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.