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This JOURNAL, the official organ of the Washington Academy of Sciences, aims to present a brief record of current scientific work in Washington. To this end it publishes: (1) short original papers, written or communicated by members of the Academy; (2) short abstracts of certain of these articles; (3) proceedings and programs of meetings of the Academy and affiliated Societies; (4) notes of events' connected with the scientific life of Washington. The JOURNAL is issued semi-monthly, on the fourth and nineteenth of each month, except during the summer when it appears on the nineteenth only. Volumes correspond to calendar years. Prompt publication is an essential feature; a manuscript reaching the editors on the second or the seventeenth of the month will ordinarily appear, on request from the author, in the next issue of the JOURNAL.

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GEOLOGY.-New geological formations in western Wyoming.1 ELIOT BLACKWELDER, Geological Survey.

As a result of the writer's field work in the Owl Creek, Shoshone, Wind River, Gros Ventre, and Teton ranges of western Wyoming, from 1910 to 1913, several new geologic formations have been recognized and the names proposed for them have been adopted by the U. S. Geological Survey. As the preparation of detailed reports on this region awaits the completion of the field studies, which have themselves been deferred for more urgent work elsewhere, several years may elapse before the reports appear in print. It therefore seems advisable to publish, in advance, definitions of these new formations, so that the names may be available for general use. In fact, while this paper was being considered and revised in manuscript, some of the names have already been used in print by other writers.2

GROS VENTRE FORMATION

In Peale's original description of the Threeforks (Montana) section, the Cambrian was divided into the Flathead quartzite, Flathead shale, and Gallatin limestone. Later, Hague and his associates used the same terms, but restricted the Gallatin to

1 Published by permission of the Director of the U. S. Geological Survey.

2 TOMLINSON, C. W., Journ. Geol. 25: 255–257. 1917. Condit, D. D., U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 98-0. 1916.

3 PEALE, A. C., U. S. Geol. Survey, Bull. 110. 1893.

narrower limits. The term Flathead has now been reserved for the basal sandstone or quartzite. The use of the term Gallatin has been established in Hague's modified sense; but the present writer does not concur, because he believes Peale's original usage should have been preserved. The intervening greenish and gray calcareous shales, with gray, striped, conglomeratic and oolitic limestones, is here called the Gros Ventre formation. Its fossils indicate Middle Cambrian age. A typical section of the formation, exposed in the west slope of Doubletop Peak in the Gros Ventre Range, is as follows:

Gallatin limestone (base)

Feet.

Limestone; gray and ocher colored in alternate bands, contains black oolitic granules; rock massive and forms a prominent cliff in association with overlying members of the formation. Rests disconformably on underlying beds.. 27+

Gros Ventre formation

15. Limestone; very massive, dense and gray, top eroded. . . .
14. Limestone; thin-bedded, gray laminated with olive drab..
13. Shale; green shale and flakes of brown-gray limestone, with
a few beds of flat-pebble conglomerate and oolite. Much
of this part of the section is concealed by talus
12. Limestone; thin-bedded, dense, hard blackish-gray rock
mottled with drab and ocher, and containing some shale
partings. Fragments of trilobites are rather common.
11. Shale; largely green shale with thin layers of limestone like
the last; largely concealed....

4+

13

350

24

26

10. Limestone; like "12." Surfaces of beds are rough, and some of them rather massive. This forms a distinct cliff in the slope..

6. Shale; gray calcareous shale and shaly limestone; largely concealed ...

9. Shale; greenish clay-shale with thin plates of limestone. Largely concealed by talus...

8. Limestone; gray, with irregular laminae and pockets containing siderite (?), and therefore weathering ocher color.. 7. Limestone; somewhat pisolitic, dark drab limestone weathering blue gray

115

36

10

21

5. Limestone; dark drab to bluish limestone, hard but flaggy.. 4. Shale; gray calcareous shale and shaly limestone; largely concealed ...

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3. Limestone; hard but flaggy, dark gray-bluish, mottled with light ocher. Contains traces of trilobites, and forms a prominent cliff ....

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2. Limestone; buff to gray, weathering tawny brown; thinbedded, with uneven stratification...

1. Shale; gray micaceous shale, largely concealed by talus from above...

26

95

Flathead Sandstone

796

Sandstone; with several beds of sandy shale in the upper part

.about 200

LEIGH DOLOMITE MEMBER OF THE BIGHORN DOLOMITE

From the Teton Range eastward at least to the middle of the Wind River Mountains and north into the Absaroka Range, the massive member of the well-known Bighorn dolomite is overlain by a thin but persistent layer which deserves special recognition. In almost every section it is from 30 to 40 feet thick, and in most, if not in all, localities it is limited both above and below by disconformities. A typical section from the west slope of Dinwoody canyon, on the north side of the Wind River Range is as follows:

Darby formation (Devonian)

12. Basal layer a stratified breccia consisting of small bits of cream-colored dolomite and pink chert in a gray dolomite matrix. Base sharp and slightly uneven.

Feet.

5.0

Leigh dolomite member of Bighorn dolomite

11. Dolomite; pale gray, finely laminated. Contains ostracods and a few small mollusks

3.0

10. Dolomite; thin lavender-gray. Surface checkered with cracks which are stained pinkish....

5.6

9. Dolomite; thin, lavender-gray. Rather massive. Contains a few ostracods. . . .

3.5

7. Shale; finely laminated, pink and maroon.

8. Dolomite; massive and thin. Rather brittle and full of blind joints..

5.1

Calcareous...

0.3

6. Dolomite; pale gray, finely streaked and spotted with lavender. Very brittle and full of cracks...

0.9

5. Shale; calcareous, light to dark red

0.2

4. Dolomite; like No. 3, but streaked and spotted with lavender....

4.0

3. Dolomite; like No. 2, but beds 2 to 10 inches thick.

3.5

2. Dolomite; dense, slabby, pale gray. Beds 1 to 4 inches thick. Sprinkled with small crinoid stems, and traces of bryozoans (?) Base not visible

Massive member of Bighorn dolomite (Ordovician)

2.0

1. Extremely massive, cream-colored dolomite, mottled with gray in alga-like patterns.

..over

100

The Leigh member differs from the rest of the Bighorn in being characterized by thin, dense and brittle, flaggy strata with smooth milk-white surfaces. It is stated verbally by Kirk and Tomlinson that, to the southwest in the Bear River Range of Utah and to the northeast in the Bighorn Range of Wyoming, the thin milkwhite dolomites of the Leigh member are interbedded with the very massive rough weathering strata typical of the Bighorn. Nevertheless, it seems probable that correlations with the Leigh may be made in some districts outside of western Wyoming, where it is typically developed.

Although the dolomite generally appears to be barren of organic remains, a characteristic fauna, consisting largely of ostracods with some pelecypods and gastropods, has been found at several localities. This fauna is assigned by Ulrich and Kirk to the Richmond horizon of the late Ordovician. The member takes its name from Leigh Canyon, on the west slope of the Teton Range, for on the south side of that valley there are excellent exposures of the dolomite in its typical condition.

DARBY FORMATION

The introduction of this new term is made necessary because none in present use fits the stratigraphy of western Wyoming. In the Threeforks section Peale gave the name Threeforks shale to the upper division of the Devonian, but included the lower dolomites, which are also Devonian, in his Jefferson limestone. Hague, Weed, and others in the Yellowstone National Park later misused the term "Threeforks" to include also the thinbedded, dark-colored dolomite of the upper part of Peale's Jefferson, thus limiting the latter term to the very massive beds of gray dolomite below. The Darby formation is apparently equivalent to Peale's Three Forks shale plus the upper part of his

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