Geomorphology of the north flank of the Uinta Mountains

Abstract

the east end of the range. But soon thereafter it was captured by Lodore Branch, a tributary to the ancestral Cascade Creek, which drained Summit Valley, and so came to flow • along the present site of Lodore Canyon. The steps in this diversion are shown diagrammatically in plate 42. The course of the Green River through Lodore Canyon was formerly regarded as perhaps having been established by superimposition from the Browns Park formation rather than by piracy. Along Bl~cks and Smith Forks of the Green River are remnants of tvi:o Pleistocene erosion surfaces. The older of these, the Tipperary surface, is about 150 feet below the Bear Mountain surface, and the younger, the Lyman surface, is 50 to 75 feet below the Tipperary. Both, however, merge upstream with the present flood plains, and each has a series of treads at its north end, which are explained as partial flood plains abandoned one after another as the stream was captured at successive short intervals upstream by the tributaries of larger streams in adjacent strike valleys. The process by which certain gravel-capped badland escarpments migrate and behead small, asymmetric, gravel-capped alluvial cones is described and illustrated. Only those moraines that gave promise of clarifying the relations between the erosional history and the glacial history • were studied. Bulky terminal moraines on remnants of the Bear Mountain surface in two or three localities north of the Utah-Wyoming boundary line seem to indicate rather clearly a third glacial stage older than the two heretofore recognized in the Uinta Mountains. The three glacial stages-Little Dry (oldest), Blacks Fork, and Smith Fork-appear to be the respective equivalents of Blackwelder's Buffalo, Bull Lake, and Pinedale stages in the Wind River Range. The possible causes of the erosion interval between the Gilbert Peak and Bear Mountain surfaces are examined, but the evidence is inconclusive. The erosion intervals between the Bear Mountain surface and Tipperary surface and between the Tipperary and Lyman surfaces are probably to be linked with the full, strong streams that existed during or just after the corresponding glacial stages. The two youngest surfaces themselves were probably cut by lateral planation of the streams during the somewhat more arid interglacial stages.

Hydrologic modeling of flood conveyance and impacts of historic overbank sedimentation on West Fork Black's Fork, Uinta Mountains, northeastern Utah, USA

“…The crest of the Uinta Mountains contains the highest peaks in the state of Utah, with Kings Peak at 4124 m as the highest. The streams in the Uinta Mountains occupy valleys scoured by multiple late Wisconsin glaciations (Atwood, 1909;Bradley, 1936;Richmond, 1965;Munroe, 2001). Channel beds rest on bedrock in headwater reaches, on boulders in confinedvalley reaches, and on glacial outwash on mainstem reaches of the streams.…”

Geological Survey research 1980

“…The anomalous aspect of the Bald Range was noticed by Bradley (1936), who characterized it as a complex of moraines. Retention of physical integrity over large masses of fragile material does not seem consistent with ice transport, however.…”

Ground-water resources and geology of the Lyman-Mountain View area, Uinta County, Wyoming

“…Figure 1 shows the location of the report area. Bradley (1936) discussed the geology and geomorphology of the north flank of the Uinta Mountains and the adjacent Green River basin, which includes the area of this report. Later geologic investigations have been limited mainly to the study of the stratigraphy and structure of the bedrock formations, and little additional work has been done on the Quaternary deposits.…”

“…The origin and formation of the terraces and the evolution of the present landscape have been ably treated by Bradley (1936), and the reader is referred to that publication for detailed information. Only a cursory treatment of the subject will be given here.…”

“…The moraines were mapped by Bradley (1936) and classified by him as belonging to three glacial stages. Moraines of two stages, the Little Dry and Blacks Fork, are shown on the geologic map (pi.…”