NEWS RELEASE: Wyoming Geological Survey Releases New Geology Postcard

 New Postcard Depicting Wyoming Geology Now Available 

Pull out a pen and postage stamps—the Wyoming State Geological Survey (WSGS) published a new postcard showing the general geology of the state. The 4-inch-by-6-inch card includes a colorful map of rock formations, faults, basins, mountain ranges, and other geologic features in Wyoming.

“Wyoming has some of the most interesting and well-exposed geology of any state,” says WSGS Director and State Geologist, Dr. Erin Campbell. “We hope this simplified geologic map of the state will spark interest in our fascinating rocks. I’ll definitely be sending these postcards to friends and family.”

The new postcard is available online and at the WSGS office on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie.

“The most challenging part of laying out this postcard was getting everything to look good, and be legible, shrunken down to a postcard size,” says WSGS cartographer, James Amato.

The map is modified from the Geologic Map of Wyoming, first published in 1985 by J.D. Love and A.C. Christiansen, and depicts map units as young as active modern sand dunes to igneous and metamorphic rocks more than 3.4 billion years old. The map explanation points out rock units that are important to Wyoming’s economic geology—coal, oil, and uranium—and also highlights certain units that contain fossils, such as fish and dinosaur fossils.

Bodies of water, faults, and basins are also noted on the map, as are some mountain ranges, uplifts, and arches.