Colorado River Basin Stratigraphy

Moss Back Member of Chinle Formation

Usage of Geologic Unit Name:
Moss Back Member of Chinle Formation (AZ*,CO*,UT*)

Age:
Triassic, Late*

Geologic Province:
Paradox basin*

Areal Extent:
AZ*
CO*
UT(se)*

Type Locality:
Type section: measured on southwest part of Moss Back ridge, 0.4 mi west and 0.2 mi south of northern tip of northwesternmost of 4 buttes (3 westernmost make up Moss Back) that are located on or near divide between Fry and Red Canyons, Long. 110 deg. 08 min. 51 sec. W., Lat. 37 deg. 34 min. 36 sec. N., White Canyon, San Juan Co., UT. Named for Moss Back, eastern White Canyon, San Juan Co., UT (Stewart, 1957).

Unit Name History:
First used as Moss Back sandstone unit of Chinle Formation (J.H. Stewart and J.F. Smith, Jr., 1954, Intermountain Assoc. Petroleum Geologists [Guidebook] 5th Ann. Field Conf., p. 29, 30 (fig. 2), 31, 32) [Geologic names lexicon, USGS Bull. 1200]. Revised (Robeck, 1956). Named as a member (of 7) of the Chinle Formation (Stewart, 1957). Overview (Poole and Stewart, 1964; Stewart and others, 1972). Revised; Overview (Blakey and Gubitosa, 1983). Overview (Dubiel, 1987).

References

Robeck, R.C., 1956, Temple Mountain member; new member of Chinle formation in San Rafael Swell, Utah: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 40, no. 10, p. 2499-2506.

Stewart, J.H., 1957, Proposed nomenclature of part of the Upper Triassic strata of southeastern Utah: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 41, no. 3, p. 441-465.

Poole, F.G. and Stewart, J.H., 1964, Chinle Formation and Glen Canyon Sandstone in northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado, IN Geological Survey research 1964: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 501-D, p. D30-D39, Also, 1964, Intermountain Association of Petroleum Geologists, 13th Annual Field Conference, Guidebook to the geology and mineral resources of the Uinta basin, Utah's hydrocarbon storehouse, p. 93-104.

Stewart, J.H., Poole, F.G. and Wilson, R.F., 1972, Stratigraphy and origin of the Chinle Formation and related Upper Triassic strata in the Colorado Plateau region: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 690, 336 p.

Blakey, R.C. and Gubitosa, R., 1983, Late Triassic paleogeography and depositional history of the Chinle Formation, southern Utah and northern Arizona, IN Reynolds, M.W., and Dolly, E.D., editors, Mesozoic paleogeography of the west-central United States: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Rocky Mountain Section, Rocky Mountain Paleogeography Symposium, v. 2, p. 57-76.

Dubiel, R.F., 1987, Sedimentology and new fossil occurrences of the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation, southeastern Utah, IN Campbell, J.A., ed., Geology of Cataract Canyon and vicinity 1987; field symposium: Four Corners Geological Society Field Conference Guidebook, 10th Field Conference, Durango, CO, May 14-17, 1987, p. 99-107.

* show accepted USGS usage.
Note that data on this page contains information that has been partly revised from bibliographic resources available via the National Geologic Map Database GEOLEX:
http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Geolex/geolex_qs.html.

The URL is: https://gotbooks.miracosta.edu/gonp/coloradoplateau/lexicon/chinle_mossback.htm
Last modified: 1/7/2011