The Oxyoke Canyon Formation has a type locality along the southwest slope of Beacon Peak, 7 miles southeast of Eureka (Nolan and others, 1956).

The Oxyoke Canyon Formation is upper Lower to lower Middle Devonian (late Emsian to early Eifelian) in age based upon brachiopods and conodonts (Kendall, 1975).

The Oxyoke Canyon Formation can be divided into two members the lower Quartzose Member and the upper Coarse Crystalline Member. The Coarse Crystalline Member is more widely distributed and represents a western tongue of the formation where the Quartzose Member is absent (Kendall, 1975).

In the Diamond Mountains, the Quartzose Member gradationally overlies the Sevy Dolomite (Kendall, 1975). The light gray to gray-brown unit varies from quartzose dolomite with as little as 5 percent quartz, to dolomitic quartz arenite with as much as 75 percent fine to medium-grained, well rounded and well sorted, quartz. The Quartzose Member is thick-bedded with thin quartz and dolomite-rich laminations, and a few vertical burrows in the upper portion of the unit. Cross-beds are low-angle and planar, and are commonly truncated above and below by horizontal laminations indicating eastward or onshore transport (Kendall, 1975). The Quartzose member is 100 to 130 feet thick. The overlying Coarse Crystalline Member is composed of white to light gray, medium to thick-bedded and massive, medium to coarsely crystalline, quartzose dolomite, with fine to medium-grained, well rounded and sorted, quartzose zones showing low angle and planar crossbedding. The Coarse Crystalline Member is 279 to 296 feet thick.

In the Pinon Range, the Quartzose Member abruptly overlies the Sevy Dolomite and is a thick-bedded to massive, white to pinkish-gray, siliceous quartzite with faint cross-bedding and horizontal lamination (Kendall, 1975). About 75 percent of the member is composed of dolomitic quartz arenite and about 15 percent is dark gray-brown, fetid quartzose dolomite. Pelecypods were found in the member that varies in thickness from 180 to about 400 feet (Kendall, 1975). The overlying Coarse Crystalline Member is locally about 800 feet thick and is composed of thick-bedded to massive, medium to coarsely crystalline quartzose dolomite.

In the Sulphur Spring Range, 229 to 296 feet of the Coarse Crystalline Member of the Oxyoke Canyon Formation are exposed. The lower half of the formation is composed of white to light gray, medium-grained quartzose dolomite with quartz beds concentrated near the base of the formation, and the upper portion of the formation contains white to light gray, low-angle and planar cross-bedded, dolomitic quartz arenite. The 132 feet of the Coarse Crystalline Member in the Mahogany Hills is lithologically similar, but is considerably less quartzose than sections in the Sulphur Spring Range, Diamond Mountains, or Pinon Range (Kendall, 1975).

The thickness of the Oxyoke Canyon Formation varies from 180 to 1,130 feet in the Pinon Range (Kendall, 1975), 380 to 430 feet in the Diamond Mountains (Kendall, 1975), about 132 feet at Modoc Peak in the Mahogany Hills (Kendall, 1975), and 210 feet at Table Mountain (Kendall, 1975).

The Oxyoke Canyon Formation is exposed in a narrow north-south trending band which includes the Diamond Mountains, Sulphur Spring and Pinon Ranges, Mahogany Hills, Lone Mountain and Table Mountain.

Kendall (1975) suggests that the upper Quartzose Member of the Oxyoke Canyon Formation represents a high-energy beach/bar deposit based upon the presence of pelecypods, vertical burrows, intraformational conglomerate, scarcity of megafossils, cross-bedding, horizontal laminations, and well sorted and rounded quartz grains. The Quartzose Member of the Oxyoke represents a zone of beaches and bars separating the subtital Sadler Ranch Formation, from the intertidal to supratidal Sevy Dolomite (Kendall, 1975). The Coarse Crystalline Member represents intertidal or possibly supratidal environments, similar to the Sevy Formation. Cross-beds in the Oxyoke Canyon Formation show a random distribution suggestive of wind and storm generation rather than regular tidal current derivation.