THE GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF ROCK CANYON, UTAH: A VIRTUAL TRIP

A virtual field trip of Rock Canyon, Utah provides an opportunity for students to explore and discover for themselves a stunning record of central Rocky Mountain geologic history and fundamental geologic processes. Students learn how to interpret the earth for themselves through the aid of moving images including animations and video clips that bring geology to life. These visualization techniques accelerate the normally ultra slow rates of geologic change into a few minutes of Quicktime. When students visit the canyon they are able to see its temporal dimention, how it began as a passive continental margin, was shortened by folding and thrusting, pulled apart by Basin and Range extension, and constantly modified by climate change.

The trip is organized around each of these major events that were frozen into the canyon walls over a time span 800 million years. Modern analogs are provided of each event that link to paleo-reconstructions, a stratigraphic column, cross-sections and an interpretive geologic map. View the field trip online at: http://geologyindy.byu.edu/faculty/rah/slides/Rock%20Canyon/home.htm