Barstow_Formation
Barstow Formation
Geologic formation in the Mojave Desert near Barstow, San Bernardino County, California
The Barstow Formation is a series of limestones, conglomerates, sandstones, siltstones and shales exposed in the Mojave Desert near Barstow in San Bernardino County, California.[1][2]
It is of the early to middle Miocene epoch, (19.3 - 13.4 million years ago) in age, in the Neogene Period.[3] It lends its name to the Barstovian North American land mammal age (NALMA).
The sediments are fluvial and lacustrine in origin except for nine layers of rhyolitic tuff.[3] It is well known for its abundant vertebrate fossils including bones, teeth and footprints.[4] The formation is also renowned for the fossiliferous concretions in its upper member, which contain three-dimensionally preserved arthropods.