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
TypeGeologic formation
UnderliesVallecito Badlands
OverliesImperial Formation, Ocotillo Formation
Location
RegionColorado Desert, California
CountryUnited States

Geology

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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

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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

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References

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  1. ^ National Park Service: "The FISH CREEK CANYON ICHNOFAUNA: a PLIOCENE (BLANCAN) Vertebrate Footprint Assemblage from Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California"; by Paul Remeika.
  2. ^ San Diego State University.edu: "Environments of deposition, Pliocene Imperial Formation, Southeast Coyote Mountains, Imperial County, California"; Bell, Patricia J.; 1980.
  3. ^ Various Contributors to the Paleobiology Database. "Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database". Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  4. ^ a b Remeika, Paul; Fischbein, Irwin W.; Fischbein, Steven A. (1988). "Lower Pliocene petrified wood from the Palm Spring Formation, Anza Borrego Desert State Park, California". Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 56 (3–4): 183–198. doi:10.1016/0034-6667(88)90057-7.

Further reading

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