The

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

Temple Butte Formation, also called Temple Butte Limestone, outcrops through most of the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

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 ...

, USA; it also occurs in southeast

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 ...

. Within the eastern Grand Canyon, it consists of thin, discontinuous and relatively inconspicuous lenses that fill

paleovalley A palaeochannel, also spelt paleochannel and also known as palaeovalley or palaeoriver, is a geological term describing a remnant of an inactive river or stream channel that has been filled or buried by younger sediment. The sediments that the ...

s cut into the underlying

Muav Limestone The Cambrian Muav Limestone is a geologic unit within the 5-member Tonto Group. It is about thick at its maximum. It is a resistant cliff-forming unit. The Muav consists of dark to light-gray, brown, and orange red limestone with dolomite and ...

. Within these paleovalleys, it at most, is only about 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
''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 Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

, 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 Tonto Group is a name for an assemblage of related sedimentary strata, collectively known by geologists as a ''Group'', that comprises the basal sequence Paleozoic strata exposed in the sides of the Grand Canyon. As currently defined, the T ...

, (upper 3rd unit

). 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 , to as shallow as .

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 The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

rock record. The time represented by this unconfomity spans about 100 million years, including part of Late

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...

, all of Ordovician and

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...

, and most of Early and Middle

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 Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** Co ...

within the overlying Redwall Limestone.

Frenchman Mountain

Within the area of Frenchman Mountain, Clark County, Nevada, over of limestone and dolomite occupy the interval between the Muav and Redwall limestones, whereas in the Grand Canyon exist less than 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.

Fossils

Despite the occurrence of abundant marine

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

and

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

fossils within the laterally and temporally equivalent Jerome Member of the

Martin Formation The Martin Formation is a Formation (geology), geologic formation in Arizona. It preserves fossils dating back to the Devonian Period (geology), period. See also * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Arizona * Paleontology in Arizona ...

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,

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

s and ''placoganoid'' fish from the walls of lower

Kanab Canyon Kanab ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Kane County, Utah, United States.Find a County
". ''N ...

Walcott, 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 The Frasnian is one of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian Period. It lasted from million years ago to million years ago. It was preceded by the Givetian Stage and followed by the Famennian Stage. Major reef-building was under way during th ...

conodont Conodonts (Greek ''kōnos'', "cone", + ''odont'', "tooth") are an extinct group of agnathan (jawless) vertebrates resembling eels, classified in the class Conodonta. For many years, they were known only from their tooth-like oral elements, which ...

s 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 Mohave County is in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 213,267. The county seat is Kingman, and the largest city is Lake Havasu City. It is the fifth largest county in the United St ...

, and the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, rare

silicified In geology, petrifaction or petrification () is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals. Petrified wood typifies this proce ...

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 of the Temple Butte Formation at Iceberg Ridge contains

Famennian The Famennian is the latter of two faunal stages in the Late Devonian Epoch. The most recent estimate for its duration estimates that it lasted from around 371.1 million years ago to 359.3 million years ago. An earlier 2012 estimate, still used b ...

conodonts. Finally, farther to the north in Nevada, on South Virgin Peak Ridge, an outcrop of

quartz arenite A quartz arenite or quartzarenite is a sandstone composed of greater than 90% detrital quartz. Quartz arenites are the most mature sedimentary rocks possible, and are often referred to as ultra- or super-mature, and are usually cemented by sili ...

and pinkish-gray sandy dolomite at the base of Temple Butte Formation, has yielded fossil fish plates identified as ''

Holonema ''Holonema'' is an extinct genus of relatively large, barrel-shaped arthrodire placoderms that were found in oceans throughout the world from the Mid to Late Devonian, when the last species perished in the Frasnian-Fammian extinction event. Mos ...

'', '' Asterolepis'' and

sarcopterygians Sarcopterygii (; ) — sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii () — is a taxon (traditionally a class or subclass) of the bony fishes known as the lobe-finned fishes. The group Tetrapoda, a mostly terrestrial superclass includin ...

of middle Devonian age.

References

Popular Publications

* Blakey, R, and W Ranney (2008) ''Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau.'' Grand Canyon Association, Grand Canyon Village, Arizona. 176 pp. * Chronic, H (1983) ''Roadside Geology of Arizona.'' 23rd printing, Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula, Montana. 332 pp. * Lucchitta, I (2001) ''Hiking Arizona's Geology.'' Mountaineers's Books, Seattle Washington. 290 pp. {{ISBN, 0-89886-730-4

External links

* Abbot, W, (2001
''Revisiting the Grand Canyon – Through the Eyes of Seismic Sequence Stratigraphy.''Search and Discovery Article # 40018
America Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma. * Baker, R. G. (1984
''Channel filled by Temple Butte Limestone. ''Iowa Digital Library
University of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa. * Mathis, A., and C. Bowman (2007
''The Grand Age of Rocks: The Numeric Ages for Rocks Exposed within Grand Canyon''Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
National Park Service, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Limestone formations of the United States Natural history of the Grand Canyon Geologic formations of Arizona Devonian Arizona Devonian System of North America