Subj : ES Picture of the Day 24  2022
To   : All
From : Dan Richter
Date : Thu Nov 24 2022 11:01:06

 EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes
and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and
archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


 Below the Wasatch Range’s Storm Mountain

   November 24, 2022


    RayB_bigcott832c_19oct22 (002)

    RayB_bigcott837c_19oct22 (003)

   Photographer:  Ray Boren

   Summary Author:  Ray Boren

   Geologic forces spanning millions of years — from  estuarine
   deposits and metamorphic pressures to mountain building and
   never-ending erosion — are exposed in beautiful  Big Cottonwood
   Canyon, a cleft in the  Wasatch Range southeast of Salt Lake City,
   Utah. Accessible examples of these phenomena are found alongside a
   graceful curve in the canyon highway below ominously named Storm
   Mountain. Here, tinted in shades of oxidized red and darker black, are
   layered  Big Cottonwood Formation rocks, as illustrated in the first
   photo, taken on October 19, 2022.

   The eye-catching outcrops at  Storm Mountain include  quartzite,
   a dense, quartz-rich sandstone, and  argillite, a clay-rich
   mudstone. The layers were originally laid down over 720 million years
   ago, during the  Neoproterozoic. They were subsequently uplifted,
   folded and steeply tilted beginning about 75 million years ago,
   creating this rugged landscape. The quartzites were originally
   deposited in rivers and tidal channels, while the argillite comes from
   calmer deposits — both evidence of an ancient, seaside estuary that
   preceded the mountains themselves.

   A second photograph, taken the same day from below an overhang in the
   rocks and above the curving highway, partly shows Storm Mountain’s
   steep, craggy face, to the left. The peak rises some 2,100 feet (700
   meters) above the canyon, topping out at 9,528 feet (2,904 meters)
   above sea level. The perspective also hints at the  season under
   way: The leaves of stream-side mountain maples, cottonwoods, oaks and
   other deciduous trees and bushes have turned autumnal shades of red and
   yellow, for their production of  chlorophyll has ceased with the
   arrival of fall’s cooler temperatures and shorter days.


   Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah Coordinates: 40.6373 -111.6330


Related EPODs

    Below the Wasatch Range’s Storm Mountain  Beautiful Alpine Lakes
   in the Sierra Nevada Range  Quechee Gorge in East Central Vermont
    Limestone Stratification near Modica, Sicily  Strawberry Moon
   and Etna Exhaust  Kodachrome Basin State Park, Utah
    More...

Geography Links

     *  Atlapedia Online
     *  CountryReports
     *  GPS Visualizer
     *  Holt Rinehart Winston World Atlas
     *  Mapping Our World
     *  Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
     *  Types of Land
     *  World Mapper

-
   Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the  Universities
   Space Research Association.

https://epod.usra.edu
 
--- up 38 weeks, 3 days, 21 minutes
 * Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)

.