Palm Spring Formation
Geologic formation in California, United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Palm Spring Formation is a Pleistocene Epoch geologic formation in the eastern Colorado Desert of Imperial County and San Diego County County, Southern California.
| Palm Spring Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Lower Pleistocene | |
| Type | Geologic formation |
| Underlies | Vallecito Badlands |
| Overlies | Imperial Formation, Ocotillo Formation |
| Location | |
| Region | Colorado Desert, California |
| Country | United States |
Geology
The Palm Spring Formation is an extensively-exposed delta-plain deposit debouched by the ancestral Colorado River across the subsiding Salton Trough.[1] It records the development of the prehistoric Colorado River delta cone into a barrier excluding marine waters from the Salton Trough.[2]
Fossils
It preserves fossils from the Pleistocene Epoch, during the Quaternary Period of the Cenozoic Era.[3]
Lower Pliocene sub−period petrified wood is found in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.[4] The Lauraceae is represented by petrified Umbellularia, the Salicaceae with petrified Populus and Salix, and the Juglandaceae with petrified Juglans.[4]
See also
- Ocotillo Formation — fluvial-alluvial fan Pliocene formation
- Quaternary California
- List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in California
- Paleontology in California
