News
Utah's Energy Landscape
Did you know that Utah has the third lowest price for home-heating natural gas in the nation and Utah is one of only five states that generates electricity from geothermal sources? Utah also enjoys the second lowest industrial electricity rate in the nation.
These are just some of the interesting facts found in the Utah Geological Survey’s (UGS) newly updated Utah’s Energy Landscape - a booklet designed to assist people in becoming more familiar with Utah’s diverse energy portfolio.
“With energy use and development at the forefront of many citizens’ minds, we thought it would be important for us to update this booklet, providing valuable, balanced energy information for the state of Utah,” said Mike Vanden Berg, UGS geologist.
Other interesting facts: in 2010, the majority of energy produced in Utah was from natural gas, surpassing coal for the first time in history and Utah has been a net-exporter of energy since 1980.
Energy is one of Utah’s four cornerstones for success, and the development of clean, secure, low-cost energy is one of the Governor’s top priorities. The state of Utah is fortunate to have abundant and diverse energy resources including large reserves of fossil fuels, several areas suitable for renewable resource development, and vast quantities of untapped unconventional energy sources.
This publication provides balanced facts on each resource, including maps, graphs, helpful explanations, and photographs. For those interested in obtaining the numbers behind the graphs, each page includes a reference to available historical data located on the UGS’s Utah Energy and Mineral Statistics web page.
The full color 45-page publication is available for $18.95 at the Natural Resources Map & Bookstore located at 1594 West North Temple, Salt Lake City (801-537-3320, or 1-888-UTAHMAP; geostore@utah.gov; mapstore.utah.gov).
The report can also be viewed on the UGS website at: http://geology.utah.gov/online/c/c-113.pdf.
Well-Known Author Takes Geology Tour of Kaibab National Forest
Well-known author and geologist Wayne Ranney recently participated in a geology tour of the Williams Ranger District of Kaibab National Forest. In fact, Ranney helped lead the earth science discovery tour by teaming with Kaibab National Forest geologist Jessica Lopez Pearce to explain geologic features at six locations across the district.
The goal of the field trip was to provide Forest Service resource specialists with a more in-depth understanding of the geology of the local area – information that might prove valuable when planning projects or doing field work.
The group started their tour at Summit Mountain, which is located about 8 miles southeast of Williams. From this high point, Ranney and Lopez Pearce explained the evolution of the Colorado Plateau, Basin and Range, and the San Francisco Volcanic Field. Ranney provided a description of the ancient Mogollon Highlands, which once stood like an Andean-type mountain range across the southwestern border of the Colorado Plateau approximately 100 million years ago. These long-gone mountains have been replaced by the Arizona Transition Zone and the Basin and Range Province, which are now visible in the area.
Kaibab National Forest resource specialists expressed particular interest in the presence of local faults, like the nearby Mesa Butte fault. Local faults like Mesa Butte are reminders that there is always the possibility of an earthquake on the Williams Ranger District.
Next, the group stopped along the southern boundary of the Williams district in Grindstone Wash. Participants observed the various sedimentary rock layers of the Coconino Plateau including the Toroweap Formation, Coconino Sandstone, Hermit Formation, and Schnebly Hill Formation. Ranney provided insight into the unique depositional environments of each rock layer and showed beautiful illustrations of paleogeographic reconstructions from a book he coauthored with Ron Blakey, titled Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau.
The next stop was a sandstone quarry near Ash Fork, at which tour participants discovered many fossilized reptile tracks within the Coconino Sandstone. Ranney described how the Coconino Sandstone was deposited in a 275-million-year-old desert environment containing a large sand dune sea, or erg. A short drive through the sandstone quarries provided participants an opportunity to see more three-dimensional examples of the ancient sand dunes.
“It was fascinating to discover that our beautiful pine forest was once a harsh desert complete with sand dunes,” said Roger Joos, a Kaibab National Forest wildlife biologist. “And, it was really awesome to understand the processes that created what are now our flagstone quarries. The coolest part for me was to learn exactly how the fossilized tracks that we often find in flagstone were formed and preserved.”
As the tour headed south on Forest Road 6, participants were able to see volcanic features in the San Francisco Volcanic Field including a dike, or vertical lava intrusion, and several lava flows. The trip concluded with a stop at Johnson Crater, a geological oddity, where Ranney and Lopez Pearce discussed the possible ways this collapse structure was formed.
“I had no idea that we had so many geological treasures out there,” said Mark Thibodeau, visitor information specialist on the Williams Ranger District. “Now that I am more educated, I can pass that information along to our visitors so that they can enjoy the district even more and have a better experience during their time here.”
Photos of the Williams Ranger District geology field tour
Dinosaur Dance Floor
Numerous Tracks at Jurassic Oasis on Arizona-Utah Border. University of Utah geologists identified an amazing concentration of dinosaur footprints that they call "a dinosaur dance floor," located in a wilderness on the Arizona-Utah border where there was a sandy desert oasis 190 million years ago. More»
Geology Resources
St George 30' x 60' 3-D Geologic Map
And Virtual Field Trip
This geologic map allows viewers to see the geology in three dimensions (3-D). We created an overlay of the new geologic map of the St. George 30' x 60' quadrangle (the map is currently in the final stages of review) that can be draped over the landscape on virtual globes such as Google Earth™.
Free Here » » »
- Dinosaur Dance Floor
- Navajo Sandstone (pdf)
- Navajo Sandstone Ourcrop Poster(pdf)
- Utah Geological Survey
- Utah Geology
- Utah Geological Association
- Inverted Topography in the St. George Area of Washington County
“Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.”
- Will Durant
