Calibrating the data logger…
The Paradox evaporite basin formed during the Desmoinesian to Wolfcampian intracratonic Ancestral Rocky Mountain orogeny in response to the Laurentia-Gondwana collision. Basin subsidence resulted from the southwestward thrusting and probably lateral movement on the Uncompahgre Fault along it's northeastern margin. This created a strongly asymmetrical basin that was similar in geometry to a foreland basin, with the Definace-Zuni and Piute platforms occupying the position of a foreland bulge. The evaporite basin was separated from its southeastern extension, the San Juan Trough, by the northeast-trending Hogback fault zone. An orthogonal pattern of northeast- and northwest-trending basement faults extends from the San Juan Basin into the Paradox Basin and can be shown to have exerted significant control on depositional patterns throughout the Phanerozoic. Paleogeographic and plate reconstructions indicate that the north-south-trending Uncompahgre and Front Range highlands lay at right angles to the prevailing easterly winds--thus removed most of the moisture and produced arid to semiarid conditions throughout the Paradox Basin and San Juan Trough. As many as 35 halite-bearing cycles have been identified in the Desmoinesian Paradox Formation. Each cycle is composed of a transgressive freshening phase and a regressive evaporitic phase with either halite or potash as the final product. Allmore » of the evaporite cycles are bounded by unconformities and can be divided into higher order sequences, particularly in the correlative carbonate shelf environments to the southwest.« less
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