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Stratigraphy of North Flank of Eastern Uinta Mountains and Southern Green River Basin

STRATIGRAPHY OF NORTH FLANK OF EASTERN UINTA MOUNTAINS AND SOUTHERN GREEN RIVER BASIN

NORTH ICS TIME BEDROCK UNIT NAMES AMERICAN (Millions of DOMINANT DEPOSITIONAL AGE and THICKNESS LITHOLOGY NOTES Years Ago) (not to scale) ERA (SERIES) AGE ROCK TYPE ENVIRONMENTS (STAGE) DEPOSITS PERIOD (not to scale)

(SYSTEM) (STAGE) (ERATHEM) Feet Meters Holocene Unconsolidated sand, silt, gravel, and 0.0117 Alluvium and colluvium 3-100 1-30 boulders; fine- to coarse-grained deposits Alpine glaciers in Uinta Mountains; Upper Eolian (wind-blown sand) deposits 16-30 5-10 in stream channels and on several levels capture of Green River by the Rancholabrean 0.126 of benches; landslides and slumps in River system within the last Landslide deposits thin to 160 thin to 50 unconsolidated and bedrock units suscep- 2 million years tible to failure on steep slopes and in some Irvingtonian Middle Glacial till-outwash and older alluvium 3-30 1-10

Quaternary active channels 0.781 Unconformity of about 1 million years 3 Piacanzian less than less than Blancan 4 Unnamed gravel Sandstone, boulder conglomerate with ash 165 50 5 Unconformity of about 3 million years Hemphillian 8 Clarendonian 12 Barstovian 14 Sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, and basal Hemingfordian 16 0-1640 0-500 boulder conglomerate with tuffaceous Crustal relaxation and collapse of beds and ash eastern Uinta Mountains; drainage N 20 patterns changed about 25 million years Arikareean 23 ago to the present configuration

CENOZOIC 28 Local unconformity 30 Whitneyan Sandstone and boulder conglomerate with Unconformity of about 13 million years; Tertiary Bishop Conglomerate 0-490 0-150 ash Glibert Peak erosion surface formed Orellan 34 after the Laramide uplift ended 47 Tuffaceous mudstone and sandstone with Known for abundant brontothere Bridgerian 2760-3430 840-1045 lesser amounts of limestone 48 and turtle Limestone, sandstone, shale, and oil shale 985-2720 300-830 Lake Gosiute; known for fish and Wasatchian with some salt, gypsum, and trona beds

Paleogene trona deposits Clarkforkian Interbedded sandstone, siltstone, and 56 2000-4000 610-1220 conglomerate; intertongues with overlying Green River Formation Tiffanian Unconformity of about 10 million years; 59 1200-2300 365-700 Siltstone, sandstone, basal conglomerate, Tertiary- (TK) boundary and Torrejonian 62 some mudstone and few thin coal beds the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs 72 Mesaverde Ericson Sandstone Sandstone, siltstone, carbonaceous Laramide uplift of the Uinta Mountains Rock Springs Formation 1290-2350 393-715 begins Group Blair Formation mudstone, coal, and conglomerate

84 Baxter Shale 6200-6300 1890-1920 Mudstone, silty mudstone, and siltstone Upper 86 Giant marine swam in the Western Interior Seaway 90 M

Turonian Sandstone, carbonaceous mudstone, coal; 170-190 50-60 large concretions in upper part 92 Tununk Shale; unconformity of about 3 million years at base 95

Cretaceous Siliceous shale 101 200-220 60-65 Contains fossil fish scales 102? 130-250 40-75 Sandstone, carbonaceous mudstone, coal 103? K-1 unconformity of about 1 million years 113 Lower Varicolored mudstone and soil carbonate 125 0-195 0-60 (calcrete) beds forming nodules Emergence of flowering plants 129 K-0 unconformity of about 16 million years N 145 Upper varicolored mudstone; lower sand- 152 600-745 180-230 Contains abundant dinosaur remains stone, siltstone, thin pebble conglomerate 157 J-5(?) unconformity of about 2 million years Upper 159 Stump Formation 145-280 45-85 Mudstone, limestone, glauconitic sandstone Contains belemnite fossils T 163 164 J-3 unconformity of about 1 million years 160-245 50-75 Fine-grained, cross-bedded sandstone N

MESOZOIC 166 R Middle Mudstone and siltstone with lower limestone 168 275-400 85-125 or sandstone Contains Isocrinus crinoid fossils T 170 J-1 unconformity about 4 million years 174 183 Lower 191 655-885 200-270 Fine-grained sandstone with large-scale trough and planar cross-beds Ancient sand dunes 199 201 N 209 ? ? Mudstone and siltstone with rippled Unconformity of unknown duration Upper 230-370 70-110 sandstone at top and pebble conglomerate Gartra Member; contains fossil wood; 227 (Gartra Member) at base ^-3 unconformity of about 10 million 237 years at base 247 251 750-830 230-255 Interbedded siltstone, sandstone, mudstone Contains abundant trace fossils and Lower ripple marks Dinwoody Formation 380-530 115-160 Shale, siltstone, sandstone, some limestone R 252 ^ 265 -1 unconformity of about 13 million years Guadalupian Upper sandy limestone and dolomite (Middle) 269 with mudstone, siltstone, and sandstone Park City and Phosphoria Formations 330-425 100-130 Contains phosphate and marine deposits T 272 and lower sandy limestone and dolomite separated by phosphatic shale Leonardian 284 289 Unconformity of about 3 million years (Lower) 292 Wolfcampian 295 Fine-grained sandstone with thin limestone Forms cliffs and Tower Rock in Sheep 299 Weber Sandstone 1017-1550 310-475 interbeds in lower part N Virgilian Creek Canyon Geological Area Upper 304 Missourian 307 Desmoinesian Interbedded shale, siltstone, cherty Middle Moscovian Morgan Formation 500-965 150-295 limestone R Atokan 315 PALEOZOIC Lower Morrowan Round Valley Limestone 275-445 85-135 Cherty limestone Forms ledges, contains jasperized T marine fossils 323 Doughnut Shale 345-545 105-165 Carbonaceous shale and thin limestone Upper R Chesterian Humbug Formation 295-380 90-115 Interbedded sandstone, shale, limestone 331 Upper (Deseret Limestone equivalent) Forms cliffs, contains marine fossils Middle Meramecian Visean and lower thick-bedded cherty limestone Deseret Limestone equivalent 347 separated by thin-bedded shaley Osagean Madison Limestone 920-1100 280-335 limestone (Delle Phosphatic Member Delle Phosphatic Member equivalent Lower equivalent); sinkholes and caves (karst) T Kinderhookian 359 in the upper limestone Unconformity of about 126 million years; 485 marine sand deposited in low areas Sandstone and pebble sandstone Upper Lodore Formation 0-590 0-180 Unconformity of about 140 million years; 501 uplift of ancestral Uinta Mountains and 642 Red Pine Shale 1800-3940 550-1200 Shale and arkosic sandstone erosion creating a rolling landscape

Quartz sandstone, shale, thin pebble formation of Hades Pass 5900-7220 1800-2200 conglomerate and arkosic sandstone Forms the exposed core of the Uinta Quartz sandstone and some thin beds Mountains; ancient faulted basin Middle formation of Crouse Canyon 4200-8860 1280-2700 of shale repeatedly flooded by marine waters M that contained single-celled and early colonial microfossils formation of Outlaw Trail 165-330 50-100 Shale and arkosic sandstone Cryogenian formation of Diamond Breaks 1600-3200 485-975 Quartz sandstone and orthoquartzite Uinta Mountain Group Unconformity of about 800 million years Conglomerate and shale 770 Jesse Ewing Canyon Formation 740-1640 225-500 1600 T = Marine transgression Metamorphosed rocks R = Marine regression as much as as much as N = Non-marine Red Creek Quartzite Metaquartzite, mica schist, amphibolite M = Marine trangression 20,000 6100 and regression cycles with intervening non-marine deposition

Red line denotes an unconformity (no rock record preserved); two numbers give time gap.

REFERENCES

International Commissison on Stratigraphy (ICS) age (stage) names and rounded time values are from Cohen and others (2013); North American age (stage) names and correlation are from Berggren and others (1985), Rohde (2005), Heckel and Clayton (2006), and Menning and others (2006).

Berggren, W.A., Kent, D.V., Flynn, J.J., and Van Couvering, J.A., 1985, Cenozoic : Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 96, no. 11, p. 1407-1418.

Cohen, K.M., Finney, S.C., Gibbard, P.L., and Fan, J., 2013, The ICS international chronostratigraphic chart: Episodes, v. 36, no. 3, p. 199-204.

Heckel, P.H., and Clayton, G., 2006, The System—use of the new official names for the subsystems, series, and stages: Geologica Acta, v. 4, no. 3, p. 403-407.

Menning, M., Alekseev, A.S., Chuvashov, B.I., Davydov, V.I., Devuyst, F.-X., Forke, H.C., Grunt, T.A., Hance, L., Heckel, P.H., Izokh, N.G., Jin, Y.-G., Jones, P.J., Kotlyar, G.V., Kozur, H.W., Nemyrovska, T.I., Schneider, J.W., Wang, X.-D., Weddige, K., Weyer, D., and Work, D.M., 2006, Global time scale and regional stratigraphic reference scales of Central and West Europe, East Europe, Tethys, South China, and North America as used in the –Carboniferous–Permian Correlation Chart 2003 (DCP 2003): Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 240, no. 1-2, p. 318-372.

Rohde, R.A., 2005, Geowhen database: Online, www.stratigraphy.org/bak/geowhen/index.html, accessed March 2016.

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UTAH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY a division of Plate 1 Utah Department of Natural Resources Utah Geological Survey Open-File Report 650 in cooperation with Stratigraphy of North Flank of Eastern Uinta Mountains and Southern Green River Basin Utah State Parks Author: Douglas A. Sprinkel, Utah Geological Survey