Earth history along Colorado's Front Range: Salvaging geologic data in the suburbs and sharing it with the citizens

Abstract

The Denver Basin preserves >800 m of Laramide synorogenic strata, which record basin accommodation, orogenic topography, and resultant orographic climatic effects. The basin also records the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary event and the subsequent recovery of terrestrial ecosystems. Outcrops in the basin are modest and commonly consist of temporary construction-related excavations. The Denver Museum of Nature & Science has coordinated a decade-long multidisciplinary program that includes paleontological research, stratigraphic studies, aquifer analyses, and basin evolution studies in this area. As part of this effort, the synorogenic strata were continuously cored in 1999. Unusually diverse floras exhibiting rainforest physiognomy, episodic sedimentation linked to pulsed orogeny, and stratigraphic controls on aquifer distribution and quality have emerged from beneath the urbanizing landscape. Results of this work, summarized in painted reconstructions, have helped Colorado residents and museum visitors gain insight into past climates and settings, and have helped inform decisions regarding the ongoing development of the region.