The Wood Canyon Formation 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 ...

in the northern

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

Inyo County, California Inyo County () is a County (United States), county in the Eastern California, eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the po ...

and

Nye County Nye County is a county in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 51,591. Its county seat is Tonopah. At , Nye is Nevada's largest county by area and the third-largest county in the contiguous United States, beh ...

and

Clark County, Nevada Clark County is the most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Nevada with 2,265,461 residents as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The county is the location of the state's three largest cities, Las Vegas (t ...

. Digital-desert.com: "Death Valley Geology - Wood Canyon Formation"
/ref> It can be seen in the

Panamint Range The Panamint Range is a short rugged fault-block mountain range in the northern Mojave Desert, within Death Valley National Park in Inyo County, eastern California. A small part of the southern end of the range is in San Bernardino County. Dr. D ...

and Funeral Mountains adjoining

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. It is thought to be the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth during summer. Death Valley's Badwat ...

, within

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is a national park of the United States that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern sect ...

; and in the

Spring Mountains The Spring Mountains are a mountain range of Southern Nevada in the United States, running generally northwest–southeast along the west side of Las Vegas and south to the border with California. Most land in the mountains is owned by the Uni ...

in Clark County.

Geology

The 570+ million years old formation underlies the Zabriskie Quartzite Formation, and overlies the

Stirling Quartzite Formation The Stirling Quartzite Formation is a geologic formation in the northern Mojave Desert of Inyo County, California and Nye County and Clark County, Nevada.

. Springer.com: "Tidal Deposits in the Zabriskie Quartzite (Cambrian), Eastern California and Western Nevada"
John J. Barnes, George deVries Klein. It has three unnamed Members, simply known as 'Upper', 'Middle', and 'Lower', that mainly consist of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

, conglomerate rocks and dolostone respectively, with

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility. Although its permeabil ...

s found within the 'Upper' and 'Lower' Members, with the latter itself further containing

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...

and

shales Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

. The 'Upper' and 'Middle' Members are

Cambrian The Cambrian ( ) is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 51.95 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran period 538.8 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Ordov ...

in age, including the upper rocks of the 'Lower Member', whilst the rest of the 'Lower' Member is

Ediacaran The Ediacaran ( ) is a geological period of the Neoproterozoic geologic era, Era that spans 96 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period at 635 Million years ago, Mya to the beginning of the Cambrian Period at 538.8 Mya. It is the last ...

in age.

Paleobiota

The Wood Canyon Formation spans from the late Ediacaran

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Period (punctuation) * Era, a length or span of time *Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period" Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (o ...

of the

Neoproterozoic Era The Neoproterozoic Era is the last of the three geologic eras of the Proterozoic eon, spanning from 1 billion to 538.8 million years ago, and is the last era of the Precambrian "supereon". It is preceded by the Mesoproterozoic era and succeeded b ...

into the Lower Cambrian Period of the

Paleozoic Era The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma at the start of ...

. As for the fossils and biota found within the formation, the Cambrian strata is home to olenellid

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three-lobed entities") are extinction, extinct marine arthropods that form the class (biology), class Trilobita. One of the earliest groups of arthropods to appear in the fossil record, trilobites were among the most succ ...

s and

archaeocyathid Archaeocyatha (), 'ancient cups') is a taxon of extinct, sessile, reef-building marine sponges that lived in warm tropical and subtropical waters during the Cambrian Period. It is believed that the centre of the Archaeocyatha origin is now locat ...

sponge Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...

s, whilst the Ediacaran strata contains petalonamid forms like ''

Pteridinium ''Pteridinium'' is an erniettomorph found in a number of Precambrian deposits worldwide. It is a member of the Ediacaran biota. Body plan The three-lobed body is generally flat such that only two lobes are visible. Each lobe consists of a numbe ...

'' and

ichnotaxon An ichnotaxon (plural ichnotaxa) is "a taxon based on the fossilized work of an organism", i.e. the non-human equivalent of an artifact. ''Ichnotaxon'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''íchnos'') meaning "track" and English , itself derived from ...

traces like '' Helminthoidichnites''.

Cambrian

All the organisms and trace fossils from the Cambrian sections of the formation.

Arthropoda

Brachiopoda

Porifera (Sponges)

Echinodermata

Petalonamae

''incertae sedis''

Ichnogenera

Ediacaran

All the organisms and trace fossils from the Ediacaran sections of the formation.

Petalonamae

''incertae sedis''

Ichnogenera

Undescribed

References

{{Paleozoic Footer Quartzite formations Cambrian California Cambrian geology of Nevada Ediacaran California Ediacaran geology of Nevada Geology of Inyo County, California Natural history of the Mojave Desert Death Valley National Park Panamint Range Geologic formations of California Geologic formations of Nevada Cambrian southern paleotropical deposits Shale formations of the United States Sandstone formations of the United States Dolomite formations of the United States

Geology

Paleobiota

Cambrian

Arthropoda

Brachiopoda

Porifera (Sponges)

Echinodermata

Petalonamae

''incertae sedis''

Ichnogenera

Ediacaran

Petalonamae

''incertae sedis''

Ichnogenera

Undescribed

See also

References