ON THE SKYLINE CAN BE SEEN GOOSEBERRY MESA- AN EROSIONAL REMNANT OF MESOZOIC SEDIMENTARY ROCK, SITTING ON THE COLORADO PLATEAU, CP, PROPER, ALOMGSIDE THE HURRICANE FAULT, Hf:
This area has a hiking and biking trail and a road which climbs on top of a Mesozoic mesa, for excellent views of the surrounding Colorado Plateau and the Transition Zone to the Basin and Range, B&R (to the west), Province. Access this mesa via Hiway 59 from Hurricane, UT 84737, climbing the switchbacks above town- driving SE towards Apple Valley and the Arizona Strip. Before reaching Apple Valley, turn left onto Smithsonian Butte National Byway (north). Proceed 2.8 miles and turn NW at the fork (leaving the road going to Rockville). Continue 3.3 miles to the Gooseberry trailhead. One can then continue 1.3 miles to the White trailhead, or fork to the NW to Windmill trailhead at 1.2 miles.
BELOW ARE PHOTOS FROM GOOGLE EARTH AND MY PERSONAL FILE, SHOWING HOW GOOSEBERRY MESA TILTS UP TO THE SW. NOTE THE CONVERGENCE OF TWO ROTATING CELLS AT A CANYON ON THE SOUTH SIDE (THEREBY CREATING IT). ALSO NOTE THAT THE CELLS ARE IN HARMONY, SO THAT NO HEAT IS BEING GENERATED BY BRITTLE FRICTION (NO VULCANISM OR HOT SPRINGS). WE WILL HIKE THIS AREA TO DETERMINE WHETHER THIS CAN BE CONFIRMED BY SLICKENSIDES AND FRACTURE PATTERNS:
BELOW IS MY ANALYSIS, USING THE RULES I HAVE FOUND FOR CORIOLIS ROTATIONS IN THE NORTHERN LATITUDES, UNTIL 40N- THE BORDER OF THE EQUATORIAL BULGE, EB:
ALL OF THIS HAS BEEN DETERMINED BY SIMPLE ANALYSIS OF PHOTOS AND OF GOOGLE EARTH PRESENTATIONS. THIS SHOWS THE TREMENDOUS VALUE OF PHOTOS FROM SATELLITES- WHERE THE "BIG PICTURE" CAN BE ASSESSED. HOWEVER, I FIND THAT THE DIRECTION OF ROTATION AND THE ASSESSMENT OF SHEAR IN ROCKS HAS TO BE CONFIRMED IN THE FIELD. GEOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION IS RELATIVELY UNIMPORTANT FOR THIS MECHANICS AND THERMAL ANALYSIS- STRESSES CREATE THRUSTS AND FOLDS OR SINKS AND DEPRESSIONS WITHOT REGARD TO TERMNOLOGY. DON'T LET TAXONOMISTS INTERFERE WITH AN ANALYSIS OF DYNAMICS OF THE EARTH!THIS IS EXPANDED, WITH ARROWS TO SHOW THE DIRECTION OF ROTATION- CREATING AN ENTRY CANYON AT THE CONVERGENCE LOCATION:
Hiking the Gooseberry Mesa finds that the area is not at all simple; the mesa has several separate cells- the most noticeable being the two seen from Hiway 59 divided by a saddle tracing roughly N-S (the influence of Hf).
BELOW IS THE CROSS-SECTION OF THE MESOZOIC (NOTE THAT THERE IS AN UNCONFORMITY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE TRIASSIC, WHERE INFORMATION PERTAINING TO THE PERMIAN EXTINCTION WOULD BE FOUND. WE CAN ONLY HOPE THAT INSUFFICIENT BACTERIA AND OTHER PREDATORS EXISTED, TO DIGEST WOOD AND OTHER MATERIAL LEFT DEAD IN THE EARLIEST TRIASSIC TO YIELD INFORMATION ABOUT THE DYNAMICS THERE.
The mesa, indeed, as shown by Google Earth and a visual photo tilts down to the north, so that drainage goes to the Virgin River. This fits with my general observation that strata dip down to the Virgin from both north an south parts of the Grass Valley cell. Outside the GV, cell drainage is in other directions, e.g. Ft. Pierce drains westward toward the City of St. George (which is on the Virgin river).
Gooseberry mesa has a flat top due to the resistance to erosion of the Triassic Shinarump- a coarse sandstone to conglomerate layer containing petrified tree trunks and broken fragments:
This type of solidified organic remains helps solve another investigation. The end of Permian extinction eliminated most of organic life, and it resulted in sparse fossil remains in the Triassic. For the fossil hollow log above, this shows that dead wood or its fossilized descendants remained to wash down to river mouths in middle Triassic times- some 10s of millions of year later. The likely scenario is that the timber was protected from bacteria by their sparseness, but also by being saved in the deeper Moenkopi, until being exhumed for subsequent burial by sandbars. This would be an unlikely happenstance, except for the lack of bacterial action due to lack of bacteria! Generally, tremendous fossil wood is found in the Petrified Forest member of the Chile- which lies above the Shinarump. In this formation, there are large thicknesses of volcanic ash (now turned to clay), which saved the fossils from elimination by virtue of the chemically-reducing conditions in the H2S and foul waters. In the earlier Shinarump sandstones, re-emerging life would have disposed of the edible wood to prevent its survival.
In the log shown above, the heartwood must have been the material preventing the cast from filling what is now a hollow. Later, the heartwood would be carried away, but the cast had by then hardened- allowing the hole to remain as such.
How does Gooseberry Mesa fit in the Grass Valley Coriolis cell encircling part of the Hurricane Fault?
We have found that the arcuate Virgin River makes a trace around the northern part of the Grass Valley cell, noticed by lateral slickensides along part of the canyon walls surrounding the river. The photo below shows that this circular feature continues in a tributary- Horse Valley wash, from the town of Rockville, shown below:
OTHER VIEWS OF PARTS OF THE AREA ARE SHOWN BELOW:
I have not answered the main question: what does the vulcanism near Hf and 30 km shear circle have to do with the movement CCW of the Colorado Plateau, and why does it occur only near the larger feature of the CW rotation about the Basin And Range, B&R? both of these are regional features, and are found only by slickensides showing lateral striations, concrete shearing, or by arcuate river valley. There is not necessarily vertical displacement (occurring along Hf), and it is difficult for field workers to find lateral displacement for horizontal beds of sedimentary rocks.
The photo above shows that Gooseberry Mesa and its obvious rotations fit inside the Grass Valley cell. It has NO vulcanism, and is composed entirely of a column of Mesozoic rock, which displays circular canyons and tilted down to the north beds. The converging canyon walls on the south side indicate that part of the feature rotates oppositely to that on the adjoining part. I have searched for seepage, to determine whether there is heat being generated at creek junctions, but found none. There were cool waters seeping down drainages- caused by melting of surface snows from recent storms, but NO indications of HEAT. I assume that the rotation of the mesa is due to its proximity to Hf, which is moving the CP southward in this location. This is surprising, since the fault is more than 5 miles to the west, and DRAG would not be expected at this distance. However, there are N-S fractures on the mesa top, as shown by the below photo:
The proximity to Zion highlands, which constitute an anomaly of large significance, is part of the analysis, and we will leave this for another solution AND ANOTHER time.
I have generally thought that the GEOLOGY CULTURE has not looked “large enough” to see the lateral faulting and Coriolis cells. Now I discover that I have not analyzed on a big enough scale either. Looking at the ‘BIG PICTURE” OF THE SINK IN WHICH I LIVE, I FIND THAT A LARGER ENTITY EXISTS AROUND ALL OF THE GRASS VALLEY AND MY DOMICILE (almost exactly in the middle of it, with Ivins and Sullivan Knoll behind my house). Look at THE photo above, of Google Earth’s scan of the region of mountains surrounding Hurricane town, and you will see that it is a large sink- defined by mountains and rises on all sides. This is the “MARK OF A DEPRESSION OR SINK, IN CORIOLIS ANALYSIS, WHERE THE OVERALL ROTATION IS CW”.BELOW IS A PHOTO FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT CONCEDE TO THE ADMONITIONS OF THE EARTH:
BELOW IS MY INTERRETATION OF THE RIVER TRENDS, SHEAR LINES, AND ROTATIONS SHOWN ON THE LARGE SCALE MAP. NOTE THE CORRELATION OF AN UPLIFT FROM ZION TO CEDAR BREAKS WITH THE YOUNG SCARP NEAR LITTLEFIELD RIVER, AZ (THIS INDICATES TILTING ON A LARGE SCALE- EXTENDING 100 TO 200 KM DISTANCE:
THIS HIKE DESCRIPTION, LIKE ALL PRECEDING ONES, WILL BE CONTINUED WITH ADDITONAL INFORMATION. SCROLL DOWN FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO THIS SUBMISSION.
1 comment:
This is one of the most exciting and interesting sport here in Utah.
Gooseberry Mesa
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