Grading Rubric Total Points: 50

Include this rubric.

Point
s

Library Research Works Cited Page

-

/10

APA style; relevant content; college-level sources; websites not

allowed sources must be articles, books, or documents.

Park Visit
-

Field Observations Form - hand written in field, fully

completed.

/5

Photos - 6 of your own photos, 2 per page, descriptive photo

captions in complete sentences, photos are original and show
relevant geologic features. Photos copied from the internet will
result in a grade of zero for the assignment.

/5

Map Your own final hand-drawn map of the park showing

geologic features, includes title, north arrow, scale bar, legend of
all map elements, use color, show location of photos, show
location of relevant geologic features and label them, show
human features like roads and trails.. This has to be a neat hand
drawn map of the park.

/5

Final Report - Three-page research paper

-

Content - Relevant observations and explanations of geologic

features, good relationship between your observations and the
results of your library research. Scientifically relevant physical
geologic features. Show relationship between geologic features
to your observations.

/10

Writing style - Research report style that is objective, cites

references, and is concise, direct, organized, and structured. Will
be free of grammatical and spelling errors. Topic sentences for
each paragraph, all sentences in paragraphs relate to main point
of paragraph.

/10

In-Text Citations: Followed in-text citation procedures for APA

correctly.
Total Points

/5
/50
Woods 1

Woods 2

G K Gilbert Geological Park Review

Morgan Woods
Geology 1010
4 December, 2015

Woods 3

G K Gilbert Geological Park Review

The G K Gilbert Geologic Park shows many important physical geologic landforms.
Some of the landforms include the Wasatch Mountains, three different canyons, and mineral
socks. The Wasatch Mountains were caused by the Wasatch Fault. Lake Bonnevilles shoreline
runs along the mountains, and have shown evidence of continued activity from the fault. The
canyons were caused by glaciation, and many elements of that are left over on the site. The
Granite stocks and gold have been mined at various times, with visual evidence still left over.
This paper will go through the different geological landforms in greater detail.
The mountains were caused by the Wasatch Fault, and many of its features were changed
by Lake Bonneville. The Wasatch Fault is the most significant fault in the state, and has been
studied by many (Hintze, 1993, p. 77). The shoreline of Lake Bonneville runs along much of the
mountains. Some of the features of the shorelines have been displaced, which shows that the
fault has been active since the features formed (Chronic, 1990, p. 223). I saw many fault scarps
caused by earthquakes from the fault line. The scarps were too tall to have been from one
earthquake, some over 100 feet tall, showing that the area has been very active along the fault
line (Eldrege, 2008). Geologists are concerned about its lack of activity recently, saying that we
will have a massive earthquake in the next couple of hundreds of years that will devastate the
entire valley.
There were three different canyons I saw during my visit, all of which had geological
features that were caused by large glaciers. I observed the U shape, or glacial trough of Little
Cottonwood Canyon. This was caused by glaciation, which is where glaciers moving under their
own weight carve out an area, leaving flat bottoms and steep slopes. I saw boulders dispersed
around that were dropped off by those glaciers (see photo #6). Rock debris was all around the
Woods 4

area deposited by the glaciers. I observed lateral moraines above some of the fault scarps (see
photo #4). Lateral moraine is caused generally by rock falls and is generally caused by alpine
glaciers (Allaby, 2008, p.379). This area is one of the only places where these glaciers met a lake
in the world (Eldrege, 2008). The glaciers ran into Lake Bonneville during the last ice age.
All three formations have many mineral stocks, some of which have been mined by
Utahans for various reasons. Big Cottonwood mostly has Shale/Slate and Quartzite, which were
deposited by Lake Bonneville. Little Cottonwood Canyon has a stock of intrusive igneous rock
called quartz monzonite, or more commonly known as Granite. Little Willow has mostly
Contorted Quartz Schist and Gneiss, which is the oldest rock in the Salt Lake area (Eldrege,
2008). James R. Wilsons A Collectors Guide to Rocks Minerals and Fossils has information on
the Big Cottonwood formations other minerals. The formation also has a rare mineral called
Ludwigite, which is common in the area, along with a lot of pale-green mica (Wilson, 1995,
p.28). The Little Willow formation was mined for its gold by settlers (Eldrege, 2008) after the
California Gold Rush. There are mine dumps around the area I observed left over from that (see
photo #2). A town called Gold City used to be North of houses pictured in Photo #2, but it has
been abandoned since the mining stopped. There was also a lot of mining in the Little
Cottonwood formation for its Granite. That Granite has been used to build many of Salt Lake
Citys prominent buildings, including the LDS temple in downtown (Eldrege, 2008).

Woods 5

Works Cited
Allaby, M. (2008). A dictionary of earth sciences (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chronic, H. (1990). Roadside geology of Utah. Missoula, Mont.: Mountain Press Pub.
Eldredge, S. (2008, May 1). GeoSights: G.K. Gilbert Geologic View Park, Salt Lake County.
Retrieved November 28, 2015, from http://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/surveynotes/geosights/g-k-gilbert-geologic-view-park/
Hintze, L. (1988). Geologic history of Utah. Provo, Utah: Dept. of Geology, Brigham Young
University.
Loughlin, G. F.. (1913). Reconnaissance in the Southern Wasatch Mountains, Utah. The Journal
of Geology, 21(5), 436452. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30084918
Wilson, J. (1995). A Collectors Guide to Rocks and Minerals. Utah Geological Survey.

Woods 6

Woods 7

Photo 1: Part of the Little Cottonwood Granite Stock is being shown.

Photo 2: These are mew houses, near the old gold City.

Woods 8

Photo 3: This shows the houses on top of a large fault scarp caused by earthquakes.

Photo 4: This shows fault scarps, as well as moraines from the glaciers.

Woods 9

Photo 5: A photo showing the U shaped of Little Cottonwood canyon.

Photo 6: These are glacial boulders that were left from the last ice age.

Woods 10

Woods 11

Woods 12