Report on the geology of the Henry MountainsGilbert, Grove Karl
Science
Report on the geology of the Henry Mountains
Gilbert, Grove Karl
Geology -- Utah -- Henry Mountains; Intrusions (Geology) -- Utah -- Henry Mountains
_The Dana arch_ bears the same relation to Mount Ellen and Jukes Butte
that the Pulpit arch bears to Mount Hillers. The streams which flow down
have truncated it, and afterward carved a system of cañons below the
plane of truncation. The Henry’s Fork conglomerate overlooks it from the
base of the Jukes laccolite on one side, and on the other margins it
with a monoclinal ridge; and in the interval the Flaming Gorge and Gray
Cliff rocks come to the surface.
[Illustration:
FIG. 45.—The Jukes Butte, as seen from the southeast, showing the
Jukes Laccolite, resting upon the Dana Arch.
]
_The Crescent arch_ is so perfectly truncated by the existing mountain
streams that their flood-plains unite above it in a single broad slope.
On the side toward the mountain there are a few insular hills of the
conglomerate, and on the side toward the plateau the same rock lifts a
low monoclinal ridge which circles about the base of the arch in a
crescent. Within the crescent there are few outcrops, but it is probable
that the Gray Cliff Sandstone is brought to the surface. Near the center
a solitary thin dike juts forth, like a buoy set to mark the place where
a laccolite is sunk. Judging the magnitude of the laccolite by the
proportions of the uplift, it has a diameter of nearly four miles and a
depth of 2,500 feet; and these dimensions indicate a volume of three and
a half cubic miles.
_The Maze arch_ covers a smaller area than the Crescent, but its height
is greater. The drainage from the mountain crosses it on a number of
lines, but there is no indication that at any recent stage of the
degradation they have produced an even truncation. At present they
divide the Gray and Vermilion Sandstones by so intricate a labyrinth of
deep cañons that the whole area of the uplift is almost impassable. The
monotony of red sandstone, for here all members of the Jura-Trias are
brick-red, the variety of dip, complicated to the eye by oblique
lamination, the multiplicity of cañons and ridges, conspire to give an
impression of chaos from whatever point the tract is viewed; and even
from the most commanding stations I was unable to make out completely
the arrangement of the drainage lines. Still no faults were discerned,
and it is probable that the Maze arch, intricate as it seems, is a
simple circular dome. On the north it adjoins the Crescent arch, and the
monoclinal ridges of conglomerate which margin the two at the east are
confluent. On the south it adjoins rather more closely one of the low
arches which have been referred to the Pennell cluster. On the west, or
toward the mountain, it is probably met by other arches at its own
level; but these if they exist cannot be fully known until the
progressing degradation of the country shall have removed certain
laccolites which lie above them and slightly overlap the Maze arch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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