DECEMBER 6, 2017

SELF GUIDED FIELD TRIP

TO BIG COTTONWOOD CANYON

ANTHON JR. MONEY

10:00AM-10:50AM
GEO-10/10 Podratz
 For my self-guided field trip I drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon as it is fairly close to

where I live and I havent been up Big Cottonwood Canyon over 10 years. So I wanted to do

something I would enjoy. A nice trip up there gave me the chance to see the truly astonishing

abilities that earth is capable of. Driving up the canyon it is clear that a lot happened in this area

as a lot of formations are there even from the entrance of the canyon. You can see the U shape

while driving up that was obviously caused by the gigantic glacier that made its way down the

mountain and near the top you can see small openings where smaller glaciers forced their way to

join the bigger one. There is also a lot of evidence in the mouth of the canyon as you can see

there are a lot of rocks scattered from top to bottom that all look extremely similar hinting at the

fact that they are the same rock and it came from the top of the mountain but the glacier eroded a

lot of the mountain and brought it down the canyon. I didnt have the time but about halfway up

the canyon there is a sign saying Remnants of an ancient sea that leads a trail to I'm guessing is

to a peak of the mountain to see the patterns imprinted on the rocks. The sign even states that the

rock used to be mud as you can see cracks in the rock. There is Shale that is also deposited

everywhere and that rock is primarily found around bodies of water as it is a sedimentary rock

that is made by moving water that erodes and deposits.

A little research brought up an article from Utah Geological Survey from the Utah DNR

going through the observed history of Big Cottonwood Canyon. They state that going up the

canyon what will be visible is rock that could have only been formed by tidal waves. These rocks

include shale, limestone, and sandstone all dating back to up to one-hundred-million years old.

This reinforces the idea of Utah being underwater in the past. This also states that magma was at

the mount of the canyon due to a large amount of igneous rocks found at the entrance of the
canyon and relative to the age of the glacier this magma isnt that old only being thirty million

years old. And after millions of years of erosion this rock is revealed and is very noticeable up at

the peak of Brighton. (Eldredge) This article also states that we have learned from the rock what

earth was like One Billion years ago. They have found that the marks in the rocks known as tidal

rhythmites revealed the lunar cycles at the time. It revealed that Earth was spinning faster, and

thus the days were shorter. A day on earth lasted 18 hours, there were over 13 months in a year

and about 481 days in a year (Eldredge) Lastly with this article they found evidence that

Brighton was cover with hundreds of feet of ice from the glaciers. There is a spot where you can

see the glacier was able to move but there was a spot that it stopped in its tracks. This spot is

known as Reynolds Flat. It is visible by a narrow, twisting canyon and an open straight canyon

above causing the V shape in this canyon (Eldredge)

Another geological article from West Minister goes into depth about the rock formations

and how deep they go, also how old they are. They also talk about the Wasatch Fault and how it

developed the Big Cottonwood Canyon. They also found another sign that went into depth about

the fault and how it shifted the mountains 10,000ft up in 700 million years. Apparently according

to this sign there are a lot of rocks on the path that are 700 million years old. The author sketched

a map that shows the path the main glacier took but also a came from the south and collided

making a big flat area in the canyon. And lastly from this publication they have the thickness of

the rocks. Going as deep as 20,000ft this rock is known as Weber Quartzite and with a lot of

other rocks staking on top of this said rock going all the way up to the surface we see that these

rocks were formed in the Proterozoic era and are named after Big Cottonwood. (Hintze)
 An Article from Deseret News goes into more depth about the tides that happened over a

billion years ago. Apparently up City Creek you will find limestone scattered across the area that

contains fossils of water bound creatures. The person who wrote the article also found that days

were shorter a billion years ago and he found that the tides have actually probably slowed down

the rotation of the Earth. (Bauman)

Another article from the Utah Geological survey goes into detail about the glaciers in Big and Little

Cottonwood. They report that the basins had over a 100 feet of glacial ice that ranges from 30 thousand years

to as early as 10 thousand years. They also state that The little Cottonwood Glacier moved all the way though

the canyon and extended into lake Bonneville, while the Big Cottonwood Glacier only made its way 5 miles

and stopped, most likely due to less snow (Glacial Landforms in Big and Little Cottonwood Caynons) The

glaciers have a lot of responsibility of erosion as visible by actually carving into the canyon walls as it slid

down the canyon. If it werent for the glaciers we wouldnt have the U shaped canyon that many know and

love today.

For my last article Im choosing the impact of humans on the canyon. The biggest thing that the

canyon is used for is most definitely being skiing and snowboarding as at the top of the canyon, you will find a

ski resort that is used by not only Utah residents but people worldwide. In this article I found, the resort started

due to the amount of mining happing at the mountain back in 1871. They built the hotel back in 1874 so people

could vacation away from the Salt Lake Valley. It grew to be a very popular place to vacation for travelers as

people loved the scenery that was caused by geological events. (Murphy)

This trip and the amount of research has taught me a lot about Big Cottonwood and how it was

created. It all makes sense now as before I would wonder why all the rocks looked the way they did and why

they were scattered everywhere. It is crazy to think that we were able to determine a day on earth over one

billion years ago due to the rocks found at Big Cottonwood. And if people will admit it or not but this
geological event is backing a lot of Utah economy due to the ridges and the basic shape of the canyon was

formed with a glacier.

Bibliography
Bauman, Joe. Geologic Wonders Uncovered. 5 December 2005. 6 Nobember 2017.
<https://www.deseretnews.com/article/635166352/Geologic-wonders-uncovered.html>.

Eldredge, Sandra. Big Cottonwood Canyon. Ed. Utah DNR. n.d. 6 November 2017.
<https://geology.utah.gov/popular/places-to-go/geologic-guides/virtual-tour-central-wasatch-front-
canyons/big-cottonwood-canyon/>.

Glacial Landforms in Big and Little Cottonwood Caynons. Ed. DNR. n.d. 26 November 2017.
<https://geology.utah.gov/geosights-glacial-landforms-in-big-and-little-cottonwood-canyons-salt-
lake-county-utah/>.

Hintze, L.H. Geologic Formations. 15 Septmeber 2000. 6th November 2017.

<http://people.westminstercollege.edu/departments/science/Old_102_Files/lesson_schedule_links/
wasatch_mountains/fieldtrip/geologybigcottonwood.PDF>.

Murphy, Miriam B. Development of Brighton Resort. July 19996. 26 November 2017.

<http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/mining_and_railroads/developmentofbrightonresort.ht
ml>.
Rock Striations

Sign of ancient sea

Unique weathering and erosion

Water Erosion
Two types of rocks that are rising together.

Mud like prints on the rocks.