R. Aster S. Grand J Ni W.S. Baldridge David C. Wilson USGS Dorothy L. Domingo 2010 <p><span>After maintaining elevations near sea level for over 500 million years, the Colorado Plateau (CP) has a present average elevation of 2 km. We compute new receiver function images from the first dense seismic transect to cross the plateau that reveal a central CP crustal thickness of 42–50 km thinning to 30–35 km at the CP margins. Isostatic calculations show that only approximately 20% of central CP elevations can be explained by thickened crust alone, with the CP edges requiring nearly total mantle compensation. We calculate an uplift budget showing that CP buoyancy arises from a combination of crustal thickening, heating and alteration of the lithospheric root, dynamic support from mantle upwelling, and significant buoyant edge effects produced by small-scale convecting asthenosphere at its margins.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1029/2010GL044799 en American Geophysical Union High-resolution receiver function imaging reveals Colorado Plateau lithospheric architecture and mantle-supported topography article