Open-File Report 2011-1111
AbstractThe map shows the geology of an alpine region in the southern Never Summer Mountains, including parts of the Never Summer Wilderness Area, the Bowen Gulch Protection Area, and the Arapaho National Forest. The area includes Proterozoic crystalline rocks in fault contact with folded and overturned Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks and Upper Cretaceous(?) and Paleocene Middle Park Formation. The folding and faulting appears to reflect a singular contractional deformation (post-Middle Park, so probably younger than early Eocene) that produced en echelon structural uplift of the Proterozoic basement of the Front Range. The geologic map indicates there is no through-going "Never Summer thrust" fault in this area. The middle Tertiary structural complex was intruded in late Oligocene time by basalt, quartz latite, and rhyolite porphyry plugs that also produced minor volcanic deposits; these igneous rocks are collectively referred to informally as the Braddock Peak intrusive-volcanic complex whose type area is located in the Mount Richthofen quadrangle immediately north (Cole and others, 2008; Cole and Braddock, 2009). Miocene boulder gravel deposits are preserved along high-altitude ridges that probably represent former gravel channels that developed during uplift and erosion in middle Tertiary time. |
First posted June 28, 2011 For additional information contact: This report is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF); the latest version of Adobe Reader or similar software is required to view it. Download the latest version of Adobe Reader, free of charge. |
Cole, J.C., Braddock, W.A., and Brandt, T.R., 2011, Preliminary geologic map of the Bowen Mountain quadrangle, Grand and Jackson Counties, Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011–1111, 15 p., scale 1:24,000.
Abstract
Geologic Mapping
Stratigraphic Notes
Structure
Oil Exploration
Acknowledgments
References Cited
Description of Map Units