Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Publication Date

6-1969

Abstract

The low hills and hogback ridges of the Creston Range form the southeastern edge of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Rocks ranging from Precambrian to Quaternary are exposed in the Creston Range. The Precambrian rocks consist of generally foliated, medium-grade metamorphics intruded by concordant, simple pegmatites. These rocks have been subjected to at least two episodes of deformation of Precambrian age. Approximately 9,000 feet of sedimentary rocks of Devonian (?)-Mississippian to Permian age that were deposited in an intracratonic basin to shelf environment are present. Tertiary-Quaternary rocks are represented by outliers of a basalt flow from the Ocate colcanic field to the northeast. Quaternary valley alluvium borders the range on the west and floors the drainages within the range.

The Creston Range is a partly eroded monoclinal fold produced by the vertical uplift of the Precambrian basement during the Laramide deformation. Vertical, high-angle reverse, and thrust faults are present at the Precambrian-Paleozoic contact and within the structurally complex Pennsylvanian Sandia Formation. The faults associated with the uplift of the range are upthrusts; the thrust and high-angle reverse faults steepen at depth. The compositional layering and foliation in the Precambrian rocks parallel the major Laramide structures in the range and probably controlled the location and trend of these structures.

The Mora River is a superposed stream let down from a Tertiary-Quaternary erosional surface; basalt-capped mesas preserve the only remnants of this surface in the map area.

Degree Name

Earth and Planetary Sciences

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

First Committee Member (Chair)

Lee A. Woodward

Second Committee Member

Vincent Cooper Kelley

Third Committee Member

Albert Masakiyo Kudo

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

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