Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Bah, Humbug

 Behold Humbug Canyon.

 Bah. Humbug.

 If Scrooge could say that in the face of this site, then I really pity the geology ghost that would have to help him appreciate it.

It really is a beautiful site though. And it gives you a beautiful image of the rising and falling epeiric (inland) sea as it reached and receded from this part of Utah.

 There are four easily visible formations here. From the bottom up, there is the Entrada Sandstone (the red rock), the Curtis Sandstone (white), the Summerville Formation, and then at the top was our favorite, the Morrison Formation. 

 To give you an idea of the rise and fall of the formations here, the Morrison is terrestrial here. From a distance, you can see ripples in the Summerville Formation, representing a really shallow part of the sea. The Curtis sandstone had wave ripples, symmetrical ripples right below our feet that indicate rising and falling tides, representing that part of the beach. And lastly, the Entrada, brings us back to terrestrial. And this is only one set of rising and falling in the area. It continued for millions of years before and after this.


Now for a little bit of the story behind this canyon.

 Down in the bottom is a trail that has been used for years by cattle herders. To get their cattle down to the canyon, however, they have to take them to the edge where there is a little bit of a path (my last image here) and get them to jump a few feet down to it. Cows can't actually jump over the moon, and aren't to excited about this jump either. Thus, this ledge has earned the name "the Jump."

 I'm not kidding. The path down is covered with cow pies where they um... lost it.

 There are also stories about settlers driving horses and wagons up this canyon. It's up to you to decide what you think of that one!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

My Story (Very briefly...)

Lots of people claim that they wanted to be paleontologists at the age of 3. So did I. The problem is, I never really grew out of it. My third birthday party had dinosaurs. Everywhere. I grew up digging in fossil dirt from Aurora, NC, looking for coral and shark teeth. I practically lived at my local science museums (and still do, only now I get to do research, fossil preparation, and work in collections!) When local paleontologists discovered a dinosaur with a "fossilized heart" (no longer considered such) when I was little, I got to meet the man who led the work. And then, years later a dinosaur bone with soft tissue turned up. I was officially hooked.
No longer was I dreaming about dinosaurs. I was actively pursuing the science behind prehistoric creatures. I didn't want to read about it, I wanted in on the action. So I started working at the museum, and finally going on my own adventures. And thus, I needed a place to share them and maybe inspire others the way I was inspired. I have gone from watching fossils be prepared from one side of the glass at the museum to working on them on the inside of the glass. I am a student working toward my goal. I can finally start to call myself a paleontologist.