Geological Stratigraphy of The Colorado Plateau : Cenozoic Geology of The West Margin of The Colorado Plateau

The strata on the Colorado Plateau preserve some of the most extensively, successively exposed and well studied Late Triassic to Cretaceous ontinental and minor marine deposits. The area of study is centered on the Zion National Park and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the west margin of this plateau but also includes adjacent areas to provide a probable reconstruction of paleo-depositional environments. It is assumed that paleo-depositional environments of the west margin of this plateau were varied from marine to fluvial channel on the period of Permian to Triassic, the large erg spread over this area on the early to middle Jurassic, the direction of fluvial channels changed from westward to east in accordance with an orogeny of the late Jurassic. It is presumed that the paleo-depositional environment of this area turned to shallow marine from that day on the formation of the unconformity between Morrison Formation and Dakota Formation, which was formed by the movement of the Laramide orogeny