Overview of this Site
White Canyon offers excellent exposure of Permian and Triassic rocks. In
this area the Permian Cedar Mesa Sandstone (the eolian facies are particularly
well exposed), Organ Rock Formation, and, at the far northwest end of the
canyon, the White Rim Sandstone. In this area the Permian rocks are unconformably
overlain by the Triassic Moenkopi Formation. In eastern White Canyon the
unconformity is very hard to identify (look for coarse well-rounded quartz
grains in the Hoskinnini Member of the Moenkopi where it overlies the Organ
Rock). To the west, the White Rim is overlain by a chert-pebble conglomerate
that occurs at the base of the Black Dragon Member of the Moenkopi. The
conglomerate was deposited by streams that flowed from west to east (what
implication does that have for paleogeography?) and deposited sediment
in the Hoskinni basin. In White Canyon be sure to watch for large-scale
wavy bedding, fluid escape structures, and slumps in the Hoskinni. These
are probably the largest examples of th ese features known.
Highway 95 basically parallels White Canyon from Natural Bridges National
Monument to Lake Powell.
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