A Geologic Tour Through Wasatch Mountain State Park (MP 93-6)

By: J. B. Willis and G. C. Willis

Did you know that hot springs near Wasatch Mountain State Park are heated by deeply buried magma? That Utah once lay far south of the Equator? That glaciers flowed down canyons in and near the Park? That huge sheets of rock were pushed 20 to 40 miles eastward to overlie what is now the Park? That Utah was covered by shallow oceans for hundreds of millions of years?

These questions are all part of the drama written in the rocks in Wasatch Mountain State Park. The purpose of this guidebook is to introduce you to the geologic phenomena that shaped the Park into what it is today--a scenic textbook.

Geology is exciting because of change. The earth may seem like a mass of lifeless rock to most people, but to geologists, rocks are books that come alive when they are read. The rocks are the record of over 4 billion years of changes. From them, we learn where ancient mountains formed, when oceans swept the continent, and how glaciers, earthquakes, volcanoes, and erosion shaped the land.

Other Information:
Published: 1994
Pages: 66 p. + 8-page insert
Location: Wasatch County
Media Type: Paper Publication