Chinle Formation

The Chinle is a geologic formation that is spread across the U.S. states of northern Arizona, Nevada, Utah, western New Mexico, and western Colorado. The Chinle is controversially considered to be synonymous to Dockum Group in eastern Colorado, eastern New Mexico, southwestern Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle, and western Texas. The Chinle is sometimes colloquially used as a geologic formation within the Dockum in New Mexico and occasionally in Texas. Part of the Colorado Plateau, the Basin and Range, and the southern section of the Interior Plains, this formation was laid down in the Late Triassic.

A probable separate depositional basin within the Chinle is found in northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah. In the southern portion of the Chinle, it reaches a maximum thickness of a little over 520 m. Typically, the Chinle rests on unconformity with the Moenkopi Formation.