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Late
Cenozoic Tectonics in Utah
Comprising essentially the western half of Utah, the Basin and
Range Province is separated from the Middle Rocky Mountains province
by the Wasatch fault zone, and from the Colorado Plateau province
by the Basin and Range-Colorado Plateau transition zone.
Within the Basin and Range and the transition zone, east-west structural
extension is thought to have taken place over the past 17 million
years creating numerous north-south-oriented, fault-bounded blocks.
Prior to Basin and Range extension (during mid-Cenozoic time),
voluminous silicic volcanism with associated hydrothermal activity
took place within several east-west trending belts.
Patterns of volcanism changed during the later stages of Basin
and Range development to less-voluminous basalt and rhyolite (bimodal
assemblage), spatially controlled by north-south Basin-and-Range
faults.
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