Lesson Plan

AOP 5740
William Steinmetz
July 19, 2015
Glaciation Pleistocene and Post Glacial Environment
Goal
1. To enhance the students appreciation of natural history and land use while in the
Uinta Mountains.
Objectives
1. Explore the extent of glaciation in the Uinta range, epochs, and topography of the
ice.
2. Explore changes in topography, surface textures, drainage, and irrigation.
Area of instruction
1. Will be in the Uinta Mountains while attending a 7-day backpacking course AOP
III.
2. Class will be conducted in a comfortable safe area conducive to the subject with
teaching aids made from a laminated glacial map and pictures of common features
in the Uintas.
Time
1. 45 to 50 minutes
Teaching aids
1. A USGS map of the glaciation geologic map of the Uinta Mountains area 094DM
2. Content from Wallace W. Atwoods research journal from 1909. Glaciation of the
Uinta Mountains.
3. Pictures of major geological features.
Content
1. History
The main bulk of the Uinta Mountains are an orange- red, thickly bedded
quartzite and sandstone of the Pre-Cambrian Uinta formation. These rocks are over one
billion years old. Away from the core of the range, the rocks are all progressively younger
in origin, and mostly sedimentary. The bones of dinosaurs are abundant in the Jurassic
Morrison formation at Dinosaur National Monument, at the extreme east end of the Uinta
Mountains. The area was heavily glaciated 17,000 to 13,000 years ago, which resulted in
many lakes and glacier carved valleys. Only fairly recently did the last of the glaciers
disappear. Some sources indicate that a real glacier existed above Red Castle Lake until
the 1930s. Most of the mountain slopes are forested. Coniferous trees (lodge pole pine,
Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, sub-alpine fir) grow in large continuous stands. Quaking
aspen occur in scattered patches throughout most of the lower elevations. Isolated

meadows - resembling large parks - and willow fields add variety to the timbered areas.
Many peaks extend above tree line.
2. Location and General Physical Features of the Range.
a. The Uinta Mountains are located in the North East portion of Utah just
South of Evanston Wyoming.
b. The range extends in an East-West direction.
c. Most of the range is contained in the Coalville, Hayden Peak, Gilbert
Peak, and Marsh Peak quadrangles of topographic quadrangles
d. The highest peak is Kings Peak at an elevation of 13528 and the
surrounding foothills of the mountains are about 7000
e. The width at the widest point is about 35 miles North to South and there
length East to West is 80 miles.
f. The West shaping were the glaciation is symmetrical, terminus and lobate,
being sharply defined at the North and south by the valleys of the Weber
and Provo rivers.
g. All the great canyons of the Uintas head near the crest of the range and
descend approximately north or south. Since the axis of the range is nearer
the north than the south margin, the North Slope canyons are shorter than
those on the south slope. All of the larger canyons have the characteristic
U-shaped form due to glaciation. They have been well cleaned out by the
ice in their upper portions, but in the middle and lower portions they
contain heavy morainic deposits.
3. The Extent of Glaciation.
a. Glaciers extended North-South 42 miles, East-West 82 miles and covered
around 1000 square miles.
b. The portions of the range that rose above the ice near the crest-line were
lofty peaks and narrow, rugged divides near the western end of the range
in the region about Hayden Peak, Bald Mountain, Reids Peak, and Mount
Watson. There was a great ice cap above this ice cap a few lofty summits
rose as nunataks and helped to direct the movement of the ice into the
canyons leading from this great center of accumulation.
c. The portion of the range that rose above the snowfields associated with the
glacier must have been much less than that which rose above the ice.
There is no way of determining how high the snow rested, but it is fair to
assume that aside from a few lofty peaks and narrow ridges the range
appeared as a long white arch, rising about 7,000 feet above the country to
the north and south, and suggestive, in form at least, of a partial
reconstruction of the great Uinta anticline. Most of the catchment areas in
which glaciers were formed are 10,000 feet or more above the sea. A few
favorably located basins between 9,000 and 1o,ooo feet furnished ice.
4. Comparison of the Glaciation of the North and South Slopes.

a. Glaciers in the Uinta Mountains existed on four slopes North, South, East,
and West. During earlier and later epochs, glaciers in early epochs were
larger and in fewer numbers, and respectively as the ice age ended in later
epochs glaciers were smaller and in larger numbers.
b. Geography was being changed drastically on each slope, as a
consequence, the north slope canyons are shorter than those on the south
slope. They descend more quickly to elevations where ablation overcame
the onward movement of the ice. Furthermore, the basins on the North
Slope are in a zone of inclined strata, while the south slope basins are
located in the midst of essentially horizontal beds.
5. Glacial Epochs.
a. The Earth is currently in an interglacial period of the Quaternary Ice Age,
with the last glacial period of the Quaternary having ended approximately
10,000 years ago with the start of the Holocene epoch.
b. Two epochs of glaciation
c. Two distinct systems of moraines in each canyon
d. These out-wash-deposits must have a genetic relationship with the
terminal moraines of the two epochs, and the older alluvium or valleytrain may be expected to have suffered greater erosion than the younger.
The composition of the glacial drift in a mountain canyon will be
essentially the same each time that ice descends to a given point. But if the
drift contains some easily weathered material, such as the coarsely
crystalline rocks, the difference in the amount of weathering or
disintegration of the boulders may become a strong argument. Among the
Wasatch Mountains the older and the younger moraines may be easily
distinguished by the difference in the amount of weathering.
6. The Influence of Topography upon the Ice.
a. Uinta glaciers were controlled by the size and elevation of the catchment
areas. The case is equally clear that the movements of the ice were, in a
large measure, dependent upon the topography of the range. At some
places the divides were covered by ice, and yet in such places the
underlying rock divides controlled the direction of ice movement, causing
movement in opposite directions in a continuous ice mass. In the
catchment areas the movement was in general pointed toward the canyon.
From certain catchment areas the ice was forced to pass around isolated
peaks and ridges that rose above the ice as nunataks; in some cases, to
divide and move down different canyons on the same slope. The canyon
ice was frequently forced by some projecting rock spur to swing to one
side or the other. At constricted portions in the canyons the ice responded
somewhat as rivers do and worked its way through the narrows, to deploy
as soon as the walls of the canyon permitted. At several points the canyon
ice was required to turn at right angles in order that it might move down
valley.

7. The Influence of Ice upon the Topography.

a. Glaciers not only exercise a sapping action along their sides, but also at
their very heads, if they are here overlooked by rock cliffs. There is always
a marginal crevasse, called in German, Randspalte or Bergschrund, which
separates the moving ice from the rocks, which overlook it. The material
loosened here by weathering falls down from the rock walls into this
crevasse and arrives at the bottom of the ndv4, where it is pushed forward
by the mass grinding the bottom of the glacier. By this, not only the
formation of screes around the glacier is hindered, but also the
surrounding cliffs are constantly attacked, for the erosive action begins
just at their foot and saps them. Glaciers therefore, which are formed on
slopes in broadly open valley basins, surround themselves finally by cliffs,
which are pushed backward much as are the cliffs around the gathering
basin of a torrent.
b. (Albrecht Penck) (born Sept. 25, 1858, Leipzigdied March 7,
1945, Prague), geographer, who exercised a major influence on the
development of modern German geography, and geologist, who founded
Pleistocene stratigraphy (the study of Ice Age Earth strata, deposited
11,700 to 2,600,000 years ago), a favoured starting place for the study of
mans prehistory.
8. Polished and Striated Surfaces.
a. The polished and striated surfaces of bedrock are restricted almost
exclusively to the basin regions. In the areas where the drift is scarce,
striae, grooves, polishing, and (roches moutonnees) are common. Square
miles of bedrock are exposed in the higher portions of the range, where the
signs of ice action are beautifully shown. In many of the passes in the
main crest-line, glaciated surfaces appear. Striae have been found as high
on some of the peaks as any other signs of ice action, and about the
marginal portions of the basin regions ice action is often recorded both in
glaciated surfaces and ice-gouged basins in the hard quartzite rock. A few
striated rock surfaces have been found deep in the canyons and on benches
or shoulders on canyon walls.
9. Influence of Glaciation on Drainage.
a. The hundreds of glacial lakes and marshes indicate, especially in the basin
region of the range and how generally, the drainage has been modified by
the ice. Scarcely a basin exists where waters are not yet ponded by the
morainic deposits or retained in rock basins gouged out by the ice. In a
few cases tributary streams in un-glaciated valleys have been ponded by
lateral moraines of a main canyon. Terminal and recessional moraines
have in some canyons blocked the courses of the main streams and caused
the formation of chains of lakes.

10. Glaciation and Irrigation

a. The present streams from the Uinta Mountains, if under control, would
furnish enough water to irrigate hundreds of square miles in the lower
country. If the glacial lakes were connected directly with the streams and
used as reservoirs, the irrigating capacity of the streams would be
immensely increased. Usually a relatively inexpensive dam would control
the waters of these natural reservoirs. In most cases the lake waters could
be easily increased a few feet in depth, and often spread over many
additional acres of land. In a few cases simple efforts have been made to
control the waters in such lakes. China Lake, in the east fork of Smith's
Fork, now serves as a reservoir. At the south end of Lake Washington in
the Provo Basin a dam was built which, if effective, would have raised the
waters in the lake a few feet and reserved a large supply of water for the
latter part of the growing season.

Figure 1 Unita Fault

Figure 2 Crest Fault

Figure 3 Dipping Strata

Figure 4 Goslin Mountain

Figure 5 Sharply Dragged Strata

Figure 6 Flat lying Strata

Figure 7 Hanging Valley, Cirque

References
The Glaciation of the Uinta MountainsAuthor(s): Wallace W. AtwoodSource: The
Journal of Geology, Vol. 15, No. 8 (Nov. - Dec., 1907), pp. 790-804
http://www.summitpost.org/uinta-mountains/171192, Geology, 2014
http://geology.utah.gov/online/mp/mp09-4dm.pdf
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1352683/Albrecht-Penck
http://www.cordellmandersen.com/2011/10/salt-lake-tribune-article-onhigh_10.html
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/geology/publications/bul/1291/sec4.htm