The posted coordinates are for the trail head.
Beus Pond Park a beautiful little park in Ogden that features a pond and the wildlife that live in the park. The paved, wheelchair accessible trail is a easy 0.5 mile walk along a looping trail with only a 19 foot change of elevation. While you are visiting this earthcache you can also have a picnic and feed the ducks and geese.
If is physically possible, please walk the 0.5 mile loop trail around the pond to better visualize the lesson this earthcache is trying to teach.
This lesson is to help show how this park was formed less than 15,000 years ago when part of the Wasatch Fault shifted. We will be looking at the fault scarp that crosses through the Beus Pond Park along the east side of the trail and pond, the horst along the west side of the trail and pond, and the graben in which the trail and the pond reside.
As you walk the trail on the east side of the pond, I would like you to notice the rise in elevation of the fault scarp (steep hillside) that is on the east side of the trail. A fault scarp is a step or offset on the ground surface where one side of a fault has moved vertically with respect to the other. This shifting event happened long after the mountain building event that happened 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. You will notice there are homes built on the top of the fault scarp. The ground you are walking on was once level with the top of the fault scarp until it shifted downwards. During the <15,000 year time period since this fault shifted, many trees and plants have grown on the fault scarp, stabilizing the land.
Beus Pond Park is located in the Wasatch Fault zone, as shown on the USGS U.S. Quaternary Faults map shown below. The east boundary of this park is formed by a fault scarp, created when the land shifted downward during the Latest Quaternary Period, less than 15,000 years ago. The fault scarp was formed along the north-northwest trending fault that lies along the east side of College Drive and Beus’ Pond. Another fault scarp is located about a 1/2 mile to the west where the land shifted dounward during the Middle and late Quaternary Period, less than 750,000 years ago.
From the trail on the west side of the pond, I would like you to notice the rise in elevation from the trail and pond (in the graben), to the flatter raised area to the west of the trail (horst), and to the drop again that joins the Beus Pond Park to the Forest Green Park to the west.
On the west side of the pond and trail, and also along the east side of the neighboring park, tension cracks formed during the Latest Quaternary event. The land area in between the fault scarp and the tension crack shifted downward forming the graben. The pond developed in a low spot in the small graben, as described by the Utah Geological Association. The ground in the neighboring park to the west also shifted downward, leaving the horst formation that divides the two parks.
In geology, horst and graben (or range and valley / basin) refers to topography consisting of alternating raised and lowered fault blocks known as horsts and grabens. A horst may have a vertical movement of inches to several thousand feet. A graben may be as small as a few inches wide or as large as tens of miles wide. A graben may have slid down to any depth.
Diagram of horst and graben formation.Trista L. Thornberry-Ehrlich, Colorado State University.
Information from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Utah Geological Association.
To log this earthcache, you need to visit this park, then message me the info below.
1- Include the GC code, and all the people you may be submitting answers for.
2- What event would you have felt when the land slipped along the fault and formed the fault scarp, horst, and graben ?
3- Grabens commonly appear in areas that have been pulled apart by tensional stresses. What general direction do you think the land was moving when this fault shifted and the horst and graben was formed ?
4- How would you describe the height of the fault scarp when compaired to the height of the horst ?
5- In your opinion, what do you think the approximate elevation change is from the graben to the top of the horst ?
6- Post a photo at the location of you and/or a personal item with the pond in the background. You have to actually visit this earthcache site. Not including a photo with your log or photoshopping something will get your log deleted.
Thank you for visiting this earthcache. I hope you have had an informative visit.