How did the Wasatch Range rise?

"The faults at the boundaries are active," he added. These include the Wasatch Fault and related faults in southern Utah, and a group of faults at the eastern edge of the Sierra, called the Sierra Nevada Fault.

"So this explanation for the Sierra might be looked to as providing some insight for the north-south spine of Utah," Jones added. That "spine" is the Wasatch Front.

Just possibly, he said, a process similar to the Sierras' formation went on in Utah. This could be "something maybe a little different in origin, but reflecting the same physics of dense material falling away from the base of the crust."

Scientific research is needed to comprehend the forces that dominate earth plate motions in Utah. It could be a project like that carried out with the Sierra Nevadas, he said.

A mobile network of seismograph stations set up by the EarthScope program might provide some answers, he said. The project, funded by the National Science Foundation and operated in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey, uses seismic detectors, GPS readings and an observatory in the San Andreas Fault to track motion of Earth's crust.

(To learn about EarthScope, check the project's Internet site, www.earthscope.org)

"There is a window where more detailed study of the east side of the Great Basin will be possible," Jones wrote.

"Will this happen? We'll have to see — the EarthScope science program is still shaking itself out; to date, it is underfunded to fully utilize all the data that the equipment will generate."

Still, Jones added, "the chances of unraveling all this are better now than in a long time."

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com