The US Geological Survey will be performing a study inside JHMR with will involve digging a trench 10 feet deep and 150 feet long along the Lower Faces.
This is a study to learn more about the Fault which created the Tetons.
This study should be done by the end of the month.
Does anyone know when the last earthquake happened there?
Hi, Tricia.
Thanks for bringing this up. They did indeed dig a big trench on the Lower Faces inside the ski resort boundaries, about 400-500 vertical feet above the valley floor. They are studying the Teton Scarp, which is the visible evidence of the fault itself. I found this really cool description of the entire trench project:
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/teton-paleo/
Lots of photos and information about what they were doing and what they were hoping to find.
While it's not outwardly visible at the ski resort, the Teton Scarp is visible in several spots further north in Grand Teton National Park, right where the gently-sloping valley floor starts to rise much more steeply into the Teton Mountains. The most visible part of the Scarp is on the hillside just above String Lake and below Rockchuck Peak. It's the slightly diagonal line moving slightly diagonally downward from the lower left center in this University of Utah photo to the lower right - interrupted by the gully with a little bit of remnant snow.
And coincidentally, here's a photo of Pepi Stiegler booting up toward Rochchuck Peak with the upper portion of the Scarp visible over the tops of his skis - with String Lake below. This was May of 2009:
And then me skiing right at the top of the Scarp about an hour later (photo by Pepi):
It's a really curious coincidence that you brought up the Scarp, Tricia. I had just added that photo of me skiing on the Scarp as my Pugski avatar yesterday and then I saw your post this morning.
Cool.