand.
At this geosite, the main features of interest—remarkably uniform and beautiful fracture patterns dominantly composed of linked hexagons—are present on outcrops of the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone. The beautiful, bedding-parallel fracture pattern developed here is very rare; it developed because the bedding planes in the rock at Yellow Knolls are unusually wide-spaced.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/9PZyCo76ABhZl_15incgK.png?w=200)
Crystal Geyser: An Unusual Cold Spring System, Grand County
Crystal Geyser: An Unusual Cold Spring System, Grand County. Click to expand.
Crystal Geyser is a cold carbon dioxide (CO2) geyser, part of a natural spring system along the Little Grand Wash fault south of Green River, Utah. The spring system hosts a series of CO2-driven geysers and springs with active and fossil microbial mats and tufa deposits composed of carbonate and iron oxide and iron oxyhydroxide minerals. Crystal Geyser is a popular place for tourists, and it is not uncommon to see children playing in the spring.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/OUQvx6xlVvaIvEE6gfvVs.png?w=200)
Ricks Spring
Ricks Spring. Click to expand.
Ricks Spring is one of several major karst springs that discharge along the Logan River in the Bear River Range in Cache County, Utah. The spring is located along U.S. Highway 89 in Logan Canyon about 17 miles (27.4 kilometers) northeast of (up-canyon from) the city of Logan, at mile marker 477.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/PKIYsRPy4wOVgmFpEnW9N.png?w=200)
Paradise from Cataclysm: Zion Canyon’s Sentinel Landslide
Paradise from Cataclysm: Zion Canyon’s Sentinel Landslide. Click to expand.
Zion Canyon hosts millions of visitors each year, yet few are aware of the massive prehistoric landslide that played an important role in shaping the iconic landscape. South of the Sand Bench trailhead and bridge, a large hill encroaches on the canyon bottom around which the North Fork Virgin River flows. North of the bridge, Zion Canyon’s flat bottom stretches into the distance. The hill is part of an enormous rock avalanche deposit known as the Sentinel slide that is nearly 2 miles (3.2 km) long and more than 650 feet (200 m) thick.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/yAR1zjg6q2fvkh7EdUQB8.png?w=200)
The Wind-Swept Nautilus, Enigmatic Clastic Pipes, and Toadstool Landforms: Geologic Features of the Paria Plateau
The Wind-Swept Nautilus, Enigmatic Clastic Pipes, and Toadstool Landforms: Geologic Features of the Paria Plateau. Click to expand.
The Colorado Plateau occupies much of the southwestern United States including portions of Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. This region presents unobstructed views from mesa tops, beautifully colored soils, lone standing buttes, and canyons cut thousands of feet deep. The Colorado Plateau represents a well-preserved window into the Earth’s history.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/zUhrLx0Pe3dyKetyzX9q_.png?w=200)
Ancient delta deposits in the Ivie Creek area, Ferron Sandstone member of the Mancos Shale, western San Rafael Swell, east-central Utah
Ancient delta deposits in the Ivie Creek area, Ferron Sandstone member of the Mancos Shale, western San Rafael Swell, east-central Utah. Click to expand.
The Ferron has world-class outcrops of rock layers deposited near the shorelines of a sinking, fluvial-dominated delta system. Along the west flank of the San Rafael Swell, the 80-mile-long Ferron outcrop belt of cliffs and side canyons provides a three-dimensional view of vertical and lateral changes in the Ferron’s rock layers, and, as such, is an excellent model for fluvial-deltaic oil and gas reservoirs worldwide.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/Lv772X09J8ITQ06bABlI7.png?w=200)
Spectacular crinkled crust—A detachment fold train in the Carmel Formation, western San Rafael Swell, Utah
Spectacular crinkled crust—A detachment fold train in the Carmel Formation, western San Rafael Swell, Utah. Click to expand.
A spectacular detachment fold train, consisting of over 100 small, regularly spaced convex-upward folds called anticlines in gypsum-rich rock layers of the Middle Jurassic Carmel Formation, is exposed immediately north of I-70 in the San Rafael Swell of east-central Utah.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/kqihtONEGdyDpANAJ7Jg7.png?w=200)
Green River overlook, Island in the Sky District, Canyonlands National Park, southeastern Utah
Green River overlook, Island in the Sky District, Canyonlands National Park, southeastern Utah. Click to expand.
The exposed rocks consist of Early Permian- through Early Jurassic-age rock layers that were uplifted and subjected to massive erosion. Changes in the color, thickness, and composition of the rock layers and erosive work of running water and gravity (i.e., mass wasting) created the magnificent landscape seen at the overlook today.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/qRC6I0xO4K1MBM4xfMj37.png?w=200)
What you can discover on an ancient Cretaceous beach, a geosite in Emery County, Utah
What you can discover on an ancient Cretaceous beach, a geosite in Emery County, Utah. Click to expand.
Utah was prime beach country in its central to eastern portion during the Middle to Late Cretaceous. At this time, a long shallow sea extended from the Artic to the Gulf of Mexico and from central Utah east to beyond Kansas. Scores of ancient beach deposits that represent the shoreline along this seaway are exposed in the eastern half of Utah.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/CQbBVs54q_MLiMWU1qxYm.png?w=200)
Devils Playground, Box Elder County
Devils Playground, Box Elder County. Click to expand.
Why take your kids to the neighborhood playground, when you can visit a playground that inspires their sense of geologic adventure? Devils Playground is not your ordinary community playground, but a wonderland of granitic rock weathered into fantastic forms and weird shapes. Occupying an assortment of Bureau of Land Management, state, and private land in the Bovine Mountains, Devils Playground is a relatively unknown geologic curiosity found in a remote corner of northwestern Utah.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/ZCPsOwP0Sf0rcP00x8PLf.png?w=200)
Independent gilsonite vein, Uintah County
Independent gilsonite vein, Uintah County. Click to expand.
Unique solid hydrocarbons, including gilsonite, wurtzilite, tabbyite, and ozokerite, have a long and colorful history of exploration and/or production in the region. The most abundant of these, gilsonite, occurs in distinctive swarms of subparallel, northwest-trending veins. The lateral continuity of the veins is impressive, with relatively long, straight ribbons stretching across the hills of the eastern Uinta Basin.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/kd7QEwXJ_Qefmd6GYhhfB.png?w=200)
The origin of Shinarump wonderstone, Hildale, Washington County
The origin of Shinarump wonderstone, Hildale, Washington County. Click to expand.
Southern Utah’s “wonderstone” is Shinarump sandstone, variably cemented and stained with iron oxide, forming intricate patterns reminiscent of landscapes. It is cut and sold as absorbent drink coasters and decorative objects, and is seen in rock shops across the country.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/40JSECyLAuG4_dq-WHiWQ.jpeg?w=200)
Field Localities in the Book Cliffs to Understand Sequence Stratigraphic Concepts
Field Localities in the Book Cliffs to Understand Sequence Stratigraphic Concepts. Click to expand.
The Book Cliffs of Utah and Colorado have become the premier location globally to study and teach principles of sequence stratigraphy. Continuous, well-exposed, and easily-accessible outcrops along both depositional dip and depositional strike make it possible for detailed three-dimensional reconstruction and analysis of sedimentary successions. Most types of clastic sedimentary systems are found in the Book Cliffs.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/ftO12_mvI0pDbTDEMSeqU.jpeg?w=200)
Silver Reef Mining District
Silver Reef Mining District. Click to expand.
The Silver Reef mining district in southwestern Utah is a geologic anomaly, a historical curiosity, and an ecological novelty. It is one of the few places in the world where economic disseminated silver chloride (chlorargyrite or horn silver) was produced from sandstone. The area is a little-known ghost town, now reborn as the upscale residential community of Silver Reef with deep ties to its history.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/EJsq_Edi_u7tOGursQ8lG.jpeg?w=200)
The Palisades at Sheep Creek Canyon Geological Area—A Geosite in the Uinta Mountains, Daggett County, Utah
The Palisades at Sheep Creek Canyon Geological Area—A Geosite in the Uinta Mountains, Daggett County, Utah. Click to expand.
The Palisades is an impressive ridge within the Sheep Creek Canyon Geological Area—an area nestled on the north flank of the eastern Uinta Mountains not far from Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. Sheep Creek cuts through the Palisades, as well as the heart of the geological area, to reveal about 800 million years of geology, from ancient environments to the rise and ultimate erosion of the Uinta Mountains.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/bCgBtrSlEtQC8annYm3pA.jpeg?w=200)
Inverted topography in St. George, Washington County, Utah
Inverted topography in St. George, Washington County, Utah. Click to expand.
Washington County, Utah has several classic examples of inverted topography, where now topographically high ridges are capped by basalt that once flowed as lava down low stream drainages. This paper focuses on the ridges that trend north-south on either side of downtown St. George.
![](https://cdn.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/8f51cbcbdffc4a8aaedd32ee11a524e9/resources/3enJpAhiVMV5CMptEA5Bh.jpeg?w=200)
Geobiology of “Snowball Earth” Deposits of Antelope Island
Geobiology of “Snowball Earth” Deposits of Antelope Island. Click to expand.
Antelope Island on Great Salt Lake provides an excellent opportunity to look at one of the world’s great geobiological records—the “Snowball Earth.” Snowball Earth refers to a unique time in Earth history before the dawn of skeletonized animals where there is substantial evidence to support glaciers at sea level in the equatorial regions.