Black Mesa (Kayenta) Geology

[Jim]

Does anyone know some of the layers, or where I could find an easy reference guide to the layers of Black Mesa, especially what can be seen above Kayenta, and not at all around the coal mines. I'd really like to know what I am hiking on, when I hike the trail, and walking on when on the top. Some of the layers are quite odd, and some are the typical sandstone you get everywhere out here. They make a big deal about the layers at the Grand Canyon, and to a lesser extent, in Sedona, but what about elsewhere?

[chumley]

I don't think I'll have time today, but sometime this week I should be able to walk over to the map library and look up some information for you. There are some really interesting and detailed geologic maps on file here at ASU. I'll let you know what I find.

[hippiepunkpirate]

The rocks of Black Mesa span from the jurassic San Rafael Group into the cretaceous Mesa Verde Group, but I can't find any good online resources on them. Jim, you really need to get Baar's "Traveler's Guide to the Geology of the Colorado Plateau": http://hikearizona.com/books.php?REV=1&ID=1070

[Dschur]

There are some good geology books at the visitor center at Marble Canyon that you can look thru to see what you would like to get. And maps too...

[chumley]

Jim, I finally remembered to go check this out at the library. Instead of littering this thread with uploads, I just created a photoset/triplog with everything in it.
Check it out here:
http://hikearizona.com/photoset.php?ID=18602

[chumley]

There's also a book called "Geology of the Kayenta and Chilchinbito Quadrangles" published in 1965 by the USGS. It's available in the ASU library, and I found a copy of it online. It's only ~35 pages. Easy and educational reading. The book in the library has some maps not included here, but not much that isn't shown in the photoset I posted.

Happy reading!

[chumley]

The Arizona Geological Survey at UArizona recently posted the following to their social media. The hyperlink citations lead to detailed online versions of the maps that I posted photographs of earlier in this thread. These online resources are much clearer and user-friendly.

Black Mesa is one of the largest physiographic features on the Colorado Plateau of northern Arizona. The mesa covers ~3,200 square miles and rests on Cretaceous Mesaverde Group sedimentary rocks: from youngest to oldest, Yale Point Sandstone, Wepo Formation and the Toreva Formation. All of which rest on the older Mancos Shale and Dakota Formation. The Mesaverde Group contains the largest deposits of coal in Arizona. From the mid-1960s to 2008, Peabody Energy strip mined coal here. All mining activity ended in 2019. Reclamation of the former strip mines proceeds slowly.

Citation: Cooley, M.E., Harshbarger, J.W., Akers, J.P., Hardt, W.F., and Hicks, O.N., 1969, Regional hydrogeology of the Navajo and Hopi Indian Reservations, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah with a section on vegetation. USGS Professional Paper 521-A, Map scale 1:125,000. https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/proddesc_4550.htm

For additional information on Black Mesa and other geologic features of northern Arizona, check out Robin Frisch-Gleason’s 48-page, “Highlights of Northern Arizona Geology” (1998), at https://library.azgs.arizona.edu/item/D ... 180861-245 Free to download from AZGS Down-To-Earth publication series.