COLORADOSTRATIGRAPHY.ORG IS A NEW TOOL TO SEE COLORADO’S STRATIGRAPHY

 

 

Together with the region’s geological community, we have produced a new stratigraphic chart for Colorado. The chart is digital, employs a linear timescale, and is freely available at coloradostratigraphy.org. Following Richard Pearl, we divided Colorado into eleven basin areas with distinctive lithostratigraphic successions. Although this effort was coordinated by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS), it is grounded in the knowledge and experience of the region’s industry, academic, and consulting geology communities. A printed version of the chart is under construction in collaboration with the Colorado Geological Survey, and reveals state-wide patterns of sedimentation, mountain building, and erosion. 

Online, the digital stratigraphic chart is linked to paleogeographic maps published by Ron Blakey, to paleogeologic maps developed from the literature, to ancient landscape paintings, and to outcrop photographs. Structural and stratigraphic cross sections and stratigraphic panels are also liked to the chart and its depositional basins, providing a three dimensional framework for the State. Videos from Paul Weimer’s University of Colorado Interactive Geology Project depict changing Colorado vistas through time, again tied to their stratigraphy. Additional data layers include images of fossils, and icons revealing recovered volumes of oil, natural gas, and coal.

The future of this digital chart is limitless. For example, key geologic road logs are being linked to the site, and it is possible to expand beyond this to include other geochronologic, sedimentologic and stratigraphic data. With an eye toward Colorado’s economic resources, an expanded version of the younger portion of the chart serves to amplify the better known and better dated rocks of the past 80 million years.

Our goal is to provide a tool for students, geologists, and stratigraphers of any level to synthesize Colorado’s stratigraphic patterns. Ongoing research at the DMNS and other institutions will continue to expand this living document for all to share.