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Show First of Prehistoric Sea Articles Presented Petroleum Geologists Find Evidence of Oil and Gas in Commercial Amounts Underlying Utah County Did the marine life of long-vanished Lake Bonneville Bon-neville leave the basis for the formation of crude oil by depositing their organic mass in "source beds" now believed to lie beneath this part of Utah county? Petroleum geologists, now studying the Springville Spring-ville area, find evidence that oil and gas in commercial commer-cial amounts are possible of recovery here under proper drilling operations. ARTICLE NUMBER k Exclusive : The Springville Herald. By Ray E. Colton, P. G. Oil and Gas Science Writer. (NOTE Field petroleum geologists have for the past hvo zveeks been quietly at work in areas of Utah county, such as Springville Spring-ville and vicinity, studying such evidence as presents itself as partial par-tial proof that under proper drilling operations, oil and gas would be possible of recovery from beneath this part of Utah. As the story of oil, and why it should be found beneath certain areas where inland seas once covered, presents a very complex problem, the writer will reviezv the prehistoric past of Utah county and the Springville area, and then discuss the evidence which has been found here. Republishing of any of the 'wording of this and the other three articles which will follow in other editions of the Springville Herald, is prohibited. RAY E. COLTON.) Prehistoric Lake Bonneville Once Covered This Pnrt Of Utah ... Stretching her majestic length from southern Idaho to the northwestern north-western portion of the state of Arizona, and including in her confines such areas as all of present-day central Utah, prehistoric prehis-toric Lake Bonneville is today exemplified in the Great Salt Lake. Millions of years have passed since this vast inland sea inundated inun-dated this part of the North American continent, yet, even today, to-day, many fossil remains of prehistoric pre-historic life, which existed in the depths and along the shorelines of long vanished Lake Bonneville, Bonne-ville, are to be, and have been, found during searches for the remains re-mains of such life in the Springville Spring-ville area. I These fossil remains furnish (Continued on page eight) Prehistoric Sea (Continued from page 1) many clues to the acts of Old Mother Nature in prehistoric Utah times, and they are representative representa-tive of the forms of life which were contemporaneous with such geologic eras as the Paleozoic and Mesozolc periods. A study of these fossils which range from the micro-organic foramlnfera "tiny sea shells" through to the crln-oids, crln-oids, ammonolds, trilobites, ceph-alopods, ceph-alopods, gastropods and other species spe-cies of the Mollusca "shell" life, not only reveals the process of evolution which Old Mother Nature Na-ture used in perfecting her prehistoric pre-historic marine life, but they are a clue to possible "oil pools" believed be-lieved to lie beneath this part of Utah. This will be discussed in other articles of this series which will deal with the origin of crude oil. its formation and migration to adjacent porous strata. Sprinirvllle Area Has Been The Scene of Many Fossil Finds . . . Within the confines of Utah county, and in such local areas as Springville, Spanish Fork and in Provo canyon between Provo and the Bridal Veil Falls, many fossil remains of long vanished marine and animal life have been found during the past three years. These fossils come under many different differ-ent categories, and range from the marine or sea life to plant life in fossil imprint state appearing in rocks and shales and teeth of long extinct hairy mammoths which inhabited this part of Utah in prehistoric times. One of the best areas for the finding of fossil fos-sil remains of the marine life appears ap-pears to be around Springville, where in the areas west from the city toward the east shoreline of Utah Lake marine fossils can be picked up with very little effort of search. It would appear on the basis of these finds that considerable consider-able marine life existed in this part of Utah when the waters of Lake Bonneville were here. Ma.stolon Teeth Found . . . Jn the gravel deposits around Springville, several teeth, which have been identified as being remains re-mains of a giant prehistoric mammoth, mam-moth, herds of which are believed to have roamed this part of Utah during the Tertiary Epoch of the major Cenozoic geologic era. The antiquity of these teeth, which appear to be in a fairly good state of preservation, has been estimated esti-mated at about 50,000 years. The theory of the migration of these mammoths to the North American continent, and finally into what is today the state of Utah, is that they, together with sabre-tooth tigers, camels,, rhinoceroses, etc., came to this continent by way of a land bridge, ' which in prehistoric prehis-toric geologic times connected this continent with the African mainland. main-land. A subterranean upheaval, which later destroyed this land bridge, marooned these forms of life on this continent, and they roamed from place to place, seeking seek-ing the vegetation upon which they fed. The advance of the glaciers gla-ciers during the Quaternary Epoch of the Cenozoic geologic era no doubt took their toll of these forms of life, and in the case of the elephants or- mastadons, we today find their remains in the gravel deposits which were washed down by the advancing ice sheets. Utah county, and especially the Springville area, has been the scene of finds of many fossil remains re-mains of life which passed into oblivion centuries before the advent ad-vent of Man. (NOTE: The origin of crude oil forms one of the most interesting of topics, and in the next issue of the Springville Herald, the writer will discuss this, and the reasons for belief by petroleum geologists that oil should be beneath this part of Utah county. Ray E. Colton.) |