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General
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Dinosaur Ridge may be
"the best square mile of ideal outdoor classroom to study geology"
for the following reasons:
- It has excellent stratigraphy in the Mesozoic
rocks; also the type section of the world famous Morrison Formation
comes from this area;
- Structure (the upturned layers of the
Front Range mark the Laramide uplift and the ever so
prominent Golden Fault);
- Geomorphology
- Best place to explain to
someone "differential erosion" in sedimentary rock types where
they can see weaker shales and stronger sandstones giving a valley and
ridge topography;
- Geologically recent stream
erosion and capture from Bear Creek;
- The stream "notch"
along the ridge that is visible from the parking lot of the visitor
center and serves to help explain the origin of Green Mountain;
- The "V-shaped"
notches emanating in many places along the front range from stream
erosion that are visible from the ridge; and finally,
- The visible landslides in the
Precambrian rocks of Mount Morrison
- Sedimentary features (concretions, ripple marks,
ancient stream channels, trace fossils from burrowing organisms, and claw
marks likely from Cretaceous crocodiles);
- Geologic time (from the "Jurassic
Park" side one can see older Paleozoic rocks of the Fountain
Formation in Red Rocks Park that attest to the Ancestral Rockies formed in
the Pennsylvanian Period; also from the "Brontosaur Bulges" one
can point out the Precambrian rocks that mark the top of Mt. Morrison that
are some 1 billion years old!); and
- Most importantly, the "world-class" remnants
of the Mesozoic Era that present proof of the dinosaurs existence in this
region via the dinosaur bones, tracks, and trace fossils.
View
Stratigraphy of
the Dinosaur Ridge area
Denver's
Geologic Setting

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