Redwall Limestone
Stratigraphic range: Early and early Late Mississippian [1] [2]
Redwall Limestone cliff, and upper platform of cliff extension (resting on very short Muav Limestone cliff), from Tower of Set, central Grand Canyon, adjacent Granite Gorge. The bottom of Redwall cliffs typically rest on sections of Temple Butte Formation-(locally), or attached sections of Muav Limestone cliffs (regionally exposed in Grand Canyon, elsewhere in Arizona, not always with surface exposure).
Type	Geological formation
Underlies	Surprise Canyon Formation (Surprise Canyon Formation locally fills paleovalleys, caves, and collapse structures cut into the underlying Redwall Limestone.)
Overlies	Muav Limestone and Temple Butte Formation
Thickness	800 feet (240 m), at maximum
Lithology
Primary	fossiliferous limestone
Other	dolomite and chert
Location
Region	Northern Arizona, southeast California, New Mexico, and southern Utah, Nevada
Country	United States of America
Type section
Named for	the red appearance of its escarpment on either side of the Grand Canyon [3]
Named by	Gilbert (1875) [3]

The Redwall Limestone is a resistant cliff-forming unit of Mississippian age that forms prominent, red-stained cliffs in the Grand Canyon, ranging in height from 500 feet (150 m) to 800 feet (240 m).

Lithology

Redwall Limestone consists predominantly of light-olive-gray to light-gray, fine- to coarse-grained, thin- to thick-bedded, often cherty, limestone. Its lower part consists of brownish-gray, interbedded finely crystalline dolomite and fine- to coarse-grained limestone with layers of white chert lenses and yellowish-gray and brownish-gray, cliff-forming, thick-bedded, fine-grained dolomite. It is divided into Horseshoe Mesa Member, Mooney Falls Member, Thunder Springs Member, and Whitmore Wash Member. ^{[1] [4]} Its origins date to the Mississippian age.

Contacts

The upper and lower contacts of the Redwall Limestone are both unconformities. Locally, the Redwall Limestone directly overlies the unconformity that forms its lower contact consisting of a basal conglomerate. This basal conglomerate is typically composed of gravel that is locally derived from either the underlying Temple Butte Formation or Muav Limestone. The Temple Butte Formation consists of a thin layer of Devonian strata that fills paleovalleys cut into the underlying Cambrian Muav Limestone. Outside of the paleovalleys, the Redwall Limestone overlies the Muav Limestone. ^[1]

The upper contact of the Redwall Limestone consists of a deeply eroded disconformity characterized by deeply incised paleovalleys and deep paleo karst depressions that are often filled by sediments of the Surprise Canyon Formation. ^{[1] [5]}

See also

• Geology of the Grand Canyon area

References

Further reading

• Blakey, Ron and Wayne Ranney, Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau, Grand Canyon Association (publisher), 2008, 176 pages, ISBN  978-1934656037
• Chronic, Halka. Roadside Geology of Arizona, Mountain Press Publishing Co., 1983, 23rd printing, pp. 229–232, ISBN  978-0-87842-147-3
• Lucchitta, Ivo, Hiking Arizona's Geology, 2001, Mountaineers's Books, ISBN  0-89886-730-4

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Redwall Limestone.

• Abbot, W, (2001) Revisiting the Grand Canyon – Through the Eyes of Seismic Sequence Stratigraphy. Search and Discovery Article # 40018, America Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• Anonymous (nda) The Redwall Limestone Formation. Utah Geology.
• Mathis, A., and C. Bowman (2007) The Grand Age of Rocks: The Numeric Ages for Rocks Exposed within Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, National Park Service, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.
• Shur, C., and D. Shur (2008) The Mississippi Redwall Limestone In Northern Arizona. Arizona Fossil Adventures.

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