The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

Whitmore and Strom ◀ Angular K-feldspars in ancient sandstones ▶ 2018 ICC 648 De Chelly Sandstone Arizona, Utah, New Mexico (Permian) Baars 1979*; Blakey 1990*; Stanesco 1991* The type section is located in Canyon De Chelly National Monument in the Four Corners area of northeastern Arizona. To the northwest, north and northeast, it becomes part of the Cutler Group of Utah and Colorado where it likely correlates with part of theWhite Rim Sandstone. It is similar in cross-bed style and appearance to the Coconino Sandstone except that it is more orange in color. To the south and east, it likely correlates with the Schnebly Hill Formation which lies conformably below and interfingers with the Coconino Sandstone in the Sedona area. To the southwest, the De Chelly correlates with the Meseta Blanca Sandstone Member of the Yeso Formation in New Mexico according to Baars (1979). The fine to medium-grained sand is bimodal and most of the grains are coated with iron oxide. Some beds have considerable silt content. Glorieta Sandstone New Mexico (Permian) Baars 1974; Blakey 199 0 ; Brill 1952; Dinterman 2001*; Irwin and Morton 1969. The Glorieta Sandstone is recognized in New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. Baars (1974) describes the Glorieta as a fine to medium-grained quartz sandstone with thin to medium cross-beds with dips of 10 to 20 degrees. It ranges from 30-90 m in thickness. Baars thought that most of the Glorieta was aqueously deposited. Dinterman (2001) describes the Glorieta (in NM) as being primarily a well-sorted, fine-grained quartz arenite. According to Blakey (1990) it is probably correlative with the main body of the Coconino in Arizona and Brill (1952) believes it is correlative to the Lyons in Colorado. Hopeman Sandstone Scotland (Permian) Maithel et al 2015; Ogilvie et al. 2000*; Peacock 1966*; Peacock et al. 1968* Borehole data suggest a maximum thickness of 60 m for this sandstone (Ogilvie et al. 2000). The formation is characterized by large-scale cross-bedded sandstones with well-rounded quartz and feldspar grains and minor amounts of mica (Peacock et al. 1968) which have been interpreted as the products of eolian deposition. Coarse pebbly sandstone lenses with small-scale cross-bedding also occur (Peacock 1966) which are interpreted as water-deposited. Contrary to other published reports, Maithel et al. (2015) found that the sandstone was not as well-sorted or rounded as previously reported. They noted that K-feldspar and muscovite in the formation could suggest non-eolian depositional process for these facies. Locharbriggs Sandstone Scotland (Permian) Brookfield 1977*, 1978*; McKeever 1991* The Locharbriggs Sandstone (Lower Permian) is known from outcrops in the Dumfries Basin of southwestern Scotland (Bookfield 1977) and is thought to have been deposited as transverse dunes (McKeever 1991). The overall thickness of the unit may be around 1000 m and consists of large-scale cross-bedding and well- sorted fine to medium-grained sand (Brookfield 1978). Lyons Sandstone Colorado (Permian) Brill 1952*; Hubert 1960; McKee and Bigarella 1979*; Maher 1954*; Ross et al 2010; Thompson 1949; Walker and Harms 1972* The Lyons Sandstone is best known from the Colorado Front Range where it extends into the subsurface of southeastern Colorado, western Kansas, and parts of Wyoming and Nebraska (Maher 1954). The Lyons can be traced into New Mexico and is correlative with the Glorieta Sandstone (Brill 1952) which has been long recognized to correlate with the Coconino Sandstone in Arizona. At most locations the Lyons has been divided into three units: a lower, middle, and upper. At its type locality, in Lyons, Colorado, the formation is about 107 m thick. The Lyons is very similar to the Coconino in many respects (McKee and Bigarella 1979) but authors have disagreed over the years whether the deposit is a shallow marine, beach or coastal dune deposit. Navajo Sandstone Utah, Arizona (Triassic?-Jurassic) Biek et al. 2010*; Bryant et al. 2016*; Doe and Dott 1980*; Freeman and Visher 1975; McKee and Bigarella 1979* The Navajo Sandstone covers most of eastern Utah and parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. It extends into Wyoming and a small portion of Idaho where it is known as the Nugget Sandstone and into Nevada and California were it is recognized as the Aztec Sandstone. Some of its more spectacular outcrops occur in Zion National Park where locally it exceeds 600 meters in thickness (Biek et al. 2010). In 1975, Freeman and Visher created a firestorm in the literature when they came to the conclusion that the Navajo was a subaqueous deposit based on stratigraphic and grain size analysis. There are many contorted beds and soft sediment deformation features in the Navajo which have been attributed to ground water movement by some authors (Bryant et al. 2016; Doe and Dott 1980). Its large foresets, rounded and frosted grains, sorting and ripple types are often cited as evidence for its eolian origin.