The Bear River Range, in north-central Utah, contains a variety of geomorphic elements influenced by the geologic setting and events. Controlling factors of the geologic setting include: (1) a syncline (west) and an anticline with a crestal graben (east) within the part of the mountain range studied, and an adjacent graben valley along the west side of the range; and (2) bedrock of Precambrian and Paleozoic age in the core of the range, predominantly of shallow-marine carbonates and covered in the graben by shaly and conglomeratic rocks of early Cenozoic age, with fanglomerates and lake deposits of later Cenozoic age. Geologic events contributing to geomorphic development include: (1) (?) Bull Lake and Pinedale glaciation; ( 2) various levels of Lake Bonneville; and (3) Hypsithermal climatic conditions. The eighteen canyons along the western front of the Bear River Range in Utah, in sequence from north to south, are: High Creek, Oxkiller Hollow, Cherry Creek, City Creek, Nebo Creek, Smithfield, Birch, Dry (North), Hyde Park, Green, Logan, Dry (South), Providence, Millville, Blacksmith Fork, Hyrum, Paradise Dry, and East. An attempt was made to relate gradient changes along longitudinal canyon profiles to lithologies, attitudes, or other structural controls. The only consistent gradient change is a steepening of the gradient downstream from outcrops of Swan Peak Formation. A pronounced asymmetry in cross-valley profiles probably results from micro-climatic differences that cause north-facing slopes to be steeper than southfacing slopes despite close similarities in structure and lithology across canyons. Several canyons which do not cross the syncline axis have no measurable discharge. Water from these drainages apparently moves along the strike or down the east-dipping rocks of the western limb of the Logan Peak syncline to emerge as springs added to the surface flow in cross-axial canyon streams. Leakage is probably concentrated in the Lodgepole and Great Blue Formations. Minor geomorphic elements within the Bear River Range result from glacial, periglacial, and fluvial processes, and landslides. Periglacial action has produced both nivation and patterned diamicton. Glacial features are present in Logan Canyon and its tributaries, Birch, Providence, and the South Fork of Smithfield canyons. In addition to these previously mapped glacial areas, High Creek Canyon was subjected to glacial modification in the upper reach of South Fork tributary, and Leatham Hollow (Blacksmith Fork Canyon ), in the upper reach of its major southern tributary. Nivation modified the heads of Smithfield, Green, Cottonwood, and Dry (South) canyons by carving cirques floored by rock debris. Evidence for glacial action downstream from these cirques is absent. Patterned diamicton sites are widely distributed within the range. There is no consistent relationship to exposed lithologies or physical setting. The apparent relationship of slope aspect, elevation, and solar radiation suggests an origin by a temperature-dependent process, for near-identical temperatures were calculated for all patterned diamicton sites. Based, in part, on a reconstruction of Pleistocene temperatures, the patterned diamicton sites probably are a form of patterned ground resulting from frost action during glacial episodes. Alluvial fans lie at the mouths of many tributary canyons. Based on degree of soil development and relations to features of known age, a sequence of fan development is recognized. Alluvial fans formed prior to Wisconsinan time and repeatedly thereafter during interglacial and glacial periods. Many of the fans formed after the Pleistocene under the favorable conditions that existed during the Hypsithermal interval. Landslides in the study area are commonly old, inactive features. Only a few sites are recent in age, or currently active. Slopes with a west-component aspect are more prone to movement than other aspects. The most frequently disturbed lithology consists of Tertiary formations which are often conglomeratic. A wide range of slope inclinations have landslides, but the dominant slope is 20 to 24 percent. The main elevation range for landslides is between 6, 000 to 6, 999 feet. Quaternary stream alluvium and Lake Bonneville deposits are found along the eastern margin of Cache Valley and in the lower reaches of most canyons. This material has been deposited since the Provo phase of Lake Bonneville. In several places, lake or stream terraces are mapped.

Please read the abstract in the thesis. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria,1969. / gm2015 / Plant Production and Soil Science / PhD / Unrestricted

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The Devonian Frog Mountain Formation thickens abruptly eastward across the Eastern Coosa thrust fault from <12 m on the west to>70 m on the east. The thin Frog Mountain on the west unconformably overlies the Cambrian-Ordovician Knox Group. The thin Frog Mountain (mostly shale) is overlain by the Mississippian Maury Shale (~1 m thick) and Fort Payne Chert (~50 m thick). The thick Frog Mountain on the east rests on the Middle Ordovician Athens Shale, a black shale >150 m thick. The Athens overlies the Knox Group. The thick Frog Mountain is nearly all sandstone and is overlain by Fort Payne Chert which is only ~1 m thick In the Eastern Coosa hanging wall, an upper-level out-of-the-syncline thrust fault with thick Frog Mountain in the hanging wall cuts more than 290 m stratigraphically down section from Athens to lower Knox in the footwall. The upper-level Frog Mountain thrust sheet crosses over the Eastern Coosa fault, and truncates folds in the Eastern Coosa footwall, moving ~2 km. The thick Frog Mountain Formation associated with the Eastern Coosa thrust sheet has been transported ~100 km cratonward. The Frog Mountain Formation was deposited over a low topographic high, which was in the location of the Blountian peripheral foreland bulge.

Geologic mapping in the Phil Pico Mountain quadrangle and analysis of the Carter Oil Company Carson Peak Unit 1 well have provided additional constraints on the erosional and uplift history of this section of the north flank of the Uinta Mountains. Phil Pico Mountain is largely composed of the conglomeratic facies of the early Eocene Wasatch and middle to late Eocene Bridger Formations. These formations are separated by the Henrys Fork fault which has thrust Wasatch Formation next to Bridger Formation. The Wasatch Formation is clearly synorogenic and contains an unroofing succession from the adjacent Uinta Mountains. On Phil Pico Mountain, the Wasatch Formation contains clasts eroded sequentially from the Permian Park City Formation, Permian Pennsylvanian Weber Sandstone, Pennsylvanian Morgan Formation, and the Pennsylvanian Round Valley and Mississippian Madison Limestones. Renewed uplift in the middle and late Eocene led to the erosion of Wasatch Formation and its redeposition as Bridger Formation on the down-thrown footwall of the Henrys Fork fault. Field observations and analysis of the cuttings and lithology log from Carson Peak Unit 1 well suggest that initial uplift along the Henrys Fork Fault occurred in the late early or early middle Eocene with the most active periods of uplift in the middle and late Eocene (Figure 8, Figure 24, Appendix 1). The approximate post-Paleocene throw of the Henrys Fork fault at Phil Pico Mountain is 2070 m (6800 ft). The Carson Peak Unit 1 well also reveals that just north of the Henrys Fork fault at Phil Pico Mountain the Bridger Formation (middle to late Eocene) is 520 m (1710 ft) thick; an additional 460 m (1500 ft) of Bridger Formation lies above the well on Phil Pico Mountain. Beneath the Bridger Formation are 400 m (1180 ft) of Green River Formation (early to middle Eocene), 1520 m (5010 ft) of Wasatch Formation (early Eocene), and 850 m (2800 ft) of the Fort Union Formation (Paleocene). Stratigraphic data from three sections located east to west across the Phil Pico Mountain quadrangle show that the Protero-zoic Red Pine Shale has substantially more sandstone and less shale in the eastern section of the quadrangle. Field observations suggest that the Red Pine Shale undergoes a facies change across the quadrangle. However, due to the lack of continuous stratigraphic exposures, the cause of this change is not known.