Bluff Formation | |
---|---|
Stratigraphic range: | |
Type | Formation |
Unit of | San Rafael Group |
Underlies | Morrison Formation |
Overlies | Summerville Formation |
Thickness | 350 ft (110 m) |
Lithology | |
Primary | Sandstone |
Other | Mudstone |
Location | |
Coordinates | 37°17′21″N109°33′06″W / 37.2893°N 109.5518°W |
Region | Four Corners |
Country | United States |
Type section | |
Named for | Bluff, Utah |
Named by | Baker, Dane, and Reeside |
Year defined | 1936 |
The Bluff Formation is a geological formation found in the Four Corners area. It was deposited in the late Jurassic Period.
The Bluff Formation consists of massive wind-deposited (eolian) sandstone beds at its type location at Bluff, Utah. These cap the cliffs north of town and are 100–350 feet (30–107 m) thick. [1] Further to the southeast, the sandstone beds lack high-angle cross beds, being dominated instead by horizontal bed forms, and are overlain by mixed sandstone and shale beds of the Recapture Member. The Recapture Member has been variously assigned either to the overlying Morrison Formation [1] or to the Bluff Formation. [2] [3] The Recapture Member is separated from the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation by the regional J-5 unconformity. [4]
The formation was first named as the Bluff Sandstone by A.A. Baker, C.H. Dane, and J.B. Reeside, Jr., in 1938. They assigned it to the lower Morrison Formation. [5] [1] J.W. Harshbarger, Charles Repenning, and J.H. Irwin promoted it to formation rank in 1957, [6] but this was not universally accepted. [7] [8] Spencer G. Lucas advocated both for formation rank and for assigning the Recapture Member to the Bluff Sandstone. [3] Steven M. Cather agreed with promotion of the Bluff Sandstone to formation rank but advocated leaving the Recapture Member with the Morrison Formation. [9]
The Entrada Sandstone is a formation in the San Rafael Group found in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Colorado, northwest New Mexico, northeast Arizona, and southeast Utah. Part of the Colorado Plateau, this formation was deposited during the Jurassic Period sometime between 180 and 140 million years ago in various environments, including tidal mudflats, beaches, and sand dunes. The Middle Jurassic San Rafael Group was dominantly deposited as ergs in a desert environment around the shallow Sundance Sea.
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone, and limestone and is light gray, greenish gray, or red. Most of the fossils occur in the green siltstone beds and lower sandstones, relics of the rivers and floodplains of the Jurassic period.
The Cutler Formation or Cutler Group is a rock unit that is exposed across the U.S. states of Arizona, northwest New Mexico, southeast Utah and southwest Colorado. It was laid down in the Early Permian during the Wolfcampian epoch.
The Moenkopi Formation is a geological formation that is spread across the U.S. states of New Mexico, northern Arizona, Nevada, southeastern California, eastern Utah and western Colorado. This unit is considered to be a group in Arizona. Part of the Colorado Plateau and Basin and Range, this red sandstone was laid down in the Lower Triassic and possibly part of the Middle Triassic, around 240 million years ago.
The Chinle Formation is an Upper Triassic continental geological formation of fluvial, lacustrine, and palustrine to eolian deposits spread across the U.S. states of Nevada, Utah, northern Arizona, western New Mexico, and western Colorado. In New Mexico, it is often raised to the status of a geological group, the Chinle Group. Some authors have controversially considered the Chinle to be synonymous to the Dockum Group of eastern Colorado and New Mexico, western Texas, the Oklahoma panhandle, and southwestern Kansas. The Chinle Formation is part of the Colorado Plateau, Basin and Range, and the southern section of the Interior Plains. A probable separate depositional basin within the Chinle is found in northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah. The southern portion of the Chinle reaches a maximum thickness of a little over 520 meters (1,710 ft). Typically, the Chinle rests unconformably on the Moenkopi Formation.
The Glen Canyon Group is a geologic group of formations that is spread across the U.S. states of Nevada, Utah, northern Arizona, north west New Mexico and western Colorado. It is called the Glen Canyon Sandstone in the Green River Basin of Colorado and Utah.
The San Rafael Group is a geologic group or collection of related rock formations that is spread across the U.S. states of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado. As part of the Colorado Plateau, this group of formations was laid down in the Middle Jurassic during the Bajocian, Bathonian and Callovian Stages.
The Carmel Formation is a geologic formation in the San Rafael Group that is spread across the U.S. states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, north east Arizona and New Mexico. Part of the Colorado Plateau, this formation was laid down in the Middle Jurassic during the late Bajocian, through the Bathonian and into the early Callovian stages.
In geology, a group is a lithostratigraphic unit consisting of a series of related formations that have been classified together to form a group. Formations are the fundamental unit of stratigraphy. Groups may sometimes be combined into supergroups.
The Summerville Formation is a geological formation in New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah of the Southwestern United States. It dates back to the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic.
The Crevasse Canyon Formation is a coal-bearing Cretaceous geologic formation in New Mexico and Arizona.
The Point Lookout Sandstone is a Cretaceous bedrock formation occurring in New Mexico and Colorado.
The Mancos Shale or Mancos Group is a Late Cretaceous geologic formation of the Western United States.
The Salitral Formation is a Late Triassic geologic formation found in north-central New Mexico, primarily the northwestern Jemez Mountains. It is an older subunit of the Chinle Group, overlying the Shinarump Conglomerate and underlying the Poleo Formation.
The Burro Canyon Formation is an Early Cretaceous Period sedimentary geologic formation, found in western Colorado, the Chama Basin and eastern San Juan Basin of northern New Mexico, and in eastern Utah, US.
The Curtis Formation is a geologic formation in Utah. It preserves fossils dating back to the Callovian age of the Jurassic period.
The Rock Point Formation is a geologic formation in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. It preserves fossils dating back to the late Triassic.
The Mesaverde Group is a Late Cretaceous stratigraphic group found in areas of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, in the Western United States.
The Zuni Sandstone is a geologic formation in west-central New Mexico. It marks the southernmost limit of Jurassic fluvial and lacustrine sedimentary formations, which pinch out to leave a single sandstone body.
The Oligocene Chuska Sandstone is a geologic formation that crops out in the Chuska Mountains of northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. The formation is a remnant of a great sand sea, or erg, that once covered an area of 140,000 square kilometres (54,000 sq mi) reaching from the present locations of the Chuska Mountains to near Albuquerque and to the southwest. This erg deposited a succession of sandstone beds exceeded in thickness only by the Navajo Sandstone on the Colorado Plateau.