SUPAI GROUP & HERMIT FORMATION

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Fig. 19

The Supai Group is made up of the Watahomigi Formation, Manakacha Formation, Wescogame Formation, and Esplanade Sandstone, the Hermit Formation will be covered here also. Both stratigraphic units are sparsely and sporadically fossiliferous. Trace fossils have been identified as trackways, burrows, impressions, resting marks, and feeding marks. Invertebrate fossils include brachiopods, and locally abundant fusulinids. Plant remains are also widespread but sparsely distributed throughout. They suggest the presence of broad flood plains developing during times of regressing seas and semiarid-to-arid climates. Eolian depositional processes played an important role in the formation of the Supai Group and parts of the Hermit Formation. The Atokan eolian deposits in the Manakacha Formation may represent the earliest record of the vast eolian systems that were to dominate the Southwest until the Late Jurassic.



Fig. 20 - Eolian strata in the Supai Group