A dazzling, compelling movie that depicts the creation and evolution of Colorado's impressive geologic origins will premiere at the AAPG Convention and Exhibition in Denver as part of the opening session festivities.
"A Brief History of Colorado Through Time," which dramatically and creatively shows how the state's famous landscapes evolved through geologic time, will be shown at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 31, immediately after the Imperial Barrel Awards program and immediately before the opening session.
All of the activities are free of charge and will be in the Four Seasons Ballroom at the Colorado Convention Center.
The movie, intended for geologists such as RMAG members but good for the general public as well, is designed to set the scientific scene for many of the AAPG convention's talks and field trips.
It features video and computer animations highlighting:
♦ The geologic origin of the state's national parks and monuments.
♦ Stegosaurus - the state fossil of Colorado - munching Late Jurassic vegetation.
♦ The Yule Marble - Colorado's state rock, used to build the Lincoln Memorial.
♦ The Late Cretaceous Coastal Plain sediments of the Book Cliffs - complete with Triceratops.
♦ The state's Cenozoic igneous history, including mineral and ore deposits.
♦ Neogene evolution of the Rio Grande Rift and regional uplift of Colorado.
♦ Glaciations during the past million years.
"The movie includes many surprising facts," said Paul Weimer, a past AAPG president and one of the film's producers, "even for the most experienced geologist."
The movie was produced by the Interactive Geology Project at the University of Colorado, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and Colorado Plateau Geosystems.
Various versions of this movie are and will be part of a larger outreach program.