The Utah Adventure

Landform Regions Land Regions Each land region has Utah is divided into three land regions. plateaus, or mostly one type of landform, such as mountains, basins.The three main land regions in Utah are the Rocky Mountain region, the Colorado Plateau region, and the Great Basin region.

Rocky The Rocky Mountain Region Mountain The mountains in this region are beautiful to look at and are Region They come in different shapes Great cool places to visit in summer. Basin sizes. They are important for storing snow in winter. The Region and Colorado spring and runs into lakes and rivers. This lateau snow melts in the Remon is how the snow provides water for people who live in valleys below the mountains.Most of the mountains are covered with forests. Many animals live in them. Do you wonder how these mountains were formed? Have you wondered how long they have been here? They are very old. Scientists think they were formed millions of years ago. The youngest mountains have tall, jagged peaks. Moun- tains that are older are more rounded, because the wind and rain have worn them away. This is a type of erosion. Most of the mountains in Utah were formed by forces inside the Earth that caused huge blocks of land to squeeze into each other from opposite directions. This caused some parts of the land to rise up, and even fold over on top of each other

lucky to have such beautiful mountains. There tot more snow and rain in the mountains than the' valleys. The water runs down the streams and is used bythe people who live in the valleys below. Natural Utah 9

Some of Utah' mountains were formed by forces inside the Earth that pushed up the land from underneath. The Henry and LaSal Mountains were formed this way. Another way mountains were formed was by volcanoes. The inside of the Earth is made of rock so hot it has melted and become liquid. When it is inside the Earth, it is called magma. In some places forces deep inside the Earth push the magma up through the crust of the Earth to the outside. Once magma pours out onto the Earth's surface, it is called lava. Lava is ten times hotter than boiling water. When lava gets into the air, it cools and becomes hard. If a volcano keeps erupting, layers of lava build up around it to form a mountain.

Volcano

Geyser

—Hot Springs A volcanic cone near Fillmore is in the Black Rock Desert. A volcano that erupts often is called an active volcano. A volcano that is quiet for many years is called a dormant (or sleeping) volcano. If scientists think it will never erupt again, it is called an extinct (or dead) volcano. Volcanoesare found all over the world. Some of the most famous ones are Mount Vesuvius,in Italy; Mount Fuji, in Japan: Mauna Loa, in Hawaii; and Mount St. Helens, in Washington State. Extinct volcanoes are in Utah. Near Fill- more in the Black Rock Desert, and north of Santa Clara, you can see some of Utah's extinct volcanoes. Pressure inside the Earth also makes geysers, hot springs, and boiling mud pools. Inside the Earth, water gets very hot. Sometimes it shoots up through the Earths crust and into the air. Fountains of hot water and steam are called geysers. There are no active geysers in Utah today. Hot springs are when the hot water flows out of the ground. They are found throughout Utah. One, called Iron Springs, is near e Ogden. nwre are also hot sprirvs in Salt Lake City, Castilla, Grantsville, Lehi, tfie Sevier Desen, Midway,Monroe, Mil- ford, and near the Virgin River The Utah Adventure

The Great Basin Region "If there is magic on Another large land region is the Great Basin. Most of the area is hot and dry. It is one of the driest deserts in the United this earthit lies in water, States. Even though it has a desert climate, the Great Salt and nowhere is water so Lake and Utah Lake are in this region. Mountain streams run into them. There are some mountains in the Great Basin, too. beautiful as in the But it is mostly flat, like the bottom of a smooth bowl. desert, for nowhere else Most of Utah's people live in the Great Basin. Why would they live in such a dry desert? They live on the edges is it so scarce. of the basin near the mountains. Here the land is flat, which In the desert each drop makes good places for cities and farms. It is near the moun- tains, whose streams supply water. is precious." In some places the deserts seem so hot and dry you —Edward Abbey wonder if anything could live there. But desert animals and plants do live in the Great Basin. The desert tortoise moves slowly across the sand. Prairie dogs dig holes and burrow underneath the ground, where it is much cooler Both of these animals are protected by laws because they are in dan- ger of becoming extinct. Lizards, snakes, and insects like to hide between rocks and under plants in the desert.

A Gila Monster v Desert Tortoise

Prairie Dog Sagebrush and cactus, salt and sand are common in the Great Basin. gatgrat Ut•b 11 Ancient Lake Bonneville

Map Key LaVe Bonneville

The natural regions of Utah have not always been the way they are now. Utah used to be a lot different.It is still changing.It will t Lake always change. Long, long, ago, the weather in Utah was much colder than it is now. Because it was so cold, big masses of snow and ice formed in the mountains. These are called glaciers. The snow and ice just kept piling up. Long, thick layers covered the ground. Then slowly the glaciers began to move. They crept downhill and took a lot of the dirt and rock with them. They wore away the land, and carved many canyons and valleys in Utah's mountains. One of these is Little Cottonwood Canyon, southeast of Salt Lake City. Then the weather began to change and slowly get warmer.The ice began to melt. Water from the melting glaciers ran down the canyons and into a growing lake. The Lake spread over the flat land of the Great Basin and through canyons and mountain valleys. Cache Valley and Heber Valley were also full of water. The ancient lake washed up against the Wasatch Mountains and made a bench. You can still see it on the mountainstoday. The (ine shows how high the water reached. Eventually the lake covered much of Utah. Then, after a long time, the water cut a new huge river that drained all the way to the Pacific Ocean. When explorers came to the area thousands of years later, they called the old lake Lake Bonneville, The Great Salt Lake, Utah Lake, and Sevier Lake are all that is left of that anoent lake today. A Salty Lake Utah's largest body of water is located in it. It is called Even though the Great Basin is a desert, rivers and many small streams flow into the lake. These rivers carry the Great Salt Lake. Three major there are no rivers to carry the salt out. That is why the lake is in salt and other minerals. But the oceans. It is so salty that no fish can live in it—only small so salty. It is saltier than any of brine shrimp. Bridger, thought it was part of the Pacific Ocean. Explorers who found the lake, like Jim lake in Utah called "Lake Timpanogas"with a river running For a long time, the first maps showed a Ocean. Mentraveled in a boat all aroundthe lake and learned all the way from it to the pacific ocean. that it was not connectedto the important to people in Utah. Native Americans lived The Great Salt Lake has always been that nest along its shores. When pioneers first reached near the lake to catch the ducks and birds to the lake to get salt. Salt mining and brine shrimp harvesting the Salt Lake Valley, they traveled parks and resorts were built on its shores—the most famous one still go on today. Later amusement Lake is famous aroundthe world. was named Saltair. The Great Salt Natural Utah 13

The Colorado Plateau Region Sedimentary Rock Another of UtahS large land regions is the Colorado Plateau. • The Colorado Plateau is made It is a broad space of high land that is hard and rocky. Some up of layers of rock called of Utah's most beautiful scenery is found in this region. Over sedimentary rock. millions of years wind and rain have carved wonderful rock For a long time most of formations. Colorful cliffs rise a thousand feet above the Utah was underwater. Shallow valley floor and stretch as far as a hundred miles. All five of seas covered it. Rivers flowed Utah's national parks are in the Colorado Plateau. People into the seas, carrying sand, come from all over the world to visit them. mud, and small pebbles. These Two mighty rivers have cut deep and beautiful canyons things are called sediments. through this region. They are the Colorado River and the All of this material then Green River. They are the only major rivers in Utah that go settled on the bottom of the all the way to an ocean. seas in many layers. When the seas dried up, the area became dry land. Then, for thousands of years, winds blew hundredsof feet of sand onto the rock layers and formed the bright red colors of the cliffs we see today.

"To stick your hands into the river is to feel the cords that bind the earth together in one piece." —Barry Lopez

At Dead Horse Point State Park you can see the Colorado River winding through sandstone cliffs.