GOLDEN GEOLOGIC HISTORY REPORT

It all started with the Big Bang then the whole universe is formed, continued with the
formation of the Milky Way, where there is a solar system with the planet Earth and then there
was this little town called Golden. This is a report that will travel through time, telling the stories
of the incidents happened in this town of Golden. During our journey we must note that the
whole geological of Golden is tilted and there were mining done here.

Let’s start our journey at Red Rocks Park, the Precambrian Basement, around 1.7 billion
years ago, when North America is formed along with the formation of the giant continent
Columbia. This is proven by the deep marine limestone and the rock is deposited in the
subduction zone. In this time, the rock formed there is the Idaho Spring Gneiss, which has a
crystallize-size grain with the minerals K-spars, quartz, biotite, hematite, amphibole. Next, we
could see a gap of 1.4 billion years because there is an unconformity caused by missing record of
the rock during that time. Fast forward to 300 million years ago during the formation of the
ancestral Rocky Mountain. Here, the young geologist of mines found an alluvial fan had formed
which deposited a red rock called Basil conglomerate. The rock is red due the mineral hematite,
the oxidation or rusting or iron. Besides hematite, the minerals found here is biotite and
amphibole with grain size no smaller than 1mm but no bigger than 10mm. This place is called the
fountain formation and it is dipping to the East at 44 o with the strike of 322oNW.

Next, our journey led us to the Lyons formation which is dated to be 270 million years
old. The Lyons formation is not as scary as it sounds as it just sandstones that is deposited in sand
dunes, which on further inspection have ripples features evaporative. These clues lead us to
conclude that there was indeed a beach once upon a time ago. Just like other sand, the minerals
found in the sandstone are quartz, hematite, K-spars and grain smaller than 1 mm. During this
period, the ancestral Rocky Mountain is going through the phase of lowering along with the
transgression of the sea. 10 year million years later from Lyons formation, we continue with the
Lykens formation which is also a sandstone. The young geologists found out that they were in a
shallow water environment. This is proven by the evaporative gypsum, thin bedding and hyper-
saline sheltered shallow bay environment, which is formed from stromatolites. The grains here are
small and fine sand size and the major event occurred there was the transgression of the sea. At
the end for Lykins formation was a major extinction as the Earth covered with soot and ashes
from an enormous eruption.

Before the journey continued, we discovered yet another disconformity of a 100 million
between the Lykins formation and the Ralston Creek. The Ralston Creek was dated at 160 million
years ago and is it deposited in marine shale environment and in an alluvial fan. Sea level
regression happened. The size of the grain for this rock is around the size of clay. Our next stop is
the most exciting as is at the time of the dinosaurs. We have travelled to the Morrison formation
which is dated to be 150 million years old and the rocks have a grain of sizes between clay-sized
and 1mm. The Morrison formation has inconsistent lateral thicker as it has thick layers and goes
down to thin layers and has tightly compressed sediments. To why we believe the place was
roamed with dinosaur as the Morrison formation is deposited near a flooded river or lake which
have soft soil for the dinosaur to implant dinosaur prints and the site itself is giving out
radioactive which is from carnotite decays to uranium as the dinosaur bones are deposited with
this element because its porous property, thus letting the ground water to pass through it. The
Morrison formation has minerals such as hematite, quartz and clay and due to the iron and
copper found in the formation, it causes paleosoil, a red-and-mauve-colored mudstone, to form
in the middle section. The main event for the Morrison formation is the regression of the sea
level.

Up next is the Dahkota sandstone, the 100-million-year old formation which with the sign
of oscillating ripples indicates a beach front property. The Dahkota sandstone is consisted of
quartz, hematite and clay and transgression of sea happened during that time. Next, we got to
pass by the Benton shale, a black rock which is rich with carbons, thus is very important for
petroleum. The Benton shale is dated to be 90-million-year-old and consists of clays with clay-
sized grain. Any plan for housing or any building should be avoided in this area as it is known by
its swelled land and the land had undergone transgression of sea.

As we continue our journey, we reached into similar rocks as the ones in the backyard of
our school, they are the Pierre formation and the Fox Hill formation. These two are dated at 80
million years old with the clay mineral with the size of clay. The sea had regressed in the area and
onto the last formation of the day which was the Laramie formation. It is 69-million-year old rock
and formed in the mangrove environment. It contains hematite, quartz and clay with clay-sized
grain. Just like the others, it underwent sea level regression.

Returning to Mines Geological trail, we stopped at the Pierre formation and Fox Hill. At
the stop, we can see that the Pierre formation, which made of shale from marine, is on the right
while the Fox hill, which made up of sandstone, is on the left. The contact between the two
formations are abrupt cause of its channel scour. The dip for the Pierre formation is 59 SW with
the strike of 162o. As we saw, there were conglomerates onto of the Pierre formation and its
horizontal layer indicates that it was deposited after the tilt. It is known that the place was
undergoes regression of sea level because shales produced in water. The previously White Ash
mines were our next stop. Here Dr. Shorey explained to us that Golden is not named because of a
mine for gold but for its founder, Golden. The mines here were mining for clay for bricks as
during the time, fires were spreading in Denver. We continued the short hike to the Laramie
formation which have a height of 5790 ft. above sea level and then continued with the Fountain
formation which are red rocks. Then we saw a collection of rocks in the Golden and Denver area,
lined up according to their age. The youngest rock, which is way older than me, is Table Mountain
Basalt and at the end of the line or the oldest rock is the Idaho Spring Gneiss.

Afterward my class got a little confused and we walked in circles, but later we found the
fault of the Laramie Formation. The rock over at the site is deposited in fresh water as there is a
trace fossil of a log on the rock. For the fault, it is a reversed fault caused by a compression force
as the rock formation is located on the mountain belt area and due to its characteristic of having
a perpendicular to the formation, it is said the fault happened during the tilting. On the other side
of the formation we could see many trace fossils in the area behind the highway. These include
log imprint, log stump, triceratops tracks, animal burrows and palm frond. These fossil were made
as it is near a lake around 68 million years ago as footprints are stamped onto muds and then
covered by sand. At the final stop, we discover the Leisegang banding which is a reddish-brown
circle in the rock formation. The sphere-shaped is due to iron deposited there. Then, we climb to
formation to see that the street around Mines are indeed influenced by the geographical
structure of the it surrounding. The strike here is 330o and from the first stop to the last stop is
the relief is around 500 ft.

Our last trip is to the North Table Mountain. We started the trip at an elevation of 6015ft
and rises up to around 500 ft. above the starting point. The first formation found is the Denver
formation which can be seen from the exposed bed is made up of sandstone. There was a serious
uplift and erosion resulting from the Rocky Mountain. The whole formation was said to be formed
to the faulting and folding about 65.6 million years ago.

Continue on to the second stop, the Denver formation continues from the first stop, but
at this place, it has aged for 64 million years. As we discovered, the formation is located below the
K-T boundary and most of the rock here is either an extrusive igneous rock or sandstone. The
dark outcrop and the rock underneath it is both extrusive igneous rock, but for the later rock, is
called a porphyritic basalt. The basalt itself is made up with high-content plagioclase. This
indicates that the basalt like all other basalt originate from when a fissure erupted, thus is clear as
day the environment deposition in the area is lava flow. Then there is U-shaped contact which is
the contact for the dark extrusive igneous outcrop. Since there is sandstone, is a clear indication
that water have deposited the sandstone there.

For third stop, the Denver formation still runs to this place, but with an age of 62 million
years ago. Colluvium, a layer or angular rock, covers the bedrock to ensure the bedrock moves
slowly down from the cliff above. It is highly unstable and dangerous to build a home in the area.
Around there, we have found the sedimentary rock, caliche. The main rock for the caliche there is
mostly conglomerate while the larger angular rocks are made up of the basalt. From observations,
we can conclude it that there was indeed a river system a long time ago to deposit the rock
around there. The matrix for the caliche is made from the Denver formation.

The fourth stop which is in the spring in the forest of cottonwood trees just below of the
top of North Table Mountain. Since it is near the top, the rocks from the bedrocks are made of
the Table Mountain Basalt. Just like previously, presents of basalts indicate, once there was a
fissure erupted. As the fissure erupted, it formed the columnar basalt which presents in before the
top of masa to this place. Thus, the environment for the forth stop is also a lava flow, which is
dated to be 63 million years old. Baked zones can be seen underneath of the sedimentary rocks
due to the eruption happened.

At the end, we reached to the top and the cliff at the rock labelled rod. We realized at
that time after observing throughout the whole journey that basalts are not prone to erosion
unlike other rocks. Cliffs will then form the resistant layer overlie non-resistant layer. Because of
this, as a warning, the houses below are prone to landslide and mudslides as the other rock will
erode toward below. A way to control these hazards are to set up iron netting and building piling
rods so they will support the rocks, preventing the erosion of the North Table Mountain. We end
the trip discussing and concluding that due to the similarities in characteristics of North Table and
South Table, we believe it used to be one whole mountain. The two got separated by their
younger friend, the Clear Creek at a rate of 8.06 per million years. We can conclude that because
we know from the law of lateral continuity, Clear Creek will always be younger as it separates the
mountain into two.
Reference Lab Notebook