The Tropic Shale is a Mesozoic geologic formation. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, including Nothronychus graffami. The Tropic Shale is a stratigraphic unit of the Kaiparowits Plateau of south-central Utah. The Tropic Shale was first named in 1931 after the town of Tropic where the Type section is located. The Tropic Shale outcrops in Kane and Garfield counties, with large sections of exposure found in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Geology
The Tropic Shale is predominantly marine mudstone and claystone, with several radioisotopically-dated bentonite marker beds, and occasional sandstone layers deposited during the late Cretaceous Period during the Upper Cenomanian through the Middle Turonian (95-92 Ma). The Tropic Shale has an average thickness range from 183–274 m.

The Tropic Shale conformity overlies the Dakota Formation and underlies the Straight Cliffs Formation. The top of the Dakota Formation is known for its sandier coarsening up sequences and estuarine shell beds. The distinction between the Tropic Shale and underlying Dakota is marked by the appearance of marine mudstones. In some localities, there is a sharp non conformable contact between the Dakota Formation and Tropic Shale. The contact with the overlying Straight Cliffs is gradational with the distinction between the two units defined as the point where sandstone becomes more abundant than shale.

The Tropic Shale has two dominant lithologies, with the lower two-thirds of the formation consisting of a bluish-gray calcareous mudstone that encompasses eleven ammonoid biozones, and the upper third that is a darker gray and non-calcareous that encompasses only one or two ammonoid biozones. Additionally the upper portion, hummocky cross stratified and turbiditic sandstone beds become more common.

Source
Wikipedia