The Rattlesnake Mountain, Wyoming, Debate: A Review and Critique of Models

Abstract

Structural interpretation of Rattlesnake Mountain, located on the west flank of the Big Horn Basin, Wyoming, at Buffalo Bill Reservoir, has been the subject of lively debate since at least 1930. Six structural "models" of this feature published previously, representing both the verticalists' "drape fold" and the horizontal compressionists' thrust-fold interpretations, are shown and dis­ cussed. It is concluded that the "drape fold" model for Rattlesnake Mountain or for any other intrabasin fault-fold structure in the Rocky Mountain fore/and is fundamentally untenable, and that the developmental sequence proposed by Blackstone in 1940 is essentially correct as indicated by data from deep wells and modern seismic profiling. However, a number of questions still need answers.