Price River Formation

{{Short description|Geologic formation in Utah, United States}} {{Infobox rockunit | name = Price River Formation | image = Price_River_Formation.jpg | caption = | type = Formation | age = Cretaceous | period = Late Cretaceous | prilithology = sandstone, siltstone | otherlithology = | namedfor = | namedby = | region = Utah | country = United States | coordinates = | unitof = | subunits = | underlies = | overlies = | thickness = | extent = | area = | map = | map_caption = }} thumb|Price River Formation exposed in the canyon walls of Price Canyon, Carbon County, Utah. This is the general area for the type section. The '''Price River Formation''' is a geologic formation in Utah. It preserves fossils dating back to the Cretaceous period. The Price River Formation is approximately {{convert|200|m|ft}} thick at its type locality (Price River Canyon) and consists of cliff-forming sandstone and siltstone visible in the Book Cliffs.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Long-term river response to regional doming in the Price River Formation, central Utah |author=Alfred C. Guiseppe |author2=Paul L. Heller |journal=Geology |year=1998 |volume=26 |number=3 |pages=239–242 |doi= 10.1130/0091-7613(1998)026<0239:LTRRTR>2.3.CO;2 |bibcode= 1998Geo....26..239G }}</ref>

==Description==

Irregularly bedded light-gray to gray, and grayish-brown to dark-gray beds of sheet sandstone, plus some beds of conglomerate and conglomeratic sandstone; sparse mudstone beds as well. The crossbedded sandstones are generally thin bedded to massive, and commonly thick bedded. Beds alternate irregularly to form steep, steplike slopes. Ranges in thickness from 9 to 75 m (30–250 ft). Fluvial in origin. This unit is equivalent, in part, to the Tuscher and Farrer Formations of the eastern Book Cliffs.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Utah Geological Survey online interactive geologic map|url=https://geology.utah.gov/apps/intgeomap/|access-date=July 21, 2021}}</ref>

Fossil pollen (palynomorphs) indicate a late Campanian (Late Cretaceous) age .<ref>Fouch, T.D., Lawton, T.F., Nichols, D.J., Cashion, W.B., and Cobban, W.A., 1983, Patterns and timing of synorogenic sedimentation in Upper Cretaceous rocks of central and northeast Utah, IN Reynolds, M.W., and Dolly, E.D., eds., Mesozoic paleogeography of the west-central United States: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Rocky Mountain Section, Rocky Mountain Paleogeography Symposium, v. 2, p. 305-336.</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|Earth sciences|Utah|Paleontology}} * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Utah * Paleontology in Utah

==References== {{Reflist}} * {{cite web|title= Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database|author= ((Various Contributors to the Paleobiology Database))|url= https://www.fossilworks.org|access-date= 17 December 2021}}

Category:Cretaceous geology of Utah Category:Sandstone formations of the United States Category:Siltstone formations of the United States