TEMPLE BUTTE FORMATION
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Fig.
15
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The Temple Butte Formation is predominantly dolomite or sandy dolomite
in lithology, with minor sandstone and limestone beds. Although marine
fossils are relatively abundant, few identifiable organic remains have
been found. Those that have were reported as intermediate brachiopods,
gastropods, corals, and "placoganoid" fish. Rare silicified corals,
gastropods, crinoid plates, and massive stromatoporoids have also been
reported. This formation records minor depositions of a thin carbonate
sequnce that gradually thickens westward across the Grand Canyon
region. The easternmost outcrops and some of the basal strata to the
west probably were deposited in narrow tidal channels under intertidal
conditions. The more laterally extensive dolomite beds in the central
and western portions of the Grand Canyon accumulated in more subtidal
but probably very shallow-marine conditions across a gently submerged
continental shelf.