Mega-landslides and Toreva blocks on the Colorado Plateau

Conor Watkins and J. David Rogers of Missouri S&T University have an incredibly rich website on the topic of Megalandslides of The Colorado Plateau. The site includes presentations they have given over the past decade mapping the extensive landslides across the region, with clear diagrams describing Toreva blocks, and the complex histories of some these huge features.  The map above shows landslides mapped by them and others, shown in red.  The Echo Cliffs section where the Bitter Springs landslide occurred on US89 is at the right of the map, with individual disconnected slides along the NNW-SSE trending line.   The ancient slide that contains last week's slide is the largest in this string.

Surface rights purchased for Petrified Forest National Park; potash deposits called "worthless"

The National Parks Traveler magazine reports that 4,265 acres of surface rights from the McCauley Ranch was  purchased for Petrified Forest National Park by The Conservation Fund and the National Parks Conservation Association, which will convey the deed to the Park Service later this year. [Right, ranch lands acquired shown in yellow.  Credit, National Parks Traveler from an NPS map]

The article notes that "In 2011, the Park Service acquired about 26,000 acres of private lands when it was able to purchase the Hatch Ranch."

It also says "a Park Service assessment judged the potash deposits beneath the ranch to be worthless, the ranch owners disputed that finding, said Kevin Dahl, the Arizona program manager for the NPCA."

Interestingly the article says the Park hopes to obtain the surface rights to the Twin Buttes Ranch on the west side of the Park if Passport Potash does not exercise their $20 million option on the property by August, 2013.

AZGS estimates that about a quarter of the Holbrook basin potash deposit underlies the federal lands in the park and a similar amount underlies the state and private lands within the park boundaries.

Strategic & Critical Minerals bill would speed up mine permitting process

Congressman Mark Amodei (R-NV) reintroduced the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2013, along with 28 cosponsors, to streamline the permitting process for mineral development.

A nearly identical piece of legislation introduced by Amodei passed the House in the last session but it stalled in the Senate.

Amodei said  it currently can take up to 15 years for agencies to issue permits to allow mineral mining work to begin.   The bill will limit the total review process for issuing permits to 30 months unless signatories to the permitting timeline agree to an extension.   It also sets a 90 day time limit to file a legal challenge to an energy project, requires the venue for actions challenging the mining project to the judicial district where the project is located, and limits any preliminary injunctions to halt mining projects to 60 days unless the court finds clear reason to extend the injunction.  [Right, proposed Rosemont copper mine south of Tucson.  Opponents have publicly explained their strategy of delaying the permitting process to make the effort too expensive or problematic to continue]

[taken from Rep. Amodei's news release]

New USGS publications on Arizona

The USGS has released a number of new publications on Arizona geology:

Hydrogeologic framework and estimates of groundwater storage for the Hualapai Valley, Detrital Valley, and Sacramento Valley basins, Mohave County, Arizona 2013, Truini, Margot ; Beard, L. Sue; Kennedy, Jeffrey ; Anning, Dave W. USGS Scientific Investigations Report: 2012-5275 We have investigated the hydrogeology of the Hualapai Valley, Detrital Valley, and Sacramento Valley basins of Mohave County in northwestern Arizona t... Water-quality data collected to determine the presence, source, and concentration of lead in the drinking water supply at Pipe Spring National Monument, northern Arizona 2013, Macy, Jamie P.; Sharrow, David ; Unema, Joel USGS Open-File Report: 2013-1029 Pipe Spring National Monument in northern Arizona contains historically significant springs. The groundwater source of these springs is the same aquif...

Bedrock and surficial geologic map of the Satan Butte and Greasewood 7.5’ quadrangles, Navajo and Apache Counties, northern Arizona 2013, Amoroso, Lee ; Priest, Susan S.; Hiza-Redsteer, Margaret USGS Open-File Report: 2013-1007 The geologic map of the Satan Butte and Greasewood 7.5’ quadrangles is the result of a cooperative effort of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the...

Preliminary hydrogeologic assessment near Tassi and Pakoon Springs, western part of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, Arizona 2013, Truini, Margot USGS Scientific Investigations Report: 2012-5276 Tassi and Pakoon Springs are both in the Grand Wash Trough in the western part of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument on the Arizona Strip. The m...

Abstracts for the October 2012 meeting on Volcanism in the American Southwest, Flagstaff, Arizona 2013, Edited by Lowenstern, Jacob B. USGS Open-File Report: 2013-1026 Though volcanic eruptions are comparatively rare in the American Southwest, the States of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah host Holocen...

Geologic map of the Topock 7.5’ quadrangle, Arizona and California 2013, Howard, Keith A.; John, Barbara E.; Nielson, Jane E.; Miller, Julia M. G.; Wooden, Joseph L. USGS Scientific Investigations Map: 3236 The Topock quadrangle exposes a structurally complex part of the Colorado River extensional corridor and also exposes deposits that record landscape e...

Photo album of US89 Bitter Spring landslide

 Coconino County has posted a couple dozen photos from ADOT's photo album on the US 89 Bitter Spring landslide on their Facebook page [top photo]  

The bottom photo [right] is one of the few we've seen of "cracks" in the slope below the highway. Almost all the photos show the sensational offsets of the highway itself.

Geologists and engineers will no doubt be looking at the full extent of the ground involved in the slide to determine what mitigation efforts are required.

Small quake south of Fredonia

There was a small, magnitude 2.1 earthquake 12 miles south of Fredonia in northern Arizona at about 7:30 pm last night.   [Right, yellow star marks epicenter location. Red lines are active faults. Credit, USGS]

More resources on US89 Bitter Spring landslide in Echo Cliffs

ADOT posted a 15-second aerial video on their Facebook page, taken along highway US89 in the Echo Cliffs showing the extent of the Bitter Spring landslide that occurred Wednesday.  The slide comes into view at about 7 seconds, and shows the extent of the slide below the road.



Dave Petley has a good compilation of the current online resources about this event on his Landslide blog.

Bitter Spring landslide extends downslope from US89

In a video posted on the ADOT YouTube channel, Senior Deputy State Engineer Rob Samour says they have found cracks extending a couple of hundred feet downslope from the US89 guard rail indicating that the highway repair and remediation actions will have to cover a much larger area than just the immediate roadway.

The downslope cracks are consistent with AZGS geologists' interpretation that the road buckling event is the result of a landslide. 

ADOT seeking federal funds to repair US89 from landslide damage

The Arizona Dept. of Transportation put out this news release late this afternoon:
 
PHOENIX — While the Arizona Department of Transportation is still trying to determine what exactly happened to cause the ground to shift beneath US 89 Wednesday, the agency continues to assess the significant damage to the highway. Geotechnical engineers are currently evaluating the stability of the mountain slope, approximately 25 miles south of Page.

“This area encompasses close to 500 feet of damaged pavement, but we had the opportunity in the plane to circle the area twice and it looks like the settlement could be a lot larger,” said Robert Samour, ADOT senior deputy state engineer of operations. “The area over the guardrail drops off a couple hundred feet; we saw some cracking in the soil down the slope, so I would say that this is probably a 500- to700-foot section that we’re going to have to take a good look at for settlement.”

US 89 will remain closed for an extended period of time. There is no timetable to reopen the highway, which has over 150 feet of pavement that buckled approximately four to six feet.

US 89 is closed northbound at US 89A. In Page, US 89 is closed at the junction with State Route 98.
Drivers who are traveling to Lake Powell and southern Utah will need to plan for extra travel time. The alternate route requires motorists to travel east on US 160 to State Route 98 and north on SR 98 to Page. The detour is about 45 miles longer than the direct route.

In an effort to get federal funding for the future repair project on US 89, ADOT is working with the Arizona Division of Emergency Management and the Arizona Governor’s Office on an emergency declaration that will allow ADOT to receive reimbursement for the highway reconstruction. Regardless, ADOT has begun the assessment process and is moving forward with the geotechnical investigation, and then the engineers will look at permanent fix which will be paid for using ADOT funding.

“We’re going to work on reconstructing the damaged highway as quickly as possible, although it’s premature to lay out a timeline,” Samour said. “We recognize how important US 89 is the community of Page and the Lake Powell region and that’s why we met with key stakeholders today, including the mayor of Page. We will work through the process of determining what happened beneath the highway and figure out a best plan for a long-term fix.”

For more information on the damage to US 89, including photos and video, please visit:
ADOT Blog
ADOT’s YouTube channel
ADOT’s Flickr

Bitter Spring landslide complex known since 1901

The Bitter Spring landslide complex, where yesterday's failure along US89 occurred, has been recognized since at least early last century.  Davis cited it in 1901. Gregory's 1917 USGS Professional Paper 93, "Geology of the Navajo Country" has this description on p.136:

The La Plata Formation indicated above, is now known as the Navajo and Wingate sandstones. Thanks to Steve Rauzi for passing along this reference.

Cross section through Bitter Spring landslide complex

We've heard a couple of reports that yesterday's landslide on US89 near Bitter Spring, was making noises throughout the day, raising questions whether it is still moving.

Phil Pearthree, chief of the AZGS Environmental Geology section, put together this cross section through the entire escarpment that shows the slide, just to the left of the 1710 m marker, showing that there is a substantial bench downslope that, along with the distance involved, would likely prevent any materials from making it all the way down the mountain and impacting US89A (solid line running N-S on the left side of the image).

News and blog reports on Bitter Spring landslide

 Yesterday's landslide on US89 south of Page, near the village of Bitter Spring, captured a lot of news coverage, some of it with sensationalist headlines, such as "2 cars ensnared in sinkhole.."   [see video below]

Wayne Ranney has an extensive blog post with excellent photo interpretation of the event at Earthly Musings.

Senators call for economic geologist to head USGS

  

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and other Republican U.S. senators recently sent a letter to President Obama  urging that an economic geologist be appointed the Director of the USGS, replacing Marcia McNutt who recently announced her resignation.

Any nominee for Director would come before the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee where Sen. Murkowski is the ranking member.  The text of the letter is reprinted below:

Memorial service for Ted Wilson

At the request of Ted Wilson's family, the UA Mining & Geologic Engineering Department will be hosting a special memorial in remembrance of him on Saturday March 2nd between 3 and 6 pm at the San Xavier Mining Laboratory (see address and Google map link below). They will remember Ted "by doing one of his favorite things: chatting over delicious ice cream." [Photo credit, UA MGE Dept.]

The 75-year old UA adjunct professor, Terril "Ted" Wilson, was killed in a plane crash last Friday when his single engine plane crashed outside Tucson. Tucson's KGUN Channel 9 reported on  how his friends and colleagues remembered him - deos/?bctid=2154401043001#.USWbr5B7130.blogger



San Xavier Mining Laboratory
6200 W Ocotillo Ranch Road
Sahuarita, AZ 85629 520.648.5296

Google Map:  http://goo.gl/maps/I825I

Geologic references for Bitter Spring landslide

AZGS Chief Geologist Jon Spencer pulled together a short list of citations relevant to today's Bitter Spring landslide on Highway US89, south of Page, Arizona [right, credit, AZ Dept. of Transportation]:

Cooley, M.E., Harshbarger, J.W., Akers, J.P., Hardt, W.F., and Hicks, O.N., 1969, Regional hydrogeology of the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 521-A, 60 p., 12 plates.

Repenning, C.A., Cooley, M.E., and Akers, J.P., 1969, Stratigraphy of the Chinle and Moenkopi Formations, Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 521-B, 34 p., 2 plates.

Rogers, J.D., and Watkins, C., 2008, The role of overconsolidated shales in triggering megalandslides in the Grand Canyon region: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 40, n. 6, p. 218.

Strahler, A.N., 1940, Landslides of the Vermilion and Echo Cliffs, northern Arizona:  Journal of Geomorphology, v. 3, n. 4, p. 285.

Watkins, C.M., and Rogers, J.D., 2007, Overconsolidated shales and their role in triggering megalandslides in the Grand Canyon shales: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 39, n. 6, p. 439.