An integrated geophysical study of the Uncompahgre uplift, Colorado and Utah

The Uncompahgre uplift that lies astride the Colorado-Utah border is a mostly buried tectonic feature that separates the Paradox basin to the south from the Piceance basin to the north. As part of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains orogenic belt, the structures of the Uncompahgre uplift are difficult to understand since they are largely covered by sediments and there is limited subsurface information. The uplift itself covers an area of more than 7,000 km 2 and trends northwesterly across Colorado into Utah.; Ancestral Rocky Mountains deformation began in the late Mississippian and continued until the middle Permian as recorded by facies changes and unconformities in the sedimentary section. Later on, the Laramide orogeny reactivated the structures associated with the Uncompahgre uplift. As a consequence of sedimentation, the uplift is now mostly covered by Mesozoic and Tertiary sediments. Thus, any reconstruction of the geologic history of this fault-fold uplift relies mostly on subsurface interpretations based on drill holes and geophysical data.; This thesis is an integrated geophysical and geological study of the Uncompahgre uplift region and is focused on expanding our structural understanding of the uplift and its evolution, as well as the intraplate deformation of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...