Rock Point Formation

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Rock Point Formation
Stratigraphic range: late Triassic
Rock point formation.jpg
Rock Point Formation capped by Entrada Formation, near Youngsville, New Mexico
Type Formation
Unit of Chinle Group
Underlies Wingate Sandstone
Overlies Petrified Forest Formation
Thickness70 m
Lithology
Primary Siltstone
OtherFine sandstone
Location
Coordinates 36°31′29″N109°33′22″W / 36.5247221°N 109.5560845°W / 36.5247221; -109.5560845
Region Utah, Arizona, New Mexico
Country United States
Type section
Named forRock Point School, Apache County, Arizona
Named byHarshbarger, J.W., Repenning, C.A., and Irwin, J.H., 1957
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Rock Point Formation (the United States)
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Rock Point Formation (Arizona)

The Rock Point Formation is a geologic formation in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. It preserves fossils dating back to the late Triassic.

Contents

Description

The formation is up to 70 m thick and is mostly reddish-brown and grayish-red massive siltstone and fine sandstone beds. It is the uppermost portion of the Chinle Group wherever it is exposed. In the Chama basin, its base is placed at the first persistent sandstone bed above the mudstones of the Petrified Forest Formation. Its contact with the overlying Entrada Sandstone is sharp. [1]

Fossils

The Whitaker quarry of Ghost Ranch, New Mexico is believed to be located in the Rock Point Formation, although these beds have also controversially been assigned to the Owl Rock Formation. [1] This quarry has also been referred to as the Coelophysis quarry due to preserving a large number of specimens of the early theropod dinosaur Coelophysis bauri. [2]

History of investigation

The unit was first named by J.W. Harshbarger, C.A. Repenning, and J.H. Irwin in 1957, who assigned Herbert E. Gregory's (1917) "A" division of the Chinle Formation to the Wingate Formation as the Rock Point Member. It was named for Rock Point School, located near the type exposures at Little Round Rock. [3] J.H. Stewart and coinvestigators argued in 1972 that the unit has more affinity with the Chinle, [4] and R.F. Dubiel assigned the Rock Point to the Chinle in 1989. [5] The unit has created an unusual amount of controversy, but Spencer G. Lucas and coinvestigators raised it to formation rank within the Chinle Group in 2005. [1]

See also

Footnotes

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinle Formation</span> Geological formation in the western US

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Group (stratigraphy)</span> A group of geologic formations

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shinarump Conglomerate</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert J. Gay</span> American Paleontologist

Robert Joseph Gay is an American Paleontologist known for his work in the Chinle and Kayenta Formations in the southwest United States. He is known for the discovery of the first occurrence of Crosbysaurus from Utah, as well as his studies of cannibalism in Coelophysis and sexual dimorphism in Dilophosaurus. Since 2014, Gay has taken high school students to the Chinle of Comb Ridge, Utah, and he is currently making new discoveries there. In December 2017, he and coauthors Xavier A. Jenkins of Arizona State University and John R. Foster of the Museum of Moab formally published their study on the oldest known dinosaur from Utah, a neotheropod that is likely an animal similar to Coelophysis. Robert Gay is currently the Education Director at the Colorado Canyons Association.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bluff Formation</span> Geologic formation in the western United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chama Basin</span>

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References