Temple Butte Formation
{{Short description|Landform in the Grand Canyon, Arizona}}
{{for|the landform in (eastern)-Grand Canyon|Temple Butte}}
{{Infobox rockunit
| image = Redwall, Temple Butte and Muav formations in Grand Canyon.jpg
| imagesize = 310px
| caption =
| period = Devonian
| age = Middle to Late DevonianBeus, SS (2003) Temple Butte Formation. in: Beus, S.S., Morales, M., eds., pp. 107–117, Grand Canyon Geology. Oxford University Press, New York.Anonymous (2006e) [http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/coloradoplateau/lexicon/templebutte.htm Temple Butte Limestone.] [http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/coloradoplateau/index.html Stratigraphy of the Parks of the Colorado Plateau]. U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia. {{fossil range|409|363}}
| type = Geological formation
| prilithology = dolomite
| otherlithology = sandstone, mudstone, and limestone
| namedfor = Temple Butte, Coconino County, Arizona.Walcott, CD (1889) A Study of a Line of Displacement in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in Northern Arizona.
Geological Society of America Bulletin. vol. 1:49–64.
| region = Northern Arizona (Grand Canyon), central Arizona, and southern Nevada
|country = United States
| coordinates =
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| underlies = Redwall Limestone
| overlies = either Muav Limestone or Frenchman Mountain Dolostone of Tonto Group
| thickness = {{convert|30|m|ft|abbr=on}}, at maximum
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The Devonian Temple Butte Formation, also called Temple Butte Limestone, outcrops through most of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, USA; it also occurs in southeast Nevada. Within the eastern Grand Canyon, it consists of thin, discontinuous and relatively inconspicuous lenses that fill paleovalleys cut into the underlying Muav Limestone. Within these paleovalleys, it at most, is only about {{convert|100|ft|m|0}} thick at its maximum. Within the central and western Grand Canyon, the exposures are continuous. However, they tend to merge with cliffs of the much thicker and overlying Redwall Limestone.Billingsley, GH (2000) [http://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i-2688/ Geologic Map of the Grand Canyon 30’ X 60’ Quadrangle, Coconino and Mohave Counties, Northwestern Arizona.] Geologic Investigations Series no. I–2688. U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.
Within the western and central parts of the Grand Canyon, the Temple Butte Formation consists of a westward thickening layer of interbedded dolomite, sandy dolomite, sandstone, mudstone, and limestone that vary in color from purple, reddish-purple, dark gray, to light-gray. Within the eastern part of the Grand Canyon, the Temple Butte Formation fills shallow paleovalleys, which are eroded into the underlying Tonto Group. The Temple Butte strata filling these paleovalleys consist of interbedded mudstone, sandstone, dolomite, and conglomerate – that vary in color from purple, reddish-purple, to light gray. Typically, the paleovalley-fill consists of a distinct pale, reddish purple dolomite or sandy dolomite. These paleovalleys range in depth from as much as {{convert|30|m|ft|abbr=on}}, to as shallow as {{convert|12|m|ft|abbr=on}}.
Contacts
The upper and lower contacts of the Temple Butte Formation are major unconformities. Within the Grand Canyon region, its base is a major unconformity within the Paleozoic rock record. The time represented by this unconfomity spans about 100 million years, including part of Late Cambrian, all of Ordovician and Silurian, and most of Early and Middle Devonian time. The upper contact is a disconformity that typically consists of nearly horizontal surfaces with little or no relief and overlain locally by a basal conglomerate within the overlying Redwall Limestone.
Frenchman Mountain
Within the area of Frenchman Mountain, Clark County, Nevada, over {{convert|610|m|ft|abbr=on}} of limestone and dolomite occupy the interval between the Muav and Redwall limestones, whereas in the Grand Canyon exist less than {{convert|30|m|ft|abbr=on}} of Temple Butte Formation. These limestone and dolomite beds represent sediments that accumulated during the period of time represented by the two disconformities that form the upper and lower contacts of the Temple Butte Formation in the Grand Canyon.Shelton, JS (1966) Geology Illustrated. Freeman, San Francisco, California. 434 pp. {{ISBN|978-0716702290}}
Fossils
Despite the occurrence of abundant marine invertebrate and vertebrate fossils within the laterally and temporally equivalent Jerome Member of the Martin Formation in central Arizona,Teichert, C. 1965. Devonian rocks and paleogeography of central Arizona. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper. 464, 181 p. the Temple Butte Formation has yielded surprisingly few identifiable fossils within its Grand Canyon outcrops. These fossils include indeterminate brachiopods, gastropods, corals and placoganoid fish from the walls of lower Kanab CanyonWalcott, C.D., 1883. Pre-Carboniferous strata in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, Arizona. American Journal Science, 3d ser., 26:437–442. and fish plates identified as Bothriolepis from Sapphire Canyon.Denison, R.H., 1951. Late Devonian fresh-water fishes from the western United States. Fieldiana—Geology, 11:221–261. Possible cylindrical trace fossils occur in dolomite beds near the base of the Temple Butte at the type section and Tuckup Canyon. Finally, latest Givetian to late Frasnian conodonts have been recovered from the Temple Butte Formation at Matkatamiba Canyon at River Mile 148.4.
West of the Grand Canyon, fossils have been recovered from the Temple Butte Formation, where it is also known as the Sultan Limestone. From outcrops that form parts of Iceberg Ridge in Mohave County, Arizona, and the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, rare silicified corals, crinoid plates, gastropods, and massive stromatoporoid colonies have been found in dolomite outcrops of the Temple Butte Formation (Sultan Limestone).Spamer, E.E., 1984, Paleontology in the Grand Canyon of Arizona: 125 years of lessons and enigmas from the late Precambrian to the present. Mosasaur." (Journal of the Delaware Valley Paleontological Society) 22:45–128.Beus, S.S., 1980. Late Devonian (Frasnian) paleogeography and paleoenvironments in northern Arizona. In: T. D. Fauch & E. R. Magatham (eds.), Paleozoic paleogeography of west-central United States. West-Central United States Paleogeography Symp. 1, Denver, June 1980. pp. 55–69. In addition, the upper {{convert|25|m|ft|abbr=on}} of the Temple Butte Formation at Iceberg Ridge contains Famennian conodonts. Finally, farther to the north in Nevada, on South Virgin Peak Ridge, an outcrop of quartz arenite and pinkish-gray sandy dolomite at the base of Temple Butte Formation, has yielded fossil fish plates identified as Holonema, Asterolepis'' and sarcopterygians of middle Devonian age.
See also
{{commons category|Temple Butte Formation|Temple Butte Limestone}}
References
{{reflist}}
Popular Publications
- Blakey, R, and W Ranney (2008) Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau. Grand Canyon Association, Grand Canyon Village, Arizona. 176 pp. {{ISBN|978-1934656037}}
- Chronic, H (1983) Roadside Geology of Arizona. 23rd printing, Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula, Montana. 332 pp. {{ISBN|978-0-87842-147-3}}
- Lucchitta, I (2001) Hiking Arizona's Geology. Mountaineers's Books, Seattle Washington. 290 pp. {{ISBN|0-89886-730-4}}
External links
- Abbot, W, (2001) [http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/geophysical/Abbott/ Revisiting the Grand Canyon – Through the Eyes of Seismic Sequence Stratigraphy.] [http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/ Search and Discovery Article # 40018], America Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
- Baker, R. G. (1984) [http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/geoscience/id/567 Channel filled by Temple Butte Limestone. ] [http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/geoscience/ Iowa Digital Library], University of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa.
- Mathis, A., and C. Bowman (2007) [https://web.archive.org/web/20121220094947/http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/grca/age/index.cfm The Grand Age of Rocks: The Numeric Ages for Rocks Exposed within Grand Canyon], [https://web.archive.org/web/20121220094947/http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/grca/age/index.cfm Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona], National Park Service, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.
Category:Limestone formations of the United States
Category:Natural history of the Grand Canyon
Category:Geologic formations of Arizona
Category:Devonian System of North America
Category:Sandstone formations of the United States