Description
The Hidden Valley Dolomite has been divided into three units; only the lower unit has abundant fossils and provides the basis of this study. The lower unit is a medium-gray, fossiliferous, cherty, finely crystalline dolostone and ranges in age from Early Silurian to early Late Silurian. Three sections of this unit were measured, described and supplemented with petrographic analysis. The formation was deposited within shallow marine environments on a stable continental margin. Easternmost exposures (Nopah Range) represent a shoaling upward sequence deposited within open to restricted marine carbonate platform environments. Exposures to the northwest (Funeral Mountains) indicate a shoaling upwards sequence deposited within restricted shelf-basin, toe of slope, foreslope, and moderate energy shoal environments. Westernmost exposures (southern Inyo Mountains) were deposited within toe of slope and shelf-basin margin environments. Regional paleodepositional patterns demonstrate that shallow platform (Nopah Range) and toe slope (Inyo Mountains) environments were separated by restricted shelf-basin environments (Funeral Mountains). An archipelago rimmed the continental shelf edge. Shoal waters near the islands were organically active and supplied bioclasts to toe of slope environments exposed in the southern Inyo Mountains.
