About This Item

Share This Item

The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 34 (1950)

Issue: 12. (December)

First Page: 2378

Last Page: 2378

Title: Some Formations Exposed in the Cuyama Gorge, Branch Mountain Quadrangle, California: ABSTRACT

Author(s): Thomas Clements

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

The Cuyama Gorge is that part of the valley of the Cuyama River cut through the San Rafael Mountains northeast of Santa Maria, California for a distance of more than 30 miles. The area extending 3 or 4 miles on either side of the gorge and approximately 17 miles along the river from the western boundary of Branch Mountain Quadrangle to the Thirty-Five Mile bridge has been mapped during the past three summers by the field geology classes of the University of Southern California.

Formations exposed in the area are: Franciscan, Knoxville, Chico, Sespe, Monterey, and Santa Margarita, although the last named is not found in the gorge proper. The Franciscan forms the core of a northwest-southeast anticlinal structure, with the Knoxville and Chico lapping up on both sides. Thick beds of the Sespe occur on the northeast flank, with only a small remnant on the southwest. Monterey is found only on the southwest flank, and patches of Santa Margarita occurring here and there on the higher ridges suggest that this formation formerly blanketed the whole area, thinning northwest.

The northeastern part of the area is complicated by the Nacimiento Fault, which has caused repetition of the Sespe and Chico.

End_of_Article - Last_Page 2378------------

Copyright 1997 American Association of Petroleum Geologists