The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-01-08
Granite Spring Division.

In its more complex features INC
Granite Spring division presents
much more interesting field for inVes-
tigation and discussion than other por-
lions of this extensive district which,
thus far. has been so rapidly
SKINNED
The area to be described includes
Granite mountain, which marks the
north boundary of Cedar basin, and eX-
tends northerly into the limestone. AS
before indicated, the limestone IS ter
riicaIly fauIted and folded. This strata
of the highest peak, about two and
half miles north of Granite Spring, de-
sends toward the southeast at an an
gle of more than 20 degrees. In other
nearby localities strongly marked anti
clines associated with faUlting are IN
evidence. CrOss-faulting is also a fire.
quent dynamical feature Of the lime
stone that, almost everywhere, has been
subjected to intense metamOrphiSm.
The principal fault is marked by
limestone escarpment which extends
several miles northeaSteriy and south
westerly. and marks the contact be-
tween the limestone and granite to the
north of Granite mountain, and schlst
which extends over several miles IN an
easterly direction.
The identity of the material compOs-
ing Granite mountain is somewhat in
doubt In some respects it is pOrphy-
rite. and is eruptive rather than meta
n1orphic. The disintegrating influences
of moisture have attacked the less re-
sistant substance of the rock with the
result that the feldspar crystals are IN
relief and give to the surface of the
granite" rough, Warty appear
ance.
Several rock sharps" who have ex-
&c
with the granite of Butte, Mont, which,
of course, should be entirely ineligible
to the general reader. The distinctive,
and most interesting, feature is found
in the numerous small and large round
ed powders of schist that are embed
ded in the granite, and which furnish
an insight into the geological history
of Granite mountain, and, incidentally
to the entire district.
AS before indicated. this section was
at one time capped with a sheet of bed
ded lower carboniferous limestone. The
brea king up and fauting of the bed
was succeeded by an outpOuring Of
eruptive schist that. in the Jumbo,
Cedar basin and Granite mountain di-
visions. formed a bed on top of the
limestone The limestone escarpnent
to the north checked the flow Of the
fluidic schist in that direction. The
cooling and solidifying of the schist
was followed by a reOpening of the
great assure Chat doubtless exists be-
meath the mountaiR) and up through
which q mass Of granite magma was
forced to the surface. In its upward
movement fragments of the dislOca ted
schist We're appropriated by the viscid
mass and distributed through the gran
tic material. That but little if any,
overflow occurred is proved by the alb
sence of foothills, and by the further
fact that the mountain rises abruptly
from the comparatively level country
to the north and south. From base to
base of Granite mountain is not more
than 1900 feet. It's average altitude is
only about 700 feet above the surround
ing country, and it's length is less than
5000 feet Its appearance is that of a
butte, and, in reality, the mountain is
a dyke.
From within few hundred feet of
the north base of the dyke UP to the