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Data release for Surficial Geology of the Northern San Luis Valley, Saguache, Fremont, Custer, Alamosa, Rio Grande, Conejos, and Costilla Counties, Colorado

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

The San Luis Valley and associated underlying basin of south-central Colorado and north-central New Mexico is the largest structural and hydrologic basin of the Rio Grande Rift and fluvial system. The surrounding San Juan and Sangre de Cristo Mountains reveal evidence of widespread volcanism and transtensional tectonism beginning in the Oligocene and continuing to the present, as seen in fault displacement of Pleistocene to Holocene deposits along the eastern basin-bounding Sangre de Cristo fault system and fault zones along the western margin of the basin. The San Luis basin can generally be subdivided into northern and southern basins at the structural and physiographic high terrain of the San Luis Hills in the center of the basin, proximal to the Colorado-New Mexico stateline. The northern San Luis Valley can be subdivided into two subbasins at approximately the latitude of the Great Sand Dunes and San Luis Lakes, where the endorheic northern subbasin surface and subsurface flow currently accumulate in a series of playa lakes. To the south of this playa region, the Rio Grande has captured basin hydrology into a through-going fluvial system cutting through the San Luis Hills, carving the Rio Grande gorge, and ultimately flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. This surficial geologic map of the northern San Luis Valley, paired with the Alamosa, CO 1:100,000-scale geologic map (U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3342) provides new and compiled geologic mapping that characterizes basin deposits and locates the traces of active faults, with the goal to provide geospatial data for future investigations related to western North American neotectonics, Pleistocene paleoclimate, and related geomorphic processes. In addition, present natural and anthropogenic water bodies have been located and updated for hydrologic modeling and water-usage investigations.

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 June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/00cff1db50d6a25ff834b73e80ad2280
Identifier USGS:5f46b7c182ce4c3d122576e8
Data Last Modified 20210621
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://datainventory.doi.gov/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 92426437-1748-4050-9829-f33857a7068c
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -106.407,37.283,-105.352,38.405
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 67882f2db26ff8a1c8b6fdd994dfae0c80a08972c1a01a03023c0ab88e47cd25
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -106.407, 37.283, -106.407, 38.405, -105.352, 38.405, -105.352, 37.283, -106.407, 37.283}

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