1918] Moody-Taliaferro : Anticlines Near Sunshine, Wyoming 451 



by Lupton 1 "to a mass of generally shaly rocks, limited below by the 

 top of the upper sandstone bed of the Cloverly (Greybull Sand), and 

 above, also conformably, by the base of the Mowry shale. It is named 

 from the town of Thermopolis, in Hot Springs County, near which it 

 is well exposed." 



From the stratigraphic position the authors refer the dark shales 

 lying above the top of the Cloverly (Dakota sandstone) and below 

 the base of the Mowry in the area mapped to the Thermopolis shale. 

 Here it is very similar to the beds of the type section. This formation 

 is exposed only in the Gooseberry Creek anticline where it forms the 

 small valleys flanking the hard Dakota sandstone. It conformably 

 overlies the Dakota and consists at the base of dark, almost black, 

 rather soft sandy shales with numerous thin rather calcareous brown 

 sandstone lenses one-fourth inch to four or five inches in thickness. 

 Near the base these sandstone layers are almost equal in amount to 

 the shale, but higher up in the formation the black shales rapidly 

 become predominant. Toward the top the black shales again become 

 somewhat sandy and thin sandstones are present. No thick sandstone 

 member was noted such as the Muddy sand 2 in the Basin region. The 

 thickness of this formation, as measured on the east limb of the Goose- 

 berry Creek fold, is 470 feet. 



Mowry Shale. — Conformably overlying the black Thermopolis 

 shales are the hard blue black fissile Mowry beds. This formation 

 outcrops in both the Sunshine and Gooseberry Creek folds, its entire 

 thickness being exposed only in the latter. These shales weather to 

 a bluish or silver gray color and usually form low, well wooded hog- 

 backs. Considering its wide distribution and persistent character, the 

 authors agree with Lupton 3 in considering the Mowry as a distinct 

 formation rather than as a member. 



Section of the Mowry Shale on the East Limb of Gooseberry Creek Anticline 



Frontier formation. feet 



7. Hard, dark, very sandy shales with thin sandstone layers 74 



6. Coarse, rather hard sandstone - 6 



5. Hard, blue black to chocolate colored shales 33 



4. Sandy shale and shaly sandstone 5 



3. Dark shales, hard and fissile 67 



2. Hard brownish gray sandstone 5 



1. Hard, blue black, fissile siliceous shale 190 



Thermopolis shale. 



Total 380 



1 Lupton, C. T., Oil and gas near Basin, Bighorn County, Wyoming, Joe. cit., 

 p. 168. 



2 Loc. cit., pp. 167, 168. 



3 Loc. cit., p. 169. 



