Chapter 11 - Crystalline-Cored Mid-Continent Anticlines and Domes

Abstract

Scattered across the central part of the United States are anticlinal and domal mountains in which erosion has removed the thin, overlying sedimentary sequence and exposed underlying crystalline rock in their core. The characteristic landscape is one of massive, rugged highlands. Chapter 11 describes these domal mountains, which include the Adirondack Mountains of New York, the Black Hills of South Dakota, the St. Francois Mountains of Missouri, the Wichita and Arbuckle Mountains of southern Oklahoma, the Llano Uplift of West Texas, several domal mountains in the northern Great Plains and Colorado Plateau, and the Middle-Southern Rocky Mountain region. The crystalline rock in most of these areas is part of the ancient North America crystalline slab. Some of the domes are ancient uplands hundreds of millions of years old. A few developed when a young igneous intrusion pushed up and domed the sedimentary layers above them. The Middle-Southern Rocky Mountains, the Colorado Plateau, and the western part of the Great Plains together form a broad, regional dome that results in some of the highest elevations in the country.