Page 7 - maxson1928

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the CO'\U"Se of this study.

Geography and Distribution

The toaailiferous Mint Canyon formation is exposed in an extensive

are located in the northern pa.rt of the Fernando Quadrangle and in the

southeastern part of the Tejon Quadrangle in Los Angeles County, California.

These quadrangles embrace regions in the southeastern part of the

Liebre Mountain-Sawmill Mountain_district north of the Santa Clara Valley.

The deposits are situa.ted about equidistant from the 1os Angeles b&ein

and the Mohave Desert. Figure 1. shows the geographic position of the

Mint C&n1"on horizon with reference to vertebrate horizons of comparable

age in southern Californie.. Moat ot the area, although extensively

diaaer.,ted, is so covered with brush and soil that the exposures are poor.
,,
Figure 2. shows one of the best outcrops and it is typical of the group

from which fossils were obtained.

Geologic Features

The Mint Canyon formations overlies unconformably the Sespe?

' The beds tentatively
formation (upper Oligocene or lower I.11ocene).
assigned by Kew to the Sespe are not fossiliferous but have been

correlated on the basis of lithology and stratigraphy. In the Fernando

Quadrangle the formation consists largely of red a.nd buff colored coarse

sandstones and conglomerates, apparently terrestrial accUJ1111lations.

The Mint Canyon formation itself is a few thous&n.d. feet thick. A closer

estimation of thickness would require a large amount of detailed work

on the series. The beds are locally deformed. In places they are faulted

against a schistose basement complex. 'This is the case in the region
l
Kew, V!. S. W., U.S.G.S. :Bull. 753, p. 52, 1924