Abstract
The Colorado Front Range is a north-south trending massif located in the central region of Colorado (refer to relief map in frontmatter). It is bounded on the east by the Denver Basin, on the north by the Wyoming state line, and on the west by North, Middle, and South Parks. In the south it merges with a complex highland overlooking South Park (Ives 1980). The Front Range is a Laramide structure with a core of crystalline rocks made of predominantly Precambrian granite, schist and gneiss. The core is framed by steeply dipping Paleozoic sediments (Figure 2.1; Lovering and Goddard 1959). The metamorphic schist and gneiss, thought to be of sedimentary origin, are the oldest rocks in the range. Together with the Precambrian granites these rock types make up most of the terrain in Rocky Mountain National Park (Cole 1977). A series of Tertiary porphyritic instrusive rocks are concentrated along the Front Range mineral belt. This narrow belt, extending southwestward from Boulder, contains realy all the productive mineral deposits of the Front Range. Another zone of intrusive rocks borders the northwestern corner of the national park and extends through the Cameron Pass area, but it has not produced ores of commercial value (Lovering and Goddard 1959). No valuable metal deposits have been found within the boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park.
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Baron, J., Mast, M.A. (1992). Regional Characterization and Setting for the Loch Vale Watershed Study. In: Baron, J. (eds) Biogeochemistry of a Subalpine Ecosystem. Ecological Studies, vol 90. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2788-5_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2788-5_2
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