Translating bumblebee dialect…
ABSTRACT Unaweep Canyon, located in Mesa County, Colorado, has long been the subject of controversy due to the fact that no river runs through it. Debates have centered on which river carved it, when was it carved, when and why it was abandoned, and whether it was glaciated. Here we examine the relationship of the canyon to the Uncompahgre Plateau, the structure that it crosses. Prior to the uplift of the Plateau during the Laramide orogeny, the Precambrian basement rock was covered with a little over three kilometers of sediment. Uplift resulted in a structure that is approximately 180 km long, 40 to 60 km wide, and relatively horizontal on top over most of its length. However, at the position of modern Unaweep Canyon, there is an abrupt change and the structure dips northwestward into Utah. This paper explores the hypothesis that the change in dip disrupted the overlying sedimentary column and allowed preferential erosion at that position, creating a valley during the Laramide orogeny that, with continued erosion, eventually became modern Unaweep Canyon.
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