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| The barren badlands of Painted Canyon provide an excellent observatory to the geologic history of the region. This image shows that parts of the canyon are complexly faulted and folded. Greenish beds are ancient basin-lake deposits of the Palm Springs Formation (Pliocene, about 5 to 2 million years old). The Palm Springs Formation inter-fingers with marginal alluvial fan and flood plain deposits of the Canebrake Formation (also of Pliocene age). Brown layers amongst the green sediments are probably volcanic tuff (ash) deposits that were ejected from regional volcanic centers. The red beds in the distant hillsides are part of the older Mecca Formation (late Miocene) and represent terrestrial flood plain and marginal alluvial fan deposits. |
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