View of the Chalk Cliffs, looking N from location "A" on map. Range-bounding normal fault lies at break in slope.

The Chalk Cliffs occupy a prominent right-stepping jog in the Sawatch Range fault, a normal fault in the northern Rio Grande Rift of Colorado. As you can see in the above photograph, the exposure is outstanding. The cliffs are also mineralized, so they give the opportunity to combine structural geology with geochemistry to get a complete understanding of the zone's structural evolution. This study should help us understand how strain is transferred from one bounding fault to another across the jog.

Below are some of the structures at Chalk Cliffs. Click on them for enlarged views.

abstract for presentation at GSA 1997 annual meeting.

back to Martin's home page.

Link to University of Oregon Structural Geology course.