Abstract: Magnetic Stratigraphy of the Refugian (Late Eocene) Wagonwheel Formation, Devil's Den, Kern County, California

SUTTON, JOEY, and DONALD R. PROTHERO

The Wagonwheel Formation in the Devil's Den area of northwestern Kern County, California, is one of the few exposures of upper Eocene strata on the western edge of the San Joaquin Valley. It yields late early Refugian (Uvigerina atwilli subzone of Tipton, 1980) benthic foraminifera, and late Eocene (CP15b zone of Okada and Bukry, 1980) calcareous nannofossils, as well as a peculiar cold seep fauna dominated by lucinid bivalves (Squires and Gring, 1996). Based on the CP15b age assignment, the reversed-normal-reversed sequence in the Wagonwheel Formation is correlated with magnetic Chrons C15r-C13r (34.0-35.3 Ma). This is comparable to the magnetostratigraphic age assignments of late early Refugian strata elsewhere in the Coast Ranges.

Search and Discovery Article #90945©1997 AAPG Pacific Section Meeting, Bakersfield, California