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Show Utah - An Alluring I Geological Exposure j How the Earth looks to a geologist. The state of Utah presents probably the most alluring geological geolog-ical exposure in the world. Utah's geology is unique in that there are outcropping strata recording record-ing every period of the geological history from Archean to the present. pre-sent. If one drives from the northern north-ern parts of the state to the south, he may easily observe along the road strata as old as pre-Cambrian in Box Elder county to as young as Tertiary in Kane county; and then drift again to the south from Kane county to the Colorado river and view the outcrop of strata which covers the period from the young-1 young-1 est to the oldest from Cedar Breaks, which is tertiary, to the Granite Gorge in Grand Canyon which is Archean. It is in this geology that has been, found some of the outstanding mines of the world. The areas of the Wasatch, the Tintic, the Oqulrrh, Iron Springs and the Tushare's have been specially productive pro-ductive of metals. In the early days the discoveries were easily made, as many mineral deposits outcropped on the surface. But today the situation is vastly different. The surface deposits are gone and deeper and more hazardous hazard-ous prospecting is necessary to bring forth new ore bodies. ' It is a credit to the operators of mines in Utah that many of the properties have enjoyed long life, longer than is common for metal mines. This has been due in a measure to a wise policy of development. devel-opment. If the industry is to be preserved in the future more and more of the return must be set aside for development work as the ore is becoming harder and harder pto find. Rising costs often result in curtailment of development and this will soon result in a general curtailment of mining, an inexorable inexor-able law of mining. |