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Geologic Units: Prairie Creek
Map showing publication footprint
  • Usage in publication:
    • Prairie Creek Formation*
  • Modifications:
    • Named
    • Biostratigraphic dating
  • Dominant lithology:
    • Sand
  • AAPG geologic province:
    • Eel River basin
Publication:

Cashman, S.M., Kelsey, H.M., and Harden, D.R., 1995, Geology of the Redwood Creek basin, Humboldt County, California, IN Nolan, K.M., Kelsey, H.M., and Marron, D.C., eds., Geomorphic processes and aquatic habitat in the Redwood Creek basin, northwestern California: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 1454-B, p. B1-B13. [Available online from the USGS PubsWarehouse: http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/pubs/pp/pp1454]


Summary:

Named for exposures along Prairie Creek. Type locality: coastal bluffs, Gold Bluffs Beach, sec.4 T11N R1E, Orick quad, Humboldt Co, CA. Two reference localities designated. Covers 150 sq mi in Prairie Creek basin; forms distinctive topography of sharp ridges, steep canyons and trellis drainage patterns. Consists of fluvial sediments, near shore marine sand and beach and estuarine deposits. Thickness exceeds 550 m. Divided into 3 informal units: Gold Bluffs, Skunk Cabbage, and Surpur Creek units. Overlies Jurassic and Cretaceous Franciscan assemblage with angular unconformity. Contains mollusk, PROTOTHACA HANNIBALI (4 to 1 Ma) at erosionally truncated top of Gold Bluffs unit. Is Pliocene and(or) Pleistocene age.

Source: GNU records (USGS DDS-6; Menlo GNULEX).


For more information, please contact Nancy Stamm, Geologic Names Committee Secretary.

Asterisk (*) indicates published by U.S. Geological Survey authors.

"No current usage" (†) implies that a name has been abandoned or has fallen into disuse. Former usage and, if known, replacement name given in parentheses ( ).

Slash (/) indicates name conflicts with nomenclatural guidelines (CSN, 1933; ACSN, 1961, 1970; NACSN, 1983, 2005, 2021). May be explained within brackets ([ ]).

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