Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Sims, P. K. Articles by Stein, H. J. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Tectonic evolution of the Proterozoic Colorado province, Southern Rocky Mountains

A summary and appraisal

¹ U.S. Geological Survey, Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225, U.S.A.
² AIRIE Program, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, U.S.A.

^* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

The Colorado province is a major component of a >1000-km-wide belt of Paleoproterozoic ocean-arc rocks that occupies the southwestern United States. Known as the Transcontinental Proterozoic provinces, this belt of largely juvenile rocks was added to the southern margin of the North American craton during the interval 1.8–1.70 Ga by convergent tectonism along the Cheyenne belt. A growing body of data suggests that these rocks were deposited, at least locally, on older rocks of earliest Proterozoic and Archean ages, probably correlative with the Trans-Hudson and Penokean orogens.

The volcano-plutonic and associated sedimentary rocks of the Colorado province record two major, regional orogenies: (1) an older, protracted thermotectonic episode (1.78–1.70 Ga), named the Colorado orogeny, which involved mainly amphibolite-facies metamorphism during piecemeal assembly of various ocean-arc terranes; and (2) a younger, Mesoproterozoic intra-continental orogeny, named the Berthoud orogeny, which involved associated regional heating and A-type plutonism chiefly during the interval 1.45–1.40 Ga. The term "Colorado orogeny" is proposed for the regional Paleoproterozoic dynamothermal deformation. To distinguish differences in the geodynamics and ages of deformation and facilitate comparisons from place to place, type localities are proposed for separate phases or events of the Colorado orogeny. The central Front Range is suggested as a type area for the Berthoud orogeny, because the character and orientation of structures there are readily distinguished from those of the older Colorado orogeny.

Key Words: Proterozoic • Colorado province • Southern Rocky Mountains • Trans-Hudson orogeny • Cheyenne belt • A-type granite • shear zones • aeromagnetic anomalies • strike-slip faulting • reactivation • Colorado mineral belt

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. J. Whitmeyer and K. E. Karlstrom Tectonic model for the Proterozoic growth of North America Geosphere, August 1, 2007; 3(4): 220 - 259. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S.M. Cather, K.E. Karlstrom, J.M. Timmons, and M.T. Heizler Palinspastic reconstruction of Proterozoic basement-related aeromagnetic features in north-central New Mexico: Implications for Mesoproterozoic to late Cenozoic tectonism Geosphere, October 1, 2006; 2(6): 299 - 323. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. G. Plymate, T. D. Moeglin, and W. R. Van Schmus Petrology, geochemistry, and geochronology of Proterozoic granitoid and related rocks of the northern Mummy Range, north-central Colorado Rocky Mountain Geology, December 1, 2005; 40(2): 115 - 155. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P. G. Resor and A. W. Snoke Laramie Peak shear system, central Laramie Mountains, Wyoming, USA: regeneration of the Archean Wyoming province during Palaeoproterozoic accretion Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2005; 245(1): 81 - 107. [Abstract] [PDF]