Why is the cause of heating beneath the Colorado Plateau not fully understood?

The cause of heating beneath the Colorado Plateau is not fully understood because the region does not appear to be related to hot spots or vigorous upwelling in the asthenosphere, which are the typical drivers for such thermal activity.1

While the plateau is clearly underlain by unusually hot material, scientists have not yet determined the specific source of this localized heating. This uncertainty extends to the broader geological context of western North America, where, despite observed increases in uplift rates over the past few million years across various regions—including the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada—the underlying causes remain poorly understood. Consequently, because the mechanism for this heating is not known, a definitive explanation for the distribution of this specific type of plateau remains elusive.12