The Hammond Canyon Formation was named for exposures along Hammond Canyon, Secs. 1 and 2, T. 44 N, R. 55 E., in the northwestern portion of the Mount Velma Quadrangle in northern Elko County (Coash, 1967).

The age of the Hammond Canyon Formation is cryptic as a result of distortion of fossils which make genus identification impossible (Coash, 1967). The formation was provisionally assigned to the Permian based upon brachiopod, gastropod, fusulinid and conodont fragments (Coash, 1967). The Hammond Canyon conformably overlies the Sunflower Formation and is conformably overlain by the Poorman Peak Formation.

The Hammond Canyon Formation is composed of thin-bedded, black, gray weathering fossiliferous limestone, and light brown weathering laminated cherty limestone. Fissile, pale red, light brown weathering siltstones are also interbedded with the limestones (Coash, 1967). The unit is locally metamorphosed to a gray fine-grained dense hornfelsic quartzite near intrusives.

Deformation of the Hammond Canyon makes thickness estimates difficult. Several faulted sections of the unit in the Mount Velma Quadrangle are between 1,000 and 1,960 feet thick (Coash, 1967).

The Hammond Canyon Formation is present in the Mount Velma Quadrangle in northern Elko County (Coash, 1967).

The depositional setting of the Hammond Canyon Formation, like the Poorman Peak, is almost wholly uninvestigated. This is in part due to the contact metamorphism of the unit. It probably represents relatively shallow marine deposition.