 EPOD - a service of USRA

The Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) highlights the diverse processes
and phenomena which shape our planet and our lives. EPOD will collect and
archive photos, imagery, graphics, and artwork with short explanatory
captions and links exemplifying features within the Earth system. The
community is invited to contribute digital imagery, short captions and
relevant links.


 A Conglomeration of Witches and Wonders

   February 22, 2021

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   Photographer:  Ray Boren
   Summary Author:  Ray Boren

   In June 1858, the U.S. Army’s  Capt. Albert Tracy descended northern
   Utah’s  Echo Canyon and emerged at a junction with the  Weber
   River and  Weber Canyon. His party set up camp opposite what they
   called Witch Rocks. The stone pillars “jut upwards through the smooth
   surface of a rounded hill, and form a cluster,” he wrote in  his
   journal, “so singularly like figures in kirtles [long skirts] and
   steeple-hats or bonnets that they have received the appellation
   stated.” As recorded on roadside signs below the site today, Tracy
   mistakenly identified the reddish-yellow rocks as being  basalt. But
   his description of the scene remains apt, as shown in the first
   photograph here of  The Witches (also known as Witch or Witches
   Rocks, as well as Witch or Witches Bluffs), taken on Oct. 4, 2020,
   above Interstate 84 between the rural communities of Echo and Henefer.

   Geologists now identify the outcrops as features of the  Henefer
   Formation. Like the nearby  Echo Canyon Conglomerate, the formation
   is chunky evidence of western North America’s mountain-building
    Sevier Orogeny, which occurred during the  Late Cretaceous 85-90
   million years ago, preceding and somewhat overlapping the Rocky
   Mountains’  Laramide Orogeny. Unlike the familiar, fine-grained
    red-rock sandstone landscapes of the Colorado Plateau to the south,
   these mixed- clastic  conglomerates are, according to the
    Utah Geological Survey, loaded with  quartzite pebbles, cobbles
   and even boulders, as well as  sandstones and mudstones, carried as
   sediments off the Sevier highlands that once rose to the west and
   northwest.

   The Witches are just a few of the fantastic formations in the
   Supplication Hills and in  Echo Canyon. Nearby are chimney-like
    Sentinel Rock and, up a hilly rill, Temple Rock Amphitheater,
   reminiscent of the  hoodoos of  Bryce Canyon National Park, far
   to the southwest. Just to the east along Interstate 80 in Echo Canyon —
   also a natural corridor for Native Americans, Mormon and
   California-bound pioneers, the  overland stage, the  Pony Express
   and  Union Pacific Railroad — are even more wonders. These include
   Monument Rock; numerous caves and ledges; a low, tan arch known as
   Hanging Rock; and the precipitous, pale-red conglomerate cliffs of
    Steamboat Rocks, said to resemble the bows of ships, perhaps lined
   up at anchor, shown here in a second photograph, also taken on Oct. 4,
   2020.

   Photo Details: Top - Camera: NIKON D3200; Exposure Time: 0.0031s
   (1/320); Aperture: ƒ/9.0; ISO equivalent: 100; Focal Length (35mm):
   120. Bottom - same except: Exposure Time: 0.0020s (1/500); Aperture:
   ƒ/11.0; ISO equivalent: 400; Focal Length (35mm): 67.
     * The Witches, Utah Coordinates:  40.99606, -111.46099

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    More...

Geology Links

     *  Earthquakes
     *  Geologic Time
     *  Geomagnetism
     *  General Dictionary of Geology
     *  Mineral and Locality Database
     *  Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness
     *  This Dynamic Earth
     *  USGS
     *  USGS Ask a Geologist
     *  USGS/NPS Geologic Glossary
     *  USGS Volcano Hazards Program

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   Earth Science Picture of the Day is a service of the  Universities
   Space Research Association.

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