LOGAN CANYON, Utah — Two sinkholes in Logan Canyon are a unique natural wonder and a reminder of the power and beauty of nature.
Winter in Logan Canyon displays striking landscapes and geological formations.
But with that beauty comes extreme temperatures, and two geological formations at the northeast end of the canyon often record the lowest temperatures in the United States.
They are known as the Middle Sink and Peter Sinks, which are about two miles apart and usually only a few degrees apart in temperature.
WATCH: Man reflects on recording all-time Utah low temperature in 1985
To understand the extreme temperatures, Utah State University professors Timothy Wright and Matthew LaPlante braved the cold with thermometers in hand this week.
They set out to get the answers of just how cold it can get in these sinks.
"Some people say once it's below zero it's all the same — it's not the same. With each step, you're feeling it a little bit different," Wright said.
The low temperatures in the sinks are due to a combination of factors, including the bowl shape of the sink and the surrounding landscape, which allows dense, cold air to float down to the bottom of the bowl like water.
A fresh snowstorm moves through and deposits snow, and an Arctic air mass moves in, cooling the air next to it.
"When we have the long wave thermal radiation, it cools the air next to it. That really is the icing on the cake of why it's so cold," Wright said.
At the bottom of the bowl, the researchers take a reading using hand-held thermometers, which showed a temperature of around negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
They also used a highly accurate electronic thermometer, which, even though it had trouble with the air so cold, recorded a final low temperature of -40° — not quite as cold as the previous morning, but still impressively cold.
Wright has been exploring and studying the sinks for more than 20 years, and he finds a sense of peace in the extreme cold.
"It's just, like, absolute peace in a way because it's such a dangerous cold. You go about your daily lives with the noise of life and then you come out here, it is just absolute peace and calm," he said.
LaPlante, a journalism professor and climate science graduate student, is experiencing the sinks for the first time. He was always fascinated with things that existed on the extremes, even before he started on his path to becoming a climate researcher.
“For me, not only being able to study that but experience it was a real joy today," he said.
Through the efforts of Professor Wright and Professor LaPlante, we can better understand the science behind the extreme temperatures in the sinks and appreciate the peace and calm that comes with experiencing nature at its purest.
Wright said he will probably never stop researching this unique geological feature.
“Here I am doing it 20-some-odd years later and still doing it. I think as long as I am still active, then yeah, I will still keep coming," he said.
