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Preliminary Geologic Map of the Culebra Peak Area, Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Las Animas and Costilla Counties, Colorado

July 30, 2008

This geologic map provides new geologic mapping at 1:50,000-scale in the Culebra Peak area of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of south-central Colorado. The map area includes all of the El Valle Creek, Stonewall, Culebra Peak, and Torres 7.5' quadrangles. Paleoproterozoic crystalline basement rocks are exposed along the crest of the Culebra Range which include a calc-alkaline gneiss sequence and a metasedimentary and bimodal metavolcanic sequence which are strongly foliated and display a northeast-southwest oriented structural trend. These rocks are intruded by several large granitic bodies and smaller amphibolitic and pegmatitic bodies which are also foliated. These basement rocks are intruded by a set of younger Neoproterozoic to lower Paleozoic gabbro dikes which are nonfoliated. These crystalline rocks are overlain to the east of the Culebra Range by a thick sequence of Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks which include upper Paleozoic syn-tectonic sedimentary rocks of the Colorado Trough related to the Ancestral Rocky Mountains, Mesozoic post-tectonic sedimentary rocks, Cretaceous interior seaway sediments, and Laramide-age syn-tectonic sedimentary rocks of the Raton Basin. These rocks are faulted and folded by Laramide-age deformation. Tertiary igneous and volcaniclastic rocks that postdate the Laramide Orogeny are exposed throughout the map area and to the west of the Culebra Range, syntectonic sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Sante Fe Group were deposited as fill in basins of the Rio Grande rift. These deposits are cut by rift-related extensional faults. Surficial units include alluvial, lacustrine, glacial, and mass-wasting deposits.

Publication Year 2008
Title Preliminary Geologic Map of the Culebra Peak Area, Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Las Animas and Costilla Counties, Colorado
DOI 10.3133/ofr20071428
Authors Christopher J. Fridrich, Robert M. Kirkham
Publication Type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Series Title Open-File Report
Series Number 2007-1428
Index ID ofr20071428
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization U.S. Geological Survey