Wild Horse Butte is a 5,760-foot (1,756-meter) elevation summit located in
Goblin Valley State Park
Goblin Valley State Park is a state park of Utah, in the United States. The park features thousands of hoodoos, referred to locally as goblins, which are formations of mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles, some as tall as several yards (meters). The ...
, in
Emery County, Utah
Emery County is a county in east-central Utah, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 10,976. Its county seat is Castle Dale, and the largest city is Huntington.
History Prehistory
Occupation of the San Rafael ...
.
Wild Horse Butte is situated west of
Mollys Castle, and the top of this geological feature rises over 800 feet above its surrounding terrain, with precipitation
runoff
Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to:
* RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program
* Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed
* Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...
from Wild Horse Butte entering the
Colorado River
The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...
drainage basin.
John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...
's fifth expedition (1853–1854) stopped at Wild Horse Butte in January 1854, when
Solomon Nunes Carvalho
Solomon Nunes Carvalho (April 27, 1815 - May 27, 1897) was an American painter, photographer, author and inventor. He may be best known as an explorer who traveled through the territory of Kansas, Colorado and Utah with John C. Frémont on his ...
recorded a
daguerreotype
Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process.
Invented by Louis Daguerre an ...
image of this butte.
Geology
This
butte
__NOTOC__
In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word mea ...
is set within the San Rafael Desert on the southeastern edge of the
San Rafael Swell
The San Rafael Swell is a large geologic feature located in south-central Utah, United States about west of Green River. The San Rafael Swell, measuring approximately , consists of a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limeston ...
. Wild Horse Butte is composed of four exposed formations of
Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...
rock. The top layer is
Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Late Jurassic, Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandsto ...
caprock
Caprock or cap rock is a more resistant rock type overlying a less resistant rock type,Kearey, Philip (2001). ''Dictionary of Geology'', 2nd ed., Penguin Reference, London, New York, etc., p. 41.. . analogous to an upper crust on a cake that is har ...
. The Morrison Formation is famous for dinosaur bones found within it. Although no dinosaur bone discoveries have been reported on Wild Horse Butte, they have been found just west within in this formation. This overlays the cliff-forming
Summerville Formation
The Summerville Formation is a geological formation in New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah of the Southwestern United States. It dates back to the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic.Wilcox 2007
Description
The formation consists of up to of red m ...
, which consists of distinctive, thin beds of shale, siltstone, and sandstone. Thin beds and veinlets of gypsum found within the shale suggest a dry climate where ponded tidal water readily evaporated. Below Summerville is the slope-forming, lightly-colored
Curtis Formation
The Curtis Formation is a geologic formation in Utah. It preserves fossils dating back to the Callovian age of the Jurassic period.
Description
The Curtis Formation is composed of shallow marine sandstone, with thin beds of mudstone and m ...
. The bottom layer is dark, reddish
Entrada Sandstone
The Entrada Sandstone is a formation in the San Rafael Group found in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Colorado, northwest New Mexico, northeast Arizona, and southeast Utah. Part of the Colorado Plateau, this formation was deposited during the Jur ...
, which is also the composition of the
hoodoos
A hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney, or earth pyramid) is a tall, thin spire of rock formed by erosion. Hoodoos typically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the ...
that give Goblin Valley its name.
Climate
Spring and fall are the most favorable seasons to visit Wild Horse Butte. According to the
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
system, it is located in a
Cold semi-arid climate
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...
zone, which is defined by the coldest month having an average mean temperature below −0 °C (32 °F) and at least 50% of the total annual precipitation being received during the spring and summer.
This desert climate receives less than of annual rainfall, and snowfall is generally light during the winter.
Gallery
File:Wild Horse Butte detail.jpg, Top to bottom: Morrison Formation, Summerville, Curtis, Entrada Sandstone.
File:Wild Horse Butte, Goblin Valley Utah.jpg
File:Wild Horse Butte in Goblin Valley State Park, Utah.jpg
File:Wild Horse Butte, Goblin Valley State Park, UT.jpg
File:Wild Horse Butte, Goblin Valley State Park.jpg
File:Wild Horse Butte with Fremont-Carvalho marker.jpg
File:Jurassic sedimentary rocks (Wild Horse Butte, near Goblin Valley, Utah, USA) 16.jpg
See also
*
Colorado Plateau
The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area of ...
References
{{reflist
External links
* Wild Horse Butte aerial video
YouTube* Wild Horse Butte
weather forecast
Landforms of Emery County, Utah
Colorado Plateau
Rock formations of Utah
San Rafael Swell
Buttes of Utah
North American 1000 m summits
Sandstone formations of the United States