View allAll Photos Tagged Geologist
The Geologist Cabin in Butte Valley is the prime location to snag. I've stayed here many times over the years.
Butte Valley
Death Valley National Park
A geologist’s other-worldly paradise, the colorful hills, flat-topped mesas and sculptured buttes of these painted hills in Utah are primarily made up of river-related deposits dating back some 200 million years. Inhabited by indigenous people for thousands of years, the multi-hued sweep of pigmented rock in the arid high desert seems endless in these vast and striated badlands.
Thanks so much for all of your comments and faves!! This is the most popular photo in my stream.
More good books from my extensive (mainly science and reference) library. It was crooked, but I think I was able to fix it. I was quite surprised that I actually had enough solid-color book spines to make a rainbow. I had even more colors, so I may make an even bigger book rainbow someday! (8/23/2008)
I entered this photo into the S2IS "Colour Crazy" Contest:
www.flickr.com/groups/s2is/discuss/72157606924144676/
The books in my pile are:
E=mc2: A Biography of Einstein (Moore)
The Golden Ratio (Livio)
Faster Than The Speed of Light (Magueijo)
The Practical Geologist (Dixon, et al)
Our Amazing Planet
The Handy Science Answer Book
The Discovery of Time
Hyperspace (Kaku)
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Sagan & Druyan)
Wonders of Our World
UPDATE:
This is the power of Flickr: I was contacted by a German company that wanted to use this image to put on magnets, office folders, and containers. It was the first time I was paid for the use of a photo -- about $100. If I had never put this up on Flickr, then my rainbow books would never have graced the refrigerators and offices of Germany! :-)
How do you fix a broken geologist? With some rock-solid advice.
So many gold rock puns, so little time.
Burramoko Ridge aka Hanging Rock, this place is pretty cool, like a lot of walks in the mountains its a walk thru shrub which ends it it opening up to an amazing vista upon a rather large cliff The precarious-ness of the spot is not really apparent (or appreciated) in the dark or until you actually see the spot you are standing on from a lower down our valley side perspective.
Whilst it was certainly a fizzer of a sunrise, the enjoyment of the ride out there and just being in a place as special as this was worth that...an epic sunrise woulda been nice tho.
This shot (stitched pano) is well after sunrise when the sun is lighting up the cliff face which then reflects and illuminates the dark side of the hanging rock, which takes on a really beautiful warm glow.
The peak up on the right side is where you start he walk down, its a nice spot up there to see the whole valley but the view of the actual hanging rock is not so great...and to be honest, hanging rock is kinda small... especially compared to the surrounds...
Geologists believe Kodachrome Basin State Park was once similar to Yellowstone National Park with hot springs and geysers, which eventually filled up with sediment and solidified. Through time, the Entrada sandstone surrounding the solidified geysers eroded, leaving large sand pipes. Sixty-seven sand pipes ranging from two to 52 meters have been identified in the park.
[Wikipedia]
Just to shot this photo, I had to hike for one hour up to the upper rim of the Angel trail. From the upper part of the trail you can get an awesome areal view of the park.
Colonne di sabbia pietrificata, tramonto al Kodachrome Basin St.Park, Utah
I geologi ritengono che il Kodachrome Basin State Park fosse un tempo simile a Yellowstone National Park con sorgenti di acqua calda e geyser. Ad un certo punto, queste si riempirono di sedimenti e si solidificarono. Nel tempo, la roccia arenaria (Entrada) che circondava i geyser solidificati subì l'erosione atmosferica, lasciando delle colonne di sabbia di grandi dimensioni. Ben 67 colonne, da 2 a 52 metri sono state identificate nel parco.
[Wikipedia]
Soltanto per scattare questa foto, ho dovuto inerpicarmi per un'ora e raggiungere la sommità del sentiero Angel dal quale si gode di una magnifica visuale a strapiombo su tutto il parco.
You have driven into a geologist's paradise-the San Rafael Swell. Here layers of the earth's crust are eroded & exposed for easy viewing, revealing millions of years of earth's history. You can identify each layer by its color & characteristics. The dark velvety gray of the Mancos Shale to the west was deposited in an ancient Cretaceous Sea. The yellows & golds of the Ferron & Dakota Sandstone tell of a time when this area was a great seashore with a delta, where materials laden with the plant & animal life that eventually became a source for coal & natural gas, were deposited. Then comes the soft purple, green, & red beds of the Morrison layer. When this layer was formed during the Jurassic Period, the area had tropical forest, inhabited by giant dinosaurs that died & left behind their bones to intrigue & enchant us. Ancient tidal flats created the many thin layers of the Summerville formation that you see before you. The view area itself is built on the beige-green Curtis formation, which was deposit in an ancient Jurassic sea. To the east, the upward tilt of the layers is an indication of the huge eroded anticline that is the spectacular San Rafael Swell.
Mid-afternoon haze, standing on the edge of a cliff, three venerable and esteemed colleagues ruminate.
DDC-Lumpy
Geologists say, The Finger Lakes were formed more than 2 million years ago, during the Pleistocene Ice Age. Glaciers crept through the area and carved deep slices into the land, pushing the earth and rocks south. Gradually the ice melted and the glaciers receded, leaving shale valleys of water, which are now the Finger Lakes. The ground around here is quite lumpy!
Geologist-Astronaut Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 lunar module pilot, uses an adjustable sampling scoop to retrieve lunar samples during the second extravehicular activity (EVA-2), at Station 5 at the Taurus- Littrow landing site. The cohesive nature of the lunar soil is born out by the "dirty" appearance of Schmitt's space suit. A gnomon is atop the large rock in the foreground. The gnomon is a stadia rod mounted on a tripod, and serves as an indicator of the gravitational vector and provides accurate vertical reference and calibrated length for determining size and position of objects in near-field photographs. The color scale of blue, orange and green is used to accurately determine color for photography. The rod of it is 18 inches long. The scoop Dr. Schmitt is using is 11 3/4 inches long and is attached to a tool extension which adds a potential 30 inches of length to the scoop. The pan portion, blocked in this view, has a flat bottom, flanged on both sides with a partial cover on the top. It is used to retrieve sand, dust and lunar samples too small for the tongs. The pan and the adjusting mechanism are made of stainless steel and the handle is made of aluminum.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: AS17-145-22157
Date: December 12, 1972
Geologists' descriptions include "tertiary rhyolite flows, volcanic rock, lahar deposits, granite and rhyolite outcroppings................."
Washingtonian palms cling improbably to the upper slopes in narrow, steep ravines.
Coastal northern Sonora, Mexico.
Geologists on a conference field trip are unraveling an ancient 2.7 Ga sequence of avalanches in ocean bottom sediments. This site has since become a mid-continent Precambrian outcrop in vicinity of Wawa, Ontario, Canada.
How were modern-day ocean bottom avalanches found? Much to the surprise of early industrialists, the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cables were sequentially snapped by giant deepwater sediment gravity flows. Layered sediments and rock formations resulting from such events falling off the edges of continental shelves around the world were named "turbidites" by scientists. Each layer in this outcrop is an avalanche.
Which way is stratigraphic "Up" in these vertically-dipping metasedimentary rocks? Stratigraphic orientation is key. Tough to tell here but features seen elsewhere in the outcrop say that "Up" is to the left in this image which is facing south.
The professor's hand is measuring widths of thin bedding which indicate reduced volumes of gravity-driven material with only fine silt and mud in motion. Thicker sand-inclusive layers in the same outcrop are stratigraphically lower.
from global-scale -
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbidite
to scale of individual layer -
The geologist awoke with a start. Turning her head to the side, she waited for her eyes to focus. The dark Floor of the rover gleamed up at her, and the memories of the past two days slowly came back. Sitting up, she pushed away the covers and stood up. The air was chilly, even though she had her thick orange jumpsuit on. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she walked to the thermostat and hit the heat. Frost had accumulated on the glass panel, and suddenly she shivered. It was a lot colder than she had first thought it was.
Walking to the small sink in the minilab, she bent over and turned the water on. She watched it tumble out of the faucet for a moment, amazed at how much slower it fell here than at home. Snapping herself out of the moment, she chided herself on wasting so much. The water would be recycled, but it would take up much more energy. She needed to be careful. Night, an affair that lasted two standard days on Epitaph, was fast approaching.
Cupping her hands, the geologist splashed some water on her face. Wiping away the dried sweat and tears, she paused as she caught sight of her refection in the small mirror that hung above the sink.
Looking in, she saw two blue eyes staring back at her, framed by straight blonde hair. Wincing at the black bags under her eyes and the worn expression on her face, she put her head down and scrubbed harder. Sighing she stopped and wiped her face with her sleeve. Turning the water off, she regretted not having proper soap. A shower would go a long way into making her feel better.
As she stood up straight, her eyes carefully avoided the mirror. Turning, she caught sight of her suit, and remembered the grave business she still had yet to do. Laughing darkly at the pun, she walked to the rovers’ pilot’s seat and slipped into it. From there, she pulled up the rover’s navigation computer. Scanning over the contents, she pulled up the orbital application. Using it, she could calculate how many hours of daylight she had left.
Scanning down the days, she found one that had been marked. Opening it, she found that it contained information of Hiyacena’s orbit. Closer inspection revealed that it denoted the exact time that Distress would reemerge from Hiyacena. Opening the space set aside for notes, she found a neat little message penned by the Astrophysicist. Reading it once, she felt tears well up. It was a teasing reminder from him that the Eclipse of Distress would be complete. Blinking them away, she smiled for the first time in two days.
She knew where she would be on that day.
At the top of Clinch Mountain near Abingdon VA in the Channels Forest Natural Area Preserve, are the Great Channels. The Channels are a maze of sandstone boulders that geologists believe were formed over 400-million years ago during the ice age. Permafrost and ice wedged and shattered the sandstone cap-rock to form the Channels. The pathways between the boulders in the Great Channels wind and turn and some of the stone forms caves of a sort in some places.
To hike to the Great Channels, take exit 24 west off of I81 in Virginia. Follow route 80 for about 14 miles where you will find a small parking lot on the left and the trail head. (If you start to descend the mountain, turn around you've gone too far.) The trail is about 3 miles each way, begins on an old fire road and is marked with miles-markers about every 1/2 mile. You start at marker 13.5 and count down. Shortly past mile-marker 11 to get to the Channels follow the Great Channels spur trail on the left side (there is a marker sign). Pass the abandoned fire watch tower and follow the arrows to get to the "entrance" to the Great Channels.
Taken on the Ross Maxwell scenic drive in Big Bend N.P. Texas this is just an example of the variety of rock formations in this park. I read some of the displays explaining the geology of all this but way over my head. So I enjoy just looking at all this amazing landscape.
Sony A7, SMC Takumar 35mm 3.5
Ocean Park, Washington.
I am not a beach geologist. But I've been observing this stretch of beach long enough to know that the sand feature on the left is unusual. What is going on?
For the past four or five years, there has been a sharp increase in dune building in this area and other spots along the foredunes. I took this photo where the beach path opens onto the top of a ridge formed by a series of dunes.
When we moved here in 2020, there was barely a downward slope in the path behind me that leads back inland to the valley at the base of the next sand ridge. Today, the path is now quite steep and longer because of the accumulation of sand. In fact, a new dune is forming near the beach end of the path, which means the trail climbs steeply for a stretch, levels out, and then climbs again over the baby dune.
In simplest terms (which is all that my limited knowledge allows), I posit that the accelerated dune formation is due to an increase in the force of the prevailing winds and the frequency of wind speeds capable of piling sand into dunes.
The flame shaped feature on the left was carved into the dune by the sand-laden winds during a time when the winds were especially strong. In other words, it is the chute over which the dune-building winds pass on their way inland. Something about the topography at that spot was conducive to the formation of a funnel that directed blowing sand up the dune and beyond.
That's my story, and I'm sticking with it unless someone has a better idea.
That someone turned out to be Chat GPT. It looked at the image and provided the following analysis:
At the crest of the last foredune before the open beach, a flame-shaped depression cuts through the sand, aligned with the prevailing northwesterly winds common to Washington’s Pacific coast. This feature likely formed through aeolian deflation: as wind encountered a subtle topographic dip in the dune ridge, it was funneled into the low point, increasing in velocity and scouring sand more aggressively than in adjacent areas. Over time, this concentrated airflow carved a smooth, tapered channel — a corridor of intensified sediment removal shaped by persistent wind action.
On the north side of this chute-like form, a small dune is beginning to build at a near-right angle to the shoreline. This incipient ridge, anchored by a patch of beachgrass, likely formed in response to localized turbulence or eddying at the edge of the deflation zone, where the wind loses speed and drops its sediment load. The perpendicular alignment of this new dune contrasts with the more linear pattern of foredune growth and suggests a microenvironment of deposition within a broader erosional setting.
Together, the streamlined channel and the offset dune reveal the dynamic interplay of wind, sand, and vegetation. Subtle variations in relief and ground cover amplify wind’s sculpting power, producing a mosaic of erosional and depositional forms even within a few meters of shoreline.
Anvil Spring visible lower left. Manly Peak rises behind the cabin. A nice spot, solar lighted outhouse is visible to the left of the cabin.
Butte Valley, Death Valley National Park, California, USA
A geologist’s other-worldly paradise, the colorful hills, flat-topped mesas and sculptured buttes of these painted hills in Utah are primarily made up of river-related deposits dating back some 200 million years. Inhabited by indigenous people for thousands of years, the multi-hued sweep of pigmented rock in the arid high desert seems endless in these vast and striated badlands.
Saw this scene at the Farmer's Market this morning. Count to 3 and the little guy fell over onto his bum. I thought that would be the best shot, but I actually like the quiet concentration of this one.
In 1911, an amateur geologist named William Stewart Herron discovered oil seeping through the ground in the foothills south of Calgary. He didn't know it then, but his discovery would launch Alberta's oil industry. Herron hired Archibald Wayne Dingman to supervise the drilling, and the two founded Calgary Petroleum Products (CPP). With the help of prominent investors, the company started drilling the Calgary Petroleum Products No. 1 Well (informally known as the Dingman Well), and struck oil on May 14, 1914 at 2,700'.
This gusher, whose gasoline was so pure it could power a car without any refining, caused great excitement and initiated Alberta's first oil boom. The Park built this replica of the Dingman No. 1 Discovery Well in 1965 using hardware salvaged from an oil derrick in British Columbia. Like the original Dingman Well, this replica uses cable-tool drilling as opposed to rotary drilling, which was a less expensive form of drilling used before the 1930s.
Geologist-Astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt is photographed standing next to a huge, split boulder at Station 6 on the sloping base of North Massif during the third Apollo 17 extravehicular activity (EVA-3) at the Taurus-Littrow landing site. The "Rover" Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) is in the left foreground. Schmitt is the Apollo 17 Lunar Module pilot. This picture was taken by Commander Eugene A. Cernan.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: AS17-146-22294
Date: December 13, 1972
That's a geologist... Take her to a nice beach under an amazing sky and she spends the evening crawling around in the rip-rap with a flashlight. ;)
Geologists think that this Wadi (the Arabic word for "valley") resulted from a great crack in the surface of the earth caused by an enormous upheaval, which shattered mammoth pieces of granite, and sandstone ridges from the mountains of the Afro-Arabian shield. Some of the ridges are a 1000 feet high and topped with domes worn smooth by the desert winds.
Everywhere, in this timeless and empty place, are indications of man's presence since the earliest known times. Archaeologists are certain that the Wadi Rum area was inhabited in the Prehistoric periods, mainly the Neolithic period between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, and was known as Wadi Iram. Fresh water springs made Rum a meeting center for caravans heading towards Syria and Palestine from Arabia.
Neolithic flints, Iron Age pottery and Minaean graffiti indicate settlement of the area prior to the Nabataeans. Before Islam, it served as the gathering place for the tribes of Ad, Thamud, Lihyan and Main. The Nabataeans, however, surpassed those early tribes in trade activities and monumental achievements.
Recent excavations in the south have uncovered a Caleolithic settlement dating from 4500 BC. On a hill, at the foot of Jabal Rum, lies the Allat temple originally built by the Ad tribe and remodeled by the Nabataeans in the 1st century BC.
A small village to the northwest of the temple was founded by the Nabataeans including a bath complex. Thamudic inscriptions, at the foot of the cliffs on both sides of the main Wadi, can be found in ancient stone constructions. These inscriptions on the temple confirm the pre-Islamic involvement of the Arabian tribes in the construction of the sanctuary. The temple was taken over by Thamudic tribes and Thamudic graffiti covers earlier Nabataean inscriptions, walls and columns.
Wadi Rum was the headquarters of Prince Feisal bin Al-Hussein and T.E. Lawrence during World War I, to fight for the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. Lawrence became a legendary figure for his key role in the fight for the Arab cause. He made his home in this magical area. Ain Asshallaleh, also known as Lawrence's Spring is just a short walk up the hillside from the Nabataean temple. The mountain aptly known as the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, was named by T.E. Lawrence, and was the inspiration for the title of his book of the same name. Does the movie Lawrence of Arabia ring a bell?
Notes: I spent a night in this magnificent valley at a Bedouin campground that was based at the foot of a mammoth granite rock. It was a full Moon night. This was the view lying in front of me when I woke up just before the Moon was about to set. It was one of the most remarkable experiences that I had in my life. If you happen to be visiting Petra or more generally Jordan, make a side trip to Wadi Rum- trust me, You will not regret it.
Vachon, John,, 1914-1975,, photographer.
Geologist examining cuttings from wildcat well, Amarillo, Texas
[1943?]
1 transparency : color.
Notes:
Attributed to John Vachon.
Title from FSA or OWI agency caption.
Transfer from U.S. Office of War Information, 1944.
Subjects:
World War, 1939-1945
Petroleum industry
Geology
United States--Texas--Amarillo
Format: Transparencies--Color
Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.
Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Part Of: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Collection 12002-59 (DLC) 93845501
General information about the FSA/OWI Color Photographs is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsac
Higher resolution image is available (Persistent URL): hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsac.1a35443
Call Number: LC-USW36-840
Co-trip leader Jon Scoates paying homage with his handlens.
Field trip to the chromite-hosting ultramafic Bird River Sill in southeast Manitoba.
until I can find a link to an oikocryst pix that ain't a thin-section, here are the "basics" with a whole lot of words never to be found in a regular dictionary
According to geologists, the Perry Sandhills originated after an ice age (40,000 years ago) and are formed by wind erosion over thousands of years. The dunes are located just outside of Wentworth (6km from PO), and are a unique land formation of 333 hectares (822 acres) of continuously shifting sand dunes.
Skeleton remains of giant mega-fauna (kangaroos, lions, emus and wombats) have been found there. Replicas of these animals are now on show at the Pioneer Museum in Wentworth. Aboriginal tribes used this area to camp and hunt. Evidence of this is still being uncovered as the sands drift.
Park at the car park and shelter shed at the northern entrance to the sandhills and climb over the dunes to view the magnificent River Red Gum which has been consumed by the sand. Over time, the sand has completely covered the trunk and you can walk within the canopy of the ancient tree.
The sandhills were used as a bombing range during WWII. Now, the area is utilised as backdrop for many films, T.V. shows and advertisements.
According to geologists, the Perry Sandhills originated after an ice age (40,000 years ago) and are formed by wind erosion over thousands of years. The dunes are located just outside of Wentworth (6km from PO), and are a unique land formation of 333 hectares (822 acres) of continuously shifting sand dunes.
Skeleton remains of giant mega-fauna (kangaroos, lions, emus and wombats) have been found there. Replicas of these animals are now on show at the Pioneer Museum in Wentworth. Aboriginal tribes used this area to camp and hunt. Evidence of this is still being uncovered as the sands drift.
Park at the car park and shelter shed at the northern entrance to the sandhills and climb over the dunes to view the magnificent River Red Gum which has been consumed by the sand. Over time, the sand has completely covered the trunk and you can walk within the canopy of the ancient tree.
The sandhills were used as a bombing range during WWII. Now, the area is utilised as backdrop for many films, T.V. shows and advertisements.
It was cold outside, but nice in here. Didn't see anyone else around...
Nice solar powered light is shown on - lasts about 15 minutes, so plan accordingly.
That fireplace looks cheery with that nice fire - don't be fooled, don't count on it to heat the house if you camp there. Your choices are smoked out or cold - the flue sucks the heat out. I soon switched to Mr Heater!
450 meelion years old rock on those tocks
or 450 meelion years old tocks on those rocks
soul age, it's probably similar
As a team of geologists explore deep in the Yucatan jungle, they find themselves near the ruins of an ancient Mayan temple. It is an amazing sight. But what they don’t understand about these crumbling ruins is that they were also the site of an ancient alien spaceport – a spaceport that is still active. They soon find themselves attacked by alien raiders from the dark side of the moon! One of the geologists, Richard Carson, hides in the shadows, barely escaping with his life. He watches, horrified, as his colleagues are all horribly slain, with one lone survivor, Dr. Howland, being taken prisoner by the alien beasts. Howland then finds himself with a one-way ticket back to the moon, where a lost race of turtle-like moon beings plans the eventual conquest of the Earth, a planet they had once ruled, eons in the past.
Edmond Hamilton (1904-1977) began his career in 1926 as a writer for “Weird Tales.” He was a member of the remarkable group of writers assembled by “Weird Tales” editor Farnsworth Wright that included H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Hamilton became one of the magazine’s most prolific contributors, with 79 works of fiction published from 1926 to 1948.
Through the late 1920s and early 1930s Hamilton wrote for all the science fiction pulp magazines, and contributed horror and thriller stories to other magazines as well. He was the primary force behind the Captain Future franchise, a pulp designed for juvenile readers that won him many fans, but diminished his reputation in later years when science fiction moved away from space opera. Hamilton was always associated with an extravagant, romantic, high-adventure style of science fiction, perhaps best represented by his 1947 novel “The Star Kings,” about a 20th-century man flung 2000 centuries into the future where he is Prince of a Galactic Empire.
In 1942, Hamilton began writing for DC Comics specializing in stories for their characters Superman and Batman.
[Source: Wikipedia]
According to geologists, the Perry Sandhills originated after an ice age (40,000 years ago) and are formed by wind erosion over thousands of years. The dunes are located just outside of Wentworth (6km from PO), and are a unique land formation of 333 hectares (822 acres) of continuously shifting sand dunes.
Skeleton remains of giant mega-fauna (kangaroos, lions, emus and wombats) have been found there. Replicas of these animals are now on show at the Pioneer Museum in Wentworth. Aboriginal tribes used this area to camp and hunt. Evidence of this is still being uncovered as the sands drift.
Park at the car park and shelter shed at the northern entrance to the sandhills and climb over the dunes to view the magnificent River Red Gum which has been consumed by the sand. Over time, the sand has completely covered the trunk and you can walk within the canopy of the ancient tree.
The sandhills were used as a bombing range during WWII. Now, the area is utilised as backdrop for many films, T.V. shows and advertisements.
Geologists claim that the canyons in Utah are a result of wind and rain that erode the layers of rock. What they are hiding from the public is that an hideous ancient species of marauding stone slug periodically emerges from the rock and 'grazes' through the landscape, creating the complex system of canyonlands that this area is famous for. These horrific geologic rock mollusks are surprisingly fast and will devastate anything in their path.
I risked it all when I stumbled upon one of the monstrous creatures, squeezing off a single shot from a Pentax 6 X 7 film camera before fleeing to save my life. I plan to submit this photographic proof to the news outlets, exposing the government coverup and finally revealing the truth to the public!
This photo was taken by an Asahi Pentax 6 X 7 medium format film camera and Super-Multi-Coated Takumar/6X7 1:4.5/75 lens with a HOYA HMC 82mm O[G]) filter using Adox CHS 100 II film, the negative scanned by an Epson Perfection V600 and digitally rendered with Photoshop.
Geologists believe the face of Joshua Tree's modern landscape was born more than 100 million years ago. Molten liquid, heated by the continuous movement of Earth’s crust, oozed upward and cooled while still below the surface. These plutonic intrusions are a granitic rock called monzogranite.
The monzogranite developed a system of rectangular joints. The resulting system of joints tended to develop rectangular blocks.
As ground water percolated down through the monzogranite’s joint fractures, it began to transform some hard mineral grains along its path into soft clay, while it loosened and freed grains resistant to solution. Rectangular stones slowly weathered to spheres of hard rock surrounded by soft clay containing loose mineral grains. Imagine holding an ice cube under the faucet. The cube rounds away at the corners first, because that is the part most exposed to the force of the water. A similar thing happened here but over millions of years, on a grand scale, and during a much wetter climate
After the arrival of the arid climate of recent times, flash floods began washing away the protective ground surface. As they were exposed, the huge eroded boulders settled one on top of another, creating those impressive rock piles we see today
Spider Rock stands with awesome dignity and beauty over 800 feet high in Arizona's colourful Canyon de Chelly. Geologists say that the formation began 230 million years ago. #Windblown sand swirled and compressed with time created the spectacular red sandstone monolith. Long ago, the Dine (Navajo) Indian tribe named it Spider Rock.
Stratified, multicolored cliff walls surround the canyon. For many, many centuries the Dine (Navajo) built caves and lived in these cliffs. Most of the caves were located high above the canyon floor, protecting them from enemies and flash floods.
Spider Woman possessed supernatural power at the time of creation, when Dine (Navajo) emerged from the third world into this fourth world.
At that time, monsters roamed the land and killed many people. Since Spider Woman loved the people, she gave power for Monster- Slayer and Child-Born-of-Water to search for the Sun-God who was their father. When they found him, Sun-God showed them how to destroy all the monsters on land and in the water.
Because she preserved their people, Dine (Navajo) established Spider Woman among their most important and honoured Deities.
She chose the top of Spider Rock for her home. It was Spider Woman who taught Dine (Navajo) ancestors of long ago the art of weaving upon a loom. She told them, "My husband, Spider Man, constructed the weaving loom making the cross poles of sky and earth cords to support the structure; the warp sticks of sun rays, lengthwise to cross the woof; the healds of rock crystal and sheet lightning, to maintain original condition of fibres. For the batten, he chose a sun halo to seal joints, and for the comb he chose a white shell to clean strands in a combing manner." Through many generations, the Dine (Navajo) have always been accomplished weavers.
From their elders, Dine (Navajo) children heard warnings that if they did not behave themselves, Spider Woman would let down her web- ladder and carry them up to her home and devour them!
The children also heard that the top of Spider Rock was white from the sun-bleached bones of Dine (Navajo) children who did not behave themselves!
One day, a peaceful cave-dwelling Dine (Navajo) youth was hunting in Dead Man's Canyon, a branch of Canyon de Chelly. Suddenly, he saw an enemy tribesman who chased him deeper into the canyon. As the peaceful Dine (Navajo) ran, he looked quickly from side to side, searching for a place to hide or to escape.
Directly in front of him stood the giant obelisk-like Spider Rock. What could he do? He knew it was too difficult for him to climb. He was near exhaustion. Suddenly, before his eyes he saw a silken cord hanging down from the top of the rock tower.
The Dine (Navajo) youth grasped the magic cord. which seemed strong enough, and quickly tied it around his waist. With its help he climbed the tall tower, escaping from his enemy who then gave up the chase.
When the peaceful Dine (Navajo) reached the top, he stretched out to rest. There he discovered a most pleasant place with eagle's eggs to eat and the night's dew to drink.
Imagine his surprise when he learned that his rescuer was Spider Woman! She told him how she had seen him and his predicament. She showed him how she made her strong web-cord and anchored one end of it to a point of rock. She showed him how she let down the rest of her web-cord to help him to climb the rugged Spider Rock.
Later, when the peaceful Dine (Navajo) youth felt assured his enemy was gone, he thanked Spider Woman warmly and he safely descended to the canyon floor by using her magic cord. He ran home as fast as he could run, reporting to his tribe how his life was saved by Spider Woman!
According to geologists, the Perry Sandhills originated after an ice age (40,000 years ago) and are formed by wind erosion over thousands of years. The dunes are located just outside of Wentworth (6km from PO), and are a unique land formation of 333 hectares (822 acres) of continuously shifting sand dunes.
Skeleton remains of giant mega-fauna (kangaroos, lions, emus and wombats) have been found there. Replicas of these animals are now on show at the Pioneer Museum in Wentworth. Aboriginal tribes used this area to camp and hunt. Evidence of this is still being uncovered as the sands drift.
Park at the car park and shelter shed at the northern entrance to the sandhills and climb over the dunes to view the magnificent River Red Gum which has been consumed by the sand. Over time, the sand has completely covered the trunk and you can walk within the canopy of the ancient tree.
The sandhills were used as a bombing range during WWII. Now, the area is utilised as backdrop for many films, T.V. shows and advertisements.
Geofriends, what do you think you see here?
"normal" PPG illustrated below.
This type of "soft" boulder with the orange weathering and near-linear fabric I have seen only at this place. There are hundreds of outcrops within a few miles, and all that I have seen feature either the normal granite or the black metamorphic rocks common here. I will share my surmise after my geologist friends have added their ideas.
I should note that this park is near the contact between the 1.1 bya PPG and the 1.7 bya black metamorphic complex. Also only 25 miles from the Idaho Springs mining distirict (Laramide).
Ahh, that cool Alaskan fresh air! Here we see USGS geologist, Richard Lease, collecting samples of granitic bedrock high above Blockade Glacier in the Neacola Mountains of Alaska. Blockade is just one of the many glaciers in Alaska...but how many glaciers currently exist in Alaska? We don't know exactly. The number may be as large as about 100,000. Currently, there are about 2,000 Alaskan valley glaciers. Of these, about a third have been given official names by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (geonames.usgs.gov). Most of the unnamed glaciers are small cirque and mountain glaciers.
The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is known for land speed records at the Bonneville Speedway. Access to the Flats is open to the public.
The Flats are about 12 miles (19 km) long and 5 miles (8 km) wide, with a crust almost 5 ft (1.5m) thick at the center and less than one inch (2.5 cm) towards the edges. It is estimated to hold 147 million tons of salt, approximately 90% of which is common table salt.
Geologist Grove Karl Gilbert named the area after Benjamin Bonneville, a U.S. Army officer who explored the Intermountain West in the 1830s. In 1907, Bill Rishel and two local businessmen tested the suitability of the salt for driving by taking a Pierce-Arrow onto its surface.
A railway line across the Flats was completed in 1910, marking the first permanent crossing. The first land speed record was set there in 1914 by Teddy Tetzlaff.
Entertainment filmed at the Flats include portions of Walking with Dinosaurs Special - The Ballad of Big Al, Knight Rider, Warlock, Independence Day (1996) and its sequel, SLC Punk, Cremaster 2 from Cremaster Cycle, The Brown Bunny, The World's Fastest Indian, Gerry, The Tree of Life, Top Gear and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Furthermore, the Pontiac Bonneville (former flagship sedan of the Pontiac motor division), the Triumph Bonneville motorcycle, and the Bonneville International media company are all named for the Flats.
The Bonneville Salt Flats hosts the annual US Flight Archery Championships. The goal of flight archery is to shoot arrows from bows at the greatest distance possible without regard to hitting a target, and so the vast flat plane of the flats serves as an ideal location to measure the linear distance traveled by arrows without geographic interference. Both the 1977 (archer Don Brown) and 1982 (archer Alan Webster) world records were set there; while the current world record, achieved in 1987 (archer Don Brown), was set at the salt flats near Smith Creek, Nevada.
The thickness of salt crust is a critical factor in racing use of the salt flats. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has undertaken multiple studies on the topic; while a 2007 study determined that there was little change in the crust's thickness from 1988 to 2003, more recent studies have shown a reduction in thickness, especially in the northwest area where racing occurs. The flats' overall area has contracted significantly over the past several decades. The cause or causes of this remain unclear, but many believe adjacent evaporative potash mining is the primary factor.
Collaboration between racing organizations, the potash mine, and the BLM led to a pilot program begun in 1998 to release excess brine onto the salt flats during winter. Plans to increase the volume of brine returned to the salt flats are hoped to halt loss of crust thickness, or possibly restore it where it has become too thin to sustain human use.
Motorcar racing has taken place at the salt flats since 1914. Racing takes place at part of the Bonneville Salt Flats known as the Bonneville Speedway. There are five major land speed events that take place at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Bonneville "Speed Week" takes place mid-August followed by "World of Speed" in September and the "World Finals" take place early October.
These three events welcome cars, trucks, and motorcycles. The "Bub Motorcycle Speed Trials" are for motorcycles only. World records are contested at the Mike Cook ShootOut in September. The Southern California Timing Association and the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association organizes and plans the multi-vehicle events, but all event promoters contribute to prepping and maintaining the salt. "Speed Week" events in August were canceled in 2015 and 2022, due to the poor condition of the salt in certain parts of the flats. The salt flats had been swamped by heavy rains earlier in the year, as usual, but this year the rains also triggered mudslides from surrounding mountains onto a section of the flats used for the land-speed racing courses.
Bonneville Speedway (also known as the Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track) is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed records. The Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The salt flats were first used for motor sports in 1912, but did not become truly popular until the 1930s when Ab Jenkins and Sir Malcolm Campbell competed to set land speed records.
A reduction of available racing surface and salt thickness has led to the cancellation of events at Bonneville, such as Speed Week in 2014 and 2015. Available racing surface is much reduced with just 2.5 miles (4.0 km) available instead of the 9-mile (14 km) courses traditionally used for Speed Week.
Historically, the speedway was marked out by the Utah Department of Transportation at the start of each summer. Originally, two tracks were prepared; a 10-mile (16 km) long straightaway for speed trials and an oval or circular track for distance runs, which was typically between 10 and 12 miles (16 and 19 km) long depending on the condition of the salt surface.
Since at least the 1990s, track preparations have been the responsibility of the event organizers. Days or weeks in advance, the track preparers identify an area best suited for their track layouts and begin grading the tracks. Surveyors are brought in to survey the timing trap distances. A day before racing begins, the track markers are added.
Originally, the straightaway was marked with a broad black line down its center. This was eventually changed to lines down either side, as the center line wore out too quickly. As the costs for painting the lines has gone up, organizations have switched to flags and cones as track markers. The last event to use black lines was Speed Week, August 2009.
The number of tracks and the timed sections for each track are set according to what is most beneficial for each event. Large public meets such as Speed Week run as many as four tracks with several timed miles, usually starting with the second mile and running to the fifth mile. Smaller meets that typically only run world record attempts will utilize a single track, with one timed mile and one timed kilometer in the middle of the track. Additional marks and cones indicate the end of the track and the position of timing equipment.
The annual Speed Week was cancelled in both 2014 and 2015, as were many land-speed racing events, due to deteriorating track conditions. Heavy rains caused a layer of mud from surrounding mountains to flow onto the flats, covering approximately 6 mi (9.7 km) of the track. Although another section of the flats would normally be used, nearby salt mining operations had reduced the size of the alternative track.
The depth of the salt crust at Bonneville has also been decreasing, possibly leaching into a saltwater aquifer. Measured at as much at 3 ft (0.91 m) in the 1940s and 50s, it has been reduced to just 2 in (0.051 m) in 2015.
Though recent studies have been made (since 1960), the causes of this deterioration are not clear, although the evidence points toward both local climatic changes and salt mining. Some strategies were devised to revert the decreasing salt surface, such as pumping back salt, though this had no effect.
In August, the Southern California Timing Association and Bonneville Nationals Inc. organize Speed Week, the largest meet of the year, which attracts several hundred drivers who compete to set highest speed in a range of categories. Bonneville Speed Week has been taking place since 1949.
In late August, the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials are held.
In September each year is the World of Speed, (similar to Speed Week) organized by the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association. The USFRA also meet on the first Wednesday of each month throughout the summer.
In October, the Southern California Timing Association puts on World Finals, a scaled-down version of Speed Week. This event tends to have cooler weather and often drier salt that Speed Week the prior month. There are less spectators and it tends to draw serious racers, as this event is the last chance to break a land speed record and be in the SCTA record book for that year.
Each year, there are usually a few private meets that are not publicized scattered among the larger public meets.
Several motor-paced racing speed records have been attempted at Bonneville.
In 1985, American cyclist John Howard set a then world record of 244 km/h (152 mph).
On 15 October 1995, Dutch cyclist Fred Rompelberg achieved 268.831 km/h (167.044 mph), using a special bicycle behind a dragster with a large shield.
In 2016, Denise Mueller-Korenek claimed a women's bicycle land speed record at 147 mph (237 km/h). She was coached by Howard. It is not clear which authority was supervising the record attempt.
In 2018, Mueller-Korenek broke her own women's record and the men's record at a speed of 183.9 miles per hour (296.0 km/h).
In popular culture
In the 2003 film The Brown Bunny, Bud Clay races his motorcycle at the speedway.
In the 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian, Burt Munro and his highly modified Indian Scout motorcycle sets a world record.
In the 2015 series finale episode of Mad Men, Donald Draper drives a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS muscle car in the races at Bonneville Speedway.
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.
Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.
People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.
Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.
The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.
Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.
The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:
use of the bow and arrow while hunting,
building pithouse shelters,
growing maize and probably beans and squash,
building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,
creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,
producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.
The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.
These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.
In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.
In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.
Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.
At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.
The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.
A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.
Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.
Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.
Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.
Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.
The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.
Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.
Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.
In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.
The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.
Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.
After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.
As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.
Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.
Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.
Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.
Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.
On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.
Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century
During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.
The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.
Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:
William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859
Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866
3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868
A Black man in Uintah, 1869
Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873
Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874
Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880
William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883
John Murphy in Park City, 1883
George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884
Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886
Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925
Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).
Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.
Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.
During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.
In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.
Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.
Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.
As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.
One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.
It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.
Geologgatan (Geologist street) in Kiruna, Lapland.
Geologgatan i Kiruna.
Parish (socken): Kiruna
Province (landskap): Lappland
Municipality (kommun): Kiruna
County (län): Norrbotten
Photograph by: Unknown. Almquist & Cöster
Date: 1959-1965
Format: Original postcard, tinted
Persistent URL: kmb.raa.se/cocoon/bild/show-image.html?id=16001000414204
A geologist’s other-worldly paradise, the colorful hills, flat-topped mesas and sculptured buttes of these painted hills in Utah are primarily made up of river-related deposits dating back some 200 million years. Inhabited by indigenous people for thousands of years, the multi-hued sweep of pigmented rock in the arid high desert seems endless in these vast and striated badlands.
Ian Williams 28 August 1938 - 22 November 2007
Ian changed my life by introducing me to the Kamerukas, (search here for KBC), and SUSS in 1962.
Thus began my life of caving and bushwalking, and led me to WA to meet Mary, a caver in WASG. We soon married, and have spent many years travelling around Australia.
Ian retired from the WA Geological Survey, GSWA, in 2007, but fell ill and passed on to higher realms in November... He will be sadly missed by many friends and family...
The name Bluff Knoll doesn't appear on the dumb Flickr maps until you zoom it past the other minor peaks shown....
See some research on the West Australian ones here..
www.sciencewa.net.au/topics/industry-a-resources/item/274...
A GROUP of geologists working for the #GSWA, Geological Survey of Western Australia has confirmed a long-standing belief that most of the Yilgarn Craton has a similar crustal architecture.
Structural geologist Ivan Zibra says they studied the Youanmi Terrane – named after the former gold town of Youanmi in the western goldfields – which constitutes the western portion of the Yilgarn Craton.
He says large shear zones are easily detectable from magnetic geophysical images that have been available for a long time.
“We corroborated the view proposed before,” he says.
“Many of the exposed shear zones transect the crust down to 35km, so they are large-scale structures affecting the whole craton.
“The new view is that we are dealing with a fairly homogenous craton-scale crustal architecture, in the order of 1000km in size.”
The Yilgarn bedrock dates from the Archean eon (4000–2500 million years ago) when molten magma cooled to become the earth’s crust.
Dr Zibra says more magma then deformed the solid crust, cracking and partially melting it as the hot molten material attempted to rise to the surface
See a Geology/Science website here.. austhrutime.com/australian_plate.htm
AS suggested by co-pilot today, 30-07-25.
Ah, you're after Ian R. Williams, the geologist known for his work in Western Australia—especially in the Yilgarn Craton, one of the oldest and most mineral-rich geological regions on Earth.
️ Ian R. Williams – Field Geologist of WA
Role: Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA)
Specialty: Archaean geology and regional mapping
Notable Work:
Co-compiled the Regional Interpretation Map of the Archaean Geology, Southeast Part of the Yilgarn Block (1976), a foundational map for understanding WA’s ancient crust
Contributed to geological studies of the Gregory Granitic Complex, Fortescue Group, and other Archaean formations
Legacy:
His mapping helped shape exploration strategies for gold and other minerals in WA
Often cited in studies of early continental crust and mineral deposits
If you’re diving into WA’s geological history or mineral exploration, Williams’ work is a goldmine—literally and figuratively. Want to explore the Yilgarn Craton’s secrets next?
WILLIAMS I.R 1960-- Geology of the Wisemans Creek district, central tablelands, NSW. Unpubl. B.Sc., Hons. thesis, Univ. Sydney.
from References of B.J.Watts
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Univesity of Sydney
[Read 26th March, 1969]
GEOLOGY OF THE MT. TENNYSON AREA, SOUTH OF YETHOLME, N.S.W.