Marshal Wiscombe

Little Cottonwood Canyon Research Paper

Little Cottonwood Is a great place to have the opportunity to

apply my new skills Ive gained in the field of geology. Little
Cottonwood is a big part of the Wasatch Fault (an active fault located
primarily on the western edge of the Wasatch Mountains) Igneous and
Metamorphic rocks make up mostly all the canyon but also some
Sedimentary rocks can be found all through the canyon as well.
Glaciers cutting into the mountain during the last ice age formed little
Cottonwood Canyon. This left the U-shape look of Little Cottonwood
Canyon that we see today.
When one looks at Little Cottonwood Canyon you can really see
and observe the high mountains that are rather ruff, jagged, smooth
and steep that looks to be almost impossible to climb. The Wasatch
Mountain Range formed due to large earthquakes and tectonic plates
crashing into one another. This process later helped form Little
Cottonwood Canyon. About 10,000 to 30,000 years ago the earth was
in an ice age period. During this period there was were thousands of
feet of ice from glaciers that came in and completely covered the
canyon. The largest of these was a glacier that was about 500 to 800
feet deep and about 12 miles long that went all the way down the

canyon and into lake Bonneville. Due to this large glacier moving down
the canyon and into the lake over a long period of time the canyon
walls were grinded down leaving behind side canyons, hanging valleys,
and many different types of eroded rocks.
Little Cottonwood Canyon is mostly made up of igneous rock like
granite but there are many other rock types throughout the canyon as
well. I was very hard to really see some of the rocks up close due to the
bad weather condition while exploring this canyon, however bigger
boulders could be seen from a distance or in the stream as we passed
by. Granite is a very common rock found in the Utah Mountains and
one that a lot of Utah people are familiar with. Granite is usually a gray
colored rock with a sort of salt and pepper look because of the
minerals that make it up, quarts, feldspar and biotitic. All of these
granite rocks were formed over 30 million years ago as magma cooled
underground and was brought to the surface due to many years of
weathering and erosion. These granite rocks can now be seen all along
the canyon walls, in the stream that cuts thought the canyon, and all
along some of the trails in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
The depositional landforms and features of Little Cottonwood
Canyon would be the Glaciers deposit of a chaotic mixture of clay, silt,
sand, gravel and boulders ranging in a huge range of size and shape
(glacial till). Rocks, including house-size boulders were carried by
glacial ice, and were deposited for from their source in Little

Cottonwood Canyon and you can really notice this everywhere you look
in the canyon. Other glacial features in the canyon include moraine
remnants and glacial erratics also, cirques, artes, and horns can be
seen up the glacial tributaries on the canyons south side and near
Albion Basin above Alta at the head of the canyon.
Being able to apply my newly learned skills in geology out in the
field was a fun opportunity where I was able to do research and learn
more about a canyon that I spend a lot of time in. With Learning more
about how Little Cottonwood Canyon was formed by glaciers was very
interesting and it will always be on my mind as I travel through this
canyon. Little Cottonwood is a big part of the Wasatch Fault (an active
fault located primarily on the western edge of the Wasatch Mountains)
Igneous and Metamorphic rocks make up mostly all the canyon but
also some Sedimentary rocks can be found all through the canyon as
well. Glaciers cutting into the mountain during the last ice age formed
little Cottonwood Canyon. This left the U-shape look of Little
Cottonwood Canyon that we see today.
Reflection:
Dear Cam
This project was rather enjoyable to be able to get out into the
mountains and learn more about a canyon that I love to spend time in.
The problem that I ran into with this project was the weather. It
seemed like every time that I had a chance to go do this project, when

I had work and school off it would snow on me. So I just decided to do
it in the snow but I think that it worked out in the end. This research
paper was rather time consuming in my opinion and it was impossible
for my group and I to even be able to get together because of things
like work, other classes and church so I ended up having to do it on my
own with a friend. Other than that it was nice to get out into the
mountains a place that I really love to be and dont get a lot of time to
enjoy. Thank you for your time and teaching this semester I really
learned a lot about how the earth works.
-Marshal

Works Cited

Bowman, Anthony W., (1967) "From Silver to Skis: A History of Alta,

Utah, and Little Cottonwood Canyon, 1847-1966".All
Graduate Theses and Dissertations.Paper 1642. Pgs 10-15. Apr 4.
2014.
Eldridge, Sandy. (Sep. 2010). Glacial Landforms in Big and Little
Cottonwood Canyons, Salt Lake County, Utah. Geosights
article, Survey Notes, v. 42 no. 3. Apr 4. 2014
"GeoSights: Glacial Landforms in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons,
Salt Lake County." Utah Geological Survey. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May
2015. <http://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/surveynotes/geosights/glacial-landforms-in-big-and-little-cottonwoodcanyons/>.
"Little Cottonwood Canyon | Salt Lake City, UT 84121 | Salt Lake City
Scenic Drives." Visit Salt Lake. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2015.

<http://www.visitsaltlake.com/listings/Little-CottonwoodCanyon/55176/>.
Public Information Series. (1987). Geologic Guide to the Central
Wasatch Front Canyons. A division of: Department of
Natural Resources ISBN: 1-55791-722-1. pgs 5 22. Apr 4. 2014.
"Little Cottonwood Canyon." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d.
Web. 03 May 2015.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Cottonwood_Canyon>.
Wohlers, A. A., & Baumgartner, L. P. (2013). Melt infiltration into
quartzite during partial melting in the Little Cottonwood Contact
Aureole (UT, USA): implication for xenocryst formation. Journal Of
Metamorphic Geology, 31(3), 301-312. doi:10.1111/jmg.12022. Apr 4.
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