| Ocotillo Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Pliocene | |
| Type | Geologic formation |
| Underlies | Palm Spring Formation |
| Overlies | Brawley Formation |
| Location | |
| Region | Colorado Desert, California |
| Country | United States |
| Type section | |
| Named for | Ocotillo, California |
The Ocotillo Formation is a Pliocene fluvial-alluvial fan geologic formation in the Colorado Desert of Southern California. [1]
It occurs in western Imperial County and eastern San Diego County. [2]
The formation overlies the Brawley Formation and the Palm Spring Formation. In the Mecca Hills, it is younger than 765,000 years.
It preserves fossils and petrified wood, from the Pliocene Epoch of the Neogene Period, within Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. [1] [3]
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a California State Park located within the Colorado Desert of southern California, United States. The park takes its name from 18th century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and borrego, a Spanish word for sheep. With 585,930 acres (237,120 ha) that includes one-fifth of San Diego County, it is the largest state park in California.
Equus scotti is an extinct species of Equus, the genus that includes the horse. Equus scotti was native to North America.
The Vallecito Mountains are located in the Colorado Desert, in eastern San Diego County, Southern California. They are about 28 miles (45 km) north of the U.S. border with Mexico.
Titanis is a genus of phorusrhacid, an extinct family of large, predatory birds, in the order Cariamiformes that inhabited the United States during the Pliocene and earliest Pleistocene. The first fossils were unearthed by amateur archaeologists Benjamin Waller and Robert Allen from the Santa Fe River in Florida and were named Titanis walleri by ornithologist Pierce Brodkorb in 1963, the species name honoring Waller. The holotype material is fragmentary, consisting of only an incomplete right tarsometatarsus and phalanx, but comes from one of the largest phorusrhacid individuals known. In years following the description, many more isolated elements have been unearthed from sites from other areas of Florida, Texas, and California. However, Titanis remains poorly known. It was classified in the subfamily Phorusrhacinae, which includes some of the last and largest phorusrhacids like Devincenzia and Kelenken.
Ocotillo Wells is an unincorporated community in San Diego County, California, United States. It is 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the Imperial County line on California State Route 78 at an elevation of 163 feet (50 m). The name became official in 1962 when it was adopted for federal use by the US Board on Geographic Names. A federally recognized variant name, Ocotillo, can cause confusion with the community of Ocotillo, California in Imperial County, 29 mi (47 km) to the south on Interstate 8.
The San Diego Formation is a geologic formation in southwestern San Diego County in southern California, and northwestern Baja California (México).
The Coyote Mountains are a small mountain range in San Diego and Imperial Counties in southern California. The Coyotes form a narrow ESE trending 2 mi (3.2 km) wide range with a length of about 12 mi (19 km). The southeast end turns and forms a 2 mi (3.2 km) north trending "hook". The highest point is Carrizo Mountain on the northeast end with an elevation of 2,408 feet (734 m). Mine Peak at the northwest end of the range has an elevation of 1,850 ft (560 m). Coyote Wash along I-8 along the southeast margin of the range is 100 to 300 feet in elevation. Plaster City lies in the Yuha Desert about 5.5 mi (8.9 km) east of the east end of the range.
Paleontology in California refers to paleontologist research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of California. California contains rocks of almost every age from the Precambrian to the Recent. Precambrian fossils are present but rare in California.
The Camp Rice Formation is a geologic formation in west Texas and southern New Mexico. It preserves fossils of the Pliocene-Pleistocene. These include the distinctive Tonuco Mountain Local Fauna.
The Moraga Formation or Moraga Volcanics is a Pliocene epoch volcanic geologic formation in the Berkeley Hills of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California.
The Etchegoin Formation is a Pliocene epoch geologic formation in the lower half of the San Joaquin Valley in central California.
The Crowder Formation is a geologic formation in the Central and Western Mojave Desert, in northern Los Angeles County and eastern San Bernardino County, in Southern California.
The Temblor Formation is a geologic formation in California. It preserves fossils dating back from the Late Oligocene to the Middle Miocene of the Neogene period. It is notable for the famous Sharktooth Hill deposit.
The La Jolla Group is a group of geologic formations in coastal southwestern San Diego County, Southern California. Its locations include the coastal La Jolla San Diego region.
The Brawley Formation is a geologic formation in the Colorado Desert of southern California, located in northwestern Imperial County and eastern San Diego County.
The Harold Formation is a geologic formation in the Central Mojave Desert, west of Victorville and north of the San Gabriel Mountains, in eastern San Bernardino County, Southern California.
The Tecopa Lake Beds is a Blancan Pleistocene geologic formation in the Mojave Desert in eastern California. It is in the Tecopa area, east of Death Valley, in southeastern Inyo and northeastern San Bernardino County.
The Palm Spring Formation is a Pleistocene Epoch geologic formation in the eastern Colorado Desert of Imperial County and San Diego County County, Southern California.
The Imperial Formation is the name of two distinct and unrelated geologic formations in North America, of different geologic Eras.
The 1968 Borrego Mountain earthquake occurred on April 8, at 18:28 PST, near the unincorporated community of Ocotillo Wells in San Diego County. The moment magnitude (Mw ) 6.6 strike-slip earthquake struck with a focal depth of 11.1 km (6.9 mi). Damage was relatively moderate, and the mainshock was assigned a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) of VII. Shaking was felt in Nevada, and Arizona. It was the largest earthquake to strike California since 1952, and its display of afterslip became the subject of scientific interest.
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