Supai Group

~close-up showing detail;
note resistant (vertical) subcliffs in the many layers (formations) of the Supai ”redbeds”.

The oldest member (Early Pennsylvanian), the Watahomigi Formation is from sedimentary basins. It is composed of red mudstone, sandstone, and tan limestone.[5] As ocean levels rose, basins filled, and the Manachka Formation was laid down (especially in the Grand Canyon). Continentally aeolian sand became more widespread; the coeval Weber Sandstone was deposited in northeast Utah (Dinosaur National Monument region, northeast of the Uncompahgre Uplift).[6]

Entire, 4-member sequence, Isis Temple, N. Granite Gorge, Grand Canyon (atop 800-ft vertical cliff of Redwall Limestone)
(photo from 2-mi south on Tonto Trail, S. Granite Gorge).[7]

From Middle to Late Pennsylvanian, the Ancestral Rocky Mountains, the northeast spur from Colorado, (the Uncompahgre Uplift) became the source region for further continental river and stream deposits. Rising sea levels and erosion led to the deposition of the Wescogame Formation, (Grand Canyon) by Late Pennsylvanian time, and in east Utah, (Paradox Basin, southwest of Uncompahgre Uplift, the Honaker Trail Formation); northeast of the Uncompahgre Uplift, the Weber Sandstone continued deposition.

By Permian time, the Esplanade Sandstone (Supai Group member 4) was being laid down in northwest Arizona (Grand Canyon), and southwest Utah;[8] the coeval Cedar Mesa Sandstone was being deposited in east Utah.

The geologic sequences of the coeval Supai and Hermosa Groups.[9]

The Late Pennsylvanian-Early Permian geologic sequence of the Supai Group common in the Grand Canyon:[11] The Pennsylvanian is the Late Carboniferous.

• Supai Group
  • Esplanade Sandstone
  • Wescogame Formation
  • Manakacha Formation
  • Watahomigi Formation

The Supai Group members were created from marine (oceanic) sequences of marine transgression, and regression, thus the alternating sandstone, siltsones, conglomerate subsections (facies); the subsections are not always a continuous transition into the above section, mostly due to ocean levels, falling, or rising, glaciation, or regional subsidence-(basins, etc.) or uplift of land. Today's Wasatch Front is the approximate lineage, NNE to SSW of the western coast region of North America from where the oceans transgressed. The ancient Antler Mountains-(Antler orogeny, off-shore volcanic island arch(es)), of ancient Nevada supplied material, from the west, off the 'ancestral' West Coast. The continent supplied material from the east, both directions supplying the offshore basin, the Cordilleran Basin which became part of the Basin and Range Province, in later epochs. Three other basins were involved in this history: southwest of the Ancestral Rocky Mountains was the Paradox Basin-(eastern Utah to Southwest Colorado), northeast was the Central Colorado Basin-(NW Colorado, NE Utah, SW Wyoming); the Oquirrh Basin was north-northwest, at present day northwest Utah.

• Geology of the Grand Canyon area
• Stratigraphy
• Marine transgression
• The Howlands Butte
• Escalante Butte
• Whites Butte

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Supai Group.

• Arizona Road & Recreation Atlas, Benchmark Maps, 2nd Edition, c. 1998, 112 pages, Map: The Grand Canyon, pp. 12–13.
• Blakey, and Ranney, 2008. Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau, Ron Blakey, Wayne Ranney, c 2008, Grand Canyon Association (publisher), 176 pages, with Appendix, Glossary, Index. Contains approximately 75 shaded topographic maps, for geology, etc., with 54 (23 pairs, (46)) for Colorado Plateau specifically; others are global, or North American.
• Lucchitta, 2001. Hiking Arizona's Geology, Ivo Lucchitta, c 2001, Mountaineers's Books. (softcover, ISBN 0-89886-730-4)

• Hermit Formation, Esplanade Sandstone, in Utah