Utah's Geologic Eras
This era, known for the rise of the first complex life forms and the formation of Timpanogos Cave's limestone layer, took place 541 to 252 million years ago.
What is the Paleozoic era?
These three distinct yet interconnected caves form the Timpanogos Cave National Monument.
What are Hansen Cave, Middle Cave, and Timpanogos Cave?
This quarry, located in northeastern Utah, is famous for the discovery of multiple dinosaur species and is now a national monument.
What is Dinosaur National Monument?
An enormous body of water that covered much of Utah during the last Ice Age and left behind the Great Salt Lake.
What is Lake Bonneville?
This landform was formed from North America crunching together from the pressure of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
What are the Rocky Mountains?
This era was marked by the dominance of dinosaurs and the formation of Utah’s prominent canyons through volcanic activity.
This era was marked by the dominance of dinosaurs and the formation of Utah’s prominent canyons through volcanic activity.
This historical figure discovered Hansen Cave in 1887, leading to the eventual establishment of cave tours.
Who is Martin Hansen?
Known for its high concentration of dinosaur bones, this quarry is located in Emery County and has produced fossils of Allosaurus and other predators.
What is Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry?
The Ice Age caused these to form in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains, shaping the landscape.
What are Utah's Alpine Lakes?
Over millions of years sediments made of loose sands, shells, and pebbles settled at the bottom of the seas. In time, the sediments were forced together by heat and pressure into these hard rocks.
What are limestone and sandstone?
This era followed the extinction of the dinosaurs and witnessed the formation of ice sheets and the advance of glaciers in the Wasatch Mountains.
What is the Cenozoic era?
This is the type of rock deposited during the Mississippian Period, forming the basis for Timpanogos Cave.
What is Deseret Limestone?
This dinosaur was discovered in 1991 near Moab and is one of the largest raptors known to have existed.
What is the Utahraptor?
Discovered in northern, Utah, this prehistoric creature offers insight into Utah's Ice Age environment.
What is the Huntington Mammoth?
These landforms are the result of volcanic activity lifting large pieces of Earth’s crust in isolated regions of Utah
What are the La Sal, Abajo, and Henry Mountains?
The earliest and longest geologic era, characterized by Earth's initial formation and the cooling of its surface.
What is the Precambrian era?
Over time, cave tours have shifted from lantern-lit explorations to electric-lit pathways, with efforts focused on conservation and preservation.
How have Timpanogos Cave tours changed since Martin Hansen’s time?
This site, first reported in 2009, is an Early Cretaceous (approximately 112 million years ago) dinosaur track-site located in Grand County, Utah. The site contains over 200 tracks.
What is Moab's Mill Canyon
This evidence of Lake Bonneville can still be seen in ancient shorelines etched into the mountainsides of Utah’s valleys.
What are the Bonneville Shorelines?
The abundance of these metals, in Utah, are the result of volcanic activity forcing material into fractured sedimentary rock
What are copper, gold, silver, and molybdenum?