Geologic map of the Palisade quadrangle, Mesa County, Colorado
The Palisade 1:24,000 quadrangle is in Mesa County in western Colorado. Because the map area is dominated by various surficial deposits, the map depicts 22 different Quaternary units. Two prominent river terraces are present in the quadrangle containing gravels deposited by the Colorado River. The map area contains many mass movement deposits. Extensive landslide deposits are present along the eastern part of the quadrangle. These massive landslides originate on the flanks of Grand Mesa, in the Green River and Wasatch Formations, and flow west onto the Palisade quadrangle. In addition, large areas of the eastern and southern parts of the map are covered by extensive pediment surfaces. These pediment surfaces are underlain by debris flow deposits also originating from Grand Mesa. Material in these deposits consists of mainly subangular basalt cobbles and boulders and indicate that these debris flow deposits have traveled as much as 10 km from their source area. The pediment surfaces have been divided into 5 age classes based on their height above surrounding drainages. Two common bedrock units in the map area are the Mancos Shale and the Mesaverde Group both of Upper Cretaceous age. The Mancos shale is common in low lying areas near the western map border. The Mesaverde Group forms prominent sandstone cliffs in the north-central map area. The map is accompanied by a separate pamphlet containing unit descriptions, a section on geologic hazards (including landslides, piping, gullying, expansive soils, and flooding), and a section on economic geology (including sand and gravel, and coal). A table indicates what map units are susceptible to a given hazard. Approximately twenty references are cited at the end of the report.