Earth System History (ESH) in the Urban Landscape—Implementing

Geosystem Resources Management (GRM) in Regions of Rapid Urban Growth

Co-P.I.s:

Marjorie A. Chan, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah

Donald R. Currey, Department of Geography, University of Utah

Short paragraph for the public

The research examined the urban impact on scientifically important natural landscapes.  We developed the concept of a geoantiquity.  A geoantiquity is defined as a natural record of Earth history that documents environmental change on local, regional, and global scales.  Geoantiquities are typically expressed as classic geomorphic landscapes shaped by surficial processes such as erosion and deposition.  The geoantiquity concept is patterned after the model of cultural antiquities and is a type of geoconservation that attempts to balance the impacts of a growing society on the landscape with stewardship of natural heritage.  Although cultural antiquities are preserved by law, the geoantiquity approach calls for conservation through education and thoughtful planning in the absence of laws.

Our research involved developing and implementing scientific criteria and strategies to identify, evaluate, and conserve threatened geologic landscape features.  Our approach included education, community involvement and outreach, and partnerships.  This research is paradigm development to raise societal awareness, and is a critical step in the long-term process of geoconservation.

Longer Technical Summary

               In recent centuries and decades, the Earth system has been transitioning at an accelerating rate from a natural system to an anthropogenic system.  It is in regions of rapid urban growth that natural geologic records of Earth system history (ESH) are vulnerable to destruction, corruption, and burial.  However, it is in those same regions of rapid urban growth that natural archives of ESH are likely to be of greatest societal value for educational, scientific, and practical reasons—including future urban environmental quality and safety.

The purpose of this research was to develop, model, and implement strategies for managing the interactions between Earth system history and the urban landscape.  We developed the concept of a geoantiquity.  A geoantiquity is defined as a natural record of Earth history that documents environmental change on local, regional, and global scales.  Geoantiquities are typically expressed as classic geomorphic landscapes shaped by surficial processes such as erosion and deposition.  The geoantiquity concept is patterned after the model of cultural antiquities (American Antiquities Act of 1906 and the well-established concept of cultural resource management).  The geoantiquity concept is a type of geoconservation that attempts to balance the impacts of a growing society on the landscape with stewardship of our heritage.  Although cultural antiquities are preserved by law, geoconservation relies on community awareness and action.

Our research involved developing and implementing scientific criteria and strategies to identify, evaluate, and conserve threatened geologic landscape features.  Geoantiquities are valued not only for their scientific qualities, but for their educational, historical, and aesthetic aspects, as well.  Geoantiquities share some similarities with parks that are set aside for their aesthetic quality or open space, but geoantiquities are defined and categorized and/or prioritized based on their scientific value and criteria.

Generally, geoantiquities date from late Cenozoic time.  Because of their young age, many of these landscapes consist of loosely consolidated sediments that are easily removed, altered or buried. The case study is an area of rapid urban growth along Utah’s Wasatch Front, where geoantiquities associated with Pleistocene Lake Bonneville are in danger of being removed, covered, and/or altered.  The geoantiquities here are either a part of the urban landscape or are in close proximity to urban areas.

Education is a critical component of geoconservation.  Preservation of geoantiquities is dependent on the values that are recognized only through awareness and understanding.  Our approach included education with teacher workshops and students, community involvement and outreach, hands-on classroom demonstration kits, and partnerships with several organizations and entities.   Through these efforts, individuals learned what geoantiquities are, how to recognize them, and their societal and scientific value.

               This research developed concepts and tools for planners and educators that are applicable to any spatial domain where the urban environment intersects the natural environment.  The case study region provided a valuable model that was enthusiastically received by the public community as well as the scientific community.  Although change through any laws is a long way off, this study introduced a paradigm that will help raise societal awareness, and is a critical step in the long-term process of geoconservation.  We consider this project and research to have been very successful.  It has been effective in raising awareness in academic circles and communities, and has had very real consequences in planning decisions in Utah (e.g., denial of sand and gravel permitting at the Stockton Bar, Utah).  We expect that the impact of this research is still yet to be realized in both Earth science education and conservation planning throughout the United States.

               Some radiometric dating was also performed on this grant, and results of those dates help constrain the Lake Bonneville hydrograph, and will be published in relevant articles.

To date, the project has supported 2 Ph.D. students as research assistants (H. Godsey and A. Bennett), 1 partial Ph.D. student (J. Chen) and produced 6 publications plus 4 additional papers in preparation or in review, 12 professional meeting abstracts, 7 other related research items, and a web page.

PUBLICATIONS

Dion, A., and Currey, D. R., in prep, Significant Geological and Geomorphological Sites of Northwest Utah: A GIS-based Inventory and Evaluation: to be submitted/published by the Utah Geological Survey.

Godsey, H.S., Currey, D.R., Felton, A.K. and Chan, M.A., in prep., A high resolution record of Late Pleistocene Provo shoreline development from Lake Bonneville, Utah, to be submitted to Earth Surface Processes and Landforms.

Dion, A., in review (submitted 4/04), Geoconservation: Concepts and Tools for Identifying and Protecting Earth Science Features: Regional Environmental Change.

Godsey, H.S., Currey, D. R. and Chan, M.A., 2004 (submitted 6/04) New evidence for a late Pleistocene pluvial event and links to global climate trends, Lake Bonneville, Utah: Quaternary Research.

Chan, M.A., and Godsey, H.S., 2004 in press,  Geoantiquities: Concepts and applications for education in the urban landscape:  Journal of Geological Education.

Atwood, G., Felton, A., and Chan, M.A., 2004 accepted with revisions, Teacher workshop using geoantiquities: Case history of modern Great Salt Lake and Pleistocene Lake Bonneville shorelines, Utah:  Journal of Geological Education.

Chan, M.A., Currey, D.R., Dion, A.N., and Godsey, H.S., 2003a, Geoantiquities and geoconservation: Geotimes v. 48 n. 6, p. 14-17.

Chan, M.A., Currey, D.R., Dion, A.N. and Godsey, H.S., 2003b, Geoantiquities in the urban landscape: Earth history records in the cities (Chapter 2), In: Heiken, G. Fakundiny, R., and Sutter, J., editors, Earth Science in the City: A Reader: American Geophysical Union monograph, p. 21-42.

Chan, M. A., and Currey, D. R., 2001 , Geoantiquities: Earth History in the Urban Landscape: Utah Geological Survey Notes, v. 33, n. 1, p. 8.

Godsey Bennett, H.S., Chan, M.A., Currey, D.R., and G. Atwood, 2001, The Stockton Bar, A Geologic Treasure in Tooele County. Utah Geological Survey Notes, v. 33, n. 2, p. 11.       

ABSTRACTS

Dion, A., 2003,  International Geoconservation: Concepts and Tools for Identifying and Protecting Earth Science Features in the U.S. (abstr.):  Association of American Geographers annual meeting,  New Orleans, LA.

Dion, A., 2002, Geoantiquities in the Urban Landscape: Earth History Records in the Cities (abstr.):  International Geographical Union bi-annual meeting,  Durban, South Africa.

Dion, A., 2002, Geoantiquities in the Urban Landscape: Developing Concepts and Methods for Geoconservation in the Wasatch Front (abstr.):  Association of American Geographers annual meeting,  Los Angeles, CA.

Godsey, H.S., Currey, D.R., Felton, A.K. and M.A. Chan, 2002, Refining the record of Pleistocene lake level change, Lake Bonneville, Utah;  Evidence of climate-driven oscillations from the Provo shorezone (abstr.):  Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.

Chan, M. A., Atwood, G. A., Currey, D., 2002,  Geoantiquities: opportunities for urban geoscience education (abstr.):  Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.

Felton, A.K., Godsey, H.S., Jewell, P., Chan, M.A. and D.R. Currey, 2002,  Depositional models for tufa development in Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Utah (abstr.):  Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Denver, CO.

Godsey, H.S., 2002, A record of changing climate conditions during the late Pleistocene from shoreline studies in the Bonneville basin, Utah (abstr.):  28th Great Basin Anthropological Conference, Elko, NV.

Godsey, H.S., Currey, D.R., and Chan, M.A., 2001,  A high resolution record of the late Pleistocene Provo shoreline from Lake Bonneville, Western Utah (abstr.):  Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.

Currey, D., Lips, E., Thein, B., Wambeam, T., and Nishazawa, S., 2001, Elevated younger dryas lake levels in the Great Basin, Western USA (abstr.):  Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Boston, MA., Paper 91-0.

Chan, M. A., Currey, D., Godsey-Bennett, H., and Dion, A., 2000, Geoantiquities in the urban landscape: Earth history records in the cities (abstr.): American Geophysical Union Spring Meeting, Washington DC.

Currey, D., Chan, M., and Atwood, G., 2000, Geoantiquities- landscape records in the urban environment (abstr.): Utah Wetlands and Riparian Center 3^rd annual conference, Theme on Great Salt Lake- Achieving a sustainable future.

Currey, D., Chan, M., Jewell, P., Lips, E., and Metcalfe, D., 2000, Rise and Fall of Lake Bonneville (abstr.):   Utah Wetlands and Riparian Center 3^rd annual conference, Theme on Great Salt Lake- Achieving a sustainable future.

Currey, D., Chan, M., and Jewell, P., 2000, Late Quaternary deposits: multi-use resources in regions of rapid urban growth (abstr.):   Society of Mining Engineers, Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, p. 44.

Jewell, P.,  Chan, M., and Currey, D., 1999, Hydrodynamic interpretation of geologic resources in the Late Pleistocene Lake Bonneville basin, Utah (abstr.): Association of Engineering Geologists, Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT.

Chan, M. A. and Currey, D., 1999, Geoantiquities- Natural landscape records of Earth history: Losing the battle with urbanization? (abstr): Symposium K02 Human Transformation of the Physical Landscape, 1999 Geological Society of America Annual meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, p. A 479.

Currey, D.,1999, Geology, geography, and geomorphology of the Bonneville Basin and Wasatch Front (abstr.): U.S. Dept. Interior, Fish & Wildlife Service Workshop Aug 23, 1999, Salt Lake City, UT.

Jewell, P.,  Chan, M., and Currey, D., 1999, Paleowind analysis of continental lacustrine settings: The example of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville (abstr): American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA,  p. 501-2.

Jewell, P. W., 1999, New insights into Pleistocene Lake Bonneville: Paleoclimate modeling and geoantiquity archives (abstr.): Utah Geological Association (invited talk).

OTHER RESEARCH RELATED ITEMS

Ice Age Teaching Kit, Utah Geological Survey, 2004,  Kit includes a teaching manual, Powerpoint presentation, slide set, activities, fossils and a relief map of Utah during the last Ice Age.

Godsey, H.S.  and M.A. Chan, 2001, Geoantiquities:  Natural records of Earth history at risk in the urban environment.  Friends of Great Salt Lake, v. 7, n. 2., p. 6.

Chan, M. A., and Currey, D. R., 2000, Geoantiquities: Earth History in the Urban Landscape: Friends of Great Salt Lake Newsletter, Salt Lake City, Utah, v. 6, n. 4, p. 8.

Atwood, G.A., and Godsey, H., 2001, Antelope Island Teachers Workshop (2001).  Field trip guide, map and handouts for teacher workshop on Utah's geologic history.

28^th Great Basin anthropological conference, Oct. 9-12, 2002, Elko, NV, Symposium 1- Reconstruction of lake histories in the Great Basin since the Last Glacial maximum, E. Lips, H. Godsey, B. Thein, P. Ainsworth, R. Quist, Molly Hanson, S. Nishazawa, D. Currey, and R. Elston. 

Stockton Bar brochure and postcard,  2001,(for Tooele County, Utah residents and town meetings).

Chan, M., Currey, D., Godsey-Bennett, H., and Dion, A., 2000, Geoantiquities in the urban landscape: Earth history records in the cities, Earth Sciences in the Cities', Digital Library,  Columbia U. Press's online resource (digital library), 'Earthscape'  www.earthscape.org or www.columbia.edu/cu/cup.

Currey, D., 1999, Geomorphology- reading local records of global change, Utah Museum of Natural History- Great Basin Field Trip, Aug. 21, 1999, Salt Lake City, UT. Field trip leader - D. Currey.

Feature in May 23, 2000, EOS-American Geophysical Union, 'Special Sessions Examine Earth Science in the Cities' by Randy Showstack, v. 81, no. 21, p. 235.

News Features: Dec. 16, 1999, Salt Lake Tribune newspaper, 'Blast from the Past;  Lake Bonneville Sediments ' by Lee Siegel, p. D-1 & D-8.  May 18, 1998  Salt Lake Tribune newspaper, "Bonneville shoreline disappearing, giving way to new homes" by Bob Mims, p. D3.  Associated Press story also  carried by Standard Examiner (Ogden, UT)  May 17, 1998 "Urban sprawl threatens history", Spectrum (St. George, UT) May 17, 1998 "Urban sprawl imperils Bonneville shoreline", and Logan Herald Journal  (Logan, UT) May 17, 1998 "Lost horizon: Development endangers Lake Bonneville shoreline".

Web page: http://www.geog.utah.edu/geoantiquities/

COURSE COMPONENTS/WORKSHOPS

Atwood, G., 2001, Geoantiquities: evidence of climate change in Tooele County, Utah, teacher inservice through Tooele School District.

Godsey, H., 2001, Antelope Island Teachers Workshop. Field trip guide, map and handouts for teacher workshop on Utah's geologic history.

Atwood, G., 2001-present, Antelope Island: evidence of global and local climate change, teacher inservice through Jordan and Granite School Districts.

Atwood, G., 2002, Geoantiquities: conflicts of resource extraction and scientific information; unit of Geog3330: Urban Environmental Geography, University of Utah.