Nope. Pushed up. While the Laramide orogeny is associated with small amounts of volcanism, uplifting of the continental crust is the main mechanism of mountain building in the western US. Think of it more like the crumpling of a rug when the rug is pushed across the floor.

You fail to understand the goofiness of Colorado's tax system. If I gave them $1 billion to fix the roads as a gift, it would be considered part of the general fund and they would have to reduce the rest of the taxes to make up for that windfall. A perfect example of this is Colorado's hospital provider fee. The hospitals in the state lobbied to get a fee put on the hospitals so as to send money from wealthy hospitals to rural hospitals. The "fee" goes to the general fund where it is distributed to the rural hospitals so that they can improve care.

But, because the fee passes through the general fund, it puts the state over a revenue cap and the state has to refund money to each resident...I got a whopping $40 back last year...while at the same time slashing $373 million from schools, roads and colleges. $40 doesn't go a long way to fixing damage to my bikes or car or to paying for college.

It gets even goofier when you understand that college tuition is also figured into the revenue cap so college students are paying higher tuition so that their money can be refunded to the taxpayers of the state.

It 'tis a dumb way to run a state!