Little Cottonwood Canyon of the Wasatch mountains provides exposures of the primary

geologic events of western North America over the past 850 million years. From the
accumulation of sediments to largescale orogenesis, extension, and later glaciation,thiscanyon
hasbeenasiteofinterestforthestudyoftheseeventsbygeologistsfromaroundtheworld.
In general,therocksofLittleCottonwoodCanyon decreaseinagefromthebottomof the
canyon to the top. Consistent with this trend is an exposure of the Little Willow Metamorphic
Complex on the north side at the canyons mouth, deposited about 750 mya during the breakup
of the supercontinent Rodinia (Harris, 2011). LongbelievedtobemucholderPaleoproterozoic
basement rocks, and shown as suchonmanygeologicmaps,recentradiometricdatingofdetrital
zircons reveals that in reality this layer is but a metamorphosed segmentofthe BigCottonwood
formation,underwhichitlies(Spencer,2012).
The Little Willow Formation consists of banded quartzite andmicarichschistoriginally
deposited as sandstone and shale. These sedimentary deposits represent the beginning of 500
million years of accumulation in this region, assembling several thousand feet of rockalongthe
passive margins of the postRodinia Panthalassic sea (Burke, 2014). Locally, the Uinta rift
transected the shoreline of this sea and provided a basin for gathering these sediments, which
were transported by a large river from the east (Spencer,2012). Becausesuchanaccumulation
ofsedimentisveryheavy,thecrustcontinuedtosinkasitwasthickened(Harris,2011).
Atop the Little Willow and Big Cottonwood complexes lies the Mineral Fork Tillite, a
shaly layer embedded with glacial till, deposited in a coldenvironmentinwhichglaciersmelted
into a body of water. However, discordant bands of limestone from a warm, shallow sea are
interbedded with these coldwater tillites. This pointstoadepositionaleraofclimaticextremes,

during which the CO

holding plants of the time are the cold weather culprits, and volcanoes,
2
exhaling CO
2 back into theatmosphere where it can heat theplanet,are theperpetrators ofwarm
weather. The advent of the Cambrian explosion broke thiscyclewiththeconsistentexhalingof
CO
2 by animals, and brought with it the deposits of Paleozoic rocks now exposed in Little
Cottonwood Canyon. TheTinticQuartzite, OphirShale,MaxfieldLimestone,andMississippian
period limestones represent a classic transgressive sequence as the sea moved inland along this
margin(Harris,2011).
Following the end of this deposition the supercontinent of Pangea began its assembly.
Tectonic plate movement shifted, and by 100 mya the great compressional forces of the Sevier
Orogeny began acting upon this once passive continental margin. Neatly stacked layers of
sediment begannotonlycrumplinginto anelevatedmass,butbeingbrokenandshavedoffalong
their weak layers of shale, so that their entire sequences were ultimately stacked one on top of
another. A crosssection of these sediments yields an exposure of these repeating layers, with
manysegmentsoverlyingthosewhichareyoungerby200millionyearsormore(Harris,2011).
This stacking happened along two distincttransformfaults,firsttheGrizzly,andthenthe
Alta thrusts. Its best exposures are seen in the upper canyon, where the entirety of Mt. Baldy
was pushed over layers with which it once layinline,andonCardiffandFlagstaffpeaks,where
Cambrian Tinticquartzitebothrestsbelow,andsitsatop,thestarkwhiteMississippianlimestone
oftheHellgateCliffs(Harris,2011).
While the events of the Sevier Orogeny thickened and folded the crust, no significant
elevation was gained until the Laramide Orogeny,whichbeganabout50myaandacteduponall
of western North America (Armstrong, 1965). Because the continental lithosphere was

underridden far inland by the shallowangle subduction of the oceanic crust, it was heated and
subjected to much greater deformation and uplift than before. Existingweaknesseswerefurther
exploited by intrusive magma bodies from below, sothatbetween3630myatheUintaRiftaxis
was filled with the quartz monzonite of the Little Cottonwood Stock and the granodioriteofthe
AltaStock(Harris,2011).
Overlain at thetime by thousands offeetofsediment,theseigneousbodiescooledslowly
and formed large crystals. Their contact aureoles became sites for the circulation of heated
solutions of water, carrying and eventually depositing concentrated minerals which were later
extracted as ore (Cook, 2000). Identifiable as oxidation stains on the limestones adjacent to
these deposits, these mineral veins ultimately became difficult for miners to trace because of
their extensive folding and faulting. Lead, copper, silver and gold were mined near Alta from
1870 to 1938, at which time the mining land was donated to the Forest Service and utilized for
recreationalskiing(Harris,2011).
Following the Laramide Orogeny tectonic motion shifted once again, and the forces
which once pushed against the edgeofthecontinentwerereleased. Thusbegantheextensionof
the Basin and Range province, a gradualspreadingofthisoncehigh,flatplateauintoalternating
peaks and valleys across the entire western United States. Locallythisspreading happensalong
the Wasatch Fault, which trends northsouth in line with the western edge of the Wasatch
Mountains,andmarkstheeasternterminusoftheBasinandRangeextension(Cluff,1980).
An interruption in the Wasatch faults orientation is found a few miles south of Little
Cottonwood Canyon at the Point of the Mountain. This point is in fact a protrusion of Little
Cottonwood stock through which the fault could not cut, but instead made its way around.

Seventeen million years of activity along thisfaulthasoffsetthewesternblockby11km,ashift

happening in 1,300 year intervals of about 2.5 meters at a time. These periodic largescale
seismic events are evidenced in the terraced fault scarps of the lateral moraines at the canyons
mouth,whichshowthatthenextslipisimminent(Harris,2011).
As the fault spreading has continued with its western block dipping ever lower, theload
of sediments over the western foothills of the Wasatch mountains has been reduced. This
focused unloading facilitates a crustal rebound in the rocks along the ranges western edge,and
has resulted in the 25 degree eastward tilt of theirstrata. Thistilthasproducedhigher mountain
peaks flanking the mouth of thecanyonthanthoseatitshead,contrarytoconventionalintuition.
Because the fault margin at the lower canyon exposes everdeeper rocks, the oldest layers are
foundhere,thoughtheirexposuretimeisyoungerthanthosefurthereast(Harris,2011).
With the creation thus of a basin in the Salt Lake valley, a repositorywasnowavailable
for the materials being eroded off of these newlyformedpeaks. Aswatercarriedawaymaterial
it began the process of carving canyons along the template ofexistingcracks. Inthisway Little
Cottonwood Canyon was slowly established as a drainage, so that the glaciation of our most
recenticeagecouldfurthererodeitsmargins(Harris,2011).
The cold climate and wet conditions of the last ice age lent themselves to the damming
and filling of Lake Bonneville, whose borders stretched far beyond the Salt Lake valley, and
whose ancient shorelines are still visible as prominent benches along the foothills. (Utah) The
lake was fully formed by 20,000 years ago, and for the next several thousand years the glaciers
chokingLittleCottonwoodCanyonemptiedintoandfedthelakesicywaters(Madsen,1979).

A glacier is formed when a body of permanent ice begins creeping downhill under the
stress of its own weight. A positive feedback cycle of erosion begins as the ice continually
added totheheadoftheglacierfreezestothesurroundingrocks,whichthendetachastheglacier
flows away. This carves out an everwidening cirque at the glaciers head, which allowsforan
even greater buildup of ice during subsequent cycles. Where the heads of two cirques meet,
horned mountains are created, connected to other steepsided peaks by narrowedged aretes.
LonePeakandthePfeifferhornaretwosuchexamples(Harris,2011).
As a glacier flows downhill it continues to pluck rocks from the canyons walls,
providing even more material to carve away even more rock, which in timecreatesaprominent
Ushaped valley. Thetributaryglacierswhichoncelinedthecanyonsmaindrainageweremuch
smaller, andwerethereforeunabletocarvetherockasdeeply. Thiscreatedsteepescarpmentsat
their confluences with the main glacier, backed by flat hanging valleys, and obvious today to
skierswhosedownhillterrainalternatesfromsteep,toflat,tosteepagain(Harris,2011).
Because the southfacing side of the canyon is exposed to much more sunlight than the
north, large tributary glaciers did not form along its walls, and erosion has been minimal. As a
result, the climbers today go to the left side of the road, and the hikers go to the right. The
hangingvalleysofthenorthfacingsidehaveallowedformorewater collectionandinturn,more
soil buildup and vegetation. The southfacing side has maintained its steep quartz monzonite
walls.Depositsofglacialtillremainthroughoutthecanyon(Harris,2011).
A billion years of geologic processes have provided us today with the geologic wonder,
natural refuge, and recreational playground of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Preserving this land
inperpetuityisthekeytoourcontinuedenjoymentofit,andtoitsongoinghealth.