Eight stratigraphic sections of Permian and Triassic rocks have been studied over a 30 km by 150 km area in the Endicott and Philip Smith Mountains of the central Brooks Range. Six of the sections are located on the Endicott Mountains allochthon, and the remaining two are parautochthonous columns in the Mount Doonerak area. The sections record a facies transition between the autochthonous Sadlerochit Group and Shublik Formation of the northeastern Brooks Range and the characteristically siliceous rocks of the allochthonous Siksikpuk and Otuk formations of the western Brooks Range.

Laterally continuous and bioturbated beds of fine-grained sandstone, siltstone, and shale dominantly compose the Permian sequence, whereas the Triassic rocks consist of black shales, thin rhythmically bedded siliceous mudstones, and fossiliferous limestones. When the allochthonous sections are restored to a position south of the Mount Doonerak area, a general shallowing trend from southwest to northeast becomes evident within the reconstructed marine basin. To the south and west, the Permian sediments show a marked increase in silica content, with the occurrence of barite and a corresponding decrease in the thickness of the basal, coarser grained clastics. The Triassic formations also document an increase in silica and the presence of barite to the south and west, while becoming signi icantly sooty and phosphatic to the north and east. Ongoing petrographic and micropaleontologic studies of the field data will clarify these general paleogeographic relationships.

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