Cliff House Sandstone
Cliff House Sandstone of Mesaverde Group (CO*,NM*)
Cliffhouse Sandstone of the Mesaverde Formation forms the caprock of the plateau at Mesa Verde National Park.
Cretaceous, Late*
Paradox basin*
San Juan basin*
CO(sw)*
NM(nw)*
Not designated. Named for exposures in canyons about Cliff House, Mesa Verde National Park, Montezuma Co., CO (Collier, 1919).
Named as upper formation of Mesaverde Group (Collier, 1919). Revised (Hayes and Zapp, 1955; Beaumont and others, 1956). Areal limits; Mapped 1:50k in San Juan and McKinley Cos, NM (Scott and others, 1984). Areal limits (Molenaar and Baird, 1989).
Collier, A.J., 1919, Coal south of Mancos, Montezuma County, Colorado,
IN Contributions to economic geology, 1918; Part 2, Mineral fuels: U.S.
Geological Survey Bulletin, 691-K, p.
K293-K310.
Hayes, P.T. and Zapp, A.D., 1955, Geology and fuel resources of the Upper Cretaceous rocks of the Barker Dome-Fruitland area, San Juan County, New Mexico: U.S. Geological Survey Oil and Gas Investigations Map, OM-144, 2 sheets, scale 1:62,500.
Beaumont, E.C., Dane, C.H. and Sears, J.D., 1956, Revised nomenclature of Mesaverde Group in San Juan basin, New Mexico: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 40, no. 9, p. 2149-2162.
Scott, G.R., O'Sullivan, R.B. and Weide, D.L., 1984, Geologic map of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, northwestern New Mexico [includes chapter on archaeology by W.B. Gillespie]: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map, I-1571, 1 sheet, scale 1:50,000.
Molenaar, C.M. and Baird, J.K., 1989, North-south stratigraphic cross sections of Upper Cretaceous rocks, northern San Juan basin, southwestern Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map, MF-2068, 3 sheets, scale.
Olsen, Tina R; Mellere, Donatella; Olsen, Torben,1999,Facies architecture and geometry of landward-stepping shoreface tongues; the Upper Cretaceous Cliff House Sandstone Mancos Canyon, South-West Colorado): Sedimentology, v. 46, no. 4, p.
