W.W. Little Geological Consulting, LLC

W.W. Little Geological Consulting, LLC LGC specializes in field studies, petrographic analyses, and training courses associated with clastic depositional systems and sequence stratigraphy.

The Core: Part VI (last for now) – The core itself Several viewers have asked for photos of the actual core. Thus far, I...
02/17/2025

The Core: Part VI (last for now) – The core itself

Several viewers have asked for photos of the actual core. Thus far, I have not had a chance to look at most of them – that’s coming. However, there are a couple that I obtained a few years ago at the beginning of the project that I had slabbed for use in my university classes and the field courses I still run through the Book Cliffs. These photos are from those two cores. It will be exciting to see what will be found in the rest.

This will be, for now, the final post on these cores. I am encouraged by the degree of interest, both in terms of reactions and comments (mostly on LinkedIn), to further develop this project. Trying to gage the level of interest was the primary purpose of the postings. For those who have expressed interest in being involved, eventually, if I can justify the expense, I would like to add a second storage shed for the core that continues to come in and another small structure that can be used to lay the core on tables for examination. Hopefully, this can become a resource, in addition to the Utah Survey facility in Salt Lake, for those conducting research and running field trips through the Book Cliffs and Wasatch Plateau. We’ll see where the adventure takes us. If nothing else, I have something to keep me busy for the next several years.

The Core: Part V – Thanks to the crew I have not been alone in this endeavor and want to give thanks to my moving crew. ...
02/10/2025

The Core: Part V – Thanks to the crew

I have not been alone in this endeavor and want to give thanks to my moving crew. "My" consulting company is actually a family affair, one of the reasons I retired a little early from my university post. Two of my sons are geologists, and we thought it would be fun to work together. My wife, Debby, is a legal partner in the business. Shown in the photos are one of my geologist sons, David (blue shirt), and another son, Jim (white shirt and dark jacket), who is a landscaper, not a geologist, but he does geotech and logistical work for the company. The beautiful woman dealing with scattered core pieces is my wife. She is a master at jigsaw puzzles, including matching broken core segments, a process which will actually come later. She was also involved in every step of the shed construction. The other individual in the upper left photo is Paul Jensen, the Geology and Exploration Manager for the mines operated in this area by Wolverine Fuels. Not shown is Mark Bunnell, longtime head geologist at the SUFCO mine and the first to suggest a possible repository at my property. I am quite grateful to all these people, without whom all this beautiful core would today likely reside at a landfill.

The Core: Part IV - Shed constructionNow that we had it, we needed a place to put it, a process that turned into is own ...
02/07/2025

The Core: Part IV - Shed construction

Now that we had it, we needed a place to put it, a process that turned into is own adventure. The framing was actually done twice. The plan from the beginning was for my wife, Debby, and me to do the construction; however, a person we hired for another project convinced us he was a master shed builder, and we gave the go ahead. Upon his completion of the framing, it took less than ten seconds to realize it had to come down. I won't bore you with the details, but we literally dismantled the structure to the last board and began anew. The structure in these photos was built from bottom up by the two of us. We did hire out the metal siding and roofing, as we needed to be out of town for a geo meeting.

It is now filled wall to wall and floor to ceiling with all the core shown in the previous three posts. It turned out there was much more core to be moved than had been estimated, and new core continues to be brought as it is drilled. We will see where to go from here. At some point, we will need, by necessity, to either cull or add a second shed, but the latter will require significant additional resources. We will have to see how much interest and potential use is generated before deciding how to proceed, which is the primary reason for these posts.

The Core: Part IIIThe final acquisition of core was from the closed Trail Mountain Mine that is in preparation for reope...
02/04/2025

The Core: Part III

The final acquisition of core was from the closed Trail Mountain Mine that is in preparation for reopening as the Fossil Rock Mine, located in the Wasatch Plateau, not far from Joes Valley. In their last attempt to preserve and store core, Wolverine fuels had what remained at the Orangeville facility (see post I) to Fossil Rock. However, the movers, not being geologists and thinking it was just a pile of rock, were not very careful in restacking, as can be seen in the top photos. Additionally, the new locality was hit by a flash flood submerging the core and covering the boxes with a coating of mud. Most of the boxes actually survived well, but some of the older boxes containing the larger diameter core were not wax impregnated and suffered a bit more damage. Still, in the end, all but a very small handful of boxes were salvaged.

This was the largest of the three acquisitions at over 1500 boxes of core. We greatly underestimated the amount and completely filled the new shed (lower photos). However, aside from cuttings, it is now all inside. It is uncertain as to whether or not to preserve the cuttings. My inclination is to not do so. If anyone has other thoughts as to their usefulness, let me know. They typically represent thicknesses, sometimes substantial, above and below the cored intervals.

The Core: Part IIThe second acquisition of core came from the closed Soldier Canyon Mine in the northern Book Cliffs. T...
01/31/2025

The Core: Part II

The second acquisition of core came from the closed Soldier Canyon Mine in the northern Book Cliffs. These were the cores I was most excited to retrieve, as one of the stops for my field course is just outside the mine compound. Also, the local outcrops exhibit extraordinary tidal influence as part of an incised valley fill, including strongly heterolithic bedding, sigmoidal cross bedding, flaser and lenticular bedding, a wide range of ripples and traces, etc., an environment I have not seen in other area cores. Unfortunately, nearly all the Soldier Canyon core (save a couple) is entombed within the old entrance, shown in the upper right photo. Most of the core seen in the lower photo was actually taken from the nearby Dugout Canyon mine and just stored at Soldier Canyon. As I believe the Dugout and Soldier cores came from the same seams (Rock Canyon and Gilson of the Kenilworth Member, Blackhawk Formation), I am still hopeful to catch the tidal influence. The Soldier Canyon mine has subsequently been reclaimed, with the buildings and mine portals being completely erased.

What do you do when the local coal companies are preparing to send around 3,500 boxes of core to the landfill? Come to ...
01/28/2025

What do you do when the local coal companies are preparing to send around 3,500 boxes of core to the landfill? Come to the rescue, of course.

Core from several coal mines in the Wasatch Plateau and northern Book Cliffs of Utah were facing having to discard virtually all of their core samples due to lack of storage space. Being a geologist with a long history in the Book Cliffs and having recently moved to the area (I couldn't take the rocks to me, so I literally moved to the rocks.), I couldn't watch such a tragedy unfold and was able to work out a deal, where they supplied the materials, and my wife and I provided the labor to build a core shed. With a little more help from a couple of my sons, we have completely filled the thing. I thought I would spread over a few posts the process of acquiring, transporting, and storing the cores in their new permanent home. As I finish the inventory, my intent is to make them available to anyone doing research or running field courses through the area. They might as well see some use. Of course, I intend to spend many hours looking them over myself.

Part I:

This core had been stored at a facility near the town of Orangeville, Utah and comes from the SUFCO and Skyline Mines of the Wasatch Plateau. The cores date from 1975 through 2015. The Utah Geological Survey was allowed to take what they desired, and the rest was given to me. This first acquisition consisted of 856 boxes from 82 separate cores, the longest of which is a little over 300' (90 m). We had not yet constructed the "official" core shed, and it is here stored in a very old shed on our property constructed of railroad ties.

01/21/2025

Standing waves in a small channel crossing Carpenteria Beach in California. These are a type of antidune, where the bedform remains stationary as water and sediment continue downstream. That relationship can be seen clearly in this video. They form under supercritical (F > 1) flow conditions, in which erosion and deposition are nearly balanced and at the boundary between sediment transport by traction and suspension. The hydraulic jump between troughs and crests is also readily apparent. (My youngest son's feet for scale.)

Update: It appears the upload darkened the video and decreased the resolution. Flow dynamics are still evident.

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