Continuing Colorado plateau uplift by delamination-style convective lithospheric downwelling

A. Levander (), B. Schmandt, M. S. Miller, K. Liu, K. E. Karlstrom, R. S. Crow, C.-T. A. Lee and E. D. Humphreys
Additional contact information
A. Levander: Rice University
B. Schmandt: University of Oregon
M. S. Miller: University of Southern California
K. Liu: Rice University
K. E. Karlstrom: University of New Mexico
R. S. Crow: University of New Mexico
C.-T. A. Lee: Rice University
E. D. Humphreys: University of Oregon

Nature, 2011, vol. 472, issue 7344, 461-465

Abstract: Raising the Colorado plateau The Colorado plateau is intermediate in elevation between the adjacent Rocky Mountains and Basin and Range province, but unlike both these regions, which almost surround it, the plateau is largely undeformed. The causes and timing of the uplift of the Colorado Plateau to its current elevation of 2,000 metres are longstanding questions in Earth science. Levander et al. combine seismic tomography and receiver function images to resolve a vertical high-seismic-velocity anomaly beneath the west–central Colorado plateau, which extends to more than 200 kilometres in depth, topped by a dipping interface extending from the lower crust. They interpret this structure as an ongoing regional, delamination-style foundering of lower crust and continental lithosphere. Combined with Grand Canyon incision rates and Pliocene basaltic volcanism patterns, the new data suggest that this event has been active during the past 6 million years.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1038/nature10001

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