Areal geology of the Little Cone quadrangle, Colorado

The Little Cone quadrangle includes an area of about 59 square miles in eastern San Miguel County in southwestern Colorado. It lies within and adjacent to the northeastern boundary of the Colorado Plateau physiographic province. The precipitous front of the San Juan Mountains lies a few miles to the east and northeast, and an outlier of the San Juans, the San Miguel Mountains, lies about a mile to the south. The quadrangle contains features characteristic of both the plateaus and the mountains, and has been affected by geologic events and processes of two different geologic environments.