Palm Spring Formation

Last updated
Palm Spring Formation
Stratigraphic range: Lower Pleistocene
Type Geologic formation
UnderliesVallecito Badlands
Overlies Imperial Formation, Ocotillo Formation
Location
Region Colorado Desert, California
Country United States

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.

Contents

Geology

The Palm Spring Formation is an extensively-exposed delta-plain deposit debouched by the ancestral Colorado River across the subsiding Salton Trough. [1] It records the development of the prehistoric Colorado River delta cone into a barrier excluding marine waters from the Salton Trough. [2]

Fossils

It preserves fossils from the Pleistocene Epoch, during the Quaternary Period of the Cenozoic Era. [3]

Lower Pliocene sub−period petrified wood is found in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. [4] The Lauraceae is represented by petrified Umbellularia , the Salicaceae with petrified Populus and Salix , and the Juglandaceae with petrified Juglans . [4]

See also

References

  1. National Park Service: "The FISH CREEK CANYON ICHNOFAUNA: a PLIOCENE (BLANCAN) Vertebrate Footprint Assemblage from Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California"; by Paul Remeika.
  2. San Diego State University.edu: "Environments of deposition, Pliocene Imperial Formation, Southeast Coyote Mountains, Imperial County, California" Archived 2015-10-04 at the Wayback Machine ; Bell, Patricia J.; 1980.
  3. Various Contributors to the Paleobiology Database. "Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database". Archived from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  4. 1 2 Remeika, Paul; Fischbein, Irwin W.; Fischbein, Steven A. (1988). "Lower Pliocene petrified wood from the Palm Spring Formation, Anza Borrego Desert State Park, California". Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 56 (3–4): 183–198. doi:10.1016/0034-6667(88)90057-7.

Further reading