Lithofacies of Spencer Formation, western Tualatin Valley, Oregon
The Spencer Formation crops out in a narrow band that trends north-northwest on the western edge of the Willamette and Tualatin Valleys, Oregon. It apparently conformably overlies mud rocks of either the Yamhill or the Nestucca Formation and is conformably overlain by the Pittsburgh Bluff Formation. The Spencer Formation consists of two members (informal): a lower highly micaceous sandstone (800-1000 ft) and an upper member that is micaceous siltstone and mudstone (1000-1300 ft). The lower member includes an upper part that is light-gray to creamy-gray, silty to muddy, pebbly lithic arkose to feldspathic litharenite, with minor arkose. Sorting is poor and beds may be laminated to ripple cross-laminated or massive and bioturbated with abundant mollusk shells, carbonized wood, and burrows. The lower part of the lower member is medium-gray to greenish-gray, silty, pumiceous lithic arkose to feldspathic litharenite. The texture tends to be more uniform and better sorted than that of the upper part of the member. Bedding is commonly massive due to bioturbation. The upper member is medium to dark-gray mudstone with thin pebble-conglomerate lenses. It intertongues with the lower member. Bioturbation, burrows, and carbonized wood are common. The trend in depositional environments appears to be from outer to mid-neritic (lower part, lower member) to shallow neritic, nearshore, and lagoonal (upper part, lower member, and upper member). The provenance of the Spencer Formation includes both proximal volcanics and distant plutonic and high-grade metamorphics.
- Research Organization:
- Portland State Univ., OR
- OSTI ID:
- 6886364
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8604187-
- Journal Information:
- Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States), Vol. 70:4; Conference: American Association of Petroleum Geologist Pacific Section convention, Bakersfield, CA, USA, 16 Apr 1986
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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