Erosion along Colorado's Front Range During the Past 15 Million Years

Uploaded: June 4, 2015, 1:13 p.m. | Modified: June 22, 2019, 3:20 p.m. | Albums: Other
This video shows how much the landscape of Colorado's Front Range has changed due to erosion during the past 15 million years. This video is set in the town of Golden, just west of Denver, but conditions were fairly similar all along the Front Range. 15 million years ago, ground level was 2,000 feet higher than it is today and the area was covered with dense forests. Rivers and streams carried away sediment, which was eventually deposited in the Gulf of Mexico, and the modern landscape formed.

The cross section shows faults that developed as the Rocky Mountains were uplifted during the Laramide Orogeny some 60 million years ago. Some of the vertically-upturned rock layers can be seen as hogbacks along highway 93 in Golden.