Navajo Sandstone Research Paper

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The Comparison of the Oriskany Sandstone and the Navajo Sandstone By Mekhali Peyyalamitta The Oriskany sandstone, is a sandstone that can be found in parts of West Virginia and Ohio. It has a white to brown color and has coarse to fine grains. It is siliceous, and fossiliferous. The Navajo sandstone is a sandstone that has a light pink color, and is also fine grained. It can be found in most parts of Utah. Can sandstones from opposite ends of the country, be similar? These two sandstones will be compared in areas such as, age, group, formation, depositional environment, thickness, shape of grains, and many others. The Navajo sandstone is much older in age compared to the Oriskany sandstone. The Navajo sandstone is from the early Jurassic period, which lasted from 1.2 to 950 billion years ago. (The Navajo Sandstone, 2010 ) The Oriskany sandstone is from the Devonian period which lasted from 416 to 358 million years ago. The main depositional environment of the Oriskany sandstone ranges from shallow to deeper subtidal to near shore shallow water and beach face environments. They are commonly found in West Virginia, eastern Ohio and the northern part of the potomac river. (Kostelnik & Carter, 2009) The depositional environment of the Navajo sandstone are big sand dunes, they are deposited there by wind. These sandstones …show more content…

The Oriskany sandstone has a permeability that ranges from 0.2 to 42.7 md (millidarcy). (Geological Survey research, 1970). The Navajo sandstone has a permeability of 1 to 50 md. The Navajo sandstone has a greater thickness than the Oriskany sandstone. The Oriskany has a thickness that varies from 12 to 500 feet. The thickest rocks are found in the ridge and valley province, they start getting thinner toward the northern basin margins. These rocks are resistant to weathering. The Navajo sandstone has a thickness of 700 meters at its maximum. (The Navajo Sandstone.

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