Nevadaplano

Blend of Nevada +‎ altiplano. Coined by American geoscientist Peter G. DeCelles in a 2004 paper in the American Journal of Science.[1]

• (General American) IPA^(key): /nəˌvædəˈplænoʊ/

Nevadaplano

1. (geology) A high-elevation orogenic plateau that once existed during the Tertiary period in what is modern North America’s Great Basin, analogous to today’s high-elevation South American altiplano.
   • 2004, Peter G. DeCelles, “Late Jurassic to Eocene evolution of the Cordilleran thrust belt and foreland basin system, western U.S.A.”, in The American Journal of Science‎, volume 304, number 2, →DOI, archived from the original on 1 December 2022, page 105:

     At the peak of its development, the retroarc side of the Cordillera was divided into five tectonomorphic zones, including from west to east the Luning-Fencemaker thrust belt; the central Nevada (or Eureka) thrust belt; a high-elevation plateau (the “Nevadaplano”); the topographically rugged Sevier fold-thrust belt; and the Laramide zone of intraforeland basement uplifts and basins.

   • 2009, W. Gary Ernst, “Rise and Fall of the Nevadaplano”, in International Geology Review‎, volume 51, numbers 7-8, →DOI, page 583:

     Terming this now-exhumed Late Cretaceous–Eocene hinterland metamorphic belt the Nevadaplano, he estimated that its average elevation probably exceeded 3 km.

   • 2014, Kathryn E. Snell et al., “High elevation of the ‘Nevadaplano’ during the Late Cretaceous”, in Earth and Planetary Science Letters‎, volume 386, →DOI, page 52:

     During the Late Cretaceous, central Nevada may have been a high elevation plateau, the Nevadaplano; some geodynamic models of the western US require thickened crust and high elevations during the Mesozoic to drive the subsequent tectonic events of the Cenozoic while other models do not.

• Nevadaplano on Wikipedia.Wikipedia