| Eureka Quartzite | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Ordovician | |
| Type | Geologic formation |
| Underlies | Hanson Creek Formation |
| Overlies | Copenhagen Formation |
| Thickness | 150 ft (46 m) (in southern Nevada) |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Quartzite |
| Location | |
| Region | California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho British Columbia Alberta |
| Country |  United States Canada |
| Extent | 2,200 km (1,400 mi) |
| Type section | |
| Named for | Eureka, Nevada |
| Year defined | 1883 |
The Eureka Quartzite is an extensive Paleozoic marine sandstone deposit in western North America that is notable for its great extent, extreme purity, consistently fine grain size of Quartzite, and its tendency to form conspicuous white cliffs visible from afar.
The Eureka is commonly underlain and overlain by contrasting slope-forming limestone and dolomite strata, all of Ordovician age. It was named in 1883 for the Eureka mineral district in Nevada,[1] and that name is used almost exclusively in Nevada, but, in ensuing years, as extensions of the deposit were discovered in other areas, the same formation was given many other local names.
- ^ Hague, Arnold (1883). Geology of the Eureka Mining District, Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey, Third Annual Report. pp. 237–290.