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Digital Data from a Previously Published Tectonic Map of the Colorado Plateau

March 20, 2024

This digital dataset release of the Tectonic Map of the Colorado Plateau is a courtesy publication of the previously published legacy report by V.C. Kelley in 1955. The original publication, "Tectonic Map of the Colorado Plateau Showing Uranium Deposits" contains elevation contours from the top of the Chinle formation in 1000 ft intervals and geologic structural formations such as monoclinal, synclinal, and anticlinal structures. The digitizing of this map is to provide a more accessible dataset to be available for public usage. The original dataset was in relation to a larger project by the University of New Mexico and their publications in geology of uranium distributions throughout the Colorado Plateau (Kelley, V.C., 1955, Regional tectonics of the Colorado Plateau and relationship to the origin and distribution of uranium: Albuquerque, University of New Mexico, Publications in Geology no. 5, 120 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:1,000,000.). The entirety of this dataset includes both spatial and non-spatial data held in a singular, GeMS compliant geodatabase. This geodatabase includes a geologic map feature dataset holding fault lines, iso value lines, structure contours, and other geologic lines; nonspatial data recorded in standalone tables such as a description of map units, glossary, data source reference, geomaterials dictionary, and their entities and attributes. Data source references include web links to published standards, data dictionaries, and any other referenced data within the published map. There is a final nonspatial table that is in reference to the original digitized and identified geologic structures per the legacy map plate, these structures were broken up by state (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah) with each structure given a numerical value (starting at 1, for each individual state) these structures were compiled into a synchronous excel document to provide a digital record of those structures and features listed on the legacy map plate.

Publication Year 2024
Title Digital Data from a Previously Published Tectonic Map of the Colorado Plateau
DOI 10.5066/P9MQ5A7R
Authors Brooklyn Smout, Donald Sweetkind
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Digital Object Identifier Catalog
USGS Organization Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center