SGER: Construction of a Timely, Powerful, and Public GIS Database to Resolve the Landscape Evolution of the Interior Western US

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Construction of a timely, powerful, and public GIS database to resolve the landscape evolution of the interior western U.S.Joel Pederson, EAR-0341067Utah State UniversityAbstract The Colorado Plateau and adjacent Rocky Mountains form one of the great orogenic plateaus of the world. The study of the balance and interaction between erosion, rock uplift, and surface elevation in this region has been a fundamental issue in the geosciences for over a century, and the region is currently undergoing a rejuvenation of multidisciplinary research into these longstanding problems. Different conceptual models for the landscape evolution of the region predict different amounts and timing of uplift and erosion, and existing hypotheses are actually not testable because essential data about erosion, rock uplift, and surface uplift are not available. This proposed research will complete successful initial work on a novel scientific approach to provide the key data needed to solve these classic problems. As important, it will result in an expandable, publicly available, GIS-database framework that will be a much-needed catalyst for research advances. The goals of this project include mapping post-Laramide rock uplift and erosional exhumation from stratigraphic and geomorphic evidence preserved in the landscape, and then compiling these data into a GIS. The Colorado Plateau and middle Rocky Mountain region is ideal for such an effort because its stratigraphy is well documented, key markers of exhumation are present, and because of the large amount of interest and ongoing research into these problems. Based on feedback from, and the actual use of, the published initial data by other researchers, the completion of this project will be of great utility to the geomorphic, tectonic, and geophysical modeling communities for testing scenarios of landscape evolution of the western interior U.S. This work should therefore be a timely catalyst for innovative advances in the understanding the Cenozoic landscape of the western U.S.