31 Stratigraphic Studies in the Colorado Plateau

This session features stratigraphic studies that resolve the geological history of modern and ancient sediment routing systems, and their processes, within the Colorado Plateau using data from field, analytical, experimental and/or numerical modeling investigations.

Tuesday, 19 May 2026
1:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Alvarado C

New Insight into Spatiotemporal Patterns of San Juan Basin Exhumation using (U-Th)/He Analysis

Paper number: 31-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:12 PM – 2:32 PM

Authors

Abstract

Located on the Colorado Plateau, the San Juan Basin (SJB) spans the state borders of southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. Recent interest in geothermal and CCUS in the SJB follows a decades-long history of continued petroleum, coal, and uranium production, associated data of which provides for a unique natural laboratory.  Formation of the SJB during the Laramide orogeny (~75 Ma) has previously been constrained by stratigraphic analysis and thermochronometric studies of the basin margins uplifts.  Here we present new thermochronometric analyses along two regional transects to constraint the exhumation history within the basin. (U-Th)/He thermochronometric analyses were collected in Jurassic and Cretaceous strata from subsurface petroleum cores. We combined inverse modeling of new and previously published intra-basin thermochronometric dates, vitrinite reflectance, and 1D basin models to constrain the exhumation history at multiple depths at eight sample sites.  

Our results suggest Oligocene exhumation-related cooling in the southern SJB with a progressively younger cooling trend to the north through the Pliocene.  Oligocene cooling in the south is consistent with exhumation from Laramide orogenic uplift in the southern SJB, while younger cooling trends to the north are attributed to basin-wide exhumation and drainage evolution, possibly driven by epeirogenic uplift by mantle processes. 

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 4

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026RM-410676

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