Distinctive redbed unit is named for Itilyariak Creek which flows northward from Sunset Pass in eastern Sadlerochit Mountains (T3N R30E). Assigned to Endicott Group as uppermost of 6 formations. Type section designated as exposures near a small tributary to Itkilyariak Creek in SW/4 sec 6, T3N R31E, UPM, in core of eastern Sadlerochit Mountains, Mt. Michelson quad, AK. Composed of red and maroon sandstone, conglomerate, breccia, and limestone interbedded with maroon and greenish-gray shale and light-gray quartzitic sandstone. Thickness is 45 m in outcrop and over 150 m in wells. Unconformably overlies undated unnamed shale and sandstone at type locality, and in some areas overlies unconformably or gradationally Kayak-Kekiktuk Formations (undivided). Underlies Alapah Limestone (Lisburne Group) gradationally. Age is Late Mississippian based on biostratigraphic dating of early Late Mississippian fauna.
Source: GNU records (USGS DDS-6; Menlo GNULEX).
Itkilyariak Formation adopted. Described as part of transgressive depositional suite of Carboniferous rocks of Arctic Alaska. Redbeds and evaporites in formation may represent a slowing in rate of transgression, perhaps reflecting local progradation and development of mudflats and/or change of climate from humid to arid. Laterally equivalent but generally younger than Kayak(?) Shale.
Source: GNU records (USGS DDS-6; Menlo GNULEX).
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