Skip Links

USGS - science for a changing world

Scientific Investigations Map 3271

Geologic Map of the Mount Sherman 7.5' Quadrangle, Park and Lake Counties, Colorado

By Robert G. Bohannon and Chester A. Ruleman

Thumbnail of and link to report PDF (39.4 MB)Abstract

The Mount Sherman 7.5-minute quadrangle is located along the crest of the Mosquito Range in between Leadville and Fairplay, Colorado. There are eleven 13,000-foot peaks and one fourteener, Mount Sherman, within the quadrangle. General elevations range from 10,400–14,036 feet (3,200–4,278 meters). The western half of the quadrangle primarily consists of Proterozoic granitic rocks reverse faulted over Paleozoic sedimentary rocks during the Laramide orogeny of Late Cretaceous and Paleocene time. Coeval to this contractional event, sills and laccoliths of the White porphyry group (which probably includes rocks equivalent to the Pando Porphyry) were emplaced in the surrounding country rocks. Igneous activity continued into the Late Eocene with the emplacement of the Sacramento Porphyry (about 43.9 Ma) and the Gray porphyry group (about 36.7 Ma), and as young as 29 Ma to the north within the Climax quadrangle. With the inception of the Rio Grande rift within the region, the Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and Late Cretaceous to early Oligocene igneous rocks were extensionally faulted and tilted to the east. This resulted in the present 20–30 degree dip-slope of these rocks on top of Proterozoic basement rocks within the eastern half of the quadrangle. This extensional regime has continued well into the Pliocene. Within the southwestern quadrant, suspicious lineaments, alignment of springs, and continuous, measureable escarpments provide reasonable evidence for Quaternary tectonic activity along the western flank of the range. Pleistocene glaciers have dramatically sculpted the region, providing exceptional exposure of the region’s bedrock and structure.

First posted November 1, 2013

For additional information contact:
Director, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
U.S. Geological Survey
Box 25046, Mail Stop 980
Denver, CO 80225
http://gec.cr.usgs.gov/

Part or all of this report is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF). For best results viewing and printing PDF documents, it is recommended that you download the documents to your computer and open them with Adobe Reader. PDF documents opened from your browser may not display or print as intended. Download the latest version of Adobe Reader, free of charge.


Suggested citation:

Bohannon, R.G, and Ruleman C.A., 2013, Geologic map of the Mount Sherman 7.5' quadrangle, Lake and Park Counties, Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3271, scale 1:24,000, https://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3271/.



Accessibility FOIA Privacy Policies and Notices

Take Pride in America logo USA.gov logo U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://pubsdata.usgs.gov/pubs/sim/3271/index.html
Page Contact Information: GS Pubs Web Contact
Page Last Modified: Thursday, 01-Dec-2016 17:31:00 EST