Big Cottonwood Canyon: A Geological Observation

Jared Wallenmeyer

Geo1010

7/14/17
 Big Cottonwood canyon is one of the more popular canyons in Utah and for good

reason: large mountains, varying rock and vegetation colors, hiking trails for all

preferences, and plenty of wildlife make for a good visit. There are many reasons why I

chose here and one of them is that it has lots of formations and interesting rocks to

photograph and add to this report. To start out near the base of the canyon there are

plenty of Precambrian formations where there is alternating layers of shale and quartzite

within the canyon that make up a lot of the lower section of the canyon. The colors for

these are anywhere from dark orange to red or brownish for the quartzite and there are

alternating colors of dark grey to a mild green for the shale.

A close up look at these formations shows that there are mud cracks and form

the ancient tidal waves that ran through the area. In fact, there used to be glaciers that

moved through the park and it is easy to find that there are the rocks to prove this.

These formations are called tidal rhythmites that occur within the shale formations and

these showcase the effects of the tides coming out and in over the years and it creates

these lines that you can use for dating the rock similar to counting the rings within the

trunk of a tree to tell its age as well as other stories that it has to offer. These are

believed to be between 850 million to one billion years old and tell us the story of moon

tides and the role that it and the suns gravitational pull have had on creating this

layering within the rock. The white material within the layers is sand from the beaches

that were there and the darker colors is clay and or silt that has piled up with the

changing tides. You can tell how aligned the Sun, the Moon and the Earth were lined up

while this deposition happened by the way that theyre stacked by thickness. The thicker

the stack the more likely the Sun, Moon, and Earth were aligned and the thinner they
were the less aligned they were. Because of this tide calculation you are able to actually

see how long days were and how long it would take for a year. They have said that our

days were actually a bit shorter and years were actually longer a bit. They estimate

about 18 hours per day and close to 400 days per year.

There are also a lot of sedimentary dikes that can be seen surrounded by

limestone, marble, and sills. These are layers of clay that have had pressure build within

from fluid freezing and expanding. This leaves gaps where sediments can fall into it and

forms these dikes. The dikes can contain various mixtures of minerals and other content

that has fallen into it through the years via liquid that has carried it into it. There are

vertical cross cuts that go through the rocks and this is what forms these dikes.

I saw large boulders that had come to rest after falling to the bottom

accumulation of rocks or talus as its known of the Stairs Gulch formation. Its thought

provoking to see that these large boulders, some very large in size have managed to

slide their way down to the base of the formation. This area has a high potential for

landslides that can create a lot of damage.

There are a lot of reasons to visit Big Cottonwood Canyon if you are hoping to

see geologic formations that can give clues about the past and what caused our world

to form to the way it is today. Whether you wish to find information on mud cracks, the

length of days long before humans walked the earth, or to see a face of a cliff that is

experiencing rock slides and boulders moving down it you can easily find it at Big

Cottonwood Canyon.
 Sources

Case, W., Eldrige, S., & Milligan, M. (n.d.). Geologic Guide to The central Wasatch Front

Canyons. Retrieved July 10, 2017, from https://geology.utah.gov/map-

pub/publications/PI-87.pdf

Glad You Asked: How can sedimentary rocks tell you about Utahs history? (n.d.).

Retrieved July 25, 2017, from https://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/survey-

notes/glad-you-asked/how-can-sedimentary-rocks-tell-you-about-utahs-history/

Eldredge, S. (n.d.). Big Cottonwood Canyon. Retrieved July 10, 2017, from

https://geology.utah.gov/popular/places-to-go/geologic-guides/virtual-tour-central-

wasatch-front-canyons/big-cottonwood-canyon/

Lund, W. (1980). Geologic and Topographic Constraints to Land Use, Big Cottonwood

Canyon Sal t Lake County, Utah . Retrieved July 10, 2017, from

https://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/publications/RI-147.pdf

Survey, U. G. (2016, August 10). GeoSights-Glacial Landforms in Big and Little

Cottonwood Canyons, Salt Lake County, Utah. Retrieved July 10, 2017, from

https://geology.utah.gov/geosights-glacial-landforms-in-big-and-little-cottonwood-

canyons-salt-lake-county-utah/

Big Cottonwood Canyon. (n.d.). Retrieved July 25, 2017, from

https://geology.utah.gov/popular/places-to-go/geologic-guides/virtual-tour-central-

wasatch-front-canyons/big-cottonwood-canyon/
Pictures
Map
Field Observation Form