Gravity survey of the Escalante Desert and vicinity, in Iron and Washington Counties, Utah

During the summers of 1978 and 1979, a total of 436 new gravity stations were taken in the southern part of the Escalante Desert and vicinity in Iron and Washington counties, Utah. The new stations were combined with 917 other stations taken in previous surveys, and a total of 1353 stations were used in this study, covering an area of about 2700 mi/sup 2/ (7000 km/sup 2/). The purpose of the study was to help evaluate the potential of geothermal resources within the survey area, which includes the Newcastle and Lund KGRA's. All the gravity data were terrain corrected out to a radial distance of 166.7 km from each station, using a computer terrain-correction program. The data were compiled and presented as a complete Bouguer gravity anomaly map with a 2-mgal contour interval. A geologic interpretation of the gravity data was made qualitatively from the gravity map and also quantitatively from four easterly trending gravity profiles taken across the area.