West Elk Peak, elevation , is the highest summit in the
West Elk Mountains
The West Elk Mountains are a high mountain range in the west-central part of the U.S. state of Colorado. They lie primarily within the Gunnison National Forest, and part of the range is protected as the West Elk Wilderness. The range is primarily l ...
of
Gunnison County, Colorado
Gunnison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,918. The county seat is Gunnison. The county was named for John W. Gunnison, a United States Army officer and captain in the Army ...
.
[ The mountain is in the ]West Elk Wilderness
The West Elk Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area located northwest of Gunnison, Colorado in the West Elk Mountains
The West Elk Mountains are a high mountain range in the west-central part of the U.S. state of Colorado. They lie primarily wit ...
, northwest of Gunnison. The terrain consists mostly of volcanic breccia, known in this area as West Elk Breccia, dated at 35 to 30 million years old.
Geological History - The decipherable known geological history of this peak began in the late Paleozoic, where it formed into the eastern edge of the Uncompahgre highland. Around 10,000 to 15,000 feet of sediment covered the old highland surface in the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic. During the Oligocene, the Colorado mineral belt began to form with the intrusion of two batholiths. One of these batholiths rose sufficiently near the surface, enough to feed volcanoes in the West Elk and San Juan Mountains. The resulting volcanic pile has been subjected to intermittent, occasional uplift as well as being shaped by water and ice. Mineral deposits are somewhat scarce in the surrounding area of the peak, but bituminous coal has been mined on the northern and eastern flanks.
Historical names
*West Elk Mountain
*West Elk Peak [
]
See also
* List of Colorado mountain ranges
* List of Colorado mountain summits
**List of Colorado fourteeners
This is a list of mountain peaks in the U.S. State of Colorado that exceed of elevation.
In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a ''fourteener'' is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. This is a co ...
** List of Colorado 4000 meter prominent summits
**List of the most prominent summits of Colorado
The following sortable table comprises the 100 most topographically prominent mountain peaks of the U.S. State of Colorado.
Topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea le ...
*List of Colorado county high points
This is a list of all 64 counties of the U.S. State of Colorado by their points of highest elevation. Of the 50 highest county high points in the United States, 30 are located in Colorado. The highest point in Colorado is the summit of Mount ...
* The Castles
References
External links
West Elk Mountains
Mountains of Gunnison County, Colorado
Mountains of Colorado
North American 3000 m summits
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