Some authors have controversially considered the Chinle to be synonymous to the Dockum Group of eastern Colorado and New Mexico, western Texas, the Oklahoma panhandle, and southwestern Kansas.

While colorful Triassic sediments of the Colorado Plateau have been investigated since the 19th century, the Chinle Formation was only formally named and described by Herbert E. Gregory in 1917.

[2] United States Geological Survey geologists and paleontologists continued to map out the Chinle Formation through the 20th century, revising the unnamed subunits of Gregory.

In 1956, Economic geologist Raymond C. Robeck identified and named the Temple Mountain member as the basal-most unit in the area of the San Rafael Swell of Utah.

Study of the formation expanded northwards into northern Utah and Colorado, facilitated through papers by Forrest G. Poole and Stewart (1964)[4] and Steve W. Sikich (1965),[5] who named informal local members equivalent to those of Arizona and New Mexico.

[6] Stewart and his colleagues created an expansive overview and revision of the formation in 1972, summarizing previous knowledge on Chinle stratigraphy.

[10] The Shinarump interfingers with a finer-grained subunit, the Mesa Redondo Member,[16] one of the oldest widespread units in the badlands of the Painted Desert area.

[9] Most Chinle outcrops in the Painted Desert have traditionally been placed within the following Petrified Forest Member, a segment of Triassic sediments which are so diverse and extensive that it is sometimes raised to its own formation, subdivided further, or redefined more narrowly.

[17] In Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO) and its vicinities, the Sonsela Sandstone is thick enough that it can be resolved into several distinct sandstone-rich layers.

The Rock Point is distinct enough that it was previously considered a unit of the Wingate Sandstone, a latest Triassic - early Jurassic aeolian formation which overlies the Chinle in many areas.

Most of these are found in the Chama Basin of north-central New Mexico, particularly several famed paleontological sites at Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu.

Minor exposures also occur in the Lucero Uplift west of Albuquerque, as well as other areas along the Rio Grande Rift.

[22][21] The Petrified Forest Member is fossiliferous in the Chama Basin, with major sites including the Hayden, Canjilon, and Snyder quarries of Ghost Ranch.

The Chinle is a prominent component of badlands and outcrops in the various national parks, monuments, and recreation areas of southeast Utah, extending in a discontinuous patchwork up to the San Rafael Swell.

In several areas, a thin layer of mottled paleosols, the Temple Mountain Member, may be superimposed onto the Shinarump and underlying Moenkopi Formation.

This unit comprises drab and generally fine-grained sediments, equivalent to the Blue Mesa Member and Bluewater Creek Formation found further south.

[25] Elsewhere, the Monitor Butte grades into the Petrified Forest Member, which in Utah includes the thin but geographically extensive Correo Sandstone Bed.

[25][9] A unit of drab interbedded coarse and fine sediments, the Kane Springs beds, develops in the Paradox Basin.

Tetrapod biostratigraphy for the Chinle was first developed based on phytosaurs and aetosaurs, which in 1998 were combined into global biozones in Spencer G. Lucas's Land Vertebrate Faunachrons system.

(Paleorhinus / Parasuchus) Since 2011, widespread radiometric dating has helped to refine precise age data for part of the Chinle Formation, particularly in areas with a more complete stratigraphic record such as Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO).

This is likely because sandy rivers receive a higher proportion of recycled zircon grains from distant eroded rocks, while muddy plains are supplied with fresh zircon-rich ash from contemporary volcanic eruptions.

The fossiliferous Placerias quarry, previously regarded as belonging to an older subunit, is likely part of the Blue Mesa Member based on an age date of 219.4 Ma (2014).

[37] Radiometric dates are well-recorded for the Sonsela Member, though a high concentration of reworked zircons must be accounted for when inferring an accurate age of deposition.

It may correspond to a local extinction, or simply represents a time period which is truncated by slow deposition or a geological hiatus.

[32] The end of the Petrified Forest Member was probably close to 208 Ma, meaning that overlying strata is presumably latest Norian-Rhaetian in age.