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How did the Navajo Sandstone form in the western interior of North America?
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Jurassic Period
Distribution of landmasses, mountainous regions, shallow seas, and deep ocean basins during the late Jurassic Period. Included in the paleogeographic reconstruction are the locations of the interval's subduction zones.
The Navajo Sandstone formed during the Early Jurassic period when the western interior of North America was covered by a vast sand sea, or erg. This massive accumulation of dune sands represents one of the largest such deposits in the geologic record and remains prominent today in locations such as Zion National Park in Utah.1
While the western interior was later characterized by marine incursionsāspecifically the Carmel and Sundance seasāduring the Middle Jurassic, the Navajo Sandstone itself is associated with the earlier, arid desert environment that preceded these epicontinental seaways.21