St George Utah: A Geological Wonderland

Presented by Rick Miller, Dixie State University The western United States contains a majority of our National Parks and Monuments, and the city of St. George is comfortably located within a short driving distance to many of these spectacular parks. However, the city itself is nestled within a diverse variety of geologic rocks and features that spans about 270 million years of geologic time. This provides us with truly spectacular geology and features that though NOT national parks often rival them for their scenery and stories. This geology results from the westward movement of the North American Plate that began about 180 million years ago. Within the framework of Plate (Global) Tectonics, the focus of my presentation will be to describe the geologic story of the St. George area and its relationship to areas even further away, though often better known, which include the Grand Canyon, Zion Canyon and Bryce Canyon.