Examining Spatial Patterns of Exhumation in Colorado's Elk Mountains During the Late Miocene Using Apatite (U-Th)/He Thermochronology

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/q237hs38d

Abstract

Spatial patterns of the magnitude and rate of exhumation occurring during the late Miocene are examined using Apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe) Thermochronology. AHe date-elevation data collected from the Whiterock pluton in the southwest Elk Range suggests that roughly 1 km of rock cooled through the Helium partial retention zone (HePRZ) from 13-8 Ma. The Whiterock AHe data is consistent with previous AHe thermochronology from the Elk Mountains, and suggests that the Elks experienced continuous exhumation from 15-7 Ma. Exhumation rates in the Elk Range are compared to the surrounding region in order to get a spatially integrated sense of the magnitude and rate of erosion in west-central Colorado from the late Miocene to the Present.

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