Significance of the Precambrian Basement 

and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes on the 

Location of Tertiary Ore Deposits in the 

Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

SIR 2004-5218
Significance of the Precambrian Basement 

and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes on the 

Location of Tertiary Ore Deposits in the 

Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

By Edwin W. Tooker

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Five Sevier-age (Late Cretaceous) east-directed nappes in the Oquirrh Mountains, Utah 

overlie the nearly east-directed Uinta trend (Precambrian) basement lineament zone. Unique 

stratigraphic and structural features in two of the nappes containing Paleozoic carbonate-rich 

sedimentary rocks and intrusive Tertiary igneous stocks and fissures provide evidence for this 

favorable local geologic setting and the occurrence of base- and precious-metal ore deposits. 

These include the world-class Bingham gold, copper, molybdenum porphyry, the Ophir and 

Stockton base metal fissure and the Mercur disseminated gold mining districts.

SIR 2004-5218
U.S. Department of the Interior

Gale A. Norton, Secretary

U.S. Geological Survey

Charles G. Groat, Director

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2005

For sale by U.S. Geological Survey Information Services

Box 25286, Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225

This report and any updates to it are available online at:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2004/5218/

For additional information write to:

U.S. Geological Survey

Box 25046, Mail Stop 421, Denver Federal Center

Denver, CO 80225-0046

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Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply 

endorsement of the U.S. Government.

Although this report is in the public domain, it contains copyrighted materials that are noted in the text. Permission 

to reproduce those items must be secured from the individual copyright owners. 

Cataloging-in-publication data are on file with the Library of Congress (URL http://www.loc.gov/).

Produced in the Western Region, Menlo Park, California

Manuscript approved for publication, October 7, 2004

Text edited by James W. Hendley II

Layout and design by Susan Mayfield
 iii

Contents

Abstract ................................................................................................... 1

Introduction ................................................................................................ 2

Purpose of the report .............................................................................. 2

Location and geomorphic features ............................................................... 2

Geologic setting of north-central Utah ............................................................... 5

Precambrian basement terrane and the Uinta trend .......................................... 5

Paleozoic depositional basins ..................................................................... 7

Jurassic Orogeny ................................................................................. 7

Cretaceous Sevier Orogeny ........................................................................ 7

Recognition of Oquirrh Mountains nappes ...................................................... 7

Location of the nappes ........................................................................... 11

Hinterland source of the nappes .................................................................. 11

Movement of the nappes ........................................................................... 11

Convergence of nappes in the foreland ......................................................... 11

Uplift of the Oquirrh Mountains and igneous activity .......................................... 12

Formation of the Basin and Range Province ................................................... 12

Quaternary uplift and Pleistocene glaciation ................................................... 13

Geology, correlation, and economic importance of nappes ....................................... 13

Pass Canyon nappe ................................................................................. 14

Distinguishing nappe stratigraphic and structural features ........................... 15

Defining nappe stratigraphy ......................................................... 15

Defining nappe structures ............................................................ 15

Concluding observations about the nappe .......................................... 16

Location and types of igneous rocks ...................................................... 17

Associated mineral resources ............................................................... 17

Barneys Canyon and Melco mines ................................................... 17

Construction materials ............................................................... 17

Bingham nappe .................................................................................... 17

Distinguishing nappe stratigraphic and structural features ........................... 18

Defining nappe stratigraphy ......................................................... 19

Defining nappe structures ............................................................ 27

Location and types of igneous rocks ...................................................... 29

Bingham mining district area ......................................................... 29

Middle Canyon-Soldier Creek areas ................................................ 32

Lion Hill and Porphyry Knob areas ................................................... 32

Ophir-Mercur mining district areas ................................................... 32

Associated mineral resources ............................................................... 32

Bingham mining district ............................................................... 33

Mercur mining district .................................................................. 33

Ophir mining district .................................................................. 33

Production from the Bingham, Mercur, and Ophir mining districts ............... 33

Industrial minerals and construction materials .................................... 34
iv 

Rogers Canyon nappe .............................................................................. 34

Distinguishing stratigraphic and structural features .................................... 34

Defining nappe stratigraphy ......................................................... 34

Defining nappe structures ............................................................ 37

Proposed formation of Rogers Canyon nappe structure ........................... 38

Location and types of igneous rocks ...................................................... 38

Associated mineral resources ............................................................... 38

South Mountain nappe ........................................................................... 39

Distinguishing nappe stratigraphic and structural features ........................... 39

Definining nappe stratigraphy ......................................................... 39

Defining nappe structures ............................................................ 44

Location and types of igneous rocks ...................................................... 45

Associated mineral resources ............................................................... 45

Fivemile Pass nappe .............................................................................. 46

Distinguishing nappe stratigraphic and structural features ........................... 46

Defining nappe stratigraphy ......................................................... 46

Defining nappe structures ............................................................ 46

Location and types of igneous rocks ...................................................... 48

Associated mineral resources ............................................................... 48

Conclusions ................................................................................................ 48

Acknowledgments ....................................................................................... 49

References cited .......................................................................................... 49

Appendixes

1. Columnar section of Permian sedimentary rocks, Bingham mining district, by 

Welsh and James (1961) ........................................................................... 60

2. Measured sections of (A) the South Peak, (B) Salvation, and (C) Rush Lake formational 

units of Tooker and Roberts (1988), in the South Mountain nappe ........................... 61

Figures

1. Location of the Oquirrh Mountains’ 7 1/2-minute topographic quadrangles, the main 

mining areas and the inferred Uinta trend basement lineament .............................. 3

2. North-central Utah locations of the Oquirrh Mountains, the Basin and Range and Rocky 

Mountains physiographic provinces, and the inferred axial trace of the Uinta trend ...... 4

3. Inferred locations of the Paleozoic Sublette and Oquirrh miogeoclinal deposition basins 

on the craton platform, and the inferred directions of individual nappe movement to 

their foreland sites ................................................................................. 3

4. Generalized columnar sections showing th correlation of Paleozoic formations in the 

Oquirrh and neighboring mountain nappes ...................................................... 7

5. Inferred directions (arrows) and sequence (1 to-5) of Sevier-age nappe approaching 

the Oquirrh Mountains foreland .................................................................. 9

6. Locations of the Pass Canyon, Bingham, Rogers Canyon, South Mountain, and 

Fivemile Pass nappes in the Oquirrh Mountains ................................................ 10
 v

 7. Generalized geologic map of the Pass Canyon nappe ................................................................. 14

 8. Generalized geologic map of the Bingham nappe ........................................................................ 21

 9. Generalized columnar sections, lithology of the Lower and Upper Paleozoic 

formations in the Bingham nappe .................................................................................................... 25

10. Principal fold and fault structures of the Bingham nappe in the Bingham mining 

district, Utah .......................................................................................... 28

11. Distribution of igneous rocks in the Pass Canyon, Bingham, and South Mountain 

nappes in the central Oquirrh and South Mountains, Utah .................................... 30

12. Distribution of igneous rocks in the Bingham nappe, southern Oquirrh 

Mountains, Utah .................................................................................... 31

13. Generalized geologic map of the Rogers Canyon nappe ....................................... 35

14. Generalized geologic map of the South Mountain nappe .................................... 40

15. Comparison of columnar sections of common-age parts of the South Mountain 

and Bingham nappes .............................................................................. 43

16. Generalized geologic map of the Fivemile Pass nappe ....................................... 47

Tables

 1. Igneous rock occurrences in the Oquirrh Mountains nappe ...................................................... 13

 2. Lithology of Paleozoic formations in the Pass Canyon nappe .................................................... 15

 3. Lithology of Lower Paleozoic formations in the Bingham nappe ............................................... 18

 4. Lithology of Upper Paleozoic formations in the Bingham nappe ................................................ 22

 5. Production of base and precious metals in the Bingham Mercur, Stockton 

and Ophir mining districts in the Bingham and South Mountain nappes .................................. 23

 6. Lithology of Rogers Canyon nappe formations .............................................................................. 36

 7. Lithology of South Mountain nappe formations ............................................................................ 41

 8. Lithology of Fivemile Pass nappe formation ................................................................................... 46
Abstract

The Oquirrh Mountains are located in north central Utah, 

in the easternmost part of the Basin and Range physiographic 

province, immediately south of the Great Salt Lake. The range 

consists of a northerly trending alignment of peaks 56 km 

long. Tooele and Rush Valleys flank the Oquirrh Mountains 

on the western side and Salt Lake and Cedar Valleys lie on 

the eastern side. The world class Bingham mine in the central 

part of the range hosts disseminated copper-bearing porphyry, 

skarn, base-and precious-metal vein and replacement ore 

deposits. The district includes the outlying Barneys Canyon 

disseminated-gold deposits. Disseminated gold in the Mercur 

mining district in the southern part of the range has become 

exhausted. The Ophir and Stockton base- and precious-metal 

mining districts in the range north of Mercur also are inactive. A geologic map of the range (Tooker and Roberts, 1998), 

available at a scale of 1:50,000, is a summation of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) studies.

Information about the range and its mining areas is scattered. This report summarizes map locations, new stratigraphic 

and structural data, and reexamined data from an extensive 

published record. Unresolved controversial geological interpretations are considered, and, for the first time, the complete 

geological evidence provides a consistent regional basis for 

the location of the ore deposits in the range.

The geological setting and the siting of mineral deposits 

in the Oquirrh Mountains began with the formation of a Precambrian craton. Exposures of folded Proterozoic basement 

rocks of the craton, in the Wasatch Mountains east of Salt 

Lake City, were accreted and folded onto an Archean crystalline rock terrane. The accretion suture lies along the north 

flank of the Uinta Mountains. The western part of the accreted 

block was offset to northern Utah along a north-trending fault 

lying approximately along the Wasatch Front (Nelson and others, 2002), thereby creating a prominant basement barrier or 

buttress east of the Salt Lake area. 

The accretion suture along the north flank of the Uinta 

Anticline overlaps an earlier Precambrian east-west mobile 

zone, the Uinta trend (Erickson, 1976, Bryant and Nichols, 

1988 and John, 1989), which extends westward across western 

Utah and into Nevada. A trace of the trend underlies the 

middle part of the Oquirrh Mountains. Its structure is recognized by disrupted Paleozoic stratigraphic units and fold and 

fault evidence of thrust faulting, intermittent local uplift and 

erosion, the alignment of Tertiary intrusives and associated ore 

deposits. Geologic readjustments along the trend continued 

intermittently through the Paleozoic, Cenozoic, Tertiary, and 

the development of clastic deposits along the shores of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville. 

Paleozoic sedimentary rocks were deposited on the craton 

platform shelf in westernmost Utah and eastern Nevada as 

the shelf subsided gradually and differentially. Debris was 

shed into two basins separated by the uplifted Uinta trend, the 

Oquirrh Basin on the south and Sublette Basin on the north. 

Sediments were derived from the craton to the east, the Antler 

orogenic zone on the west (Roberts, 1964), and locally from 

uplifted parts of the trend itself. Thick accumulations of clastic 

calcareous quartzite, shale, limestone, and dolomite of Lower 

and Upper Paleozoic ages are now exposed in the Oquirrh 

Mountains, the result of thrust faults.

Evidence of decollement thrust faults in in the Wasatch 

Mountains during the Late Cretaceous Sevier orogeny, recognized by Baker and others (1949) and Crittenden (1961, 

is also recognized in the Oquirrh Mountains by Roberts and 

others (1965). During the late Cretaceous Sevier Orogeny, 

nappes were thrust sequentially along different paths from 

their western hinterland to the foreland. Five distinct nappes 

converged over the Uinta trend onto an uplifted west-plunging basement buttress east of the Oquirrh Mountains area: the 

Pass Canyon, Bingham, Rogers Canyon, South Mountain, and 

Fivemile Pass nappes (Tooker and Roberts, 1998). The defining stratigraphic and structural bases for nappe recognition 

are indicated in this report.

Local, thinned, tightly folded and fractured leading edges 

of sole and imbricate thrust faults overlying the mobile Uinta 

trend zone, became sites for Tertiary (Oligocene) intrusive 

and extrusive rocks and associated late-stage hydrothermal 

precious metal disseminated porphyry, skarn, and adjoining 

vein deposits. Regional Basin-and-Range faults in the Great 

Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late 

Cretaceous Thrust Nappes on the Location of Tertiary Ore 

Deposits in the Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

By Edwin W. Tooker
2 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

Basin during the late Cenozoic formed the present Oquirrh 

Mountains. The current topography of the range results from 

continuing uplift of the Uinta trend zone and erosion during 

the early Quaternary.

Introduction

The Oquirrh Mountains are the site of one of the most 

prominent base- and precious-metal mining areas of western United States (Singer, and others, 2002). The range has 

supplied base and precious metals, industrial minerals, and 

construction materials from four mining areas—the currently 

active Bingham mining district, which includes the nearby 

Barneys Canyon and Melco mines, and the now inactive Mercur, Ophir, and Stockton mining districts 

Much is known about the geology of the individual ore 

deposits in these districts and of the Oquirrh Mountains, but 

that information is dispersed and has not been fully integrated 

within a current regional geologic model. Complex geologic 

structures and poorly differentiated stratigraphic relationships 

in the range are not fully resolved. This summary and status of 

knowledge about the geology of the range attempts to clarify 

apparent differences of interpretation that have arisen. It is based 

on investigations by the author and his USGS colleagues.

Purpose of the Report

Some descriptions of the geology of individual parts of 

the range are as much as 1 to 12 decades old (Murphy, 1872; 

Spurr, 1895; Boutwell, 1905a,b; Wegg, 1915; Beeson, 1917 

and 1925; Hunt, 1924 and 1933; Peterson, 1924; Gilluly, 

1932; and Hammond, 1961). The most recent discussion of 

the geology of the Oquirrh Mountains as a whole by Butler 

(1920) is more than 75 years old. However, there are a number 

of more recent geologic descriptions of local (mining) areas 

in the range. These are published in field trip guides, mining 

company reports, and are in university faculty and student 

theses (Peacock, 1948; Field, 1966; James and others, 1961b; 

Cook 1961; Einaudi, 1975; James, 1978 and 1982; Wilson and 

Parry, 1995); Presnell, 1992; Presnell and Parry, 1996; Krahulac, 1997; Babcock, and others, 1997; Melker and Geissmand, 

1997; and Gunter and Austin, 1997.

This report is the author’s updated evaluation of the 

regional geology of the Oquirrh Mountains area; it also considers some of the controversial not fully resolved differences 

from past geologic analyses. The report primarily describes 

and summarizes the regional geologic relations observed by 

USGS maps of all or parts of fourteen 7 1/2-min. quadrangles 

(at a 1:24,000 scale)1, which include the Oquirrh Mountains 

(fig. 1). A compilation of these maps by Tooker, and Roberts 

(1998) at 1:50,000 scale provides the geologic foundation for 

the author’s assessment of the geological occurrence of ore 

deposits in the Oquirrh Mountains. 

Geophysical and geochemical studies are by the USGS 

(Mabey, 1960; Cook and Berg, 1961; Mabey and others, 1963, 

1964, 1978; Zietz and others, 1976; and Stein and others, 1989), 

mining companies (Kornze and others 1985), the Utah Geological Survey (Lenzi, 1971), and university students and instructors (Wilson and Parry, 1994). During this same period, several 

mining company exploration and development programs and a 

number of university faculty geologic research programs and 

student theses have been completed (Wilson, 1986, Wilson and 

Parry, 1995; and Presnell and Parry, 1996); these results are 

added to an emerging complex regional geologic model. 

More detailed geologic and geophysical studies completed 

within the mining districts, particularly those by the mine staffs 

of Kennecott Corporation (Babcock and others, 1995) and Barrick Mercur Gold Mines, Inc. (Kornze and others, 1985) have 

continued since the completion of the USGS’s regional mapping 

research. One of most recent geophysical reports by Nelson 

and others (2002) provides a solution for one of the perplexing 

Percambrian basement structures—the apparent occurrence of a 

barrier or buttress east of the Salt Lake area. 

Geologic science has advanced during the recent years 

with the advent of plate tectonics, as well as the availability of 

increasingly sophisticated geologic field and laboratory technology. Continuing world-class mining activity at Bingham 

(Singer, and others, 2002) and interest in gold exploration in 

the Oquirrh Mountains and elsewhere in Utah are the primary 

justifications for compiling and reevaluating the geologic 

information derived from recent geologic research by the 

USGS, mining companies, and university faculty and students. 

Differences in geologic interpretation of observations 

by geologists with dissimilar professional perspectives, 

objectives, and experiences have developed some alternative 

interpretations, which are noted in this report. The geologic 

descriptions and interpretations that follow, however, are the 

author’s responsibility. Diversity of opinion eventually leads 

geologists to conceive critical research to resolve these differences. Contribution to such resolution is the ultimate objective 

of this report.

Location and Geomorphic Features

The Oquirrh Mountains rise at the south end of the Great 

Salt Lake, about 25 km west of Salt Lake City, Utah. They 

constitute the first of a series of north-trending mountain 

ranges in the eastern part of the Basin and Range physiographic province in west central Utah (fig. 2). The Wasatch 

Fault, a prominent north-trending structure along the western 

margin of the Wasatch Range, lies east of the Oquirrh Mountains, and is the boundary separating the northern Rocky 

Mountains province on the east and the Great Basin part of 

the Basin and Range Province on the west. Stretching 56 

km due south from the south end of the Great Salt Lake, the 

Oquirrh Mountains end at Fivemile Pass, which separates the 

1Mills Junction, Farnsworth Peak (formerly Garfield), Magna, Tooele, 

Bingham Canyon, Lark, Stockton, Lowe Peak, Tickville Springs, South 

Mountain, Ophir, and Mercur.
Introduction 3

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Figure 1. Map showing the location of the Oquirrh Mountains, Utah, its constituent 7 1/2-minute topographic quadrangles, and 

the main mining areas (pick and hammer symbols). The inferred Uinta trend zone (between dashed lines) is also shown.

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Figure 2. North central Utah locations of the Oquirrh Mountains and neighboring ranges, the Precambrian cratons, the Basin and Range and graphic provinces, and the inferred generalized axial trace of the basement Uinta trend zone. Heavy dotted line indicates Physiographic Provi

5

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FIGURE
range from the Thorpe Hills. Antelope Island, lying 14 km to 

the north in the Great Salt Lake, is aligned with the Oquirrh 

Mountains but is composed of much older rocks than those 

in the range. The Great Salt Lake is the vestigial remnant of a 

large Pleistocene freshwater body, Lake Bonneville. 

The Oquirrh Mountains consist of a series of coalescing peaks that emerge abruptly from the south shore of Great 

Salt Lake, at about 1,280 m (4,200 ft), and rise up to 2,852 m 

(9,356 ft) elevation at Nelson Peak in the northern part of the 

range (fig. 2). The ridgeline drops down to 2,499 m (8,200 ft) 

in the vicinity of the Bingham Canyon in the central part of the 

range. The highest point of the range is Lowe Peak, elevation 

3,228 m (10,589 ft), in the southern part. The range gradually 

descends to Fivemile Pass at about 1,676 m (5,500 ft). 

Two topographically lower-lying, east-west-trending spur 

ranges flank the central part of the Oquirrh Mountains. South 

Mountain is a separate narrow outlier that trends west from the 

western side of the Oquirrh Mountains. The western Traverse 

Mountains join the Oquirrh Mountains on its eastern side. 

However, these lower mountain masses are integral and geologically compatible adjuncts to the main Oquirrh Mountains. 

The highest and broadest part of the Oquirrh Mountains is 

aligned with the east-west crossing axis of the western Traverse 

Mountains and South Mountain. Salt Lake and Cedar Valleys, 

which flank the range on the eastern side, are separated by the 

Traverse Mountains. South Mountain separates Tooele and 

Rush Valleys, which lie on the western side of the range.

The Oquirrh Mountains host five base- and preciousmetal mining districts. The Bingham mining district, located 

about 32 km southwest of Salt Lake City in the central part of 

the range (fig. 2), is classed as a porphyry copper deposit of 

world-class magnitude by Singer and others (2002). The more 

recently developed Barneys Canyon and Melco disseminated 

gold mines lie about 6 km north of the Bingham mine. The 

Mercur disseminated gold mine (and the adjoining Sunshine 

mining area), and the base and precious metal Ophir, and 

Stockton mining districts are located on the western side in 

the southern half of the range. Mercur lies 59 km southwest of 

Salt Lake City, and the Ophir and Stockton districts lie 7 and 

18 km, respectively, north-northwest of Mercur. 

The Oquirrh Mountains also contain industrial mineral 

resources in addition to extensive deposits of sand and gravel, 

which occur irregularly about the range in alluvial fans and 

shoreline bar and spit deposits. Calcite oolite sands (for flux 

in smelting) were once mined about the southern shores of the 

Great Salt Lake, and brick clay and limestone (also used for 

flux) were mined in the southern parts of the Oquirrh Mountains. A small deposit of the semi-precious mineral variscite 

also occurs in limestone at the south end of the range.

Geologic Setting of North-Central Utah

The central Utah terrane was developed during a succession of geologic events extending from the Precambrian to 

present times. The formation of a Precambrian craton includes 

Geologic Setting of North-Central Utah 5

development of a buttress in the Wasatch Mountains in concert 

with the Uinta trend, which is a persistent mobile, east-west 

lineament underlying the Oquirrh Mountains and the ranges 

extending westward. Paleozoic sedimentation in the miogeoclinal basins west of the craton resulted from erosion of the 

craton and the later Antler highland in Nevada. Jurassic and 

late Cretaceous orogenies created structural regimes above the 

Uinta trend that later were modified by formation of the late 

Cenozoic Basin and Range Province. Mid-Tertiary igneous 

activity and ore deposition also occurred locally along the 

Uinta trend. Quaternary uplift and erosion completed formation of the present land surfaces.

Precambrian Basement Terrane and the 

Uinta Trend

A stratigraphically and structurally complex Precambrian 

basement (cratonal) terrane underlies north-central Utah and 

extends westward into central Nevada (Eaton, 1982; Anderson 

and others, 1983; and Reed and others, 1993). Precambrian 

rocks crop out in the Uinta and Wasatch Ranges (Crittenden 

and others, 1952; Condie, 1969; Crittenden, 1976; Bryant 

and Nichols, 1988; and Bryant, 1993), on Antelope Island in 

the Great Salt Lake, and locally in west central Utah (Levy 

and Christie-Blick, 1989). Although much of this terrane is 

concealed west of the Wasatch Fault line in central Utah, geophysical data indicate its presence underlying the eastern Great 

Basin (Kistler and Peterman, 1978; Eaton and others,1978; 

Mabey and others, 1978; Bankey and Campbell, 1989; Henstock and others, 1998; and Nelson, and others, 2002). 

The basement includes two Precambrian rock terranes 

(King and Beikman, 1974; Sears and others, 1982; and Bryant 

and Nichols, 1988). They are exposed in the Wasatch Mountains near Salt Lake City. Crystalline rocks of the Archean 

Wyoming shield, described by King (1976) and Bryant (1979), 

lie north of a generally east-west-trending fault zone along 

the north flank of the Uinta Mountains. South of this zone, a 

predominantly Proterozoic oceanic terrane forms the core of 

the Uinta Mountains (Blick, 1979; Nelson and others, 2002).

Analysis of isotopic data for crystalline rocks by Nelson 

and others (2002) indicates that the folded Proterozoic rocks 

are accreted onto the Archean Wyoming shield from the south 

along an east-west suture north of the east-trending Uinta 

Mountains. They show that the western part of the leading 

edge of this accreted structure is faulted and offset northward into northern Utah, approximately along the line of the 

Wasatch Mountain front. A structural basinal low west of this 

fault became alined with the Uinta Anticline. The Uinta Anticline produced on the accreted plate east of the Wasatch Front 

and the underlying Wyoming shield provided a structural high 

or buttress along the range front in this area. In contast, the 

Wyoming Basin, which lies to the north, and the Uinta Basin, 

lying south of the Uinta axis, were structural lows. 

A belt of Tertiary intrusions and volcanic rocks 

extend westward from the Uinta Mountains suture (Johns, 
6 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

1989;Vogel, and others, 2002). This zone, the Uinta trend of 

this report, persists as an intermittent mobile structure in the 

Oquirrh Mountains and the ranges on-line to the west during 

the Paleozoic to Pleistocene, impacting sedimentary and igneous rocks above it.

 There are several lines of evidence for the Uinta trend: 

(1) A number of west-trending linearly disposed intrusive 

and extrusive rocks of Tertiary Miocene age in the Wasatch 

Mountains and in mountain ranges of the Great Basin west of 

the Wasatch Fault (Armstrong and others, 1969; Moore and 

others,1979; Moore and McKee,1983 and John (1989). (2) Evidence of local uplift and erosion of sedimentary rocks overlying 

the Bingham plutons during Oligocene igneous activity (Slentz, 

1955). (3) Evidence of irregular, periodic local uplifts along the 

trend in western Utah and eastern Nevada during the Paleozoic 

(Webb, 1958; Coats, 1987; Brooks, 1956; and Roberts and 

Tooker, 1969). (4) Uplift and local erosion deposits in Pleistocene Lake Bonneville. (5) Geophysical data of Bankey and 

Campbell (1989) also support the existence of the trend.

Field and Moore (1971) report an isotopic signature for 

the Bingham intrusives that indicates their derivation, in part at 

least, from crustal rocks. This implies that the trend has deepreaching roots. However, Farmer and DePaolo (1983) have 

challenged the validity of this isotopic signature.

There is added indirect evidence from regional geochemical data that identifies minor amounts of platinum occurring in 

ore deposits along a zone overlying the Uinta trend from Ely, 

Nevada, to southeastern Wyoming (Page and Tooker, l979; 

Tooker 1979). The source of this platinum anomaly also is 

assumed to be deepseated.

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Figure 3. Inferred locations of the Paleozoic miogeoclinal Oquirrh and Sublette Basin deposition areas on the craton platform, the 

North American Craton and Antler orogenic belt sediment source areas, and inferred directions of individual nappe movement to 

their foreland sites along the Uinta-trend axis.
Paleozoic Depositional Basins

An uplifted Uinta trend crosses the Paleozoic miogeocline in a west-southwest direction, separating the depositional 

area into two basins, the Oquirrh Basin on the south side, and 

the Sublette Basin on the northern side of the trend (fig. 3). 

A thick sequence of Oquirrh Basin sediments was deposited 

on an irregular, broad, gradually and differentially subsiding, 

shallowly submerged craton shelf, presumably located in what 

is now western Utah and eastern Nevada (Stewart and Poole, 

1974; Peterson, 1977). These sedimentary rocks crop out both 

in the Timpanogos nappe in the Wasatach Mountains (Baker 

and others, 1949, Tooker, 1983) and in the Bingham nappe in 

the Oquirrh Mountains (Tooker and Roberts, 1970). A much 

thinner sequence of Sublette Basin sediments in the hinterland was deposited on a more slowly subsiding shelf. These 

rocks crop out in the Rogers Canyon nappe in the Oquirrh 

Mountains (Tooker and Roberts, 1970) and in the Mount 

Raymond nappe in the Wasatch Mountains (Crittenden, 1959, 

Tooker, 1983). The general characteristics of the two contrasting sequences of sedimentary rocks, shown in figure 4, are 

discussed later in more detail. 

Overall, the Paleozoic rocks exposed in the Oquirrh 

Mountains are mainly thick accumulations of various combinations of Paleozoic carbonate-quartz clastics, orthoquartzite, 

shale, limestone, and dolomite (Tooker and Roberts, 1970). 

They contain an abundant fauna of macro and microfossils. 

These indicate deposition on a generally shallow, slowly 

subsiding, miogeoclinal craton shelf environment (Gordon 

and Duncan, 1970). During the early Paleozoic, well-sized, 

Geologic Setting of North-Central Utah 7

Figure 4. Generalized columnar sections showing the correlation of Paleozoic formations in the Sevier belt foreland nappes 

in the Oquirrh, East Tintic, and Wasatch Mountains.
8 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

clean sedimentary materials were derived from the rising and 

eroding continental craton to the east. Later, during mid and 

upper Paleozoic time, sedimentary debris originating north of 

the Uinta trend in the Sublette Basin part of the miogeocline 

also began to include less well-sized, mixed source materials 

from the erosion of a rising Antler belt farther west, which 

was composed of oceanic-derived rocks (Roberts, 1964; Poole, 

1974; and Wilson and Laule, 1979). The composition of the 

resulting sedimentary rocks in the Oquirrh and Sublette Basins 

varied during time as well as along the shelf, depending on 

their proximity to and the relative contributions of materials 

from contrasting sources of sedimentary materials (Tooker and 

Roberts, 1988).

Structural factors along the Uinta trend complicate the 

early Paleozoic miogeoclinal stratigraphic record of the hinterland area. Uplift along the trend, beginning in early Ordovician time resulted in an absence of Ordovician, Silurian, 

and much of the Devonian sedimentary record in the part of 

Bingham nappe in the Oquirrh Mountains owing to non-deposition or erosion (Gilluly, 1932, Roberts and others, 1965; and 

Tooker, 1983). The Stansbury disturbance in Late Devonian 

time, described by Brooks (1956), Rigby (1959), Morris 

and Lovering (1961), and Roberts and Tooker, (1969), also 

initiated arching, uplift and faulting along parts of the Uinta 

trend producing the conglomerates of the Stansbury Formation. Local conglomeratic lenses lying north of the trend in the 

Pennsylvanian-age rocks of Elko County, Nevada, are reported 

by Coats (1987). The Uinta trend can not be reliably inferred 

farther west than Eureka, Nevada, because of the overlap of 

thrust plates from the west during the Antler orogeny in Late 

Devonian or Early Mississippian time.

Jurassic Orogeny

Late Jurassic plutonism and deformation (Allmendinger, 

and others, (1984) occurred in the eastern Nevada-northwestern 

Utah area, the probable hinterland of the Sevier-age thrusts. 

Miller and Hoisch (1995) review the evidence of localized 

magma plutons and metamorphosed wallrocks accompanying 

modest local thrusts with minimal frontal breakout. According 

to Camilleri and others (1984), the Sevier hinterland in northeast 

Nevada experienced two Mesozoic metamorphic events. A Late 

Jurassic event is characterized by contact metamorphism about 

sparse upper- to mid-crustal syntectonic plutons and synchronous crustal shortening and thickening. They propose that a 

Late Cretaceous regional metamorphism of the crust resulted in 

major crustal thickening and provided a mechanism for producing the Sevier-age decollement thrusts in Utah. 

Wilson and Parry (1995) report that the K-Ar ages of 

illite-rich clays in altered and mineralized limestone from the 

Mercur mining district in the Oquirrh Mountains range from 

98.4 to 226 Ma. From this they estimate that the main alteration-gold mineralization event occurred at about 152±4 Ma 

and thus may be correlated with the Late Jurassic orogeny. 

Presnell and Parry (1996) conclude that folds in the Oquirrh 

Mountains at the Barneys Canyon deposit in the Pass Canyon 

nappe also were formed by this same Jurassic orogenic episode. Their analysis implies a much broader Jurassic structural 

event than the more localized event proposed by Miller and 

Hoisch (1995). An analysis of this seeming contradiction in 

the timing of thrusts is considered later in this report.

Cretaceous Sevier Orogeny

The Sevier Orogeny was proposed by Armstrong (1968b) 

in the eastern Great Basin. The orogeny is marked by extensive decollement thrust faulting in the western parts of Utah. 

Baker and others (1949) first reported an anomalous juxtaposition of sedimentary rock sequences comprising stratigraphically similar thick and thin miogeoclinal shelf units in 

the Wasatch Mountains (the Mount Timpanogos and Mount 

Raymond sequences of Tooker and Roberts, (1962). They 

conclude that the positioning of the nappe is the result of 

sequential eastward transport of stratigraphic plates of Paleozoic rocks by thrust faults during a compressional phase of the 

Late Cretaceous Sevier Orogeny. The Timpanogos and Mount 

Raymond nappes (fig. 3) were the first of a series that moved 

eastward on thrust faults. They were followed by the nappes 

exposed on the Oquirrh Mountains and Stansbury Mountains 

(Roberts and others, 1965). These thrusts are part of a decollement zone that extends discontinuously from Alaska to Mexico (Armstrong, 1968a; and Roberts and Crittenden, 1973). 

The thrust nappes approached topographically different 

parts of the craton foreland. In Wyoming and south central 

Utah, the thrusts moved into topographic lows that permitted 

farther eastward penetration and relatively little fragmentation 

of them (Oriel and Armstrong, 1966 and Morris,1983). Thrust 

lobes that converged in the Oquirrh Mountains area underlain by the uplifted Uinta trend buttress were fragmented into 

separate nappes2. 

Evidence of the erosion of the Sevier nappe’s foreland is 

observed in late Mesozoic and Cenozoic strata deposited on 

the craton platform east of the Wasatch Mountains. Sedimentary rock deposits consist mainly of clastic conglomerate, 

sandstone, shale, and lesser carbonate sediments that were 

derived from erosion of the foreland of Sevier thrust plates 

(Spieker, 1946; Lawton and others, 1993; and Heller and 

Paola, 1989).

Recognition of Oquirrh Mountains nappes

Five Oquirrh Mountains nappes coalesced sequentially 

in the Oquirrh Mountains (Tooker and Roberts, 1970) (fig. 

5). Stratigraphic and structural features previously thought to 

be indistinguishable are now identified. Differences in their 

stratigraphic composition suggests that they were derived 

from different parts of the miogeocline (Tooker, 1970, 1983) 

2A nappe, as used here, is a sheetlike allochthonous structural unit formed 

by thrust faulting. The nappe, in turn, may contain lesser imbricate overlying 

thrust faults.
Figure 5. Diagram showing the inferred directions (arrows) and movement sequence (1 to 5) of Sevierage nappes (A-E) approaching their foreland placement areas on and about the Uinta trend basement 

buttress in the present Oquirrh Mountains. Shaded area is inferred foreland.

Geologic Setting of North-Central Utah 9

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Figure 6. Location of the Rogers Canyon, Pass Canyon, Bingham, South Mountain, and Fivemile Pass nappes, the 

main mining areas and the principal connecting fault structures in the Oquirrh Mountains. Shading helps differentiating the nappes.

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in the Oquirrh and Sublette miogeocline basins (Tooker and 

Roberts, 1988). 

Regional-scale thrust faulting in the Wasatch Range 

during the Sevier orogeny is described by Baker and others 

(1949), Armstrong and Oriel (1965), and Armstrong (1968b). 

A broader distribution of thrust faults in Utah is identified by 

Roberts, and others (1965), Roberts and Crittenden (1973), 

and Beutner (1977). The maps of the thrust belt in the Oquirrh 

Mountains by Tooker and Roberts (1998) show the merging of 

the five thrust plates, indicate the directions of their movement 

into the foreland, and demonstrates differences in the stratigraphy and structures of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks (Tooker, 

1983). Most of the thrust faults underlying individual plates 

may not crop out, but stratigraphic and structural features of 

the nappes are sufficient evidence for their concealed presence. 

Major thrust napppes are not recognized in the early 

reports by Welsh and James (1961) and Swensen (1975a,b). 

They assume that the stratigraphy and structures in the 

Oquirrh Mountains in the vicinity of the Bingham mine are 

continuous and broken only by an unconformity. Babcock 

and others (1995) conclude later that thrust faults occur in 

the range caused by the Jurassic Elko and Cretaceous Sevier 

Orogenies. These formed “a series of northwest-trending 

folds south of Bingham and northeast-trending folds north of 

Bingham with several major thrusts and other complex faulting in the vicinity of the deposit.” They too do not recognize 

a separate Pass Canyon nappe, which is proposed here. This 

leads to differences in our respective interpretations of the 

structure of the Oquirrh Mountains.

Location of the Nappes

The Oquirrh Mountains thrust plates include the Pass 

Canyon, Bingham, Rogers Canyon, South Mountain, and 

Fivemile Pass nappes (fig. 6). They were mapped originally 

on the 7 1/2-minute topographic quadrangles located in figure 

l. The Pass Canyon nappe is exposed across the central part 

of the range north of the Bingham Canyon mine and south of 

Nelson Peak in the Bingham Canyon 7 1/2-min. quadrangle 

(Tooker and Roberts, 1988). The Bingham nappe occurs in the 

southern two-thirds of the range, south of the Bingham Canyon mine. It crops out in the Tooele (Tooker, 1980), Bingham 

Canyon (Tooker and Roberts, 1988), Lark (Tooker, unpub. 

data), Stockton (Tooker and Roberts, 1992), Lowe Peak 

(Tooker, (1992), Tickville Springs (Moore, 1973a), Ophir and 

Mercur (Tooker, 1987), and Cedar Fort (Tooker, unpub. data) 7 

1/2-min. quadrangles. The Rogers Canyon nappe at the north 

end of the range occurs in the Mills Junction (Tooker and 

Roberts, 1971a), Farnsworth Peak (formerly Garfield) (Tooker 

and Roberts, 1971b), Magna (Tooker and Roberts, 1971c), 

and Bingham Canyon (Tooker and Roberts, 1988) 7 1/2-min. 

quadrangles. The South Mountain nappe occurs in the Stockton (Tooker and Roberts, 1992) and South Mountain (Tooker, 

unpub. data) 7 1/2-min. quadrangles. The Fivemile Pass nappe 

is located north of Fivemile Pass at the very south end of the 

range in the Mercur 7 1/2-min. quadrangle (Tooker 1987). 

Hinterland Source of the Nappes

The location of a depositional site and hinterland source 

of sedimentary rocks comprising the nappes near or west of 

the Utah-Nevada State boundary is inferred in figure 3. The 

geology of this area is complex structurally and lithologically 

(Cook, and others 1964; Armstrong, 1972; Wenicke, 1981; 

Todd, 1983; Miller, 1983; Jordan, 1983; Camilleri and others, 

1994, and Miller and Hoisch, 1995). None are able to pinpoint 

where the sediments were actually laid down because of the 

overlap of subsequent thrusts and the formation of intervening 

uplifted core complexes (Compton, 1983). Thus the hinterland 

area remains a subject of continuing speculation that is beyond 

the scope of this report.

Movement of the Nappes

The geologic mechanism for producing decollement 

thrust faults is still debated, whether it be the gravity model of 

Rubey and Hubbert (1959), the detachment model of Almandinger and Jordan (1981), or models by Hamilton and Meyers 

(1966), Armstrong (1972), Roberts and Crittenden (1973), 

Allmendinger, and others (1983), Price (1989), and DeCelles 

and others (1995). Parts of the thrust belt are estimated to have 

been transported eastward toward the present foreland zone as 

little as 10 km (Hintze, 1973) to as much 150 km (Crittenden, 

1961). Movement of the thrust belt was irregular, both in time 

and space (Heller and others, 1986). The Wyoming sector of 

the thrust belt was emplaced earlier than the Utah sector (Oriel 

and Armstrong, 1966).

A mechanism for initiating and facilitating nappe movement of Sevier thrust faults also is not fully understood. Some 

investigators (Roberts and Crittenden, 1973; and Todd, 1983) 

call upon the gravity model of Ruby and Hubbard (1959). A 

detachment model described by Allmendinger and Jordan 

(1981, 1984) envisions a process of upthrusting initiated by 

an expanding magma chamber in the crust. Cross (1986) 

proposes the development of a Sevier foreland basin, which 

facilitates eastward movement of the nappes by gravity. 

However formed originally, the nappe structures observed in 

the Oquirrh Mountains part of the foreland are the result of 

the final burst in movement of the thrust plate and have the 

appearance of gravity emplacement in their accretion onto the 

craton platform (Tooker, 1970)

Convergence of Nappes in the Foreland

The Oquirrh Mountain nappes converged sequentially 

onto the Uinta trend buttress (figs. 5 and 6). Tooker and Roberts (1988) infer that the Pass Canyon nappe was the first to 

arrive, followed successively by the Bingham, Rogers Canyon, South Mountain, and Fivemile Pass nappes. The relative 

timing of nappe emplacements in the Oquirrh Mountains is 

determined by their placement in the range, their fold structures, degree of refolding, and alteration.

Geologic Setting of North-Central Utah 11
12 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

The directions of fold axes are assumed to be nearly 

normal to the final direction of nappe movement. The fold 

systems shown diagrammatically in figure 5 (from Tooker, 

1998) indicate that the Pass Canyon nappe (or lobe) moved 

generally east-northeast to eastward and was folded as it 

overran the Uinta trend buttress. The northern part of the 

Bingham nappe, whose folded sedimentary rocks are bent 

to the northwest, moved northeast overlapping the Pass 

Canyon plate on the south side of the buttress. However, 

the main direction of Bingham nappe movement in the 

southern part of the range is nearly due east. The Rogers 

Canyon nappe subsequently approached the foreland from 

the northwest, overlapping the Pass Canyon and Bingham 

nappes. It moved generally southeast onto the buttress. The 

South Mountain nappe moved north and north-northeast 

along the Stockton thrust and overlapped the Bingham 

plate. Finally, the Fivemile Pass nappe also docked on the 

Bingham nappe at the south end of the range, having moved 

in from the south-southwest. 

Uplift of the Oquirrh Mountains and 

Igneous Activity

Evidence from the types and locations of igneous rock 

suites and the timing of intrusive and extrusive activity 

permits inferring that the uplift of the sedimentary rocks 

overlying parts of the Uinta trend continued during the midTertiary (Oligocene) period of igneous activity (table 1). 

The sequence of intrusion along the northeast-trending fault 

system in the Bingham district, developed by Waarnars and 

others (1978), implies that the faults were reopened successively following intrusion of the composite stocks, and 

cross cutting dikes. Lateral movement along the faults is not 

pronounced, which suggests that a vertical component was 

the main reopening force. A relatively narrow zone of large, 

nearly comparable-aged monzonite-type stock and dike intrusions in the range overlie a broad Uinta trend zone between 

the Bingham and Stockton intrusive centers. Volcanic rocks 

are concentrated along the eastern margin of the range for 

short distances normal to the zone of uplift. In a general way, 

the intrusive and extrusive rocks farther from the main zone 

are progressively younger in age and less abundant. 

The Bingham and Last Chance stocks were emplaced 

early in the sequence (table 1). Moore’s (1973b) estimate 

that the stocks were formed under a sedimentary cover 

of about 2,300 m is based on fluid inclusion data. Yet the 

associated volcanic units, which undoubtedly were formed 

at or close to the surface, presently lie adjacent to the 

stocks. One of the possibilities is that uplift of the stocks 

and erosion of the original sedimentary rock cover brought 

the intrusives closer to the surface by the time of the formation of the younger volcanic rock south of the main intrusive zone. Late stages of the Oligocene igneous activity 

were marked by the extrusion of andesitic to latitic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks in Salt Lake Valley and the 

West Transverse Mountains (Smith, 1961; Moore, 1973a). 

Late-stage hydrothermal solutions developed near the close 

of intrusive activity were introduced and ore and gangue 

minerals were precipitated locally in structurally prepared 

and stratigraphically favorable rocks in and adjoining the 

intrusives (Moore, 1973c).

The concentration and types of intrusive and extrusive 

igneous rocks varies in most of the nappes. The Bingham 

nappe hosts the major intrusive and extrusive center in the 

range (Tooker and Roberts, 1988). The Rogers Canyon and 

Fivemile Pass nappes, which lie at the extreme ends of the 

range show little evidence of igneous activity. The distribution of intrusive (Ti) and extrusive (Tv) rocks, shown later 

in figures 11 and 12, are summary maps of intrusive rocks in 

the Oquirrh Mountains from Tooker and Roberts (1998). The 

petrology and petrography of these rocks are described by 

Moore (1973b). Additional published studies of these rocks 

are by Smith (1961), Lanier (1978a), Warnaars and others 

(1978), Wilson (1978) and Waite and others (1997). Descriptions of them are not repeated here, but their general characteristics and ages are summarized in table 1. The original 

authors’ classifications of rock types are used in this report. 

Formation of the Basin and Range Province

Faults along the eastern edge of the Basin and Range 

Province (Nolan, 1943) were initiated in the late Cenozoic. 

They resulted from crustal extension and accompanying magmatism following a period of plate convergence 

and crustal compression that had produced the Antler and 

Sevier orogenic events (VonTish and others, 1985). This 

region is characterized by many normal faults, some of 

which are still active. Physiographically this is an area of 

internal drainage. 

The present topography of the Basin and Range is that 

of intermountane alluvial-filled basins and narrow blockfaulted mountain ranges (Gilbert. 1928, Stewart, 1978). The 

mountain ranges in western Utah and in most of Nevada 

are surrounded by shallow to deeply filled basins containing clastic sedimentary materials resulting from accelerated 

uplift and erosion. Some of the graben-like basins flanking the Oquirrh Mountains contain more than 3,600 m of 

poorly consolidated sediments (Cook and others, 1966). 

The faults bounding the mountains are believed to be listric, 

and ranges along the eastern side of the Great Basin, such 

as the Oquirrh Mountains, have been tilted as much as 10 

to 25 degrees to the east (Stewart, 1978; and Melker and 

Geissman, 1997). Block faulting probably is the result of 

back-arc uplift and extension developed during the early 

and middle Cenozoic from diapiric rise and lateral spreading of the North American Plate, which overlay and was 

heated by a subducted Farallon Plate at depth (Davis, 1979; 

Stewart, 1978; Eaton, 1979; and Zobach, 1983). The present Oquirrh Mountains are delineated by the Basin and 

Range event (Gilluly, 1928). 
Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 13

Quaternary Uplift and Pleistocene Glaciation

Uplift and intense erosion during the early Quaternary 

unroofed the Oquirrh Mountains and ranges elsewhere in the 

region. Extensive alluvial fans and pediments were produced 

along the range fronts, particularly in the central part overlying the Uinta trend zone (Tooker and Roberts, 1971b). These 

include the Harker Fanglomerate deposits (Slentz, 1955). 

Although Tooker and Roberts consider that this unit is mainly 

of Quaternary age, its deposition most probably, in part at 

least, may be correlated with the Tertiary period of accelerated 

uplift in the central Oquirrh Mountains. 

 During the Pleistocene glacial interval, Lake Bonneville, 

which was a very extensive body of freshwater, occupied the 

valleys between the ranges (Gilbert, 1886; Eardley and others, 

1957; and Crittenden, 1963). The multi-level shorelines mark 

fluctuating levels of this lake and are the sites of widespread, 

locally well preserved bars, spits, and other coarse clastic shoreline features. These deposits are most extensive in the areas 

overlying the Uinta trend.

Geology, Correlation, and Economic 

Importance of Nappes

The Oquirrh Mountains stratigraphic and structural data 

provide new bases for identifying and interpreting the geologic 

evolution of the Oquirrh Mountains. Until recently, the general 

physical similarity of Upper Paleozoic stratigraphic units in 

the central Oquirrh Mountains and the lack of exposures of 

sole thrust faults has hindered recognition of nappes in the 

range. Thus, particular emphasis here is placed on published 

Upper Paleozoic stratigraphy of formations3 (Upper Mississippian Chester to Lower Permian Leonard ages) and the folding 

patterns of these strata. These data are summarized in accompanying tables. More detailed unpublished stratigraphic data 

are included in the appendix and in cited USGS Open-File 

reports. 

 The fold and fault structures in the Oquirrh Mountains, 

primarily the result of nappe emplacement (Tooker, 1983; 

Tooker and Roberts, 1988), are summarized on maps of each 

nappe. Igneous intrusives and the spatially associated ore 

deposits are located on the leading edges of thrusts that lap 

onto the Uinta trend buttress. Quaternary clastic deposits skirting the range are not part of nappe structures but were derived 

in large part from the uplift and erosion of the range and 

provide direct evidence of continuing local structural activTable 1. Main types of igneous rocks in the Oquirrh Mountains nappes.

Location and Type of body Composition Age in m.y. Reference

BINGHAM NAPPE

 Bingham mining district area

Last Chance stock Equigranular monzonite 39 Moore and McKee, 1983

Bingham stock Equigranular quartz monzonite (border) 38 Moore and McKee, 1983

Bingham stock Porphyritic quartz monzonite (core) 37 Moore and Lanphere, 1971

Dike cutting Bing. stock Quartz latite porphyry 36 Moore and others, 1968

Volcanic flow Andesite porphyry 38 Moore, 1973c

Shaggy Peak plug Biotite rhyolite vitrophyre 33 Moore, 1973c

Middle Canyon area

 Dike Quartz latite porphyry 37 Moore, 1973c

Selkirk Canyon area

Tooele dike or sill Quartz monzonite prophyry 38 Moore, 1973c

Mercur minining district area

Eagle Hill plug Rhyolite 32 Moore and McKee, 1983

Ophir mining district area Lion Hill stock (?) Biotite granodiorite porphyry 37 Moore and McKee, 1983

PASS CANYON NAPPE

 Pass Canyon area

Sill or dike Latite porphyry 36 Moore, 1973c

SOUTH MOUNTAIN NAPPE

 Stockton mining district area

Calumet mine stock Monzonite porphyry 38 Moore, 1973

South Mountain Hornblende latite tuff breccia 30 Moore, 1973b

South Mountain Nepheline basalt 40 Moore and McKee, 1983

3Informally named stratigraphic units are indicated where the requirements of the Code of Stratigraphic Nomenclature for naming formations in 

the Pass Canyon, Rogers Canyon, nappes are not met. New names for some 

units identified earlier will be required by the code because of geologic 

name preemptions elsewhere. In such cases, the previously assigned names 

are identified here for clarity in making comparisons with information 

presented here.
14 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

ity in the part of the nappe that overlies or adjoins the Uinta 

trend. Sketch maps that highlight or focus attention on specific 

structural features in the five nappes in the following sections 

are derived principally from 1:24,000-scale maps by the author 

and his collaborators, which are updated and summarized in 

the map of the Range by Tooker and Roberts (1998).

Pass Canyon Nappe

The Pass Canyon nappe is recognized as a separate 

entity on the basis of its distinct stratigraphy and structure. It 

is located in the north-central part of the Oquirrh Mountains, 

north and northwest of the Bingham mining district (fig. 6). 

The nappe is composed of the Dry Fork (Pennsylvanian-Permian) and younger Flood Canyon (Permian) units of Tooker and 

Roberts (1988). A brief description of the unit’s sedimentary 

rock succession is summarized in table 2. The base and top 

contacts of the units are faults and their distribution in the 

range, shown in figure 7, is based on the map of the Bingham 

Canyon quadrangle (Tooker and Roberts, 1988).

The north side of the Pass Canyon nappe is delimited 

by the overlying Rogers Canyon nappe (Tooker and Roberts, 

1988). The boundary lies partly along the North Oquirrh thrust, 

which underlies the Rogers Canyon nappe, and partly along 

the down-dropped, steeply dipping Nelson and Tooele tear or 

normal faults (fig. 7). The southern boundary of the Pass Canyon nappe is along its join with the overriding Bingham nappe, 

which is underlain by the (unexposed) sole Midas thrust. This 

bounding fault is concealed by downdrop along the Pine Canyon, AJ, and Bingham Canyon Faults, which are steep dipping 

Figure 7. Generalized geologic map of the Pass Canyon nappe showing the main structures and the Dry Fork (Pdf) and Flood 

Canyon (light shaded) formational units of Tooker and Roberts (1988). The adjoining Rogers Canyon and Bingham nappes are dark 

shaded. 1, Barneys Canyon mine; 2, Melco mine; Qd, mine dumps; Qh, Harkers Fanglomerate; Qa, alluvium; Tv, volcanic rocks; Ti, 

intrusive rocks. 

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Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 15

normal (south side down). The western side of the Pass Canyon 

nappe is bounded by range-front normal faults and overlapping 

Quaternary deposits. The eastern side of the nappe is limited by 

overlapping Tertiary volcanic rocks, Quaternary alluvial deposits, and Holocene mine waste dumps.

Distinguishing Nappe Stratigraphic and 

Structural Features

The nappe is characterized by its intensely faulted strata 

composed only of sparsely fossiliferous Permian and Upper 

Pennsylvanian limestone, massive quartzite, sandstone, and 

conglomerate, and intraformational breccias. These are topped 

by thin-bedded, laminated blue-gray limestone (table 2). The 

sole thrust underlying the nappe is not exposed. Because 

these units are delimited and segmented by faults, and their 

true thickness is as yet not fully known, a complete unfaulted 

measured section is not available. 

Defining Nappe Stratigraphy

Two informal formational units, the older Dry Fork Pennsylvanian and Permian (?) and younger Flood Canyon Permian(?) units of Tooker and Roberts (1988) are proposed. Their 

locations in the nappe are shown in figure 7. The younger 

Flood Canyon is composed of clastic sediments and contains 

a thin conglomerate bed and a thick interformational breccia. 

Poorly sorted brown to tan sedimentary rocks characteristically weather to dark brown and black. One may infer that 

most of these poorly sorted sedimentary rocks were derived 

primarily from the western Antler belt rather than the craton.

Dry Fork unit sedimentary rocks are poorly sorted massive to thick interbedded dark brown and tan, composed of 

highly clastic quartzite and sandstone and thin carbonate beds 

that weather dark brown to black.

The ages of the units are based on a sparse, poorly preserved Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian brachiopod, 

bryozoan, and coral fauna in conglomerate pebbles in the 

upper part of the Dry Fork unit and Wolfcamp fusulinids in 

siliceous sandstone and black chert layers. The age of Flood 

Canyon strata is determined mainly from sparse Early Permian 

(Wolfcamp) fusulinids by Welsh and James (1961). 

The presence of conglomerate, breccia, and generally 

poorly sorted hinterland-type sediments contrast with those 

that occur in the Bingham nappe. This suggests their derivation primarily from the erosion of an oceanic source area 

rather than a well-washed and sorted craton sediment source, 

and their deposition in the hinterland overlying the Uinta trend 

during a local periodic uplift.

Defining Nappe Structures

Stratigraphic units are tightly folded, locally asymmetric 

to overturned, some beds are sheared out. Normal and offsetting tear faults are developed by thrust faults against the 

buttress. Some folds are refolded locally by the overlapping 

subsequent Rogers Canyon and Bingham nappes. 

 A complexly faulted system of folds in the units (fig. 

7) overlies the Uinta trend buttress. The nappe was moved an 

unknown distance more or less directly from a west or westsouthwest basin hinterland. In the process of overriding the 

Uinta trend buttress, the clastic sedimentary rocks in the nappe 

Table 2. Summary of lithology of Paleozoic formations in the Pass Canyon nappe (Tooker and Roberts, 1988).

Age Formation Thickness Lithology

Fault

Permian (Wolfcamp)Flood Canyon 

unit

Not measured Shaly-laminated,dark gray upper limestone and arenaceous 

limestone, weathers bluish-gray. Superficially resembles 

Kirkman Limestone in Wasatch Mtns. (Baker and others, 1949). Cliff-forming, interbedded medium to thick 

bedded, light gray to brownish-tan calcareous sandstone, 

interformational breccia arenaceous limestone and white 

calcareous sandstone.Lower part is a thick series of 

yellowbrown to reddish-brown-weathering calcareous 

sandstone and calcareous quartzite beds

Fault

Permian 

(Wolfcamp) 

and Upper 

Pennsylvanian

Dry Fork unit Not measured Interbedded thin- to medium-bedded, cross-laminated, lightbrown to tan calcareous sandstone, siltstone, limestone 

and chert pebble conglomerate. Weathers light-gray to 

tan. Quartzites are poorly sorted sand and silt. Weathers 

dark brown to black. Lower part is massive medium- to 

thick-bedded, dark brown and tan quartzite and sandstone.

Weathers brown and black.

Rogers Canyon thrust fault
16 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

were tightly folded, locally sheared, and imbricate thrust, tear, 

and normal faults developed. The fold structures in the formations are distinctive. Dry Fork strata are generally thicker 

and massive, and their folds are asymmetrical, but open. The 

thinner-bedded, more calcareous strata in the Flood Canyon 

unit southwest of Nelson Peak are tightly to isoclinally folded 

and fragmented by faults. The character and intensity of folding in these formational units also depends on their location, 

whether on or near the uplifted Uinta trend. Massive quartzites, sandstones, and interbedded limestones of the Dry Fork 

unit wrap around an inferred basement ridge in faulted, tight 

asymmetrical folds exposed on the northwest side of the upper 

reaches of Flood Canyon. Southward, these folds are covered 

by the Flood Canyon unit, which was thrust over them. Farther 

south of the basement buttress, Dry Fork strata occur in more 

symmetrical and open folds. These folds trend to the east in an 

irregular pattern around the flank of the Uinta trend buttress. 

Direct evidence for postulating the early arrival of the Pass 

Canyon nappe is the refolding of isoclinal folds. Sedimentary 

rocks were redeformed locally by the pressure and drag of the 

successively overriding Bingham and Rogers Canyon thrust 

lobes that approached the promontory buttress from nearly 

opposite directions (fig. 3). Very tight, isoclinally folded Flood 

Canyon unit beds are overturned to the northeast at the base 

of Flood Canyon. They are overturned to the southwest in the 

upper parts of the same fold. Folds in the more massive quartzite-rich beds in the Dry Fork unit on the north side of Flood 

Canyon are asymmetric and locally overturned to the southeast. 

The northern border separating the Pass Canyon and Rogers Canyon nappes on the western slope of the range lies along 

the moderately north-dipping North Oquirrh thrust, which 

underlies the Rogers Canyon nappe. The thrust is also exposed 

in Bates Canyon, locally in the fault block north of Barneys 

Peak, and in klippen blocks on the prominent ridge south of 

Bates Canyon (Tooker and Roberts, 1988). The northeast contact of the Pass Canyon nappe with the Rogers Canyon nappe 

is along the steeply dipping Nelson and Tooele normal faults. 

A Pass Canyon (sole) thrust fault is inferred to underlie 

the Pass Canyon nappe. It is concealed by faults that downdropped Rogers Canyon and Bingham nappes. The amount 

of movement on the sole thrust may be tens of kilometers 

while displacements on the imbricate thrusts undoubtedly are 

a few meters at most. Relatively close-spaced, steep-dipping 

tear faults cause some folds to be offset small distances. Tear 

faults of this type lie normal to the fold axes where the folds 

are tensed by bending into a tight arc as the nappe is dragged 

against the Uinta trend basement structure. 

 Numerous steeply dipping normal faults trend northeast 

and northwest. The northeast-trending faults are the most 

prominent system within the range. Some of them developed 

from tension in stressed, arched, and folded strata formed 

during emplacement of the sole thrust. Later uplift along the 

Uinta trend and regional Basin and Range extension undoubtedly reactivated and extended earlier-formed normal faults. 

Offset of stratigraphic units along these faults within the nappe 

is not large. 

The Tooele Valley range-front boundary lies along a 

series of linked and branching north-northwest- and westnorthwest-trending normal faults that were developed or 

reactivated during formation of the Basin and Range. They 

have more substantial vertical displacement than most normal 

faults in the range. 

Concluding Observations About the Nappe

Several deductions that support the existence of a Pass 

Canyon nappe are derived from its stratigraphic and structural 

data. These conclusions differ from those proposed earlier.

 (1) Clastic sedimentary rocks are characteristic of the 

Pass Canyon nappe; they do not occur in the Oquirrh 

Basin deposits that were deposited south of the Uinta 

trend. Deposition of thin conglomerate beds and an 

interformational breccia in the nappe hinterland must 

have occurred on or close to the Uinta trend. The thick 

breccias are believed to result from the sloughing of 

partially lithified fragments coincident with continuing 

sedimentation that cemented the sloughed fragments 

during a local limited uplift episode along the Uinta 

trend. The sedimentary rocks above the breccia include 

the lower part of Swensen’s (1975a) “Kirkman-Diamond Creek Formation.” The upper part grades into a 

limestone that superficially resembles Kirkman Limestone strata in the Wasatch Mountains described by 

Baker and Crittenden (1961). 

 (2) Thus, on the basis of its stacking position in the 

Oquirrh Mountains, its sediment composition, and 

sparse fauna, the Pass Canyon nappe most resembles 

the Timpanogos nappe of Baker and others (1949) 

in the Wasatch Mountains and is believed to be a 

periferal part detached from that nappe. The Pass 

Canyon nappe was separated from the Timpanogos 

nappe along an inferred major east-trending tear fault 

beneath Salt Lake Valley, and was lodged on the Uinta 

trend buttress in the Oquirrh Mountains. 

 (3) There are differences of opinion between Welsh and 

James (1961) and Swensen (1975a) and this report about 

the existence of the Pass Canyon nappe.They consider 

these rocks to be the continuing upper part of the strata 

exposed in the Bingham mining district. A generalized 

columnar section showing their Curry, Clinker, and Kirkman formational units is reproduced, in part, in appendix 

1. It indicates their interpretation of Permian age sedimentary rocks that occur above an unconformity marked 

by an initial conglomerate in a thick quartzite portion 

of their measured section. More recently, Babcock and 

others (1995, p. 317) interpret these rocks as comprising 

a folded thrust plate resulting from the Late Jurassic Elko 

orogeny. However, they still believe that the Curry, Clinker, and Kirkman formational units of Welsh and James 

(1961) overlie the Bingham Mine Formation (emplaced, 

according to them, by the Late Cretaceous Sevier orogeny) above a “slight disconformity.”
Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 17

 (4) The author believes that it is now possible to show that 

significant stratigraphic and structural geological features permit separating the Pass Canyon and Bingham 

nappes. They originated in separate parts of the sedimentary basin. Their main structures are discordant and 

their sedimentary rocks exposed in the Oquirrh Mountains are not conformable. The distinctive somewhat 

clastic Pass Canyon rocks were deposited on or close to 

a rising part of the Uinta trend. The nappe was moved 

eastward by the Sevier thrust and ramped directly onto 

the Uinta trend buttress. In contrast, as will be shown, 

the Bingham nappe was deposited within the Oquirrh 

Basin. During the Sevier thrust episode, the northern part of the nappe was deflected tangentally and 

deformed against the southern side of the Uinta trend in 

a northeastward glancing drag movement while most of 

the nappe moved eastward less deformed into a topographic low on the south side of the trend. 

Location and Types of Igneous Rocks

Quartz latite porphyry dikes intrude tightly folded Permian 

sedimentary rocks in the Pass Canyon nappe. These intrusions are similar in composition to those in the Bingham area. 

Intrusive rocks are not well exposed in the nappe, and their 

intermittent distribution is mainly along faults. Only a few isolated, discontinuous, much altered patchy outcrops of porphyry 

dikes occur on ridge noses in the Pass Canyon nappe (Swensen, 

1975a; Tooker and Roberts, 1998). One of these in a tributary 

of Pass Canyon was dated at 36.5 ± 1.1 Ma (Moore, 1973b). 

Generally the intrusives seem to be spatially associated with the 

northeast-trending fault systems such as the Tooele Fault (fig. 

7). Andesitic dikes(?) and latitic volcanic flow rocks along the 

edges of the eastern side of the range were also described briefly 

by Swensen (1975a) but are not dated.

Associated Mineral Resources

The mineral resources of the Pass Canyon nappe include 

the disseminated gold deposits in the Barneys Canyon and 

Melco mine areas. Abundant construction materials, which 

occur along the margins of the nappe in Tooele and Salt Lake 

Valleys, are the result of the erosion on the nappe and distribution by Pleistocene lake currents.

The Barneys Canyon and Melco Mine

Sediment-hosted disseminated gold in the Barneys Canyon and Melco deposits (fig. 7, deposits 1 and 2) also contain 

minor silver (Gunter and others, 1990; Babcock and others, 

1995). These deposits were in an area previously thought to 

be a less mineralized area 7 km north of the Bingham center. 

Jaren Swenson identified the disseminated gold potential of 

the area in 1980. Exploration followed his collection of a 

small jasperoid breccia sample that assayed 0.2 oz gold per ton 

(Presnell, 1992). The Barneys Canyon mine is currently active. 

Babcock and others (1995) record its early gold and silver 

production in table 3.

Gold occurs in altered permeable beds and along 

imbricate shears in the Barneys Canyon mine (Babcock 

and others 1995). The deposit occurs mainly in the clastic 

carbonate sedimentary footwall rocks of the Flood Canyon 

unit. Fossiliferous limestone of the Grandeur Member of 

the Park City Formation, which nominally is part of the 

Rogers Canyon nappe, which was thrust over the Flood 

Canyon unit, is mineralized near the Barney’s Canyon 

mine. The author believes that the Park City Formation is 

a down-dropped klippen, part of an imbricate thrust in the 

upper plate of the North Oquirrh thrust.

Presnell and Parry (1996) conclude that the Barneys 

Canyon gold deposition is not related to the poorly exposed 

sparsely distributed intrusive dike(s), which are compositionally similar to the Bingham intrusives of Tertiary age. On the 

basis of Late Jurassic (K-Ar) ages of illite clays formed in 

the Permian limestone host rocks, they propose that the gold 

was leached from the host shales, migrated to sites where it 

encountered meteoric water in the crests of anticlines, and was 

deposited. The author concurs with Babcock and others (1995) 

that the ore deposits at Barneys Canyon are related to those at 

the Bingham deposit and consider this age problem in a continuing discussion of the Mercur district deposits. 

Construction Materials

Numerous sand and gravel pits that occur in the floor of 

Tooele Valley represent shoreline beach and bar deposits on 

successive levels of Quaternary Lake Bonneville. They were 

derived from erosion of the Range, particularly that part of 

the range overlying the Uinta trend. Thicker bench deposits of 

sand and gravel along the eastern and western margins of the 

Oquirrh Mountains also mark successive lake-level shorelines 

(Tooker and Roberts, 1971a). These deposits have been extensively mined locally for construction materials for highways, 

Great Salt Lake shoreline-containment dikes, and for construction of nearby milling, smelting, and refining facilities.

Bingham Nappe

The Bingham nappe is composed of basin-deposited 

sedimentary rocks that were folded and faulted in moving 

eastward on the sole Midas thrust fault (fig. 8). The nappe 

constitutes the largest thrust plate in the Oquirrh Mountains 

and its segmented parts extend southward to include the East 

Tintic Mountains (Tooker, 1983, and Morris, 1983). It is 

subdivided by major tear faults and changes in sedimentary 

rock facies southward (Morris and others, 1977; Morris,1983). 

The Paleozoic stratigraphic section in the Oquirrh Mountains 

includes lower Paleozoic rocks described originally by Gilluly 

(1932) and upper Paleozoic rocks reported by Tooker and 

Roberts (1970) (tables 4 and 5). The stratigraphic section at 

Tintic, Utah, was described by Morris and Lovering (1961). 
18 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

Age Formation Member Thickness (m) Lithology, age, and correlation

Upper 

Mississippian

(Chesterian)

Great Blue 

Limestone

Mercur limestone 437 Interbedded thin- to medium-bedded limestone, cherty 

and argillaceous limestones, calcareous shale intervals; 

sparsely fossiliferous with brachiopods, bryozoa, and 

corals; conformable contacts. Correlative in part with 

the Green Ravine Formation, Rogers Canyon nappe, 

and with the Chulios and Polker Knoll Members of 

Great Blue Formation in Bingham nappe at Tintic 

(Morris and Lovering, 1961)

 

Long Trail Shale 29 Interbedded thin-bedded calcareous and carbonaceous 

shale in upper part, thin- bedded fossiliferous 

argillaceous limestone and silty limetone below. Upper 

and lower contacts are transitional and conformable.

Silveropolis 

limestone

280 Interbedded thin- to meduim-bedded locally fossiliferous 

and argillaceous limestones, locally silicified, and 

calcareous sandstone or sandy limestone. Cherty 

limestone lenses common in the middle part.

Fossils include brachiopods, corals, and bryozoa. 

Correlative with the Toplif and Paymaster members 

of the Great Blue Formation in the Bingham nappe at 

Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 1961)

Upper 

Mississippian

Humbug N.A. 197 Interbedded thin- to medium-bedded, medium-gray 

limestone which weathers brown-gray, and brownweathered quartzite up to 30 m thick; occasional sparse 

brachiopod, coral, and bryozoa fauna. Correlative with 

Humbug Formation in Bingham nappe at Tintic (Morris 

and Lovering, 1961).

(Meramecian)

Desert Limestone N.A. 198 Very fossiliferous, thin- to medium-bedded, blue-gray 

cherty limestone with thin (1-2.5 m) bed of phosphatic 

shale at the base. Brachiopods, bryozoa and coral 

fauna.

The Oquirrh Mountains portion of the nappe extends 

from the vicinity of the Bingham mine to the south end of the 

range (fig. 8). The northern boundary lies along steep normal 

and tear faults that separate it from the Pass Canyon nappe. 

The Bingham nappe is overlapped along thrusts from the 

south-southwest by the structurally and stratigraphically discordant South Mountain and Fivemile Pass nappes and alluvial 

deposits in Cedar Valley. The western edge of the nappe in 

Rush Valley lies along intersecting northeast- and northwesttrending range-front normal faults that are overlapped locally 

by the Harkers Fanglomerate and younger alluvial debris shed 

off the range. The nappe is overlapped on the east by volcanic 

rocks and Quaternary gravel deposits.

 In the vicinity of the Tintic mining district, the Bingham 

nappe is overlapped by the Tintic Valley thrust (Morris, 1983). 

The northern extension of that same east-directed thrust, east 

of the Stansbury Mountains, also overlaps the Oquirrh Mountains’ Bingham and South Mountain nappes. 

Distinguishing Nappe Stratigraphic 

and Structural Features

A nearly continuously folded and faulted stratigraphic 

section, exposed in the central and southern parts of the 

Oquirrh Mountains, is approximately 8,000 m thick and 

contains rocks ranging in age from the Cambrian Tintic 

Quartzite upwards to an eroded top in the Pennsylvanian 

Bingham Mine Formation. The main stratigraphic features of the constituent formations are summarized in the 

Table 3. Lithology of lower Paleozoic formations in the Bingham nappe (Gilluly, 1932; Gordon and others, 2000).
Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 19

Age Formation Thickness (m) Lithology, age, and correlation

Lower 

Mississippian

Gardison 140 Very fossiliferous, thin-bedded toward the base, more 

massive sandy, and cherty limestones in upper part. 

Unconformable lower contact, conformable upper 

contact. Correlative with the Gardison Formation, 

Bingham nappe at Tintic.

Unconformity

Middle Devonian 

(?)

Fitchville and 

Pinyon Peak 

Limestone, 

undivided

56 Coarsely crystalline gray dolomite, weathers dark gray, 

one massive bed contains conspicuous white calcite 

fossil casts. Correlative in part with the Pinyon Peak and 

Fitchville Formation at Tintic

Unconformity

Upper Cambrian Lynch Dolomite 25-305 Thick-bedded, light gray dolomite with some dark-gray 

dolomite containing short white rods in the lower part, 

and with a few limestone beds in the lower half; is a 

prominent cliff-forming unit in Ophir Canyon. The 

lower part resembles Bluebird dolomite at Tintic; the 

upper part is similar to the Cole Canyon Formation, also 

at Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 1961).

Middle Cambrian Bowman 

Limestone

85 Mottled shaly limestones, infraformational conglomerate, 

and oolitic limestone; a shaly unit about 11 m thick is 

at the base. Sparse trilobite fauna. Probably correlated 

with Herkimer Limestone at Tintic (Morris and 

Lovering, 1961).

Hartman 

Limestone

198 Banded gray mottled thin-bedded limestone with shale 

partings, some oolites toward the top. Sparse trilobite 

fauna. Correlated with the lower part of the Teutoinic 

Limestone at Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 1961).

Ophir Formation 98 Micaceous shale, sandy shale toward the base, contains 

several beds of mottled shaly limestone. Brachiopod and 

trilobite (Olenellis) fauna. Correlated with the Ophir 

Formation at Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 1961).

Lower Cambrian Tintic Quartzite 90 Thick-bedded, cross-bedded, white quartzite, which 

weathers reddish brown. Becomes shaly toward the top 

and grades into the Ophir Formation. Correlated with 

the Tintic Quartzite at Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 

1961).

Concealed

Table 3. Lithology of lower Paleozoic formations in the Bingham nappe (Gilluly, 1932; Gordon and others, 

2000).—Continued

columnar section, figure 9, and in tables 6 and 7. Individual 

Bingham nappe formations in the Oquirrh Mountains are 

described on the basis of geologic maps by Tooker (1980, 

1987, and 1992) and Tooker and Roberts (1988 and 1992). 

Erosion has removed any younger Phanerozoic rocks that 

may have been present originally overlying the Uinta trend 

in the Oquirrh Mountains. These rocks are present elsewhere in the southern part of the nappe in the East Tintic 

Mountains. Precambrian rocks, which underlie the basal 

Tintic Quartzite elsewhere in this region, are not exposed in 

the Oquirrh Mountains but may be concealed in the nappe 

beneath the Tintic Quartzite.

Defining Nappe Stratigraphy

Sedimentary rocks of the Bingham nappe shown in figure 

9 are grouped into (a) those of lower Paleozoic age (Pl), (b) 

the Manning Canyon Shale (*Mm), and (c) upper Paleozoic 

(Oquirrh Group) strata (Po). Correlations are made with similar-aged rocks within the nappes adjoining the Bingham nappe 

in the Oquirrh Mountains and the nappe of comparable age in 

the East Tintic Mountains in order to show the facies changes 

that occur in the Bingham nappe south of the Uinta trend. 

Lowest Paleozoic rocks form the base of the stratigraphic 

section of the nappe in the Oquirrh Mountains. Farther south 
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Figure 8. Generalized geologic map of the Bingham nappe showing the distribution of Paleozoic rocks and their major structural features. Main by heavy lines. Adjoining nappes are in dark shading. Typical rocks that define the nappe include Pl, Lower Paleozoic Oquirrh Group, Mm, Man

shading); o, Upper Paleozoic Oquirrh Group, Qh, Harker Fanglomerate, Qd, mine dumps, Qa alluvium, Tv, volcanic rocks.
22 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

Table 4. Lithology of middle and upper Paleozoic formations in the Bingham nappe (Tooker and Roberts, 1970).

Age Group Formation Member Thickness (m) Litholoogy and correlation

Unconformity (erosion)

Upper 

Pennsylvanian 

(Missourian)

Oquirrh Bingham 

Mine

Markham 

Peak

1,311 Multibedded, intergradational, medium- to thick-bedded 

orthoquartzite, calcareous quartzite, calcareous sandstone, 

and thin limestone; upper contact is erosional, lower contact 

is conformable; sparse fossils include colonial corals, 

brachiopods, and fusulinids. Roughly correlative with the 

Kessler Canyon Formation in the Rogers Canyon nappe.

Clipper 

Ridge

910 Thick bedded orthoquartzite, calcareous quartzite, calcareous 

and quartzose sandstone, and medium interbeds of cherty, 

argillaceous and fossiliferous limestones. Two prominent 

thick limestone marker beds at the base include the Jordan 

and Commercial limestones. Contacts are conformable. 

Member is correlative in part with the Kessler Canyon 

Formation, Rogers Canyon nappe, and the Salvation unit, 

South Mountain nappe (Tooker and Roberts, 1992).

Middle 

Pennsylvanian 

(Desmoinesian)

Butterfield 

Peaks

2,765 Cyclic interlayered thin- to medium-bedded, locally 

crossbedded calcareous quartzite, orthoquartzite, and 

calcareous sandstone, cherty, fossiliferous, and argillaceous 

limestones. Fossils include abundant coral, brachiopod, 

and fusulinid fauna. Generally correlative with the Erda 

Formation, Rogers Canyon nappe, and the Rush Lake unit, 

South Mountain nappe (Tooker and Roberts, 1992).

Lower 

Pennsylvanian 

(Morrowan)

West 

Canyon 

Limestone

442 Cyclical thin- to medium-bedded, clastic, arenaceous 

limestones, cherty, argillaceous, and dense limestones, 

calcareous quartzite, silica-cemented sandstone, generally 

banded and crossbedded. Fossils locally abundant include 

brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, rare trilobite fragments, 

and fusulinids. Correlated with the Lake Point Limestone, 

Rogers Canyon nappe.

Lower 

Pennsylvanian 

and Upper 

Mississippian 

(Chesterian)

N.A. Manning 

Canyon 

Shale

347 Predominantly shale with thin interbeds of limestone and 

thin- to thick-bedded dark brown quartzite in the lower 

half. Grades into dominant limestone in the uppermost part, 

transitional into the Oquirrh Group, West Canyon Limestone. 

Fossils abundant, include brachiopods, corals, and bryozoans.

Lower Paleozoic See table 3
Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 23

Table 5. Metal production from the Oquirrh Mountains mining districts.

CU 

(000 t)*

MO 

(000 t)*

AU 

(000 oz)*

AG 

(000 oz)*

PB 

(000 t)*

ZN 

(000 t)*

HG 

Flasks

Bingham

1863-19721 11,900 360 13,253 244,4134 2,4004 10044

1973-19812 1,670 ? 3,639 ? ? ?

1982-19903 551 27 616 811

1991-19922 579 973 7,679

1993-19962 1,217 >516 >8,600

Total 15,917 >387 18,997 261,503 2,400 1,000

Mercur

1871-19506 0.2 1,100 223 1.8 0.7 3,338

1983-19907 766.6 ?

1991-19922 248.5 ?

1994-19952 210.1

1996-19978 875

Total 3,200 >3,338

Ophir and Stockton

1870-19012&5 101.5 12 50 329 17

Ophir

1902-19722&5 4.8 10.6 14 172 46

Stockton

1902-19702&5 2.9 74 11 245 86

Barneys Canyon

1989-19902 157

1991-19922 238

1993 395

Total 790

Total Production 16,026.4 >387 23,017.20 253,201 3,147.80 1,149.70 >3,338

*

Thousand tons; thousand ounces

1James (1978).

2USGS (1883-1923, 1995-1996) and USBM (1924-1994).

3British Petroleum Co. (1986) and USBM (*1924-1993).

4The UV Industries closed the Lark and U.S. Mines underground workings in 1970, ending the main 

production of silver, lead, and zinc ores (Tooker, 1990).

5Stowe (1975).

6Kornze and others (1985).

7Shrier, American Barrick (1993, verbal commun.).

8Kerr (1997).

Figure 9. Generalized columnar section of lower and upper Paleozoic formations in the Bingham nappe.
26 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

at Tintic, Utah, the upper part of the Precambrian Big Cottonwood Formation is included in the base of the Bingham nappe. 

Bingham nappe rocks were deposited in a continually 

sinking Oquirrh Basin. They are generally well sorted and 

composed of rounded clean sand grains. The limestones are 

very fossiliferous in the Oquirrh and East Tintic Mountains 

sections. This is in contrast with the Timpanogos nappe, in 

which Baker and Crittenden (1961) reported a generally less 

abundant fossil fauna. The Lower Paleozoic stratigraphic 

section is 2,812 m thick in the Oquirrh Mountains and was 

originally described by Gilluly (1932). The formations shown 

in table 4 range from Cambrian quartzite to Mississippian 

limestone. They crop out mainly in the core of the Ophir 

anticline and eastern part of the Long Ridge anticline in the 

southern Oquirrh Mountains (fig. 8).

Correlations with the East Tintic stratigraphy, based 

on the work of Morris and Lovering (1961), demonstrate 

changes in facies southward in the Bingham nappe. The 

Tintic Quartzite at Tintic is almost eight times thicker than 

its 9 m counterpart in the Oquirrh Mountains. At Tintic the 

formation is underlain conformably by the Precambrian Big 

Cottonwood Formation. Thinning of the unit in the Oquirrh 

Mountains may be due to a lack of deposition, its bypass 

across the Uinta trend, or more likely, its exclusion by the 

sole Midas thrust.

There are no formations in the Oquirrh Mountains correlative with the more than 1,500 m of Upper Cambrian, Lower 

Ordovician, Silurian, and Lower Devonian carbonate rocks at 

Tintic. There are no clastic deposits peripheral to the trend due 

to the erosion of them, if they once were present in the Oquirrh 

Mountains. These sediments bypassed the northern part of the 

Oquirrh Basin because of the uplifted Uinta trend. The succeeding Upper Devonian Fitchville Formation is present in the 

Oquirrh Mountains but is much thinned in comparison with 

the serction at Tintic. One of the characteristic massive gray 

marker limestones in the Fitchville, called the “eye bed” for its 

large calcite blebs, occurs in both localities. 

The Upper Mississippian Great Blue Limestone in the 

Oquirrh and East Tintic Mountains are of comparable composition and thickness, but the upper members of the formation 

at Tintic are those of a very shaly “starved basin” composition 

in comparison with limestone strata of the same age in the 

Oquirrh Mountains.

Manning Canyon Shale is shown as a separate formation 

on figure 8 to mark a prominant topographic break and the 

boundary between the lower and upper Paleozoic rocks in the 

Oquirrh Mountains. The formation is 347 m thick and Upper 

Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian in age. Its lithology, 

described in table 5, is similar to that at Tintic.

Upper Paleozoic sedimentary rocks in the Bingham nappe 

consist of three Oquirrh Group formations, 5,177 m thick, 

that crop out as broad north- to north-northwest-trending folds 

(fig. 8) in the higher northern and eastern parts of the Oquirrh 

Mountains. The type localities of the constituent formations 

described by Tooker and Roberts (1970) are in the north 

central Oquirrh Mountains, near the Bingham mining district. 

The formations conformably overlie the Manning Canyon 

Shale. Gilluly (1932) originally named these rocks the Oquirrh 

Formation. They are now redesignated the Oquirrh Group 

by Welsh and James (1961). It includes three formations, the 

Lower Pennsylvanian (Morrow) West Canyon Limestone, the 

Middle Pennsylvanian (Desmoines) Butterfield Peaks Formation, and Upper Pennsylvanian (Missouri-Virgil) Bingham 

Mine Formation, which is subdivided into Clipper Ridge 

and Markham Peak Members (Nygreen, 1958; Tooker and 

Roberts, 1970). They are described briefly in table 3. Their 

paleontologic ages and regional correlations are discussed by 

Gordon, and Duncan (1970). 

The stratigraphic section of the Bingham nappe in the 

Oquirrh Mountains is nearly 2,000 m thicker than at Tintic. 

The 442-m-thick West Canyon Limestone is composed of 

cyclic repetitions of thin-to-medium bedded very fossiliferous arenaceous, bioclastic, cherty, densely crystalline and 

argillaceous limestones and thin calcareous quaretzite beds. 

Conformably overlying it is the 2,765-m-thick Butterfied Peaks Formation. It is also cyclically bedded. A more 

siliceous (that is, orthoquartzite, calcareous quartzite and 

sandstone) regime of sedimentary rocks begins with the 

Clipper Ridge Member of the Bingham Mine Formation. 

The limestones are interbedded with quartzite beds 46 to91 m thick. Cyclic fossiliferous limestone and calcareous 

quartzite marker beds at the base include the 110 m Jordan 

and the 41 m Commercial Limestone beds, which are the 

main units replaced by base and precious metal deposits in 

the Bingham Mining District. Similar-aged (Clipper Ridge) 

rocks at Tintic are 975 m thick and are predominantly limestones. The Markham Peak Member is composed mainly 

of thick-bedded to massive orthoquartzite and calcareous 

quartzite, sandstone, and siltstone. A few interbedded thin, 

0.3 to 1 m, fusulinid bearing arenaceous limestones are also 

replaced by the sulfide ores in the district (Rubright and 

Hart, 1968, Atkinson and Einaudi, 1978). The Bingham 

Mine Formation is composed of well-sorted, clean quartrzitic beds that weather tan to light brown in contrast with 

dark brown to black weathering rocks in the adjoining Pass 

Canyon nappe.

Gordon and Duncan (1970) do not identify Lower 

Permian fossils in the Oquirrh part of the Bingham nappe. 

Permian ages reported for the upper parts of the stratigraphic section by Welsh and James (1961) are based on 

rocks that Tooker and Roberts (1988) now include in the 

Pass Canyon nappe on the basis of its mapped structural 

and stratigraphic features. If Permian rocks overlay the 

Pennsylvanian rocks now exposed in the northern end of the 

Bingham nappe in the Bingham district, they most probably 

were eroded during subsequent periodic Tertiary uplift of 

the Uinta trend in that area. 

Morris and Lovering (1961) report that post-Oquirrh 

Group Paleozoic rocks in the southern East Tintic Mountains 

overlie the group disconformably and include the 209-m-thick 

(Leonard) Diamond Creek Sandstone and 494-m-thick (Leonard-Guadalupe) Park City Formation.
Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 27

Defining Nappe Structures

Distinctive Oquirrh Mountains main and secondary folds 

and sole, imbricate, tear and normal fault structures (fig. 8), 

were derived primarily from emplacement of the nappe. They 

are principally the result of differences in the relative competence of the rock strata, their locations on or peripheral to 

the basement Uinta trend buttress, and their proximity to the 

leading edges of sole and (or) imbricate thrusts. The Bingham 

nappe was folded as it moved east, east-northeast to northeastward on the sole Midas thrust fault. The northern part of 

the nappe moved tangentally onto the Uinta trend buttress 

and the previously docked Pass Canyon nappe. The nappe 

was stratigraphically and structurally thinned northeastward 

by the Midas thrust as it rose against the trend. Tightly folded 

and sheared upper Oquirrh Group strata occur along the lead 

edge of the nappe at Bingham, whereas a few kilometers to 

the southwest at Ophir, the complete stratigraphic section 

includes Cambrian Tintic Quartzite at its base (Tooker, 1992). 

Through-going main folds are the most prominent structures 

in the range, but locally they are paralleled on the upper plates 

of imbricate thrusts in the nappe by secondary folds of more 

limited length. Thrust, tear, and normal faults comprise the 

main fault structures in the range. They may be reactivated 

locally by subsequent extensional tectonics. 

Two principal types of folds are main (named) and 

secondary folds in figure 8. The main folds on the upper 

plate of the Midas thrust fault are composed of thick, massive, and competent strata of the upper Paleozoic Oquirrh 

Group. Through-going Long Ridge and Ophir Anticlines are 

flanked by the Pole Canyon and Bingham Synclines. Except 

for the Ophir Anticline, which is described later, these folds 

form the high backbone of the range and are broad, of high 

amplitude, and generally north-northwest-trending structures. 

They bend to the northwest at their northern ends where the 

thrust-thinned stratigraphic section at the leading edge of the 

thrust fault impinges tangentially on the Uinta trend buttress. They are asymmetrically and locally overturned to the 

northeast and are terminated at the Tooele Valley range front 

by normal faults and unconsolidated sediments. The folds 

are overlapped at the south end by the South Mountain and 

Fivemile Pass thrusts.

Smaller-amplitude, tightly folded, and locally overturned 

secondary folds, commonly segmented by tear faults, occur 

along the thinned leading edges of imbricate thrusts within 

the Bingham nappe. These include folds above several small 

imbricate thrusts of the upper plate of the concealed sole 

Midas thrust in the Bingham mining district (fig. 10). Those 

above the longer Butterfield Pass and West Canyon imbricate 

thrusts southwest of Bingham, and those on the upper plate 

of the Manning thrust along the western range-front of the 

Oquirrh Mountains (fig. 8).

The Bingham (main) Syncline and its associated secondary folds in the Bingham mining district (fig. 10) provide clues to complex sedimentary rock structures along the 

leading edge of the Midas thrust as it was moved toward the 

uplifted Uinta trend buttress. However, these structures are 

largely obscured by the extensive intrusive stocks, dikes, and 

open pit mine waste dumps (Tooker and Roberts, 1998). On 

Markham Peak the Bingham Syncline is asymmetrical and 

locally overturned to the northeast. Secondary folds formed 

above imbricate thrusts associated with this main fold are 

also asymmetrical and overturned (Einaudi, 1975, Tooker, 

1998, fig 8). Numerous low amplitude secondary folds occur 

in the zone between the Bingham Canyon and Main Hill 

Faults on the western side of the Bingham mine. They are 

closely spaced, jammed together, and overturned to the north. 

One may surmise that these folds also are on the upper plate 

of yet another imbricate thrust. A concentration of secondary folds occurs in the area between the Bingham and Last 

Chance stocks. Apparently these folds also were formed on 

the upper plate of an imbricate thrust. 

East of the northeast trending Main Hill (tear) Fault, 

the continuing eastern part of the Bingham Syncline is offset 

northward and is an open, nearly symmetrically shaped fold 

trending southeastward away from the Uinta trend. South of 

the open pit mine, and east of the northwest trending Galena 

Chief Fault, the Galena Gulch folds clearly intersect the open 

part of the Bingham Syncline in structural unconformity. 

South of the area impacted by the Uinta trend, the structure of the Long Ridge Anticline and Pole Canyon Syncline 

are continuous to the south end of the range. The Long Ridge 

(main) Anticline is tightly folded and overturned locally at its 

western end overlying the trend near Tooele, but it broadens 

on the eastern side of the range along Long Ridge in West 

Canyon. The anticline contains numerous secondary folds on 

its northern flank, which is the upper plate of the imbricate 

West Canyon thrust. The Pole Canyon Syncline includes the 

highest points of the Oquirrh Mountains and is composed of 

very competent upper Oquirrh Group formations. The syncline 

is symmetrical for most of its length. Flanking secondary folds 

of the Pole Canyon Syncline are wide-spaced, broad open 

folds. No associated imbricate thrust faults occur in this fold.

The Ophir Anticline is on the lower elevation western 

side of the southern Oquirrh Mountains (Tooker and Roberts, 

1998) and generally is parallel or subparallel to the other 

main folds in the range. It crops out along the low ridge west 

of Manning Canyon and the south fork of Ophir Canyon. 

In contrast with the northeastern main folds, composed of 

upper Paleozoic Oquirrh Group sedimentary rocks, the Ophir 

Anticline is composed of Cambrian to Mississippian sedimentary rocks. The stratigraphic section consists of interbedded 

thin- and medium-bedded carbonates, shaly limestone, and 

quartzose sedimentary rocks (sheet 3 of Tooker 1987). These 

abundant, thin-bedded argillaceous limestone and shale units 

are less competent than the thicker siliceous beds that constitute the upper Oquirrh Group. 

The Ophir Anticline is located in the upper plate of the 

Manning thrust, an upper imbrication of the Bingham nappe 

that probably moved only a moderate distance eastward to 

overlap the west side of the Pole Canyon syncline east of Mercur. The Ophir fold trends sinuously southeastward. The fold 
28 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

Figure 10. Principal Bingham nappe fold and fault structures of the in the Bingham mining district, Utah (from Tooker and 

Roberts, 1988). Outline of the open pit mine is dotted. Tertiary stocks (shaded) and northeast-trending Tertiary dikes (solid) intrude 

the northwest trending folded and faulted undivided Markham Peak and Clipper Ridge Members of the Bingham Mine Formation 

and the Butterfield Peaks Formation (Tooker and Roberts, 1970). Contact of the Bingham nappe and older Pass Canyon nappe 

(stippled) lies along the steep-dipping A.J. fault; the underlying Midas sole thrust of the Bingham nappe is concealed.

 g  g



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Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 29

is concealed by local imbricate thrusts at its northern end at 

the western range front. The anticline is terminated by normal 

faults along Tooele Valley range front. The southernmost end 

of the Ophir fold plunges to the south and is overlapped by 

the Fivemile Pass nappe. In between these terminal parts of 

the fold, the symmetry of the anticline changes south of Ophir 

Canyon and the Lion Fault. 

North of the tear fault, as seen on the north wall of Ophir 

Canyon (cross section A'-A", in Tooker, 1987), the Ophir fold 

is a high amplitude, nearly symmetrical structure, exposing 

the complete Lower Paleozoic stratigraphic section. North of 

Ophir Canyon, and closer to the underlying Uinta trend, the 

range is topography higher, more rugged (Tooker and Roberts, 

1992). Gently folded, steeply dipping imbricate thrusts on the 

western flank of the Ophir anticline (in the Dry Canyon area 

on the ridge northwest of Ophir) emplace lower Mississippian 

carbonate formations over younger Great Blue Limestone. 

Small subparallel secondary folds were developed in the overriding strata (Tooker, 1998). 

South of the Lion tear fault, the Ophir fold is an asymmetrical, flatter, broader, much faulted arc (cross-section 

B'-B"" in Tooker, 1987). Locally, east of Mercur at the head 

of Manning Canyon, the eastern limb of the Ophir Anticline 

becomes steeply east dipping to nearly vertical. The Great 

Blue Limestone is overturned and is thrust over the younger 

Manning Canyon Shale. The western side of the Ophir Anticline (and the range) consists of gently west-dipping slopes 

that contain several imbricate thrusts overlain by a series of 

close-spaced, low-amplitude secondary folds.

The Bingham nappe contains a number of additional 

imbricate thrust faults as well as those already mentioned in 

the Bingham district. Some are tracaeable for long distances 

across the range, but of generally relatively small stratigraphic 

displacement. In general, movement on these lesser thrusts is 

much smaller than that along the Midas thrust. The Butterfield 

Pass and West Canyon imbricate thrust faults lie en-echelon 

along the locally asymmetrical Long Ridge Anticline. The 

West Canyon thrust ramps Manning Canyon Shale over the 

younger West Canyon Limestone.

The Manning thrust underlies Lower Paleozoic formations that constitute the broad, flattened Ophir Anticline. The 

thrust locally places older Great Blue Limestone strata over 

the Manning Canyon Shale east of Mercur. Small imbricate 

thrusts on the southwest limb of the Ophir Anticline west of 

Mercur consist mainly of a series of small displacements of 

the Silveropolis limestone, probably along the Long Trail 

Shale beds, over the upper Mercur limestone members of the 

Great Blue Limestone.

Thrust, tear, and normal faults are shown in figure 8. 

The sole Midas thrust may be exposed underground in the 

workings of the North skarn-ore deposit in Bingham Canyon (Shrier, oral communication, 1989). One may also infer 

its presence from the cross-sections by Babcock and others 

(1995) in their figure 7. They show complexly faulted overturned folds of the Jordan and Commercial marker beds at 

depth, north of the Bingham mine. 

Although the sole Midas thrust is now known not to be 

exposed in the Oquirrh Mountains, an upper imbricate strand 

at Bingham was named “Midas” by James and others (1961a). 

It is here renamed the Midas-A Fault to avoid confusion4. 

They correctly indicates that that thrust has no great regional 

consequence. 

Tension produced in arched folds caused by oblique 

ramping of the nappe against the Uinta buttress, as at Bingham, promoted the formation of prominent, close-spaced, 

steep-dipping, northeast-trending tear faults normal to the fold 

axes. These tear faults segmented the secondary folds, locally 

and facilitated the irregular displacement of fold axes forward 

for short distances, as seen in the Bingham mine area (fig. 10; 

Tooker and Roberts, 1988). 

Normal faults in the range are steeply dipping, generally 

northeast- and northwest-trending structures. They have only 

modest movement within the range in terms of offset formations, but have much greater vertical displacement along the 

range borders and in the valleys beyond. Normal faults are 

more abundant in the thin- to medium-bedded Mississippian 

limestones and shales exposed on the upper plate of the Manning thrust (fig. 9). At Ophir Canyon, the faults trend northwestward, but the trend shifts southward to the west-northwest 

in the Mercur Canyon area. This change of the fault trend, 

which is coincident with the bending in the Ophir fold, is considered to result from thrust tectonics in thin, less competent 

strata on the upper plate of the Manning thrust. The western 

margin of the Oquirrh Mountains is defined by progressive 

down drop to the west along the systems of normal faults 

forming extensive thin-covered pediments, such as occurs 

between Ophir and Mercur Canyons. Constituent formational 

units are not greatly offset. 

Location and Types of Igneous Rocks

The Bingham nappe contains the most and greatest variety of intrusive and extrusive rocks in the range (table 1). The 

Bingham mine area is the major center of intrusive and extrusive activity, followed by progressively lesser intrusive activity 

occurring outbound in the Middle Canyon-Soldier Creek area, 

the Lion Hill-Porphyry Knob and the Mercur-Ophir mining 

areas (figs. 11 and 12). 

Bingham Mining District Area

Igneous activity in the Oquirrh Mountains began with the 

formation of intrusive stocks, sills, and dikes and ended with 

extrusive volcanic flows (Lasnier and others, 1978c; Bray, 1969; 

Moore and others, 1968; and Babcock and others, 1995. The 

areal distribution, isotopic ages, and chemical and physical properties of igneous rocks, which follow, are based on reports by 

Moore and Lanphere (1971), Moore (1973b, 1973c), Bray and 

others (1975), Moore (1978), Lanier and others (1978a,1978b), 

4Here named the Midas-A (imbricate thrust) Fault, as shown in figures, to 

avoid confusion with the sole Midas thrust in this and other reports.
Figure 11. Generalized geologic map showing the distribution of the main bodies of igneous intrusive and extrusive rocks (shown in magen

Canyon, northern Bingham and South Mountain nappes in the Oquirrh Mountains, Utah. The trace of the Uinta trend axis is shown.

5INTATRENDZONEAXIS

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Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 31

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Figure 12. Generalized map showing the distribution of Bingham nappe intrusive igneous rocks in the vicinity of the Ophir and Mercur 

mining districts. The locations of the Manning thrust and Ophir Anticline are shown.
32 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

Swensen (1975a), Warnaars and others (1978), Bowman and 

others (1987), and Babcock and others (1995, 1997). 

The Last Chance and Bingham stocks (fig. 11), which are 

now known to be interconnected at depth (Lanier, and others, 1978a), are composed of an early equigranular monzonite 

phase, beginning at about 39.8 ± 0.4 Ma. Quartz monzonite 

porphyry was intruded along the northwestern border of the 

Bingham stock, beginning at about 38 Ma(?). The rocks are 

intrusive into the Clipper Ridge and Markham Peak Members 

of the Bingham Mine Formation and underlying Butterfield 

Peaks Formation.

These formations are cut by later latite and quartz latite 

dikes and plugs (about 37.7 ± 0.5 Ma in age), and subsequently intruded by quartz latite porphyry dikes and plugs. An 

intrusive porphyritic latite sill (about 36.9 ± 1.0 Ma) crops out 

southeast of Lark, Utah. Northeast-trending latite dikes along 

the range front between the mouth of Barneys Canyon and 

Lark may be about the same age. 

Several pebble dikes and breccia pipes as much as 180 m 

diameter and as much as 910 m in vertical extent seem to be 

closely associated with latite intrusives south and east of the 

Bingham stock (Rubright and Hart, 1968; Moore, 1973a,b). 

These bodies suggest that latitic melts became fluid-saturated 

and overpressured and were released by explosive forces.

Extrusive, mostly latitic volcanic rocks overlie sediments of the Butterfield Peaks Formation mainly south and 

southeast of the Bingham district. Armstrong (1970) reports 

an age of 38.8 ± 0.9 Ma for andesite porphyry flows along the 

eastern range front north of the mouth of Bingham Canyon, 

but Warnaars and others (1978) question this age determination. Laharic deposits (or breccias) as much as 450 m to 610 

m thick, composed of varieties of latite, make up a basal unit 

south of Bingham Canyon. These are interbedded with waterlaid tuff, volcanic conglomerate, and crossbedded sandstone. 

The breccias are overlain by lenticular latitic flows, which 

may be as much as 250 m thick. Rhyolite vitrophyre flows and 

flow breccias form sizable bodies southeast of Bingham in 

the Tickville Springs quadrangle. Moore (1973b) dates these 

rocks at 31.2 ± 0.9 Ma. The volcanic rocks are intruded by the 

Shaggy Peak rhyolite stock that is dated at 33.0 Ma. Patches 

of monolithologic latite tuff-breccias, the youngest volcanic 

rocks (30.7 ± 0.9 Ma), cap this series of flows (Moore, 1973b).

Middle Canyon-Soldier Creek Areas

The northwestern part of the Bingham nappe between 

Middle Canyon and Soldier Creek contains several dikes and 

plugs that cut sedimentary rocks of the Oquirrh Group (fig. 

11). These are described by Gilluly (1932) and by Tooker and 

Roberts (1988 and 1992) with age dates by Moore (1973c), 

Warnaars and others (1978), and Moore and McKee (1983). 

A 3 to 4 m-thick latite porphyry dike, which intrudes the Butterfield Peaks Formation, crosses Middle Canyon southwest 

of the Bingham mining district, and is a continuation of the 

southwest-trending swarm of dikes in the southwestern part 

of that district. The latite dike is dated at 37.8 ± 1.1 Ma. A 3-

m-thick quartz monzonite porphyry sill intrudes the Markham 

Peak Member of the Bingham Mine Formation at the range 

front south of Tooele, Utah. A thinner sill of comparable 

composition intrudes the Butterfield Peaks Formation on the 

northern slope of Settlement Canyon, opposite the mouth of 

Dry Fork. The age of the Tooele sill is 38.6 ± 1.1 Ma; the age 

of the Settlement Canyon body is as yet unknown. The quartz 

monzonite stock and associated quartz monzonite porphyry, 

diorite, and diorite porphyry sills on the north side of Soldier 

Creek occur in the lower part of the Butterfield Peaks Formation and were not dated. Diorite and diorite porphyry stocks, 

dikes, and plugs, which occur at the heads of the East Fork of 

Settlement Canyon and White Pine Canyon, also intrude the 

Butterfield Peaks Formation; no age was determined for them.

Lion Hill and Porphyry Knob Areas

Faulted altered biotite granodiorite porphyry plugs and 

associated sill and dikes occur in and along the Long Trail 

Shale Member of the Great Blue Limestone on the eastern 

flank of the Ophir anticline (see fig. 12, and Gilluly, 1932). 

The rocks are age-dated by Moore and McKee (1983) at 

36.7 ± 0.5 Ma.

Ophir and Mercur Mining District Areas

The Eagle Hill rhyolite porphyry, named from outcrops 

on Eagle Hill in the Mercur mining district (fig. 12), consists 

mainly of intermittently exposed, irregular, sill-like intrusive 

bodies that occur mostly in the Great Blue Limestone and 

Humbug Formation. These intrusives are mapped from the 

head of Sunshine Canyon, across Eagle Hill, astride the Ophir 

Anticline at Mercur, Utah, to the mouth of Mercur Canyon, 

thence northward, generally parallel to the range front, as far 

as Silverado Canyon (Tooker 1992). A north-trending dike 

of rhyolite porphyry reappears, on line, in Ophir Canyon at 

Ophir, Utah, cuts across the Bowman Limestone and Lynch 

Dolomite (Cambrian), the Fitchville Formation and Pinyon 

Peak Limestone, undifferentiated (Mississippian and Devonian), and the Gardison Limestone (Mississippian) (Tooker 

1987). It then trends northward to Dry Canyon, where several 

discontinuous sills occur in Deseret Limestone (Mississippian) 

on the hangingwall of the Dry Canyon thrust. The intrusive is 

terminated in a stock or large plug on the north facing slopes 

of Bald Mountain in the upper member of the Great Blue 

Limestone. Eagle Hill rhyolite is dated at Mercur by Moore 

(1973c) at 31.6 ± 0.9 Ma; the unit has not been dated at Ophir.

Thin lamprophyre dikes crop out for short distances on 

the north and south walls of Ophir Canyon (Gilluly, 1932), but 

they have not been dated. 

Associated Mineral Resources

The geology and metallogeny of Bingham nappe ore districts are reported in detail elsewhere and are only briefly summarized here. The Bingham nappe is host to the main dissemi-
Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 33

nated, skarn, vein, and replacement base- and precious-metal ore 

deposits in the Oquirrh Mountains in the Bingham, Mercur, and 

Ophir mining districts. These deposits are localized mainly in 

structurally disturbed porphyritic igneous and (or) carbonate-rich 

sedimentary rocks near the lead edges and on the upper plates of 

thrust faults Tooker (l998). In most cases the ore deposits are at 

least spatially related to intrusive igneous rocks. The following 

discussions provide more details of the individual deposits. 

The Bingham Mining District

The central zoned porphyry copper-molybdenum-gold 

ores are disseminated mostly along closely spaced fractures in 

the Bingham monzonite porphyry stock and in associated dikes 

and sills (Peters and others, 1966; John, 1978; and Babcock and 

others, 1995, 1997). Surrounding these deposits are extensive 

vein, replacement, skarn, and disseminated lead, zinc, copper, 

silver, and gold deposits hosted by Oquirrh Group carbonate-rich sedimentary rocks that include the Butterfield Peaks, 

and Bingham Mine Formations of Upper Pennsylvanian age 

(Hunt, 1957; Tooker and Roberts, 1970; Swensen, 1975a,b; and 

Tooker, 1990). The ores occur as veins in faults and as replacements of the folded and faulted limestone horizons (Rubright 

and Hart, 1968, and Stacey and others, 1967, 1968). Close to 

the intrusives, the carbonate rocks are metasomatized and copper-gold-rich skarns developed (Atkinson and Einaudi, 1978; 

Einaudi, 1983; and Cameron and Garmoe, 1983). 

The Mercur Mining District

Disseminated gold, silver, and mercury ores occur as 

bedded and irregular replacements in limestone and as fissure 

veins in the “Mercur beds.” The veins are described by Kornze 

(1984a,b), Kornze and others (1992), Faddies and Kornze 

(1985), Guenther (1973), Klatt and Tafuri (1976), Tafuri (1987), 

Wicks (1987), and Kerr (1997). Near-surface oxidized ores 

grade into sulfide ores at depth (Jewell, 1984, and Jewell and 

Parry, 1987, 1988). These mineralized beds are mostly in the 

faulted upper part of the Upper Mississippian Silveropolis limestone member of the Great Blue Limestone (Shrier oral commun., 1993). They are on the folded upper plate of the Manning 

thrust (Tooker, 1987 and 1998). Reserves of disseminated gold 

ore were exhausted in 1997 and mining ceased (Kerr, 1997).

Heretofore, an unresolved controversy about the origin of 

Mercur (and Barneys Cayon) gold is based on the Wilson and 

Parry (1995) determination of a Late Jurassic K/Ar age derived 

from illite-rich clays in limestones associated with the deposit. 

As in other Oquirrh Mountain mining districts, there seems to 

be a close spatial and structural association of ore minerals and 

Tertiary intrusives at Mercur, hence the previous assumption 

of a genetic connection (Morris and Tooker, 1996). However, 

if the Wilson and Parry conclusion is valid, their new older age 

of mineral deposition at Mercur (and Barneys Canyon) implies 

that the formation of the gold and associated minerals may have 

occurred in the hinterland before the Sevier thrust event.

The geologic structures in which the ores occur are 

consistent with those found elsewhere in the range that were 

produced by Sevier Orogeny thrust faults. Typically, other 

Oquirrh Mountains ore deposits are genetically related to 

hydrothermal late stages of igneous intrusion. Kerr (1997) 

more recently also concludes that the Mercur ores were 

formed after the intrusion of the associated Tertiary rhyolite 

bodies. Why are Jurassic-age clays found in the Mercur (and 

Barneys Canyon) deposits? There are no known Jurassic plutons to provide heat sources for metamorphism or thrust faulting in the northern and southern Oquirrh Mountains. I believe 

that stratigraphic and structural data and ore mineral zonation 

across the Uinta trend indicate that Jurassic-altered rocks were 

moved eastward on Sevier-age thrusts during the Late Cretaceous orogeny that formed all of the folded Oquirrh Mountains nappes. The main ore deposits in the range were formed 

or remobilized above the Uinta trend in Sevier-age structures 

during uplift and Tertiary intrusive activity. The ore deposits 

on the periphery of the Uinta trend at Mercur and Barneys 

Canyon were formed at temperatures below those existing 

at Bingham and Ophir. The Jurassic ages of the Mercur and 

Barneys Canyon deposit clays were not reset.

However formed, the Jurassic ages of sericite associated 

with disseminated gold reported by Presnel and Parry (1996) 

and Parry and others (1997) are questioned by experimental 

studies. In their fission track and U/Th-He studies of the ages 

of Carlin-type Au deposits in the Great Basin, Arehart and 

others (2003) conclude that the Jurassic dates are not derived 

from single-generation sericite, and their relation to gold deposition is suspect. The gold mineralization at Mercur postdates 

the associated Oligocene-age rhyolite. U/Th dates of apatite 

from both of the Barneys Canyon and Bingham deposits also 

give Oligocene ages.

On geologic and experimental bases, one may now conclude that the question of a Cenozoic age for the Mercur and 

Barneys Canyon deposits has been settled.

The Ophir Mining District

Ore minerals at Ophir are bedded replacements irregular 

replacements, pipelike and vein and fissure as lead, silver, 

copper, and zinc sulfides and oxides (fig.13). The folded host 

sedimentary rocks are Lower Paleozoic carbonates on the 

upper plates of several branch thrusts at the apex of the Ophir 

Anticline, where it is bent northwestward (Tooker, 1998).

 Small amounts of tungsten, bismuth, and cadmium occur 

in the lower parts of the Ophir Hill mine (Rubright, 1978), 

which was one of the largest and most recent producers. Mining in the district ceased in 1972, but the ore zone was not 

bottomed according to Rubright (oral commun., 1988). The 

main part of the district (Ophir Hill} was recently purchased 

by Silver Eagle Resources, Ltd. (Vancouver, B.C., Canada).

Production from Bingham Nappe Mining District

The historic production from the mining districts in the 

nappe is shown in table 5. Ores produced from the separate 

areas within the Ophir district are not specified, and the pre-
34 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

1902 data at Ophir are combined with those from the Stockton mining district (from USGS and United States Bureau of 

Mines data). The Bingham and Barneys Canyon districts are 

the sole remaining mining operations. Their most recent production is reported by Babcock and others (1995, 1997) and 

Krahulac (1997) (table 5). The mining phase of the Bingham 

district is expected to end in or about 2030 with the physical and economic exhaustion of the porphyry copper deposit, 

according to Krahoulac. The lands and construction materials 

immediately adjacent to the range will then become available 

for use in the development of expanded urban growth in the 

Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys.

Industrial Minerals and Construction Materials

These materials were mined within and bordering the 

Bingham nappe (Tripp, 1992). Limestone, used for flux in 

smelting of metallic ores, was produced from the Deseret 

Limestone in Mercur Canyon. Production data are unavailable. Production from extensive sand and gravel deposits that 

occur along the margins of the range and on the extensive 

pediments also is not known. The well-known Stockton bar 

and spit deposits of sand and gravel immediately west of 

Stockton were accumulated by the Lake Bonneville currents 

along the west side of the range, which modified the extensive 

older unconsolidated Harkers Fanglomerate deposits along the 

margin of the range. 

Rogers Canyon Nappe

The Rogers Canyon nappe crops out in the northern onethird of the Oquirrh Mountains (fig. 13). It was emplaced by 

the North Oquirrh thrust fault to a site overlying the Uintatrend buttress. The nappe is composed of a nearly 4,000-mthick stratigraphic section and is divided into five formations 

(Tooker and Roberts, l970). The general lithologic characteristics, fossils, age correlations, and map distributions of the 

formational units are based on the measured sections in type 

localities at the north end of the Oquirrh Mountains by Gordon 

and Duncan (1970) and Tooker and Roberts (1970, 1971a,b,c). 

These data are summarized in table 6.

The north end of the Oquirrh Mountains is bordered by 

the Great Salt Lake and by east-trending reverse or thrust 

faults in the Black Rock Fault Zone. The western margin of 

the range lies along intersecting northwest- and northeasttrending normal faults. A pediment beyond the western range 

front is terminated by strong, deep-reaching normal faults 

that define the easternmost margin of the Tooele graben of 

Cook and others (1966). The southern border of the nappe lies 

along the North Oquirrh thrust, and is exposed best in Bates 

Canyon. East of the crest of the range, the thrust is concealed 

by downdrop of the nappe along the steep-dipping northwestand northeast-trending Nelson Peak and Tooele Faults. The 

eastern side of the nappe is in contact with Quaternary alluvial 

deposits, the thick fan deposits of the Harkers Fanglomerate, 

and Tertiary volcanic units.

Distinguishing Stratigraphic and 

Structural Features

The succession of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks in the 

Rogers Canyon nappe were deposited in the Sublette Basin. 

Fold and fault structures in the nappe resulted from emplacement of the nappe from the northwest by the North Oquirrh 

thrust fault (fig. 3) and subsequent adjustments along Basin 

and Range extensional normal faults (Roberts and Tooker, 

1961). The rocks share some correlative lithologic and age 

characteristics with those in the Bingham nappe in the Oquirrh 

Mountains, as well as with those composing nappes in some 

of the adjoining ranges. These similarities initially delayed 

earlier recognition of them as a separate rock sequence. This 

report presents defining characteristics that establishes the 

Rogers Canyon nappe. The summary map (fig. 13) does not 

show individual Oquirrh Group formations. They are detailed 

in the Mills Junction, Farnsworth Peak, Magna, and Bingham 

Canyon quadrangles (Tooker and Roberts, 1971a,b,c, and 

1988). The distribution of the underlying conformable Greene 

Ravine Formation and the overlying disconformable Grandeur 

Member of the Park City Formation are shown in figure 13.

Defining Nappe Stratigraphy

The Upper Mississippian Green Ravine Formation at 

the base is overlain conformably by the Oquirrh Group, 

composed of the Lower Pennsylvanian (Morrow) Lake Point 

Limestone, the Middle Pennsylvanian (Desmoines) Erda, and 

Upper Pennsylvanian (mostly Virgil) Kessler Canyon Formations (table 6). The basal Grandeur Member of the Lower 

Permian (Leonard) Park City Formation forms the top of 

the measured section. The stratigraphic section of the nappe 

is much thinner than that in the Bingham nappe and differs 

from it in several ways (fig. 4).

The more than 432-m-thick Green Ravine Formation is 

correlative in age faunally with the Mercur member of the 

Great Blue Formation in the Bingham nappe and the Doughnut Formation in the Mount Raymond nappe (Crittenden, 

1959; Tooker and Roberts, 1962; and Gordon, Tooker and 

Dutro, 2000). Transition from the Upper Mississippian to 

Lower Pennsylvanian, which is within the very prominant 

Manning Canyon Shale in the Bingham and Timpanogos 

nappes, is in conformable limestone in the base of the overlying fossiliferous 629-m-thick Lake Point Limestone. In 

addition to the abundant brachiopod, foraminifera, coral and 

bryozoan fauna, the conodonts in the formation demonstrate 

the presence of diverse platform elements and permits recognition of the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian (Chester-Morrow) 

and Morrowan/Atokan boundary (Davis and Webster, 1987; 

Davis and others, 1994).

The Erda Formation is a 1,255 m thick sequence of cyclical carbonate beds (table 6) similar in composition with those in 

the Bingham nappe. The overlying sparsely fossiliferous Kessler 

Canyon Formation, about 1,362 m thick, consists predominantly 

of interbedded massive orthoquartzite, calcareous quartzite, 
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36 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

Age Group Formation Member Thickness (m) Lithology and correlation

Erosional unconformity

Tertiary (?) N.A. Unnamed 

conglomerate

N.A. Unknown Poorly sorted reddish-brown, limonite-stained 

consolidated gravels capped by andesite breccia. May 

be correlative with the Apex conglomerate at Tintic 

(Morris and Lovering, 196l).

Unconformity, erosion interval

Early Permian 

(Leonardian)

N.A. Park City Grandeur 232 Thin- to medium-bedded, fine- to coarse-grained, 

arenaceous limestone, dolomite, dolomitic limestone, 

and interbedded shale, argillaceous limestone, 

phosphorite, chert, orthoquartzite, and calcareous 

sandstone partings. Beds are very fossiliferous, and 

lithologically comparable with the type section in 

the Wasatch Mountains. Unconformably overlies the 

Kessler Canyon Formation. Wolfcamp-age rocks are 

not present here.

Unconformity

Late 

Pennsylvanian 

(MissouriVirgil)

Oquirrh Kessler Canyon N.A. 2,145 Upper part is thin- to medium-bedded, interbedded 

orthoquartzite calcareous, ferruginous, and dolomitic 

sandstone, and dolomite. Lower part is thick, silicacemented orthoquartzite and cherty limestone. Local 

sedimentary dolomite breccia. Worm trails are common, poorly preserved fusulinids in bedded chert layers. Correlative in age with the Clipper Ridge Member, 

Bingham Mine Formation.

Middle 

Pennsylvanian 

(Desmoines)

Erda N.A. 530 Cyclically repeated layers of medium-gray limestone and 

dark-gray argillaceous limestone, light-brown carbonaceous shale, medium brown and tan calcareous quartzite, crossbedded light-brown sandstone. Argillaceous 

and cherty limestones are abundantly fossiliferous with 

gastropods, bryozoans, brachiopods, and fusulinids. 

These rocks are the approximate age equivalents of 

the lower and middle parts of the Oquirrh Group in the 

thick Oquirrh and Wasatch Mountain nappes and the 

thin Wasatch (Mt. Raymond sequence) (Crittenden, 

1959).

Early 

Pennsylvanian 

(Morrow)

Lake Point 

Limestone

N.A. 432 Interbedded medium- to light-gray, tan-weathered, 

thin- to medium-bedded limestone and massive (thick 

bedded) gray limestone. Locally the limestone is 

cherty and contains bioclastic, crossbedded, and 

arenaceous layers and shale partings. Beds in upper 

part are more massive and less fossiliferious than those 

below. Cyclic repetitions of beds is common. Locally 

abundant fossils include bryozoans, brachiopods, and 

coral assemblages. Formation is an age equivalen of 

the Manning Canyon Shale at the base and the West 

Canyon Limestone above in the Bingham nappe, and 

the Bridal Veil Falls Formation in the Timpanoghos 

nappe in the Wasatch Mountains (Baker and Crittenden, 

1961).

Table 6. Summary of lithology of Paleozoic formations in the Rogers Canyon nappe (Tooker and Roberts, 1970).
Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 37

Age Group Formation Member Thickness (m) Lithology and correlation

Late 

Mississippian 

(Chester) N.A.

Green Ravine

N.A.

232 The upper part is medium-bedded to massive (0.96- to 

1-m-thick, medium-gray, locally fossiliferous limestone, 

banded nodular black cherty limestone interbedded with 

thin argillaceous and fossiliferous limestone beds. The 

lower part is 0.3- to 0.6-m-thick limestone and shale 

beds. Limestone is dark gray to olive gray, shale is black. 

Formation is fossiliferous with brachiopods, corals, and 

bryozoans, and is correlative with the upper part of the 

Great Blue Limestone in the Bingham and Timpanogos 

nappes in the Oquirrh and Wasatch Mountains and the 

lower part of the Doughnut Formation in the Mount 

Raymond (thin) sequence in the Wasatch Mountains.

Covered

Table 6. Summary of lithology of Paleozoic formations in the Rogers Canyon nappe (Tooker and Roberts, 1970).—Continued

and cherty limestone, which becomes interbedded ferruginous 

dolomite, dolomitic sandstone, dolomite, and thin fusulinid 

chert layers in the upper part. It contains highly altered ironstained zones in its upper parts—perhaps evidence of weathered surfaces. The near absence of Missouri-age rocks in the 

Kessler Canyon Formation, which is in sharp contrast with their 

abundance in the Bingham Mine Formation, indicates a period 

of non-deposition or uplift and erosion in the Sublette basin 

hinterland of the Rogers Canyon nappe. Steele (1960) calls this 

gap the regional Middle Pennsylvanian unconformity in westcentral and northwest Utah and eastern Nevada. Wolfcamp-age 

sediments are also missing in the Rogers Canyon nappe, and the 

Early Permian (Leonardian) Park City strata rest without angular unconformity on Virgil(?) age beds. Comparable rocks are 

also missing in the Mount Raymond section (Baker and others, 

1949; Crittenden, 1959) (fig. 4). 

 These stratigraphic relations lend further support that 

Pennsylvanian-Permian sedimentation along the miogeocline shelf varied from north to south across the Sublette and 

Oquirrh Basins. 

Defining Nappe Structures

The North Oquirrh (sole) thrust and several overlying 

imbricate thrusts created the main and secondary folds and 

the normal and tear faults that characterize the Rogers Canyon 

nappe. It is bisected into western and eastern parts by the Garfield Fault, which has both tear and normal fault character. The 

sole thrust is exposed underlying the western side of the range, 

and the eastern side is underlain by an imbricate thrust, which 

may be exposed at the head of Harkers Canyon.

Nappe fold patterns differ in the western and eastern 

halves of the range. The Mills Junction Syncline, Kessler Anticline, Farnsworth (formerly Coon) Syncline, and the Bates 

Canyon Anticline main folds are well exposed along the western flank of the range as broad, high-amplitude, and southeastleaning asymmetrical structures.

No prominent main folds occur in the eastern half of 

the nappe. Instead, the folds are closely spaced, symmetrical 

and open, northeast-trending, and generally low-amplitude 

structures whose axes plunge gently to the northeast. The 

rocks include Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian strata 

noted above (Tooker and Roberts, 1971b). Flat lying Tertiary 

conglomerate is overlain by a thin 1-m-thick layer of Tertiary 

volcanic rocks. Quaternary sedimentary rock units include the 

Harkers Fanglomerate and Quaternary alluvial deposits along 

the east margin of the range. 

The North Oquirrh thrust moved the nappe southeastward 

from the Sublette Basin. One may speculate that the earliermoved Mount Raymond nappe in the Wasatch Mountains and 

the overlapping Antelope Island (Precambrian age) nappe 

(Hansen and McCarley, 2000) formed an obstruction to direct 

eastward transport, causing the Rogers Canyon nappe to veer 

southward to rest on the Pass Canyon and Bingham nappes, 

which overlay the Uinta trend. 

The North Oquirrh thrust crops out in Bates Canyon, on 

the western side of the range, and also in a structural block 

that includes Barneys Peak. The thrust is a shallow north-dipping fault at the mouth of Bates Canyon, and apparently also 

along the western front of the range where it is inferred to 

underlie the Adobe Rock pediment between Lake Point and 

the mouth of Bates Canyon. However, the northern dip of the 

thrust steepens upward as the nappe ramps southeastward up 

Bates Canyon toward Nelson Peak. The North Oquirrh thrust 

is not recognized east of the Nelson Peak Fault. 

The nappe contains a number of imbricate thrust faults. 

One of them, a small folded imbrication in the upper plate of 

the North Oquirrh thrust at the mouth of Rogers Canyon, the 

Lake Point thrust, is underlain by tight, isoclinal, low-amplitude, northeast-trending folds of the Middle Pennsylvanian 

Erda Formation, which are overturned to the southeast. Stratigraphic units of the Erda Formation, which normally underlie 

the Lake Point thrust, are overlain by the older Green Ravine 

Formation and Lake Point Limestone. 

The upper plate of the Black Rock Fault along the 

northern border of the nappe contains tightly folded, secondary, close-spaced, low-amplitude, asymmetrical, and locally 
38 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

overturned folds in Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian strata 

(Tooker and Roberts, 1971b). The Lake Point Limestone was 

thrust over Erda Formation, and in turn, is overlapped by flat 

lying Quaternary (Lake Bonneville and alluvium) deposits 

along the northern and western sides of the range.

 Several other imbricate thrusts that crop out east of the 

Nelson Peak Fault and have relatively small displacements in 

the Erda Formation. These imbrications seem to break out and 

form where the thrust crosses over the Uinta trend. The Nelson 

Peak and Tooele Faults drop the nappe and conceal the North 

Oquirrh thrust and also form the boundary between the adjoining Pass Canyon and Rogers Canyon nappes. 

The eastern side of the nappe lies above an unexposed 

imbricate thrust. Steep-dipping tensional-tear faults and later 

normal Basin and Range extensional faults are also exposed. 

The steep, north-dipping Black Rock and Pony Express thrusts 

develop over-steepened to overturned folds in the upper plate 

and also overlap the nappe east of the Garfield Fault at the 

north end of the Oquirrh Mountains. Normal faults are predominantly northwest-trending, steep-dipping structures with 

less prominent conjugate northeast-trending steep faults. None 

of these faults markedly offset the sedimentary rocks and are 

mainly tensional and later tear breaks developed during the 

folding of the nappe.

The western range front consists of intersecting northeast- and northwest-trending normal faults. The Adobe Rock 

pediment at Lake Point is part of fault blocks that emerge 

locally above the unconsolidated sediments of Tooele Valley. The blocks to the west in the valley are dropped variable 

distances below the surface, estimated to be as much as 1.5 

km, forming the Tooele graben (Cook, and others, 1966; and 

Tooker and Roberts, 1971a). The nappe fault boundaries on 

the eastern side of the range are not as well revealed owing to 

the eastward tilt of the range and consequent overlap of Quaternary sediments. Some may have been reactivated as Basin 

and Range normal faults. The eastern part of the range was 

dropped down along the Garfield Fault. 

Proposed Formation of Rogers Canyon Nappe Structures

Dissimilar stratigraphic and structural features are 

exposed in the eastern and western parts of the Rogers Canyon 

nappe. First, there is a striking difference in the stratigraphic 

character between the Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian rocks 

exposures on the western side of the range and the Upper 

Pennsylvanian-Lower Permian rocks on the eastern side. The 

sedimentary rock succession on the western side of the range 

includes a high proportion of competent interbedded thick 

orthoquartzite, calcareous quartzite, and limestone beds of 

the Lake Point Limestone, the Erda Formation, and the lower 

part of the Kessler Canyon Formation. Main-type folds with 

subsidiary small overprinted secondary folds were produced. 

The stratigraphic sequence of the upper part of the Kessler Canyon Formation and Grandeur Member strata on the 

east side of the Garfield Fault include a high proportion of 

thin- to medium-bedded ferruginous sandstone, dolomite, and 

shaly limestone units. These rocks are less competent than 

those on the western half of the range and evenly distributed 

close-spaced, low-amplitude folds formed on the upper plate 

of an unexposed imbricate thrust in the Rogers Canyon nappe. 

The folds in the western and eastern parts of the nappe 

occurred in separate detached structural blocks. Movement of 

the North Oquirrh thrust onto the Uinta trend formed the main 

folds in thick-bedded strata on the western side of the range. 

The Garfield Fault initially was a tear fault boundary of the 

imbricate thrust on the eastern range block. 

East-side folds developed in an upper imbricate plate 

separated from the west-side plate. The southern leading edge 

of the imbricate thrust is inferred to be on the ridge south of 

Harkers Canyon, where the thrust plane is marked by a thick 

silicated quartzite breccia formed against the Uinta trend. 

Normal faulting along the Garfield Fault during Basin and 

Range extension dropped the eastern side down to its present 

position. Erosion completed the present topography. 

The Black Rock imbricate thrust zone moved the Lower 

Pennsylvanian Lake Point and Erda Formations along the 

northern range front to overlap both the west- and east-sides 

of the nappe. 

Location and Types of Igneous Rocks

The only igneous rocks present in the nappe occur close 

to the southern fault border with the Pass Canyon nappe. They 

are related to intrusions originating in the underlying Pass 

Canyon nappe. A thin (as much as 1.2 m thick) flow composed 

of andesite breccia, apparently conformably overlies Tertiary 

conglomerate capping the low ridge west of Mahogany Hill 

in the southeastern corner of the Farnsworth Peak (Garfield) 

quadrangle (Tooker and Roberts, 1971b). This rock has not 

been dated. Tertiary flows of latite and latite breccia crop 

out along the southeastern range front (Swensen, 1975a and 

1975b), where they unconformably overlap the sedimentary 

rocks of the nappe.

Associated Mineral Resources

The Rogers Canyon nappe is not mineralized, however, 

the Barneys Canyon disseminated gold mine (Skillings, 1988) 

is located mainly in the Pass Canyon nappe near its contact 

with the Rogers Canyon nappe (Babcock and others, 1995). 

Hydrothermal solutions penetrated and altered a sliver of 

Grandeur Member limestone in the North Oquirrh thrust fault 

that overlies the Flood Canyon unit near the mouth of Barneys 

Canyon. The adjoining unmineralized Grandeur Member crops 

out elsewhere in the Farnsworth Peak and Magna quadrangles 

(Tooker and Roberts, 1971b, 1971c). It has been prospected 

with little apparent success.

Industrial mineral and construction materials were 

produced from or peripheral to the Rogers Canyon nappe 

(Tripp and others, 1989; and Tripp, 1992). While some of 

these materials are not directly derived from the nappe, they 
Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 39

are indirectly the result of its erosion and concentration by 

evaporation in Great Salt Lake. Gravel deposits formed about 

the margins of the Oquirrh Mountains by Pleistocene Lake 

Bonneville were mined extensively in the area for road metal 

and for construction of mine facilities and evaporators. A 

byproduct of smelting activity at the north end of the range 

is crushed smelter slag used in construction of highways, as 

railroad ballast, and the Great Salt Lake containment dikes. 

Oolitic carbonate sands that occur along the southern shores 

of Great Salt Lake were mined for use as a flux in the adjoining Kennecott refinery. Halite has been recovered from the 

evaporation of Great Salt Lake brines. Data on the production 

of most of these materials are unavailable.

South Mountain Nappe

The South Mountain nappe is located partly on South 

Mountain and an adjoining area east of Stockton, Utah, on 

the western side of the central part of the Oquirrh Mountains. 

It includes the Stockton mining district (Tooker and Roberts, 1992) (fig. 14). The nappe is the upper plate of the sole 

Stockton thrust fault, recognized initially because of its overall 

stratigraphic and structural discordance with geologic features 

in the adjoining Bingham nappe. North of South Mountain, 

the northern boundary of the nappe is along the inferred TAD5

thrust fault, which is concealed beneath Quaternary alluvium. 

The South Mountain nappe is overlapped on the west by the 

Tintic Valley thrust fault whose upper plate is the Stansbury 

Mountains nappe (Tooker, 1983). The eastern boundary of the 

nappe is the Soldier tear fault at the mouth of Soldier Creek. 

Quaternary alluvial deposits overlap the nappe on the south.

Distinguishing Nappe Stratigraphic and 

Structural Features

The sedimentary rocks in the nappe include three informally named formational units of the Oquirrh Group: the 

South Peak, Salvation, and Rush Lake units of Tooker and 

Roberts (1988) (table 7). Although there is a general gross 

similarity in the types of rocks comprising the Oquirrh Group 

in the South Mountain and Bingham nappes, the lithologic 

character of South Mountain sedimentary rocks is sufficiently 

different now to recognize them as a separate structural unit.

The patterns of folded and faulted sedimentary rocks in 

the South Mountain nappe contrast markedly with those in the 

Bingham nappe. Gilluly (1932) correlated the major fold on 

South Mountain with a westward extension of the Ophir Anticline. More detailed mapping by Tooker and Roberts (1992) 

indicates their stratigraphic and structural discordance. The 

sole Stockton thrust of the nappe in the Oquirrh Mountains 

and the imbricate TAD thrust north of South Mountain are 

most probably different faults separated by an inferred Rush 

Valley (tear) fault of moderate but unknown offset, and later 

normal fault displacement, west side down (fig. 14).

Defining Nappe Stratigraphy

Although there is structural discontinuity across the 

Rush Valley Fault, the sedimentary rocks on both sides are 

readily correlated in age, and to an extent they also share 

characteristic formational composition of the Oquirrh Group 

in the Bingham nappe (fig. 15). The South Mountain rocks 

are overlapped by unconsolidated sediments of Quaternary 

age. The type localities and measured sections of the formational units in the nappe are on South Mountain (Tooker 

and Roberts, 1992), and details of their lithology are shown 

in appendix 2. The Rush Lake and Salvation units also crop 

out in the Stockton mining district. The units are not areally 

extensive, and possibly do not warrant more than the unit 

designation accorded here. They were included previously 

with rocks of the Bingham nappe (Welsh and James, 1961), 

but such designation does not recognize their separate distinctive stratigraphic and structural characteristics. 

The type locality of the Rush Lake unit on South Mountain consists of nearly 1,352 m of interbedded carbonate beds 

of Middle Pennsylvanian (Desmoines) age. The base of the 

unit is concealed by Quaternary sand and gravel deposits 

on the shore of Rush Lake. Only the upper part of the unit 

is exposed in the Stockton mining district (appendix 2C, 

and Tooker and Roberts, 1992). A sparse coral, bryozoan, 

and fusulinid fauna is age-correlative with the upper part 

of the Butterfield Peaks Formation (R.C. Douglass, written 

commun., 1962; Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., written commun., 

1966). However, the thick sequence of cyclic repetitions of 

limestone, quartzite, sandstone, and shale, which are characteristic of the neighboring Butterfield Peaks Formation, 

are absent in the South Mountain nappe. The clean, rounded 

sand grains in well-sorted clastic rock materials are characteristic of nappe sedimentary rocks, and inferred derived 

from a distant craton source.

Salvation unit of Tooker and Roberts (1988) is named 

for exposures generally north of Ben Harrison Gulch near the 

Salvation mine in the Stockton mining district. The 823-mthick type locality is on adjoining South Mountain (Tooker 

and Roberts, 1988). Medium-bedded quartzite predominates 

over thin-bedded limestone and shale partings (appendix 2B; 

Tooker and Roberts, 1992). The rocks are age-correlative with 

the Late Pennsylvanian (Desmoines) Clipper Ridge Member 

of the Bingham Mine Formation (Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., and 

R.C. Douglass, written commun. 1962). A distinctive stratigraphic difference between the Bingham and South Mountain 

nappes is the presence of thick limestone marker beds (the Jordan and Commercial marker beds) at the base of the Clipper 

Ridge Member in the Bingham nappe. They cross the range 

near Tooele undiminished in thickness and are not present in 

the Salvation unit in the South Mountain nappe (Tooker and 

Roberts, 1970) (fig. 15). These beds are the main base-metal 

ore horizons at Bingham, and comparable-age beds in the 

Stockton district also host base-metal ores.

5TAD is the acronym for Tooele Army Depot, which includes most of the 

area in Tooele Valley north of South Mountain.
#ONTACT 4HRUSTFAULT3AWTEETH ON UPPER PLATE DOTTED WHERE CONCEALED 3TRIKE
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/VERTURNEDSYNCLINE%PHEMERALSTREAM

%80,!.!4)/.

3EVIER
AGENAPPES

3OUTH-OUNTAIN"INGHAM!LLUVIALDEPOSITSUNDIFFERENTIATED1UATERNARY	(ARKERS&ANGLOMERATE1UATERNARY	0ORPHYRITICINTRUSIVEROCKS4ERTIARY	

/QUIRRH'ROUP3OUTH0ARKUNITOF4OOKERAND

2OBERTS	0ERMIAN
0ENNSYLVANIAN	

/QUIRRH'ROUP3ALVATIONUNITOF4OOKERAND

2OBERTS	0ENNSYLVANIAN	

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2OBERTS	0ENNSYLVANIAN	

1A

1H

4I

/	OSO

	OS

	OR

)NFERRED 5INTA TREND AXIS

 g  g g  g g 

Figure 14. Generalized geologic map of Paleozoic and Permian carbonate formations in Mountain nappe on South Mountain and in the west-central Oquirrh Mountains. The trace Uinta zone axis is also shown.
Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 41

Age Group Formation Thickness Lithology and correlation

Erosion surface

Early Permian 

(Wolfcamp)

N.A.

South Peak unit of Tooker 

and Roberts (1992)

1,966 Predominantly calcareous quartzite, medium-bedded to massive, light buff-tan 

to olive-gray, weathers reddish-brown, 

thin surface rind, well jointed, worm 

trails common. Thin interbedded 

silica-cemented quartzite, fossiliferous 

medium-gray, sandy and platy limestones with fusulinids (mostly fragmental), calcareous mudstone, local 

bedded chert, phosphatic chert, and 

ferruginous sandstone that weathers 

yellow-brown; mostly covered slope. 

Age correlative with the Dry Fork unit 

in the Pass Canyon nappe (Tooker and 

Roberts, 1988).

Late Pennsylvanian 

( Late Missouri 

or early Virgil)

Oquirrh Salvation unit of Tooker and 

Roberts (1992)

823 Interbedded calcareous quartzite, orthoquartzite, and sandy, argillaceous, 

fossiliferous, and dense crystallinelimestones. Medium-bedded quartzite 

predominates over thn-bedded limestone and shale partings. Fusulinids 

sparse in the limestones. Unit is correlative in age with the Clipper Ridge 

Member of the Bingham Mine Formation in the Binham nappe (Tooker and 

Roberts, 1970).

Middle Pennsylvanian (Desmoines)Rush Lake unit of Tooker and 

Roberts (1992)

>l,352 Interbedded limestone, quartzite, and occasional shale beds. Limestone is medium grained, medium bedded, locally 

with shale partings, often sandy, silty, 

bioclastic, and crossbedded as well 

as argillacous and cherty limestone. 

Sandstone has pitted porous weathered crust when carbonate cemented. 

Local interbedded ferruginous layers 

with worm trails; megafossils include 

colonial and cup corals, brachiopods, 

and fusulinids. Unit is correlative in 

age with upper Butterfield Peaks Formation in the Bingham nappe (Tooker 

and Roberts, 1970).

Covered

Table 7. Summary of lithology of Paleozoic formations in the South Mountain nappe (Tooker and Roberts, 1992).

Figure 15. Comparative columnar stratigraphic sections of common parts of the Pennsylvanian (Des Moines and Missouri) of the Sout

Bingham nappes.
44 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

The South Peak unit of Tooker and Roberts (1988) is 

1,903 m thick where exposed along the crest of the western 

part of South Mountain and is named for the peak labelled 

“South” in the high southwestern part of the range. Orthoquartzite beds and ferruginous sandstone predominate. Few 

well-preserved fossils occur. Ferruginous sandstone contain 

worm trails, thin-bedded chert with fusulinid molds, and, less 

commonly, thin-bedded dark-gray sandy limestone. The age 

suggested is Early Permian, late Wolfcamp equivalent. (R.C. 

Douglass, written commun. 1963). The lowest South Peak 

strata are probably correlative with the upper Markham Peak 

Member of the Bingham Mine Formation (Missouri-Virgil 

age) in the Bingham nappes. Sedimentary rocks of Wolfcamp 

age found in the upper part of the South Peak unit do not occur 

in the Oquirrh Mountains. 

The lithology of rocks in the South Mountain nappe and 

those of Missouri-, Virgil-, and Wolfcamp-age in the southernmost part of the Bingham nappe at Tintic also differ. The 

Furner Valley Limestone at Tintic is correlated with parts of 

the Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian South Peak and 

Salvation units in the South Mountain nappe. Furner Valley 

Limestone is overlain by Diamond Creek Sandstone. These 

formations may be partly correlative in age with the upper part 

of the South Peak unit of Tooker and Roberts (1988).

Quaternary deposits include the Harkers Fanglomerate 

and Quaternary alluvium. The alluvium also includes Pleistocene clastic sand and gravel deposits formed along the shores 

of Lake Bonneville. The thick Harkers Fanglomerate deposits 

occur on both sides of the Oquirrh Mountains and are thickest 

where they overlie the trace of the Uinta trend, which continued to be uplifted during the Quaternary. These deposits were 

partly redistributed along the shore by Pleistocene Lake Bonneville currents. The classic bar and spit deposit at Stockton, 

described by Gilbert (1886), and numerous smaller sand and 

gravel deposits in Tooele Valley formed in successively lower 

lake levels in the adjoining Tooele Quadrangle are described 

by Tooker (1980).

Ages of Bingham nappe sedimentary rocks on the south 

flank of the Ophir Anticline at the range front near the mouth 

of Soldier Canyon, and those in the adjoining well-folded 

South Mountain nappe overlying the Stockton nappe are 

dissimilar. The rocks in the two nappes are also structurally discordant. The Bingham nappe strata at the range front 

includes Mississippian Great Blue Limestone, MississippianPennsylvanian Manning Canyon Shale, and Lower and Middle 

Pennsylvanian West Canyon Limestone. The adjacent rocks 

in the South Mountain nappe include only the upper part of 

the Middle Pennsylvanian Rush Lake and the lower part of the 

Upper-Pennsylvanian Salvation units.

Defining Nappe Structures

Two areas of contrasting fold and fault structures are 

on the upper plates of the Stockton and TAD thrusts on the 

South Mountain nappe and are separated from one another 

by the Rush Valley tear fault (fig. 14). The eastern border of 

the nappe with the Bingham nappe lies along the Soldier tear 

fault, and although concealed by unconsolidated Quaternary 

deposits, the western part of the South Mountain nappe is 

overlapped from the west by the east-directed, north-south 

trending, later Tintic Valley sole thrust. 

 The thinned south-southwest dipping, cyclic limestone, 

shale, and quartzite thin interbeds on the north- northeast leading edge of the nappe ramp over the Uinta trend and previously docked Bingham nappe. Close-spaced, small-amplitude, 

locally asymmetrical to overturned secondary folds above the 

Stockton thrust in the Stockton mining district area are aligned 

in an east-northeast- to west-northwest-trending arc. The folds 

are segmented by tensional steep-dipping, north-northeast 

trending normal faults. 

In contrast, the major fold structure exposed in the 

western part of the nappe on South Mountain defines a single 

high-amplitude main fold, the South Mountain Anticline 

(fig. 14), that also moved generally north-northeast on the 

TAD thrust. The western part of the nappe is composed of a 

competent, thick stratigraphic body of medium-to-thick-bedded sedimentary rocks of the Rush Lake, Salvation, and South 

Peak units (Tooker and Roberts, 1992). The fold is asymmetrical, locally overturned to the north, and lies in a northwest- to 

west-northwest-trending more-open arc. The arcuate trend 

of the anticline on South Mountain is due, in part, to drag 

along the Rush Valley tear fault, and the overturn at the west 

end is ascribed to drag along the TAD thrust fault against the 

Uinta trend. The fold plunges westward beneath the Tintic 

Valley thrust. Before the Sevier thrust belt was recognized, 

Gilluly (1932) considered that this fold was a continuation of 

the Ophir Anticline, which it seemed to extend. However, the 

Ophir Anticline plunges beneath overlying imbricate thrusts 

in the Bingham nappe along its western border (Tooker and 

Roberts, 1992), and is terminated by the Soldier (tear) Fault. 

The folds west of the fault are distinctly different types and are 

directionally discordant.

Although there seems to be only a moderate amount of 

stratigraphic displacement along the Rush Valley tear fault, 

folds on the upper plate of the Stockton thrust are characteristic of those developed in a thinned-plate wedge that laps onto 

the uplifted Bingham nappe, which overlies the Uinta trend. 

The South Mountain main anticline on South Mountain may 

best be explained as having formed farther southwest as a 

thicker, and therefore more competent upper plate that moved 

on the TAD imbricate thrust. It overran the thinner lead wedge 

of the Stockton thrust, as it also crunched against the Uinta 

trend barrier.

The principal faults in the nappe are sole and imbricate thrusts, tear, and normal faults. They differ from those 

observed in the adjoining Bingham nappe. The Stockton thrust 

is the sole fault of the South Mountain nappe. It is exposed 

north of the Stockton mining district overlapping the Bingham 

nappe, and is moderate-to shallow, south dipping. The amount 

of northeastward transport on the Stockton thrust is not 

known, but does not seem to be of the same magnitude as that 

on the Midas thrust. The Stockton thrust brings a facies that 
Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 45

was deposited in the Oquirrh Basin south of the Uinta trend, 

and resembles strata of the Bingham nappe in the Tintic area. 

Several branch or imbricate thrust faults having much less 

throw occur in the upper plate in the Stockton mining district. 

In the western part of the South Mountain nappe the TAD 

thrust block was dropped down along what had been the Rush 

Lake tear fault during the later Basin and Range extensional 

structural deformation.

Movement on the nearly vertical Rush Valley tear fault 

is not known. It does not crop out and must be inferred from 

several lines of evidence. Most obvious is the striking difference in the folded rock structure on both sides of the fault (fig. 

14). The presence of several warm springs along its trend from 

Morgan Ranch to the shores of Rush Lake is also permissive 

evidence of an unexposed fault. The source of heat sustaining 

these hot springs is believed to be related to young basaltic or 

bimodal volcanic systems, similar to those elsewhere in central 

Utah (H.T. Morris, oral commun., 1997). These occur at depth 

along the Uinta trend and were related to earlier intrusives and 

hydrothermal ores in the Stockton mining district. 

The structural and stratigraphic discontinuity between 

South Mountain and the Stansbury Mountains is caused by 

the concealed Tintic Valley thrust (Tooker, 1983; and Morris, 

1983). Contrasting Paleozoic stratigraphic sequences (Rigby, 

1958; and Taylor 1991) are juxtaposed by the Tintic Valley 

Fault, which has comparable regional significance in the Tintic, Utah, region. 

The eastern side of the South Mountain nappe adjoins 

the Bingham nappe along the Soldier tear fault. Outcrops of 

the Soldier Fault on the eastern boundary of the nappe place 

contrasting stratigraphic and structural terranes. The southwestward extension of the fault is concealed beneath thick 

deposits of the Harkers Fanglomerate and younger Quaternary alluvium. 

Normal faults, which were largely developed originally 

as tensional structures formed during the folding of the nappe, 

may show small normal displacements during Basin and 

Range extension. These are steeply dipping, north trending faults, and commonly host porphyritic dike rocks in the 

Stockton mining district. These faults also were conduits for 

the movement of hydrothermal sulfide solutions that formed 

veins and altered and replaced adjoining favorable carbonate 

sedimentary host rocks (Tooker, 1998). Offset of bed on these 

normal faults is generally small. The Oquirrh Mountains range 

front is defined by numerous normal extensional faults, which 

locally also displace the Quaternary gravels. Older Harker 

Fanglomerate deposits at the mouths of the main drainages are 

also truncated by these faults. 

Location and Types of Igneous Rocks

The main types of igneous rocks in the South Mountain 

nappe, originally described by Gilluly (1932) and later by 

Moore and McKee (1983), are intrusive facies of monzonitic 

porphyry that occur as small plugs, irregular dike-like bodies, 

and sills in the Stockton mining district and basalt dikes on 

South Mountain. Their ages are in the range of 38 to 39 m.y. 

(Moore and McKee, 1983). Extrusive volcanic rocks occur 

locally along the trace of the TAD thrust. 

Numerous dikes, sills, and small stocks of quartz monzonite porphyry, and related monzonite porphyry, diorite 

porphyry, and quartz-diorite porphyry phases occur in and 

adjacent to the Stockton mining district (Gilluly, 1932). The 

dikes fill north-trending, near-vertical tension fractures. The 

composition of the largest stock, locally known as the “Raddatz” porphyry, resembles that of a nearby thick sill near 

Tooele in the Bingham nappe (Gilluly, 1932; and Tooker, 

1980). A smaller fine-grained monzonite porphyry stock near 

the Calumet mine is dated at 38.0 ± 1.1 Ma by Moore (1973a). 

A number of porphyry sills occur in the southeastern part of 

the nappe and in adjoining parts of the Bingham nappe on the 

north side of Soldier Creek. The nepheline basalt sill described 

by Gilluly (1932), one of four smaller sills exposed nearby on 

the crest of South Mountain, is dated at 40.1 Ma (Moore and 

McKee, 1983). 

Hornblende latite tuff-breccia, which also includes waterlaid tuffs and flows, is shown on Gilluly’s map (1932) on the 

northeast foot of South Mountain. It is dated at 30.7 ± 0.9 Ma 

by Moore (1973a). 

Associated Mineral Resources

Sulfide ore deposits in the Stockton mining district are 

located on the structurally broken lead edge of the folded 

upper plate of the Stockton thrust (Lufkin, 1965; Moore and 

others (1966); and Tooker, 1998). Early production in the 

Stockton mining district between 1864 and 1901 was combined with that at Ophir; more recent production at Stockton 

is shown in table 4. The district has been inactive since 

1972. The typical sulfide ores occur in fissure- and beddedreplacement deposits of lead, zinc, copper, gold, and silver. 

Near-surface ores are oxidized, and grade into sulfide minerals below (Gilluly, 1932). The Stockton district ores occur 

mainly in the Pennsylvanian Rush Lake and Salvation units 

of Tooker and Roberts (1992), which are correlated in age 

with the ore-bearing horizon of the Clipper Ridge Member 

of the Bingham Mine Formation at Bingham. The ores are 

in close spatial association with quartz monzonite dikes and 

plugs and occur mainly along steep-dipping, north-northwest-trending faults and in adjacent locally replaced carbonate beds. The ores seem to diminish at moderate depth, leading to the supposition that mineralization is restricted to the 

much-broken upper plate of the Stockton thrust. Although 

prospected thoroughly, the same rocks along the less-broken 

South Mountain Anticline are not mineralized sufficiently to 

produce ores. 

Mining activity in the Stockton mining district apparently 

was restricted to the upper plate of the Stockton thrust. No 

deep exploration seems to have been undertaken to determine 

if mineralization occurs in the lower plate (Bingham nappe) 

Butterfield Peaks Formation, which hosts ores in the Bingham 

mining district.
46 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

Abundant resources of sand and gravel construction 

materials occur along the edges of the nappe. These locally 

thick deposits are mainly the result of wave action in Quaternary Lake Bonneville that distributed debris shed from the 

accelerated erosion of the uplifted nappes overlying the Uinta 

trend south of the Stockton thrust (Gilbert, 1886). The very 

substantial Bonneville bar and spit near Stockton, Utah, has 

been extensively quarried for highway, railroad, and other 

construction in the area, but no production data are available. 

Numerous borrow pits also occur in the nearby beach deposits.

Fivemile Pass Nappe

The Fivemile Pass nappe is located in the southernmost 

part of the Oquirrh Mountains, immediately north of Fivemile 

Pass, and mainly in the drainages of Wells and Clay Canyons 

(fig. 16). The allochthonous Fivemile Pass nappe (originally 

called Wells-Clay Canyon nappe by Tooker (1987)) is distinguished from the adjoining Bingham nappe by its limited yet 

distinctive transitional facies composition (table 8), and by 

its complex discordant fold structures (Tooker, 1987; Tooker 

and Roberts, 1998). The nappe is bounded on the north and 

northeast by the Clay thrust, on the west by the Sunshine tear 

fault, and on the east and south by the inferred Cedar tear 

fault, which is concealed by Quaternary alluvium (fig. 16). 

However, the Oquirrh Mountains and its nappes are terminated 

by the inferred northeast trending Fivemile Pass fault in Cedar 

Valley. It separates the Oquirrh Mountains from the Thorpe 

Hills’ stratigraphic and structural regimes. 

Distinguishing Nappe Stratigraphic and 

Structural Features

Sedimentary rocks in the Fivemile Pass include faultbounded, fragmented middle parts of the Upper Mississippian 

(Chester) Mercur limestone member of Gordon, Tooker, and 

Dutro (2000) of the Great Blue Limestone and normally overlying Mississippian-Pennsylvanian (Chester) Manning Canyon 

Shale (Gordon, written commun., 1985). Unconsolidated 

Quaternary alluvial deposits overlap the sedimentary rocks.

Defining Nappe Stratigraphy

The Mercur limestone member is similar in age to the 

type and reference localities in the southern Oquirrh Mountains 

(Gordon, Tooker, and Dutro, 2000). In the Fivemile Pass nappe, 

the member contains relatively larger proportions of shale to 

limestone. Thick green-black shales and interbedded thin layers 

of chert and quartzite represent a transition between the Oquirrh 

Mountains and East Tintic Mountains and was deposited an 

unknown distance south-southwest of its present location. The 

section probably is part of the lower-middle part above the 

Caninia zone of Gordon, (written commun., 1985). Sufficient 

fossils to age-date these rocks precisely permit only a tentative 

correlation with the Poker Knoll or Chulios Members of the 

Great Blue Formation at Tintic (Morris and Lovering, 1961).

The member differs from the Oquirrh Mountains Bingham 

nappe. Several thick altered shale units in the Wells Canyon 

locally, originally attributed to the Manning Canyon Shale, were 

mined for brick clay (Ornelas, 1953; Hyatt, 1956). The member 

also contains deposits of variscite (Sinkankas, 1976). 

 Manning Canyon Shale is correlated with the middle part 

of the Manning Canyon Shale. About 46 m are exposed and 

includes the characteristic thick-bedded, brownish-weathering 

medial quartzite. Fossil plant debris (Prince, 1963) and mega 

fossils of Mississippian age (M. Gordon, Jr., written commun., 

1990) suggest a transitional facies southward. The unit is overlain by Lake Bonneville unconsolidated sediments.

Defining Nappe Structures

The folded and faulted sedimentary rocks of the 

Fivemile Pass nappe are on the upper plate of the sole Clay 

thrust. They are discordant with and overlap rocks of the 

Table 8. Summary of lithology of lower Paleozoic formations in the Fivemile Pass nappe.

Age Formation Thickness Lithology

Wells thrust fault

Late Mississippian 

(Chester)

Manning Canyon 

Shale

46 m partial Mostly shale with thin interbeds of dark gray limestone and thin- to thickbedded dark brown weathering quartzite. Limestone is fossiliferous-plant 

debris, brachiopods and gastropods.

Clay thrust fault

Mississippian 

(Chester)

Great Blue Limestone Mercur 

member

not measured Interbedded, fossiliferous, sandy and cherty limestone as much as 7 m thick 

and thin (0.3 to 3 m) shale and argillaceous limestone. Probably part of 

the member above the Caninia zone of Gordon (written commun. 1985). 

Thick green-black shales with interbeds of chert and quartzite bands displace limestone and thin shale beds viewed at Ophir. Several of the thick 

altered shale beds were mined for brick clay. Formation also includes 

deposits of the gem mineral variscite (Sinkankas, 1976).

Covered
Geology, Correlation, and Economic Importance of Nappes 47

Figure 16. Generalized geologic map of the Fivemile Pass nappe. The adjoining Bingham nappe is shaded.

#ONTACT

4HRUSTFAULT3AWTEETH ON UPPER PLATE

DOTTED WHERE CONCEALED

3TRIKE
SLIPFAULT!RROWS SHOW RELAT VE

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AGENAPPES

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-ISSISSIPPIAN	

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48 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

Bingham nappe. The nappe was emplaced from the southsouthwest. The main fold in the Bingham nappe, the Ophir 

Anticline, trends due south and plunges to the south beneath 

the Fivemile Pass nappe. Secondary folds in the Mercur 

limestone member and Manning Canyon Shale trend southeastward. Three main northeast-trending, steep-dipping tear 

faults segment the nappe into two main blocks. Imbricate 

thrusts emplace Manning Canyon Shale over the younger 

parts of the Mercur limestone member near the south end of 

the nappe. Several steep-dipping normal faults do not greatly 

offset the sedimentary rocks.

Folds above the Clay thrust are evenly spaced, broad, 

with low amplitude, and are symmetrical in cross section. 

These were formed in a thinned, less competent leading edge 

of this thrust plate. However, locally in the in the upper plate 

of the imbricate thrust lying between the Sunshine (boundary) 

and Fivemile tear faults, east-northeast-trending folds in the 

Mercur limestone are tight and asymmetrical. The east-southeast-trending, low amplitude, open folds in Manning Canyon 

Shale and Mercur limestone member of the Great Blue Limestone are on the upper plate of the imbricate Wells thrust fault, 

east of the Fivemile Pass tear fault. 

The sole Clay thrust fault, fault imbrications in the upper 

plate, and tear and normal faults are the main structures in the 

Fivemile Pass nappe. The Clay thrust is a relatively steep-dipping fault, judging by its trend across the topography and lack 

of asymmetrical or overturned folds. Upper-plate folds are 

offset progressively along the northeast trending Fivemile and 

Cedar tear faults. These tear faults are steep dipping, northnortheast trending, mostly with only relatively small apparent displacement within the nappe. An overlying imbricate 

Wells thrust places younger Manning Canyon Shale over the 

Mercur limestone member east of the Fivemile fault. Mercur 

limestone reappears at the south end of the range by sedimentary succession and normal faulting. The impact of Basin and 

Range extensional faulting is presumed but apparently is not 

as marked here as in the adjoining Bingham nappe. 

Location and Types of Igneous Rocks

No igneous rocks have been observed in the nappe. 

Several small breccia pipes, possibly of igneous origin, 

intrude the Great Blue Limestone in the Sunshine mining 

area, near the boundary of the Bingham and Fivemile Pass 

nappes (Tooker, 1987). The pipes contain angular fragments 

of altered limestone and rhyolite porphyry(?). The largest 

breccia pipe (61 x 183 m), which occurs in Clay Canyon 

northeast of Sunshine (Tooker, 1987), has been extensively 

altered in part to clay minerals. 

Associated Mineral Resources

There is no evidence of the occurrence of base and 

precious metal deposits in the nappe. Economic brick-clay 

deposits and the semiprecious mineral variscite were mined 

in the Wells and Clay Canyon areas and along the south end 

of the Oquirrh Mountains in the Fivemile Pass area (Ornelas 

1953; and Hyatt, 1956). 

The clay deposits occur in the relatively thick, altered 

shale horizons of the Mercur limestone member of the Great 

Blue Limestone in Wells Canyon. The clay layers in the 

interbedded shale units range in thickness from 8 to 15 m, 

from light gray to dark gray in color, and with thin interbedded red and yellow iron-stained oxide bands and layers. The plastic noncalcareous, greenish-gray to black, and 

iron-stained clay-rich zone is overlain by medium-bedded to 

massive, medium-gray limestone. Production data of mined 

clay materials are unavailable. 

Hamilton (1959) and Sinkankas (1976) described the 

occurrence of variscite, originally discovered in 1890 in 

the massive overlying beds of the Great Blue Limestone in 

Clay Canyon. The shale-rich horizon is overlain by massive, 

medium-bedded, dark-gray to black limestones. Where brecciated locally in Clay Canyon, the limestones contain small 

deposits of the nodular semi-precious gem mineral variscite, 

(Al(PO4) 2H2O). The mineral is believed to form by seepage of phosphate-impregnated waters through aluminous 

rocks to form seams and crevices along shear and fracture 

zones. Cryptocrystalline quartz accompanies the variscite 

as chalcedony veinlets or chert, and the nodules are generally oval, flattened, and embedded in a matrix of quartz 

and calcite. The color of variscite varies from “light to dark 

shades of rich yellowish green, but very pale to almost white 

shades are known as well as those of purest deep green” 

(Sinkankas, 1976, p. 230). The source, time, and place of 

impregnation of phosphate waters are not known. Production of variscite peaked in 1909-1911, resulting in thousands 

of pounds. Since that time production has been sporadic, the 

last known production was in 1942. These deposits are not 

accessible today.

Quaternary sand and gravel deposits are also abundant 

and mined in the Fivemile Pass area. Their production has 

been intermittent and the amount taken is not known.

Conclusions

Analysis of detailed geologic mapping, stratigraphic 

and paleontological studies, and evaluation of the rock 

structures in north-central Utah, as well as consideration of 

previous geological research in the area, are the bases for a 

revised regional geologic setting for the Oquirrh Mountains 

and the occurrence of its ore deposits. Five nappes, which 

constitute the range, are defined on the basis of their fossiliferous carbonate and quartz-rich sedimentary rocks and 

their individually distinctive fold and fault structures. These 

data provide a fundamental basis for reconstructing the 

geologic evolution of north central Utah and a rationale for 

the location of base and precious metal ore deposits in the 

Oquirrh Mountains. 
The geologic analysis begins with recognition of the accretion of a Proterozoic sedimentary terrane onto the Wyoming 

Archean craton, and the creation of a basement buttress locally 

in the Wasatch Mountains east of Salt Lake City, Utah. The 

buttress overlies an earlier formed, west-trending mobile Uinta 

trend basement lineament. During the Paleozoic, sediments 

were eroded from the craton and deposited in the western hinterland in the Oquirrh and Sublette Basins, which were separated by a then uplifted part of the Uinta trend. Thrust faults produced by the Cretaceous Sevier Orogeny moved five Paleozoic 

nappe terranes eastward from their hinterland toward a foreland 

craton buttress. Tertiary igneous activity occurred locally in the 

stressed leading edge of nappe thrusts in the Oquirrh Mountains 

where uplifted and faulted along the Uinta trend. Hydrothermal 

activity in and about the intrusive stocks produced disseminated 

copper-molybdenum-gold and base- and precious-metal skarn, 

vein, and replacement deposits in thrust-faulted Paleozoic 

sedimentary rock nappes in the Bingham, Ophir, Mercur, and 

Stockton mining districts. Subsequent Basin and Range faulting 

defined the present Oquirrh Mountains terrane. Cenozoic uplift 

and erosion along the trend produced material for extensive 

sand and gravel deposits, particularly in those parts of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville that overlay the trend.

This revised regional geologic model provides an innovative understanding of the origin of the entire Oquirrh Mountains 

and its important ore deposits. These data also provide a coherent basis for evaluating the geology of north central Utah.

Acknowledgments

Knowledge of the geology of the Oquirrh Mountains has 

evolved during more than 130 years, and each step along the 

way was made possible owing to the dedication, ingenuity, 

and persistent efforts of a long list of previous investigators. 

Earlier USGS and mining company studies of the range and 

its mining districts by J.E. Spurr, J.M. Boutwell, J.J. Beeson, 

B.S. Butler, R.N. Hunt, and James Gilluly provide much of 

the historical background as well as early geological interpretations on which this survey is built. Growing recognition 

of the complex geology of the range still challenges us today. 

Ralph J. Roberts conceived and organized the Oquirrh 

Mountains studies reported here, but he was called away, 

midway, to develop a USGS heavy metals program, entrusting 

me to complete our studies of the range. His keen scientific 

understanding and enthusiasm set the direction and tone for 

the project and this report. 

I gratefully acknowledge the assistance and encouragement of USGS colleagues W.J. Moore, J.A. Briskey, Jr., R.W. 

Kopf, T.L. Vercoutere, and D.B. Vander Meulen for their geologic mapping and structural and stratigraphic interpretations. 

W.J. Moore and E.H. McKee classified and dated the igneous 

rocks. Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., R.C. Douglass, M.E. Taylor, 

E.L. Yochelson, H.M. Duncan, J.T. Dutro, Jr., K.S. Schindler, 

S.H. Mamay, and W. J. Sando made the paleontologic identifications, indicated the chronology of sedimentary rocks, and 

made regional stratigraphic correlations. D.R. Mabey conducted geophysical investigations in the range. 

I also wish to acknowledge the published company-sponsored geologic studies in the Bingham mining district. These 

include contributions by A.H. James, W.H. Smith, George 

Lanier, W.C. Peters, R.E. Bray, A.J. Swensen, B.F. Stringham, 

J.E. Welsh, R.C. Babcock, G.H. Ballantyne, C.H. Phillips, R.D. 

Presnell, and J.E. Reid of Kennecott; those by H.G. Peacock, 

M.T. Einaudi, W.W. Atkinson, Jr, and W.J. Garmoe of the 

former Anaconda Minerals Company and the assistance of R.N. 

Hunt, R.D. Rubright, and O.J. Hart of U.V. Industries (formerly 

the U.S. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Company). I also thank 

L.D. Kornze, W.J. Tafuri, Tracy Shrier, T.B. Faddies, R.G. Blair, 

and S.B. Kerr of American Barrick (formerly Getty Mining) for 

field visits, conferences, and published data on the geology of 

the Mercur mining district. Thanks to F.W. Bauman, Touchstone 

Resources for data on the Sunshine mining area. The reports by 

W.L. Gunter, J.W. Hammitt, R.C. Babcock, Jr., and T.R. Gibson 

of the Kennecott Corporation and Kennecott Exploration Company were also very helpful, R.D. Presnell, University. of Utah, 

and the recent summary by R.C. Babcock, Jr., G.H. Ballantyne, 

and C.H. Phillips of Kennecott are the main recent sources of 

information about the Barneys Canyon mines. 

Permission for entrance of USGS personnel onto 

privately controlled lands by the television transmission, 

livestock grazing, and mining companies is also acknowledged with appreciation. Other contributions of data on the 

geology and ore deposits in the Oquirrh Mountains, which 

were derived from a number of university and individuals’ 

studies and those by Tooker (1998), Gordon, Tooker and 

Dutro, (2000), and Tooker and Roberts (1998) are summarized in this report. I am very indebted to Donald Mabey 

and Dennis Cox for their incisive reviews of this manuscript. 

The geologic conclusions and interpretations in this report, 

derived from my data and from those listed above are the 

responsibility of the author.

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58 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

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60 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

Appendix 1. Columnar section of the Permian-age Curry, Clinker, and 

Kirkman formational units of Welsh and James (1961, plate 5), from Section 

No. 2 [Bingham] District Geology Map. 
Appendix 2. 61

Appendix 2. Measured sections of the (A) South Peak, (B) Salvation, and (C) 

Rush Lake formational units of Tooker and Roberts (1992) that constitute the 

Oquirrh Group sedimentary rocks in the South Mountain Nappe. 

Thickness 

(meters)

Distance above base 

(meters)

Covered by alluvium and overlapped by the concealed north-trending Tintic Valley 

thrust fault

Unconformity

Stratigraphic section of the South Peak unit of Tooker and Roberts (1992)

1,904

22. Calcareous quartzite, light buff-tan, fine sand, medium-bedded to massive, welljointed and fractured, interbedded orthoquartzite, bioclastic limestone and sand 

partings with fusulinids; weathers red-brown to tan, thin surface rind, in part platy 

float; mostly covered slope. USGS colln. f22621 near top, “Bioclastic limestone 

with well rounded sand grains, bryozoa, Triticites sp. and Schwagerina sp., some 

incipient euniculi. The age suggested is early Permian, late Wolfcamp to earliest 

Leonard equivalent” (R.C. Douglass, written commun. 1962). 243 1,661

21. Calcareous quartzite, orthoquartzite and limestone interbedded, medium light-gray, 

coarse-grained to sandy, calcareous cement, medium-bedded orthoquartzite and 

sand partings, banded; weathers light-gray, grains in relief; finer dark gray limy 

clastic sands include fossil fragments (brachiopods), calcareous mudstone at 11 m, 

and fusulinids in sandy limestone with phosphate coating; mostly covered slope. 

USGS colln. f22620 at 16 m, “Well-rounded sandstone with detrital fragments of 

bryozoa, Triticites sp. and Schwagerina sp. The age suggested is Early Permian, 

late Wolfcamp equivalent” (R.C Douglass, written commun, 1962). 47 1,614

20. Calcareous quartzite, tan-to-olive gray, sandy, mostly calcareous cement, mediumbedded to massive, thin-bedded sandstone layers with worm trails; weathers redbrown to buff with thick surface rind; mostly covered slope 265 1,349

19. Sandstone and calcareous quartzite, interbedded; buff, sandy; weathers deep yellowbrown; contains worm trails and fusulinid molds; mostly covered slope. 119 1,230

18. Calcareous quartzite and orthoquartzite, interbedded, tan-buff, to olive-gray and 

light-gray, sandy, medium bedded; interbedded ferruginous sandstone 0.9-1.8 m 

thick contains worm trails; weathers light brown-tan; covered slope. 52 1,178

17. Orthoquartzite, and calcareous quartzite, interbedded, tan-buff and light brown 

bands, sandy; interbedded ferruginous sandstone; weathers yellow-tan and reddish 

brown, ferruginous surface rind on calcareous quartzite, worm trails; covered slope. 8 1,170

Porphyry dike 11

16. Calcareous quartzite and orthoquartzite interbedded, tan-buff to light-gray, medium 

grained to sandy, medium-bedded, local banding; interbedded limy sandstone layers; 

weathers light brown-tan, very thin surface rind; covered slope. 5 1,165

15. Calcareous quartzite, orthoquartzite, interbedded; quartzite contains molds of 

fusulinids, near top; bedded chert with preserved fusulinids; chert pebbles of earlier 

rocks; phosphatic replacement of fusulinids; mostly covered slope. USGS colln. 

f22619 at 12.9 m, “Coarse sand with Schwagerina sp. as detrital fragments, abraded 

and chemically altered. The age suggested is Early Permian, Wolfcamp equivalent” 

(R.C. Douglass written commun. 1962). 13 1,152

A, Stratigraphic section of the South Peak unit of Tooker and Roberts (1992) composed of the upper part of the Oquirrh Group 

(Early Permian) measured on South Mountain along the ridge across SE-1/4 sec. 13, R. 6 W., T.4 S. and S-1/2 sec. 18, SW-1/4 

sec. 17, R. 5 W., T. 4 S., South Mountain 7 1/2-min. quadrangle, Utah. [Measured by R.J. Roberts and E.W. Tooker, October 1961]
62 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

Stratigraphic section of the South Peak unit—Continued.

Thickness 

(meters)

Distance above base 

(meters)

14. Calcareous quartzite, tan-buff to olive-gray, fine to coarse grained in upper part, 

medium-bedded, often thin inter-bedded orthoquartzite and limy sandstone beds; 

weathers reddish-brown to light-buff-gray, with soft surface rind 8 cm thick; poorly 

preserved fusulinid molds at top; mostly covered slope. 158 994

13. Ferruginous sandstone, yellow-brown, sandy, medium to thin bedded with thin interbedded calcareous quartrzite and bedded chert; weathers medium brown, rounded 

float; covered slope. 53 941

12. Calcareous quartzite, medium-gray, sandy, thin to medium bedded, interbedded 

sandy limestone and platy limy sandstone, largely ferruginous beds up to 1 m in 

upper part, local banded thin phosphatic chert beds; weather reddish-brown and yellow-brown, rounded fragments with medium soft surface rind; worm trails common 

in ferruginous sandstone; mostly covered slope. 114 827

Porphyry dike 51

11. Calcareous quartzite, medium-gray, medium-grained, thin- to medium-bedded, 

locally banded, interbedded thin, sandy limestone containing worm trails and limy 

sandstone partings; weathers reddish-brown and light-tan, sandy surface, thin surface rind, platy fragments in part; mostly covered slope. 18 809

10. Calcareous quartzite and sandstone, interbedded; orthoquartzite and platy limy 

sandstone with worm trails, and bedded chert; covered slope. 132 677

9. Limestone, dark gray, sandy, thin-bedded sandstone partings; weathers medium dark 

gray, sand partings, weathers brown-tan, covered slope. 0.6 676

8. Orthoquartzite, light gray-tan to olive gray medium grained to sandy, mostly medium-bedded with interbedded calcareous quartzite, ferruginous sandstone, bedded 

chert, and platy limy sandstone; weathers brown-tan; fusulinid molds locally, worm 

trails in sandstone; covered slope. 114 562

7. Limestone, medium dark-gray, dense, fine-grained to silty, sandstone partings; 

weathers medium light-gray; covered slope. 0.7 561

6. Calcareous quartzite and ferruginous sandstone, interbedded, light gray-tan medium 

grained to sandy; worm trails and fususlinid molds in sandstone and quartzite; 

weathers brown-tan; covered slope. 41 521

5. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine grained to sandy, with sand partings and lenses; 

weathers medium-gray; covered slope 0.6 520

4. Calcareous quartzite and orthoquartzite, interbedded; light gray-tan, medium grained 

to sandy, occasional yuellow-brown thin-bedded partings and thin to medium beds 

of ferruginous sandstone that weather reddish-brown-tan, thick surface rinds on 

rounded float from calcareous quartzite, orthoquartzite has more angular float; 

fusulinid molds found in sandstone at 104 m, worm trails occur in some of the ferruginous sandstone; mostly covered slope. 357 163

3. Ferruginous sandstone and calcareous quartzite, interbedded; sandstone brown, medium grained to sandy, ferruginous cement; weathers dark reddish-brown; worm trails, 

and fusulinid molds occur locally; quartzite thin-bedded, banded; covered slope. 38 125

2. Orthoquartzite, tan, sandy, silica cement, medium bedded, banded and crossbedded 

locally; weathers reddish-brown; covered slope. 4 121

1. Limestone and calcareous quartzite, interbedded; sandy limestone with interbedded 

ferruginous sandstone locally; covered slope. 121

Total South Peak unit measured 1,903

Conformable contact

Salvation unit, Oquirrh Group (upper beds only)

17. Limestone, medium-gray, fossiliferous.
Appendix 2. 63

B, Stratigraphic section of the Salvation unit of Tooker and Roberts (1992) in the Oquirrh Group on the South Mountain 

nappe, measured on South Mountain along the ridge across S-1/2 sec. 22 and N-1/2 sec. 21, T. 4 S., R. 5 W., Stockton 15-min. 

or South Mountain 7-1/2 min. quadrangles. [Measured by R.J. Roberts and E.W. Tooker, October, 1961]

Thickness 

(meters)

Distance above base 

(meters)

South unit, Oquirrh Group (lowest beds only):

Limestone and quartzite, interbedded; sandy limestone and calcareous quartzite with 

local interlaminated ferruginous sandstone; covered slope.

Contact conformable.

Salvation unit, Oquirrh Group:

832

17. Limestone, medium-gray, fine-grained to sandy, medium-bedded; weathers medium 

light gray; productid brachiopods, fusulinids in sandy limestone.

USGS colln. f22623 at 14 m, “Fine sand with Triticites sp. The age suggested is 

Late Pennsylvanian, probably late Missouri or earliest Virgil equivalent.” (R.C. Douglass, written commun. 7/20/62). A brachiopod was identified as “Linoproductus

sp. indet.” (Mackenzie Gordon,Jr., written commun. 10/14/66).

USGS colln. f22624 at 24 m, “Fine sand with Triticites sp. It probably is referable 

to latest Missouri equivalent but an early Virgil age is a possibility.” (R.C Douglass, written commun. 7/20/62). Productid brachiopods and bryozoans common in 

other layers. 29 803

16. Quartzite and limestone, interbedded; light tan-gray, sandy, calcareous cement, 

medium-bedded quartzite, and medium-gray, fine grained to sandy, medium-bedded 

limestone with shale partings; weathers buff (quartzite) and light blue gray (limestone); fossils locally in limestone include bryozoans and fusulinids.

USGS colln. f22622” at 10 m, “Fine sand with some bryozoa and Kansanella sp. 

The age suggested is Late Pennsylvanian, probably Missouri equivalent.” (R.C. 

Douglass, written commun. 7/20/62). 12 791

15. Quartzite, light-gray, sandy, mostly calcareous cement in lower part, silica cement 

more common in upper part, medium-bedded, local banding, interbedded silicacemented quartzite in lower part and sandy limestone throughout, sparse ripple 

marked surfaces noted locally; weathers red brown to tan; covered slope. 69 722

14. Quartzite, light tan-gray, sandy, mostly calcareous cement, interbedded with locally 

crossbedded, and often fossiliferous, medium dark-gray sandy limestone up to 1 m 

thick; quartzite weathers buff, limestone medium blue-gray; fossils (identified by 

R.C. Douglass, written commun., 7/20/62) in sandy limestone layers include fusulinids, brachiopods, crinoids, bryozoans, Syringopora and cup corals.

USGS colln. 22615 at 5 m, “Fine sand with crinoidal debris, bryozoan fragments 

and fragments of Kansanellaa sp. The age suggested is Late Pennsylvanian probably Missourii equivalent.”

USGS colln. f22616 at 46 m, “Fine sand with Triticites sp. scattered, and bioclastic 

limestone with Tetrataxis sp, texturalid, Bradyina sp., Millerella sp., and Fusulinella

sp. or Pseudofusulinella sp. This second piece really look like a piece from the 

middle Pennsylvanian.”

USGS colln. f22617 at 147 m, “Silty fragmented limestone with Bradyina sp. and 

Kansanella sp. The age suggested is Late Pennsylvanian, probably Missouri equivalent.”

USGS colln. f22618 at 126-132 m, “Fine sand with abundant small fusulinids something like the kind Thompson calls Oketaella but more globular.” and brachiopods 

and corals in the uppermost part; mostly covered slope. 203 519

13. Limestone, medium-gray, fine-grained to sandy, thick bedded; weathers olive brown 

to light gray; corals, Derbyia brachiopods, bryozoans, and fusulinids. 

USGS colln. f22614 at 155 m, “ Fine sand with textularids and Triticites sp. The age 

suggests Late Pennsylvanian, probably Missouri equivalent.” R.C. Douglass, written commun. 7/20/62. 4 515
64 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

Salvation unit, Oquirrh Group—Continued:

Thickness 

(meters)

Distance above base 

(meters)

12. Quartzite, light tan-gray, sandy, mostly calcareous cemented, medium-bedded with 

interbedded limy sandstone, crossbedded in part, thin platy to shaly limestone partings; weathers reddish brown to buff, medium-soft surface rind; covered slope. 116 399

11. Quartzite, light tan-gray, sandy, mostly silica-cemented, massive to medium-bedded 

with interbedded sandy limestone up to .3 m thick and thin interlayers of calcareous-cemented quartzite, crossbedded locally; weathers tan buff, platy float; partly 

covered slope. 41 358

10. Limestone, medium-gray, fine-grained, thin-bedded; weathers light gray; mostly 

covered slope. 1 357

9. Quartzite, medium tan-gray, medium- to coarse-sandy, mostly calcareous cement, 

medium-bedded to massive, interbedded thin laminae of limestone, limy sandstone, and shale partings, well-jointed, banded locally; weathers tan buff, pitted 

thin surface rind, alternate hard and softer layers locally weather in relief; fossils in 

interbedded sandy limestone, cup and Syringopora corals, brachiopods, gastropods, 

crinoid stems, bryozoans.

USGS colln. 61F76 at 247 m, “Syringoporoid coral, Straparollus (Euomphalus) sp. 

ident.” (Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., written commun. 10/4/66). 271 86

8. Limestone, medium dark gray, fine grained to sandy, medium bedded; weathers light 

gray with brown sand partings; platy float. 3 83

7. Quartzite, medium dark-gray, sandy, calcareous cement, medium-bedded, banded 

locally; weathers medium light gray with light-brown bands; mostly covered slope. 8 75

6. Limestone, medium-gray, fine grained to sandy—size increases upward—mediumbedded, sand partings more abundant in upper part; weathers tan to medium light 

gray, sandy surface, platy float; well-preserved fusulinids, cup corals abundant at 

base. 4 67

5. Quartzite and limestone, interbedded; (quartzite) calcareous cement (limestone) 

sandy; covered slope. 6 61

4. Limestone, medium-gray, fine-grained to sandy, medium-bedded; weathers light 

blue gray, sandy surface; abundant fusulinid, brachiopod, bryozoan, crinoid assemblage. 

USGS colln. f226ll at base, “Coarse bioclastic limestone with fragments of foraminifera including Bradyina sp., and Pseudofusulinella sp.”

USGS colln. f22612 at 1 m, “Fine sand with fragments of Triticites sp. The age 

suggested is Late Pennsylvanian, Missouri equivalent.” (R.C. Douglass, written 

commun. 7/20/62. 2 59

3. Quartzite and limestone, interbedded; light gray-tan to olive brown, sandy, calcareous cemented, medium-bedded, locally banded and crossbedded quartzite, and medium-gray platy limestone; weathers yellow brown to reddish brown, thick surface 

rind (quartzite) and light gray (limestone); mostly covered slope. 5 4

2. Limestone, medium-gray, sandy, medium-bedded; weathers light tan gray; abundant 

crinoids, cup and Syringopora corals and fusulinid fauna. 

USGS colln. f22610 at 2 m, “Fine sand with scattered fragments of Triticites sp. 

The age suggested is Late Pennsylvanian Missouri equivalent.” (R.C. Douglass, 

written commun. 7/20/62). 3 1

1. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine-grained thin-bedded, locally laminated; weathers 

blue gray, sandy surface; top 0.3 m brecciated and cemented with white calcite. 1

Total Salvation unit measured 832

Conformable contact.

Rush Lake unit, Oquirrh Group (upper beds only) 

37. Quartzite, light gray-tan, thin bedded, locally laminated.
Appendix 2. 65

Thickness 

(meters)

Distance above base 

(meters)

Salvation unit, Oquirrh Group (lowest beds only): Limestone, medium dark-gray, thin 

bedded, locally laminated

Contact conformable, 

Rush Lake unit, Oquirrh Group: 1,352

37. Quartzite, light gray-tan, sandy, mostly calcareous cement, thin interbedded limy 

sandstone and sandy limestone partings and layers in upper part; worm trails in thin 

ferruginous layers and brachiopods, crinoids, and fusulinids, in limestones; weathers 

light brown-tan to yellow-gray, slight local pitting; brachiopod shells and spines, 

crinoid fragments in limestone, and fusulinids in sandy limestones near top; mostly 

covered slope. 182 1,170

36. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine-grained, medium-bedded, black chert nodules 

and lenses; weathers medium gray, chert weathers brown and stands in relief; partly 

covered slope. 1 1,169

35. Quartzite, light gray-tan, sandy, calcareous-cemented, interbedded sandy limestone 

and limy sandstone layers and partings, in part banded near top; weathers brown 

with thick surface rind; covered slope. 150 1.019

34. Limestone and quartzite, interbedded; sandy limestone and silica and calcareous-cemented fine-grained to sandy quartzite, local ferruginous sandstone and fine-grained 

sandstone layers; mostly covered slope. 133 886

33. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine-grained, medium- to thick-bedded; weathers 

dark blue-gray, rough pitted surface;abundant well-preserved Syringopora and cup 

corals, brachiopods, and fusulinids.

USGS colln. f22609, “Silty bioclastic limestone with Tetretaris sp., Millerella sp., 

textularids, Bradyina sp., and Wedekindellina sp. The age suggested is a Middle Pennsylvanian, late Des Moines equivalent.” R.C. Douglass written commun. 7/26/62. 2 884

32. Quartzite, medium-gray, sandy, mostly calcareous cement, medium-bedded with 

interbedded thin silica cemented quartzite, interbedded thin sandy limestone layers 

in middle part, banded in upper part, crossbedded locally; weathers reddish-tan, 

platy to blocky float, in part pitted; sandy limestone contains sparse well-preserved 

fusulinids and Syringopora and cup corals at 52+ m; mostly covered slope. 111 773

31. Quartzite, tan-gray, sandy, cemented by silica; covered slope. 10 763

30. Limestone, medium light-gray, fine-grained and silty to sandy, thin-bedded with 

interbedded thin (up to .3 m) calcareous quartzite layers, black chert nodules locally 

abundant; weathers yellow gray to tan, platy; covered slope. 12 751

29. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine-grained, thin- to medium-bedded, very thinly 

laminated in part, sand partings locally, black chert nodules and lenses moderately 

abundant; weathers medium blue-gray, platy; well-preserved brachiopods are sparse, 

worm trails in yellow-weathered limy sandstone at 53 m; covered slope. 57 694

28. Quartzite, buff-tan, coarse-sandy, mostly calcareous cement, medium-bedded, banded with minor crossbedding, shaly limestone partings, thin interbedded limestone 

layers in basal part; weathers reddish-tan, thick 5-cm partly ferruginous, porous 

weathered rind, pitted surface in more silicified beds; sparse silicified Syringopora 

coral in limestone at base; mostly covered slope. 91 603

27. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine-grained to silty, shaly and thin-bedded; sandy 

limestone partings; weathers medium light gray; common well-preserved crinoid, 

bryozoan, and brachiopod assemblage; mostly covered slope 7 596

26. Limestone, medium-gray, fine-grained, dense, medium-bedded to massive, local 

laminar bands; weathers blue-gray, pitted surface; sparse, well-preserved silicified 

brachiopods, corals, and crinoid fossils; prominent outcrop. 12 584

C, Stratigraphic section of the Rush Lake unit of Tooker and Roberts (1992) in the Oquirrh Group, South Mountain nappe 

measured on South Mountain along the main ridge across S-1/2 sec. 22 and N-1/2 sec. 21, T. 4 S., R. 5 W., Stockton 7-1/2-

minute quadrangle, Utah. [Measured by R.J. Roberts and E.W. Tooker, October, 1961]
66 Significance of the Precambrian Basement and Late Cretaceous Thrust Nappes, Oquirrh Mountains, Utah

Rush Lake unit, Oquirrh Group—Continued:

Thickness 

(meters)

Distance above base 

(meters)

25. Quartzite, light gray-tan, sandy, silica-cemented, banded in part, interbedded ferruginous sandstone layer at 8 m; weathers brown to light tan-brown; covered slope. 25 559

24. Shale, light-gray, silty, thin-bedded, interbedded thin banded quartzite and sandy 

limestone beds; weathers buff to light reddish-brown-gray; platy covered slope. 70 489

23. Quartzite, light tan-gray, sandy, calcareous cement, medium bedded; weathers tan to 

light brown; partly covered slope. 16 473

22. Limestone, medium gray, sandy, thin-bedded at base, medium-bedded toward top, 

sand partings and laminae in lower part,medial 1-meter quartzite layer; weathers 

light gray; platy float. 3 470

21. Quartzite, light gray-brown, sandy, calcareous cement, medium-bedded; weathers 

tan. 7 463

20. Limestone, dark gray, fine grained, medium bedded, dense; weathers light bluegray, pitted surface. 1 462

19. Quartzite and sandstone, medium brown-grey, sandy, calcareous and ferruginous 

cement, medium-bedded; weathers tan and dark brown. 9 453

18. Limestone, medium gray, fine-grained to sandy, medium-bedded, crossbedded locally; weathers light gray, platy float; sparse, well-preserved small cup corals. 5 448

17. Quartzite, light gray-tan, sandy, silica-cemented, medium bedded; a 0.6 m thick 

interbedded sandy limestone with crossbedded sandy partings at top; weathers tan, 

very thin surface rind, slope and ledge outcrops. 14 434

16. Quartzite, light gray-tan, coarse grained sandy, calcareous-cemented, medium-bedded to massive; weathers light brown,thick porous surface rind, blocky float. 9 425

15. Limestone, medium gray, silty, medium bedded; weathers yellow-gray to buff, platy; 

well-preserved, abundant, crinoid, bryozoan, productid, and spiriferid brachiopod 

fauna; mostly covered slope.

USGS colln. 224387-PC at 23 m, “Derbyia aff. D. crassa (Meek and Hander), 

Neochoneltes sp., Grandaurispina sp., J urasania cf. J. nebrascensis (Owen), Cancrinella cf. C. broonensis (Swallow), Crurithuris cf. C. planoconvexa (Shumard), 

Condtathyris perplexa (McChessney), Hustedia mormoni (Marcou), Composita?

sp. indet. (fragment), Beecheria cf. B. bovidens (Morton), Paralleolodon? sp indet., 

and Ammonoid indet. (juvenile). The age of this collection of small silicified fossils 

is Middle Pennsylvanian (Des Moines), although it can also be somewhat younger 

Pennsylvanian.” 27 368

14. Quartzite, light gray, sandy, silica-cemented, thin- to medium-bedded, banded in 

part; weathers reddish light gray, hard conchoidal fracture; partly covered slope. 39 368

13. Limestone, medium dark-gray, fine-grained to silty, thin-bedded; weathers light 

gray-tan; common well preserved fenestrate bryozoans and productid and spiriferid 

brachiopods; mostly covered slope. 1 367

12. Quartzite and limestone, interbedded; thin laminated platy sandy limestone and 

blocky quartzite, medium bedded; covered slope. 9 358

11. Limestone, dark gray, fine grained, medium bedded; weathers blue gray, smooth 

surface. 1 357

10. Quartzite, tan-gray, calcareous-cemented quartz grains, medium-bedded; weathers tan to light brown with thin softer weathered surface rind; platy to blocky float, 

covered slope. 3 354

9. Sandy limestone and quartzite, interbedded; medium to medium-bedded, black chert 

nodules with sandy margins locally; mostly covered slope. 36 318

8. Quartzite and shaly limestone, interbedded; well-preserved bryozoans and crinoid 

stems in limestone; covered slope. 13 305

7. Shaly limestone, medium dark-gray, silty, thin-bedded to platy at top; weathers 

purple gray and medium gray; brachiopods, bryozoans at base; mostly covered. 36 269
Appendix 2. 67

Rush Lake unit, Oquirrh Group—Continued:

Thickness 

(meters

Distance above base 

(meters)

6. Limestone, medium gray, medium to fine grained, medium bedded; weathers medium light gray, rough pitted surface, fossils rare. 3 266

5. Sandstone, reddish-brown and tan, sandy, calcareous cement to part, medium-bedded; weathers light brown-tan; mostly covered slope. 7 259

4. Quartzite, brown-tan, sandy mostly silica cemented quartz grains, but is slightly 

calcareous, medium-bedded with thin interbeds of calcareous sandstone; weathers 

light brown tan with smooth surface; upper part covered slope. 31 228

3. Limestone, medium gray and tan, silty and sandy, chert nodules, in part bioclastic, 

interbedded with thin (5 cm) quartzite and shale partings; weathers medium light 

gray-brown and yellow-brown;fenestrate and stem bryozoans, and brachiopods locally abundant. 27 201

2. Limestone, medium-gray, silty to sandy, thin and platy to medium-bedded,, interbedded shaly and sandy units, crossbedded in part, locally thin interbedded cherty 

limestone units; weathers medium light gray and yellow brown; bryozoans.

USGS colln. 61F70A at 169 feet, “Fistuliporoid (?) bryozoan, indet., Fenestella sp.,

Polypora sp., Archimedes sp. (fragments of fronds), Penniretepra sp., rhomboproid 

bryozoans, crinoid colummals, Juresania sp. indet.” Fauna is compatible with Des 

Moines age of section.” (Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., written commun. 10/14/66) 30 171

1. Limestone, medium gray, fine grained to sandy, thin bedded, and distinctly laminated and locally convoluted, to medium bedded; black chert nodules moderalely 

abundant in medium-bedded rock, shale partings common, and sandy bioclastic rock 

locally abundant; weathers medium light gray, chert nodules to light sandy-brown; 

locally brecciated medium sandy layers; fossiliferous with coral bryozoan, and 

crinoid stems, and small brachiopods

USGS colln f22608 at 3 m, “Bioclastic limestone with Bradyina, textularids, and 

Fusulina sp. The age suggested is Middle Pennsylvanian, late Des Moines equivalent.” (R.C. Douglass, written commun. 7/20/62) 171

Total Rush Lake unit measured 1,352

Conformable contact (?), lower part of the Rush Lake unit is covered by alluvium.