Sedimentation and Tectonics

in Coastal Southem California

San Diego to Los Angeles, California

June 2 8-July 7, 19 8 9

Field Trip Guidebook T 1 10

Leaders:
Patrick L. Abbott Martin H. Link Tor H. Nilsen

American Geophysical Union, Washington D.C.

 Copyright 1989 American Geophysical Union

2000 Flor ida Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009

ISBN' 0-87590-609-5

Printed in the United States of America

 RIVER VALLEY

ALLUVIAL
FAN

•-• :•
:•;:•
..... • LAGOON ,4•
•/ •,• PLAIN .......

• $TREAI•

'•:• SHELF SHELF

SUBMARINE
CHANNEL
ABANDONED CHANNEL-FILL DEPOSITS

SLOPE
•,' •,'

DEEP- SEA FAN BASIN FLOOR

COVER Eocene depos•b•onal env•onmenbs in San D•ego.

 Leaders '

Patrick L. Abbott
Department of Geological Sciences
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182-0337

Martin H. Link
Mobil Research & Development Corp.
13777 Midway Road
Dallas, TX 75244

Tor H. Nilsen
Applied Earth Technology, Inc.
595 Price Ave., Suite 1
RedwoodCity, CA 94063
 IGC FIELD TRIP Tl10'
SEDIMENTATION AND TECTONICS IN COASTAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Patrick L. Abbott 1, Martin H. Link 2, and Tor H. Nilse•

CALIFORNIA OVERVIEW growing in southern California,

turned more of the population growth
In the 1988 Summer Olympic games toward the south. By the mid-20th
in Seoul, South Korea, the number of century the majority of the
medals earned by Californians was population resided in southern
exceeded only by Russia and East California as agriculture flowered in
Germany. California is now the most the inland valleys, industry boomed
populous state in the United States in the cities, and military bases
of America with a 1986 population of enlisted many men because of World
26,981,000. Its gross economic War II. During the post-war days,
product is exceeded by only five research and educational facilities
nations in the world (with the U.S. grew in California in number and
being 1 of the 5). Yet the real quality and attracted large numbers
uniqueness of California lies not in of first-rate people who have added
simple statistics but in the fluid intellectual wealth to the existing
nature of its social, political and base of natural resources. The per
economic life which have turned the capita income of California exceeds
state into a leading laboratory of that of any nation in the world.
lifestyles which radiate out through Although the urban population of
the rest of the U.S. and the world. California exceeds 92%, it is
The modern history of California nonetheless the leading agricultural
begins with the gold rush of 1848 in state in the U.S. The state is
the northern half of the region. This dominant in the agricultural,
started the flow of population to aerospace, wine-making, and movie and
California that has never ceased. The television industries; it is among
discovery of gold hastened the the leaders in the electronics,
political rise to statehood. computers, light manufacturing, and
California was admitted to the United oil and gas industries.
States in 1850 as the 31st state. The The famed climate of California
attainment of statehood helped lure and its social freedoms shine as an
additional immigrants. The ever-brighter beacon that lures
availability of cheap land and the immigrants from around the world.
promise of a fresh start brought many The growth in California population
folks west to California after the remains explosive. In the six years
Civil War ended in the 1860's. The from 1980 to 1986, 3,313,000 people
State motto of Eureka (I have found migrated into the state for a 14%
it) remains as true today as it did increase. The population of
when first adopted in the 1800's. The California has about doubled every 20
population mainly grew in the years beginning in about 1860. Today
northern part of the state until the the largest problems facing
great San Francisco earthquake and Californians are the deteriorations
fire of 1906 created fears which, in the quality of life brought about
combined with the growing discoveries by a population that has grown too
of oil and increases in citrus large. The same bright flame that
attracts people may also consume the
very fuels that feed it.
1Department of Geological Sciences, California has long been
San Diego State University, San recognized as a land of physical
Diego, California. contrasts -- from the rainy Coast
2Mobil Research and Development Ranges in the northwest to the snow-
Corporation, Dallas, Texas. capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada in
3Applied Earth Technology, Inc., the east to the sun-drenched beaches
Redwood City, California. of southern California in the

T1 10' 1
southwest to the sere Mojave and shallowing angle of subduction of the
Sonoran deserts in the southeast. Mt. Farallon Plate.
Whitney at 4,418 m elevation is the The second three days will
highest peak in the conterminous 48 primarily be spent viewing Neogene
states yet it rises just 135 km west strata in wrench-fault settings. In
of the lowest point found at -86 m on the sea cliffs of Dana Point and San
the floor of Death Valley. Only about Clemente are exposures of Miocene
15% of the land is either urban or fault-controlled breccias and
cultivated leaving a tremendous Miocene-Pliocene nested submarine
expanse of land open for other channels. On the way to the Neogene
purposes. National and State parks Ridge basin, the modern wrench-fault
attempt to preserve some of the basin of Lake Elsinore will be viewed
mountain, forest and desert from the crest of the Peninsular
environments. Ranges. In Ridge basin over 12,000 m
The varied geologic history of of upper Miocene-lower Pliocene
California and the excellent modern- strata were deposited in marine to
day outcrops provided by its location nonmarine depositional environments.
between the Pacific and North The Ridge basin is a well-exposed
American plates combine to make the wrench-fault basin that underwent 60
State one of the leading laboratories km of right-slip movement during its
for modern geologic thought. Four of history.
the top ten rated geology Ph.D. During the third three-day
programs in the U.S. lie within segment, there will be inspections of
California. The research of the the Ventura basin's Upper Cretaceous
university geology departments and deep-water strata in the Simi Hills
the U.S. Geological Survey have and in Wheeler Gorge in the Santa
combined to make California an Ynez Mountains. The Cretaceous
intellectually rewarding place for section is overlain by more than
geologists to visit. 10,000 m of Eocene, Oligocene,
Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene
beds laid down in deep water to
FIELD TRIP INTRODUCTION nonmarine settings. The interplay
between tectonics, sedimentation, and
This trip focuses on tectonic hydrocarbon accumulation will be seen
elements and sedimentary rocks in the Ventura basin, a major oil-
deposited in the active Late producing region in California.
Cretaceous and Cenozoic convergent
and transform settings of southern
California. Rocks examined will be SAN DIEGO AREA
primarily of Late Cretaceous, Eocene
and Miocene-Pliocene ages. Exposures The County of San Diego is one of
are in sea cliffs, the Peninsular and the largest in the United States;
Transverse mountain ranges, Ventura its' area is larger than the states
basin, and in the San Diego-Los of Delaware and Rhode Island
Angeles megalopolis (Figure 1). combined. The city of San Diego now
Sights to be seen include excellent has more than 1,000,000 inhabitants,
outcrop exposures, museums, and much the rest of San Diego County has
of the natural history and urban another 1,000,000 residents, and the
development of southern California. adjoining Mexican city of Tijuana has
These outcrops have been visited by an ill-defined population exceeding
geologists numbering into the 1000's 1,000,000 people for a combined
due to the interesting stories they metropolitan area in excess of
tell. 3,000,000 inhabitants.
The first three days in San Diego The European presence in
will focus on events during the time California began in 1542 when the
of the Laramide orogeny (75-40 Ma) as Portugese explorer Juan Rodriguez
shown in the Cretaceous and Eocene Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay.
sedimentary sections. Diverse In 1602, Sebastian Vizcaino sailed
depositional environments are well into the bay on the feast day of San
displayed and the evolution in Diego de Alcala. The name of this
sediment types testifies to the saint is now attached to the county,
effects upon sedimentation of the city, bay, and major river. The

T1 10:2
 Go"•• n

"

'"N," hll."ll" CHIlIINr~

'In ....u.1 '.nl. C'UI

""~0~ "
'lnn lion
1.I.nol

( •· 0
'. '0

N o
G '.n ""'....
O~
1.I.nol
.+

o 20 40 10411••
MAP OF
I ; I SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ..-~.!:.~:
....leo
Se.l.
'.1.
e.lIlo,nl.

FIGURE 1 Selected geographic features in southern California.

permanent settlement of california by overwhelmed and the air quality of

Europeans began in San Diego in 1769 the area is severely taxed.
with the founding of a mission here
by the Spaniard Father J~nipero
Serra. (Serra was recently beatified EOCENE DEPOSITIONAL SYSTEMS IN
in preparation for elevation to SAN DIEGO
Saint.) The string of missions began
in Loreto, Baja California in 1697 Eocene Depositional Systems, San
and expanded northward reaching the Diego is the title of a now out-of-
present state of California some 72 print guidebook edited by P.L. Abbott
years later. and published in 1979 by the Pacific
Modern-day San Diego County is the section of the society of Economic
site of an unprecedented population Paleontologists and Mineralogists
explosion as emigrants from the (SEPM). Much of the following is
midwestern and northeastern cities of modified from that volume.
the U.S. pour into the area along The Eocene strata in San Diego
with a flood of Mexicans and numerous afford an excellent opportunity to
southeast Asians. The present see an integrated set of non-marine
population growth is so rapid that and marine depositional systems.
the ability to provide essential Environments ranging from fluvial to
services (e.g. waste disposal) is alluvial fan to fan delta to

1110: 3
submarine canyon with fringing trending depositional systems which
barrier bar, lagoon and shelf systems include environments ranging from
may all be observed within a short fluvial channel (Ballena Gravels) to
distance of one another. submarine canyon facies. The
Marine and nonmarine fossils, continuation of this system westward
diverse primary sedimentary into the southern California
structures, distinctive conglomerate borderland is represented by the
clast types, and paleosols are all large, Eocene submarine fan system
well exposed in nearly continuous now exposed in the Channel Islands.
outcrops which allow detailed It is necessary to remove
evaluation of depositional approximately 200 km of right slip on
environments. faults in the eastern part of the
Regionally, the Eocene fluvial and borderland to match up the Eocene
alluvial fan strata of San Diego are strata of San Diego with the Eocene
one of three similar, subparallel rocks in the southern California
depositional mega-systems found along borderland (Figure 2).
the southern California-Baja This article summarizes briefly
California coastal plain (Figure 2). our knowledge of the stratigraphy,
Each system is similar in the range paleoclimate, paleogeography, and
of depositional environments but is facies recorded by the Eocene strata
distinctively different in the of the San Diego area. The first
detailed compositions of their field trip day is an inland, east to
conglomeratic sediments. One system, west, downdip traverse of nonmarine
the Las Palmas Gravels, is located to facies rocks which includes outcrop
the south in Baja California; stops at the Ballena fluvial channel,
another, the basal Sespe Formation, alluvial fan apex, fan delta of the
lies to the north in the Santa Ana coastal plain, and shoreline facies.
Mountains. The Powayconglomerate The second day is a coastal, north-
system in San Diego is the best south traverse of marine facies rocks
exposed. It is a set of major, west- with stops to observe sediments

California
Santa Cruz
Los

ngele•/Santa
,; Mtns. Aria . 0 80 miles
JOLLA VlEJA FM. •'•-----BASAL I i
8ESPE FM.
0 130 km

Arizona
POWAY CONGLOM
MT. SOLEDAD FM.

LAS PALMA8 GRAVEL8

Valle de
OTucson

a8
Palmas$onoyta'/•,.BEDROCK ,•
,RHYOLITIC

•%,,,, 5!
El" •Nogales
Bajaif
' Gulf
-• -,oI"1omo
6Tajitos
•)' •

0..0 of
California
Sonora

FIGURE 2 Integrated Eocene depositional systems that formed an east-

west-oriented piercing point now dismembered by the opening of the
Gulf of California and strike-slip faulting on the continental
shelf.

T110: •
deposited in paralic (iagoanal, tidal significance, and occurrences of the
channel complexes), shelf, and distinctive Poway rhyolitic clasts
submarine canyon environments. for the San Diego area are included
in Figure 3.
Stratigraphy Molluscan, foraminiferal, and
coccolith fossils from these
The stratigraphic nomenclature of formations indicate ages from Middle
the Eocene strata of the San Diego to Late Eocene and deposition in
area generally in use dates back to shallow lagoonal to deep marine
Hanna's map of the La Jolla 15' environments for most rock units in
quadrangle (1926). Since that time western San Diego (Hanna, 1926; Bukry
revisions in nomenclature have and Kennedy, 1969; Givens and
resulted from more detailed mapping Kennedy, 1979). Mammalian, reptilian,
of complex lithostratigraphic avian, and amphibian fossils indicate
relationships at the 7.5' quadrangle strata in the eastern San Diego area
scale (Kennedy and Moore, 1971). A are largely nonmarine (Novacek and
summary of the latest Eocene Lillegraven, 1979).
formations names, their age

La Jolla San Diego Poway Fernbrook

AGE GROUP Kennedy
andMoore, Kennedy
andMoore, Praterson
andKennedy, Minch,1972
1971 1971, Kennedy,1973 1974
O o
' Mission
Volley
•øForma
tion Mission
0 0

e -- • • • Formation

m Cabrlllo Lulardi Lusardi

--
0 •
• 0
/- --/•I•'
. = Pol., :- -,,',

• •• Lama data <'....... •'•

Formation

-- Crystalline
• -- •rd• F• PeninsularRange•
e Crystalline Basement
- Balemint not fiposed
, ,

•;:•'J Poway
stones
:::-: approx. horizon of middle/late Eocene boundary
FIGURE 3 Upper Mesozoic and lower Paleogene statigraphic units in the
San Diego area emphasizing conglomerates (from Link et al., 1979).

Tl10- 5
Paleoclimate crop out in the nonmarine rock units
and indicate an upper rainfall limit
The Eocene climate of southwestern of approximately 60 cm per year. The
California was a time of transition. coarse fluvial gravels were derived
In the earlier Eocene, the climate from a source up to 300 km to the
was wet (about 125 cm rainfall per east and were transported during
year) and hot (20-25øC average annual times of flash flooding which
temperature). These temperatures and strongly indicates an intermittent
rainfall are comparable to those drainage system characteristic of
found in the modern equatorial belt arid or semiarid climates. Salt
(equator ñ 15ø). The local evidence weathering textures in the gravels
for these torrid conditions includes imply at least seasonal aridity. An
a thick, widespread and spectacular immature vermiculite- and smectite-
lateritic paleosol developed on an dominated clay mineral suite, with
erosion surface that truncates all of subsidiary chlorite and illite, is
the pre-Middle Eocene rock units characteristic of later Eocene rocks
(Peterson and Nordstrom, 1970; Abbott and likewise indicates an arid
et al, 1976). However, paleomagnetic climate.
evidence indicates that the San Diego
area was farther to the north at Provenante
approximately the present latitude of
San Francisco. An equatorial-type The Eocene rocks are almost
soil developed at 38-40øN latitude entirely clastic and seem to have
within the westerly wind belt must, been derived from some distinctly
of necessity, indicate a world different source areas. The coarse
climate drastically different than conglomeratic detritus has received
that of the present. most of the attention because the
In mid-Eocene time the climate conglomerates are dominated by the
began to change. The yearly rainfall so-called "Poway clasts." The name
decreased from over 125 cm to less is a useful local designation for
than 60 cm, and the average annual pebbles, cobbles, and boulders of
temperature decreased from 20-25øC to slightly metamorphosed rhyolitic and
18-20øC (Peterson and Abbott, 1979). rhyodacitic welded tuffs. Generally
Apparently this local climate change these clasts are finely crystalline
was part of a global change because with coarser quartz phenocrysts.
foraminifera-based oxygen isotope They are extremely resistant to
paleotemperatures from widespread impact and abrasion and occur in a
DSDP cores indicate a comparable wide variety of generally light
temperature drop. As the temperature reddish colors. Poway clasts almost
decreased and, more significantly, as invariably constitute 60 to 80% or
the rainfall decreased, the greater more of the Eocene conglomerate clast
San Diego area went from conditions populations (Bellemin and Merriam,
of extreme chemical weathering and 1958; Woodford et al., 1968; Abbott
erosion to those of deposition. and Peterson, 1978; Howell and Link,
Evidently a relative sea level rise 1979; Kies and Abbott, 1983). In
roughly accompanied the paleoclimatic addition these clasts are reworked
change, although the two may be into almost all younger conglomerates
entirely independent of one another. and gravels in the region.
In any case, the marine, paralic, fan Poway clasts have attracted
delta, alluvial fan and fluvial considerable attention because there
facies rocks deposited in late Middle are no bedrock exposures of this rock
and Late Eocene time have distinctive type within 200 km of San Diego, and
semiarid characteristics (Peterson yet these clasts dominate the Eocene
and Abbott, 1979). conglomerates. Two surviving schools
The later Eocene climate was of thought attempt to explain their
warmer and more humid than the origin. One school prefers a local
present climate. Nevertheless, source which has been totally removed
evaporation exceeded precipitation by erosion. Due to the large size of
and thus it might be characterized as some clasts, it is felt they were
a subtropical arid to semiarid never transported far and thus must
climate. Widespread lenses, nodules, have been derived from the top of the
and beds (up to 1 m thick) of caliche nearby Peninsular Ranges batholith

T110' 6
during its unroofing (Bellemin and during transport as well as from the
Merriam, 1958; Woodford et al., weathering and grusification of the
1968). This idea, although batholithic and prebatholithic rocks
interesting, is no longer seriously over which the Poway clasts were
considered. First, lead-alpha ages of transported. The shoreline and marine
the clasts are incompatible with the facies rocks were also supplied by
ages of batholithic and longshore drift transport.
prebatholithic rocks (DeLisle et al.,
1965). Secondly, the Cretaceous Sedimentary Facies
conglomerates of the San Diego area
clearly record the unroofing of the Faunal and sedimentological
batholith and these conglomerates evidence indicate that the Eocene
contain no Poway clasts. sedimentary rocks in the San Diego
The second idea invokes a source area were deposited as a nonmarine
terrane outside the Peninsular Ranges fan-delta complex on a narrow coastal
province. This idea began with the plain that was transitional into
discovery of Poway-type clasts and shallow-and deep-marine environments
bedrock in the Sonora, Mexico area to the west (Howell and Link), 1979).
(Merriam, 1968; Minch, 1972). Depositional environments recognized
Apparently the clasts originated in include fluvial channel, alluvial
this general vicinity and were fan, coastal plain-fan delta,
transported to the west by a long paralic, shelf, submarine channel,
distance, low gradient river system deep-sea fan and basin plain facies
in an arid to semiarid climate (Figure 4). Table 1 summarizes the
(Minch, 1972; Abbott and Smith, 1978, contrasting lithologic and
1987; Steer and Abbott, 1984). In paleontologic features of these
order to understand this long environments and each is described
distance fluvial system, it is briefly below.
necessary to palinspastically restore
southern California and Baja Fluvial Facies. The Ballena
California to their Eocene position Gravels correlate with the Poway
approximately 170 km south (relative Group of the San Diego area on the
to the remainder of North America) basis of clast compositions and
and to close the Gulf of California- almost continuous exposures.
Salton Trough. The low percentage of Remnants of the Ballena Gravels trend
locally-derived clasts in the Eocene from northeast to southwest from near
conglomerates of San Diego is a Ballena to Lakeside where they enter
function of their relative abrasion the San Diego embayment (Figure 5).
durabilities. The extremely durable This paleovalley is sinuous, up to 3
Poway and quartzite clasts acted as a km wide, box- to V-shaped, and can be
ball mill during transport and traced as discontinuous outcrops for
eliminated the less durable, more over 30 km in the Peninsular Ranges.
locally-derived clasts and at the The fluvial valley near its mouth is
same time reduced their own abrasion estimated to have had a length of
losses when jostled against less about 300 km, drainage basin area of
durable clasts (Abbott and Peterson, 25,000 km2 sinuosities of 1 1 to
1978). 1.3, slopes of 4 to 7 m/km, annual
Finer-grained (predominantly sand- flood velocities of 2 to 4 m/sec,
sized) detritus makes up beds, annual flood discharge of about 800
lenses, and matrix within to 1000 m3/sec, and 100 year flood
conglomerate sections and dominates discharges around 100,000 m3/sec
many of the more western paralic and (Steer and Abbott, 1984).
marine stratigraphic units. The conglomerate clasts are
Provenance of this finer detritus has imbricated up-current to the
received considerably less attention. northeast and long axes of clasts are
Mineral compositions, such as those aligned generally perpendicular to
listed by Howell and Link (1979, the paleoflow. Sandstone and mudstone
Table 2), are compatible with an are rare and no fossils have been
eastern source as indicated by the reported from these strata. Fine-
Poway clasts. Presumably this finer grained strata in the Fernbrook and
detritus was derived from both the San Vicente reservoir area occur as
disintegration of the Poway clasts basal beds and are interpreted as

T1 10:7
 RIVER VALLEY

ALLUVIAL
FAN APEX

PLAIN
, ,

LAGOON

TIDAL
DEL.

SHELF SHELF
SUBMARINE
CHANNEL
ABANDONED CHANNEL- FILL DEPOSITS

SLOPE

DEEP- SEA FAN BASIN

FIGURE 4 Eocene depositional environments in San Diego.

paludal back-fill deposits that a total thickness of at least 200 m

formed during a local transgressive and is very poorly sorted. Locally
event. The gravels were deposited derived granitic boulders up to 7 m
during the final stages of infillng in length are mixed with exotic Poway
of the Ballena Channel in late Eocene rhyolite clasts up to 81 cm diameter.
time. For most of Eocene time, the Clast imbrication data show no
Ballena river acted as the major consistent trends, and few
conduit through which coarse sedimentary structures are observed.
sediments moved westward into the San The triangular-outcrop pattern, the
Diego embayment and then onward into poorly-sorted texture, the lack of
the southern California borderland. sedimentary structures, and the
presence of extremely large granitic
Alluvial Fan Facies. Slightly clasts that presumably debouched from
west of San Vicente reservoir, the the river channel at high flood
Stadium and Pomerado conglomerates of stages, suggest this area was the
the Poway Group thicken and fan out apex of the alluvial fan where the
laterally toward the northwest and Ballena Valley entered the San Diego
south from the Eocene Ballena river embayment.
valley. The massive conglomerate has

T110:8
TABLE 1 Lithologic and biogenic characteristics of Eocene
depositional environments in San Diego (after Howell and Link, 1979).

WEST EAST
sub-seafan sh_•.•. coastal plain alluvial fluvial
outer --inner ] channelsI ,o•o,,,c I ,o. d.,to I
..... 'ø" i ' I ' I •"ø"''
-- Co•.om
e•r
atß t
Sandstone

L.Ithologtc Mudstone
and Shale
Varl a hies Intraclast

Skeletal Debrl

Horizontal L.aminat•ons
I II II I I ......
L.arge-Scale
Trough
Cros
s - Stratification _
_

Large-Scale Low-Angle Planar Cross-Stratification

Small-Scale Cross-Stratification

Slump-folded Strata

Dish Structures

Sedimentary Sole Marks

Structures
Caliche Horizons

Matrix- Supported Sorting

Clast-Supported Sorting

Normal Graded Beds

Inverse Graded Beds

Ungraded Beds
imbrJcation
•- ------ I I
Clast Elongated Pare lie I to Flow
ClastElongated
Perpendicular
to-•T'ow
clast with Random Orientation
...--...

Vertebrates
---- ' Marine Moll•s'sk•'
I
Forami n ifer$
Biota
Coccoliths

Burrows

Rootlets

Biogenic
Structures

Abundant

Relative Abundance Common

Rare

Tl10' 9
 DANA
BALLENA--->
POINT
RAMONA

View 8top
ß
DEL FERNBROOK
MAR
POWAY
Torrey
Pines San Vicente
State
Beach lider
alk
port
U C. San
Institute

Diego
Reservoir

Black's Nelson & Sloan Quarry

Beach

Scripps
pier
La Joll
Ba' LAKESIDE
La

Jolla • LA
Cove JOLLA
Bird -.•
Rock

Tourmaline
Beach

Mission Center
an Dieg DIEGO Rd.
OCEAN Airport
BEACH
Sunset , >
Cliffs
POINT
LOMA

Cabrill½
National
Monument

SAN DIEGO
o
N o AND VICINITY

II 5 Mile8

SCALE
UNITED
STATES

FIGURE 5 Selected geographic features in San Diego.

T1 10- 10
 Coastal Plain-Fan Delta Facies. way to broad, low-relief plains.
West of the alluvial fan apex facies Braided stream systems characterize
the conglomerate outcrop broadens to the depositional sites.
at least 20 km in width and grades The Friars and Mission Valley
downdip (westward) into the coastal formations are large accumulations of
plain-fan delta facies. Conglomerate sandstone and mudstone interbedded
intervals, separated by sandstone and with the Stadium and Pomerado
mudstone, are assigned to the Stadium conglomerates. Both formations are
and Pomerado conglomerates (Figure less than 35 m thick, sparsely
3). The Stadium conglomerate is up to fossiliferous, and pinch out
75 m thick and encompasses an area eastward. Marine and nonmarine
greater than 600 km2 . Conglomerate fossils, and caliche nodules, crusts,
comprises 3/4 of this facies and and cements characterize these finer-
consists of poorly to well-sorted grained strata.
beds that rarely exceed 3 m in
thickness. Sandstone and mudstone Paralic Facies. The paralic
interbeds range from 0-3 m thick facies encompasses rocks in a narrow
(averaging 0.95 m in thickness) and zone where the buildup of
0-200 m long (averaging 12.5 m in progradational cycles resulted in a
length). Cobbles are imbricated; most complex interfingering of nonmarine
clasts dip up-current toward the and marine deposits. The conglomerate
northeast. Long axis measurements beds are well sorted to poorly
show random to bimodal trends with sorted, up to $ m thick, and average
most clasts oriented perpendicular to 2.5 m thick. Imbrication and long-
the paleoflow whereas others are axis orientations show no consistent
oriented parallel to flow. Channel trends. The conglomerate is
axis and large-scale cross-bedding interbedded with lenses of sandstone
measurements indicate generally west- and mudstone. The sandstone contains
directed paleocurrents. The clast- trough cross bedding with inclined
supported nature of these deposits surfaces dipping between 18 and 23
and the highly variable long-axis degrees. Tabular cross beds are
orientations reflect variable flow locally bimodal, dipping both
conditions. Numerous large stationary eastward and westward. The cross beds
clast obstructions and the saltation are interpreted to represent seaward-
of flood-transported clasts may dipping delta deposits and onland-
account for the observed textures and dipping bar complexes.
clast-axis orientations. Marine fossils are common in the
The bottom surface of sandstone paralic facies and include several
bodies of this facies are either molluscan genera: bivalves--Pitaria,
flat, concave upward, or rarely box Lirophora, Corbula, Saccela;
shaped. The flat-bottom sandstone gastropods--Conus, Turritella;
bodies are interpreted to be fluvial scaphopods--Dentalium. Biologic
accretionary bar deposits and the activity is indicated by Ophiomorpha
concave and box-shaped sandstone nodosa cases, numerous burrows,
packages are channel-fill deposits. rootlet traces and other trace
Channel scouring and conglomerate fossils described in 1975 by Boyer
deposition have modified the original and Warme (Figure 6). Foraminifers
shape of some sandstone bodies. The from these beds indicate inner shelf
lithostratigraphic relations of the deposition in water depths to 60 m
Stadium and Pomerado conglomerates (Gibson, 1971). Thin peat interbeds
resemble those in several high-energy indicate local and ephemeral swampy
depositional settings: outwash plains and lagoonal environments. Nonmarine
of proglacial fluvial environments, fossils include fragments of
valley floors contiguous to reptiles, amphibians, birds, and
mountainous areas, and coastal zones small mammals (Novacek and
of high relief such as those along Lillegraven, 1979. The Torrey,
the west coast of Baja California. Delmar, Friars, and Mission Valley
The hydrology and hydraulics of formations each contain aspects of
cobble transport for all these areas the paralic facies and reflect
are flood dominated. The topography shallow-marine offshore bar, tidal
in these settings reflects narrow and channel, and lagoon deposits (Boyer
confined channels that rapidly give and Warme, 1975; Clifton, 1979;

Tl10:11
Eisenberg and Abbott, 1985).

• •0CM
s .

10 C.M

I0
CM

FIGURE 6 Trace fossils from the Delmar and Torrey

formations (from Boyer and Warme, 1975). (A) Ophiomorpha
nodosa (small form) burrows on bedding surface grading into
Thalassinoides. (B) O. nodosa (large form) transverse to
bedding. (C) Vertical burrows with spreiten in muddy
sandstone. (D) Conostichus in cross-bedded sandstone. (E,
F, G) Gyrolithes.

Shelf and Submarine Channel conglomerate along with shell debris

Facies. The "Poway" conglomerate in and large and small rip-up clasts of
the westernmost part of San Diego is mudstone and sandstone. Conglomerate
largely confined to channels 10 to makes up only a small percent of the
300 m wide and up to 10 m deep. strata, whereas sandstone and
Nested channel deposits are as much mudstone make up the majority.
as 50 m thick. The channels are Measurements of the b-axis of slump
filled with mudstone, sandstone, and folds indicate a north-northwest

T110' 12
trending paleoslope and measurements borderland (Howell, 1974). If
of small-scale cross bedding, clast restored to original positions, the
imbrication, flame structures, sole San Diego area would lie directly
marks, and channel axes indicate east of the borderland deep-sea fan
west-directed paleocurrents. The system. The deep-sea fan facies are
conglomerate is matrix supported and discussed in detail by Howell and
associated features include: pebbly Link (1979). The apex of the Eocene
mudstone, cobbly sandstone, large- deep-sea fan lies close to Santa Cruz
scale cross bedding, inverse- and Island where inner-fan facies are
normally graded beds, sole marks, found. Middle-fan facies are seen on
rip-up clasts, and displaced shallow- Santa Rosa, San Nicolas, and San
marine and nonmarine faunas. Miguel islands. Basin-plain and
Marine fossil assemblages indicate outer-fan facies were observed only
the strata (Ardath, Mount Soledad, from a core hole on Cortes Bank. The
and Scripps formations) were conglomerate is restricted to the
deposited at depths between 600 and inner-fan deposits of Santa Cruz
1,500 m (Gibson, 1971). The deep- Island and middle-fan channels and
marine beds grade abruptly to the lobes on Santa Rosa, San Nicolas and
north into shallow-marine beds of the San Miguel islands. Conglomerate
Delmar Formation and Torre¾ comprises about one percent of the
Sandstone. Channels in the Ardath and Eocene rocks in the borderland; most
Scripps formations have principally of the strata are medium- to coarse-
east-west axes. Northward and grained sandstone and interbedded
eastward shoaling indicates that the mudstone with an overall sandstone/
shelf facies are part of a major mudstone ratio of about 1:1. These
west- to southwest-trending canyon finer-grained strata are interpreted
system (Figure 4). Today, the head of as turbidite deposits on the basis of
Scripps Canyon is less than 100 m sedimentary structures and fauna.
from the surf zone; we suggest that Paleocurrent directions on the
similar conditions existed in the islands indicate a west-sloping
Eocene where coarse debris from fan depositional system that fanned out
deltas and tidal channels were toward the south and northwest. The
funneled westward through submarine petrographic uniformity, the sediment
channels. The Scripps Formations gravity flow character of the
represents submarine canyon fill and sandstone beds, and the systematic
inner fan deposits (Lohmar et al., paleocurrent directions indicate that
1979; Howell and Link, 1979; May, the Eocene strata of the southern
1982, 1985). California borderland formed as part
of a single submarine fan system.
Submarine Fan Facies. A large
Eocene deep-sea fan system is Eustatic Effects Upon Eocene
recognized northwest of San Diego in Sedimentation
the southern California borderland
(Figure 2). Eocene conglomerates The sedimentary section in San
bearing Poway rhyolite clasts Diego was described as containing a
comprise a uniquely recognizable and major, upper-lower to lower-upper
genetically related facies in San Eocene retrogradational
Diego and the northern Channel (transgressive) - progradational
Islands of the southern California (regressive) cycle by Kennedy and
borderland. Clast compositions (Kies Moore (1971). Later work by May
and Abbott, 1982, 1983; Abbott et (1982) and May et al. (1984)
al., 1984), trace-element identified an additional smaller
geochemistry (Abbott and Smith, scale retrogradational -
1978), paleocurrent patterns (Howell, progradational cycle in the middle
1974), sedimentary facies relations Eocene (Figure 7). These sea-level
(Howell and Link, 1979), and fossil changes expressed in the local rocks
data indicate that the facies are very closely match the fluctuations
coeval and may have once been part of in the global ocean specified by Vail
a single, integrated system. and Hardenbol (1979). The record of
Subsequent offset of as much as 200 the eustatic fluctuations is best
k• may have resulted from right-slip expressed in the marine strata
faulting in the eastern part of the exposed in the beach cliffs. A

T110:13
 GlobalOnlap
2 Chronostratigraphy, San Diego

Onlap Basinward

STADIUM CONGLOMERATE

i cP
15b
CP 15a

ARDATH • FRIARS
CP 14b
SHALE FM
__ R• SCRIPPS
44
FORMATION
• CP 14a

• ARDA •P•
_e CP13c
• cP 13b
CP 13a

CP 12b
llllllllll•
SHALE
• R_..__.-•.-

CP 12a
CP 11
HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIli
5O

"• cPlO
52

1FromOkada& Bukry,1980 • R-•- Retrogradation • Non-depositional

Hiatus
2From
Vail& Hardenbol,
1979 -• P Progradation •'• Erosional
Unconformity

FIGURE 7 Erosion and deposition in Eocene time in San Diego (from May,
1985). Local changes' in sea level correlate with worldwide changes as set
forth by Vail and Hardenbol (1979).

detailed discussion and paleogeologic 50 years ago. Although the artist did
maps are included in the article on not know the geology of the region,
the Submarine-Canyon System by Jeff notice how strikingly apparent the
May in the San Diego Association of massive Eocene alluvial fan / fan
Geologists volume edited by P.L. delta appears. The fan has never been
Abbott and titled On the Manner of buried; it has just slowly degraded
Deposition of the Eocene Strata in over time.
Northern San Diego County (1985).
Stop 1: Pomerado Road. The view
Day 1 Field Trip Stops' Eocene Down- east from the crest of Pomerado Road
Dip Transect (Figure 5) displays the dense, even-
textured chapparal vegetation that
Two days will be spent viewing the thrives on the Eocene conglomerates.
Eocene rocks in the greater San Diego The distribution of the vegetation
area. The first day will follow an helps demark the limits of the Eocene
east-to-west transect down the dip of fan. The cross strata in the roadcut
the non-marine depositional systems. display easterly oriented dips which
The second day will be devoted to a have fooled some geologists'into
north-to-south transect along the thinking the source was to the west.
beach cliffs that runs parallel to These east-directed dips are
the strike of some depositional statistically insignificant and are
systems and normal to others. understood as break-through deposits
Figure 8 is a line drawing of the that have flowed out-of-channel and
topography of San Diego drawn almost back toward the source.

T1 10- 14
 DIEGO
M•SA.

FIGURE 8 Physiographic block diagram of the San Diego area as drawn by

E.H. Quayle (from Hertlein and Grant, 1944) .

Stop 2' Eastern Poway. Roadcuts shown in the Fernbrook section

along Highway S4 east of Poway expose (Figure 9).
the conglomerates of the Upper
Cretaceous Lusardi Formation. From Stop 4: Nelson & Sloan Quarry.
Turonian into Campanian time the Eocene deposits in the apex of the
magmatic arc to the east was eroded Poway alluvial fan are well exposed
and much of the detritus was left as in the actively worked faces of the
the colluvial and alluvial deposits Nelson & Sloan quarry. These are some
of the Lusardi Formation. The clast of the deposits formed where the
types of the Cretaceous conglomerates Eocene Ballena river spread out
were all locally derived and testify laterally after leaving its walled
to the unroofing of the Peninsular valley in the batholithic rocks and
Ranges batholith. Some of the debouched upon the San Diego coastal
Cretaceous fluvial channels were re- plain. Notice the extremely large
occupied by the lengthy Eocene sizes of the biggest granitic clasts
fluvial system with its load of and the extremely poorly sorted
exotic clasts eroded from well to the texture in the stratigraphic column
east of the Peninsular Ranges. for the Nelson & Sloan quarry (Figure

Stop 3: Fernbrook. Driving south

on Mussey Grade Road (Figure 5) to Stop 5: Mission Valley. Fluvial
Kimball Valley Road in Fernbrook, the conglomerate facies of the distal
Eocene Ballena river valley is seen alluvial fan environment are well
to be cut into Upper Cretaceous exposed in quarry cuts along Friars
fluvial deposits and Cretaceous Road. Notice the braided stream, bar
granitic basement. The paleovalley is complexes, and paleosols. Figure 11
filled with erosional remnants of is a stratigraphic section from near
Eocene fluvial conglomerate up to 110 the intersection of Mission Center
m thick. A generalized stratigraphic and Friars roads.
column with sedimentologic data is

T1 10' 15
 FERNBROOK SECTION -- BALLENA GRAVELS
IN FILL OF EOCENE RIVER VALLEY

FIELD TRIP STOP along Mussey Grade, 9tarring at Kimball Valley

Rd.

60 m NOT EXPOSED

LONG AXIS (L) ORIENTATIONS:

East side
generally aligned perpendicular
of Mussey to paleo-flow which was toward
Grade the west

50
IMBRICATION: dip up-current
toward the northeast

long
axis
(L) measurements

40 CONGLOMERATESIZE: average
5 to 6 cm., maximum size of
Poway rhyolite clasts = 41 cm.
and granitic clasts = 44 cm.

ide
50
•• •fussey
Grade
long axis (L) measurements

SANDSTONE INTERBEDS: rare, 0.5 - 1 m.

thick, medium-grained lithic arkose
20
CONGLOMERATE: well rounded, clast-
supported, locally imbricated, with
medium-grained lithic arkose sandstone
matrix; clast types: metavolcanic
Poway rhyolitic = 81%, quartzite = 7%,
granitics = 12%
10
LOWER EROSIONAL SURFACE: down-cut
across Eocene Friars and Cretaceous
Lusardi formations and granitic basement
FRIARS FORMATION: olive-green mudstone
and muddy sandstone

0 LUSARDI FORMATION: white, angular

.- I granitic boulder conglomerate-breccia
-

- / \ I GRANITIC BASEMENT: Cretaceous

• I \ ! \
Peninsular Ranges batholith
/

FIGURE9 Columnarsection of the EoceneBallena Gravels at Fernbrook.

T110- 16
 NELSON & SLOAN QUARRY -- POWAY CONGLOMERATE
ALLUVIAL FAN APEX FACIES

FIELD TRIP STOP. East side of Highway 67 (originally Triways

Material Co. Quarry)

NOT EXPOSED LONG AXIS (L) ORIENTATIONS:

60 m random to perpendicular to
N
paleoflow (toward the west)

CONGLOMERATE: well rounded to

angular, clast supported, chaotic
50 and unstratified deposit; clast
types - Poway rhydites o 90%,
•/••axis quartzite ø 4%, granitics • 6%
•/ (L)
measurements

40
long axis (L)
measurements

IMBRICATION: random to
dipping toward the northeast
(upcurrent)
50

LARGE GRANITIC CLASTS: up to 7m

in length, subrounded to angular, locally
derived from batholithic basement

20 • SANDSTONE INTERBEDS: rare, 0.5 - lm

thick, up to 7 m in length, clayey, medium-
grained, lithic arkose; structureless
POWAY CLAST SIZES: up to 81 cm.
average 5 to 6 cm, well rounded

10 Along LOWER •OSIONAL CONTACT:

•Hwy. down-cut contact across the
• 67 Friars Formation and granitic
•--• basement
/
%axis (n)
0
/•--••measurements
FRIARS FOR•TION: olive gray mudstone and
muddy sandstone (seen along Hwy. 67 north
! ! of the Nelson and Sloan Quarry)
GRANITIC BASEMENT: Cretaceous
Peninsular Ranges batholith

FIGURE 10 Columnar section of the Eocene Poway Conglomerate just

southwest of San Vicente Reservoir.

T1 10- 17
 MISSION CENTER ROAD -- STADIUM CONGLOMERATE
DISTAL ALLUVIAL FAN FACIES

FIELD TRIP STOP. In quarry, northeast of intersection of Mission

Center & Friars Roads

60m
TERRACE
LONG AXIS (L) ORIENTATIONS:
N aligned perpendicular, parallel,
t and/or random to paleoflow
(flow dominantly toward the Southwest)

50
IMBRICATION: random to dipping
upcurrent (toward the northeast)

SANDSTONE: interbeds average

0.95 m thick and 12.4 m long and
are cross bedded with flat and
40 concave lower bedding surfaces

CONGLOMERATE: interbedded
with sandstone, clast-supported,
channel
orientations channel and bar deposits; clast
types -- Poway 0 93%,
30 quartzite 0 5%, granitics 0 2%
long axis (L)
measurements
FOSSILS: both marine
and nonmarine

20
MUDSTONE: interbedded with
caliche crust and nodules and
muddy sandstone; blue-gray,
lenticular form

10
CALICHE: crusts, nodules
and cemented conglomerate,
horizons of paleosols are
of common

o
CHANNEL AXES: east-west
NOT EXPOSED orientations

FIGURE 11 Columnar section of the Eocene Stadium Conglomerate along

Mission Center Road.

T110: 18
 Stop 6' Ulric Road. Roadcuts up time, an Eocene shoreline left its
Ulric Road expose many bi-directional imprint on these reworked sediments.
shoreline features. For a limited A composite stratigraphic section is
presented in Figure 12.

ULRIC ROAD SECTION -- STADIUM CONGLOMERATE PARALIC FACIES

FIELD TRIP STOP. Composite section of east and west sides of

road.

60 m NOT EXPOSED

MISSION VALLEY FORMATION: Inter-

bedded mudstone, sandstone and coquina
11usks

LONG AXIS (L)

50 ORI ENTATI ONS:
load features generally random
o
---- mollusks
IMBRI CAT I ON:
generally random
burrows

--- peat CONGLOMERATE: thick bedded with

sandstone interbeds; clast supported;
clast types - Poway rhyolite = 96%,
quartzite = 2%, granitics = 2%

channel
orientations

• o
•••ea •side
of
st
bedded,
granined;
rip-up
SANDSTONE:
coarse-
locally
clast
cross-
to
burrowed;
and pebbly
medium-

oad intervals

long axis (L)

measurements

10 FRIARS FORMATION: light-colored sand-

stone and mudstone, with caliche paleosols
and marine and nonmarin• fossils

NOT EXPOSED

FIGURE 12 Columnar section of the Eocene Stadium Conglomerate along

Ulric Road.

T110' 19
Day 2 Field Trip Stops: Eocene Strike Santa Rosa Island offshore from Santa
Transect Barbara, are the only surviving
populations. The beach cliffs have
Beach cliffs up to 100 m high the greenish mudstones of the
extend seven kilometers from Torrey lagoonal Delmar Formation which
Pines State Beach in the north to alternate and grade upward into the
Scipps Institute of Oceanography in orangish, liesegang-banded sandstones
the south. The detailed sedimentology of the Torrey Formation above. The
of these beautifully exposed Eocene lower part of the section is
marine rocks have been addressed by dominated by brackish-water oysters
Lohmar et al. (1979), Clifton (1979), and snails, woody fragments, and
May (1982, 1985), and May et al. other indicators of an inner lagoon
(1984). Good field trip guides to environment with limited tidal
these strata have been published by exchange of marine water (Clifton,
Lohmar et al. (1979) and May (1985). 1979). Transgression is suggested by
There are not field trip stops per the upward coarsening sediment
se, but rather a continuous exposure profile. In the middle portion of the
to feast one's eyes upon. The figure cliffs, there are more sandstone
that best summarizes the geology of deposits with many features that tell
the cliffs was done in May's Ph.D. of tidal deposition; sigmoidal and
dissertation (1982); a slightly herringbone cross stratification,
modified version is presented here in channels lined with shell lags,
Figure 13. rhythmically spaced reactivation
surfaces, mica lags on foresets, and
Field Trip Segment 1. Begin with still-stand units. The bidirectional
a 1.5 km walk along the beach cliffs cross bedding suggests north-
beginning at the northern end of the northwest channel orientations
Torrey Pines State Reserve. This subparallel to the coast. The upper
Reserve was established to protect part of the cliffs are almost totally
the unusual Torrey Pine tree, a constituted of cross-bedded sandstone
relict floral member of the plant units.
community extant during the last
glacial maximum. The few trees here, Stop 2: Bathtub Rock. Bathtub
plus an even smaller population on Rock is a resistant slab of Delmar

ß ß ß ß I sochron

North South

7.5 KM

PLEISTOCENE TERRACE INNER FAN

lOOm

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'6 i i / ,,• i
Level = • o q' u• Present
0 0 0 % 8eoch
._
c .,,, '- c Level o• ,.
0 ..tg 0 0
c: o c c u n
o -- o o

FIGURE 13 Beach-cliff transect through Eocene marine strata from

Torrey Pines State Park to Scripps pier (after May, 1982).
T110' 20
Formation that juts into the sea. level rise and that the canyon became
The "bathtub" is an ocean-flooded cut off from its supply of coarse
shaft originally sunk in the hope of sediment at the shoreline.
locating the coal necessary to cause
the intercontinental railroad to be Stop 4- Torrey Pines Landslide.
located here in San Diego rather than Walk another 0.4 km to the massive
in Los Angeles. Notice the marked landslide and then study the cliff
erosion surface in the Delmar face high above. Cross-cutting
Formation that has been utilized as a channels of 600 m width and 75 m
foot trail. This erosional relief thick sedimentary fills are well
tells of fluctuations of sea level exposed. Most of the channels are
that affected the Eocene lagoon. filled with fine sediments even
Above this erosion surface sits a though the channels must have been
pronounced clay-pebble conglomerate scoured by earlier strong currents.
that is topographically higher to the The channel floors would make good
north. The southerly sloping basal seismic reflectors. The draping of
surface is the floor of a submarine sediments along channel walls shows
tributary canyon. Follow the narrow the results of post-depositional
trail northward into a small compaction. Channels remain abundant
topographic bowl set back slightly in the cliff face during the next 1.4
from the beach cliff. Here some km stroll to Indian Trail Canyon.
Fascinating features can be seen.
The shallow water Delmar/Torrey beds Stop 5- Indian Trail Canyon. At
were cut into overhanging cliffs by 3.6 km down the beach a modern canyon
the stoping action of a headward- and is reached that exposes the oldest
lateral-growing submarine canyon. rocks of the cliffs at its mouth. An
Notice the mudstone-clast, and some apparent paralic conglomerate of the
igneous-clast, conglomerates, planar Mt. Soledad Formation has been
and convolute laminae, flame heavily weathered in the C horizon of
structures, and large rafted an early Eocene tropical climate.
synsedimentary blocks. Notice that the ultra-resistant Poway
rhyolite clasts have decomposed in
Field Trip Segment 3. Return to place to quartz phenocrysts sitting
the beach and walk 0.3 km to canyon 1 in soft sediment. Capping the
of Figure 13. During this segment conglomerate is a 1/2 m thick remnant
many good views are had of the floor of the A horizon composed of 2/3
of the submarine tributary canyon kaolinite with 1/3 corroded residual
which descends rapidly and reaches quartz grains. The exposure of these
beach level. The basal erosion gravels to weathering apparently took
surface has numerous irregularities place following the sea-level drop
of scours and undercuts, downward that occurred late in early Eocene
injections, rip-up and undercut time. Up canyon the overlying beds
blocks, and spasmodically distributed are shallow water deposits of
conglomerates of clay and/or Delmar/Torrey affinity which have
crystalline rock clasts. At canyon 1, been ripped up and undercut by sandy
the submarine canyon is seen to be sediment gravity flows that scoured
filled by a fining-upward sequence of the base of another submarine
sediments. Lowermost are poorly channel.
sorted, amalgamated, gravelly, coarse
sandstone beds with faintly distinct Field Trip Segment 6. In the
sedimentation units ("massive"). cliffs below the hang-glider port,
Floating in the sandstone at various especially from 4.1 to 4.5 km, more
levels are megaclasts of mudstone mud-filled channels are exposed. At
that were undercut and carried down the top of the cliff are cemented,
canyon by the sediment-gravity flows. laminated and cross-laminated to
Overlying the coarse sandstone bioturbated beds containing whole and
package is an interval of laminated broken molluscs and worm tubes
sandstone which is capped by a interpreted as shelf deposits that
mudstone package. The fining-upward capped the submarine canyon fill.
sequence suggests that the growth of Blocks from these beds have fallen to
the canyon did not keep pace with the the beach where they may be seen.
early middle Eocene eustatic sea-

T110:21
 Stop 7: Canyon 4. Figure 13 shows Stop 8: Black's Canyon. At 5.8
the location of canyon 4 at 5.1 km km, Black's Canyon Road comes down to
down beach. A classic fining-upward the beach. At the base of the cliff
channel-fill sequence is exposed on are exposed planar laminae with flame
both sides of this site (Figure 14). structures and rip-up clasts. On the
The channel is 1200 m wide and the north side of the canyon, a large
infill is 75 m thick beginning with olistostrome crops out higher on the
amalgamated clay- and igneous-clast cliff face.
conglomerate, then coarse sandstone
with faint surfaces, then interbedded Field Trip Segment 9. From 5.8 to
sandstone and mudstone, and finally a 6.9 km, amalgamated channelized
mudstone plug. At the southern side, sandstones and conglomerates of
large convolutions in the sandstone fluidized sediment flow origin occur
are evident suggesting rapid with pebbly mudstones deposited by
deposition and instability in the debris flows. Conglomerates are
channel. mostly disorganized to poorly

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FIGURE 14 Fining-upward fill in prominent channel exposed on both

sides of canyon #4.

T110' 22
imbricated although stratification throughout this region. The area
and normal grading does occur. appears to have been a relatively
Imbrication is of long axes dipping stable, eastern edge of a forearc
back toward their eastern source basin (Nilsen and Abbott, 1981).
(Howell and Link, 1979). This facies Post-depositional displacements have
is interpreted to be that of a placed these rocks in the western
proximal submarine fan. The modern Transverse Ranges, northern Channel
canyons that come down to the beach Islands, Simi Hills, and along the
are the heads of modern submarine western side of the Peninsular Ranges
tributary canyons which siphon off for 600 km from the Santa Ana
the drifting beach sand into the Mountains on south into Baja
deep-marine environment. California (Figure 1). Upper
Cretaceous strata were deposited,
Stop 10- Marine Wildlife Refuge. from east to west, in environments
At 6.9 km exist some spectacularly ranging from alluvial fan and fluvial
contorted mudstone beds sitting on to paralic, shelf, slope, and
top of sandstones containing planar submarine fan (Bottjer and Link,
laminations, load structures, and (1984). In Late Cretaceous time,
climbing ripples. The overlying subduction tectonics had created a
conglomeratic interval has a basal high magmatic arc along the
contact that is bedding parallel for Californias. Numerous short-length
considerable distances then is streams eroded into these mountains
stepped down with undercut and and carried away a coarse sediment
injection features. load that was dumped on and across a
narrow coastal plain. The Upper
Cretaceous sediments reflect local
CRETACEOUS DEPOSITIONAL SYSTEMS IN provenances and the various
SAN DIEGO depositional systems do not cover
very large areas. There is a
The sea cliffs of San Diego that similarity of depositional
lie west of the Quaternary Rose environments at any given time
Canyon fault zone offer beautiful interval during the Late Cretaceous,
exposures of an Upper Cretaceous but the lithologies of the sediments
submarine fan. The Rose Canyon fault reflect the local variations in
comes ashore at La Jolla Bay then source rock composition.
roughly parallels Interstate Highway
5 to the south (Figure 5). To the Cretaceous Section in San Diego
east of the fault the Cretaceous
section lies buried beneath the The Upper Cretaceous sedimentary
Eocene fan delta complex visited rocks in the San Diego area consist
during days 1 & 2. But west of the of the Turonian-Campanian? nonmarine
fault, in uplifted and gently rocks of the Lusardi Formation, which
deformed strata, a wide range of crop out mostly east of the Rose
Campanian-Maastrichtian submarine fan Canyon fault, and the marine strata
facies are seen albeit in a limited of the Campanian to Maastrichtian
area with two-dimensional exposures Point Loma and Cabrillo formations
the most common. The primary which are exposed west of the fault
guidebook for this days journey will zone. The Lusardi Formation was
be the 1984 Pacific Section SEPM viewed early on day 1. Day 3 will be
volume and guidebook edited by P.L. devoted to the marine rocks in the
Abbott and entitled Upper Cretaceous beach cliffs.
Depositional Systems, Southern The Point Loma Formation contains
California - Northern Baja five facies associations in ascending
California. stratigraphic order: 1) nearshore
marine sandstone, 2) slope and basin
Late Cretaceous Pal eogeography plain(?) mudstone, 3) outer-fan lobe
sandstone, 4) middle-fan interchannel
There are marked similarities in and channel-margin thin-bedded
the Turonian through Maastrichtian turbidites and mudstone, and
strata in southern- and Baja- 5) middle-fan channel-fill sandstone.
California localities that result The overlying Cabrillo Formation has
from a similar geologic history a sixth facies association: 6) inner-

T110:23
fan channel-fill conglomerate and retrogradational event in an
sandstone as well as a recurrence of otherwise uneventful progradation
the middle-fan channel-fill sandstone again raises the question of the
at the top of the Formation. The roles of eustasy versus tectonics.
composite stratigraphic column of Interestingly, the automobile-sized
Figure 15 depicts the vertical monolithologic blocks of andesite are
arrangement of these facies. In much larger than the largest clasts
general, the marine section begins found in the polylithologic clast
against the Rose Canyon fault zone at suite of the more proximal inner-fan
the northern end of La Jolla Bay with valley facies. The extra large clast
sandstone beds deposited in marine size and the monolithologic nature of
water shallow enough to wade through. the clasts suggests renewed faulting
Quite abruptly, the strata record a cut across the submarine fan causing
marked deepening to bathyal depth retrogradation and calving of bedrock
water (Sliter, 1968). The relative blocks of andesite directly onto the
roles of eustasy and tectonics in middle-fan channel environment.
this deepening event are resolved by The submarine fan is dominated by
coeval strata that crop out 30 km coarse sediment and middle fan with
north of La Jolla Bay near Carlsbad. some inner fan facies. The abundance
These Point Loma Formation mudstones of proximal facies is apparently due
contain foraminifera (Sliter, 1968; to the coarse nature of the sediment
Liska, 1964) and ostracodes (Holden, produced in the source area. At one
1964) that lived in a shallow, time we thought the finer-grained
restricted marine environment. distal fan facies probably existed on
Sedimentologically these micro- the Channel Islands or had been
fossiliferous beds appear to be shelf tectonically translated to points
mudstones with a few storm-surge further north. However after
deposits brought out into the examining the Upper Cretaceous
normally peaceful environment. The submarine fan strata on San Miguel
Carlsbad beds stay at shelf water Island they were found to be
depths during the middle Campanian to dominantly middle-fan facies also.
early Maastrichtian time that the There is an increased percentage of
bottom literally dropped out beneath muddy sediment but it was deposited
the shallow water strata at La Jolla as middle fan-fringe units rather
Bay (Figure 16). It appears that a than as outer fan beds. This suggests
Late Cretaceous fault operating that there may have been some fault
contemporaneously with deposition control to the other side of the
dropped the basin floor from waist- basin as well. If there was then
deep water to bathyal depths on its sediment-gravity flows entering this
western block (Bartling et al., realm would have been forced to
1981). Following creation of a conform to a narrow basin with one
faulted basin, a classic submarine result being a reduction in outer-fan
fan prograded westward into the deep facies and a concomitant increase in
water (Nilsen and Abbott, 1981). middle-fan fringe deposition.
Moving southward down the coastline Although the same Eocene Poway
outcrop from La Jolla Bay to rhyolite clast-bearing submarine fan
Tourmaline Beach, deep-water buries the Upper Cretaceous submarine
mudstones are followed in turn by fan deposits in both San Diego and on
outer-fan lobes, middle-fan channel- San Miguel Island the Cretaceous
sandstone beds in thinning upward sediments are measurably different.
packages, and inner-fan valley Each fan contains brittle, black
conglomerate with blocks of undercut rhyodacite clasts but the San Diego
natural levee material. fan contains less-than half (25%) the
At the topmost portion of the number of the San Miguel Island fan
section at the southern end of Point (52%, Bartling and Abbott, 1983).
Loma, the inner-fan valley This is further testimony to the
conglomerate facies is overlain by faulting penecontemporaneous with
middle-fan channel-fill sandstones sedimentation. Two separate, but
containing mega-blocks of andesitic nearby, Upper Cretaceous submarine
breccia from the Santiago Peak fans suffered enough dismemberment
Volcanics basement rock of the and translation that they were buried
vicinity. This marked by the same Eocene submarine fan, and

T110:24
 . \ Transgressiveshallow- marine
EOCENE oo ooo • \ conglomerate
ß ß . ß o ß o , , o ß . o

ß
ß
ß
ß
ß
ß
ß
,
o
.
.
o
ß
ß
•
ß
o
ß
.
ß
••• O0
Middle-fan
sandstone-
,.••. , filledchannels

Inner-fan conglomerate-
filled channels

ß ß ß ß ß o , ß
ß ß ß . , , , ß

Middle-fan sandstone-
filled channels

<•

Outer-fan sandstone lobes

Slope and basin-plain mudstone

and thin-bedded turbidites

Shoreface sandstone

Fluvial and alluvial

fan deposits

Batholith and pre-batholithic

metamorphic rocks

FIGURE 15 Composite columnar section of the Cretaceous strata in the

San Diego area (from Nilsen and Abbott, 1984) .

T110' 25
 CRETACEOUS
• SHORELINE N
- MODERN SHORELINE

.... Carlsb
• ,

livenhain
HINGE LINE ',< .-• -- ß
OF FAULT SYSTEM .-

ß Poway
SLOPE •' .
•,.,

•-LJ
."''• La.'.•o' o 14 28km
!
,

*• •
San Diego

cAL.
tFORNt
A
•-'' MEXICO
FIGURE 16 Paleogeographic reconstruction of the Late Campanian paralic
zone in the San Diego area. A fault-created slope separated the shelf
environment near Carlsbad from the submarine-fan sedimentation in the
Point Loma - La Jolla area (from Bartling et al., 1981).

then separated again in the current very much dependent upon the tides.
wrench-faulting regime. It is desirable to have very low
tides for visits to the La Jolla Bay,
Day 3 Field Trip Stops: Cretaceous Tourmaline Beach, and Ladera Street
Submarine Fan outcrops; tides should be low for the
La Jolla Cove and Sunset Cliffs
The ability to view the Cretaceous localities; and the Sewage Treatment
strata in the San Diego sea cliffs is Plant and Cabrillo Road s•ops are not

Tl10- 26
affected by the tidal level. Wisdom microfossil fauna described by Sliter
and efficiency both suggest planning (1968). The upper part of the unit
the day's field itinerary with a tide holds an increase in thin, silty and
chart in hand. The Cretaceous sandy turbidites with partial Bouma
submarine fan outcrops are described sequences that herald the arrival of
in some detail in guidebook papers by the sandstone beds in the overlying
Nilsen and Abbott (1979, reprinted in unit. The mudstone unit appears to
1984) and in an AAPG paper by Nilsen have been deposited on a slope and
and Abbott (1981). possibly on an adjacent basin plain
as well. The sediments were largely
Stop 1: La Jolla Bay. The oldest settled from suspension interrupted
marine Cretaceous beds are exposed on by lesser incursions of thin
the northeastern side of La Jolla Bay turbidites.
(see Figure 9 on p. 13 of Nilsen and Above the mudstone unit is an
Abbott, 1984). This section sits approximately 40 m thick facies
within the Rose Canyon fault zone and association of thickening- and
is cut by several faults of unknown coarsening-upward megasequences
displacement. Walking south from the ranging from 4 to 15 m thick. The
La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club the beds have good lateral continuity,
beach cliffs are comprised of a 50 m variable but higher sandstone to
thickness of locally pebbly, medium- mudstone ratios, abundant laminae of
to very coarse-grained lithic arkose. carbonaceous material, mica, and
These sandstone strata contain sandstones with facies C and D
shallow-marine molluscs including characteristics. This facies was
rudistids, cross beds, extensive probably deposited as outer-fan
burrowing, and abundant mica and lobes. The outcrop is abbreviated due
carbonaceous detritus. Trace fossils to truncation by the Country Club
include Ophiomorpha and traces of the strand of the Rose Canyon fault
Cruziana ichnofacies suggesting system but the overall development of
deposition above wave base. Cross the facies appears to have been very
strata are trough-lens, planar- thin nonetheless.
tabular, and herringbone;
reactivation surfaces are common. The Stop 2: La Jolla Cove. The La
uppermost bed in this facies presents Jolla Cove area is a good site to see
a marked contrast to the underlying well defined, repetitive thinning-
beds; it is a sediment gravity-flow and fining-upward megasequences that
deposit that is packed with abundant are typically 5 to 15 m thick and
fossils and fossil fragments of collectively comprise the majority of
rudistids, brachiopods, ammonites, the outcrop. A columnar section for
gastropods, oysters and pelecypods. this facies association is given in
This sedimentation unit is Nilsen and Abbott (1984, Figure 13,
transitional between the shallow- p. 18). The sandstone sedimentation
marine sandstones below it and the units are broad and planar based. The
bathyal mudstones above it. thicker sandstones may be over 3 m
The overlying unit is dominated by thick and are of facies B, have
a 150 m thick interval of gray minimal grading, and contain abundant
mudstone with subordinate graded dewatering features such as basal
siltstone beds. The sandstone- shear laminae deformed upward to
siltstone to mudstone ratio is very profuse dish structures and some
low, from 1:10 to 100. The lower 25 fluid escape pipes near the top of
m of section contains about 10 sedimentation units all of which
thinning- and fining-upward sequences suggest deposition from fluidized
of flat-based, fine sandstone. They sediment flows. At the base of some
probably represent filling of a flat beds are load casts and flaps of
submarine gully on a slope. The deformed underlying beds. The upper
middle portions of the unit contain part of a megasequence has thinner
intervals of irregular layering that beds characteristic of facies D and
appear to have been caused by E. These finer-grained beds have
synsedimentary slumping. The parallel and convolute laminae,
mudstones are rich in carbonaceous ripples, groove casts, and some thin
material and mica, and contain turbidites. The facies was formed as
Baculites, large ammonites, and a channel-fill sequences in the middle

T110:27
portion of a submarine fan. These interbeds that at first glance
beds may be viewed along the coast appear to be regular and continuous.
from the Country Club fault on the However, close inspection at both
north to south of Bird Rock in the La larger and smaller scales shows
Jolla region. This facies is seen abundant pinch- out and thickness
again on Point Loma at Sunset Cliffs changes. Thin interbeds are usually
and on the east side of Cabrillo of facies D with some facies C and,
National Monument. closer to channel margins, facies E
beds. Sole marks, scour and fill,
Stop 3- Tourmaline Beach. The convolute laminae and deformed
gravel-dominated facies association ripples are characteristic of the
of the inner-fan channel environment interbeds. Climbing and starved
crops out in both the southern La ripples are commonin channel margin
Jolla and southern Point Loma areas. deposits as are dune-shaped, cross-
The best view is in the cliffs from stratified facies E beds. Near the
south of Bird Rock to the northern base of the Ladera Street cliff is a
end of the Tourmaline Beach area. A spectacular crevasse-splay deposit
columnar section and guide to this that has carried in small boulders of
stop is given on pages 76-79 in the basement rock and shallow-water
1984 Pacific Section SEPM guidebook fossils, ripped up and transported
on Upper Cretaceous Depositional sedimentary blocks, and injected the
Systems. The facies association weak interchannel settle-out
consists of thick, amalgamated beds sediments in a complex 3-dimensional
of pebble to boulder conglomerate pattern.
with some interbedded and sandstone, The trace-fossil assemblage has
lesser amounts of fine-grained been investigated by Kern and Warme
turbidites deposited on the margins (1974). They reported the ichnogenera
of subchannels within the inner-fan Ophiomorpha, Thalassinoides,
valley. The conglomerates are Chondrites, Zoophycos, Scolicia,
polymictic in composition and reflect Belorhaphe, Nereites, Spirophycus,
the unroofing of the Peninsular and three unidentified forms (Figure
Ranges batholith and erosion of the 17). This mixing of some forms widely
andesitic arc accreted on the western held to be of shallow-water origin in
side of the ranges. Most of the strata of bathyal depth as indicated
conglomerate sedimentation units are by foraminifera has caused some
disorganized but some are normally significant re-thinking about the
graded and some are inverse-to- range of some ichnogenera.
normally graded. Long-axis clast
imbrications are common and define a Stop 5: Sewage Treatment Plant.
southwesterly paleoflow direction. A good section of Cretaceous strata
Zones of rip-up conglomerate are is exposed in southwestern Point Loma
common with abundant clasts of in the sea cliffs below the City
penecontemporaneous sediments. sewage plant and in the cut slope
behind it (measured section and
Stop 4: Ladera Street. Cement stratigraphic column in 1984 SEPM
steps down the beach cliffs at the guidebook, pages 52-53). Beds in the
foot of Ladera Street in Ocean Beach sea cliff are 25 m thick and
afford an excellent view of sequences represent mid-fan fringe facies.
of thin-bedded turbidites that formed Thinning- and fining-upward
as channel margin and interchannel megasequences are seen with lateral
deposits. A columnar section and thinning of beds which suggest a
guide is printed on pages 62-63 in channel-margin environment. The next
the 1984 Pacific Section SEPMvolume. 45 m of section are burie• beneath
Within the middle-fan facies Pleistocene terrace materials. In the
association they are found as the cut slope behind the plant are
uppermost layers in channel-fill exposed 32 m of finer interchannel
sequences, as natural levee deposits, beds consisting dominantly of
and as fine-grain dominated mudstone with thin interbeds of
interchannel strata interrupted by sandstone/siltstone implying a
crevasse-splay interbeds. greater lateral distance from an
The interchannel facies consists active mid-fan channel. The next 12 m
of bioturbated mudstone with sandy are another thinning- and fining-
T110:28
 FIGURE 17 Trace fossils from the Cretaceous Point Loma
Formation (from Kern and Warme, 1974). (a) Ophiomorpha,
(b) Thalassinoides, (c) flat Zoophycos on mudstone,
(d) Chondrites, (e) base of Scolicia atop sandstone bed,
(f) upper part of Scolicia, (g) Belorhaphe, (h) Nereites,
(i) Spirophycos, (j,k,1) unidentified burrows.

upward sequence of facies C and D but in detail is comprised of about a

sandstone. Abruptly above the finer dozen thinning-and fining-upward
sediments are 51 m of channelized channelized cycles. Each channel fill
conglomerate with minor amounts of begins with basal conglomerate that
sandstone. Exposed here are passes upward into pebbly sandstone
channelized units of facies A and then sandstone. Channel cycles
conglomerate with basement clasts up range from 1 to 30 m thickness.
to 50 cm diameter and Conglomerate fabrics range from
penecontemporaneous sediment clasts normally graded to inversely graded
in excess of 100 Cmo The conglomerate to disorganized. Channel axes are
was deposited in an inner-fan valley oriented east-west and imbrication
whose northern wall be mapped, albeit suggests flow was to the west. At the
with some difficulty. The abrupt top of the section, and exposed very
lateral change in lithology at the nicely in a roadcut just south of the
valley wall has been mapped by others top of Cabrillo Road, are megaclasts
as a fault. of fresh andesitic breccia from the
Santiago Peak Volcanics. Their large
Stop 6. Upper Cabrillo Road. The size, monolithology, and presence in
cuts along this stretch of road on a retrogradational sandstone facies
southern Point Loma expose sandy and atop the inner-fan conglomerate is
gravelly sediment fill within the interpreted as being due to subsea
same inner-fan valley viewed at stop faulting that created fault scarps
5. A description of this section is which dropped megablocks of bedrock
on pages 54-55 of the 1984 SEPM directly into the sandy fan
guidebook. The 75 m thick section environment rather than being flushed
shows an overall fining-upward trend through the whole sedimentary system.

T110:29
MIOCENE - PLIOCENE DEPOSITIONAL diagram is shown in Figure 18; the
SYSTEMS AT DANA COVE road indicated along the base of the
cliffs is our first field transect on
To the north of San Diego lies Day 4. We will begin at Dana Point
Orange County which garnered its name which lies at the western end of Dana
from the citrus fruit yielded in Cove and exposes conglomerates of the
abundance before smog crippled the middle Miocene San Onofre Breccia. As
trees and houses were built over the we walk toward the east, the breccia
orchard lands. Dana Point and Cove units are faulted against the fining-
draw their names from the 19th upward sediments in the submarine
century adventurer-novelist Richard channels of the upper Miocene/lower
Henry Dana, Jr., author of "Two Years Pliocene Capistrano Formation (Figure
Before the Mast." In this widely read 18).
book, Dana described how, in the At Dana Point, the San Onofre
1830's, cow hides bought by Boston Breccia is composed of beds of muddy
merchants from the fathers at Mission boulder breccia with both matrix- and
San Juan Capistrano were pitched over clast-supported fabric (Stuart,
the cliffs to small boats waiting in 1979). Clast lithologies include
the cove. His vivid descriptions led blueschist, greenschist, amphibolite,
to the point and cove both being gabbro, quartz vein and others
named for him. derived from a meta-ophiolite suite
The Dana Cove area is reached by uplifted to the west during mid-
heading north from San Diego on Miocene deformation. Inverse-to-
Interstate Highway 5 to the northern normal grading is commonand many of
end of the city of San Clemente the textural features suggest debris-
(Figure 1), then turning onto Coast flow deposition on an alluvial fan
Highway north, and finally turning that prograded toward the north at
west (left) onto Dana Point Harbor this locality. Interbedded with the
Road. The cut slopes on the north breccia beds are some thin, calcite-
side of the road expose a beautiful cemented sandstones, some of which
sequence of Miocene - Pliocene contain marine fossils. Sandstone
submarine channel facies. A strata increase in abundance upwards
generalized west-east oriented facies in the stratigraphic section. The

tvw SF
Sandstone- Doheny
Conglomerate-filledchannel Ot (marine sandstone-
filled
terrace deposits)
Of filled
channel • ' \ channel
• • 0% '•":•
"'"':"'"
'"' ...........................
'"'•
................................
•:'•.•.•7-'"
..............
-"•

Son
(•nofre
• 'Capistrano
Formation
__ •
Breccio \•Foult
zone
'"Pillars'"
ofshale

NOT TO SCALE
,

FIGURE 18 Sketch of cliffs along Dana Cove showing the successive

migration of channels away from a faulted edge.

T110:30
provenance of the sandstones appears facies has been described as valley-
to have been dominantly from the floor deposits within an inner-fan
batholith-cored Peninsular Ranges setting (Normark, 1979). The next
that lie to the east. These grains large channel (#2) upsection is
are virtually absent in the muddy mostly filled with sandstone beds and
breccias of the San Onofre Formation, very large penecontemporaneous slide
suggesting two simultaneous source blocks of siltstone and fine-grained
terranes (Stuart, 1979). Apparently, sandstone. The slide blocks must have
coarse-grained alluvial fans and fan been channel-wall or levee deposits
deltas prograded from the north into that were undercut by channelized
a shallow-marine environment that flows on the valley floor below. Some
received Peninsular Ranges detritus sandstone beds appear to have been
from the east by rivers and/or channeled into the slide blocks.
longshore transport. This sediment The third major channel (#3) is
may have been directly derived from largely filled with siltstone and
the mountains and/or by forms the western margin of the
cannibilization from older Doheny channel. Some fine sandstone
sedimentary rocks and most was beds less than 50 cm thick, commonly
funneled down the N-S? trending axis having Bouma Tb-Td structures, are
of the basin. This basin was probably present. Normark (1979) pointed out
the southern, uplifted part of the two prominent terraces with widths 'of
hydrocarbon-rich Los Angeles basin. 20 and 35 m, and separated vertically
Climb up from the beach-cliff by 2 to 12 m, that are very similar
exposures at Dana Point to the paved to modern fan-valley walls. The
road and then proceed easterly for fourth channel (#4) is called Doheny
views of the deep-marine strata in after Doheny State Beach nearby.
the cut slopes (Bartow, 1966). After Normark and Piper (1969) mapped a
crossing the fault zone all the lower chaotic facies of thick, graded
sedimentary rocks are in the upper sandstone intervals up to 12 m thick
Miocene - lower Pliocene Capistrano with locally channelized bases and
Formation which youngs upward and to abundant mudstone rip-up clasts.
the east (Figure 18). The Neogene Their upper bedded facies contains
channels possibly migrated away from graded sandstone beds 50-200 cm thick
the fault edge of a half graben and that are interbedded to the east with
became progressively finer grained siltstone and fine sandstone of
and thinner bedded to the east. The inclined levee
deposits. The steep
depositional site was a narrow, western wall of
the Doheny channel
south-trending embayment through with its undercut portions is truly a
which sediment-gravity flows moved sight to behold. The size and shape
toward the south and southwest; the of the Doheny channel has been
setting was part of the inner-fan (?) suggested by Normark (1979) to be
channel facies association on the comparable to similar features on
southeast edge of the Los Angeles small modern fans, such as those
basin. During the time that this offshore from this area today; they
system was prograding into its basin, may have been over 100 m deep and
just to the north lay a silled basin greater than a kilometer wide.
where largely biogenic, diatom-rich,
laminated sediments were being
deposited in oxygen-deficient waters. MIOCENE - PLIOCENE DEPOSITIONAL
The lowest channel (#1) is largely SYSTEMS AT SAN CLEMENTE STATE BEACH
a channelized conglomerate filled
with breccia and sandstone in fining- Saint Clement was the third Pope
and thinning-upward cycles. and Bishop of Rome. His name was
Individual sedimentation units are up brought into this part of the world
to 10 m thick and are lenticular and by Sebastian Vizcaino who
laterally persistent for up to a "discovered an island near here in
kilometer. Although igneous and late November, 1602 and remembered
metamorphic gravels are common, the Saint Clement whose feast day is
most striking clasts are large November 23. Clement is credited with
tabular blocks of carbonate/chert discovering, through a "miracle" a
lithologies eroded from the nearby clear spring of water on a barren
Miocene Monterey Formation. The island. The San Clemente name has

T110:31
been brought onshore and affixed to a pre-channel sediments on a lower
number of features in southern suprafan that were prograded over and
California including the town and cut into by upper suprafan channels.
beach at our next stop (Figure 1). We The section is best viewed
will return to the Coast Highway and beginning with the southern exposures
head south into the town of San because they contain the oldest
Clemente, then turn west (right) on channels. Walker (1975a) described
Avenida Calafia to San Clemente Beach eight, nested channels numbered 1
State Park. (oldest) through 8 (Figure 19).
Our second field trip stop on Day Channel trends range from 230 to
4 will be a transect along the lower 300ø . Their gently dipping channel
part of the 30 m high sea cliffs walls are draped with mudstone in 7
along the railroad tracks. Figure 19 of the 8 channels. Sandstone beds
illustrates the superb cross-section deposited in the channels pinch out
exposures of nested submarine against the walls or slope up the
channels in an upper Miocene portion wall a little ways. Mudstone beds in
of the Capistrano Formation. For 550 the channels appear to merge with the
m to the south and 250 m to the north mudstone drapes and become part of
of the parking area, there are them higher up the walls. Some
channels cut into mudstone strata channel-fill sediments are
that contain a few thin, west- to thickening- and coarsening- upward;
southwest-directed, turbidite others are thinning- and fining-
sandstone beds. An almost 3- upward. Several of the channel
dimensional view of the facies is complexes have well preserved levees
obtained because of the stream on their southern flanks.
canyons cut perpendicular to the sea Northwest of the parking lot the
cliff. The rocks were interpreted as section is composed of amalgamated,
a braided suprafan or suprafan irregularly bedded, pebbly sandstone
depositional lobe by Walker (1975). beds that exhibit some grading,
Hess (1979) regarded the rocks as gravel imbrications, rip-up clasts,

4O

PARKING
LOT • .......... __• % • •_ ........ • •_ ....... TERRACE
• ....... WIDE
GULLY.'d:
•-':•:':'.
:'.:
'.. ½11•'•1 '
..,,....I,.,..
I IIII '"' f ..,.,,....,v,,,,. ..
40
o
........
METERS
• •o • • j FM.

40 • •w• -•4T• ITUNNEL

•LIFEGUARD

20

•lolorb
mill. ...........
............,-I....,.,-•--.r,,.... -.--,
.................

T TUNNEL

FIGURE 19 Nested submarine channels exposed in cliffs along the railroad

tracks at San Clemente State Beach (from Walker, 1975).

T110:32
and present in some of the laminated order to satisfy the U.S. Postal
sandstone beds are cross bedding and Service in 1884, a unique new name
flame structures. Hess (1979) was ordered to be selected. The name
reported that the margin of the chosen was that of the Danish castle
coarse channel-filling sandstones made famous by Shakespeare's Hamlet,
with the pre-channeling mudstones is viz. Elsinore.
exposed 0.5 km inland as stepped Our Day 4 journey continues with a
margins similar to those observed in return from San Clemente State Beach
the Doheny channel. The best channel to Interstate Highway 5 northbound
geometries are seen a little farther for about 8 km to San Juan
up the beach where sandstone masses Capistrano. Then head northeast
are completely encased in mudstone. (right) on California Highway 74
(Ortega Highway) for about 38 km
across the crest of the Santa Ana
LAKE ELSINORE PULL-APART BASIN Mountains until reaching a stone-
walled overlook about 1.5 km past the
From the beaches our journey will E1 Cariso Forest Station and around
next take us through San Juan the corner from paddle post 7.32.
Capistrano and up to the crest of the This third geologic stop on Day 4
Santa Ana Mountains in the northern will have us look down upon Lake
part of the Peninsular Ranges. From Elsinore and its fault-bounded
the mountain heights we will look rectangular basin which sits between
down upon Lake Elsinore which two major, right-stepping, active
occupies a modern pull-apart basin. faults of the Elsinore fault system
The mission at San Juan Capistrano (Figure 20). These active faults
is famous as "The Jewel of the were responsible for the 1812 jolt
Missions." It was formally founded by that rocked the region and for
Father Junipero Serra on 1 November numerous other shakes. The scarps
1776. It was named in honor of the along the Willard and Glen Ivy faults
fighting priest, Saint John are recognizable from the overlook;
Capistrano (1385-1456), who took a they have created a pull-apart basin
heroic part in the first defense of due to the right slip that steps
Vienna against the Turks. The mission between them. Figure 20 also shows
was a pretentious establishment with the north-trending faults between the
many work shops, loom rooms, tallow major strike-slip strands; northwest
vats, and so forth. It had the most of the lake is the Lucerne fault and
important and pretentious stone to the southeast is an unnamed fault,
church of the whole mission chain. In both of which are normal faults
1812 there were 1,361 Indian created to accommodate the pulling
neophytes under the "care" of the apart. Crowell and Sylvester (1979)
padres when a significant earthquake suggested about 6 km of right slip
affected the mission. The source of were necessary to create the
the shaking has just been determined alluviated basin. However, this is
last year to have been on a segment probably only some of the recent slip
of the Elsinore fault we will soon be as geologic work on offset Paleocene
viewing. Around Richard Henry Dana shorelines suggests as much as 40 km
Jr.'s time in the early 1800's, there of right slip. The kinematic
were over 31,000 cows, horses, mules, mechanisms for the Elsinore pull
sheep, goats, and pigs on the apart are probably very similar to
livestock rolls of the mission. those that created many of the
The mission at San Juan Capistrano is California Continental Borderland
famed in song and by yearly media basins during Neogene time, e.g. the
attention for the return of flocks of basin of deposition for the
swallows on March 19, St, Joseph's Capistrano Formation. The tectonic
day. After faithfully departing on basin viewed here is quite small but
October 23 for their travel to is nonetheless a good example of the
Argentina to enjoy the Southern wrench-fault created basins in the
Hemisphere summer, the swallows just southern- and Baja-California region.
as faithfully return to the Mission
each March 19.
The Lake Elsinore area has held
several names in its history. In

T110:33
 !

•AU[IS !
!
!

Knownlocation !

Approximate location
!
Concealed by alluvium ß
!
ß

LAKE

ELSINORE

ß t'•e•
ß vIEW
ß

/ STOP 0 I 2 Miles

SCALE

FIGURE 20 Sketch map of Lake Elsinore as viewed from the Highway 74

overlook. Note the scarps formed by the right-stepping faults and the
pull-apart basin that has been created.

T110' 34
TRIP TO RIDGE BASIN lowland as well as the 30 km wide by
80 km long remnant of a late Miocene
From Lake Elsinore head north to to Holocene sedimentary basin. It is
the town of Corona then join Highway one of the most prolific hydrocarbon-
91 westbound along the San%a Ana yielding basins in the world for its
River and through the gorge it has size. Its cumulative production of
cut between the Santa Ana Mountains nearly 8,000,000,000 barrels of oil
to the south (left) and the Chino and over 7,000,000,000 MCF of gas,
Hills to the north (right). Rejoin when measured as volume/acre/foot,
Interstate Highway 5 northbound exceeds that of the Persian Gulf. The
through the heart of the sprawling 62 Los Angeles basin oil fields are
city of Los Angeles, onward across structurally controlled along four
the San Fernando Valley, and up into major zones of wrench faults' Palos
the rugged terrain of the central Verdes, Newport-Inglewood, Whittier-
Transverse Ranges (Figure 1). Elsinore, and Malibu Coast-Santa
Los Angeles has grown to be one of Monica-Raymond Hill. The major
the major cities of the world. Its reservoir rocks accumulated
name began with the Gaspar de Portola accumulated as sediment-gravity flow
expedition which camped on the banks deposits in rift and wrench-fault
of a major river on 2 August 1769 and created basins during Miocene and
named it in honor of Nuestra Senora Pliocene time. These reservoir rocks
de los Angeles de Porciuncula whose were deposited within and above
feast day they had celebrated on the organic-rich, silled basin deposits
preceding day. The name was preserved of Miocene Monterey Formation source
by naming the Spanish pueblo rocks.
established on 27 December 1779 - 'la The road to the Ridge basin passes
ereccion de un pueblo con el titulo through the San Fernando Valley.
de Reina de los Angeles sobre el rio Along its eastern edge, where the
de la Porciuncula'. After the valley abuts the San Gabriel
American occupation, the future Mountains, a Richter magnitude 6.5
megalopolis was referred to as Ciudad earthquake occurred on 9 February
de los Angeles. The city now has the 1971. The focal depth was 8.4 km and
the second largest population in the 35 aftershocks above Richter
U.S. and the County of Los Angeles magnitude 4 were recorded. The event
has over 8,000,000 residents. The killed 64 people and caused 511
Los Angeles metropolis covers more million dollars of damage. And yet,
than 4,000 square miles blanketing a had the ground motion of this
major geographic basin that extends relatively small earthquake lasted
from the Pacific Ocean to the but seconds longer, the Van Norman
encircling rugged mountains that are dam would have failed
actively being uplifted today. The catastrophically with large losses of
region is criss crossed by automobile life and and much greater property
freeways each of which may provide as damage.
many as 10 lanes for traffic. These California is known as the Golden
excellent avenues for transportation State. Afterall, it was the gold rush
allow swift travel, especially at of 1848 that led to California
certain times of the day (e.g. at 3 statehood. However, the first gold
am). discovered in California was found
The Los Angeles area has a long seven years earlier near the town of
history of petroleum exploitation. In Valencia where the field trip party
1543, the Portugese explorer Juan will be lodged for our Ridge basin
Cabrillo reported that the local excursion. This 1841 strike of gold
Indians used tar and asphaltum was found as placer deposits in
collected from the La Brea tar pits Pleistocene strata. In 1842, gold was
for both medicinal and sealing found in the nearby San Francisquito
purposes. Oil was collected from Canyon. Piru Creek in the Ridge basin
seeps and hand-dug pits beginning in has also produced gold. In Eocene
1855, oil was being shipped from time, auriferous gravels were eroded
Wilmington by 1873, and over 1000 from the Sierra Nevada, Transverse
holes had been drilled by 1900. Los and Peninsular ranges and some of
Angeles basin is a name applied to this gold was trapped within the
both the modern physiographic coastal Eocene fluvial channels. The Eocene

T110:35
placer gold deposits have been qm

reworked by Pleistocene fluvial, gn

delta, and shoreline processes. The
most productive gold workings in
California today are in mineralized
zones associated with detachment gn
faults. Though not as colorful as the gr
prospectors of yore, many modern
geologists are involved in a present-
day gold rush in the American GORMAN
southwest as they apply their
favorite model for detachment
faulting to the realities encountered
in the field. One South African-
backed concern has begun producing a
multi-billion dollar gold deposit
just east of the Salton Sea.

Ph
MIOCENE - PLIOCENE DEPOSITIONAL
SYSTEMS IN THE RIDGE BASIN

Highway 5 runs nearly along the

axis of the elongate Ridge basin and
provides superb views of the Neogene
sedimentary infill from near the town Mr
of Castaic in the southern end of the
basin to around the town of Gorman in
the northern portion (Figure 21).
Present dimensions of the basin are 6
to 15 km in width, 30 to 40 km in
length, covering an area of about 200
km2. Sediments were delivered into
the basin from late Miocene into
Pliocene time and reached an
aggregate thickness in excess of
13,000 m of marine and nonmarine
RIDGE
sedimentary rocks. Sedimentation is BASIN
interpreted to have occurred within
several moving depocenters of
sedimentation.
gn
Two recent publications provide
excellent descriptions of the Ridge
basin. One volume edited by Crowell
and Link (1982) is a thick book
packed with information published by Mr ..
the Pacific Section of the Society of
Economic Paleontologists and
Mineralogists. Another Pacific KTs
Section volume edited by Link (1987)
emphasizes the significance of
hydrocarbons and presents a second
field trip log.

FIGURE 21 Generalized geologic map

of Ridge basin (after Crowell, 1982).
Mc = Castaic Fm., Mm = Modelo Fm., Mr Mc
= Ridge Route Fm., Ph = Hungry Valley
Fm., KTs = San Francisquito Fm., gd = o • KM
granodiorite, gn = gneiss, qd =
quartz diorite, o •MI

qm = quartz monzonite. CASTAIC

T110' 36
 ,/•_• SAN
/,,,•,i•I!"!'•1'--
ANDREAS
The Ridge basin began in Miocene
time (about 12 Ma) as a trough
created within the transform fault SOURCEAREA
system that separates the Pacific and
North American plates. At that time OF
I ..•
the San Gabriel fault held the role
played today by the San Andreas fault
as the major transform boundary in
the region (Crowell, 1982) . The San
Gabriel fault formed the straight
southwestern edge of the Ridge basin
from about 12 to 5 Ma. The
northeastern margin of the basin was
created by different faults that
formed and stepped progressively
further northeastward (Figure 21).
The Clearwater fault was active from
about 12 to 8 Ma then successive SAN GABRIEL FAULT
strands of the Liebre fault zone
accommodated
the displacementsuntil FIGURE22 Sketch of the origin of
about 5 Ma when the San Andreas fault Ridge basin at a bend in the San
took over. The eastern bounding Gabriel fault (from Crowell, 1982).
faults have all been progressively
overlapped by the sediments that have
infilled the fault-formed basin.
Crowell (1974) has schematically contributed sediment to the Ridge
shown the structural relations as Route and Hungry Valley formations
depicted in Figure 22. A left- (Figure 23). The Hungry Valley
stepping bend in the San Gabriel Formation showsthe addition of basic
fault created highlands to both the volcanic and more varied metamorphic
southwest and the northeast. The clasts. Paleocurrent measurements and
distributed shear along the splayed facies changes indicate that the
northeastern faults formed a narrow Violin Breccia was derived from the
but deep tectonic depression. During southwest side of the basin, Ridge
the depositional history of the Ridge Route Formation was supplied from the
basin, a total of 60 km of right slip northeast, and the Hungry Valley
movementoccurred along the San Formation was derived from the north,
Gabriel fault carrying the depocenter northwest and west (Figure 24).
along with it as shown by strata Secondary paleocurrent modes show
overlapping the basin floor toward 1) considerable sediment transport
the northwest (Crowell, 1975, 1982; down the axis of the basin to the
Link and Stitt, 1987). Uplift and south-southeast, and that
erosion of the region continue today 2) prevailing paleowind and current
providing a rugged topography with directions were parallel and along
stunning exposures for geological the axis of the basin to the north-
interpretation. northwest.
Although more than 13,000 m of
-••_;cr••• marine and nonmarine sediment
accumulated in the Ridge basin the
Two distinct terranes contributed length of depositional time was only
sediment to Ridge basin- 1) high-rank 6 to 7 million years yielding a very
metamorphic rocks (mostly gneiss) high sedimentation rate of about 2 m
intruded by granitic rocks (mostly per 1000 years (2,000 Bubnoff units).
quartz diorite) on the southwest Ridge basin was adjacent to two
border of the basin, which supplied pronounced highlands which shed large
sediment for the Violin Breccia; and amounts of sediment producing rapid
2) granitic and metamorphic basement facies changes in two main
rocks with overlying Cretaceous and sedimentation settings -- basin-
Paleocene sedimentary rocks on the margin and basin-axis (Figure 25;
northeast side of the basin which Link and Osborne, 1982).

T110:37
 SW NE
EXPLANATION
RIDGE BASIN
•'•-• Breccla
ß HUNGRYVALLEYFORMATION
ß
:•-•---•
Conglomerate
.... ß .... • •
ß ' AppleCanyonSanditone
Member' :'[-•1 Sandstone
Alamol Canyon Stilllone M.-- -- __ __
ß
• Siltstone

,; •e
ß

-. o .
• Shale(Mudstone)
ß
/,•-• BasementRocks
ranchman Flat
i. .....
RIDGEROUTE
FORMA•'ION
e
•
THICKNESS

SpringSand•tone- ß ß/. . • o ß
.
,

,
.

17,000
• 450O 4000

10,000
• 3000
Canyon ß SAN
S,nd•lone M.
FRANCISGUITO 2000
FORMATION

/I
(•AS•'A'•FORMATION
....
ß ß
'
' ' '
o

ß ...
5000
•r•
lOOO
Feet J]. Meters
/ I • '• 0 I 2 3Km.

/'• ? MINT
CANYON -" - .* -1
/I FORMATION
•t• 0 I 2 Miles
V Horizontal Scale

FIGURE 23 Schematic cross section of the Ridge basin showing major

rock bodies and faults (from Crowell and Link, 1982).

EXPLANATION:

I ThI Hungry
Volley
Formation ' I
c Tc
I Costoic Formation

Peoce Volley Formation

:2 • Modelo
Formation
Ridge Route Formation •=õ• SonFroncisquito
Formation

Violin Breccio
>' •_"Q'•
Quartz
diorite
,- Basement rocks
k- Gneiss

Generalized direction of sediment transport

FIGURE 24 Simplified geologic map of Ridge basin showing general
directions of sediment transport (from Nilsen and McLaughin, 1985).
T110- 38
 Southwest FAULT
SCARP SIDECONNECTINGNortheast
ALLUVIAL VALLEY

o' ...-... ß

ALLUVIAL
FANDEPOSITS SLUMP-FOLDED
STRATA SLIDEBLOCKS
MUD
DEPOSITS I•/• SLOPE
ORDELTA
FRONT
CHANNELS

Southwest
© INFERRED
WATERDEPTHSIDE CONNECTING
Northeast
FAULTSCARP WATER
VALLEY
ALLUVIAL SURFACE DELTA
/ FANS

MUDDEPOSITS STROMATOLITE . o.. o DEPOSITS

FIGURE 25 Depositional environments in the Ridge basin.

(A) Deep-water conditions. (B) Shallow-water conditions. (from
Link and Osborne, 1982.)

The initial Ridge basin formations were deposited in the

sedimentation created the middle center and northeastern parts of the
Miocene Mint Canyon Formation. It basin at the same time the Violin
accumulated in a nonmarine basin Breccia was shed into the basin from
between the Soledad basin to the east the San Gabriel fault escarpment on
and connected to the south and west the southwest margin. At this stage,
with the Cuyama basin. In the later Ridge basin was narrow and elongate
Miocene, the nonmarine to marine with dimensions of about 10 by 30 km
Castaic and lower Ridge Route (Figure 26). It contained relatively

T110- 39
 LOCKWOOD
VALLEY A

• "•MENOEN*4ALL •
O O O
•
O O O
O O O OO
O
O O O O O O O

'
OOoC
)O O O O ,q
o o501•.u
o .oo
OO
o
O
A0o O
o
O
O
0
0
0
6ASo•T,
0
oø oo 0
0
0 0
0
0

0 0

o
o
ø .•

HIGHLANDS
,,,,/•
MESOZOIC CiJ•ANI TICS

LATE MIOCENE (MOHNIAN) :A

PALINSPASTIC RESTORATION MODELO TURBIDITE BASIN

VENTURA BASIN
.A

DIAGRAMATIC CROSS SECTION - MOHNIAN

VENT1J•A BASIN

t. LU'vl ß

o o o o
o Oo o o
o o oo
CASTCTtJnmmTES
o o o

++++++++++++

SAN GA•*(L

NOT TO SCALE

FIGURE 26 Palinspastic map and cross section of Ridge basin during

Late Miocene time (from Link and Stitt, 1987).

T110- 40
shallow-marine water less than 100 m Ridge basin can be viewed for 34 km
deep at the north end grading to to the northwest and 13 km to the
2,000 m deep to the south near the southeast to its transition with the
Ventura basin junction. Turbidite and Soledad basin. Other sights include
offshore facies accumulated in the an elongate ridge of Violin Breccia
center of the basin and alluvial fan next to the San Gabriel fault,
/ fan deltas built into the basin elevated basement rock to the
from the northeast. The Violin northeast, marine turbidite deposits
Breccia accumulated as a relatively overlain by slope and braid delta
deep-marine slope talus or apron facies, and spectacular syn-
along the San Gabriel fault. As time sedimentary folds and growth faults.
progressed the tectonically moving
basin was either cut off from the Stop 2: Pyramid Dam. At the base
ocean by the fault movements or was of Pyramid Dam is a superb exposure
drained due to eustatic changes. of a fluvial - lacustrine delta
Ridge basin became a nonmarine basin sequence that is 185 m thick. Two
with drainage to the south- sandstone bodies, separated by an
southwest. The bulk of the organic-rich, laminated black shale,
sedimentary infill is nonmarine each consist of thin-bedded, graded
deposits of alluvial fan, fluvial, sandstone at the base overlain by
and lacustrine facies including thicker-bedded, cross-stratified
deltas. Small alluvial fans and fan sandstone. These beds are basal
deltas of the Violin Breccia extended prodelta turbidites overlain by
into the basin from the southwest, deltaic bottomset, then foreset
whereasmuchlarger alluvial fan / units, and finally by topset fluvial
braided fluvial systemsentered the channel deposits. The depositional
basin from the northeast to form the packagesare large deltaic lobes
Ridge Route Formation, the thickest which progradedinto a relatively
and most extensive of the shallow lake. Between the two delta
stratigraphic units in Ridge basin. lobes are shallow-water lake deposits
The center of this asymmetrical basin totalling 30 m in thickness that
contained shoreline and other contain black shale, limestone,
lacustrine facies. As the Ridge basin chert, and thin-bedded sandstone.
was being filled in by the Pliocene Features within the lake beds include
Hungry Valley Formation, major locally abundant ostracodes, plant
strike-slip displacement was fossils, animal tracks, desiccation
transferred from the San Gabriel to cracks, ripple marks, and laminated
the San Andreas fault. The Hungry organics that suggest anoxic bottom
Valley Formation continued to conditions.
accumulate in the basin and then the
basin was uplifted, deformed, and Stop 3: Castaic Creek North. The
eroded in the last 1 to 2 m.y. eroded, irregular floor of Ridge
basin can be seen along Castaic Creek
Days 4, 5 & 6: Ridge Basin Field Trip north of the Templin Highway bridge
crossing. Here the Miocene Castaic
There are many interesting Formation of Ridge basin lies with
outcrops to visit in the Ridge basin. marked angular unconformity upon the
Reference to the field trip guides by San Francisquito Formation of
Advocate et al. (1982) and Link and Cretaceous-Paleocene age. The Castaic
Wood (1987) is vital to seeing the Formation consists of alluvial-fan
most important features. We will and fan-delta breccias composed of
begin in the older southern part of large blocks of San Francisquito
the basin and end in the younger Formation, and reworked quartzite,
northern portion. Some of the granitic, metamorphic, and volcanic
following features will be seen. clasts. These locally derived fan
deposits are related to the
Stop 1: Templin Highway - Old Clearwater fault. The fan delta
Ridge Route Intersection. The Ridge aspect is shown in some beds that
basin geographic and older geologic contain marine fossils including
setting can be partly seen from the pectens and oysters.
intersection of Templin Highway with
the Old Ridge Route. From here the

Tl10:41
 Stop 4:Castaic Creek South. A zone is overlapped by beds of the
cross-bedded conglomerate bed south Ridge Route Formation. The north-
of the bridge contains abundant dipping fault is exposed in the
pectens and oysters. The unit is a canyon immediately below the
transgressive, basal deposit that viewpoint and in the next canyon to
onlaps the San Fransquito Formation the southeast. However, on the ridge
to the northeast. The beds are marine between these two canyons the fault
shoreline facies that filled in local is overlapped. The buttress
low spots along a steep, rocky unconformity below the viewpoint is
coastline with basinward-dipping not cut by the fault. Notice the
wedges of sediment. granitic basement juxtaposed against
the Ridge Route Formation and the
Stop 5- Cherry Canyon- Lacustrine reddish conglomeratic talus along the
and braided fluvial deposits of the downthrown side of the fault.
Piru Gorge Sandstone Member are
exposed at the head of Cherry Canyon Stop 9: Sandberg Thrust. The
as alternating beds of conglomerate, Sandberg fault has thrust some
sandstone, mudstone, and limestone. sheared and shattered granitic and
The section contains several examples gneissic rocks on top of sandstone
of lacustrine stromatolites in coarse and conglomerate of the Pliocene
clastic sediments. Lacustrine Hungry Valley Formation by processes
stromatolites formed as bulbous, that apparently involve both
commonly coalesced structures up to tectonics and downslope gravity
0.5 m in diameter upon hard sliding. The Sandberg thrust fault is
substrates. Incorporated within the well exposed where it has been
mats are detrital grains, oncolites, dismembered and offset by the San
ooids, molluscs, fecal pellets, and Andreas fault. Notice the drag fold
ostracodes. Stromatolites commonly of Hungry Valley Formation under the
display desiccation features and thrust fault.
broken pieces of the mats. They grew
in relatively calm water and cover Stop 10- Big Bend of the San
rocks of differing depositional Andreas Fault. The big bend of the
environments due especially to the San Andreas fault exhibits many
rise of lake level and transgression striking features. The fault zone
of the shoreline. contains slices of Cretaceous
granitic rocks, reddish volcanic
Stop 6- Liebre Gulch Anticlines. rocks, and the Pliocene Hungry Valley
Several west- and northwest-trending Formation. Visible are the trace of
en echelon folds cross the Old Ridge the rift, fault gouge, pressure
Route and can be seen in Liebre ridges, sag ponds, offset streams and
Gulch. These plunging anticlines are canyons, faceted spurs, and fault
related to the Clearwater fault and scarps, including the scarp created
have been drilled during the by the 1857 great earthquake. We will
exploration for hydrocarbons in Ridge also view the intersection of the
basin. Garlock fault as well as Castaic Lake
which is a modern, uniformitarian
Stop 7- Liebre Fault Zone. Good analogue for the Neogene Ridge basin
outcrops of the Liebre fault zone and lakes.
the alluvial-fan facies of the Ridge
Route Formation are exposed along the Stop 11' Skidded Unconformity.
Old Ridge Route on Liebre Mountain. Roadcuts along Peace Valley Road
Conglomerate and sandstone of the expose conglomerate, sandstone and
Ridge Route Formation either lie on mudstone of the Hungry Valley
the basement rock of Liebre Mountain Formation lying unconformabl'y upon
or along the traces of the Liebre granitic basement rock. The
fault zone. These coarse deposits unconformity has about 0.3 m of gouge
formed on and adjacent to basement and can be traced all the way around
highs which commonly are bounded by the nose of the northwest-plunging
faults. anticline. It is interpreted to be a
skidded unconformity or zone of
Stop 8: Liebre Fault Overlap. One detachment. In the roadcut the
of the strands of the Liebre fault unconformity is nearly vertical and,

T110:42
in places, the sedimentary beds have San Gabriel fault there exists a wide
been disrupted and torn into zone of gouge in pulverized granitic
phacoids. rock that contains fault slivers of
Precambrian gneiss. Slickensides may
Stop 12: Pyramid Lake Overview. be seen that tell of horizontal
This view stop on Interstate Highway movement. A prominent rift valley is
5 gives a good view of the complex present and the fault can be seen all
facies relations. Across the lake to the way to the San Gabriel Mountains
the west and southwest are wedges of to the southeast. The prominent ridge
Violin Breccia fan deltas built out to the northwest is made of proximal
into the dark lacustrine mudstones of deposits of Violin Breccia consisting
the Peace Valley Formation. To the of sheared, debris-flow dominated
northwest are clastic wedges of Ridge alluvial fan and talus facies. To the
Route Formation braid deltas that east the Violin Breccia changes
pinch out into the Alamo Canyon facies into interbedded conglomerate,
Siltstone Member. sandstone and mudstone that, in turn,
pinch out into shale and mudstone
Stop 13: Piru Gorge Flatirons: toward the axis of Ridge basin.
The Piru Gorge Sandstone Member forms
a prominent flatiron near the center
of the basin. Exposed on its backside
is a distributary channel with low SIMI HIT.T-q AREA
sinuosity that headed southward down
the axis of the basin. Leave the Ridge basin on south-
bound Interstate Highway 5 heading
Stop 14: Piru Gorge. The Violin toward the Simi Hills (Figure 1).
Breccia and its transition into the From IH 5 merge onto south-bound
Osito Shale Member can be seen at the Interstate Highway 405, then go west
head of Piru Gorge at Frenchman (right) onto Highway 118, exit on
Flats. The Violin Breccia was shed Topanga Canyon Boulevard, then a
from the gneissic and granitic right on Chatsworth Street takes you
basement rocks elevated along the San to Chatsworth Park on the fringe of
Gabriel fault. The Violin Breccia the Simi Hills.
here was a fan delta as shown by The name Simi was recorded in 1795
inclined delta foresets and as a land grant for 'un valle que se
stromatolitic coatings on some of the llama Simi'. The name itself is
breccia clasts. The bottomset and apparently derived from a dialect of
foreset beds can be seen in the head the Chumash Indians who inhabited the
of the canyon along with graded and Ventura area. In the Chumash language
inversely graded beds, slumps, Shimii meant a place or village.
channels, and small-scale wedge outs. In recent years the Simi Hills
received much notoriety as the home
Stop 15: Old Highway 99. On the base of the murderous Charles Manson
north side of Old Highway 99 is a cult ß The "wild-eyed, "satanic Manson
good outcrop of the Osito Creek Shale had his brain-washed disciples commit
Member which is laterally equivalent numerous robberies and murders as he
to the Violin Breccia. Within the attempted to advance his crazed
Osito dark shale and mudstone are ideas. Today, Charles Manson and most
thin-bedded, laterally extensive of his followers reside in prisons,
sandstone beds. The fine-grained beds but the remains of their Simi Hills
also contain minor carbonate and hideaways still exist.
chert intervals, mudcracks, ripple The Simi Hills, in the central
marks, burrows, and animal tracks Transverse Ranges, are the upturned
that all suggest shallow-water southern flank of the broad, west-
lacustrine deposition. The sandstone plunging synclinal depression of the
interbeds are lacustrine turbidites Simi Valley which is part of the
deposited in water shallow enough to Ventura basin. The Simi Hills are a
be affected by current reworking, curved, 25 km long outcrop that
burrowing, and desiccation. exposes a beautiful section of Upper
Cretaceous strata that was used as
Stop 16- Whitaker Peak Road. the setting for many of the early
Where Whitaker Peak Road crosses the cowboy movies produced by Hollywood

T110:43
studios. These Upper Cretaceous rocks ..

are described in a 1981 Pacific 4O

Section SEPM volume and guidebook
edited by M.H. Link et al. entitled
Simi Hills Cretaceous Turbidites, in
a 1984 AAPG Bulletin paper by Link et
al., and in the Ventura basin
guidebook edited by Link (1988).
These Upper Cretaceous rocks produced 3O
oil several kilometers from the
outcrops in the abandoned Horse
Meadow and Mission oil fields.
ß

CRETACEOUS SUBMARI• FAN, SIMI HIT.T-q rr' '- ' ,",,9•%" tJ.
• 20-
The Chatsworth Formation outcrop LI,I N
section is 1,830 m thick, but the
depositional base is not exposed. The
Chatsworth Formation is
disconformably overlain by the
nonmarine Paleocene Simi
Conglomerate, and both formations are 10-

onlapped by Neogene strata. A late

Campanian to early Maastrichtian age
for the Chatsworth Formation is
indicated by calcareous nannofossils, ".:'/.'••Sandstone
foraminifera, and molluscs; the
microfauna also tells of moderately Shale and
deep bathyal water. mudstone

Sedimentation

The Chatsworth Formation was FIGURE 27 Thinning- and fining-

deposited as a sand-rich, poorly upward channel fill in the mid-fan
efficient deep-sea fan complex in a portion of the Chatsworth Formation
restricted basin. The most (after Link, 1981).
characteristic strata in the
Chatsworth Formation are thick,
channelized sandstones in thinning-
and fining-upward megasequences deposition took place in the channel-
capped by thin-bedded mudstone, fill dominated, middle portion of a
siltstone and sandstone (Figure 27). submarine fan. This facies overlies
These sandstone units are laterally fine-grained strata interpreted to be
discontinuous, amalgamated channels slope deposits, and grades laterally
with directional sole marks, dish into interbedded sandstones and
structures, syn-sedimentary folds mudstones of the interchannel facies.
(flaps), and other indications of The interchannel facies is
deposition by sediment-gravity flows. comprised of thin beds of mudstone,
Sandstone beds average 2 m in siltstone and sandstone that occur
thickness and range from 0.1 to 10 m. laterally between the channel
Thinning- and fining-upward cycles megasequences. These beds are as much
average 15 m in thickness and range as several meters thick but are
up to 60 m for single cycles and up laterally discontinuous, lbcally
to 200 m in thickness and 1 km in inclined and slumped, and contain
width for multi-story sequences. entire and partial Bouma sequences.
Erosional downcutting is evident but Sandstone-siltstone to mudstone
minimal in this sand-rich ratios vary from 1:5 to 1'1. Typical
aggradational system. Sandstone to sedimentary structures are parallel
mudstone ratios commonly are in the laminae, small-scale cross bedding,
10:1 to 12:1 area. All the features graded beds, convolute laminae,
combine to strongly suggest that climbing ripples, and sole marks.

T110' 44
Trace fossils were uncommon in the 30
channel facies but their abundance
and diversity in these fine-grained
rocks is moderate with common
occurrences of
Ophiomorpha,
Thalassinoides, and Chondrites, with
uncommon appearances of
Helminthopsis, Sublorenzinia, and 20
Planolites (Bottjer, 1981). •
Subenvironments recognized include w
levees, crevasse splay lobes and •
channels, and noncyclic interbedded •
intervals. Levees consist of o

lenticular, fine- and coarse-grained 10

sandstone beds, slumps, and
sedimentation units that wedge out
and are laterally discontinous.
Crevasse-splay lobes have small-
scale thickening- and coarsening- Shale and
upward sequences; crevasse splay 0 mudstone

channels are marked by erosional

downcutting and small-scale thinning-
and fining-upward cycles. FIGURE 28 Thickening- and
An 80 m thick facies of
coarsening-upward depositional lobe
alternating sandstone and mudstone in the Chatsworth Formation (after
beds (ratio of 1:1) in a thickening- Link, 1981).
and coarsening-upward sequence may
represent the outer-fan environment
(Figure 28). Sandstone beds contain
whole or partial Bouma sequences, are .....
laterally continuous, flat based with ß• Submarine
directional sole marks and are Edge of fan• oq• - •• canyon

nonchannelized.
Sedimentary
structures
dish structures,
deformation,
include
soft-sediment
wavy laminae,
rip-up

flute and
clasts,

groove casts, small-scale cross

bedding, and load features. If these
strata are not outer-fan depositional
lobes they may be a thick crevasse-
splay lobe in the middle fan
interchannel environment. Basin-plain
deposits were not recognized in the
outcrop but may have been encountered
in holes drilled for petroleum to the
north.
The sandy submarine fan strata of
the Chatsworth Formation seem similar
to the poorly efficient depositional
systems described by Mutti FIGURE 29 Model for the sand-rich
(1979,1985) as type II channel- submarine fan of the Chatsworth
dominated systems. These sand-rich Formation (after Link, 1981).
systems have extensive, braided
aggradational channels and
interchannel deposits with markedly
reduced fan fringe and outer fan systems in southern California. This
deposits. The sand-rich Chatsworth probably results from a combination
Formation consists primarily of of factors including active uplift of
thick, amalgamated channel deposits mountainous source rocks, dominance
(Figure 29). The minimal development of physical versus chemical
of finer-grained facies is commonfor weathering in the source area, short
Upper Cretaceous submarine fan transport distances, and deposition

T110' 45
in small tectonically defined basins rocks are brought back closer
or depressions. together (Link et al., 1984). The
differences in depositional
Provenance environments can be resolved as the
geographic changes normally
Compositional data from the encountered in associated
sandstone and conglomerate beds in environments.
the Chatsworth Formation indicate The Chatsworth Formation is
that the sediment was derived from apparently part of a submarine-fan
intermediate composition batholithic complex that built out as a west-
rocks primarily and high-grade facing wedge from a highland whose
metamorphic rocks secondarily. debris is now partially exposed in
Contributions also came from the S imi Hills, Santa Monica
sedimentary and volcanic sources. Mountains, and northern Peninsular
Sandstones are mineralogically Ranges.
immature with quartz percentages in
the 30's and feldspar usually
dominant over lithic fragments. Day 7: S imi Hills Field Trip
Accessory minerals in these arkoses
and lithic arkoses include epidote, The Simi Hills field trip sites
sphene, garnet, tourmaline, apatite, have been organized and described at
hornblende, tremolite, and the back of the guidebook edited by
actinolite. Conglomerate clasts are M.H. Link et al. (1981).
mostly plutonic rocks in the quartz
monzonite to granodiorite range but Stop 1: Santa Susana Pass. The
also include two-mica, garnet-bearing thick-bedded channel units are
granite. Metamorphic clasts are also intercalated with thinner-bedded
common and include dark quartzite, interchannel units of the mid-fan
schist, gneiss, dark argillite, and setting. Channel sequences thin- and
metasiltstone. Minor amounts of fine-upward in packages up to 60 m
andesite and mudstone clasts are also thick. Channel sediments are mostly
present. Facies B medium- and coarse-grained
Measurements of paleocurrents show sandstones with some Facies A
a dominant transport direction to the present. Interchannel deposits are
north in channel deposits and to the thin-bedded sandstone, siltstone and
northwest or northeast in mudstone beds that wedge out and are
interchannel strata (Trembly and locally slumped.
Kraemer, 1981). These paleocurrent
directions need to be modified by the Stop 2: Chatsworth Park. Thick-
paleomagnetic results of Luyendyk et bedded channel deposits are well
al. (1981) which document a clockwise exposed here. Features to be seen are
rotation of the Simi Hills and Santa trace fossils and numerous
Monica Mountains by 45o-90 ø during sedimentary structures including
the opening of the Los Angeles basin unusually large-scale traction-
and Miocene extensional volcanism. deposited cross beds.
Removal of the tectonic rotation
turns the Upper Cretaceous Stop 3: S•mmit Mobile Home Park.
paleocurrents to a westerly direction Cuts at this site provide good views
(Figure 30). of levee deposits. Facies E units are
The Upper Cretaceous submarine-fan dominant but some channel deposits
deposits of the Chatsworth Formation are also well exposed. Some overbank
are similar in composition and gross sandstones are coarse grained, cross
depositional style to the coeval bedded, wedge out, and have ripple-
strata in the Santa Monica Mountains to dune-shaped tops.
to the south and the Santa Ana
Mountains to the southeast. When slip Stop 4: Sage Ranch. Spectacular
is removed from the left-lateral strike sections along channels are
Malibu-Cucamonga fault (60 km) and seen with large-scale slump-folded
the right-lateral Whittier-Elsinore strata, sole marks, and gravel-filled
fault (40 km), the Upper Cretaceous scour channels.

T110' 46
 $imi Hills

Santa Monica Mountains

Malibu
Coast
Fautt
zone

LEGEND

:::•.$":"
;.:..•: Upper Cretaceous sedimentary rocks

Paleocene
shoreline
(Sage,
1975)
Paleocurrents for Upper Cretaceous strata

0 20 40 KM

FIGURE 30 Outcrops of Upper Cretaceous marine strata, Paleocene

shorelines, and major faults. Simi Hills and Santa Monica Mountains
have been offset 50-80 km along the Malibu coast fault and were rotated
45-90 ø clockwise during Neogene time. Paleocurrent directions are as
measured in the Simi Hills and Santa Monica Mountains and have not been
corrected for tectonic rotation (after Link et al., 1984).

Buenaventura, but the U.S. Post

Office complained of mix ups with
After finishing with the Simi mail intended for San Bernardino and
Hills outcrops, head northward and thus changed the name to Ventura.
rejoin Highway 118 westbound to the The Ventura basin has long been a
city of Ventura which will be the prolific producer of hydrocarbons. By
staging area for two days of visits the end of 1982, it had yielded 2.3
to the Upper Cretaceous through billion barrels of oil and 4.3
Pleistocene sedimentary section of trillion cubic feet of gas (Curran,
the Ventura basin. The name Ventura 1982). Hall and Curran (1974)
was euphoniously created from San estimated reserves at 20 to 30
Buenaventura, a 13th century learned billion more barrels. An up-to-date
doctor and prelate. His name was guidebook to the geology of the
attached to the mission founded on Ventura basin has recently been
31 March 1782 at the site called La published by the Los Angeles Basin
Asuncion de Nuestra Senora. The story Geological Society (M.H. Link, ed.,
goes that early residents preferred 1988).
that the name of the area remain San

T110' 47
 VENTURA BASIN SEDIMENTATION AND and lower Tertiary sequence covers a
TECTONICS much greater area than the present-
day Ventura basin indicating that the
Today the Ventura basin sits as an Ventura basin was then part of the
east-west trending feature, roughly regional forearc basin that had a
65 kmwide and 270 km long, located more north-south orientation similar
in the western Transverse Ranges and to the Great Valley sequence
in the offshore Santa Barbara Channel (Dibblee, 1987). Sediment was derived
(Figure 1). The basin is bounded on from the plutonic-metamorphic
the north by the Santa Ynez fault in mountain belt that lay to the east.
the Transverse Ranges, on the east by Regional uplift during Oligocene time
the San Gabriel fault in the San elevated much of California, but a
Gabriel Mountains - Ridge basin area, terrestrial low remained in the
and on the south by the Santa Monica Ventura basin area and redbeds of the
- Malibu Coast fault system and other Sespe Formation accumulated there. In
faults exposed on Santa Cruz and early Miocene time, subsidence and
Santa Rosa islands (Figure 31). The marine transgression caused deep-
stratigraphic sequence on the north water sedimentation to resume. By
flank of the Ventura basin is about middle Miocene time the region also
11,000 m thick. was being subjected to wrench
The Ventura basin holds a nearly faulting and was rotating clockwise
continuous record of sedimentation to its present east-west oriented
from Cretaceous through Quaternary position (Luyendyk et al., 1981).
time. However, the thick Cretaceous Some of the wrench fault-bounded

30' I 19 e W 30'

30' --

Santa Ynez Range

8•lNCAYETAHO ledad
basin
•'"J'--•--'-/----"-•R,
entral!
Offshore ..::
Ve
.•. Ventura basin

-'• OAK
RIDGE
FAULT Fe-rnindoi
basin

Santa
Barbara
Channel Santa Monica Mtns

Pt. Mugu
MALIBUCOAST FAUL'
• • Anacapa
I.
34*N

I ""--"--•'"' 18LANDFAULT
LEGEND

....
"":"'"?....'.'••
Neogene basin
(onshore)
o lO 20

• Strike-slip fault
KILOMETERS

i I •
30' 119 ß w 30'

FIGURE 31 Map of selected geographic and tectonic elements in the

central Transverse Ranges.

T110- 48
basins were silled and sediments of
SAN RAFAEL MTN$
the siliceous- and organic-rich
Monterey Formation were deposited.
During Plio-Pleistocene time, the ß
•.• ... • =•TeWhee Ku
central axis of the Ventura basin "•./ $pring• Wheeler ------- --
deepened markedly and received Gorge M'•HS
sediments
active
about 6,000 m thick
east-west oriented faults
as the
SANTA
YNEZMTHS
•o••ø•'• "Te.
ß

down-dropped the basin and uplifted

the Transverse Ranges to create VA

nearby, high-elevation sources for

sediment. In the last 1-4 million -..
To Tm
years the basin has been severely
compressed creating fold and foreland •, To
thrust belts probably related to
compression in the Transverse Ranges
and San Andreas fault system. Today, ß To
the Ventura basin outcrops allow
inspection of the sedimentary rocks
and structural features that produce
voluminous hydrocarbons in the
subsurface portions of the basin.
Sedimentary Units
entura ß
Days 8 & 9' Ventura Basin Field Trip

Our Ventura basin field trip will

Q Alluvium
Qn Pleistocene nonmarine •
be divided into three segments. 1) A Tp Pliocene
marine II•
southward traverse
from
bounds
the
the
down Highway
Santa
northern
Ynez fault
edge
which
of the
33
TmMiocene
To
marine ]11Oligocene nonmarine
o 5 lO
Ventura basin through the Upper Te Eocene marine

Cretaceous to Oligocene stratigraphic Ku Upper Cretaceous marine KILOMETERS

section of the Santa Ynez Mountains
(Figure 32). The road follows the
Ventura River and provides some fine FIGURE 32 Simplified geologic map of
outcrops. 2) A coastal trek west of the Ventura River region (after
Ventura to view the Miocene to Dibblee, 1987b).
Pleistocene strata, oil seeps, and
anticlinal structures near the
depositional axis of the Plio-
Pleistocene Ventura basin that Maastrichtian age (Figure 33). Facies
contain five major oil fields. 3) A present are dominantly A,B,F, and G
visit to see lower Miocene strata on of Mutti and Ricci Lucchi (1972).
the south side of the Ventura basin Walker (1985) has interpreted these
and the Malibu Coast fault, before rocks to be channel, levee and
going into the Los Angeles basin and interchannel, and basin-plain facies
visiting the La Brea tar pits and the (Figure 34). Apparently these
Page Museumwhich displays the sediments were derived from granitic
sleletons of Quaternary animals freed basement rocks that lay to the east
from their enveloping tar. as suggested by the beautiful arkosic
sands seen in thin section and the
Stop 1: Wheeler Gorge. The 200 m west-directed paleocurrent
thickness of Upper Cretaceous strata measurements.
at Wheeler Gorge have been the
subject of much discussion (e.g. Stop 2: Santa Ynez Fault. The
Rust, 1966; Fisher and Mattinson, Santa Ynez fault is a major oblique-
1968; Walker 1975b, 1985). Three slip fault whose vertical component
thinning- and fining-upward of slip exceeds 3,000 m. Highway 33
conglomeratic sandstone bodies are parallels the fault in the vicinity
interbedded within sequences of thin- of Wheeler Springs where it can be
bedded turbidites of Campanian and inspected juxtaposing Upper

T1 lO- 49
Cretaceous against Eocene strata. A
series of en echelon folds trend
diagonally into this major fault. The APF
øOX
PoStTtO-N/'•/--
----
Santa Ynez fault forms the northern
margin and flank of the Ventura
basin.

Stop 3: Matilija Springs. The

MEGASEQUENCE
•• UTCROP
/SANO
/•

•J• euos--"•o
EXPLAN
GRAIN
GRAVEL
SIZ..,.,•,..•LE
(WENTWORTH
SILT ANOCLAY
SCALE!

middle Eocene Matilija Sandstone is :) • 19 • MUOOY

TOSIL• SAROSTONE
well exposed in an overturned ' 18S•UM•
• •
• '__EX•ACLASTIC
I
•.T•ACLASTIC
• CO•LOME•ATE
syncline near Matilija Springs. The /
! • LIMESTONE
COAL (LIONITEl
...... 17 I • FOSSILS
Matilija Sandstone is about 800 m COVEREO SECTION
MEGASEQUENCE
thick and sits upon the basin-plain I
STRUCTURES
,,

deposits of the lower Eocene Juncal L•AMINAE

CROSS-STRA TlirlCATION
0URROWING
Formation. The Matilija Formation MASSIVE lEGGING
FLAT IEDDING

records a vertical sequence from TAIULAR

Pt.
ANAI•
TROUGH }CROSS-IEDDING
submarine fan upward to shallow- DISTURIED IEDDING
OISH STI•UCTURES
MUDCRACKS
marine and then deltaic and other BASAL CONTACTS

paralic facies (Link, 1975; Link and TRANSITIONAL

AIRUPT
EROSIONAt,
Welton, 1982). The basinal shales DEFORMED
CYCLES
grade upward into thin-bedded
TNICKENING-ANO
turbidites that form thickening- •
COARSENING-UPWAIliD

THINNING-AND
FINING-UPWARD
upward to random cycles interpreted
to be lobe fringe and depositional
lobe facies. This is followed by NO OUTCROP

thick sandstone sequences that show

thinning- and fining-upward cycles
typical of middle- and inner-fan
channelized deposits. This major o 50 Ioo METERS

progradational (regressive) cycle

grades into cross-stratified, APl•OX. POSITION OF
SANTA YNEZ FAULT
burrowed shallow-marine deltaic and (NOT

lagoonal facies including some

redbeds and carbonate-evaporites. The
sedimentation of the Matilija FIGURE 33 Detailed map of the Upper
Sandstone was abruptly halted by a Cretaceous sedimentary units exposed
major deepening event and near Wheeler Gorge (from Link and
transgression(?) that led to the Dibblee, 1987) .
deposition of the Cozy Dell Shale.
The depositional site appears to have
been a remnant forearc basin (Heller
and Dickinson, 1985). The sediments Stop 5: Santa Paula Creek
are arkosic and have been derived (Optional). In this exposed section
from a granitic and high-grade of Pliocene strata north of the town
metamorphic source and possibly of Santa Paula are the type
recycled Upper Cretaceous strata, turbidites described by Kuenen and
probably from the east. Migliorini (1950) that started the
modern popularity of turbidites. The
Stop 4: Coldwater Sandstone. The Pico Formation section is reached
upper Eocene Coldwater Sandstone lies going east from Ventura on Highway
gradationally above the Cozy Dell 126 to Santa Paula and then north on
Shale. The Coldwater Sandstone Highway 150 for two miles. The
consists of several thickening-upward Pliocene section along Santa Paula
cycles that are transitional upward Creek is about 3,600 m thidk and is
into shell-rich, cross-bedded, exposed between the San Cayetano
shallow-marine units. The marine beds fault on the north and the Oak Ridge
change upward into distinctive red- fault on the south. The facies are
purple sandstone and mudstone dominantly middle submarine fan
interpreted to be stream channel and channel, channel margin and
floodplain deposits. The floodplain interchannel deposits. Conglomerate-
deposits locally interfinger with the filled channels are overlain by a
shallow-marine units. thick section of thinner-bedded

T110- 50
 wHEELER GORGE
SECTION

PROXIMAL LEVEE
THIN -BEDDED .•.
TURBIDITES

'T' E .. ß

ß ß ::-. ß .' ...'.: .... ..--. -.-'- 1," , -- • ...-- --- -.. "- ---
O :...;........,,,•/.......
B.::..::..:..:.i:.i:•.i.,:....:•C
;: •,, ,,,•,-_,___.. _-__ INTERCHANNEL
J ..: i':i ?----_ L--
J
j %- - -_-,,•':'.'
.':.'";'.;;'•:;';.'
A o';,,,,',,"
,,"',",.'.'.'/•,--'-------'-----'
-- '
_

--;-
- - --'-"-f-----
BASIN
PLAIN
MUDSTONES
FIGURE 34 Interpretive facies section for the Upper Cretaceous strata
at Wheeler Gorge showing migration of channel/levee complexes (from
Walker, 1985).

channel-margin and interchannel at Carpinteria Beachß In angular

deposits. Some of the interesting discordance above the Monterey
features to observe are the thinning- Formation are the oil-saturated
and fining-upward channel cycles, the Pleistocene marine Santa Barbara and
large variations in bed thickness and nonmarine Casitas formations. The
coarseness of interchannel deposits, Monterey Formation is the major
the extensive ripple marks in the source rock for the region but in the
interchannel deposits, the re- offshore areas it also contains major
sedimented molluscan shells, slumped reservoir facies in terrigenous
horizons, and the detailed turbidite units, siliceous shale -
sedimentary structures including chert, and in limestone - dolomite.
Bouma sequences. The depositional Phosphatic mudstone and dolomite of
setting was a narrow, compressional the lower Monterey Formation are well
or wrench fault-created basin in the exposed at this stop.
California Continental Borderland
styleß The sediment was chiefly Stop 7- Ventura and San Miguelito
derived from granitic and metamorphic Anticlines. More than 1.2 billion
basement rocks to the east and their barrels of oil have been produced
pre-Pliocene sedimentary cover. Some from this trend of faulted
sediment was also obtained from the anticlines. Most of the production is
uplifted southern and northern flanks from the Pliocene Pico and Repetto
of the basin. formations. These sandstones were
funneled down a narrow west-trending
Stop 6: Carpinteria State Beach. trough from an eastern source and
Oil seeps from the complexly folded accumulated more than 3,000 m of
and eroded Miocene Monterey Formation section containing stacked reservoir

T110' 51
strata. Depositional facies are basin Tutankhamen.
plain, depositional lobe, and channel
fill. The anticlinal structures are
shockingly young; in the last 200,000
years folding has occurred with
uplift rates up to 16 mm/yr and
horizontal shortening of 20 mm/yr REFERENCES
(Yeats and Grigsby, 1987).
Abbott, P.L. (Ed.), Eocene
Stop 8: Point Mugu. In the Pt. Depositional Systems, San Diego,
Mugu area the lower to middle Miocene California, 126 p., Pacific
Topanga Formation underlies the Section, Soc. Economic
Monterey Formation. In this vicinity Paleontologists and
it is about 1,300 m thick and Mineralogists, 1979.
consists of deep-marine shale and Abbott, P.L. (Ed.), Upper Cretaceous
sandstone intruded by the diabase Depositional Systems, Southern
dikes and sills that fed the California - Northern Baja
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collections ranging from Picasso to Mineralogists, 1982.

T110:52
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