On Sunday, we traveled a short way down the road to Manti to work on Temple Hill, home of the Manti Temple. Our goal was to learn about the stratigraphy of the Green River Formation at this locality, and we accomplished that through measuring a strat column through the upper “member” of the Green River and the overlying Crazy Hollow Formation. We had a great day in the field, producing a 120 foot strat column and just beating the storm clouds as they rolled in later in the afternoon.
Take a look at the photo below, which is a view of a small portion of the massive “Quarry Bed”. Used as a building stone in the Sanpete Valley, this bed is 8-9 feet in places and is filled with (often silicified) ooids, pellets, and ostracodes — a dream for a carbonate lover!!”
Here you can see that we have nearly completed our strat column. We are through the Green River Formation and nearly done measuring the overlying Crazy Hollow. Elizabeth is hard at work with her Jacob's Staff, while Jesse is...posing for his photo shoot for outdoor clothing and equipment on top of the Crazy Hollow.
Loving those beautiful ooids and stromatolites! I wonder if this is the “Sanpete oolitic limestone” used as a building stone in Salt Lake City and elsewhere?
Mark Wilson – are you the Mark Wilson who was a grad student in paleo at Berkeley in the ’80’s? Hi – just saw this! Been retired a long time and have become something of an architectural historian – hence the link between rock units and building stone. Living in Salt Lake City the last 20 years. Greetings from long ago!
Hi Laurie! Yes, I’m that guy from way back. I’ve been at Wooster since 1981. Glad you enjoy beautiful Utah! Mark