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San Rafael Swell
The San Rafael Swell is a large geologic feature located in south-central Utah, United States about west of Green River. Measuring approximately , the swell consists of a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone that was pushed up during the Paleocene Laramide Orogeny 40–60 million years ago. Since that time, infrequent but powerful flash floods have eroded the sedimentary rocks into numerous valleys, canyons, gorges, mesas, buttes, and badlands. The swell is part of the Colorado Plateau physiographic region. Geography Interstate 70 divides the Swell into northern and southern sections, and provides the only interstate access to the region. The swell lies entirely within Emery County. The northern Swell is drained mainly by the San Rafael River, while the southern Swell is drained mainly by Muddy Creek, which eventually joins the Fremont River to become Dirty Devil River northeast of Hanksville, Utah. The Dirty Devil River flows southwar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colorado Plateau
The Colorado Plateau is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States. This plateau covers an area of 336,700 km2 (130,000 mi2) within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, southern and eastern Utah, northern Arizona, and a tiny fraction in the extreme southeast of Nevada. About 90% of the area is drained by the Colorado River and its main tributaries: the Green, San Juan, and Little Colorado. Most of the remainder of the plateau is drained by the Rio Grande and its tributaries. The Colorado Plateau is largely made up of high desert, with scattered areas of forests. In the south-west corner of the Colorado Plateau, nicknamed High Country, lies the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. Much of the Plateau's landscape is related to the Grand Canyon in both appearance and geologic history. The nickname "Red Rock Country" suggests the brightly colored rock left bare to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Butte
In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French language, French word , meaning 'Hillock, knoll' (of any size); its use is prevalent in the Western United States, including the Southwestern United States, southwest where (Spanish language, Spanish for 'table') is used for the larger landform. Due to their distinctive shapes, buttes are frequently landmarks in plains and mountainous areas. To differentiate the two landforms, geographers use the rule of thumb that a mesa has a top that is wider than its height, while a butte has a top that is narrower than its height. Formation Buttes form by weathering and erosion when hard caprock overlies a layer of less resistant rock (geology), rock that is eventually worn away. The harder rock on top of the butte resists erosion. The caprock provide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Badlands
Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, minimal vegetation, lack of a substantial regolith, and high drainage density.A.J. Parsons and A.D. Abrahams, Editors (2009) ''Geomorphology of Desert Environments'' (2nd ed.) Springer Science & Business Media Ravines, gullies, buttes, hoodoos and other such geologic forms are common in badlands. Badlands are found on every continent except Antarctica, being most common where there are unconsolidated sediments. They are often difficult to navigate by foot, and are unsuitable for agriculture. Most are a result of natural processes, but destruction of vegetation by overgrazing or pollution can produce anthropogenic badlands. Badlands topography Badlands are characterized by a distinctive badlands topography. This is terrain in whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green River (Colorado River)
The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The watershed of the river, known as the Green River Basin, covers parts of the U.S. states of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Green River is long, beginning in the Wind River Range of Wyoming and flowing through Wyoming and Utah for most of its course, except for a short segment of in western Colorado. Much of the route traverses the arid Colorado Plateau, where the river has carved some of the most spectacular canyons in the United States. The Green is slightly smaller than Colorado when the two rivers merge but typically carries a larger load of silt. The average yearly mean flow of the river at Green River, Utah is per second. The status of the Green River as a tributary of the Colorado River came about mainly for political reasons. In earlier nomenclature, the Colorado River began at its confluence with the Green River. Above the confluence, Colorado was called the Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colorado River
The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United States, drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states. The name Colorado derives from the Spanish language for "colored reddish" due to its heavy silt load. Starting in the central Rocky Mountains of Colorado, it flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada border, where it turns south toward the Mexico–United States border, international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora. Known for its dramatic canyons, whitewater rapids, and eleven National parks of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hanksville, Utah
Hanksville is a small town in Wayne County, Utah, Wayne County, Utah, United States, at the junction of State Routes Utah State Route 24, 24 and Utah State Route 95, 95. The population was 219 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Situated in the Colorado Plateau's cold desert ecological region, the town is just south of the confluence of the Fremont River (Utah), Fremont River and Muddy Creek (Utah), Muddy Creek, which together form the Dirty Devil River, which then flows southeast to the Colorado River. The Hanksville-Burpee Quarry is located nearby, and the Mars Desert Research Station is northwest of town. The Bureau of Land Management's Henry Mountains field station is located in Hanksville. History The town was settled in 1882 and known for a time for the name given to the surrounding area, Graves Valley. It took the name of Hanksville in 1885, after Ebenezer Hanks, an early settler. It was incorporated in 1999. The Rural Utilities Service, Rural Electrificati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirty Devil River
The Dirty Devil River is an tributary of the Colorado River, located in the U.S. state of Utah. It flows through southern Utah from the confluence of the Fremont River and Muddy Creek before emptying into the Colorado River at Lake Powell. Course The Dirty Devil River is formed in Wayne County near Hanksville at the confluence of the Fremont River and Muddy Creek. It flows generally southward through a canyon in Wayne and Garfield counties. Its lower flows through Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, where it finally disembogues into the Colorado River at a point that is now submerged beneath Lake Powell. The canyon carved by the river is particularly isolated and seldom visited compared to other natural areas in the region. The average discharge is approximately 446 cubic feet per second. History The Dirty Devil River was named by the 1869 Powell Geographic Expedition led by John Wesley Powell, which explored much of the Colorado River and its tributaries. It was n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fremont River
The Fremont River is a long river in southeastern Utah, United States that flows from the Johnson Valley Reservoir, which is located on the Wasatch Plateau near Fish Lake, Utah, Fish Lake, southeast through Capitol Reef National Park to the Muddy Creek (Utah), Muddy Creek near Hanksville, Utah, Hanksville where the two rivers combine to form the Dirty Devil River, a tributary of the Colorado River. Course The Johnson Valley Reservoir is fed by Sevenmile Creek (from the north) and Lake Creek (from the southwest). The Fremont River passes through Fremont, Utah, Fremont, Loa, Utah, Loa, Lyman, Utah, Lyman, Bicknell, Utah, Bicknell, Teasdale, Utah, Teasdale, and Torrey, Utah, Torrey and provides year-round irrigation for the agricultural lands of Rabbit Valley and Caineville, Utah, Caineville. Then it heads through Hanksville, Utah, Hanksville and afterward to its mouth. Miscellaneous The Fremont River has a drainage area of fed by spring snowmelt off Thousand Lake Mountain, Boulder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muddy Creek (Utah)
Muddy Creek is a stream in central Utah, United States, that drains portions of Emery, Sanpete, Sevier, and Wayne counties. Description The creek begins on the eastern slopes of the Wasatch Plateau at elevations above . It turns southward near the town of Emery, then southeastward, where it crosses under Interstate 70. It then directly enters the western flank of the San Rafael Swell and continuing in a southeasterly direction, it passes Hondu Arch, and the Tomsich Butte mining area then begins its spectacular passage through a narrow slot canyon of Coconino Sandstone known as the "Chute". After merging with Chimney Canyon and passing the Hidden Splendor Mine area, it passes through the southeastern escarpment of the San Rafael Reef at the end of Muddy Creek Gorge. In its lower reaches, it continues southeastward through the Blue Hills badlands near Caineville, then cuts through the Jurassic Morrison Formation where dinosaur fossils have been found. Finally, after an estim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Rafael River (Utah)
The San Rafael River is a tributary of the Green River, approximately long, in east central Utah, United States. The river flows across a sparsely populated arid region of the Colorado Plateau, and is known for the isolated, scenic gorge through which it flows. Description The river rises in northwestern Emery County, approximately southeast of Castle Dale, by the confluence of Cottonwood, Huntington and Ferron creeks, which provide its headwaters in the Wasatch Plateau region. It flows east-southeast along the north side of the Coal Cliffs and the prominent anticline called the San Rafael Swell, passing north of Window Butte (Window Blind Peak) and through two narrow slot canyons in Coconino Sandstone called the Upper and Lower Black Box. This area is known as the San Rafael Gorge, sometimes called the "Little Grand Canyon". (Actually, the "Little Grand Canyon" is a few miles upstream where the San Rafael passes between the Wedge on the north and Sid's Mountain and No Man' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emery County, Utah
Emery County is a County (United States), county in east-central Utah, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 9,825. Its county seat is Castle Dale, Utah, Castle Dale, and the largest city is Huntington, Utah, Huntington. History Prehistory Occupation of the San Rafael region dates back thousands of years to include people of the Desert Archaic Culture who were followed by those of the Fremont culture who inhabited present-day Emery County through the sixth through thirteenth centuries AD. Evidence of these civilizations is extant in numerous pictograph and petroglyph panels, such as those in Temple Mountain Wash, Muddy Creek (Utah), Muddy Creek, Ferron Box, Black Dragon Canyon, and Buckhorn Draw Pictograph Panel, Buckhorn Wash - all sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Indigenous Ute people also occupied sites in Castle Valley. Old Spanish Trail The first non-indigenous persons to view Castle Valley were Spanish Traders and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interstate 70
Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, Baltimore County, Maryland, Woodlawn, just outside Baltimore, Maryland. I-70 approximately traces the path of U.S. Route 40 (US 40; the old National Road) east of the Rocky Mountains. West of the Rocky Mountains, the route of I-70 was derived from multiple sources. The Interstate runs through or near many major U.S. cities, including Denver, Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore. The sections of the Interstate in Missouri and Kansas have laid claim to be the first Interstate in the United States. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has claimed the section of I-70 through Glenwood Canyon in Colorado, completed in 1992, to be the last pie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
