The Navajo Sandstone is a geological
formation
Formation may refer to:
Linguistics
* Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes
* Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes
Mathematics and science
* Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...
in the
Glen Canyon Group
The Glen Canyon Group is a geologic group of formations that is spread across the U.S. states of Nevada, Utah, northern Arizona, north west New Mexico and western Colorado. It is called the Glen Canyon Sandstone in the Green River Basin of C ...
that is spread across the
U.S. states of southern
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
, northern
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, northwest
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
, and
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...
as part of the
Colorado Plateau
The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area o ...
province of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
.
[Anonymous (2011b]
''Navajo Sandstone''
. U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia. last accessed August 18, 2013
Description
The Navajo Sandstone is particularly prominent in southern Utah, where it forms the main attractions of a number of national parks and monuments including
Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
The Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Clark County, Nevada, is an area managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of its National Landscape Conservation System, and protected as a National Conservation Area. It is about west ...
,
[''Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area - Rock Climbing.'']
Southern Nevada District Office, Bureau of Land Management, Reno, Nevada Zion National Park
Zion National Park is an American national park located in southwestern Utah near the town of Springdale. Located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions, the park has a unique geography and a variety of ...
,
Capitol Reef National Park
Capitol Reef National Park is an American national park in south-central Utah. The park is approximately long on its northsouth axis and just wide on average. The park was established in 1971 to preserve of desert landscape and is open all ye ...
,
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (shortened to Glen Canyon NRA or GCNRA) is a national recreation area and conservation unit of the United States National Park Service that encompasses the area around Lake Powell and lower Cataract Canyo ...
,
Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument
The Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument (GSENM) is a United States national monument protecting the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante ( Escalante River) in southern Utah. It was established in ...
, and
Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands National Park is an American national park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their ...
.
Navajo Sandstone frequently overlies and interfingers with the
Kayenta Formation
The Kayenta Formation is a geological formation in the Glen Canyon Group that is spread across the Colorado Plateau province of the United States, including northern Arizona, northwest Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. Traditionally has been suggested ...
of the Glen Canyon Group. Together, these formations can result in immense vertical cliffs of up to . Atop the cliffs, Navajo Sandstone often appears as massive rounded domes and bluffs that are generally white in color.
Appearance and provenance
Navajo Sandstone frequently occurs as spectacular cliffs,
cuesta
A cuesta (from Spanish ''cuesta'' "slope") is a hill or ridge with a gentle slope on one side, and a steep slope on the other. In geology the term is more specifically applied to a ridge where a harder sedimentary rock overlies a softer laye ...
s, domes, and bluffs rising from the desert floor. It can be distinguished from adjacent Jurassic sandstones by its white to light pink color, meter-scale
cross-bedding
In geology, cross-bedding, also known as cross-stratification, is layering within a stratum and at an angle to the main bedding plane. The sedimentary structures which result are roughly horizontal units composed of inclined layers. The origina ...
, and distinctive rounded weathering.
The wide range of colors exhibited by the Navajo Sandstone reflect a long history of alteration by groundwater and other subsurface fluids over the last 190 million years. The different colors, except for white, are caused by the presence of varying mixtures and amounts of
hematite
Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...
,
goethite
Goethite (, ) is a mineral of the diaspore group, consisting of iron(III) oxide-hydroxide, specifically the "α" polymorph. It is found in soil and other low-temperature environments such as sediment. Goethite has been well known since ancient t ...
, and
limonite
Limonite () is an iron ore consisting of a mixture of hydrated iron(III) oxide-hydroxides in varying composition. The generic formula is frequently written as FeO(OH)·H2O, although this is not entirely accurate as the ratio of oxide to hydroxide ...
filling the pore space within the quartz sand comprising the Navajo Sandstone. The iron in these strata originally arrived via the erosion of iron-bearing
silicate
In chemistry, a silicate is any member of a family of polyatomic anions consisting of silicon and oxygen, usually with the general formula , where . The family includes orthosilicate (), metasilicate (), and pyrosilicate (, ). The name is a ...
minerals
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed ...
.
Initially, this iron accumulated as iron-oxide coatings, which formed slowly after the sand had been deposited. Later, after having been deeply buried, reducing fluids composed of water and hydrocarbons flowed through the thick red sand which once comprised the Navajo Sandstone. The dissolution of the iron coatings by the reducing fluids bleached large volumes of the Navajo Sandstone a brilliant white. Reducing fluids transported the iron in solution until they mixed with oxidizing groundwater. Where the oxidizing and reducing fluids mixed, the iron precipitated within the Navajo Sandstone.
Depending on local variations within the permeability, porosity, fracturing, and other inherent rock properties of the sandstone, varying mixtures of hematite, goethite, and limonite precipitated within spaces between quartz grains. Variations in the type and proportions of precipitated iron oxides resulted in the different black, brown, crimson, vermillion, orange, salmon, peach, pink, gold, and yellow colors of the Navajo Sandstone.
The precipitation of iron oxides also formed laminae, corrugated layers, columns, and pipes of ironstone within the Navajo Sandstone. Being harder and more resistant to erosion than the surrounding sandstone, the ironstone weathered out as ledges, walls, fins, "flags", towers, and other minor features, which stick out and above the local landscape in unusual shapes.
[Chan, MA, and WT Parry (2002]
''Mysteries of Sandstone Colors and Concretions in Colorado Plateau Canyon Country.'' PDF version, 468 KB
Public Information Series no. 77. Utah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City, Utah.[Chan, M., BB Beitler, WT Parry, J Ormo, and G Komatsu (2005]
''Red Rock and Red Planet Diagenesis: Comparison of Earth and Mars Concretions.'' PDF version, 3.4 MB
GSA Today. vol. 15, no. 8, pp. 4–10.
Age and history of investigation
The age of the Navajo Sandstone is somewhat controversial. It may originate from the
Late Triassic
The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch of the Triassic Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch and followed by the Early Jurassic Epoch ...
but is at least as young as the
Early Jurassic
The Early Jurassic Epoch (geology), Epoch (in chronostratigraphy corresponding to the Lower Jurassic series (stratigraphy), Series) is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic Period. The Early Jurassic starts immediately after the Triassic-J ...
stages
Pliensbachian
The Pliensbachian is an age (geology), age of the geologic timescale and stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is part of the Early Jurassic, Early or Lower Jurassic epoch (geology), Epoch or series (stratigraphy), Series an ...
and
Toarcian
The Toarcian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, an age and stage in the Early or Lower Jurassic. It spans the time between 182.7 Ma (million years ago) and 174.1 Ma. It follows the Pliensbachian and is followed by the Aalenian.
The Toar ...
.
[ There is no type locality of the name. It was simply named for the 'Navajo Country' of the ]southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...
. The two major subunits of the Navajo are the Lamb Point Tongue (Kanab area) and the Shurtz Sandstone Tongue (Cedar City area).[Averitt, P and RF Wilson, JS Detterman, JW Harshbarger, CA Repenning (1955) ''Revisions in correlation and nomenclature of Triassic and Jurassic formations in southwestern Utah and northern Arizona.'' American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin. 39(12):2515–2524.]
The Navajo Sandstone was originally named as the uppermost formation of the La Plata Group by Gregory and Stone in 1917. Baker reassigned it as the upper formation of Glen Canyon Group in 1936.[Baker, AA (1936) ''Geology of the Monument Valley-Navajo Mountain region, San Juan County, Utah.'' Bulletin no. 865. U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia. 106 pp.] Its age was modified by Lewis and others in 1961.[Lewis, GE, JH Irwin, and RF Wilson (1961) ''Age of the Glen Canyon Group (Triassic and Jurassic) on the Colorado Plateau. '' Geological Society of America Bulletin. 72(9):1437–1440.] The name was originally not used in northwest Colorado and northeast Utah, where the name 'Glen Canyon Sandstone' was preferred.[Poole, FG, and JH Stewart (1964) ''Chinle Formation and Glen Canyon Sandstone in northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado.'' In Geological Survey research 1964. Professional Paper, no. 501-D, pp. D30-D39, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.] Its age was modified again by Padian in 1989.[Padian, K (1989) ''Presence of dinosaur Scelidosaurus indicates Jurassic age for the Kayenta Formation (Glen Canyon Group, northern Arizona).'' Geology. 17(5):438-441.]
A 2019 radioisotopic analysis suggests that the Navajo Sandstone formation is entirely Jurassic, extending for about 5.5 million years from the Hettangian age to the Sinemurian age.[Judith Totman Parrish, E. Troy Rasbury, Marjorie A. Chan & Stephen T. Hasiotis (2019) ''Earliest Jurassic U-Pb ages from carbonate deposits in the Navajo Sandstone, southeastern Utah, USA.'' Geology 47(11): 1015-1019.]
Depositional environment
The sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...
was deposited in an arid erg
The erg is a unit of energy equal to 10−7joules (100 nJ). It originated in the Centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS). It has the symbol ''erg''. The erg is not an SI unit. Its name is derived from (), a Greek word meaning 'work' o ...
on the Western portion of the Supercontinent Pangaea
Pangaea or Pangea () was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 million y ...
. This region was affected by annual monsoons that came about each winter when cooler winds and wind reversal occurred.
Outcrop localities
Navajo Sandstone outcrops are found in these geologic locations:
* Colorado Plateau
The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area o ...
* Black Mesa Basin
* Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California. It is noted fo ...
province
* Paradox Basin
* Piceance Basin
* Plateau Sedimentary Province
The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area of ...
* San Juan Basin
* Uinta Basin
The Uinta Basin (also known as the Uintah Basin) is a physiographic section of the larger Colorado Plateaus province, which in turn is part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division. It is also a geologic structural basin in ...
* Uinta Uplift
The Uinta Mountains ( ) are an east-west trending chain of mountains in northeastern Utah extending slightly into southern Wyoming in the United States. As a subrange of the Rocky Mountains, they are unusual for being the highest range in the co ...
* Uncompaghre Uplift
The formation is also found in these parklands (incomplete list):
* Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (shortened to Glen Canyon NRA or GCNRA) is a national recreation area and conservation unit of the United States National Park Service that encompasses the area around Lake Powell and lower Cataract Canyo ...
* Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument
The Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument (GSENM) is a United States national monument protecting the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante ( Escalante River) in southern Utah. It was established in ...
* Zion National Park
Zion National Park is an American national park located in southwestern Utah near the town of Springdale. Located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions, the park has a unique geography and a variety of ...
* Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands National Park is an American national park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their ...
* Capitol Reef National Park
Capitol Reef National Park is an American national park in south-central Utah. The park is approximately long on its northsouth axis and just wide on average. The park was established in 1971 to preserve of desert landscape and is open all ye ...
* Arches National Park
Arches National Park is a national park in eastern Utah, United States. The park is adjacent to the Colorado River, north of Moab, Utah. More than 2,000 natural sandstone arches are located in the park, including the well-known Delicate Arch, ...
* Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument is an American national monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers. Although most of the monument area is i ...
* Navajo National Monument
Navajo National Monument is a National Monument located within the northwest portion of the Navajo Nation territory in northern Arizona, which was established to preserve three well-preserved cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people: Keet ...
* Colorado National Monument
Colorado National Monument is a National Park Service unit near the city of Grand Junction, Colorado. Sheer-walled canyons cut deep into sandstone and granite–gneiss–schist rock formations. This is an area of desert land high on the Colorad ...
* Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
The Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Clark County, Nevada, is an area managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of its National Landscape Conservation System, and protected as a National Conservation Area. It is about west ...
* Pink coral sand dunes, Kanab, Utah
Vertebrate paleofauna
Ornithodires
Indeterminate theropod remains geographically located in Arizona, USA.[Weishampel, DB, P Dodson, and H Osmólska, Halszka (2007) ''The Dinosauria,'' 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. 861 pp. .] Theropod tracks are geographically located in Arizona, Colorado, and Utah, USA. Ornithischian tracks located in Arizona, USA.
Iron oxide concretions
The Navajo Sandstone is also well known among rockhound
Amateur geology or rock collecting (also referred to as rockhounding in the United States and Canada) is the non-professional study and hobby of collecting rocks and minerals or fossil specimens from the natural environment.Sinkankas, John. Minera ...
s for its hundreds of thousands of iron oxide
Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. All are black magnetic solids. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of wh ...
concretion
A concretion is a hard, compact mass of matter formed by the precipitation of mineral cement within the spaces between particles, and is found in sedimentary rock or soil. Concretions are often ovoid or spherical in shape, although irregular ...
s. Informally, they are called "Moqui marbles" and are believed to represent an extension of Hopi
The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the United ...
Native American traditions regarding ancestor worship ("moqui" translates to "the dead" in the Hopi language). Thousands of these concretions weather out of outcrops of the Navajo Sandstone within south-central and southeastern Utah within an area extending from Zion National Park eastward to Arches and Canyonland national parks. They are quite abundant within Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument.
The iron oxide concretions found in the Navajo Sandstone exhibit a wide variety of sizes and shapes. Their shape ranges from spheres to discs; buttons; spiked balls; cylindrical hollow pipe-like forms; and other odd shapes. Although many of these concretions are fused together like soap bubbles, many more also occur as isolated concretions, which range in diameter from the size of peas to baseballs. The surface of these spherical concretions can range from being very rough to quite smooth. Some of the concretions are grooved spheres with ridges around their circumference.
The abundant concretions found in the Navajo Sandstone consist of sandstone cemented together by hematite
Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...
(Fe2O3), and goethite
Goethite (, ) is a mineral of the diaspore group, consisting of iron(III) oxide-hydroxide, specifically the "α" polymorph. It is found in soil and other low-temperature environments such as sediment. Goethite has been well known since ancient t ...
(FeOOH). The iron forming these concretions came from the breakdown of iron-bearing silicate minerals
Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of minerals and make up approximately 90 percent of Earth's crust.
In mineralogy, silica (silicon dioxide, ) is usually con ...
by weathering to form iron oxide coatings on other grains. During later diagenesis
Diagenesis () is the process that describes physical and chemical changes in sediments first caused by water-rock interactions, microbial activity, and compaction after their deposition. Increased pressure and temperature only start to play a ...
of the Navajo Sandstone while deeply buried, reducing fluids, likely hydrocarbons
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ...
, dissolved these coatings. When the reducing fluids containing dissolved iron mixed with oxidizing groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit ...
, they and the dissolved iron were oxidized. This caused the iron to precipitate out as hematite and goethite to form the innumerable concretions found in the Navajo Sandstone. Evidence suggests that microbial metabolism may have contributed to the formation of some of these concretions.[Weber, WA, TL Spanbauer, D Wacey, MR Kilburn, DB Loope, and RM Kettler (2012) ''Biosignatures link microorganisms to iron mineralization in a paleoaquifer.'' Geology. 40(8):747–750.] These concretions are regarded as terrestrial analogues of the hematite spherules, called alternately Martian "blueberries" or more technically Martian spherules
Martian spherules (also known as hematite spherules, blueberries, & Martian blueberries) are small spherules (roughly spherical pebbles) that are rich in an iron oxide (grey hematite, α-Fe2O3) and are found at Meridiani Planum (a large plain on ...
, which the Opportunity rover
''Opportunity'', also known as MER-B (Mars Exploration Rover – B) or MER-1, is a robotic rover that was active on Mars from 2004 until 2018. ''Opportunity'' was operational on Mars for sols (). Launched on July 7, 2003, as part of NASA's ...
found at Meridiani Planum
The Meridiani Planum (alternately Meridiani plain, Meridiani plains, Terra Meridiani, or Terra Meridiani plains) is either a large plain straddling the equator of Mars and covered with a vast number of spherules containing a lot of iron oxide or ...
on Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
.
See also
* List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Utah
This article contains a list of fossil-bearing stratigraphic units in the state of Utah, U.S.
Sites
See also
* Paleontology in Utah
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Utah
Utah
Stratigraphic units
A strat ...
* Toarcian turnover
* Toarcian formations
**Marne di Monte Serrone
The Marne di Monte Serrone ("Monte Serrone Marl") is a geological formation in Italy, dating to roughly between 181 and 178 million years ago,Baldanza, 1989Sabatino et al., 2009 and covering the early and middle Toarcian stage of the Jurassic Pe ...
, Italy
** Calcare di Sogno
The Calcare di Sogno ("Sogno Limestone"; also known as the Sogno Formation) is a geological formation in Italy, dated to roughly between 183-181 mya (unit), million years ago and covering the Toarcian faunal stage, stages of the Jurassic Period in ...
, Italy
** Sachrang Formation
The Posidonia Shale (german: Posidonienschiefer, also called Schistes Bitumineux in Luxembourg) geologically known as the Sachrang Formation, is an Early Jurassic (Toarcian) geological formation of southwestern and northeast Germany, northern Sw ...
, Austria
** Posidonia Shale
The Posidonia Shale (german: Posidonienschiefer, also called Schistes Bitumineux in Luxembourg) geologically known as the Sachrang Formation, is an Early Jurassic (Toarcian) geological formation of southwestern and northeast Germany, northern Swit ...
, Lagerstätte
A Lagerstätte (, from '' Lager'' 'storage, lair' '' Stätte'' 'place'; plural ''Lagerstätten'') is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues. These f ...
in Germany
** Ciechocinek Formation, Germany and Poland
** Krempachy Marl Formation, Poland and Slovakia
** Lava Formation, Lithuania
** Azilal Group, North Africa
** Whitby Mudstone
The Whitby Mudstone is a Toarcian (Early Jurassic; ''Falciferum''-''Bifrons'' in regional chronostratigraphy) geological formation in Yorkshire and Worcestershire, England.[Fernie Formation
The Fernie Formation is a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic unit of Jurassic Geochronology, age. It is present in the western part of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in western Alberta and northeastern British Col ...]
, Alberta and British Columbia
*** Poker Chip Shale
** Whiteaves Formation, British Columbia
** Los Molles Formation
The Los Molles Formation is a geologic formation of Early to Middle Jurassic age, located at northern and central part of Neuquén Basin at Mendoza Shelf in Argentina. It is overlain by the Niyeu–Lajas Formation.McIlroy et al., 2005
Descrip ...
, Argentina
** Mawson Formation, Antarctica
** Kandreho Formation
The Kandreho Formation is an Early Jurassic (middle or late Toarcian) geological formation of the Mahajanga Basin of Madagascar. The marly limestones of the formation were deposited in a subtidal lagoonal environment. The formation overlies the ...
, Madagascar
** Kota Formation
The Kota Formation is a geological formation in India. The precise age of Kota Formation are uncertain, but it dates from the Early to Middle Jurassic, and is split into a Lower Member and Upper Member.Prasad GVR, and Manhas BK. 2007A new docodont ...
, India
** Cattamarra Coal Measures, Australia
References
Further reading
General
* Anonymous (2011a
''Navajo Sandstone (in Glen Canyon Group)''
STAR: Sedimentary & Terrestrial Analog Research group, Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Anonymous (2011b
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia. last accessed August 18, 2013
*
* Elder, J. (2005
''Hele-Shaw Cell: Avalanche Segregation and Stratification.''Utah Sand
Ottawa, Canada. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Loope, D.B. (nda
Dr. David B. Loope – Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Loope, D.B. (ndb
Dr. David B. Loope – Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Loope, D.B. (ndc
''Dry-Season Dinosaur Tracks in the Navajo Sandstone.''
PDF Version (3.9 MB) poster
Dr. David B. Loope – Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Ostapuk, P., (nd
Glen Canyon Natural History Association
Page, Arizona. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Peters, P.E., and N.A. Heim (nd
''Navajo Sandstone Formation - Glen Canyon Group: Spatial Distribution in Macrostrat.''Macrostrat Beta 0.3
Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Pratt, S.. (2003
Geotimes. (November 2003). last accessed August 18, 2013
* Stamm, N. (2013
National Geologic Database
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Vendetti, J. (2001
Geotimes. (September 2001). last accessed August 18, 2013
Scientific publications
* Chan, M.A., and A.W. Archer (2000
''Cyclic Eolian Stratification on the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, Zion National Park: Periodicities and Implications for Paleoclimate'' PDF version, 3.2 MB
in D.A. Sprinkel, T.C. Chidsey, Jr., and P.B. Anderson, eds., Geology of Utah's Parks and Monuments. Utah Geological Association Publication 28:1-11. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Kocurek G. 2003. ''Limits on extreme Eolian systems: Sahara of Mauritania and Jurassic Navajo Sandstone examples''. in M. Chan and A. Archer, eds.
Extreme Depositional Environments: Mega End Members in Geologic Time
Geological Society of America Special Paper 370:43-52. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Loope, D.B., and C.M. Rowe (2003
''Long-Lived Pluvial Episodes during Deposition of the Navajo Sandstone'' PDF version, 1.3 MB
The Journal of Geology 111:223-232. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Loope, D.B., and C.M. Rowe (2005
''Seasonal Patterns of wind and rain recorded by the Navajo Sandstone'' PDF version, 7.4 MB
Canyon Legacy. 54:8-12. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Loope, D.B., and Z.C. Zanner (2005
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 37, No. 7, p. 506. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Loope, D., L. Eisenberg, and E. Waiss (2004
''Navajo sand sea of near-equatorial Pangea: Tropical westerlies, slumps, and giant stromatolites.''
in E.P. Nelson and E.A. Erslev, eds., pp. 1–13
Field Trips in the Southern Rocky Mountains, USA.
GSA Field Guide no. 5, Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Loope, D.B., C.M. Rowe, and R.M. Joeckel (2001
''Annual monsoon rains recorded by Jurassic dunes'' PDF version, 284 KB
Nature. 412:64-66. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Loope, D.B., M.B. Steiner, C.M. Rowe, and N. Lancaster (2004
''Tropical westerlies over Pangean sand seas'' PDF version, 340 KB
Sedimentology. 51:315-322. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Irmis, R.B. (2005
''A review of the vertebrate fauna of the Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone in Arizona.'' PDF version, 2.4 MB
in R.D. McCord, ed., pp. 55–71, Vertebrate Paleontology of Arizona. Mesa Southwest Museum Bulletin no. 11. Mesa Southwest Museum, Arizona Museum of Natural History, Mesa, Arizona. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Rainforth, E.C. (1997
''Vertebrate ichnological diversity and census studies, Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone'' PDF version, 3.9 MB
Unpublished masters thesis, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder. last accessed August 18, 2013
* Tape, C. (2005
''The Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone: large-scale deposition and small-scale structures, Site: Glen Canyon Dam.'' PDF version, 4.8 MB
in J.L. Kirschvink, ed., Field Trip to Colorado Plateau (southern Utah, northern Arizona, Permian-Triassic boundary). Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, University of California. last accessed August 18, 2013
{{Chronostratigraphy of Colorado, Mesozoic state=expanded
Geologic formations of Arizona
Geologic formations of Colorado
Geologic formations of Nevada
Geologic formations of Utah
Jurassic System of North America
Jurassic Arizona
Jurassic Colorado
Jurassic geology of Nevada
Jurassic geology of Utah
Hettangian Stage
Sinemurian Stage
Dolomite formations
Limestone formations of the United States
Sandstone formations of the United States
Geologic formations with imbedded sand dunes
Ergs
Aeolian deposits
Ichnofossiliferous formations
Fossiliferous stratigraphic units of North America
Paleontology in Arizona
Paleontology in Colorado
Paleontology in Nevada
Paleontology in Utah