Fossil found in River?

Question

This is about the Fossil of Sand Dollars I found. I found them in the Van Duzen River ,In Northern California.No,someone did not put them there. We found numerous,numerous other shell fossils in other parts of the river. It was about 40 miles or more from the ocean.

Answer 1

I'm going to guess your fossils are anything up to 40 million years old based on what I've read on the geology of that area. Part of the fun of geology is finding out just what you have, so if you want to do that for yourself, here's an online report to start with: http://ebeltz.net/fieldtrips/humgeol.html

I think you'll find it very informative, and hopefully it will get you to contact the California Geological Survey [phone] http://www.conservation.ca.gov/CGS/index.htm ,where almost any question about fossils or rocks in the area can be answered for you by expert professionals. I've never known a geological survey for any state that wasn't more than happy to answer such questions (as long as they were serious quests for knowledge), whether from other professionals or curious students. Be prepaired, I know a few state geologists who will talk "shop" for hours if you let them. At the very least, they will give you phone numbers and names of people who will help you. If you get lucky, you may even find out about a field trip you can participate in.

Answer 2

Refer to my previous answer about how sedimentary rock is formed and moved. There is a large plate boundary in California. This fault zone is what creates the mountains in northern california. Your fossil you found used to be part of a shallow marine environment. As the mountain was pushed upward, and the techtonic plate your fossil were on moved in toward the mountain, and then up the mountain. That is why there were so many fossils found in your river. The sedimentary rock that carried the fossils has been eroded by the downcutting of the river. Thus exposing your fossils.
If they were stacked perfectly vertically there can still be many explainations. This is everything from random stacking from river flows, to human interaction, to reproduction strings of echinoderms, to folding in the sediments, ect.

Answer 3

I believe you.
We are finding abundances of shark teeth in the Peace River in central Florida, 50- 70 miles from the Gulf and Atlantic coastlines. Some of the teeth are as large as a man's hand.
I found a small , scollop shaped sea shell near the summit of Mt. Mitchell, in North Carolina, 6600 ft above sea level.

Answer 4

The rock formation that is now the river bottom was probably part of the sea floor in the prehistoric past. River bottoms are common fossil hunting sites, since overlying soild is washed away, and bare rock is exposed. Erosion is constant exposing additional strata.

Answer 5

there are extremely some possiblities on your answer with out seeing stratigraphic maps of the area or a lithography that's a splash no longer hassle-free to declare. you may speculate plenty in case you comprehend the particular form of rock that the fossil are present day in, the age of the rock, ect. this supplies the flexibility to create a good option of the anciet environment that the fossil got here from. as quickly as you comprehend what environment they got here from, you will locate what exceeded off. If the sand money have been discovered exterior of the rock, then that's available that somebody grew to become into there in the previous you and piled them in an genuinely accessable area. The sand dollar have been given on the mountain selection because of fact sometime interior the previous the rock that they are in grew to become into area of a widespread marine environment (under water) it extremely is sedimentary rock formed from tens of millions of years of sediment being deposited on the backside of the sea floor. The sediment grew to become into then probable compacted and cemented mutually forming some form of sandstone that trapped the ineffective organisms interior. This rock might then be moved with the help of techtonic action, and then uplifted while 2 techtonic plate collided. that's what formed your mountain selection. A convergent plate boundary the place one layer of rock is pushed up whilst the different is pushed down (called a subduction zone) This forces the mountain to get taller. What mountain did you hit upon it in? in spite of if that's interior the U. S., tens of millions of years in the past a great number of the U. S. grew to become into lined with the help of a shallow ocean in the previous the final ice age. it extremely is named a severe sea point episode. in the process the Triassic quantity of time a great number of the Western US grew to become right into a widespread desolate tract because of fact it grew to become into closer to the equator (around 20º-30º selection.) it is why the sea organisms have been on your mountains, as to why they have been stacked, properly, might desire to be many many motives, yet probable somebody positioned there there to return decrease back and get some later. (in the event that they have been fond exterior the rock) If interior a rock and stacked on one yet another probable a duplicate chain, or purely random stacking from folding interior the rock.

Answer 6

this probably shows that there are many loose peices of rock at the bottom of the river. these peices of rock clump together and form sedimentary rock which can fossilize objects.

Answer 7

what is the actual question?