The Elk Ridge plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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75° on Nov. 16, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1914. Next is 73° in 2016.
Elk Ridge’s center stands about 5,370 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,580 ft to 8,850 ft, a difference of 4,270 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Nebo, about 11,840 ft, 14 miles south-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Alluvial materials, Axtell and Harkers Formations (unconsolidated), from the Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 million years old.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 3×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Clay. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Early Mississippian to Late Mississippian, 324 to 359 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous to Permian, 273 to 324 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, limestone. Age: Permian, 273 to 299 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 1 smaller unit along the line are not listed.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Elk Ridge reaches Great Salt Lake by way of Spring Creek, Benjamin Slough and the Jordan: about 90 river miles. Great Salt Lake has no outlet to the sea: the water leaves only by evaporating or soaking into the ground.
Lake on the way: Utah Lake.
50 miles of the trip are on the Jordan.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Elk Ridge; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Elk Ridge has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 20° in January. A normal year brings about 55 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 18 inches of water.
On November 14 Elk Ridge normally reaches 49° and falls to 29°. The record high is 72°, in 1967; the record low 1°, in 1916. The most rain on this date, 1.97 in, fell in 1955.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1914 at Santaquin Chlorinator, 6 miles southwest, 210 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
