GEOL4717/5717 Topic List, Spring 2025

GEOL4717/5717 Topic List, Spring 2025
An asterisk indicates a 5717 topic
5717 students must choose either 1 5717 topic and 2 4717 topics, or 2 5717 topics; 4717 students choose only 2 of any topics.
Choose one topic from first half (outbound) and one from second half (inbound)
Topics are in approximate order along the trip

Topics taken are in bold

Topic

• Eocene erosion surface, southern Front Range
• Sangre de Cristo Fault neotectonics
• Structural geology, east side San Luis Valley
• San Juan volcanic field
• San Juan Basin
• Hogback Monocline
• *Shiprock (Tertiary volcanism and xenoliths, Four Corners) (or Agathla Peak, depending)
• Chuska Sandstone (Eocene-Olig Colo. Plat.)
• Morrison Formation
• Pennsylvanian-Permian stratigraphy, Four Corners area
• Entrenched meanders, Colorado Plateau
• Chinle Frm (+Triassic stratigraphy)
• *Unroofing of the Colorado Plateau
• Crooked Ridge Frm (Miocene(?) river deposits)
• Meteor Crater
• San Francisco volcanic field
• Mogollon Rim (near Sedona)
• *Chino Valley xenoliths/volcanism
• Mazatzal Peak Formation (near Chino Valley)
• Cave markers of Grand Canyon incision
• Music Mtn Frm/Buck and Doe Conglomerate (NE of Kingman)
• Peach Springs Tuff & Silver Peak caldera
• Bouse Formation (lower Colorado integration)
• * Colorado River extensional corridor (incl. Sacramento detachment)
• Scanlon Nappe (Old Woman Mtns)
  
• *Dish Hill (Amboy) volcanics and xenoliths
  
• *Cadiz Valley batholith (Late Cretaceous)
• Eastern California Shear Zone (Calico Fault)
  
• *Central Mojave Extensional Belt (Waterman Hills detachment)
  
• Rand Schist
  
• Garlock fault
  
• Garlock Formation (or Series) (Pz exotic terrane)
  
• Ricardo (El Paso) Basin (Redrock Canyon)
  
• Ridgecrest Earthquake (2019)
  
• Coso volcanic field tectonics
  
• East Sierran thrust system
  
  End of outbound/Start inbound leg
  
  
• Sierra Nevada batholith
  
• Sierra Nevada fault
  
• *Truncation of the miogeocline (Darwin area)
  
• *Neogene tectonics, Panamint Valley
  
• *Geology of Panamint Range
  
• Mesozoic decompression/extension (Funeral Mtns)
  
• Death Valley/Furnace Creek Fault
  
• *Death Valley "Turtlebacks"
  
• Amargosa chaos
  
• Extensional markers in Death Valley region (Eagle Valley Frm, etc)
  
• Pahrump group (Precambrian)/Johnnie Frm
  
• *pC - Cambrian strata, SW Nevada (initiation of miogeocline)
  
• Kingston Range detachment
  
• Thrust Faults, Spring Mtns (Sevier orogeny)
  
• Las Vegas Valley Shear Zone
  
• Landslide deposits, Horse Spring Frm, Frenchman Mtn area
  
• *Grand Canyon origin: sedimentary constraints (Muddy Creek Frm)
  
• Lake Mead Fault system
  
• Muddy Mountains Thrust+foredeep deposits
  
• *South Virgin Mountains structural geology
  
• Grand Wash fault
  
• *Colorado Plateau-Basin and Range transition, Utah
  
• Hurricane Fault
  
• Grand Canyon low-temperature geochronology
  
• *Grand Canyon (Uinkaret) volcanic field and xenoliths
  
• Sevier/Toroweap Fault
  
• California River (Wahweap/Straight Cliffs Frm)
  
• Bryce Canyon Tertiary thrusts (Paunsaugunt Plateau)
  
• *Early Tertiary drainages north of Grand Canyon
  
• Cretaceous stratigraphy, Utah to Colorado
  
• Monoclinal folding, Colorado Plateau (San Rafael Swell and Waterpocket Fold)
  
• Henry Mtns laccoliths
  
• Grizzly Creek shear zone (1.4 Ga fault)
  
• Penn-Permian stratigraphy, Eagle Basin, CO
  
• Salt tectonics near Glenwood Springs, CO

Some general references:
J. P. Jenney and S. J. Reynolds, (editors), Geological Evolution of Arizona, Ariz. Geol. Soc. Digest, 17, Arizona Geol. Soc., 1989.
L. F. Hintze, Geologic History of Utah, Spec. Publ. 7 , Brigham Young Univ. Geol. Studies, 1988.
B. Wernicke (ed.), Basin and Range Extensional Tectonics near the Latitude of Las Vegas, Nevada, Geol. Soc. Am. Memoir, 176, 1990.
J. H. Stewart, Geology of Nevada, Nevada Bir. Mines Geol. Spec. Publ., 4, 1980.
Mack, G. H., and K. A. Giles (editors), The Geology of New Mexico: A Geologic History, New Mexico Geol. Soc. Spec. Publ., 11, 474 pp., 2004.

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Please send mail to cjones@colorado.edu if you encounter any problems or have suggestions.

C. H. Jones | CIRES | Dept. of Geological Sciences | Univ. of Colorado at Boulder

Last modified at Wednesday, January 29, 2025 3:07 PM