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.

Supai Group's rock layers as seen along Hermit Trail. The rocks of the Supai Group are red sandstones and siltstones, deposited 315-285 million years ago during the Paleozoic Era- Early Pennsylvanian Period. NPS Photo by Kristen M. Caldon.

The Muav is a mottled, nodular, shaly, yellowish-gray limestone. In the eastern Canyon it is a yellowish cliff in the lower part, a covered slope in the middle, and a ledgy cliff, often stained red, in the upper part where it contacts the Redwall (or Temple Butte Formation).

The name Muav Limestone of Middle Cambrian age geographically extended northward from AZ into the subsurface of Kane Co, UT, Plateau sedimentary province, where it overlies the Middle Cambrian Bright Angel Shale and unconformably underlies the Lower Devonian Elbert Formation. Muav is 434 ft thick.

2022年8月10日 · The Cambrian Muav Formation is a 42–252 m (136–827 ft) thick cliff-forming unit that outcrops towards the top of the Tonto Group along ~500 km of the walls of Grand Canyon and beyond.

The Tonto sandstone was officially renamed the Tapeats Sandstone and the Tonto shale was officially renamed the Bright Angel Shale. The Marbled limestone was later officially renamed the Muav Limestone, which by Noble's definition consisted of an upper set of dolomite beds and a lower set of limestone beds. [12]

Muav Canyon This branch of Shinumo Canyon through which White Creek flows is named Muav Canyon and is the geologic namesite for the Muav limestone formation. There is a spring east of Powell Saddle at the base of the Coconino. Below here, the trail descends with extreme steepness and then follows the bed to the Redwall dropoff.

Even farther from shore, organic lime muds precipitate from sea water, forming limestone, the third facies of this single sea bottom. The Tonto Group consists of all three of these facies: Muav Limestone on top, Bright Angel Shale between, and Tapeats Sandstone (containing a "basal conglomerate") at the bottom.

The Redwall (and underlying Muav Limestone) are the chief cave-forming units of the Canyon, with small to large entrances visible from nearly any rim viewpoint. The Redwall Limestone has a gray color, but almost everywhere it is stained red by iron oxide washed from the red, iron-rich layers above (Supai and Hermit Formations).

2011年1月7日 · Three unnamed slope-forming siltstone and shale units of Bright Angel Shale lithology are intertongued between cliff-forming members of Muav Limestone. These unnamed siltstone and shale units are green and purplish-red, micaceous siltstone, mudstone, and shale, and thin brown sandstone.