| 2.1 Has required elements: nonspatial tables DataSources, DescriptionOfMapUnits, GeoMaterialDict; feature dataset GeologicMap with feature classes ContactsAndFaults and MapUnitPolys | PASS |
| 2.2 Required fields within required elements are present and correctly defined | PASS |
| 2.3 All MapUnitPolys and ContactsAndFaults based feature classes obey Level 2 topology rules: no internal gaps or overlaps in MapUnitPolys, boundaries of MapUnitPolys are covered by ContactsAndFaults | PASS |
| 2.4 All map units in MapUnitPolys have entries in DescriptionOfMapUnits table | PASS |
| 2.5 No duplicate MapUnit values in DescriptionOfMapUnit table | PASS |
| 2.6 Certain field values within required elements have entries in Glossary table | PASS |
| 2.7 No duplicate Term values in Glossary table | PASS |
| 2.8 All xxxSourceID values in required elements have entries in DataSources table | PASS |
| 2.9 No duplicate DataSources_ID values in DataSources table | PASS |
| 3.1 Table and field definitions beyond Level 2 conform to GeMS schema | PASS |
| 3.2 All MapUnitPolys and ContactsAndFaults based feature classes obey Level 3 topology rules: No ContactsAndFaults overlaps, self-overlaps, or self-intersections. | PASS |
| 3.3 No missing required values | PASS |
| 3.4 No missing terms in Glossary | PASS |
| 3.5 No unnecessary terms in Glossary | PASS |
| 3.6 No missing sources in DataSources | PASS |
| 3.7 No unnecessary sources in DataSources | PASS |
| 3.8 No map units without entries in DescriptionOfMapUnits | PASS |
| 3.9 No unnecessary map units in DescriptionOfMapUnits | PASS |
| 3.10 HierarchyKey values in DescriptionOfMapUnits are unique and well formed | PASS |
| 3.11 All values of GeoMaterial are defined in GeoMaterialDict. GeoMaterialDict is as specified in the GeMS standard | PASS |
| 3.12 No duplicate _ID values | PASS |
| 3.13 No zero-length, whitespace-only, or bad null values | PASS |
| MapUnit | DescriptionOfMapUnits | CrossSectionA | GeologicMap | CorrelationOfMapUnits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qg3 | X | -- | X | X |
| Qaf2 | X | -- | X | X |
| Qc | X | -- | X | X |
| Kml | X | X | -- | X |
| Qac | X | -- | X | X |
| Qa | X | -- | X | X |
| Qg2 | X | -- | X | X |
| Qamf | X | -- | X | X |
| Kmu | X | X | X | X |
| Kmse | X | X | X | X |
| Qco | X | -- | X | X |
| Kicz | X | X | X | X |
| Qg1 | X | -- | X | X |
| Qaco | X | -- | X | X |
| af | X | -- | X | X |
| water | X | -- | X | -- |
| Kms | X | X | X | X |
| Qaf4 | X | -- | X | X |
| Kmp | X | X | X | X |
| Qaf1 | X | -- | X | X |
| Kdb | X | X | -- | X |
| Xu | X | X | -- | X |
| Mz | X | X | -- | X |
| Qeo | X | -- | X | X |
| Qaf5 | X | -- | X | X |
| Qaf6 | X | -- | X | X |
| Qaf3 | X | -- | X | X |
| OBJECTID | Source | Notes | URL | DataSources_ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | American Geosciences Institute | Glossary | https://glossary.americangeosciences.org/ | AGI |
| 3 | Baylor University | Geoluminescence Dating Research Lab | https://geosciences.artsandsciences.baylor.edu/about-us/facilities/geoluminescence-dating-research-lab | BAYLOR1 |
| 2 | This study | None | this study | DAS1 |
| 7 | Online dictionary | None | https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/geotechnical | DICT1 |
| 8 | Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission | None | https://ecmc.state.co.us/#/home | ECMC1 |
| 1 | Federal Geographic Data Committee [prepared for the Federal Geographic Data Committee by the U.S. Geological Survey], 2006, FGDC Digital Cartographic Standard for Geologic Map Symbolization: Reston, Va., Federal Geographic Data Committee Document Number FGDC-STD-013-2006, 290 p., 2 plates. | None | https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/fgdc_gds/geolsymstd.php | FGDC-STD-013-2006 |
| 5 | GeMS standard | None | https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Info/standards/GeMS/ | GeMS |
| 4 | U.S. Geological Survey | None | https://usgs.gov | USGS1 |
| OBJECTID | MapUnit | Name | FullName | Age | Description | HierarchyKey | ParagraphStyle | Label | Symbol | AreaFillRGB | AreaFillPatternDescription | DescriptionSourceID | GeoMaterial | GeoMaterialConfidence | DescriptionOfMapUnits_ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | None | DESCRIPTION OF MAP UNITS | DESCRIPTION OF MAP UNITS | None | Maps units are described using the following classifications: grain sizes from Wentworth (1922); thickness of bedding terms codified by the Society for Sedimentary Geology (https://www.sepmstrata.org/terminology.aspx?id=bed); and degree of carbonate content of rock and calcic soils judged by intensity of effervescence (fizz or bubbling) that resulted from the application of 10% hydrochloric acid (HCl) to a rock or soil sample in the field. Pedogenic calcic soil development stages are from Machette (1985). Surficial deposit descriptions may include color classifications in parenthesis from the Munsell Soil Color Charts. | 0 | DMUHeading0 | None | None | None | None | DAS1 | None | None | DMU01 |
| 1 | None | SURFICIAL DEPOSITS | SURFICIAL DEPOSITS | None | None | 1 | DMUHeading1 | None | None | None | None | DAS1 | None | None | DMU02 |
| 2 | None | HUMAN-MADE DEPOSITS | HUMAN-MADE DEPOSITS | None | None | 1.1 | DMUHeading2 | None | None | None | None | DAS1 | None | None | DMU03 |
| 3 | af | Artifical fill and disturbed areas | Artifical fill and disturbed areas | Uppermost Holocene | Gravel, sand, silt, and clay emplaced as fill to construct road, canal, and dam embankments, or any other human-made fills. The unit includes natural sediments and landfills composed of unknown materials. Fills may be engineered or uncontrolled. Their compositions and properties are varied. The unit locally may include disturbed land and excavations related to overburden spoils, landfill sites, and gravel or borrow pits. The af unit is generally less that 3 m thick. However the fill thickness for the Highline Lake embankment dam is about 27 m. | 1.1.1 | DMUUnit1 | af | af | 255-255-255 | None | DAS1 | "Made" or human-engineered land | High | DMU04 |
| 4 | None | ALLUVIAL DEPOSITS | ALLUVIAL DEPOSITS | None | None | 1.2 | DMUHeading2 | None | None | None | None | DAS1 | None | None | DMU05 |
| 16 | Qa | Alluvium | Alluvium | Upper to Middle Holocene | Tan-gray, interlaminated to very thinly bedded, very fine- to fine-grained sand and sandy to silty clay with dispersed gravel. The unit typically covers the floor of active drainage channels and swales within meanders in alluvial mudflow and mud-fan (Qamf) and alluvial-fan (Qaf1) valley-fill deposits and (or) where incised into shale bedrock. Unit may locally contain pebble to boulder gravelly lenses and bed load on the channel floor. Deposits of the unit may include up to three meander terraces above the active channel floor. The lowest, from 1.5 m to 2 m above the channel floor, has active surface flood scour morphology. This unit is susceptible to periodic flash flooding and deposition of debris flows. | 1.2.1 | DMUUnit1 | Qa | Qa | 255-255-115 | None | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly fine-grained | High | DMU06 |
| 5 | None | Alluvial gravel deposits | Alluvial gravel deposits | None | Deposits are linear remnants of river terrace treads that approximate the longitudinal profile of the major creeks of the quadrangle: East Salt Creek and Mack Wash. These creek watersheds extend northward, off map, to valleys and canyons incised through the Book Cliffs and into the Roan Plateau. The predominate deposit is a fluvially sorted and imbricated cobbly gravel with scattered small boulders (<1 m). Well-sorted sand lenses and thin sand-rich beds are locally present. Clasts are primarily sandstone; the provenance being Upper Cretaceous Mesaverde Group (Iles and Williams Fork formations) and underlying marine sandstones of the upper Mancos Shale exposed in the Book Cliffs to the north of the map area. However, there are small amounts (<5%) of other lithologies including red-colored coal-fire clinker and pebbles composed of chert, petrified wood, and igneous and metamorphic crystalline rocks. These pebbles are reworked from terrestrial conglomeritic sandstone channels and beds within the Paleogene Ohio Creek and Wasatch formations exposed in the Roan Plateau above the Mesaverde rocks. Cobble-sized sandstone clast shapes of low sphericity, but moderately to well-rounded with shapes ranging from bladed or slabby to discoid. Except for the stratigraphically lowest gravel (Qg1), the well-sorted fluvial deposits near the contact with the underlying Mancos Shale are commonly cemented with calcium carbonate to form conglomerate that locally form ledge-type outcrops along the terrace bluff. The deposits also locally contain muddy fine-grained interlaminated to thinly interbedded overbank sediment and scoured channels that contain unsorted bouldery debris-flow gravel with a muddy matrix. Alluvial gravel deposits have been a historic gravel resource in the map area, but aggregate durability is low due to the predominant sandstone clast content. | 1.2.2 | DMUHeading3 | None | None | None | None | DAS1 | None | None | DMU07 |
| 6 | Qg1 | Alluvial gravel one | Alluvial gravel one | Upper Pleistocene | Deposit underlies isolated terrace remnant surfaces in the East Salt Creek Valley in the southwest corner of the map area. The top of the unit averages 18 m above the active channel. Gravel deposits are unconsolidated and limited to about 3 m thick. Unit is the youngest gravel terrace in the map area and was likely deposited during the Pinedale glaciation. Abandoned gravel pits occur in this deposit near Mesa County Road (CR) 10. Unit thickness at the pits is about 2 m. | 1.2.2.1 | DMUUnit1 | Qg1 | Qg1 | 255-255-215 | 163-255-115 605 breccia | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly coarse-grained | High | DMU08 |
| 7 | Qg2 | Alluvial gravel two | Alluvial gravel two | Upper Pleistocene | Gravel deposits beneath remnants of terrace surfaces where State Highway (SH) 139 crosses Mack Wash and within Highline Lake State Park. The tread surfaces are 21 m above the Mack Wash floor. The terrace remnants extend beyond the southern map boundary and are locally cemented to a conglomerate. The durability of the gravel deposit locally prevents erosion of the adjacent shale slope such that deposits of subsequent sheetwash (Qaco) locally form low-gradient fans that abut against and lap onto the Qg2 unit. A silty fine- to medium-grained sand bed was sampled at a burial depth of 5.5 m at a roadcut of Q Road (HL-421 in Table 1 on Plate 2) for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. The sample yielded an original infinite date of >58,100 years before present (ybp). The sample was subsequently reanalyzed using a Thermally Transferred (TT) OSL testing technique and yielded a date of 97,330 ± 8,040 ybp, deposited during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5, after the MIS-6 Bull Lake glaciation. Thickness is variable and ranges from 7 m to 10 m in areas of old gravel quarry excavations near SH 139. Based on the unit’s surface continuity observed in lidar digital elevation models (DEMs) and matching lithologic characteristics, this unit is correlated with the lower Mack Mesa (Qam1) deposit in the adjacent Mack quadrangle (White and others, 2015). | 1.2.2.2 | DMUUnit1 | Qg2 | Qg2 | 255-255-215 | 255-127-127 605 breccia | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly coarse-grained | High | DMU09 |
| 8 | Qg3 | Alluvial gravel three | Alluvial gravel three | Upper Pleistocene | Deposits of fluvial gravel in the southwest portion of the map area that underlie Mack Mesa and the highest bluffs west of Highline Lake. This gravel unit locally contains basal zones up to 1.5-m thick that are well cemented to form a conglomerate. The surface of this deposit lies about 29 m above the Mack Wash base level and 44 m above the East Salt Creek base level. The deposit height above the Qg2 surface (about 10 m) suggests deposition during the late substages of MIS-5, and possibly at the end of the Bull Lake glaciation (MIS-6). The surface elevation and southward gradient of unit Qg3 underlying Mack Mesa remain consistent with the off-map deposit of Mack Mesa gravel (Qam2) in the adjacent Mack quadrangle (White and others, 2015). Several historic gravel quarries occur in the map area. Exposed in old gravel quarry walls, thickness of the gravel resource removed is about 4 m. | 1.2.2.3 | DMUUnit1 | Qg3 | Qg3 | 255-255-215 | 99-167-255 605 breccia | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly coarse-grained | High | DMU10 |
| 37 | None | ALLUVIAL FAN AND MUDFLOW DEPOSITS | ALLUVIAL FAN AND MUDFLOW DEPOSITS | None | None | 1.2.3 | DMUHeading3 | None | None | None | None | DAS1 | None | None | DMU11 |
| 17 | Qamf | Alluvial mudflow and mud-fan deposits | Alluvial mudflow and mud-fan deposits | Holocene to Upper Pleistocene | Tan-gray, poorly to moderately sorted, interlaminated to very thinly bedded, unconsolidated, very fine- to fine-grained, clayey silt and sand. Unit is composed of aggraded valley fill that includes Holocene terraces of the modern drainage channels of major creeks and locally includes clay-, silt-, and sand-rich alluvium deposited by tributary streams, mud-fans, and hillside slopewash (chiefly sheetwash) sediments. The deposit is locally gravel-bearing; either as clast-supported cross-bedded pebbly gravel lenses or matrix-supported pebble gravel dispersed in the deposit. Sources of the gravel include reworking of older gravel and alluvial-fan deposits (Qg and Qaf) near adjacent hills and mesas, and rare lenses of entrained cobbles and boulders deposited during floods or by debris flows. The pebble to small boulder (<40 cm) gravel-sized clasts are from the Book Cliffs region exposed off map to the north. In coalesced fans below drainageways that outlet from hills of exposed Prairie Canyon Member bedrock (Kmp), the unit contains abundant flat-pebble sandstone chips. Total thickness at the sample site was 8.5 m near the maximum thickness of the main trunk of the stream valley (9 m), but locally thins to 2 m in broad flatlands and overlying the Smoky Hill Member (Kms) of the Mancos Shale. This unit was mapped within the lower valley fills of the East Salt Creek and where mudflows cover the broad flatlands overlying the Mancos Shale Smoky Hill Member (Kms) below the Government Highline Canal. In the southern region of the map, overlying the Kms bedrock, the deposit locally is altered by agricultural tilling. Qamf deposits may locally pinch out, becoming exposures of paralithic shale bedrock and surface clay regolith. The sediment of this unit may be prone to hydrocompaction (White and Greenman, 2008) and (or) soil expansion upon wetting. Pseudokarst features such as fissures and small sinkholes are locally present. In arroyo exposures some of the fissures and cavities were subsequently filled by later deposition of flat-pebble sandstone chips. | 1.2.3.1 | DMUUnit1 | Qamf | Qamf | 255-255-190 | None | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly fine-grained | High | DMU12 |
| 9 | None | ALLUVIAL-FAN DEPOSITS | ALLUVIAL-FAN DEPOSITS | None | Pleistocene map units formed by aggradation of gently sloping alluvial fans that outlet from paleobasins within the Book Cliffs area onto more gentle slopes of Mancos Shale in the Grand Valley. More resistant to subsequent erosion than the surrounding hills of shale, the varying Pleistocene-aged units are topographically inverted and form gravel-capped mesas and remnants capping hilltops and narrow ridges. The units are subdivided and enumerated based on heights above modern stream levels. Each numbered unit, from the highest (oldest) to the lowest, records the punctuated incision and deposition of lower and younger alluvial-fan units onto the Mancos Shale landscape, and thereby chronicles the general geomorphic lowering of the Late Middle to Late Pleistocene surface of the Grand Valley within the map area. Fans may become constrained to stream-channel terraces where paleo-drainage basins narrow when entering topographically higher exposures of Mancos Shale Prairie Canyon Member (Kmp) bedrock. Deposits are primarily unconsolidated and range from: 1) channel fills of very bouldery, unsorted, non-stratified, matrix-supported, gravelly debris-flow deposits; 2) better-sorted, stratified, clast-supported, imbricated, sandy pebble to cobble gravel deposited by fluvial processes; to 3) muddy interlaminated clayey to silty sand with stringers and lenses of sandstone pebble gravel. Clasts are angular to subrounded, slabby to bladed sandstone that were eroded from steep-walled gulches incised into the Book Cliffs. Boulders up to 2 m in diameter are present. Higher-elevation older alluvial-fan deposits are locally well cemented with calcium carbonate, forming conglomerate that outcrop as ledges in mesa perimeters. Lower and intermediary deposits may locally contain boulder levees that record debris-flow events. Older units are typically overlain by thin (<1 m) mantles of light red (Munsell 2.5YR 7/8) slopewash that is predominantly reworked loess. The unit surfaces support more dense vegetation than the adjacent Mancos Shale. Heights recorded are to the deepest nearby drainage channels or elevation (m) above mean sea level (AMSL). | 1.2.4 | DMUHeading3 | None | None | None | None | DAS1 | None | None | DMU13 |
| 10 | Qaf1 | Alluvial-fan deposits No. 1 | Alluvial-fan deposits No. 1 | Holocene to Upper Pleistocene? | Unit forms the lowest fan and fan remnants adjacent to hills composed of Mancos Shale. Unit typically includes aggraded valley-fill alluvial-fan sediments that coalesce from the many swales and small drainageways from hills of Mancos Shale. Where derived from the Prairie Canyon Member of the Mancos Shale, the unit is very sandy with lenses of sandstone gravel. Gully exposures show evidence of pseudokarst slot and piping dissolution that have been subsequently filled with sandstone flat-pebble gravel. This unit was sampled for OSL age dating. Sample HL-309 and sample HL-311 at burial depths of 4.5 m yielded dates of 6,085 ± 435 ybp and 1,350 ± 80 ybp (See Table 1 on Plate 2). Thickness is unknown but young gullies of Upper Holocene age are incised up to 6 m into the unit. An equivalent unit mapped as Qamf on the adjacent Badger Wash quadrangle yeilded an OSL date of 12,755 ± 614 ybp (White and Perman, 2024) near the base of the unit. This unit locally grades laterally to become the Qamf unit as drainageways exit the hills of Mancos Shale, the slope grades generally flatten, and sediment becomes finer grained below (south) the Government Highline Canal. | 1.2.4.1 | DMUUnit1 | Qaf1 | Qaf1 | 255-255-190 | 112-168-0 607 sand | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly coarse-grained | High | DMU14 |
| 11 | Qaf2 | Alluvial-fan deposits No. 2 | Alluvial-fan deposits No. 2 | Upper Pleistocene | Unit forms alluvial-fan and terrace remnants that grade near the northern map boundary to the Qg2 gravel terrace along the shallow valley of East Salt Creek where the Prairie Canyon Mancos Shale Member (Kmp) is exposed. Unit is locally mantled with patchy red (Munsell 2.5YR 7/8), silty to very-fine-grained sandy loess. The top of the unit is about 26 m above the active channel and is 4.5 to 9 m thick. | 1.2.4.2 | DMUUnit1 | Qaf2 | Qaf2 | 255-255-190 | 255-0-197 602 gravel | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly coarse-grained | High | DMU15 |
| 12 | Qaf3 | Alluvial-fan deposits No. 3 | Alluvial-fan deposits No. 3 | Upper Pleistocene | Unit contains widespread alluvial-fan remnants at an approximate elevation of 1,585 m AMSL along the center part of the northern map boundary. Fan surface typically is thinly mantled (<1 m) by red (2.5YR 7/8) fine-grained material, interpreted as sheetwash that has reworked loess deposits. Unit has a poorly exposed Bk soil horizon that is developed in both the lossial sheetwash and Qaf3 unit. Clasts exposed at the surface have white calcic coatings, which likely indicate Stage II calcic development (Machette, 1985). Unit thickness is variable but likely does not exceed 3 m. Top of unit Qaf3 is about 15 m above the Qaf2 surface. The surface elevation of the Qaf3 surface approximates the Qg2 unit at the confluence of Coyote and Mack Wash and so may be coeval. | 1.2.4.3 | DMUUnit1 | Qaf3 | Qaf3 | 255-255-190 | 0-112-255 602 gravel | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly coarse-grained | High | DMU16 |
| 13 | Qaf4 | Alluvial-fan deposits No. 4 | Alluvial-fan deposits No. 4 | Upper Pleistocene | Unit forms an isolated mesa up to 1.6 km wide that extends down to the southwest from the Book Cliffs in the northwest corner of the map area. The surface of unit Qaf4 is thinly mantled (<1 m) with reworked red (Munsell 2.5YR 7/8) loess that covers a chalky white, well developed Bk soil horizon that is also developed into the fan deposit. Clasts are typically slabby subangular sandstone clasts eroded from the nearby Book Cliffs and typically have white calcic coatings where exposed. The most extensive mesa surface underlain by this unit forms a basin divide between the East Salt Creek and Mack Wash. Deposit surface elevation begins at the base of the Book Cliffs, near the northwest map boundary at 1,726 m AMSL, and declines to 1,524 m over a horizontal distance of 6.5 km, a northeast to southwest slope gradient of -31 m/km (1.8°). Further to the east, the Coyote Wash flows on the Qaf4 unit, then begins to incise into it at 1,530 m AMSL. The surface of the unit is from about 16 m to 24 m above the local Qaf1 active channels. Unit thickness is 14 m near the apex of the fans and typically thins to about 2 m where the eroded distal toe of the fans outcrop. | 1.2.4.4 | DMUUnit1 | Qaf4 | Qaf4 | 255-255-190 | 255-0-0 602 gravel | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly coarse-grained | High | DMU17 |
| 14 | Qaf5 | Alluvial-fan deposits No. 5 | Alluvial-fan deposits No. 5 | upper Middle Pleistocene | Deposits of this unit cap prominent, topographically inverted mesa remnants and sinuous ridgelines clustered in the northwest quadrant of the map area west of East Salt Creek. The surfaces of these remnants rise in elevation northward towards the Book Cliffs. The highest surface elevations of these mesa remnants range from 1,590 m to 1,672 m AMSL. The unit surface elevation is about 10 to 14 m above the Qaf4 surface. Thicknesses are similar to the adjacent Qaf4 unit. | 1.2.4.5 | DMUUnit1 | Qaf5 | Qaf5 | 255-255-190 | 76-230-0 602 gravel | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly coarse-grained | High | DMU18 |
| 15 | Qaf6 | Alluvial-fan deposits No. 6 | Alluvial-fan deposits No. 6 | upper Middle Pleistocene | Unit occurs in erosional remnants of gravel that cap isolated mesas and narrow ridgelines of Mancos Shale at the divide of Mack Wash and Coyote Wash and isolated buttes in the northeast corner of the map area below the Book Cliffs, where the highest elevation surface is 1,696 m. The base of the gravel unit is locally cemented to a conglomerate. The southward slope gradient of this alluvial-fan surface is -45 m/km (2.6°) in the northwest corner of the map area that flattens to -18 m/km (1.0°) along Coyote Wash. The unit surface elevation is about 20 m above the Qaf5 surface. Thickness was measured up to 12 m. | 1.2.4.6 | DMUUnit1 | Qaf6 | Qaf6 | 255-255-190 | 168-168-0 602 gravel | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly coarse-grained | High | DMU19 |
| 18 | None | EOLIAN DEPOSITS | EOLIAN DEPOSITS | None | None | 1.3 | DMUHeading2 | None | None | None | None | DAS1 | None | None | DMU20 |
| 19 | Qeo | Old eolian deposits | Old eolian deposits | Upper Pleistocene | Light-red to orange-red (Munsell 10YR 6/8 to 2.5YR7/8) silt, clay, and very fine-grained sand that thinly mantle gentle slopes underlain by Mancos Shale. Unit was deposited by wind and reworked by slope processes. Reddish hues may be related to soil development. Local chalk-colored exposures along slopes are formed by erosion and exposure of well-developed Bk soil horizons. This unit is only mapped on Qaf4 surfaces, but very thin deposits (<1-m thick) and discontinuous mantles of loess on other surfaces of older Qg, Qaf, and Qaco units were not mapped. Unit Qeo has more extensive vegetation cover than the surrounding hills of Mancos Shale. Unit thickness is generally less than 2 m where it overlies the Qaf4 unit. | 1.3.1 | DMUUnit1 | Qeo | Qeo | 230-230-0 | None | DAS1 | Loess | High | DMU21 |
| 20 | None | ALLUVIAL/COLLUVIAL DEPOSITS | ALLUVIAL/COLLUVIAL DEPOSITS | None | None | 1.4 | DMUHeading2 | None | None | None | None | DAS1 | None | None | DMU22 |
| 21 | Qac | Alluvial and colluvial deposits | Alluvial and colluvial deposits | Holocene | Tan-gray, unconsolidated, poorly sorted to unsorted silt, clay, and sand that is primarily deposited on hillsides and in swales chiefly by sheetwash and mass-movement processes. The deposit may locally contain abundant sandstone chips where sediment is derived from the Prairie Canyon Member of the Mancos Shale (Kmp), or larger dispersed pebble, cobble, and small boulder-sized (0.5 m) sandstone clasts where the sediment is derived from the erosion of older gravel that cap adjacent mesa remnants. Thickness is highly variable and likely does not exceed 2 m. | 1.4.1 | DMUUnit1 | Qac | Qac | 215-215-158 | 255-0-197 601 gravel | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly coarse-grained | High | DMU23 |
| 22 | Qaco | Old alluvial and colluvial deposits | Old alluvial and colluvial deposits | Upper to Middle Pleistocene | Reddish tan, unconsolidated silt, clay, and sand with lesser amounts of dispersed, matrix-supported pebble-sized clasts as well as scattered cobble to small boulders in size (<0.5 m) reworked from adjacent and higher older deposits of Qg and Qaf. Deposit may locally contain abundant sandstone disc-shaped chips (up to 1-cm thick and 6-cm wide). Unit deposits are poorly sorted, very weakly stratified, and the sandstone-chip flat-pebble clasts are of local upslope origin. The deposit accumulates on gentle to moderate slopes (≤10° but averaging about 4°) where wind and sheetwash settings predominate. The unit may mantle surfaces where shale slopes abut against and atop relict hillside fan surfaces. The unit locally includes reworked red (Munsell 2.5YR 7/8) loess, and clay and sandstone-chip residuum in slope-derived sediments eroded from Prairie Canyon (Kmp) bedrock. Exposures are poor, but a chalky-white band along slope breaks reveal Bk soil development. Deposits of the Qaco unit are time transgressive and were derived from sediments eroding from adjacent older Qg and Qaf units. The higher elevations above the adjacent stream levels indicate significant incision post deposition and, together with the well developed carbonate soil horizon, the deposits are inferred to likely be late to middle Pleistocene in age. Thickness is variable but likely does not exceed 2 m. Mancos Shale bedrock residuum may be locally exposed within the unit. | 1.4.2 | DMUUnit1 | Qaco | Qaco | 255-255-115 | 230-0-0 605 breccia | DAS1 | Alluvial sediment, mostly coarse-grained | High | DMU24 |
| 23 | Qc | Colluvial deposits | Colluvial deposits | Holocene | Tan-gray, unsorted, non- to very poorly stratified, cobbly gravel-sized rock fragments with minor small boulders (<1 m) deposited primarily by gravity on and along the base of steeper slopes near the angle of repose (≤34°). Deposit generally occurs along the flanks of Qaf-mantled mesas and ridgelines and may locally include conglomerate blocks downslope of older gravel-capped mesas where conglomeratic intervals outcrop. Deposit has an unsorted clayey sandy matrix that was transported by overland sheet flow that mobilized relatively fine-grained material. Thickness is variable but likely less than 3 m. This unit also includes talus deposits in the Book Cliffs. | 1.4.3 | DMUUnit1 | Qc | Qc | 255-235-175 | None | DAS1 | Colluvium and other widespread mass-movement sediment | High | DMU25 |
| 36 | Qco | Older colluvial deposits | Older colluvial deposits | Lower Holocene to Upper Pleistocene | This unit is like Qc deposits above but are older. The sandstone clasts in these older deposits armor the shale slope, and thereby resists erosion to form flatiron-type facets that interrupt the otherwise smooth, evenly graded shale hillslope. Deposit typically has a developed Bk soil horizon, and the clasts have calcic coatings. Thickness is variable but typically about 2 m. In some locations, shale bedrock residuum may be exposed. | 1.4.4 | DMUUnit1 | Qco | Qco | 240-214-119 | None | DAS1 | Colluvium and other widespread mass-movement sediment | High | DMU26 |
| 24 | None | BEDROCK GEOLOGY | BEDROCK GEOLOGY | None | None | 2 | DMUHeading1 | None | None | None | None | DAS1 | None | None | DMU27 |
| 25 | Kicz | Corcoran and Cozzette Members of the Iles Formation, undivided | Corcoran and Cozzette Members of the Iles Formation, undivided | Upper Cretaceous | Sandstone, mudstone, marine shale, carbonaceous shale and the | 2.1 | DMUUnit1 | Kicz | Kicz | 147-185-25 | None | DAS1 | Sandstone and mudstone | High | DMU28 |
| 26 | None | Mancos Shale | Mancos Shale | Upper Cretaceous | The Mancos Shale in the Highline Lake area contains named lithologic units that are transitional from Colorado to Utah nomenclature. Member units in Utah have been historically carried into Northwest Colorado, south of the Uinta Basin and into the Grand Valley (Molenaar and Cobban, 1991; Cole and others, 1997). The units used in this map reflects lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic work by the USGS (Merewether and others 2006; USGS core drilling in the Uncompahgre Valley of Montrose County (Ball and others, 2010) and recent 1:24,000-scale mapping by the Colorado Geological Survey in nearby Grand Valley, Whitewater, and Delta quadrangles (Livaccari and Hodge, 2009; White and others, 2014; White, 2014; Noe and others, 2015; White and others, 2015) that separates informal member units of the Mancos Shale carried over from the Pierre Shale equivalents along the Front Range and the Mancos/Mesa Verde N.P. area in southwestern Colorado (Leckie and others, 1997). The equivalent Utah Mancos members mapped near the state border (Gualtieri, 1988; Willis, 1994; Cole and others, 1997) are shown in heading parentheses. The shale is heavily fractured where bedrock exposures occur, and secondary gypsum (selenite) fracture filling is common. The shale also locally contains thin to very thin beds of bentonite. Expansive clay mineralogy creates swelling-soil hazards in shale bedrock and any derived sediment. The "fat" clay (high plasticity) soils become greasy, cohesive, and clump when wetted, making walking and vehicle access difficult. | 2.2 | DMUHeading3 | None | None | None | None | DAS1 | None | High | DMU29 |
| 27 | Kmse | Sego Sandstone Member with upper Mancos Shale tongue | Sego Sandstone Member with upper Mancos Shale tongue | Upper Cretaceous | This unit includes the Sego Sandstone and an overlying thick tongue of the Mancos Shale. The base of the unit is marked by the first occurrence of thin interbedded sandstone beds within the upper Mancos Shale (Kmu) that coarsen up section to thicker and more resistant shoreface sandstone beds, which prominently crop out as a near-vertical bench in the upper Mancos Shale slope. The Sego Sandstone is buff colored, planar- to swaly-cross-stratified, very fine- to medium-grained, thin- to medium-bedded sandstone interbedded with dark-gray, silty to sandy shale. Gutter casts are present in the lower sandstone beds interbedded with shale. Higher in the unit, sandstone beds predominate, are primarily medium grained, and become thickly bedded. The sandstone portion is 23 m thick and forms the first sandstone bench of the Book Cliffs above the Mancos Shale slopes in the map area. The top of sandstone is in sharp contact with the overlying dark-gray fissile non-calcareous tongue of the Mancos Shale. A horizon of concretions, like the Kmu unit description below, occurs in this shale interval. The shale tongue interval is about 55 m thick, making the combined thickness of the map unit 78 m. | 2.2.1 | DMUUnit2 | Kmse | Kmse | 115-115-0 | None | DAS1 | Sandstone and mudstone | High | DMU30 |
| 28 | Kmu | Upper part of the Mancos Shale (Upper Blue Gate Member) | Upper part of the Mancos Shale (Upper Blue Gate Member) | Upper Cretaceous | Dark-gray to gray-black, non-calcareous, broadly banded shale. The shale is finely fissile where weathered and near surface; however, with increasing depth and (or) freshly exposed in ravines, the shale partings are curvilinear with shale breaking into blocky, platy, to sub-spheroidal fragments. Bentonite beds and secondary crystalline gypsum are common. Orange-brown dolomite concretions occur, most typically in concretionary horizons in bedding; some are fossiliferous; some as large as 2-m in diameter. The lower part of the unit becomes increasingly gray-black and bentonitic, and lithostratigraphically equivalent to the Sharon Springs Member mapped in the North Delta quadrangle (Noe and others, 2015). Bedrock color change from the gray-black shale to tan-gray and the first presence of widespread sandstone lamina and concpicuous concretionary horizons of the top of the Kmp unit mark the basal contact with the Prairie Canyon Member (Kms). This unit does not correlate with the named Kmu unit (lower undivided members of the Mancos Shale) of Livaccari and Hodge (2009). The unit is about 428 m thick. | 2.2.2 | DMUUnit2 | Kmu | Kmu | 179-204-128 | None | DAS1 | Mudstone | High | DMU31 |
| 29 | Kmp | Prairie Canyon Member | Prairie Canyon Member | Upper Cretaceous | Tan-gray to dark-gray, non-calcareous, silty to sandy shale and interlaminated to thinly interbedded, very fine- to fine-grained, non- to slightly calcareous sandstone. Lenticular to flaser bedding is common. Lenticular sandstone lamina chips typically litter hill slopes; some have wavy pinch-and-swell forms and marine burrow ichnofossils. A typical sandstone chip is less than 1-cm thick and 6-cm wide, but sandstone beds can locally be up to 7-cm thick. The unit contains thin to very thin beds of bentonite and resistant, planar, <1-m thick, orange-brown ferrous dolomite beds. The concretionary dolomite beds have lumpy bases and are laterally discontinuous. However, the beds are well indurated compared to the sandy shale and resists weathering to hold up the slope, creating dipslope hillsides and cuestas. From a type section measured and described near this map area, Cole and others (1997) formally described this Mancos Shale Member, previously referred to as the “Mancos B.” This sandy unit forms conspicuous, tan-colored, low, dendritically incised hills and ridges in the map area. Near the unit top are two horizons of large (1.5 to 2 m diameter) septarian dolomite concretions that contain clear to translucent calcite and locally include clear, bluish-to-reddish-brown barite crystals. Mineral collectors prospect these concretions in the Grand Valley. Cessation of interlaminated sandstone, darker gray color change, the first presence of calcareous shale and light-gray shaly limestone beds mark the basal contact with the Smoky Hill Member (Kms). Cole and others (1997) report that the contact is also very well defined on subsurface geophysical logs. There is a general flattening of topography at the base of the unit, the trend of which the alignment of the Government Highline Canal approximates. Unit is about 306 m thick (Cole and others (1997). | 2.2.3 | DMUUnit2 | Kmp | Kmp | 211-255-190 | None | DAS1 | Mostly mudstone | High | DMU32 |
| 30 | Kms | Smoky Hill Member (equivalent to Lower Blue Gate Member) | Smoky Hill Member (equivalent to Lower Blue Gate Member) | Upper Cretaceous | Dark-gray to gray-black, finely fissile, speckled, moderately to very calcareous, poorly indurated shale; light-gray, platy to subblocky, poorly to moderately indurated, shaly limestone; and an interval of interlaminated, moderately cemented, very fine to fine-grained sandstone not present in the map area but reported in the adjacent Mack and Badger Wash quadrangles (White and others, 2015; White, 2024) where the lower stratigraphic interval was present. Unit contains sporadic thin beds (≤6 cm) of bentonite. Thick-shelled, prismatic | 2.2.4 | DMUUnit2 | Kms | Kms | 128-204-77 | None | DAS1 | Mudstone | High | DMU33 |
| 31 | Kml | Lower part of the Mancos Shale (Ferron Sandstone and Tunuck Member), undivided | Lower part of the Mancos Shale (Ferron Sandstone and Tunuck Member), undivided | Upper Cretaceous | Includes the Montezuma and Juana Lopez members (equivalent to Ferron Sandstone Member), and the Blue Hill, Coon Springs Sandstone, Bridge Creek Limestone, and Graneros members (equivalent to Tunuck Member). Shown in cross section only. | 2.2.5 | DMUUnit2 | Kml | Kml | 178-204-46 | None | DAS1 | Mostly mudstone | High | DMU34 |
| 32 | Kdb | Dakota Sandstone (equivalent to Naturita Formation) and Burro Canyon Formation | Dakota Sandstone (equivalent to Naturita Formation) and Burro Canyon Formation | Upper to Lower Cretaceous | Shown in cross section only. | 2.3 | DMUUnit1 | Kdb | Kdb | 178-178-102 | None | DAS1 | Mostly sandstone | High | DMU35 |
| 33 | Mz | Undivided formations of the Jurassic and Triassic | Undivided formations of the Jurassic and Triassic | Jurassic to Triassic | Shown in cross section only. Includes the Morrison, Wanakah, Entrada, Kayenta, Wingate, and Chinle formations. | 2.4 | DMUUnit1 | Mz | Mz | 179-235-235 | None | DAS1 | Sandstone and mudstone | High | DMU36 |
| 34 | Xu | Undivided Precambrian rocks of the Uncompahgre Uplift | Undivided Precambrian rocks of the Uncompahgre Uplift | Paleoproterozoic | Gneiss and migmatitic metamorphic rocks (Scott and other, 2001; White and others, 2015). Shown in cross section only. | 2.5 | DMUUnit1 | Xu | Xu | 179-153-153 | None | DAS1 | Igneous and metamorphic rock | High | DMU37 |
| 39 | water | water | water | None | None | 3 | None | None | None | None | None | DAS1 | None | None | DMU38 |
| OBJECTID | Term | Definition | DefinitionSourceID | Glossary_ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | AGE | the length of time during which a being or thing has existed; length of life or existence to the time spoken of or referred to | DICT1 | GLO01 |
| 24 | Bedding | Bedding refers to a measurement convention used to describe the orientation, or attitude, of a planar geologic feature. A feature's strike is the azimuth of an imagined horizontal line across the plane, and its dip is the angle of inclination measured downward from horizontal. | AGI | GLO02 |
| 26 | Borrow area | An area where soil, gravel, or sand is collected to provide material for construction projects | DICT1 | GLO03 |
| 7 | boundary | A line that marks the limits of an area | DICT1 | GLO04 |
| 1 | certain | Identity of a feature can be determined using relevant observations and scientific judgment; therefore, one can be reasonably confident in the credibility of this interpretation. | FGDC-STD-013-2006 | GLO05 |
| 10 | contact | A geological contact is a boundary which separates one rock body from another. A contact can be formed during deposition, by the intrusion of magma, or through faulting or other deformation of rock beds that brings distinct rock bodies into contact. | AGI | GLO06 |
| 15 | Cross section | A graphic representation of the intersection of the geological bodies in the subsurface with a vertical plane of a certain orientation showing relationships between rock units | AGI | GLO07 |
| 11 | DEPOSIT TYPE | Groupings for surficial units in the CMU | DAS1 | GLO08 |
| 3 | DMUHeading0 | GeMS hierarchy formatting term | GeMS | GLO09 |
| 4 | DMUHeading1 | GeMS hierarchy formatting term | GeMS | GLO10 |
| 5 | DMUHeading2 | GeMS hierarchy formatting term | GeMS | GLO11 |
| 6 | DMUHeading3 | GeMS hierarchy formatting term | GeMS | GLO12 |
| 27 | DMUUnit1 | GeMS hierarchy formatting term | GeMS | GLO13 |
| 28 | DMUUnit2 | GeMS hierarchy formatting term | GeMS | GLO14 |
| 13 | Elev ft | A hatch mark shown on the edges of geologic cross sections to denote the elevation in feet | DICT1 | GLO15 |
| 21 | Elev m | A hatch mark shown on the edges of geologic cross sections to denote the elevation in meters | DICT1 | GLO16 |
| 19 | Estimated from LiDAR | Bedding refers to a measurement convention used to describe the orientation, or attitude, of a planar geologic feature. A feature's strike is the azimuth of an imagined horizontal line across the plane, and its dip is the angle of inclination measured downward from horizontal. These measurements determined remotely or from aerial photographs | GeMS | GLO17 |
| 29 | fault | A discrete surface or zone of discrete surfaces separating two rock masses across which one mass has slid past the other. | AGI | GLO26 |
| 23 | Fault_mvmnt | Cartographic symbols showing the relative offset on the fault | DAS1 | GLO18 |
| 25 | gravel quarry | A gravel quarry is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. | AGI | GLO19 |
| 30 | High | unusual or considerable in degree, power, intensity, etc. | DICT1 | GLO27 |
| 14 | O&G | An oil well is a boring in the Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas may be termed a gas well. | AGI | GLO20 |
| 18 | OSL | Optically-Stimulated Luminescence is a late Quaternary dating technique used to date the last time quartz sediment was exposed to light. As sediment is transported by wind, water, or ice, it is exposed to sunlight and zeroed of any previous luminescence signal. | AGI | GLO21 |
| 16 | Plunge arrow | Cartographic symbols showing the direction of plunge for the associated fold | DAS1 | GLO22 |
| 2 | questionable | Identity of a feature cannot be determined using relevant observations and scientific judgment; therefore, one cannot be reasonably confident in the credibility of this interpretation. For example, IdentityConfidence = questionable is appropriate when a geologist reasons "I can see some kind of planar feature that separates map units in this outcrop, but I cannot be certain if it is a contact or a fault." | FGDC-STD-013-2006 | GLO23 |
| 20 | syncline | A trough-shaped fold with youngest strata in the center | AGI | GLO24 |
| 22 | yr | the time taken by the earth to make one revolution around the sun | DICT1 | GLO25 |
| OBJECTID | MapProperty | MapPropertyValue | MiscellaneousMapInformation_ID |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PHYSIOGRAPHIC SETTING | The Highline Lake quadrangle is 20 km northwest of the town of Fruita and 15 km east of the Utah border in Mesa and Garfield Counties, Colorado. The quadrangle is located at the northwestern edge of the Grand Valley where agricultural lands are irrigated by the Government Highline Canal. The Grand Valley is a topographically low area of subdued hills and badlands that lie between the Uncompahgre Plateau and the Book Cliffs. Access to the quadrangle map area is best from U.S. Highway 6&50 to State Highway (SH) 139 that continues to head north through the Book Cliffs to Douglas Pass. The Colorado Highline Lake State Park lies wholly within the map area. This reservoir is fed by water from the nearby Highline Canal. The topography in the map area is wide and subdued flats, low hills, and low (<45-m high) mesas capped with Pleistocene alluvial-fan and fluvial terrace gravel that are now topographically inverted. In the map area, the Highline Canal approximates the stratigraphic contact of the Smoky Hill (Kms) and Prairie Canyon (Kmp) members in the Mancos Shale. Canal builders took advantage of the stratigraphic transition from flat lands underlain by the Kms unit (now irrigated agricultural lands) to the overlying Kmp where the shale becomes sandier, more resistant to weathering, and develops landforms of low hills and ridgelines that rise from 70 to 90 m above the irrigated lands. These hills are typically eroded in a shallow dendritic drainage pattern. The major drainage creeks in the map area are either intermittent or ephemeral, including East Salt Creek, Mack Wash, and Coyote Wash. The confluence of East Salt and West Salt creeks occurs 1.7 km beyond the southwestern map boundary where the Salt Creek thalweg extends an additional 5 km to its confluence with the Colorado River in Ruby Canyon. The highest elevation within the Highline Lake quadrangle is 1,848.3 m above mean sea level (AMSL) at the northeastern map boundary within the mid-elevation escarpment of the Book Cliffs. The lowest is 1,382.3 m AMSL at the southwestern map boundary where the present East Salt Creek channel last passes though the map area. The climate is arid and vegetation outside of irrigated areas is sparse. The landscape is adobe-type badlands that are common in west-central Colorado where surface exposures of the underlying Mancos Shale bedrock occur in arid climates, which include the wide valleys of Grand Valley (Colorado River) and the Gunnison and Uncompahgre rivers. The annual precipitation (National Centers for Environmental Information) ranges from 20 to 30 cm in the map area. | MMI01 |
| 2 | GEOLOGIC SETTING | The geologic setting of Highland Lake quadrangle is similar to the adjacent Badger Wash quadrangle (White and Perman, 2024). The basal bedrock unit exposed in the map area is the Late Cretaceous Mancos Shale, specifically the upper stratigraphic members. The marine shale was deposited during the transgression of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway (CWIS) (Franczyk and others, 1992). Regressive and transgressive sequences of the western shoreline of the CWIS deposited overlying terrestrial and near-shore sediments that formed the thick package of sandstone, shale, and coal of the Iles and Williams Fork formations. These rocks, more resistant to weathering, formed the Book Cliffs escarpment that is exposed in the northeast corner of the map area. Off map to the south, faulting and monoclinal folding of the northeast front of the Uncompahgre Uplift exposes earlier Mesozoic rocks and Proterozoic basement rocks of the Uncompahgre Plateau in the Colorado National Monument (Scott and others, 2001) and the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area south of the Colorado River (White and others, 2015). The exposed package of Triassic and Jurassic sedimentary rocks includes the basal Triassic Chinle Formation, which lies nonconformably on the Proterozoic basement rocks (Xu). This type of unconformity reflects a loss of a stratigraphic rock interval during an earlier Pennsylvanian-Permian orogeny that uplifted the Ancestral Uncompahgre Mountains. The earlier Paleozoic sedimentary rocks were exposed in the ancestral uplift and subsequently eroded away over millions of years. The Triassic Period ground surface in the Mesozoic Era was beveled to a peneplain eroded in crystalline Proterozoic basement rocks prior to the deposition of terrestrial and later marine and near-shore Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. It was these rocks that were later uplifted during the Late Cretaceous-Paleogene Laramide Orogeny when the faulting and folding of the present Uncompahgre uplift occurred. During this orogeny, another syndepositional package of terrestrial Paleogene and Neogene rocks were also deposited nearby, which included volcanic flows in some areas. Subsequently, erosion in the Grand Valley area formed the present Uncompahgre Plateau to the south, the Book Cliffs and Roan Cliffs to the north, and Grand Mesa (capped by Neogene basalt of the Grand Mesa Volcanic Field). The broad Grand Valley was formed by differential, late Neogene through Quaternary erosion that caused long-term ground lowering by the incision of the Colorado River and its tributaries where the easily erodible Mancos shale is(was) exposed at the surface (Aslan and others, 2019). The structural geology of the Highline Lake quadrangle reflects the regional faulting along the general northwest to southeast trend of the Uncompahgre Uplift. The general dip of the strata is to the north to northeast towards the Unita and Piceance basins. Structural data was difficult to obtain because of the weathering of the exposed shale bedrock. However, useful attitudes of the bedrock were gained from exposures of sandstone beds of the lower Book Cliffs, tabular sandy dolomite concretionary beds, very thin beds of bentonite, and where thinly interbedded sandstone beds of the Prairie Canyon Member were exposed. The major structural feature in the map area is the Garmesa fold (Krey, 1962), a paired anticlinal and synclinal fold within the upper Mancos Shale near the Book Cliffs escarpment. Other minor synclinal and anticlinal structures in Krey (1962) such as the Highline Canal anticline could not be identified in the field. The fault trends mapped at the adjacent Badger Wash quadrangle (White and Perman, 2024) do not occur in this quadrangle. Only minor faulting and structural bending of strike were noted where dolomitic concretionary bedding was offset, or strike of beds markedly changed from 271° to 316° azimuth. | MMI02 |
| 3 | WATER RESOURCES | Water resources of the Highline Lake quadrangle are minimal. The underlying Mancos Shale members are not water bearing and the water quality of older Mesozoic rocks at depth is poor. The stream channels only flow intermittently during high precipitation events. Homeowners on private lands along 16 and S roads must haul potable water to their properties. The cobble aquifer of lower Colorado River terrace gravels of the Grand Valley is not present in the map area. This buried water-bearing cobble deposit ends where the Colorado River has incised into Horsethief Canyon between Fruita and Mack (Butler and others, 1996). | MMI03 |
| 4 | MINERAL RESOURCES | Oil and gas resources lie in the Highline Lake quadrangle. The Garmesa gas field occurs within the map area (Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC)). This field was developed in the structural terrain mapped and described by Krey (1962). For most of the oil and gas wells, the total depth was in the Entrada Sandstone and production predominantly occurred from the Dakota Sandstone (Naturita Formation) and Burro Canyon Formation (Kdb) and the Entrada Sandstone (Je). These units are not exposed in the map area but are shown in the cross section. Within the Mancos Shale, the Niobrara Member may have oil and gas potential using horizontal well drilling and hydraulic-fracturing (fracking) completion techniques. There are small gravel pits and quarries in some mesa surfaces underlain by old (Qg) gravels, but the quality is poor, being composed of only less-durable sandstone clasts eroded from the Mesaverde Group rocks exposed in the Book Cliffs. | MMI04 |
| 5 | GEOLOGIC HAZARDS | Potential geologic hazards in the map area are primarily the risks of mud flows and debris flows. The channel floors of the intermittent streams, especially near the base of the Book Cliffs escarpment, show evidence of flooding, scour, and bouldery gravel debris deposition. The Mancos Shale contains bentonite and other expansive clay minerals. Clayey surficial deposits (soils) derived from the shale may be expansive (swelling soils). Some silty to clayey sand deposits may also be low density and may be collapsible and settle upon wetting (hydrocompactive soils). Unimproved dirt road and 4WD tracks in the adobe badlands become impassable when they are wet and the clay soils becomes increasingly slick, greasy, and clump to tires and shoes. The marine shale may also be high in sulfates and possibly corrosive to unprotected concrete and steel. High selenium levels and other dissolved solids have been reported in irrigation return waters in the Mancos Shale (Butler and others, 1996). Site-specific geotechnical investigations, including bore holes and soil testing, should be conducted for structures planned in the Mancos Shale or in clayey soils derived from it. | MMI05 |
| 6 | PREVIOUS GEOLOGIC MAPPING | The preparation of this map was aided by the review of previous geologic mapping conducted in the area. The geology of the Highline Lake quadrangle was previously mapped at limited, small-scale extents at 1:100,000 scale by Ellis and Gabaldo (1989) and at the 1:250,000 scale (1° by 2°) by Cashion (1973). Krey (1962) included a small-scale structural map of the area. On adjacent 1:24,000-scale quadrangles, the geology of the Mack quadrangle to the south was mapped by White and others (2015), the Fruita quadrangle to the southeast by Livaccari and Hodge (2009) and to the west, the Badger Wash quadrangle by White and Perman (2024). Highline Lake quadrangle and the adjacent 1:24,000-scale quadrangles cited above are part of a multi-year geologic mapping program of the Grand Valley by the Colorado Geological Survey. The 1:24,000-scale quadrangle locations are shown on the Plate 1 index map. | MMI06 |
| 7 | ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | The bulk of the property of the Highline Lake quadrangle is on federal lands administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The authors thank Alan Martinez and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife for allowing access to the Highline Lake State Park. Lidar imagery used for this map is standard one-meter resolution (QL2) digital elevation model (DEM) produced through the USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP). High-resolution orthorectified aerial photography and land-parcel data was downloaded from the Mesa County GIS Department web site: https://www.mesacounty.us/departments-and-services/gis. Dr. Steven Forman and the Baylor Geolumescence Dating Research Lab provided OSL analyses for this map. Pangaea Geospatial produced the map plates and GIS files for this publication. This map publication benefited from reviews by Dr. Rex Cole (Emeritus professor, Colorado Mesa University) and Dr. Joanna Redwine and Matthew Morgan of the Colorado Geological Survey. | MMI07 |
| 8 | REFERENCES | Aslan, A., Karlstrom, K.E., Kirby, Eric, Heizler, M.T., Granger, D.E., Feathers, J.K., Hanson, P.R., and Mahan, S.A., 2019, Resolving time-space histories of Late Cenozoic bedrock incision along the Upper Colorado River, USA: Geomorphology, v. 347, pp. 1-26. URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2019.106855
Ball, B.A., Cobban, W.A., Merewether, E.A., Grauch, R.I., McKinney, K.C., and Livo, K.E., 2010, Fossils, lithologies, and geophysical logs of the Mancos Shale from core hole USGS CL-1 in Montrose County, Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2009-1294, 38 p.
Butler, D.L., Wright, W.G., Stewart, K.C., Osmundson, B.C., Krueger, R.P., and Crabtree, D.W., 1996, Detailed study of selenium and other constituents in water, bottom sediment, soil, alfalfa, and biota associated with irrigation drainage in the Uncompahgre Project Area and in the Grand Valley, west-central Colorado, 1991-1993: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigation Report 96-4138, 136 p.
Cashion, W.B., 1973, Geologic and structure map of the Grand Junction quadrangle, Colorado and Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Geologic Investigations Map I-736, scale 1:250,000, URL: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/proddesc_9492.htm
Cole, R.D., Young, R.G., and Willis, G.C., 1997, The Prairie Canyon Member, a new unit of the Upper Cretaceous Mancos Shale, west-central Utah: Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 97-4, 23 p.
Colorado Division of Water Resources, DWR Well Permit Research Viewer, URL: https://gis.colorado.gov/dnrviewer/Index.html?viewer=dwrwellpermit.
Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission, GIS online ECMC interactive map, URL: https://cogccmap.state.co.us/cogcc_gis_online/
Ellis, M.S., and Gabaldo, V., 1989, Geologic map and cross sections of parts of the Grand Junction and Delta 30' x 60' quadrangles, west-central Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Coal Investigations Map C-124, scale 1:100,000.
Franczyk, K.J., Fouch, T.D., Johnson, R.C., Molenar, C.M., and Cobban, W.A., 1992, Cretaceous and Tertiary paleogeographic reconstructions for the Uinta-Piceance study area, Colorado and Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1787-Q, 37 p.
Galbraith, R.F. and Roberts, R.G., 2012, Statistical aspects of equivalent dose and error calculations and display in OSL dating: An overview and some recommendations: Quaternary Geochronology, v. 11, pp. 1-27.
Gualtieri, J.L., 1988, Geologic map of the Westwater 30' X 60' quadrangle, Grand and Uintah Counties, Utah and Garfield and Mesa Counties, Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey, Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map I-1765, scale 1:100,000.
Krey, M., 1962, North flank Uncompahgre Arch, Mesa and Garfield counties, Colorado, | MMI08 |
| 9 | AUTHORS | Jonathan L. White and Andrew P. Schmidt | MMI09 |
| 10 | TITLE | GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE HIGHLINE LAKE QUADRANGLE, MESA AND GARFIELD COUNTIES, COLORADO | MMI10 |
| 11 | OF NUMBER | 24-06 | MMI11 |
| 12 | STATEMAP AGREEMENT | GS23AS00050 | MMI12 |
| 13 | REF1 | Aslan, A., Karlstrom, K.E., Kirby, Eric, Heizler, M.T., Granger, D.E., Feathers, J.K., Hanson, P.R., and Mahan, S.A., 2019, Resolving time-space histories of Late Cenozoic bedrock incision along the Upper Colorado River, USA: Geomorphology, v. 347, pp. 1-26. URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2019.106855 | MMI13 |
| 14 | REF2 | Ball, B.A., Cobban, W.A., Merewether, E.A., Grauch, R.I., McKinney, K.C., and Livo, K.E., 2010, Fossils, lithologies, and geophysical logs of the Mancos Shale from core hole USGS CL-1 in Montrose County, Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2009-1294, 38 p. | MMI14 |
| 15 | REF3 | Butler, D.L., Wright, W.G., Stewart, K.C., Osmundson, B.C., Krueger, R.P., and Crabtree, D.W., 1996, Detailed study of selenium and other constituents in water, bottom sediment, soil, alfalfa, and biota associated with irrigation drainage in the Uncompahgre Project Area and in the Grand Valley, west-central Colorado, 1991-1993: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigation Report 96-4138, 136 p. | MMI15 |
| 16 | REF4 | Cashion, W.B., 1973, Geologic and structure map of the Grand Junction quadrangle, Colorado and Utah: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Geologic Investigations Map I-736, scale 1:250,000, URL: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/proddesc_9492.htm | MMI16 |
| 17 | REF5 | Cole, R.D., Young, R.G., and Willis, G.C., 1997, The Prairie Canyon Member, a new unit of the Upper Cretaceous Mancos Shale, west-central Utah: Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 97-4, 23 p. | MMI17 |
| 18 | REF6 | Colorado Division of Water Resources, DWR Well Permit Research Viewer, URL: https://gis.colorado.gov/dnrviewer/Index.html?viewer=dwrwellpermit. | MMI18 |
| 19 | REF7 | Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission, GIS online ECMC interactive map, URL: https://cogccmap.state.co.us/cogcc_gis_online/ | MMI19 |
| 20 | REF8 | Ellis, M.S., and Gabaldo, V., 1989, Geologic map and cross sections of parts of the Grand Junction and Delta 30' x 60' quadrangles, west-central Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Coal Investigations Map C-124, scale 1:100,000. | MMI20 |
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| OBJECTID | Field_number | Depth__m_ | BG_Lab_number | Aliquots_sup_a__sup_ | Grain_size__μm_ | Equivalent_Dose__De___Gy__sup_b | Overdispersion_____sup_c__sup_ | U__ppm__sup_d__sup_ | Th__ppm__sup_d__sup_ | K2O_____sup_d__sup_ | H20____ | Cosmic_Dose_Rate__mGray_yr__sup | Dose_Rate__mGray_yr_ | SAR_OSL_age__yr__sup_f__sup_ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HL-421 | 5.5 | 5966 | 11/11 | 150-250 | >151 | NA | 3.09 ± 0.01 | 8.27 ± 0.01 | 1.76 ± 0.01 | 25 ± 5 | 0.153± 0.015 | 2.60 ± 0.08 | >58,100 |
| 2 | HL-421 | 5.5 | 5966TT | 14/16 | 150-250 | 253.24 ± 19.99 | 28 ± 6 | 3.09 ± 0.01 | 8.27 ± 0.01 | 1.76 ± 0.01 | 25 ± 5 | 0.153± 0.015 | 2.60 ± 0.08 | 97,330 ± 8,040 |
| 3 | HL-309 | 4.6 | 5880 | 32/35 | 100-250 | 12.28 ± 0.80 | 28 ± 4 | 1.82 ± 0.01 | 6.28 ± 0.01 | 1.58 ± 0.01 | 15 ± 3 | 0.169± 0.017 | 1.79 ± 0.05 | 6,085 ± 435 |
| 4 | HL-311 | 4.5 | 5887 | 32/35 | 150-250 | 2.60 ± 1.03 | 47 ± 7 | 2.05 ± 0.01 | 6.38 ± 0.01 | 1.62 ± 0.01 | 25 ± 5 | 0.170 ± 0.017 | 1.90 ± 0.08 | 1,350 ± 80 |