Cretaceous Shelf Sandstones and Shelf Depositional Sequences, Western Interior Basin, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico – Salt Lake City, Utah to ,

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Field Trip Guidebooks Series, Volume 119.

This field guide is divided into four chapters for the purpose of introducing the general geological background to each of the major themes that will be addressed during the trip. The first theme concerns lacustrine sedimentation as exemplified by the exposures of the Eocene Green River Formation in Nine Mile Canyon, Utah. The particular facies included in the trip are deltaic and shallow lacustrine and one of the reasons for including these stops is to evaluate similarities and differences between sedimentary processes in large lakes and shallow marine environments. The second theme focuses on Upper Cretaceous coastal and shallow marine rocks as displayed by exposures in the spectacular Book Cliffs of Utah. The shelf and shoreface sequences seen in these rocks represent some of the classical exposures of such facies in the United States. Due to high rates of sediment yield from the nearby actively uplifting Cretaceous Sevier orogenic belt, the Mesaverde Group in the Book Cliffs is dominated by regressive sequences, punctuated by regionally extensive unconformities.