The upper Pierre, Fox Hills, Laramie, and Arapahoe Formations in the western Denver basin record deltaic sedimentation during the final regression of the Cretaceous sea from eastern Colorado. Prodelta shales and siltstones (Pierre Formation) are overlain by delta-front sandstones (Fox Hills), and delta-plain sandstones, claystones and coals (Laramie Formation). The younger conglomerates of the Arapahoe Formation are braided channel deposits of the fluvial system.

Two types of penecontemporaneous (growth) faulting are recognized in 5 mi of outcrop from Golden south to Interstate 70. One type of faulting cuts delta-plain sediments, resulting in a thickness increase of the Laramie Formation from 330 to 530 ft in a horizontal distance of 800 ft. By normal fault movement at the time of sedimentation, an extra 200 ft of lower Laramie sandstone, with minor claystone and thin coal, was deposited on the downthrown side of the fault. The northwest-trending fault plane curved downward toward the south from a dip of about 60° to a low-angle bedding plane fault.

A second type of faulting records slumpage on oversteepened prodelta slopes created by seaward progradation of the shoreline. One slide block of shallow-water distributary-mouth sandstone (Fox Hills) about 100 ft thick moved southward down the prodelta slope into water depths estimated to be from 100 to 175 ft and was subsequently buried by prodelta clays (Pierre).

The geographic position of these growth faults in the delta sequence appears to have been controlled by recurrent movement of deep-seated faults in the Precambrian basement which at the time of Laramie deposition was at depths in excess of 10,000 ft. Growth faulting heretofore unrecognized in the Cretaceous of the Rocky Mountain area, may be a common occurrence in the areas of deltaic sedimentation. Some abrupt thickness changes may be explained more readily by this process than by the commonly invoked theories of facies change or unconformities.

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