of the

Salt Lake tlrotto

NATIONAL SPELmLOG1CAL SOCIETY
 1. SAFETY REQUIREMENTS IN NEFF CANYO~~CAVE. UTAH. William Ro Halliday, Richard Wood-
ford and Donald B. McDonald. :Oetober, 1953)

~ 2.. BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY OF UTAH SPELEOLOGYo William Ro Halliday 0 (November, 1953)

30 THE BAKER CREEK CAVES$)NEVADAg PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS. William R. Hallidayo

(,January.9 1954)

40 THE BASIC GEOLOGYOF NEFF CANYONCAVEll UTAH. William R•. Hallidayo (January, 1954)

50 THE SPELEOGENESIS OF NEFF CANYONCAVE, UTAH. William Ro Hallidayo (January, 1954)

60 OAK CITY CAVEll UTAHz ITS SPELEOGENESISo William Ro Halliday.. (February, 1954)

7" SPELEOLOGICAL POTENTIALITIES OF THE UINTA MOUNTAINS, UTAH. William R. Halliday •.

(Februaryll 1954)

80 MEMORANDUlvI
ON THE GARNER CAVE NEAR OGDEN" UTAHo Alfred Mo Buranek. (February, 1954)

90 SPELEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCEOF THE BEAR RIVER RANGE OF THE WASATCHRANGE, IDAHO"

William Ro Halliday 0(April, 1954)

100 BASIC GEOLOGYOF ANTELOPE SPRINGS'CAVE, UTAH0 William R•. Halliday. (April, 1954)

120 BASIC GEOLOGYOF GOSHUTE CAVEll NEVADA 0 William Ro Hallidayo (June, 1954)

130 RECENT SPELEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCES IN NORTHEASTERNNEVADAo William R. Halliday

(Suly, 1954)

140 GEOLOGIC NOTES ON THE TIMPANOGOS CAVESz UTAH'S FAIRYLANDo Kenneth C•. Bullock.
(July, 1954)
150 INTRODUCTION TO TJmESPELEOLOGY OF UTAH AND ADJACENT AREASo William Ro Hallidayo
(August., 1954)
160 BASIC GEOLOGYOF CRYSTAL CAVE, UTAH0 William. Ro Hallidayo (August, 1954)

170 ANALYSIS OF THE WATER OF A POOL IN CRYSTAL CAVE, UTAHo Donald Bo McDonald.
(September, 1954)

UL SPELEOGENESIS OF CLINTON'S CAVEll UTAH0 William Ro Hallidayo (September, 1954)

190 LITTORAL CAVES OF ANCIENT LAKE BONNEVILLEo William Ro Halliday" (September, 1954)

200 CAVES OF THE PRYOR MOUNTAINAREA.\)MONTANAo Custer National Forest staff.

~ (September, 1954)
•
•• 210 LIMESTONE SOLUTION CAVERNSOF THE TINTIC,
Ro Hal1idayo (October, 1954)
LAKE AND OQUIRRH RANGES, UTAHo William

q
220 INDEX TO UNVISITED CAVES OF EASTERN NEVADAAND ADJACENT UTAH"
fi1eso (October, 1954)
•
23.. EFFECTS OF GLACIATION ON CAVES OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. William R. Halliday .•
(Ootober, 1954)
24. INDEX OF UNINVESTIGATED REPORTS OF CAVES IN NORTHERNUTAH. Salt Lake Grotto files.
(November, 1954) .
24Ao ADDITIONAL CAVES REPORTED IN UTAH. Salt Lake Grotto files. (December, 1954)
250 PSEUDOKARST. William R. Halliday (November, 1954)
26. MAJOR LIMESTONE CAVERNSOF THE BLACK HILLS, SOUTH DAKOTA. Frank Neighbor .•
(November, 1954)
27. COLLECTED NOTES ON ADDITIONAL BLACK HILLS CAVES. Salt Lake Grotto files.
(November, 1954)
280 DURST MOUNTAINCAVE, UTAH: INITIAL RECONNAISSANCE. William Ro Halliday ••
(November, 1954)
29. SKULL VALLEY BUTTE CAVE, UTAH: A PRELIMINARY REPORT. Donald B. McDonald.
(December, 1954)
300 CAVE AREAS OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES: A CURSORY INTRODUCTION. William R.
Halliday. (Deoember, 1954)
 In view of the' extnmely difficult conditions within and around Neff Canyon Cave,
and the'heretofore universal error in plotting its location, it is not surprising that
no satisfactorY, or even moderately accurate geological description of the cave has yet
been published. Even this report must be considered as preliminary; as a base on which
studies related to further explorations can be made. At the time of writing, only those
regions indicated in Fig. 1 are adequately known. E,pecially to be desired js the corre-
lation of the eave with the glacial erosion surfaces of the Wasatch Range, as well as
with the remarkable fault systems of Neff Canyon. .

Brief review and eomment' on oertain earlier reports pertaining to the geology of
the cave are worthwhile. The cave is not in "black limestone" (1). Nor is the follow~
ing true: " ••in this particular location, where under normal conditions t~e quartzite
and the limestone shale, being the older formations, lie unde-r the limestone, the order
is reversed, and the limestone shale and the quartzite lie over the limestone" (2).
Walker (3) was apparently the first to correctly recognize its looation "in some thin-
bedded limestones and shales (Ophir formation?)", but in stating: "The rook formations
all dip very steeply toward the west, being upturned along the edge of the well-known
Wasatch fault. The eave, whioh is not a solution feature, but rather merely a fissllre
due to earth movement •••", was correct in only the first phrase. The preliminary, re-
port of the writer (4) mistakenly placed the eave :!in basal Mississippian (? Jefferson)
limestone due to incorrect correlation ot U.S.F.S. and geologie maps.

Neft Canyon Cave has been formed in the middle and lower members'of the Ophir for-
mation, which is middle Cambrian in age. In this portion of the Wasatch Range, the
Ophir rests conformably on'the Tinti quartzite, and is overlain by a Mississippian
series whose basal member is the Jefferson tn formation. At theoave entrance, the
beds dip nearly 55 degrees, with the strike about N 70 E (magnetic), or nearly true
E-TM. The contact of the upper and middle members of the'Ophir forms the north margin
of the gully above the cave. .

The middle member of'the·Ophir formation in this area consists of a moderately

thinbedded grey limestone about 80t thick, containing prominent serpentine impurities
coated a reddish-brown. The lower member, some 240' in thickness .(5), consists pre-
dominantly of a reddish-brown to dark brown flaky shale, turning greenish-brown on
drying, and exceedingly rotten when wet. Apparently recorded for the first time in
the Wasatch Range, is the presence, revealed by the cave, of another limestone bed in
the Ophir, overlain by about 28' of shale of the lower member. Outcropping as the
base of the Great Pit, its thickness'i~ unknown. Morphologically, it resembles the
middle member except that it is less homogeneous and the serpentine impurities less
well defined. Despite its previous anonymity in the Wasatch Range, this sequence
correlates satisfactorily ~th that in the Tintic-oquirrh area (6).

The main passage of Neff Canyon Cave may be described as a pseudodip-joint pass-
age of tremendously varied height, oriented nearly true N-S, whose floor approximates
the contact of the middle and lower members of the Ophir. Its regUlar dip is inter-
rupted by several vertical drops in the shale, in one case extending through the
28' member desoribed above. Smaller parallel passages exist in several areas, also
plunging ,down dip. Short cross-connections appear to be developed along semlvertical
strike joints, or irregularly along the bedding plane. An occasional joint at about
N 60 W can be distinguished, but rarely takes part in speleogenesis.

The term "pseudodip-joint" was used· above with good reason. Throughout the main
passage, the upper limestone-shale contact may be seen to lie about 4' higher on the
west wall than on the east, indicating that it is actually developed on a small fault
rather than on an ordinary dip-joint. While the beds in the parallel near the entrance
do not appear continuous across the passage, failure to locate the contact in this area
renders de-scription of a series of parallel small faults untenable at this time.
 Neff CanyonCave oonsists primarily of a passage simul~ting a dip-joint plane, but .
actually formed along a fault with a 4' throw, in the steeply inclined middle and lower
b membersof the Ophir formation~ Apparently demonstrated for the first time i. the pres-
enoe of a lime.tone memberin the lower memberof the 6phir formation in the Wa.atoh
Mountains.

1. Ehlers, Jaok. Report on Mt. Olympus(fleff's Canyon) Cave, with Commentson Malmborg
Report. Ms in Salt Lake Grotto file ••
2. Malmborg,Charle.. (Conservation CommitteeReceives Report on Utah Cave) N.S.S. News,
8(12):6, Dec., 1950 •
.3. Walker, M.V. In Iell, John E. Field Inves:t;igaticm.Report: Neff's CanyonCave, Utah.
National Park Service, Region .3, 1951~' .
4. Halliday, William R. Preliminary Report on NeffCaDTonCave, Utah. Month1¥Report,
2(12):1.38-1.39, Sept., 1952. Stanford Grotto, N.a.s.
5. Marsell, R.E. (ed.) GeoloD of the Central Va.atch Mountain., Utah. Guidebookto the
Geology of Utah, #8. Utah Geological Society, 19'2.

6. Lindgren, W., and Loughlin, G.F. Geology and Ore Deposits of the Tintic Mining District,
Utah.
. USGSProf. Paper 107, 1919. .

Sincere thanks are due to Mr. MaxCrittenden of the U.S.G.S., who.e confirmation of
the stratigraphy of the entrance lent clarity to this and associated studies.

Figure 1
SCHEMATIC
OFNEFFCANYON
CAVE

main pas.age ?
•
1I

••
impassable
ma+n'route