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Price River Formation

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Price River Formation
Stratigraphic range: Cretaceous
TypeFormation
Lithology
Primarysandstone, siltstone
Location
RegionUtah
CountryUnited States
Price River Formation exposed in the canyon walls of Price Canyon, Carbon County, Utah. This is the general area for the type section.

The Price River Formation is a geologic formation in Utah. It preserves fossils dating back to the Cretaceous period. The Price River Formation is approximately 200 metres (660 ft) thick at its type locality (Price River Canyon) and consists of cliff-forming sandstone and siltstone visible in the Book Cliffs.[1]

Description

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Irregularly bedded light-gray to gray, and grayish-brown to dark-gray beds of sheet sandstone, plus some beds of conglomerate and conglomeratic sandstone; sparse mudstone beds as well. The crossbedded sandstones are generally thin bedded to massive, and commonly thick bedded. Beds alternate irregularly to form steep, steplike slopes. Ranges in thickness from 9 to 75 m (30–250 ft). Fluvial in origin. This unit is equivalent, in part, to the Tuscher and Farrer Formations of the eastern Book Cliffs.[2]

Fossil pollen (palynomorphs) indicate a late Campanian (Late Cretaceous) age .[3]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Alfred C. Guiseppe; Paul L. Heller (1998). "Long-term river response to regional doming in the Price River Formation, central Utah". Geology. 26 (3): 239–242. Bibcode:1998Geo....26..239G. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1998)026<0239:LTRRTR>2.3.CO;2.
  2. ^ "Utah Geological Survey online interactive geologic map". Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  3. ^ Fouch, T.D., Lawton, T.F., Nichols, D.J., Cashion, W.B., and Cobban, W.A., 1983, Patterns and timing of synorogenic sedimentation in Upper Cretaceous rocks of central and northeast Utah, IN Reynolds, M.W., and Dolly, E.D., eds., Mesozoic paleogeography of the west-central United States: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Rocky Mountain Section, Rocky Mountain Paleogeography Symposium, v. 2, p. 305-336.