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List of Grand Canyon Rock Layers
What is Grand Canyon Stratigraphy?
Kaibab Formation
Toroweap Formation
Coconino Sandstone
Hermit Formation
Supai Group
Redwall Limestone
Tonto Group
Muav Limestone
Bright Angel Shale
Tapeats Sandstone
Vishnu Complex
Muav Limestone
Cambrian Period, 500 Million Years Old, 375 Feet Thick
Ledges and slopes below the Redwall cliff
The Muav is a mottled, nodular, shaly, yellowish-gray limestone. In the
eastern Canyon it is a grayish yellow cliff in the lower part, a covered slope in the middle, and a ledgy cliff, often stained red in the upper part where it contacts the Redwall
Limestone. This upper part of the Muav forms the lower part of the red cliff and is easily confused
as part of the Redwall Limestone. Muav fossils are sparce. They include trilobites and brachiopods as well as scattered invertebrate tracks and trails. Of the
three Tonto formations, the Muav was deposited farthest from shore.
This is a close view of the lumpy, nodular Muav Limestone. In eastern Grand Canyon, the Muav originated
as a
relatively near-shore shaly formation containing much terriginous material. Farther west near Peach Springs, Arizona, it
is a more pure, deeper water marine limestone.