Mint Canyon Formation

The Mint Canyon Formation is a Miocene geologic formation in the Sierra Pelona Mountains of Los Angeles County, southern California.Elsmerecanyon.com: "Tick Canyon Geology" The formation preserves fossils dating back to the Middle to Late Miocene (Barstovian and Clarendonian in NALMA classification).Mint Canyon Formation at Fossilworks.org

Geology Mint Canyon is a fluvial landform in the Sierra Pelona range. It consists of terrestrial deposits from streams and lakes consisting mostly of sandstone and conglomerate with some claystone."Geologic Map of the Mint Canyon Quadrangle" (DF-57) by Thomas W. Dibblee, Jr., 1996.

The formation correlates with the Caliente Formation in the Plush Ranch Basin to the northwest and the lower Punchbowl Formation in the Punchbowl Block to the southeast.Coffey et al., 2019, p.480 The Mint Canyon Formation consists primarily of fluvial, alluvial, and lacustrine conglomerates, sandstones, and mudstones. The Mint Canyon Formation is overlain by the dominantly marine Castaic Formation, which consists of shale, sandstone, and minor conglomerate. In the Texas Canyon sub-basin, the formation is overlain by the Saugus Formation.Coffey et al., 2019, p.492 The contact between the Mint Canyon and Castaic Formations is an angular unconformity in some places, and it is apparently conformable and gradational in others.Coffey et al., 2019, p.481

Fossil content The formation preserves vertebrate fossils dating back to the Middle Miocene subperiod of the Neogene period:

Mammals Artiodactyls

?Merycodus sp. Camelidae indet. Tayassuidae indet.

Perissodactyls

Hipparion cf. forcei Hipparion sp. ?Nannippus sp. Equini indet.Alroy, 2002 Hipparionini indet. Rhinocerotidae indet.

Rodents Pronotolagus apachensisMaxson, 1930

Proboscideans Gomphotherium sp.

Carnivora Canidae indet.Stirton, 1933

Mint Canyon Formation

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