Poison Canyon Formation | |
---|---|
Stratigraphic range: | |
Type | Formation |
Underlies | Cuchara Formation |
Overlies | Raton Formation |
Thickness | 650 feet (200 m) |
Lithology | |
Primary | Sandstone, mudstone, siltstone |
Location | |
Coordinates | 37°31′26″N105°04′30″W / 37.524°N 105.075°W |
Region | Colorado, New Mexico |
Country | United States |
Type section | |
Named for | Poison Canyon ( 37°31′26″N105°04′30″W / 37.524°N 105.075°W ) |
Named by | R.C. Hills |
The Poison Canyon Formation is a geologic formation in the Raton Basin of Colorado and New Mexico. The formation was deposited from the late Cretaceous through the Paleocene.
The Poison Canyon Formation consists of thick sandstone beds separated by beds of mudstone and siltstone. It is found throughout most of the Raton Basin. The sandstone is arkosic and coarse-grained to conglomeratic. The mudstone and siltstone beds weather to yellow, are rich in mica, and are not resistant to erosion. The total thickness of the formation is up to 650 feet (200 m). [1] [2]
The formation grades below into the Raton Formation, with the transition often very gradual, up to 150 feet (46 m). In the western part of the Raton Basin, the formation intertongues with and partially replaces the Raton Formation. The two are distinguished by color (the Raton Formation is gray and the Poison Canyon Formation is yellow to orange), by the absence of arkosic sandstone in the Raton Formation, and by the absence of coal from the Poison Canyon Formation. [1] In addition, river channel deposits in the Raton Formation are up to six times wider and five times deeper than river channels in the Poison Canyon Formation, and the channels in the Poison River Formation tend to be isolated and lack any sheet-like amalgamation. [3]
The Poison Canyon Formation underlies the Cuchara Formation in the northern part of the Raton Basin. [4]
The formation derived its sediments from the San Luis uplift to the southwest and the Wet Mountains uplift to the north and northwest. [5] Its age ranges from late Cretaceous (where the formation partially replaces the Raton Formation) to Paleocene. [6]
The Poison Canyon Formation contains sparse fossilized plant remains characteristic of the Paleocene. [7]
The formation is a significant freshwater aquifer in the Canon City, Colorado area. [8] [9]
The unit was first named as the "Poison Canyon conglomerates" by R.C. Hills in 1888. Hills later clarified the definition, separating the uppermost beds of his measured section to the Huerfano Formation. [10]
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 Wilcox Group is an important geologic group in the Gulf of Mexico Basin and surrounding onshore areas from Mexico and Texas to Louisiana and Alabama. The group ranges in age from Paleocene to Eocene and is in Texas subdivided into the Calvert Bluff, Simsboro and Hooper Formations, and in Alabama into the Nanafalia and Hatchetigbee Formations. Other subdivisions are the Lower, Middle and Upper Wilcox Subgroups, and the Carrizo and Indio Formations.
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 Fruitland Formation is a geologic formation found in the San Juan Basin in the states of New Mexico and Colorado, in the United States of America. It contains fossils dating it to the Campanian age of the late Cretaceous.
The San Juan Basin is a geologic structural basin located near the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States. The basin covers 7,500 square miles and resides in northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, and parts of Utah and Arizona. Specifically, the basin occupies space in the San Juan, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, and McKinley counties in New Mexico, and La Plata and Archuleta counties in Colorado. The basin extends roughly 100 miles (160 km) N-S and 90 miles (140 km) E-W.
The Raton Basin is a geologic structural basin in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. It takes its name from Raton Pass and the town of Raton, New Mexico. In extent, the basin is approximately 50 miles (80 km) east-west, and 90 miles (140 km) north-south, in Huerfano and Las Animas Counties, Colorado, and Colfax County, New Mexico.
The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a 45,000-acre (18,000 ha) wilderness area located in San Juan County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Established in 1984, the Wilderness is a desolate area of steeply eroded badlands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, except three parcels of private Navajo land within its boundaries. The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, signed March 12, 2019, expanded the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness by approximately 2,250 acres.
The Vermejo Formation is a geologic formation of Upper Cretaceous age. It outcrops in the Raton Basin of northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado.
The Raton Formation is a geological formation of Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene age which outcrops in the Raton Basin of northeast New Mexico and southeast Colorado.
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The Pictured Cliffs Formation is a Campanian geologic formation in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, although none have yet been referred to a specific genus.
Within the earth science of geology, the Edmonton Group is a Late Cretaceous to early Paleocene stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the central Alberta plains. It was first described as the Edmonton Formation by Joseph Burr Tyrrell in 1887 based on outcrops along the North Saskatchewan River in and near the city of Edmonton. E.J.W. Irish later elevated the formation to group status and it was subdivided into four separate formations. In ascending order, they are the Horseshoe Canyon, Whitemud, Battle and Scollard Formations. The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary occurs within the Scollard Formation, based on dinosaurian and microfloral evidence, as well as the presence of the terminal Cretaceous iridium anomaly.
The Mancos Shale or Mancos Group is a Late Cretaceous geologic formation of the Western United States.
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The Dawson Arkose is a geologic formation in the Denver Basin that underlies the Denver area in Colorado. It is characterized by alternating beds of arkosic sandstone and mudstone. The Dawson Arkose contains plant remains and other nonmarine fossils, and hosts aquifers that are important sources of water for the area.
The San Jose Formation is an Early Eocene geologic formation in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and Colorado.
The Abo Formation is a geologic formation in New Mexico. It contains fossils characteristic of the Cisuralian epoch of the Permian period.
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.
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