The Wah Wah Mountains are a north-south trending range in west-central

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, part of the larger

Basin and Range Province The Basin and Range Province is a vast physiographic region covering much of the inland Western United States and northwestern Mexico. It is defined by unique basin and range topography, characterized by abrupt changes in elevation, alternating ...

. It is bounded by Pine Valley to the west,

Wah Wah Valley Wah Wah Valley is an endorheic (internal drainage) valley within the Basin and Range of west-central Utah, United States. Description The valley is bound by the Wah Wah Mountains to the west and south and the San Francisco Mountains to the east. ...

to the east, the Escalante Desert to the south, and on trend with the

Confusion Range The Confusion Range is a north-south trending mountain range in west-central Utah, United States. It is bounded by Snake Valley to the west, Tule Valley to the east, the Great Salt Lake Desert to the north, and the Ferguson Desert to the south. ...

to the north. The Wah Wah Mountains are located in

Beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

and

Millard Millard may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places in the United States * Millard, Missouri, a village * Millard, Omaha, Nebraska, a former suburb and present-day neighborhood of Omaha * Millard Creek, Pennsylvania * Millard County, Utah * Millard, Virginia, an ...

counties. State Route 21 bisects the range, crossing over Wah Wah Summit at about above sea level. Elevations range from about at the mountain front to in the southern Wah Wahs. The "Wah Wah" name comes from Wah Wah Springs, on the eastern slope of the mountain range. "Wah Wah" is reported to mean "good clear water". The

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

, which administers most of the land within the Wah Wah Mountains, has designated two wilderness study areas, one in the north and one in the central portion of the range. Wah Wah WSA

Geology

The Wah Wah Mountains are made up of Neoproterozoic- to

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

-aged

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

s (

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

, and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

metamorphized into

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...

), overlain by younger

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

volcanic rocks (

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. ...

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

, and

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

) on the eastern flank of the range. A series of

thrust fault A thrust fault is a break in the Earth's crust, across which older rocks are pushed above younger rocks. Thrust geometry and nomenclature Reverse faults A thrust fault is a type of reverse fault that has a dip of 45 degrees or less. If ...

s cut through the sedimentary rocks in the southern end of the range. It is notable as the source of a rare red beryl gemstone, which is mined commercially. Perhaps, the most famous geologic feature is Crystal Peak, in the northern part of the range (near the pass between the Wah Wah Mountains and the Confusion Range). It is an erosional remnant of a

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...

that has abundant doubly terminated crystals of quartz. The Wah Wah Mountains were the site of a massive supervolcano eruption 30 million years ago that ejected more than 5,900 cubic kilometers of material. An additional reference to the geology of the range is the map by Hintze and Davis.Hintze and Davis, 2002, GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE WAH WAH MOUNTAINS NORTH 30′ x 60′ QUADRANGLE AND PART OF THE GARRISON 30′ x 60′ QUADRANGLE, SOUTHWEST MILLARD COUNTY AND PART OF BEAVER COUNTY, UTAH,

In other media

* The Wah Wah Mountains are featured in the science fiction novel ''EarthCore'' by Scott Sigler.

References

{{Authority control Mountain ranges of Beaver County, Utah Mountain ranges of Millard County, Utah Mountain ranges of Utah Mountain ranges of Iron County, Utah