Turlock Lake Formation

{{Short description|Early Pleistocene geologic formation in California, United States}}

{{Infobox rockunit

| name = Turlock Lake Formation

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| type = Geologic formation

| age = Early Pleistocene

| period = Pleistocene

| prilithology = Granitic sand over stratified silt

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| region = Sacramento County, California

| country = United States

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| underlies =Riverbank Formation

| overlies =Mehrten Formation, North Merced Pediment and Gravels

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The Turlock Lake Formation is an Early Pleistocene geologic formation in the Sierra Nevada foothills in Sacramento County, California. Cities in/over the formation's area include Citrus Heights, Carmichael, and Roseville.[http://www.quake.ca.gov/gmaps/RGM/sacramento/sacramento.html California Geological Survey: Geologic Map of the Sacramento Quadrangle]

The Turlock Lake Formation is a fan deposit of dominantly granitic alluvium covering the westward extension of the North Merced Pediment and Gravels formation, and directly overlying the Mehrten Formation.[http://npshistory.com/publications/geology/state/ca/cdmg-bul-182/sec3.htm California Division of Mines and Geology.ca..gov: "The GEOLOGY, GEOMORPHOLOGY, and SOILS of the SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY in the VICINITY of the MERCED RIVER, CALIFORNIA."], by RODNEY J. ARKLEY

Lecturer and Specialist in the Agricultural Experiment Station, Department of Soils and Plant Nutrition, University of California, Berkeley, California.

It preserves Early Pleistocene Quaternary period fossils.