Stratigraphy of the Chinle and Moenkopi Formations, Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations
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Stratigraphy of the Chinle and Moenkopi Formations, Navajo And Hopi Indian Reservations -. Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 521-B Prepared in cooperation with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Navajo Tribe Stratigraphy of the Chinle and Moenkopi Formations, Navajo And Hopi Indian Reservations Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah By C. A. REPENNING, M. E. COOLEY, and J. P. AKERS HYDROGEOLOGY OF THE NAVAJO AND HOPI INDIAN RESERVATIONS ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND UTAH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 521-B Prepared in cooperation with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Nava;·o Tribe UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1969 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR CECIL D. ANDRUS, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY H. William Menard, Director First printing 1969 Second printing 1979 For sale by the Branch of Distribution, U.S. Geological Survey, 1200 South Eads Street, Arlington, VA 22202 CONTENTS Page Page Abstract__________________________________________ _ B1 Chinle Formation_----- __________________________ -- B15 Introduction ______________________________________ _ 2 Shinarump Member _____________ --- ___ --------- 16 Location and land-net system ___________________ _ 2 Mesa Redondo Member------- _________________ _ 17 Purpose and scope of the report _________________ _ 2 Sandstone and siltstone member_________________ _ 18 Fieldwork and compilation of data_______________ _ 3 Monitor Butte Member _________ --------- __ -- ___ _ 19 Previous investigations and terminology __________ _ 3 Petrified Forest and Monitor Butte Members un- Acknowledgments---~-- ________________________ _ 4 differentiated ___________________ -- __________ - 20 Petrified Forest Member _______________________ _ Lower boundary of the Triassic rocks ________________ _ 5 21 Eastern area_______________ ------------- ___ _ Moenkopi Formation_______________________________ _ 7 21 Lower part_ _ _________________________ _ 21 Areal description ___________________ ------_______ _ 7 Sonsela Sandstone Bed __________________ _ 22 Little Colorado River area __________________ _ 7 Upper part____________________________ _ Wupatki Member ______________________ _ 22 7 Western area_____ ------ __ --- _______________ _ Moqui Member________________________ _ 8 23 Monument Valley area______________________ _ 24 Holbrook Member _____________________ _ 8 Owl Rock Member________________ --- __ ----- __ --- 25 Monument Valley area _____________________ _ 9 Uppermost units of the Chinle Formation in the Hoskinnini Member ____________________ _ 9 Monument Valley area ___ ------------ ________ _ 26 Contact between the Hoskinnini Member Reddish-orange siltstone unit _________________ _ 27 and the lower siltstone member ________ _ 10 Lower ledge____________ -_- ___ -_-_________ -_- 27 Lower siltstone member __ ---- __________ _ 11 Church Rock Member_______________________ _ 27 Middle sandstone member ______________ _ 11 Lower silty part ________________________ _ Upper siltstone member ________________ _ 27 11 Hite bed__________ -- ___ -_------- ___ -- __ _ 28 Zuni Mountains area _____ ---- _________ ---_- 12 Summary of relations _______ -- ___ --- ________ _ 28 Ranges in thickness ___ ------·-------------____ _ 12 Age assignment and fossil occurrences of the Chinle Age assignment------------------------------- 12 Formation ___________________________________ _ 29 Unconformity between the Moenkopi and Chinle For- References cited _____________ --___ ---_-----------___ _ 29 mations---------------------------------------- 13 IndeX---------------------------------------------- 33 ILLUSTRATIONS Page PLATE 1. Generalized map showing outcrops of the Chinle and Moenkopi Formations and localities, Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah----------------------------------------- In pocket 2. Stratigraphic fence diagram of the Chinle and Moenkopi Formations, Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah ______________________________________________ ---------- ___ In pocket FIGURES 1-10. Maps: 1. Bureau of Indian Affairs administrative districts and 15-minute quadrangles_____________________ B3 2. Distribution of units of the Moenkopi Formation--------------------------------------------- 6 3. Regional structural features of the Southwestern States--------------------------------------- 7 4. Thickness of the Moenkopi Formation _________________________________________ - __ ----______ 13 5. Distribution of the Shinarump Member _________________________________ --- _______________ -- 14 6. Thickness of the Chinle Formation_________________________________________________________ 15 7. Distribution of the Mesa Redondo Member, sandstone and siltstone member, and Monitor Butte Member----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 8. Distribution of the Sonsela Sandstone Bed ____________________________________ ---___________ 23 9. Distribution of the Hite bed of the Church Rock Member, the Owl Rock Member, and the sandstone beds in the upper Petrified Forest Member_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 24 10. Thickness of the Owl Rock Member________________________________________________________ 26 TABLE Page TABLE 1. Nomenclature and correlation of the Chinle and Moenkopi Formations in the Navajo country_____________ B5 m HYDROGEOLOGY OF THE NAVAJO AND HOPI INDIAN RESERVATIONS, ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND UTAH STRATIGRAPHY OF THE CHINLE AND MOENKOPI FORMATIONS, NAVAJO AND HOPI INDIAN RESERVATIONS, ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, AND UTAH By C. A. REPENNING, M. E. CooLEY, and J. P. AKERS ABSTRACT feet thick. The thickness of the Moenkopi is 349 feet near Cam The Chinle and Moenkopi Formations of Triassic age are eron, 158 feet near Holbrook, 150 feet in the central part of present throughout most of the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reser Monument Valley, and between 30 and 100 feet along the vations, an area of about 25,000 square miles. The formations north :flank of the Zuni Mountains. are 1,700 feet thick in the valley of the Little Colorado River Regional upwarping terminated the deposition of the Moen and thin northwestward to 1,100 feet at Lees Ferry and 1,300 kopi Formation and caused a general withdrawal of the Tri feet in San Juan Canyon. The Chinle and Moenkopi Formations assic seas. Recurrent uplift of the Mogollon and Uncompahgre comprise a thick sequence of shaly beds and contain several Highlands formed a generally northwestward-:flowing drainage relatively thin sandstone beds. The shaly beds generally are not syatem. At first, there were degrading streams entrenched in water bearing, but a few persistent sandstone beds-mainly valleys and large channels having more than 150 feet of relief in the southeastern part of the report area-yield water to cut into the Moenkopi Formation and older rocks. This erosion springs and drilled wells. marks one of the more conspicuous breaks in deposition in the The lower boundary of the Triassic rocks is marked by an Mesozoic rocks of the southwest. Later, beginning with the extensive erosion surface of slight relief cut on the Permian deposition of the Chinle Formation, the streams began to ag rocks. In most of the Navajo Indian Reservation, the erosion grade. Conglomeratic and sandy sediments of the basal members occurred from Late Permian time until the deposition of the of the Chinle Formation filled the valleys and channels, and Moenkopi Formation in Early and Middle(?) Triassic time. eventually deposits of the Chinle Formation were laid down In general, the basal Triassic rocks in the eastern part of the over all of what is now the reservations and adjacent areas. report area are younger than those in the western part. Exposures of the Chinle Formation in Chinle Valley, the type In the reservations the Moenkopi Formation is of Early and area, are representative of the formation in the reservations. Middle(?) Triassic age, and where the Hoskinnini Member, East of Chinle Valley the form·ation contains several resistant the basal member of the Moenkopi, is present, the formation sandstone beds, but west of the valley such beds in the main is of Triassic(?) and Early and Middle(?) Triassic age. The body of the Chinle are virtually insignificant. The formation Moenkopi was deposited in a broad trough that formed part thickens southeastward across the reservations from about 800 of a stable shelf east of the Cordilleran geosyncline between feet along the Colorado and San Juan Rivers to 1,500 feet in the Mogollon Highlands of central Arizona and New Mexico the Zuni Mountains. and the Uncompahgre Highlands of Colorado. The lithology of The Chinle Formation consists of, in ascending order, the the Moenkopi re:flects a westward transition from continental Shinarump, Mesa Redondo, sandstone and siltstone, Monitor to generally marine depositional environments. The streams that Butte, Petrified Forest, Owl Rock, and Church Rock Members. deposited the :fluvial parts of the Moenkopi Formation :flowed In the eastern part of the report area, the Petrified Forest generally northwestward across the reservations. Member is divided into an upper and a lower part, which are In the southern and western parts of the reservations, the separated by the Sonsela Sandstone Bed. The Shinarump Mem Moenkopi is divided into the Wupatki Member at the base, ber and Sonsela Sandstone Bed are composed mainly of sand composed of siltstone and silty sandstone ; the overlying Moqui stone and conglomerate. The Mesa