ABSTRACT

The quartzose Cedar Mesa, DeChelly, and White Rim Sandstone Members of the Cutler Formation in Utah and Arizona contain abundant brown tourmaline and have low zircon/zircon+tourmaline ratios. In contrast, Cutler arkoses to the east which had as a source the Uncompahgre uplift in Colorado and New Mexico, are almost devoid of brown tourmaline and generally have high zircon/zircon+tourmaline ratios. Seemingly the quartzose members did not have an Uncompahgre source.

The heavy mineral suites of the Cedar Mesa, DeChelly, White Rim, and Utah "Coconino" appear to be quite similar to each other and probably had a common source. This source was somewhere north of the Uncompahgre uplift as evidenced by prevalent southward-directed cross-bed dips in the White Rim. The cross-bed dips are subparallel to the White Rim strand line and represent a postulated longshore-current origin. Cross-bed dips in the Cedar Mesa, consistently from the northwest, that is, from out-to-sea, and cross-bed dips in the DeChelly, generally from the northeast, that is, from the Uncompahgre uplift, reflect only a final phase of transport and are unrelated to direction of source.