Hello world,
I created a rigid block model of the thick-skinned foreland shortening that occurred in western North America in Late Cretaceous-Eocene time. This deformation episode is strangely absent from the latest deforming plate model that comes with GPlates, even though it involved an estimated ~85 kilometers of crustal shortening in total (with each basement-cored uplift accommodating 10-15% of shortening).
Link to the .GPML and rotation files
This model is mostly based on Arkula et al. (2023) and references therein. Also included in this model, in addition to the rigid block boundaries, are offset Precambrian belts in northern New Mexico and on the Colorado Plateau, which are used as piercing points to restore the southern part of the region to its pre-Laramide configuration.
This model is a first draft, so feedback would be greatly appreciated!