The Devonian Temple Butte Formation, also called Temple Butte Limestone, outcrops through most of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, USA; it also occurs in southeast Nevada. Within the eastern Grand Canyon, it consists of thin, discontinuous and relatively inconspicuous lenses that fill paleovalleys cut into the underlying Muav Limestone. Within these paleovalleys, it at most, is only about 100 feet (30 m) thick at its maximum. Within the central and western Grand Canyon, the exposures are continuous. However, they tend to merge with cliffs of the much thicker and overlying Redwall Limestone.
Temple Butte Formation
The Muav Limestone is a Cambrian geologic formation within the 5-member Tonto Group. It is a thin-bedded, gray, medium to fine-grained, mottled dolomite; coarse- to medium-grained, grayish-white, sandy dolomite and grayish-white, mottled, fine-grained limestone. It also contains beds of shale and intraformational conglomerate. The beds of the Muav Limestone are either structureless or exhibit horizontally laminations and cross-stratification. The Muav Limestone forms cliffs or small ledges that weather a dark gray or rusty-orange color. These cliffs or small ledges directly overlie the sloping surfaces of the Bright Angel Shale. The thickness of this formation decreases eastward from 250 feet (76 m) in the western Grand Canyon to 45 feet (14 m) in the eastern Grand Canyon. To the west in southern Nevada, its thickness increases to 830 feet (250 m) in the Frenchman Mountain region.
representative sequence of Redwall Limestone, Temple Butte Formation, and Muav Limestone, in Grand Canyon
Muav Limestone cliff example, below Redwall Limestone cliff, on the North Kaibab Trail (closeup photos, often show purple erosion debris)(expandable photo)
(view due-north, northeast, from Bright Angel Trail, (South Rim section) – View of south-draining Bright Angel Canyon, containing in its lowest section with the Tapeats Sandstone, upon the Granite Gorge, the cliffs of gray-brown Muav Limestone (25% at base of Redwall Limestone), laid upon the slope-forming & greenish Bright Angel Shale. (The trail also descends/ascends through units on the South Rim, at near photo view.)
View to Sumner Butte, Redwall Limestone peak & vertical cliff, sitting on Muav Limestone