Mount Blanco


Mount Blanco is a small white hill — an erosional remnant — located on the eastern border of the Llano Estacado within Blanco Canyon in Crosby County, Texas. With Blanco Canyon, it is the type locality of the Blanco Formation of Texas and Kansas, as well as the Blancan fauna, which occurs throughout North America.

Geology

The term "Blanco Canyon beds", later shortened to "Blanco beds", was first applied to this formation in 1890 by William F. Cummins of the Geological Survey of Texas. The Blanco beds are considered to be of lacustrine origin – deposited in a Pleistocene lake basin set upon the Ogallala Formation of Pliocene age, which underlies the upper surface sediments of the Llano Estacado. The thickness of the Blanco beds varies from around thick. The formation mainly consists of light-gray, fine-grained mudstone, sandstone, and some conglomerate. These light-colored sediments contrast sharply with the locally rust-colored sediments of the Ogallala Formation.

Fossil fauna

All fossil fauna are from Mount Blanco modified from Dalquest unless otherwise noted.