Scripps Formation

Scripps Formation
Stratigraphic range: Eocene
Type geologic formation
Underlies Friars Formation
Overlies Ardath Shale Formation
Thickness 0–56 metres (0–184 ft)
Location
Region San Diego County, California
Country United States
Type section
Named for Scripps Pier

The Scripps Formation is a geologic formation in coastal San Diego County, California.[1][2][3]

It is named for its type section north of the Scripps Pier, on the north side of the Blacks Canyon mouth.[2]

Geography

It is underlies much of the area from east of Del Mar on the north to the mouth of Mission Valley on the south, an extends north to the Encinitas area.[2] Along the coast, it can be seen from central Torrey Pines State Park to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in La Jolla.

In the north near Encinitas it correlates with the upper Torrey Sandstone Formation.[2]

Geology

It overlies the Ardath Shale Formation, and underlies the Friars Formation.[2]

Sea level rose and fell often during this period of the Eocene Epoch in geologic history. About 42 million years ago, sea level rose again and more sand was deposited. Compressed and cemented, it makes the rock known as the Scripps Formation. This rock holds up the sea bluffs north of Moonlight Beach. Because the mudstone and siltstone of the Ardath Formation are softer and weaker layers, waves erode it and undermine the stronger Scripps Formation sandstone above it, as happens with the Del Mar Formations below Torrey Formations.[1][3]

Fossils

Fossils are present but are less common in the Scripps Formation than in the underlying Ardath Shale.[2] Those it preserves date back to the Eocene Epoch of the Paleogene period, during the Cenozoic Era.[4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 San-diego.us: San Diego Geology . accessed 7.7.2015
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Archive.org: "Geology of the San Diego metropolitan area, California"
  3. 1 2 Geiconsultants.com: Geologic Formations of Western San Diego County, by Jeffrey D. Brown, R.G., C.E.G. − circa 1996.
  4. ↑ Various Contributors to the Paleobiology Database. "Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database". Retrieved 8 July 2014.
Paleogene Period
Paleocene Epoch Eocene Epoch Oligocene Epoch
Danian | Selandian
Thanetian		 Ypresian | Lutetian
Bartonian |Priabonian		 Rupelian | Chattian


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