THE ROCKS BELOW RULE OUR LIVES ABOVE

The Denver Basin preserves synorogenic strata deposited during the latest Cretaceous and Early Tertiary Laramide Orogeny. These continental deposits record the uplift and erosion of the modern Rocky Mountains. Earlier deposits in the area record the arrival and departure of the Interior Seaway, the evolution of the passive margin of western North America and an episode of deformation in the Pennsylvanian/Permian termed the Ancestral Rockies. The human history of the Front Range has been intertwined with the local rock record as arriving residents exploited geologic resources for personal and communal gain. Today's urban residents and decision makers spend less time with their feet on the rocks and risk losing connection with their geologic underpinnings.

Denver was settled in 1858 in part because of placer gold deposits discovered at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River. Early placer camps grew into staging areas providing support facilities for the much more extensive metallic deposits found in the mountains west of Denver.

As the Front Range population grew, extensive surface irrigation projects developed. Water is now brought across the Continental Divide to the water-poor high plains. Coal was mined from the Laramie Formation to fuel the transportation infrastructure and to heat homes.

In the twentieth century, oil and gas resources were developed in marine and near shore Cretaceous rocks to take the place of locally mined coal. One of the abandoned coal mines near Denver was used for natural gas storage in the 1950's to help meet peak winter fuel demands. As housing has encroached the coal mined areas, issues of subsidence and potential gas leakage impacted the public. In the early 2000's, the natural gas storage facility was converted to a water storage facility.

Water resources continue to be in short supply, and today the bedrock aquifers are being mined to provide potable water to the large and growing populations in the area between Denver and Colorado Springs. Municipal water wells are witnessing water levels falling at rates of over 30 feet per year. Moving forward, new and sustainable water reserves must be found and infrastructure constructed to ensure a safe and reliable supply.