BajaNomad
Not logged in [Login - Register]

Go To Bottom
Printable Version  
 Pages:  1  2    4
Author: Subject: How old are the fossils in Baja?
tripledigitken
Ultra Nomad
*****


Avatar


Posts: 4848
Registered: 9-27-2006
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 10:51 AM


I'm guessing 65+

:lol::lol::lol:




View user's profile
Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
******




Posts: 8088
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 10:56 AM


El Roario's Mama Espinoza's restaurant has local ammonites on display. These animals ranged from 500M to 65M BC. So the fossils and the peninsula is at least 65M years old. Muy viejo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonoidea

[Edited on 2-17-2013 by Skipjack Joe]
View user's profile
geomike
Junior Nomad
*


Avatar


Posts: 64
Registered: 10-3-2009
Location: Very near to the middle of nowhere.
Member Is Offline

Mood: feeling an irresistable pull towards Baja...

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 11:20 AM


Quote:
Originally posted by tripledigitken
I'm guessing 65+

:lol::lol::lol:



The winner is trippledigitken as long as he was talking about the rocks in the El Rosario area and as long as he meant 65+ Million years!

David here is a link to a google earth .kmz file from the UCSD. I'm not much of a hand with Google Earth but I know you are. It opened up a really slick Geologic Map of Baja California
Geologic map of Baja

There is no Legend attached to the map:(

Look for the El Rosario area and you will find extensive areas of light green rock with splotches of tan and brown.

The light green is labeled Krm. "K" stands for Cretaceous and the rm would be a local formation name abbreviation (probably "r" for Rosario "m" for marine)

The tan and brown colored areas are rocks of Tertiary age ("T" indicates Tertiary)

So in this area we have rocks spanning the famous Cretaceous Tertiary Boundary, at 65.5 Million years.

The K-T boundary (65.5 Million years before present) is most famous for killing off the Dinos. Less so (and in my opinion more tragically) it is the end of the Ammonites!

There is a building front in El Rosario (about half way through town maybe about opposite of the Sinai Hotel and RV park) that has huge specimens of this beautiful fossil creature incorporated in the masonry facing. Wish now I had made the picture stop.




You are entitled to your own opinions...not your own facts.
View user's profile
wessongroup
Platinum Nomad
********




Posts: 21152
Registered: 8-9-2009
Location: Mission Viejo
Member Is Offline

Mood: Suicide Hot line ... please hold

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 12:30 PM


thanks mike, way cool link ...... wished they had this back when I was in school, what a tool at ones finger tips ... it all good



View user's profile
Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
******




Posts: 8088
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 12:32 PM


Too bad about the missing legend. If you have the time and desire a time period of the remaining 7 colors would be helpful.

This looks like a really worthwhile book to purchase. But pricey.

http://www.amazon.com/Reconnaissance-geology-California-Geol...
View user's profile
David K
Honored Nomad
*********


Avatar


Posts: 65411
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline

Mood: Have Baja Fever

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 12:47 PM


Thank you geomike and others for your links and comments. I have collected fossils in the Yuha desert in the 60's, and recall the old timer in Ocotillo, CA telling us they were 10 million years old. I just started writing a new article and wanted to provide the best estimate, plus (as Blanca says) this is interesting.
Thanks for the photos Roger.




"So Much Baja, So Little Time..."

See the NEW www.VivaBaja.com for maps, travel articles, links, trip photos, and more!
Baja Missions and History On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bajamissions/
Camping, off-roading, Viva Baja discussion: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vivabaja


View user's profile Visit user's homepage
Taco de Baja
Super Nomad
****


Avatar


Posts: 1913
Registered: 4-14-2004
Location: Behind the Orange Curtain, CA
Member Is Offline

Mood: Dreamin' of Baja

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 02:11 PM


Quote:
Originally posted by David K
I have been spending a long time on Google search.... and it's worn me out! LOL

Would someone in-the-know... know?

I welcome anyone with some geology or rock-hound expertise!

I have seen fossils at El Rosario, Las Pintas, south of San Felipe, near Bahia Asuncion, and, well lots of places. Either they are several miles from the beach or hundreds of feet above sea level, or both!

How old are the fossil shells, sharks teeth, and other items turned to rock we see in Baja?


Lots of different ages from 10,000 +/- to 10s of millions.

The ammonites and wood around El Rosario is Late Cretaceous (dinosaur times).

Much of the stuff in Baja with shark teeth (Rosarito/Tijuana, Bahia Asuncion, Punta Blanca) are Miocene (23 to 5 million).

The areas with Ice Age Animals (Bison, horse, camel, mammoth and mastodon, sloth, - Think La Brea Tar Pit type animals) are from the middle to Late Pleistocene (~300,000 to 10,000 years ago).

As stated earlier, the Google Earth KMZ layer is not too useful without the geology key...But the formations/units that begin with an uppercase ”Q” are from the Quaternary (~2.58 million years [1.8 million in older texts] ago to the present); those beginning with a "T" are from the Tertiary (~65 million to 2.58 million years old); those with a “K” are from the Cretaceous (~145 -65 million years ago). Colors also give some info: Light browns, yellows, and greens are generally sediments, pinks and reds are granitic or intrusive, dark browns and oranges are volcanic, purples, blues, and dark greens may be metamorphic.

http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/kmlgeology/kmz/baja140/baja140.html




Truth generally lies in the coordination of antagonistic opinions
-Herbert Spencer
View user's profile
David K
Honored Nomad
*********


Avatar


Posts: 65411
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline

Mood: Have Baja Fever

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 02:20 PM


Guys... good news! I HAVE this geologic map of Baja (Norte), it is huge, in three sections, and I will scan the 'key' to what all the letters stand for.

Thanks a lot GeoMike and Taco de Baja... The only Nomad geologist I know is GeoRock, and she just doesn't post here much...

I will try and get the legend for the 1971 geology map up this afternoon!




"So Much Baja, So Little Time..."

See the NEW www.VivaBaja.com for maps, travel articles, links, trip photos, and more!
Baja Missions and History On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bajamissions/
Camping, off-roading, Viva Baja discussion: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vivabaja


View user's profile Visit user's homepage
bajacalifornian
Super Nomad
****




Posts: 1117
Registered: 9-4-2010
Location: Loreto/Lopez Mateos/Rosarito
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 02:38 PM


Friggin' old . . .



American by birth, Mexican by choice.

Signature addendum: Danish physicist — Niels Bohr — who said, “The opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.
Jeff Petersen
View user's profile This user has MSN Messenger
David K
Honored Nomad
*********


Avatar


Posts: 65411
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline

Mood: Have Baja Fever

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 02:43 PM


1971 Legend and close up of the rock type codes








"So Much Baja, So Little Time..."

See the NEW www.VivaBaja.com for maps, travel articles, links, trip photos, and more!
Baja Missions and History On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bajamissions/
Camping, off-roading, Viva Baja discussion: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vivabaja


View user's profile Visit user's homepage
geomike
Junior Nomad
*


Avatar


Posts: 64
Registered: 10-3-2009
Location: Very near to the middle of nowhere.
Member Is Offline

Mood: feeling an irresistable pull towards Baja...

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 05:03 PM


Saaweeet! treat that map with great care David! The replacement cost is HUGE!
GSA Memoir 140

And if you ever want to capitalize that asset please call me first!;D

Thank you for the scan!




You are entitled to your own opinions...not your own facts.
View user's profile
boe4fun
Super Nomad
****




Posts: 1040
Registered: 1-22-2006
Location: Margaritaville
Member Is Offline

Mood: Circling the drain........

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 06:10 PM


My wife says I'm so old that I fart dust!



Two dirt roads diverged in Baja and I, I took the one less graveled by......

Soy ignorante, apático y ambivalente. No lo sé y no me importa, ni modo.
View user's profile
Taco de Baja
Super Nomad
****


Avatar


Posts: 1913
Registered: 4-14-2004
Location: Behind the Orange Curtain, CA
Member Is Offline

Mood: Dreamin' of Baja

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 06:18 PM


Quote:
Originally posted by David K
1971 Legend and close up of the rock type codes



Thanks David!

There is a copy over at my mom's that my dad bought soon after it was published....but I have no idea where it might be.




Truth generally lies in the coordination of antagonistic opinions
-Herbert Spencer
View user's profile
BigOly
Senior Nomad
***




Posts: 524
Registered: 10-1-2010
Location: Los Barriles, Bandon
Member Is Offline

Mood: Easy Birder

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 06:31 PM


Thanks David!



View user's profile Visit user's homepage
Ateo
Elite Nomad
******




Posts: 5938
Registered: 7-18-2011
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 06:43 PM


This is a fascinating topic. I explode with interest when thinking about holding something that is 100,000,000 years old!!

I want to own a meteorite someday. Just knowing that thing was floating around the Solar System for billions of years is now sitting on your mantle would be (in a Huell Howser voice) AMAZING!!!!

We live in a pretty magnificent reality.




View user's profile
David K
Honored Nomad
*********


Avatar


Posts: 65411
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline

Mood: Have Baja Fever

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 07:19 PM


If the map wasn't so huge, I would scan it... but the link to kmz file of it for Google Earth seems to work great at zoom ins.

I got the map in the mid 1970's by ordering it from the publisher. I can't recall where I first saw it to get the address? It has dirt roads on it that just weren't on any other maps (well in the early 1970's the Lower California Guidebook had the best maps of roads... and they are still good today if you can overwrite them with the new paved and graded roads. This 1971 map had the 'Azufre Wash' (Cańada el Parral) road from near the sulfur mine across to Valle Chico (with 'abandonada' next to it) and helped me find it in 1978 after I had been searching since reading about it in the older edition of 'Camping and Climbing in Baja'... the newer editions edited out any mention of it. It also had the back road that goes between San Quintin and El Arenoso, avoiding El Rosario, used for Baja races sometimes since 1973 (avoiding the new paved highway).

The legend is also in Spanish in the opposite corner of each map.
In the bottom corner of the 3 part map is "Copyright 1973, The Geological Society of America, Inc."

Zoom in on it and see lots of previously unmapped roads, specially for 1971. The "improved road" ended at about where Jardines in San Quintin is today... but pavement was not past Camalu.




"So Much Baja, So Little Time..."

See the NEW www.VivaBaja.com for maps, travel articles, links, trip photos, and more!
Baja Missions and History On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bajamissions/
Camping, off-roading, Viva Baja discussion: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vivabaja


View user's profile Visit user's homepage
David K
Honored Nomad
*********


Avatar


Posts: 65411
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline

Mood: Have Baja Fever

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 07:22 PM


Quote:
Originally posted by geomike
Saaweeet! treat that map with great care David! The replacement cost is HUGE!
GSA Memoir 140

And if you ever want to capitalize that asset please call me first!;D

Thank you for the scan!


That is the memoir (#140), but I wonder if it it included the 3 piece map?




"So Much Baja, So Little Time..."

See the NEW www.VivaBaja.com for maps, travel articles, links, trip photos, and more!
Baja Missions and History On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bajamissions/
Camping, off-roading, Viva Baja discussion: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vivabaja


View user's profile Visit user's homepage
David K
Honored Nomad
*********


Avatar


Posts: 65411
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline

Mood: Have Baja Fever

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 07:32 PM
Valle Chico, Parral, Matomi....


.. and the abandoned road to the sulfur mine...







"So Much Baja, So Little Time..."

See the NEW www.VivaBaja.com for maps, travel articles, links, trip photos, and more!
Baja Missions and History On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bajamissions/
Camping, off-roading, Viva Baja discussion: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vivabaja


View user's profile Visit user's homepage
mtgoat666
Platinum Nomad
********




Posts: 20376
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline

Mood: Hot n spicy

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 08:41 PM


Quote:
Originally posted by Ateo
This is a fascinating topic. I explode with interest when thinking about holding something that is 100,000,000 years old!!

I want to own a meteorite someday. Just knowing that thing was floating around the Solar System for billions of years is now sitting on your mantle would be (in a Huell Howser voice) AMAZING!!!!

We live in a pretty magnificent reality.


If you like old rocks, there are Precambrian sedimentary rocks just north of san Felipe. No fossils though. Not so sure they are really Precambrian, jury is undecided

There are some Ordovician conodonts in Guadalupe valley area.

According to creationists none of these rocks are more than 6 or 7 thousand years old. Same people say man can't change climate. Ha,ha. So a man can create the world in 7 days, and billions of people can't change the world in a century or 2. Ha, ha.
View user's profile
David K
Honored Nomad
*********


Avatar


Posts: 65411
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline

Mood: Have Baja Fever

[*] posted on 2-17-2013 at 10:20 PM


Man didn't create the world, silly goat.



"So Much Baja, So Little Time..."

See the NEW www.VivaBaja.com for maps, travel articles, links, trip photos, and more!
Baja Missions and History On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bajamissions/
Camping, off-roading, Viva Baja discussion: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vivabaja


View user's profile Visit user's homepage
 Pages:  1  2    4

  Go To Top

 






All Content Copyright 1997- Q87 International; All Rights Reserved.
Powered by XMB; XMB Forum Software © 2001-2014 The XMB Group






"If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen. The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back if we live, and we don't know why." - Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez

 

"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Theodore Roosevelt

 

"You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them or to them." - Malcolm Forbes

 

"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you." - Jim Rohn

 

"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." - Cunningham's Law







Thank you to Baja Bound Mexico Insurance Services for your long-term support of the BajaNomad.com Forums site.







Emergency Baja Contacts Include:

Desert Hawks; El Rosario-based ambulance transport; Emergency #: (616) 103-0262