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Preliminary geologic map of the Bowen Mountain quadrangle, Grand and Jackson Counties, Colorado

June 1, 2011

The 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.

Publication Year 2011
Title Preliminary geologic map of the Bowen Mountain quadrangle, Grand and Jackson Counties, Colorado
DOI 10.3133/ofr20111111
Authors J. C. Cole, William A. Braddock, Theodore R. Brandt
Publication Type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Series Title Open-File Report
Series Number 2011-1111
Index ID ofr20111111
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Geology and Environmental Change Science Center
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