Tick Canyon Formation

Tick Canyon Formation
Stratigraphic range: Early Miocene (Hemingfordian-Barstovian)
~20–16 Ma

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Tick Canyon Formation; Stratigraphic range: Early Miocene (Hemingfordian-Barstovian); ~20–16 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Type	Geologic formation
Underlies	Mint Canyon Formation
Overlies	Vasquez Formation
Thickness	0–1,000 ft (0–305 m) (average)
Lithology
Primary	Sandstone, conglomerate
Other	Claystone
Location
Coordinates	34°25′56″N 118°23′32″W[1]
Approximate paleocoordinates	33.3°N 111.2°W
Region	Los Angeles County, California
Country	United States
Extent	Sierra Pelona Ridge
Type section
Named for	Tick Canyon
	Tick Canyon Formation (the United States) Tick Canyon Formation (California)

The Tick Canyon Formation (Tt) or Tick Canyon strata, is an Early Miocene geologic formation in the Sierra Pelona Ridge of the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County, California.[2]

The Tick Canyon Basin drains into the Santa Clara River.[3]

Geology

The formation overlies the Oligocene to Lower Miocene Vasquez Formation, and underlies the Upper Miocene Mint Canyon Formation.[2][4]

The Tick Canyon strata was deposited on land mostly by streams and consists of green sandstones, coarse-grained conglomerates, and red claystones.[2][4][5] The Tick Canyon strata also contain abundant volcanic clasts, most of which resemble volcanic rocks of the Vasquez Formation.[6] It has an average thickness of 600 feet (180 m).[4]

North of the Tick Canyon Fault, the beds are almost vertical.[2]

Fossil content

It preserves vertebrate fossils of the Lower Miocene subperiod of the Miocene epoch, in the Neogene Period of the Cenozoic Era.[2][7]

Mammals

Artiodactyls
- Miolabis californicus[8][9]
- Merychyus calaminthus[10]
- M. minimus[11]
Perissodactyls
- Parahippus maxsoni[9]
- Parahippus sp.[8]
Rodents
- Archaeolagus acaricolus[12]
- Trogomys rupinimenthae[13]

Birds

Falconiformes
- Miohierax stocki[14]

References

U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Tick Canyon Formation
Elsmerecanyon.com: "Tick Canyon Geology"
"Geologic Map of the Mint Canyon Quadrangle" (DF-57) by Thomas W. Dibblee, Jr., 1996
Caltech.edu: THESIS - "Geology of the Upper Tick Canyon area, California"; Birman, Joseph Harold; 1950.
Caltech.edu: THESIS - "Geology of the Mint Canyon area, Los Angeles County, California"; Holser, William T.; 1946
Coffey et al., 2019, p.481
Tick Canyon at Fossilworks.org
Maxson, 1930
Jahns, 1940
Lander & Lindsay, 2011
Whistler, 1967
Dawson, 1958
Reeder, 1960
Howard, 1944

Bibliography

Coffey, Kevin T.; Raymond V. Ingersoll, and Axel K. Schmitt. 2019. Stratigraphy, provenance, and tectonic significance of the Punchbowl block, San Gabriel Mountains, California, USA. Geosphere 15. 479–501.
Lander, E. B., and E. H. Lindsay. 2011. Merychyus calaminthus (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Oreodontidae) of probable early late Arikareean (late Oligocene to late early Miocene) age from the lower part of the Chalk Canyon Formation, Maricopa and Yavapai counties, central Arizona. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31. 215–226.
Whistler, D. P. 1967. Oreodonts of the Tick Canyon Formation, southern California. PaleoBios 1. 1–14.
Reeder, W. G. 1960. A New Rodent Genus (Family Heteromyidae) from the Tick Canyon Formation of California. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 59. 121–132.
Dawson, M. R. 1958. Later Tertiary Leoporidae of North America. University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions Vertebrata 6. 1–75.
Howard, H. 1944. Miocene hawk from California. The Condor 46. 236–237.
Jahns, R. H. 1940. Stratigraphy of the Easternmost Ventura Basin, California, with a Description of a New Lower Miocene Mammalian Fauna From the Tick Canyon Formation. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 514. 145–194.
Maxson, J. H. 1930. A Tertiary mammalian fauna from the Mint Canyon Formation of Southern California. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 404. 77–112.