The Newcastle Sandstone is a

geologic formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the sou ...

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 primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. It preserves

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

dating back to the Late

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

period. Named as a member of Draneros shale of Colorado group for the town of Newcastle, Weston Co, WY in Powder River basin, where member is conspicuously developed. Consists of reddish to light-yellow

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 silicates ...

associated with black, carbonaceous shale. About 35 ft thick in vicinity of Newcastle. A Cretaceous sequence can be formed in the northern Great Plains in Williston and

Powder River Powder River may refer to: Places * Powder River (Wyoming and Montana), in Wyoming and Montana in the United States * Powder River Country, the area around the above river * Powder River (Oregon), in Oregon in the United States * Powder River Ba ...

basins, as well as Chadron arch. This area is classed as a formation on the westrin rim of the black hills.

References

*

Hancock, E.T., 1920, The Mule Creek oil field, Wyoming, IN Contributions to economic geology, 1920; Part 2, Mineral fuels: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin, 716-C, p. C35-C53.

Reeside, J.B., Jr., 1944, Maps showing thickness and general character of the Cretaceous deposits in the Western Interior of the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Oil and Gas Investigations Preliminary Map, OM-10, scale 1:13,939,200

Cobban, W.A., and Reeside, J.B., Jr., 1952, Correlation of the Cretaceous formations of the Western Interior of the United States: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 63, no. 10, p. 1011-1044. Sandstone formations of the United States Cretaceous geology of Wyoming {{Cretaceous-stub

See also

References