The Laramide orogeny was a time period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the orogeny are in dispute. The Laramide orogeny occurred in a series of pulses, with quiescent phases intervening. The major feature that was created by this orogeny was deep-seated, thick-skinned deformation, with evidence of this orogeny found from Canada to northern Mexico, with the easternmost extent of the mountain-building represented by the Black Hills of South Dakota. The phenomenon is named for the Laramie Mountains of eastern Wyoming. The Laramide orogeny is sometimes confused with the Sevier orogeny, which partially overlapped in time and space.
The Wilcox Group is an important geologic group in the Gulf of Mexico Basin and surrounding onshore areas from Mexico and Texas to Louisiana and Alabama. The group ranges in age from Paleocene to Eocene and is in Texas subdivided into the Calvert Bluff, Simsboro and Hooper Formations, and in Alabama into the Nanafalia and Hatchetigbee Formations. Other subdivisions are the Lower, Middle and Upper Wilcox Subgroups, and the Carrizo and Indio Formations.
The San Juan Basin is a geologic structural basin located near the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States. The basin covers 7,500 square miles and resides in northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, and parts of Utah and Arizona. Specifically, the basin occupies space in the San Juan, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, and McKinley counties in New Mexico, and La Plata and Archuleta counties in Colorado. The basin extends roughly 100 miles (160 km) N-S and 90 miles (140 km) E-W.
The Vermejo Formation is a geologic formation of Upper Cretaceous age. It is exposed in northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado. which outcrops in the Raton Basin of northeastern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado.
The Nacimiento Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in the San Juan Basin of western New Mexico. It has an age of 61 to 65.7 million years, corresponding to the early and middle Paleocene. The formation has yielded an abundance of fossils from shortly after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event that provide clues to the recovery and diversification of mammals following the extinction event.
The Camp Rice Formation is a geologic formation in west Texas and southern New Mexico. It preserves fossils of the Pliocene-Pleistocene. These include the distinctive Tonuco Mountain Local Fauna.
The Baca Formation is a geologic formation in southern New Mexico and Arizona. It preserves fossils dating back to the Eocene period.
The Cub Mountain Formation is a geologic formation in southern New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the Eocene epoch. The formation also records the progressive unroofing of nearby mountainous uplifts during the Laramide orogeny.
The Galisteo Formation is a geologic formation in New Mexico. It contains fossils characteristic of the Bartonian stage of the Eocene epoch, Duchesnean in the NALMA classification.
The Hart Mine Formation is a geologic formation controversially defined from exposures in south-central New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the Eocene epoch.
The Palm Park Formation is a geologic formation in southern New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the Eocene epoch.
The Bisbee Group is a geologic group in Arizona, Mexico, and New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the early Cretaceous period.
The geology of Wyoming includes some of the oldest Archean rocks in North America, overlain by thick marine and terrestrial sediments formed during the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic, including oil, gas and coal deposits. Throughout its geologic history, Wyoming has been uplifted several times during the formation of the Rocky Mountains, which produced complicated faulting that traps hydrocarbons.
The Santa Fe Group is a group of geologic formations in New Mexico and Colorado. It contains fossils characteristic of the Oligocene through Pleistocene epochs. The group consists of basin-filling sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Rio Grande rift, and contains important regional aquifers.
The Diamond Tail Formation is a geologic formation in New Mexico. It contains fossils characteristic of the late Paleocene or early Eocene.
The El Rito Formation is a geologic formation in New Mexico dating to the Eocene epoch. It records a time when sediments were trapped in deep basins in western North America rather than being carried downstream to the Gulf of Mexico, so that sediments of this age in the western Gulf are mostly from the Appalachian Mountains.
The Hayner Ranch Formation is a geologic formation found near the San Diego Mountains of New Mexico. It is estimated to have been deposited during the Miocene epoch.
The Cowboy Spring Formation is a geologic formation in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona. It preserves fossils dating back to the late Cretaceous period.
The U-Bar Formation is a geologic formation in southwestern New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the early Cretaceous period.
California River is the name of a northeastward flowing river system that existed in the Cretaceous-Eocene in the western United States. It is so named because it flowed from the Mojave region of California to the Uinta Basin of Utah, transporting sediments along this track towards Lake Uinta.
