STRUCTURE OF THE LARAMIDE WIND RIVER UPLIFT, WYOMING, FROM COCORP DEEP REFLECTION DATA AND FROM GRAVITY-DATA

The question of the structure of the Wind River uplift, a Laramide foreland structure in Wyoming, has been answered by Consortium for Continental Reflection Profiling (Cocorp) deep crustal reflection profiling and by gravity interpretation. Wyoming uplifts are asymmetrical anticlines whose steep limb is commonly cut by a reverse fault or thrust. If the thrust continues into the crust with low dip, the uplift is caused by horizontal movements; and if the fault steepens into a high-angle reverse fault in depth, the uplifts are caused by vertical movement. The Wind River uplift is the largest of the Laramide structures is Wyoming, and the thrust fault has 14km of vertical separation and 26km of horizontal separation. About 168km of crustal reflection profiling has been completed by Cocorp across the uplift. The Wind River thrust reflection from near the surface to a depth of about 24km, and the thrust appears as a complex zone of faults. -Authors