Formation landmarks

[UtahraptorFan]

That subject was the best I could come up with. Anyway, I've noticed several Laramidian formations from the Campanian and Maastrichtian whose names refer to streams. I have a word-processing document listing all I know of:

Belly River (Also the name of a group including a few on this list as well as the Dinosaur Park Formation.)
Hell Creek
Judith River
Lance (Creek)
Milk River
Oldman (River)
Prince Creek
St. Mary River
Two Medicine (River)
Wahweap (Creek)
Wapiti (River)
Willow Creek

At least, in the case of the Two Medicine Formation, I figured it was named for the river after I saw a picture a man had made into a poster of a bridge he helped build over it. I guess, though, there is also a Two Medicine Lake.

Anyway, there are a few for which I don't know what they are named after. I haven't been able to find that information about the Aguja, Javelina, and Menefee formations. I did see that the Scollard Formation in Canada is named for a canyon. Does anybody know where I can find that information?

[Newt]

Good question! It seems like there should be a big online database of geological formations, groups, and members with a listing of their type localities, definitions, exposures, ages, mineral and paleontological contents, and so on.


Sometimes JSTOR or Google Scholar will turn up the original description of the formation, which will list the type locality, but this is a long shot. A lot of these descriptions are buried in century-old regional journals that have not been digitized.

[UtahraptorFan]

I tried those without luck. You did warn me, after all ("this is a long shot."). There is a community college uphill from my apartment where maybe I could get tips from relevant faculty.

Another thing I thought of regarding one of the formations I mentioned (Wahweap) is that being named for a creek makes it not surprising to me that it's older than the nearby Kaiparowits formation, named for a plateau.

[UtahraptorFan]

I went to the US Geological Survey's website and used their contact page and they quickly responded with the following very helpful link:

https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Geolex/search/

One of the formations I mentioned in the last paragraph of the OP is named for a stream: the Javelina Formation takes its name from a creek. I also confirmed that, indeed, the Two Medicine Formation is named for the river.