The Areal Geology of Castle Creek Valley, Utah

Castle Creek Valley is a graben faulted from a high plateau area north of the La Sal Mountain Laccoliths in Grand County, southeast Utah Formations outcropping in the valley walls are the Permian Cutler formation, the Triassic Moenkopi, Chinle, and Wingate formations, and the Jurassie Kayenta formation, Intrusive into the valley floor is the Paradox salt member of the Hermosa formation, and a steep sided, conical leucoandesite plug of Tertiary ago.

This paper presents a study of the drainage, topography, geomorphology, stratigraphy, structure and geologic history of the valley along with the geologic map and a series of topographic profiles

Several periods of orogenic activity are indicated by angular unconformities at the top of the Cutler and Moenkopi formations, and by folding and faulting of the remaining formations which occurred primarily during the Laramide Revolution. The Paradox salt series has moved intermittently since the close of the Permian continuing almost to the recent.