Colorado Laramide Highlands at 57 million years

This animation is an excerpt from the "Colorado Geology: Paleocene through late Eocene." video (in progress). This is a ** preliminary version** of a fly-around of the State of Colorado at about 57 Ma (late Paleocene).

The high mountains associated with the Laramide Orogeny are annotated, as well as the approximate locations of the known rivers.

The video demonstrates three concepts: (1) the distribution of high mountains of Colorado had some similarities to the high areas today, (2) Colorado had a more extensive flora during the late Paleocene (57 Ma), and (3) how Colorado evolved from a flat coastal plain area at 70 Ma to high mountains and adjacent low areas by 57 Ma (shown in the next version).

Map is based on the reconstruction of the Laramide highlands by Tweto (1980). Distribution of flora is based, in part, on the input of Kirk Johnson. A special thanks to Vince Matthews (retired State geologist) for technical input.

Video is created by Joseph Rogers and Paul Weimer.

Interactive Geology Project, University of Colorado-Boulder. igp.colorado.edu

Animation will be significantly updated in 2013.