Utah Valley Geology
The meeting will be held in one of the most geologically diverse sites in America: Utah Valley.
Utah Valley is the easternmost basin of the Basin and Range, and is just a few miles from the
physiographic “triple junction”
between the Basin and Range, Rocky Mountain, and Colorado Plateau provinces. The convention center is
two
miles from the base of the actively growing, fault-bounded Wasatch Range. Bedrock in the Wasatch Range
includes Precambrian tillites, Mississippian marine sediments, and Tertiary intrusives and ore bodies.
The
range contains structures associated with the Sevier and Laramide orogenies.
Quaternary geology in and near Utah Valley includes shoreline features associated with Pleistocene Lake
Bonneville (e.g., wave-cut platforms, shoreline spits, Gilbert deltas) and alpine glacial morphologic
features (e.g., cirques, aretes, and moraines). There are well-preserved scarps of the late Holocene
Wasatch
fault, complete with slickensided limestone, and active creeping landslides along the base of the
Wasatch
Range.
Venue
The meeting location is the Utah Valley Convention Center, which was significantly upgraded in 2018. The
Provo Marriott Hotel is just across the street. Field trips will depart from the parking lot on the
northwest side of the convention center.
Transportation
The Utah Valley Convention Center is just east of I-15, 50 miles south of Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake
International Airport.
For those flying in who prefer to not rent a car, the site
is accessible from the
airport by a combination of two trains and one bus (704 train line to the 750 train line to the UVX
bus—check rideuta.com for schedules. UVX may not run on Sundays). For those staying at the Provo Marriott,
parking at the hotel is free. There is also free parking at the Utah Valley Convention Center (41 spaces)
and at a lot two blocks north of the convention center on Freedom Blvd. (400 spaces).
Eating and Drinking
There are more than 50 restaurants within seven blocks of the convention center, ten of which serve wine and
beer (see online map of downtown Provo dining guide).
These include delis and burger joints as
well as restaurants that focus on fine American dining and food from Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Thailand,
Vietnam, China, and Japan. Seven miles from downtown Provo is Strap Tank Brewery, Utah Valley’s only
brew
pub.
Weather
In early May, average daily high and low temperatures in Provo are 70°F (21°C) and 44°F (7°C).
On average,
there is rain in Provo about one out of every five days in May, and the city receives an average of 1.7
inches (44 mm) for the whole month. There is typically still snow in the high mountains near Provo in
early
May. Storms dropping a few inches (several centimeters) of snow in Provo and up to about a foot in the
mountains are not uncommon that time of year. Visitors are encouraged to check forecasts ahead of time
and
prepare for dealing with snow if cold storms are forecast of if they plan to go to the mountains.