The Geology of Butterfield Canyon of the Oquirrh Mountains

Derik Ward
Geology1010
11-15-14

Butterfield Canyon is home to many significant geological features and elements. Some
of these elements and landforms include mineral deposits of gold, silver, lead, and copper.
These deposits allow for one of the biggest open pit mines in the world, the Bingham Canyon
mine. I will discuss these topics later on in this paper. During my investigation, I found a few
different types of rocks that I will discuss in more detail in this paper. I will also talk about some
of the geological hazards that are present in this area, both natural, and human influenced.
Butterfield Canyon lies above the Wasatch fault, and was developed with the
Oquirrh Mountains on a thrust fault, residing in a subduction zone. (1) After some research, I
learned that a thrust fault when active, turns the land over so that some signs of it will be older
minerals on top. These types of ranges are formed from layers and layers being deposited one
after another. This turns these into a geological hazard. (2) During my research of the canyon, I
found some rocks that I believe to be from the late Mississippian timeframe. These two thing
led me to this conclusion. Some of the other minerals I found were quartzite, copper, and
pyrite. I found a rock with an abundance of pyrite veins running through it, which at first I
thought was gold. One of the ones that I found had a mixture of pyrite and copper in it. I was
able to get a piece of quartzite when looking around, which is believe is a big part of the upper
layer of these mountains.

This site was, and is still mined for its precious minerals, the main one being copper. I
was unable to recover any of these precious minerals during my research, although I thought
that I found some gold. These minerals that are found in these veins are mainly formed from
fissures, which push these metals up into the cracks of the rocks through pressure and heat. (3)
The rocks that I was able to find and identify were quartzite, sandstone conglomerate,
sandstone, and I believe tuff. The rock formation that these minerals came from puts them in
the late Mississippian time frame, and are formed under intense pressure and temperature
while others are chemically cemented together. (4)
Human influence on this site comes from the Bingham Canyon mine. This mine is
one of the biggest of its kind in the world, and has been producing a large chunk of the copper
in the United States for many years. We have altered the landscape dramatically by digging the
massive open pit mine. All of this extra material has to go somewhere, and they take and pile it
up on the sides, making giant hills of overburden. These giant man made mountains are very
dangerous because of landslides, and scars all over the hills are very visible from slide activity.
(5) The pollutants emitted from this mine and refinery are the worst source in Utah. (6) It not
only pollutes the air, it also damages the lakes and streams, from groundwater runoff. This
happens because of the waste water escaping the collection system. The Great Salt Lake has
many migratory bird species that make this their habitat for parts of the year. The damage to
this habitat has been extensive from the copper mine. Being so close to the Great Salt Lake
makes this a hazard for the birds. All and all this has been a very big problem for the mine and
the environment, but mainly, and most importantly for the environment. There are many
pollutants released into the air and waters, the main and most dangerous ones being selenium,

copper, arsenic, lead, zinc, and cadmium. One quarter of the cadmium flowing into the Great
Salt Lake is from the mine. There are many efforts to control this, but the pollution is still a very
big problem for the city and the mine.
The soil at the site that I was observing seemed to be consistent. It was all mostly
loosely sorted and had bigger sizes of gravel in it. There was quite a few areas of exposed
hillside where I was able to observe the soil and deposits. There seemed to be a bunch of runoff
ditches where I found an abundance of different rocks. I am not sure if they flow down after
winter during the spring runoff, or make it there through other methods of travel. I wasnt able
to identify any previous volcanically active areas at my site. Also, I wasnt able to find any
evidence of glacial activity in the area. Here there were no natural deposit landforms in my
area, but there are massive manmade ones from the Bingham Canyon mine. These are made
from years of the excess material being piled up.
Looking back on my field study, I feel that I found a good amount of rocks telling the tale
of the area. After doing research I was able to identify some of the key materials from my site. I
found some similarities with my findings and the research that I did after my visit to the site.
This was my first field study, I know that next time I will be more prepared and hopefully come
away with an even more thorough understanding of the geological history and the relations to
the minerals and things that I find at the site.