Tick Canyon Formation

The Tick Canyon Formation (Tt) or Tick Canyon strata, is an Early Miocene geologic formation in the Sierra Pelona Ridge of the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County, California.[2]

Tick Canyon Formation
Stratigraphic range: Early Miocene (Hemingfordian-Barstovian)
~20–16 Ma
TypeGeologic formation
UnderliesMint Canyon Formation
OverliesVasquez Formation
Thickness0–1,000 ft (0–305 m) (average)
Lithology
PrimarySandstone, conglomerate
OtherClaystone
Location
Coordinates34°25′56″N 118°23′32″W[1]
Approximate paleocoordinates33.3°N 111.2°W / 33.3; -111.2
RegionLos Angeles County, California
Country United States
ExtentSierra Pelona Ridge
Type section
Named forTick Canyon
Tick Canyon Formation (the United States)
Tick Canyon Formation (California)

The Tick Canyon Basin drains into the Santa Clara River.[3]

Geology

The formation overlies the Oligocene to Lower Miocene Vasquez Formation, and underlies the Upper Miocene Mint Canyon Formation.[2][4]

The Tick Canyon strata was deposited on land mostly by streams and consists of green sandstones, coarse-grained conglomerates, and red claystones.[2][4][5] The Tick Canyon strata also contain abundant volcanic clasts, most of which resemble volcanic rocks of the Vasquez Formation.[6] It has an average thickness of 600 feet (180 m).[4]

North of the Tick Canyon Fault, the beds are almost vertical.[2]

Fossil content

It preserves vertebrate fossils of the Lower Miocene subperiod of the Miocene epoch, in the Neogene Period of the Cenozoic Era.[2][7]

Mammals

Birds

See also

References

  1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Tick Canyon Formation
  2. Elsmerecanyon.com: "Tick Canyon Geology"
  3. "Geologic Map of the Mint Canyon Quadrangle" (DF-57) by Thomas W. Dibblee, Jr., 1996
  4. Caltech.edu: THESIS - "Geology of the Upper Tick Canyon area, California"; Birman, Joseph Harold; 1950.
  5. Caltech.edu: THESIS - "Geology of the Mint Canyon area, Los Angeles County, California"; Holser, William T.; 1946
  6. Coffey et al., 2019, p.481
  7. Tick Canyon at Fossilworks.org
  8. Maxson, 1930
  9. Jahns, 1940
  10. Lander & Lindsay, 2011
  11. Whistler, 1967
  12. Dawson, 1958
  13. Reeder, 1960
  14. Howard, 1944

Bibliography

  • Coffey, Kevin T.; Raymond V. Ingersoll, and Axel K. Schmitt. 2019. Stratigraphy, provenance, and tectonic significance of the Punchbowl block, San Gabriel Mountains, California, USA. Geosphere 15. 479–501.
  • Lander, E. B., and E. H. Lindsay. 2011. Merychyus calaminthus (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Oreodontidae) of probable early late Arikareean (late Oligocene to late early Miocene) age from the lower part of the Chalk Canyon Formation, Maricopa and Yavapai counties, central Arizona. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31. 215–226.
  • Whistler, D. P. 1967. Oreodonts of the Tick Canyon Formation, southern California. PaleoBios 1. 1–14.
  • Reeder, W. G. 1960. A New Rodent Genus (Family Heteromyidae) from the Tick Canyon Formation of California. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 59. 121–132.
  • Dawson, M. R. 1958. Later Tertiary Leoporidae of North America. University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions Vertebrata 6. 1–75.
  • Howard, H. 1944. Miocene hawk from California. The Condor 46. 236–237.
  • Jahns, R. H. 1940. Stratigraphy of the Easternmost Ventura Basin, California, with a Description of a New Lower Miocene Mammalian Fauna From the Tick Canyon Formation. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 514. 145–194.
  • Maxson, J. H. 1930. A Tertiary mammalian fauna from the Mint Canyon Formation of Southern California. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 404. 77–112.

Further reading

  • Geology of Tick Canyon, by Ygnacio Bonillas, 1933
  • Geology of the Upper Tick Canyon Area, by Albert Hedden, 1948
  • Geology of the Upper Tick Canyon Area, by Joseph Birman, 1950
  • Geology of the Upper Tick Canyon Area, by Carel Otte, Jr., 1950
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