Shimmying, Scrambling, and Scaling

Field Stink:

Rocks generally do not small bad, so when our group noticed a very bad smell early in the field today, we began to wonder what Ben ate the night before. I mean it was bad! But, Madison soon found the culprit: an aged deer carcass that seems to be more evidence for the existence of the mountain lion. Since biology is not our party's strong suit, we continued past the deer with nothing more than a gander and some speculation on how a mountain lion might eat a geologist. Still, throughout the rest of the day, we each tended to jump whenever a twig snapped under boot.

The majority of the morning was spent in an offshoot of Red Hollow Canyon, measuring fractures within a beautiful red sandstone slot canyon. In the narrows of the slot, we took turns shimmying, scrambling, and scaling towards each successive fracture. At the end of the offshoot, our reward was a beautiful view of the white bleached zone of the Navajo sandstone meeting the vibrant reds below.

Striking geology at the end of the offshoot.

Geologic Stress:

After a quick lunch spent swapping mountain lion stories, we went back to work and mapped out one of the more complex fracture zones. In this part of the canyon, the orientation of many of the fractures appeared drastically different from what we had measured up to that point. We think this is because we crossed a segment of the Sevier fault, and this fault is acting as a barrier to stress-transfer within the rock on either side of the fault. At this point, it may be necessary to do some explaining: "stress" can be thought of as the forces acting upon a rock when it is underground. When fractures form (beneath the ground), they propagate along the plane that has the least amount of force holding the rock together. This means that the fracture orientations we are seeing directly relate to the stresses causing the fractures. The point is, we are starting to get an idea of how stress is transferred near this segment of the Sevier fault.

Noting fracture orientation

Looking Ahead

By the end of the day, we have mapped most of Red Hollow Canyon, gathering data across the main Sevier fault segment in this area. Now, we are preparing to finish our mapping within Red Hollow Canyon, after which, we can begin to use aerial drone photography to document inaccessible fractures higher up on the canyon walls. We are all excited to combine the traditional geological techniques we've been using with high-tech tools, such as drones.

Click this link to see a map of our paths from the last few days.

Hiking in the main drainage of the Red Hollow Canyon

Tip of the Day: "Meal-replacement Spaghetti"

Tip of the Day: "Meal-replacement Spaghetti" -if nutrition bars are too pricey for your expedition, a bag of plain, cold spaghetti will suffice; not only is there no need to worry about the high sugar content of name brand nutrition bars, but with a bag of spaghetti, your snack pack will be safe from would-be thieves, since no one in their right mind would want to steal this snack.