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Data Release for Late Quaternary loess and soils on uplands in the Canyonlands and Mesa Verde areas, Utah and Colorado

Metadata Updated: October 30, 2025

Thin loess deposits on the uplands of the southeastern Colorado Plateau have previously not been well studied. We sampled deposits and soils from trenches on Hatch Point mesa near Canyonlands National Park, Utah, and from two outcrops in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. At Hatch Point, the oldest buried unit yielded two OSL ages of 10,370 and 7,555 yr; the middle unit yielded 10 OSL ages from 6220 to 1385 yr; and the youngest unit has a single age of 1740 yr. At Mesa Verde, three loess units are preserved in the two outcrops we examined; six OSL ages range from 51 to 17 ka. At least one buried soil is present between two units with ages of about 50 and 40 ka. The ages of the loess units in both study areas correspond well with OSL-dated dune sands in Canyonlands National Park and with dune sands on Black Mesa, Arizona. Particle size distribution combined with chemical and magnetic data indicate that Hatch Point loess was derived mostly from nearby sandstone sources with a small component of far-traveled atmospheric dust, whereas Mesa Verde loess was sourced both from the nearby sandstone and the San Juan River and its tributaries.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 14, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-599c9161e4b0b589267ed8fc
Data Last Modified 2020-08-20T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id fe0be136-2b77-43e7-9534-10b0cbacbb91
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -108.502230, 37.161200, -108.468480, 37.254840
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash b1f6a30e9cf16f85f8f5651b38f80f0558d3471d23f6a559299a483c5d888bc3
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -108.502230, 37.161200, -108.502230, 37.254840, -108.468480, 37.254840, -108.468480, 37.161200, -108.502230, 37.161200}

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