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Colorado Plateau

View of western part of Colorado Plateau in central Utah. Shale slopes in the distance are capped by the Star Point Sandstone and coal-bearing Blackhawk Formation. (from PP1625B, Chapter A.)

The Colorado Plateau is a physiographic province of the U.S. roughly centered on the "Four Corners" area within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, southeastern Utah, and northern Arizona. The terraine is characterized by broad plateaus, ancient volcanic mountains and deeply dissected canyons including the Grand Canyon. The area is semiarid, sparsely vegetated, and sculpted by the Colorado River and its tributaries, the Green, Little Colorado, and San Juan rivers. The region contains substantial amounts of oil, gas, coal, oil shale, and uranium resources and includes the San Juan, Uinta-Piceance, and Paradox Basins and Wasatch, Black Mesa, and Kaiparowits plateau areas. This web site provides access to the diverse Energy Resources Program research activities and products within the Colorado Plateau Region.

NEW products
Facies Analysis and Sequence Stratigraphic Framework of Upper Campanian Strata (Neslen and Mount Garfield Formations, Bluecastle Tongue of the Castlegate Sandstone, and Mancos Shale), Eastern Book Cliffs, Colorado and Utah
By Kirschbaum, M.A., and Hettinger, R.D.
U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series DDS-69-G, Version 1.0, 58 p. [CD-ROM].

1 Reference(s) Found in This Search.

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Coal mining and gas production from coal deposits are important contributors to the generation of electric power in the United States. In the Western United States, large deposits of coal are concentrated in a coherent physiographic and geologic province known as the Colorado Plateau, located within the States of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. The Plateau is not only an important coal-mining region but also contains large natural gas resources that have been derived in part from the coal deposits. (See PP1625-B)

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The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently completed an assessment of the undiscovered oil and gas potential of the Uinta-Piceance Province of northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah. The assessment of the Uinta-Piceance Province is based on geologic principles and uses the total petroleum system concept. (See DDS 69-B)

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