Utah, USA Craters - Is there anywhere that does not have craters? I don't know. I follow the forensic evidence and that includes large area impacts that can blast a signature over multi state or country areas. Take a look at this specimen from Southern Utah.
Specimen above is from Southern Utah. It was collected by Andera Steffany Johnson. Hypervelocity thin plane offset phenomena. Very thin, very fast.
Impact minerals - The impact blast refines minerals and can send them at high velocities into the crater walls or in the central uplift. Just because you are finding them inside a mountain (crater wall) it does not mean they came up out of the earth's interior. Also strata is not what it seems. Impact greatly changes strata. For that matter the earth being formed by impact accretion means a large earth forming impact could make a mountain looking strata as a projection of part of it's crater.
Now, a new study reveals that the moqui marbles are no more than 25 million years old — a sharp contrast to the 190-million-year-old Navajo Sandstone. Marbles scattered on sandstone slopes in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument are only 2 million to 5 million years old. And on Arizona's Paria Plateau, the marbles' iron oxide rind is as young as 300,000 years old, researchers report in the September 2014 issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin. This means they were produced by different impacts.
Moqui (pronounced "Mo-Key") Marbles consist of a sandstone center covered by a shell of hematite, an iron ore. They can be as small as an toy marble, or as large as eight inches in diameter. The majority of Moqui Marbles come from Utah’s Navajo Sandstone Formation (now part of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument), and in Zion National Park.
Shock resonant harmonic separation - The impact meteor bolide contained iron. It hit sand. This sent a shock particle storm into the blast area where the plasma like matter condensed like hailstones. The shock wave contains frequencies which harmonically separate by resonance the matter by density.
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The Trinity Atomic Weapon Test also made these spheres. They are called Impact Spheroids. Is even small Impact Spheroids in the ash layer around the world form the Chicxulub Impact.
Impact Blast Chaos - The meteor contained iron which is blasted out in a melt state and often not a uniform sphere.
You can see my encyclopedia of Impact Spheroids at:
​https://www.hillbillyu.com/round-impactite
Meteor blast minerals do not have to be round. The can be ribbon like as imbedded in a wall like other minerals blasted out into crater walls or surrounding hills or mountains. You can even have crater mineral overlap from side by side impacts.
Aerial photo of Paria Wilderness in Utah, USA.
Some 190 million years ago, at the turn of the Triassic and Jurassic periods, the Paria Wilderness was a sandy desert devoid of vegetation, very similar to the Sahara today. Vast dunes accumulated and turned into stone over the course of the earth’s history. The weathering today has laid open their inner structure and crossbedding.
The above is the kind of stuff you read in geology. So first let me introduce "energy stratigraphy." The lowest level of energy strata is gravity accumulation and compounding. Well that is clearly not what we have here. We have a frozen moment i.e. shock made instant rock.
Fractal Coning not crossbedding. The idea that somehow a tectonic force pushes up a pressure made strata with crush features is the idea of crossbedding. Fractals are a fast formed energy signature as is coning structures. This shifting harmonic is striated a particular level of energy like striated shattercones. The cross hatching is another harmonic caught in a freeze frame, it came after the fractal coning a progressive event that would not have a tectonic squeeze explanation. As impact is a shock chaos explosion and landscapes and bolides are not usually uniform you have a progressive shock event. This location has a pulverized mineral content indicating that the bolide was blast reduced and mixed into the surface crater build. The carbon living material was pressure reduced into oil which was found in the crater wall. Also an instant process. (From USGS Mineral Resources of the Paria-Hackberry Wilderness Study Area, Kane County, Utah By HENRY BELL III, ALFRED L BUSH, ROBERT L TURNER, and JOHN W. CADY U.S. Geological Survey S. DON BROWN, BRIAN J. HANNIGAN, and JOHN R. THOMPSON U.S. Bureau of Mines)
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Up splash fractal coning - This is a large earth impact shatter cone structure. The fractal forms build to a coning as the two harmonics are related like music notes making a cord.
Whatawonderfulworld - Photography
Sept. 14, 2022
" Factory Butte in Central Utah / U.S. "
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Factory Butte in Utah is an alien formation in the middle of the remote desert that looks like another planet. The eerie and desolate landscape creates an otherworldly vibe, and it isn't hard to imagine you landed there on a spaceship.
(by Artist Matt Galland)
Rare type impactite from the Central Utah "Big Blast" Crater. This specimen could pass for a meteorite if not for the resonant inclusion which can only come from a big impact. Fractal tube melt flow and rivulet melt into crevasses. Also on top you can see the whiter milky quartz inclusions. This is another type of resonant separation. A silica iron type 2 impactite.
Hailey Hedger of Spanish Fork, Utah, Dec. 6, 2022.
Westwater canyon Utah and the great unconformities. Is the central Utah impact responsible for removing a billion years of strata as far out as Westwater canyon? A likely suspect, it is an old big crater and this picture looks like an edge effect of a big impact. Photo by Adam Hiscock.
Of the many unconformities (gaps) observed in geological strata, the term Great Unconformity is frequently applied to either the unconformity observed by James Hutton in 1787 at Siccar Point in Scotland,[1][failed verification] or that observed by John Wesley Powell in the Grand Canyon in 1869.[2] Both instances are exceptional examples of where the contacts between sedimentary strata and either sedimentary or crystalline strata of greatly different ages, origins, and structure represent periods of geologic time sufficiently long to raise great mountains and then erode them away.
Basically those guys were clueless although they should not have been since they could study ballistics and cannon impacts. Local unconformities are smaller impacts but the multi state type are big and of course early.
Grand Canyon Supergroup Impact.
So what is going on here? The big impact which caused the lowest unconformity is also a type 2 subduction crater and pushed up the Rocky Mountains. Smaller one would cause a multi state unconformity. Same thing on the east coast a large New Madrid fault centered very large impact unconformity pushing up the lower Smoky Mt and the smaller Howell, TN unconformity later.
Magnetic & Gravity map of Utah. You can even see the smaller impacts which I did not circle.
Eugene Shoemaker considered Upheaval Dome to be the best preserved impact crater on the Earth.
Plasma hole burns with melt sagging. Feb. 18, 2024
Utah Geological Survey
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What are igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks and their associated rock types? A rock is a rock, right? Not to geologists. In this Glad You Asked article, we explore these three rock types and where you can find them in Utah.
Frozen Explosion, Southern Utah. Shane Tapp photo (edited). How much like the Hubble/Webb images of the universe an impactite is. Both are frozen pictures of an explosion. Feb. 18, 2024.
Impactite expansion and bubble tube flow. Corey Lindner photo. Feb. 18, 2024.
Crater wall feature, SE Utah Crater. June 4, 2024.
Mike Girsback
Aerial View of Porcupine Rim, Castle Valley and La Sal Mountains, Utah
The Canyonlands Crater of SE Utah. While you can see some of my earlier attempts at crater mapping Utah, this is a more mature effort after many years of this work and experience. I started dating the updates a year or so ago. Here you can see the upheaval of the Cambrian strata shown in red making the crater outline. It indicates that the impacting meteor/bolide came from the NW. June 4, 2024.
Living in TN and Alabama, I have green craters. I often will come up over a rize to see a curved wall in the distance i.e. a crater wall but it will be green. In Utah you have the Moon/Mars look to craters. If the wall is curing towards you it means yo are inside the crater. The arcs provide some idea of crater size. You can see a circular feature in the foreground. Is this the crater center? June 4, 2024.
Utah's Canyon Country
April 26 ·
Looking for solitude? Check out Needles Overlook in the Canyon Rims Recreation Area for a unique, crowd-free view of Canyonlands National Park. Visit our website for more information. http://tiny.cc/169avz
@renatinha_pedrita
Plasma bubble hole pass through. Sept. 4, 2024.
Photo by Stan Birdwell at Canyonlands National Park, Moab Utah.
Impact expansion zones with coning. This is part of the up splash. The plasma shape forms are just that. The fine clay is pulverized in the impact. This is part of a large crater. Sept. 8, 2024.
Stan Birdwell photography, Goblin Valley State Park, Utah.
The crater as shown on the gravity map. As you can see we have multiple craters overlapping. The dark blue gravity negatives show crater centers. The two craters circled are the latest craters but NW is an older big crater not circled shown by arrow. Sept. 8, 2024.
On a topo map of Goblin Valley you can see the nature of the up thrust. Sept. 8, 2024.
Impact ash made cliffs. In this picture you can see two types of impact nano pulverized material. The ash cliffs are a pressure made shale from calcium bentonite a once limestone material heat and pressure formed in the impact into the cliffs. The foreground hoodoos were nano red clay heat and pressure formed into the plasma blob shapes. Sept. 8, 2024.
Brète Thomas · ·
Goblin Valley. It looks to me like the hoodoos are waiting for a concert. — in Goblin Valley State Park.
Coning points and the plasma blob. Geology does not understand coning. It is a harmonic triangle wave form. The points like fractals have the direction of the energy at the base like a fractal originates from the truck. Sept. 8, 2024.
Nano Haven
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Goblin Valley, Utah (
Impact expansion harmonics. The almost vertical narrow coning and the horizontal layers are an overlapping of the impact harmonic shock wave imprinting the horizontal banding. Sept. 8, 2024.
Amazing Vibe
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Beautiful Hoodoos in Goblin Valley State Park, Utah, United States.
Blast made crevassing with plasma bubble cavitation. Sept. 8, 2024.
Goblin Valley State Park
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Little Wildhorse Canyon
Coning progression in the distant mountain. Sept 8, 2024. Stan Birdwell photography.
Coning to triangle points in the impact up thrust. Sept. 8, 2024.
Impact Geniss. Similar to an impact agate the banding is shock wave imprinting. The rock was very hot and liquid at time of formation, it is a nodule. Impactites can easily fly right out of the crater as the up splash has more velocity than even the impact speed. This is caused by focused resistance, similar to shaped charges in explosive ordinance. Contains a fiber crystal. Fiber crystals are exclusive to volcanic and impact origin. You can see the fiber crystal in the magnification attached. Sept. 14, 2024.
Christi Cook · ·
My son found this yesterday while we were wondering the Wasatch Back.
He's not sure if he wants to break it open or not
The Devils Slide, Utah. This is a parallel up splash from a large impact. Sept. 14, 2024.
The Devils Slide
The Devil's Slide on Interstate 84 in Utah
Impactite, was too hot to stay together, that is a mosaic type splitting. The lower section is also delaminating due to the heat. The iron is from the impacting bolide. The overall shape is a teardrop which is an impact sphere but elongated in the high velocity of ejection from the crater explosion. Sept. 14, 2024.
Jonathan Lowe · ·
Any theories? Found in northeast Utah.
Shane B Sulser
Looking for some help to identify this. It was found south of Cisco, Utah, on a bench below a bluff. There were numerous pieces like it everywhere on the bench. Thanks ahead of time.
Pseudomorph after barite.
Impact nodule/sphere, the impacting meteor/bolide contained barite and this is the state of crystallization under the impact heat and pressure conditions as well as cooling time. Jan. 18, 2025.
Many impact hit into a sand or sea resulting in a geology of sand and iron. This is that type of crater wall or part of the structure. Jan. 18, 2025.
Myron Anderson photo, Utah.
Interesting impactite. First we have an outer botryoidal bubbling in quartz which would be about 5, 000 degrees F. The lateral striation is a reflection of the shock energy. It has a top arrow filament/Wisker a rare type of fiber crystal. Lower arrow shows tiny impact spheres. Jan. 18, 2025.
Cherri Clancy
What could this be? Found in Utah close to Hanksville.
Cojoined impact spheres. Type 2 impactite (both meteor and landing surface material). Why radioactive? Some meteor/bolides are radioactive. Why crystals? Sometimes you will have a sand surface attach, i.e. drusy. Magnetism? Impact shock explosions orient electron polarity randomly the black is black iron oxide like bluing a gun surface but of relatively low content. Why cojoined spheres and not botryoidal? Botryoidal is bubbling, cojoined is drops too close melted together. Rare or valuable? Yes, radioactive cojoined impact spheres are rare but impactites are so poorly understood the market is unaware of their significance. Feb. 4, 2025.
Utah Rockhounding Community
Can anyone tell me what the is for sure? This was found in the San Rafael. It does fizz. Streak is a very light brown. Hardness is probably about a five, pocket knife scratches it. Might be very slightly magnetic I have wondered about botroyoidal hematite but someone whose father was a geologist disagrees and thinks it’s Danite
Melt flow coning into bricking mosaic. Feb. 20, 2025.
Old Memories
The intricate dance of erosion and time: Comb Ridge, Utah,
Large impact big with direction. All that erosion stuff is just not explanatory. Why would the erosion reveal melt flow coning? Erosion BTW is the oldest of the geology theories it predates raft tectonics. Feb. 20, 2025.
Sandstone impactite rare. Well first of all the disk are much rarer than the spheres which are simple drops. Shock resonance is separating the iron around the center. Shock like your microwave oven cooks from the inside out thus the iron is resonating at a different frequency hence separated. Directional features fractal bubbling botryoidal indicates has a velocity component. The cracks of course are from cooling rate but like ceramics cracks will happen. I hope you don't mind if I use your pictures as this example is one in a billion. Feb. 23, 2025.
Betty-Ann Naeger Curtis
What is this unusual rock? Any thoughts? Found in Utah.
Impact bricking type 1 the crossing grid pattern. Not perfect squares is due to the angle of impact of these shockwaves produced splatters. These are sometimes produced with iron from the meteor called boxwork. Mudcrack theory - Mudcracks will produce fractals which when overlapping make Septarian patterns, It is a mosaic type physics. Magnification study attached. In the magnification you can see yet another crossing wave pattern diagonal to the square which is a triangle to fractal triangle wave pattern. It was breaking up and changed from the pure triangle to the fractal as it lost energy. It is a rare example of this. Wave energy changes form as it gains or loses power, it is another of the quanta effects which I identified first using impact geology specimens (I ordered myself a Nobel Prize button on Amazon). March 19, 2025.
Any ideas on this rock? A friend found it years ago in a creek bottom East of Heber. It is pretty porous and light. First thought was maybe worm trails, but the lines seem really symmetrical.
The Herber Area Craters. March 19, 2025.
High heat bubbling and banding mosaic. March 31, 2025.
Cole Sorensen​
Found this on the side of a rock face near Ophir, Utah anyone know what it might be?
Impactite nodule oblate sphere, harmonic resonance banding, surface pitting from impact explosion storm. The darker area contains nano iron from the impacting meteor/bolide. Kinetic explosions are chaotic therefore the second overlapping stain i.e. a dual harmonic one strong one weaker. This is the same process that makes "shock agates." Based on Mars the average U.S. state has around 2,000 surface craters of a mile diameter or greater. June 7, 2025.
Jeremy Smith
This rock almost certainly came out of the ground when they were digging the foundation to our home in Northern Utah. It was part of a rudimentary retaining wall around a basement door that collapsed. There were a number of similar rocks in the 'wall' and this rock broke in half when it collapsed. I have seen a lot of cool rocks and crystals, but can someone explain the process of this to me? I imagine it is sedimentary, but the distinct contrast interests me. I wonder about historical timeline that must have existed to create this rock. We live on the bench in what would have been the old Lake Bonneville Shoreline at one point. I just think that it is a really cool rock inside of an otherwise non-distinct boulder. Sandstone layered over another type of rock? Granite? I figured if anyone else might find this interesting it would be you guys. If this doesn't work out maybe I'll take it over to the Dull Men's Club.
Shock made crypto crystalline flint. The swirls in the lower specimen are from shock melting. The voids/vugs/vesicles in the upper specimen are a rapid expansion plasma effect. The trace of iron remaining is the relic of iron plasma. June 17, 2025.
Does anybody know what these are I think they're different but I'm not sure , Hannah area of Utah. Jessica Sandy Dyer
Impact spheres both circular and oblate. Unconsolidated lapilli. Sudbury lapilli shown below for reference. 1 August 2025.
Beau Walker
What types of rocks are these? Found in Central Utah.
Sudbury lapilli. Ejecta from the Sudbury impact event, Ontario, Canada
Impact sphere and catcher. First let me discuss the catcher. It shows the granular particle construction. These grains are a common particle pulverized in impact and sorted by distance. Some of the grains are high in iron content. Surface thin iron films are an iron plasma fallout that welds to surface. The sphere is iron from the impacting meteor which was likely a mile or two in diameter. These spheres are melt drops from the impact explosion. Impact meets the criteria for the law of parsimony (Occam's Razor) as it simply explains all phenomena associated with your specimen. Now let me describe the sedimentary theory of iron concretions. It posits that this ball formed by precipitation of iron from solution. If you study natural pearls, they are never perfectly round which invalidates this theory. If you study iron precipitation it makes nano size particles and again would not build up a perfect circle. As with sinks and plumbing getting iron stains, they do not make large clumps just thin coatings. Sedimentary precipitation theory begs the question where did the iron come from in the first place? Even the assumption of a basin sea begs the question why you have a basin. Impact explains all these things with one event. All those presupposing's of sedimentary events decreases the probably of being correct geometrically with every supposed event. Attached are the three craters of your area as shown on the magnetic anomaly map. The SW crater is very old and hit by the latter two. 2 August 2025.
Utah Rockhounds
Totally bizarre, found in the backyard here in Iron County. First thought was Moqui marble but seems heavier.
Iron County, Utah
Topo craters as seen by satellite for Iron County, Utah. The magnetic map is more like an x-ray whereas topo is the surface of the disturbance features. Circular terrain is not raft tectonics as it is not possible to push on a sphere and make anything other than a simple curvilinear line proportional to the earth's spherical shape. No small circular features can be produced this way. Broken earth crust and volcanoes are a secondary product of impact. 2 Sept. 2025.
Cojoined impact sphere with backsplash effects. Similar to impact cratering there will be a backsplash when impalement like this occurs in an impact explosion storm. 7 Sept. 2025.
Utah Rockhounds
Found this in tropic, Utah up a dry river bed. Anybody know what it is? Super heavy