Rocky Mountain Section–58th Annual Meeting (17–19 May 2006)

Paper No. 2
Presentation Time: 8:00 AM-11:40 AM

AN INTERACTIVE GEOLOGIC MAP OF CEDAR CITY AND THE COAL CREEK CANYON AREA, IRON COUNTY, UTAH


MUHLESTEIN, Geoffrey A., COLBERG, Mark K. and MAXWELL, David J., Geoscience, Southern Utah University, 351 West University Boulevard, Cedar City, UT 84720, muhl5854@suumail.net

The Cedar City area of Southwestern Utah has a wide range of geologic features that are exposed and accessible making it a fascinating place to study geology. This area lies at the transition zone of two major geological provinces, the Basin and Range to the west and the Colorado Plateau to the east. This serves as the backdrop for an interactive geologic map of Cedar City and surrounding area.

The base map for this project consists of the Cedar City, Flanigan Arch, Webster Flat, and Cedar Mountain 1:24000 geologic quadrangles. Two additional layers have been added to the base, topography and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) with hillshade. Optionally accessible layers that may be displayed and queried include such features as: faults, epicenters, basalt flows, volcanoes, floodplains, landslides, mines, soils, and watersheds. Additionally the map contains hyperlinks to rock unit descriptions, pictures, mineralogy, sedimentology, paleontology, thin sections, and popular field trip stops.

The interactive map runs using ESRI's free ArcExplorer software. This allows the users to perform queries of the several features on the base as well as add features for specialty purposes such as natural hazards and mineralogy. The map is available on CD-ROM and runs on Microsoft Windows XP.

This is a customizable thematic geologic map. It is intended for use by lower division undergraduate physical science students and field trip attendees. The map is intended for educational use only.