Zircon (U-Th)/He data for the Colorado Front Range “fourteeners” and testing Cryogenian exhumation of sub-Great Unconformity basement

We present zircon (U-Th)/He(ZHe) data for 17 Proterozoic basement samples from elevation profiles on the three peaks in Front Range of Colorado that are at elevations over 14,000 ft. (4267 m, locally known as “fourteeners”), with complementary Raman a sample subset. ZHe dates Longs Peak northern uniformly Late Cretaceous to Eocene (37 ± 1 Ma 137 2 Ma), while those Mt. Evans (34 606 18 Ma) and Pikes (111 5 773 central southern old Cryogenian. The results suggest hotter burial temperatures north, attributable northward thickening proposed previously. Neoproterozoic sandstone injectites range kimberlite-hosted Cambrian sedimentary xenoliths document Precambrian was surface Cryogenian and/or Cambrian, inferred previously below Great Unconformity range. Thermal history modeling demonstrates fourteeners compatible hypothesis initial exhumation throughout by study outcomes highlight important considerations resolving deep-time thermal histories, including younger magnitude, detailed sampling position structural blocks, availability paleosurface markers, construction inverse models integrate geologic knowledge designed test geologically realistic scenarios.