Redwall Limestone


The Redwall Limestone is a resistant cliff-forming unit of Mississippian age that forms prominent, red-stained cliffs ranging in height from to.

Lithology

Redwall Limestone consists predominately of light-olive-gray to light-gray, fine- to coarse-grained, thin- to thick-bedded, often cherty, limestone. Its lower part consists of brownish-gray, interbedded finely crystalline dolomite and fine- to coarse-grained limestone with layers of white chert lenses and yellowish-gray and brownish-gray, cliff-forming, thick-bedded, fine-grained dolomite. It is divided into Horseshoe Mesa Member, Mooney Falls Member, Thunder Springs Member, and Whitmore Wash Member. Its origins date to the Mississippian age.

Contacts

The upper and lower contacts of the Redwall Limestone are both unconformities. Locally, the Redwall Limestone directly overlies the unconformity that forms its lower contact consisting of a basal conglomerate. This basal conglomerate is typically composed of gravel that is locally derived from either the underlying Temple Butte Formation or Muav Limestone. The Temple Butte Formation consists of a thin layer of Devonian strata that fills paleovalleys cut into the underlying Cambrian Muav Limestone. Outside of the paleovalleys, the Redwall Limestone overlies the Muav Limestone.
The upper contact of the Redwall Limestone consists of a deeply eroded disconformity characterized by deeply incised paleovalleys and deep paleokarst depressions that are often filled by sediments of the Surprise Canyon Formation.

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