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Structural And Stratigraphic Development Of A Salt Diapir Shoulder, Gypsum Valley, Colorado, Joshua Coleman Mcfarland

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A salt shoulder is a low-angle segment of the salt-sediment interface where the margin of a passive diapir steps abruptly inboard. The Late Triassic Chinle Formation overlies caprock on the northeastern margin of Gypsum Valley (GV) at the salt-sediment interface in the natural amphitheater of Bridge Canyon. Modern erosion of the Dolores River has created 3D outcrop of the salt shoulder, expressed by a 500 meter wide, sub-horizontal platform that dips abruptly into the subsurface to the northeast toward the Dry Creek minibasin. Within Bridge Canyon, seven facies associations have been recognized and interpreted within the Chinle Formation: 1) non-caprock …