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Geomorphology of the north flank of the Uinta Mountains

Professional Paper 185-I
By:
https://doi.org/10.3133/pp185I

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Abstract

The Uinta Mountains, whose northern margin is almost coincident with the southern boundary of Wyoming, extend from the Wasatch Range eastward across the northern part of Utah into northwestern Colorado. They were carved out of a large, simple anticlinal fold of sedimentary rocks arched up into essentially their present attitude at the end of the Cretaceous period. The Uinta Mountain group (Uinta quartzite of previous reports) a series of brick-red to purplish-red quartzite and sandstone beds of pre-Cambrian age, aggregating more than 12,000 feet in thickness, makes up the central mass of the range. Flanking the quartzite core and sharing its anticlinal structure are beds of limestone, sandstone, and shale ranging in age from Upper or Middle Cambrian to Upper Cretaceous. These rocks, which have a total thickness of about 15,000 feet, have been eroded from the higher part of the range, so the upturned edges of the harder beds now form hogbacks ranked along the sides of the fold. In places large faults, approximating the regional strike, cut these steeply inclined beds. Gently warped Tertiary sediments, mostly of Eocene age, fill the large Green River Basin, which lies north of the range, to a depth of several thousand feet and lap up on the flanks of the mountains, from which they were chiefly derived.

Study Area

Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Geomorphology of the north flank of the Uinta Mountains
Series title Professional Paper
Series number 185
Chapter I
DOI 10.3133/pp185I
Year Published 1936
Language English
Publisher United States Government Printing Office
Publisher location Washington, D.C.
Description Report: iv, 47 p.; 1 Plate
Larger Work Type Report
Larger Work Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Larger Work Title Shorter contributions to general geology, 1934-35
First page 163
Last page 199
Country United States
State Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming
Other Geospatial Uinta Mountains
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