Salt Lake Community College

Geology of Little Cottonwood Canyon

LeighAnn Coleman

Geo 1010

4/10/18

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 Little Cottonwood Canyon is a plethora of geologic situations like: the large glacier that

craved through it creating the canyon, the smaller glaciers that helped form the terrane to have

peaks and valleys, the vast contact zone that charged the chemistry and physical features of one

side, the multiply factors that lead to its asymmetry, and its location being near a large fault line.

Little Cottonwood Canyon was formed during the Pleistocene Epoch approximately

26,000 years ago (Harper 1990). During the Pleistocene Epoch, the area near Little Cottonwood

canyon accumulated enough snow to form a large glacier, known as Bull Lake Glacier. Bull

Lake Glacier spanned 12 miles and reach a depth between 450 to 850 ft (Eldredge). It flowed for

east to west until it reached Lake Bonneville, leaving behind the classic u-shape in the granitic

walls and a moderate number of moraines. Climate began to change around 8,000 to 7,500 years

ago, resulting in warmer and dryer seasons, causing the Bull Lake Glacier to melt (Harper 1990).

There are signs showing where the glacier gathered sediment of varying sizes along the walls of

the canyon. As the glacier moved the sediments were carried along and eroding due to the ice

and abrasion caused by the sediment encountering the ground and walls of the canyon, leaving

behind gouge marks in the rocks and ground. At and near the mouth of the canyon, the sediments

were deposited leaving behind piles of sediment varying from everything between clay to

boulders. These piles grow over the years and created an outer and an inner moraine. On the

north side there are areas of till and erratics that reach between 5,760 ft to 5,480 ft (Madsen

1979). On the south side of the canyon there are two lateral moraines. One is an inner moraine

that is larger than the outer moraine and extends to the west side of a fault zone in the canyon

(Richmond 1964). The inner moraine splits at the canyon mouth creating morainal arcs in the

outwash zone in the west. The outer morainal is located above the inner moraine and is quite

smaller that the inner one. There is a high chance that faulting is the cause of the size difference.

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Faulting might have occurred during the period between the two moraines separating the

deposition.

Bull Lake Glacier was not the only glacier in the area, just the largest. Multiply glaciers

where in the area and evidence of their existence can be seen. These glaciers carved out cirques.

Some of the cirques later accumulated water, forming tarns. These glaciers also helped form the

horns and arêtes, that can be found in the canyon mostly on the south side. Due to their smaller

size, the glaciers were not able to erode as far down as Bull Lake Glacier. This lesser erosion

created hanging valleys along the south side, usually accompanied by a waterfall, where the

smaller glaciers meet Bull Lake Glacier. The hanging valleys range between 600 ft to 400ft

above the canyon floor (Richmond 1964). Peruvian Guch is the highest at about 600 ft high

(Richmond 1964). White Pine Fork is the lowest at about 400 ft high (Richmond 1964).

One of the unique features of Little Cottonwood Canyon is that the north side was a vast

contact zone approximately 25 million years ago (Richmond 1964). This has left the north side

with an extensive amount the of Tertiary intrusive igneous rock, quartz monzonite. The heat and

the internal fissures from the contact zone altered the physical and chemical properties of the Pre

Cambrian to Jurassic aged sedimentary layers above, leaving behind a new layer of Precambrian

metamorphic rocks. These changes created layers of quartzite, tillite, slate, and altered

limestones above the newly formed granite. The sedimentary layer on the north side also consists

of silver, lead, copper, gold, and zinc in the fissures of the limestone layers located above the

contact zone. Due to these minerals Little Cottonwood Canyon was home to a mining town. The

mines that were dug up are now restricted to the public and some are used as water reservoirs.

Little Cottonwood Canyon was also mined for that vast amount of granite it has. This granite

would later be used to build the Salt Lake Latter Day Saints Temple.

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 One of the noticeable features of Little Cottonwood Canyon is that is asymmetrical. The

west side has an average altitude of 11,150 ft and the east side has an average of 11,625 ft

(Richmond 1964). One of the causes of this asymmetry is due to the fault lines in the canyon.

There are clear signs of uplift along the walls, most notable is at the tops where it is easy to

distinguish the grabens and horsts. In the lower sector of the canyon, the difference ranges

between 5,000 ft to 3,500 ft; in the upper section the difference ranges between 2,600 ft to 1,400

ft (Richmond 1964). Another thing that makes the canyon asymmetry is the creeks in the area.

The north side has no creeks, but the south side has quite a few from the hanging valleys. These

creeks both erode and help build up the south side of the canyon. The creeks flow from the tarns,

carrying the sediment from that area. Some of the sediment is then deposited on the canyon floor

when the creek goes down the hanging valley.

Due to Little Cottonwood Canyon being located along the Wasatch fault, it experiences

faulting. The Wasatch fault cuts across Little Cottonwood Canyon creating grabens and horsts,

with some of the horsts reaching 40 m high. These horsts grew to be that tall after a numerous

amount of faulting. At the Little Cotton wood canyon site, the Wasatch fault is .5 km wide and is

located at the start of 70 km long seismic gap (Swan 1980). Signs of the recent faulting is spread

across the moraines near the mouth of the canyon. There are signs of at least 11 fault scrapes

running west to east (Swan 1980). There will be more faulting in the future. The Wasatch fault

zone slip rate for Little Cottonwood canyon is .99 mm per year (Swan 1980). Using that

measurement, the recurrence of faulting is approximately every 2200 years, with displacement of

ground being around 2 m (Swan 1980). This faulting is caused by an earthquake that is between

magnitude 6.5 to 7.5 (Swan 1980).

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 Work Cited
Eldredge, S. (n.d.). GeoSights: Glacial Landforms in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, Salt
Lake County. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from https://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/survey-
notes/geosights/glacial-landforms-in-big-and-little-cottonwood-canyons/

Harper, K., & Petersen, M. (1990). Natural History of Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. Bulletin
of the Ecological Society of America, 71(2), 381-382. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org.libprox1.slcc.edu/stable/20167193

Madsen, D. B., & Currey, D. R. (1979, September). Late Quaternary Glacial and Vegetation
Changes, Little Cottonwood Canyon Area, Wasatch Mountains, Utah | Quaternary
Research. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/quaternary-research/article/div-classtitlelate-
quaternary-glacial-and-vegetation-changes-little-cottonwood-canyon-area-wasatch-
mountains-utahdiv/01137F53F8A5770429296DA06C74753A

Richmond, G. M. (1964). Glaciation of Little Cottonwood and Bells Canyons, Wasatch

Mountains, Utah (pp. D1- D11, Rep. No. 454-D). WA: UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from
https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/0454d/report.pdf

Swan, F. H., III, Hanson, K. L., Schwartz, D. P., & Knuepfer, P. L. (1980). Study of Earthquake
Recurrence Intervals on the Wasatch Fault, Utah: Little Cottonwood Canyon Site (pp. 1-
30, Rep. No. No. 81-450). U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved April 16, 2018, from
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1567&context=govdocs

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Picture showing the classic u-shape of the canyon.

Sedimentary rocks showing scraping from the glacier.

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There are multiply water run off paths and signs of faulting along the top.

On the left is a horn created by multiply glaciers. In the middle is path for a creek.

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An example of layered sedimentary rocks and faults.

A picture of Tanner Gulch. Tanner Gulch is a dried-up creek bed with a variety of different sized
sediments.

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