Sevier Orogeny Structures in SW Utah

Sevier Thrust Belt in SW Utah

This is part of the Sevier-Laramide Project, an archive of photos, videos, documents, and maps of outcrops of faults and folds created in the Sevier (Cretaceous period) and Laramide (Paleocene-Eocene periods) orogenies in the western United States.

Materials herein may be used freely for classroom, research, and personal use only. Use for commercial purposes or in blogs, social media, or news articles is forbidden without express, written permission from the author.

To see where these features are, watch a flyover of this region on YouTube by clicking on this picture or following the link:  https://youtu.be/Osg4K5yjOrw 

St. George Area

The Virgin Anticline forms the tilted and folded strata just east of St. George.  This fold is at the Extra Space Storage facility on East Washington Dam Road.

Watch an aerial view of the southern part of the anticline on YouTube by clicking on the image or the link:  

https://youtu.be/OPMR6QscTRA

Watch an aerial view of this part of the anticline on YouTube by clicking on the image or the link: 

 https://youtu.be/WTJuj2fUyII

While here, stop to look at the colorful liesegang banding in the Chinle Formation sandstones.  The bands are minerals deposited by groundwater slowly seeping through the sandstone.  Because the sandstone is jointed, each block has its own concentric bands.

And while in St. George, don't miss the pioneer-era temple built in the 1870s...

...and the Red Cliffs temple, built in 2024, located here: 37.082037, -113.519411  

Kolob Canyon

The mountain front at Kolob Canyon (an extension of Zion National Park) is a normal fault that uplifted and exposed the Kanarra anticline, a Cretaceous fold east of the Sevier thrust belt.

Triassic strata are tilted in western Kolob Canyon, part of the Cretaceous Kanarra anticline.

Kolob Canyon is part of Zion National Park.  It is accessible from I-15 between Cedar City and St. George.  The Jurassic Navajo Sandstone forms the spectacular cliffs.  It is a remnant of the largest sand dune desert known in the geologic record.  Look for the cross-beds in the sandstone!

Cedar City Area

Sevier structures in the Cedar City area are limited to some folds in the foothills.

Folded Moenkopi Formation in Cedar Canyon, just east of Cedar City, Utah

Kink fold in Cedar Canyon, just east of Cedar City, Utah

Tilted Mesozoic strata in Cedar Canyon, just east of Cedar City, Utah.

Milford Area

Watch this Google Earth flyover of the Blue Mountain and Wah Wah thrust faults in SW Utah in YouTube by clicking on this image or link:  https://youtu.be/zSJN1qDGEMA

Sevier thrust faults and folds are only exposed in a few locations in SW Utah, west of the Basin and Range margin.  Oligocene-Miocene volcanism has covered much of the thrust belt, and Miocene-recent Basin and Range uplift relief is insufficient to expose the thrusts, which remain underground.  Exceptions are in and near the Wah Wah Mountains, which have relief up to about 3500 feet.

Blue Mountain is located SW of Milford, Utah, and just east of the Wah Wah Mountains.  The Blue Mountain thrust places Cambrian strata over Jurassic.  The Blue Mountain thrust is at a deeper structural level than the Wah Wah thrust to the west.

The Wah Wah thrust places Cambrian strata over Mississippian, a common relation in the Sevier belt.  Nearby are exposures of related minor thrusts.

Watch the Roc Doc discuss this fault on YouTube by clicking on this picture or link:  https://youtu.be/fEWDltSby0I

Watch a flyover of the Wah Wah thrust in Rose Spring Canyon here:  https://youtu.be/6kG8Dd57WFo

...or click on the photo.

Related Pages:  search for "Sevier-Laramide Project" or just "Sevier"

Geologic Maps:  St. George and Cedar City 30x60 Geologic Quadrangles by U.S. Geological Survey (find at https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/ngm-bin/ngm_compsearch.pl )

Geologic Map of the Blue Mountain - Lund Area, Beaver and Iron Counties, Utah, by Hintze, Grant, Weaver, and Best, 1994: USGS Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map I-2361.

Articles:  Friedrich and Bartley, 2003: Three-dimensional structural reconstruction of a thrust system overprinted by postorogenic extension, Wah Wah thrust zone, southwestern Utah.  GSA Bulletin, December 2003, v. 115 no. 12; p.1473-1491.