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The Los Medaños Member of the Permian (Ochoan) Rustler Formation

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The Los Medaños Member of the Permian (Ochoan) Rustler Formation The Los Medaños Member of the Permian (Ochoan) Rustler Formation by Dennis W. Powers, HC 12 Box 87, Anthony, TX 79821; and Robert M. Holt, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Science, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM 87801 Abstract We propose Los Medaños Member as the formal name for the lower part of the Upper Permian (Ochoan) Rustler Formation, below R31E the Culebra Dolomite Member, in the north- ern Delaware Basin. The stratotype is at the exhaust shaft of the Waste Isolation Pilot Exhaust Plant (WIPP) site in sec 20 T22S R31E, Eddy shaft T22S County, New Mexico. The name is derived from the nearby sand dune field (Los Meda- ños) and the quadrangle map of the same WIPP site name. Cores of the Los Medaños from WIPP studies correspond to the exhaust-shaft Los Medanos~ geology, though larger features revealed in T23S the shaft must be inferred. Geophysical log signatures permit regional correlations and interpretation of lithology. Outcrops of this Midland unit are poorly exposed and have been little Basin studied. Recent radiometric ages from cor- Hobbs relative units in the Texas panhandle sug- San Simon Study gest that the top of the Rustler is near the area Permian–Triassic boundary. Carlsbad The stratotype consists of 34.4 m of silici- WIPP Central Basin clastics, halitic mudstones, muddy halite, Nash Draw and sulfates (mainly anhydrite). Bedding, Platform invertebrate fossil remains, and bioturba- New Mexico Midland tion indicate a saline lagoon with connec- Texas tions to open marine water, in contrast to the Odessa shallow-water, desiccating evaporite cycles of the underlying Salado Formation. The lagoon was generally drying up, with some Virginia periods of subaerial exposure, as the Los Draw Pecos Medaños was deposited. The uppermost Rustler claystone marks the transgression that os deposited the overlying Culebra Dolomite. Hills Pec R iv Delaware er Introduction Basin S Diablo he Platform Fort ffie “…it is nearly impossible to piece Stockton ld Channel together suitable stratigraphic sections from surface exposures alone.” So wrote J. Valverde Basin D. Vine (1963) about the Permian (Ocho- an) Rustler Formation in the Nash Draw area of central Eddy County in southeast Hovey Channel Marathon hita New Mexico (Fig. 1). Because soluble Ouac evaporites constitute much of the forma- hon tion, it crops out poorly. While the general Marat Fold Belt stratigraphy of the Rustler (Fig. 2) is well known from geophysical logs, very little detail of the geology of the formation was N described before the 1980s. R io Large diameter (~6 m) shafts at the G ran Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site in de 0 50 100 km the northern Delaware Basin, however, have provided unrivaled exposures of the Rustler to correspond with cores, geo- physical logs, and the limited outcrops in our study area (Fig. 1; Holt and Powers, FIGURE 1—General location map of area studied; Rustler Formation outcrops are shown in blue. The 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990). Along with details exhaust shaft at the WIPP site is the stratotype location for the Los Medaños Member, and the stra- about the four formal members of the totype is named after the sand dune area south of WIPP and the quadrangle map including the area. The nearest Rustler outcrops to the stratotype are in Nash Draw, west of WIPP. The Rustler was Rustler, WIPP shafts expose the lower part named for outcrops in the Rustler Hills. (modified from Hills, 1984) New Mexico Geology November 1999 97 hydrologically and as a sulfur prospect SYSTEM / (e.g., Eager, 1983; Wallace and Crawford, Series Formation Members 1992; Miller, 1992). Weber and Kottlowski (1959) noted the Rustler in evaluating gyp- sum resources in New Mexico. Santa Rosa Nomenclature of the Rustler A type section, per se, of the Rustler does not exist. The Rustler Hills area in TRIASSIC Texas serves as a general type area, though Dewey Lake a full section is not well displayed. Forty-niner Adams (1944) used the names Culebra Dolomite and Magenta Dolomite (Fig. 2) Magenta Dolomite for the two carbonate members of the Tamarisk Rustler in this area of southeast New Mex- Rustler ico. In reviewing the stratigraphic section Culebra Dolomite prepared by Lang (1938), Adams stated Los Medanos~ that “Lang favors” these names based on Ochoan (proposed formal name for outcrops at Culebra Bluff (along the Pecos PERMIAN "unnamed lower member") River) and Magenta Point (in Nash Draw), Salado though Lang (1938) did not actually use the names in print. Vine (1963) introduced Castile two new names to formalize the more sul- fatic members. Vine named the Forty- FIGURE 2—The Los Medaños Member is the lower part of the Rustler Formation, between the niner Member after a small ridge (Forty- Salado Formation and the Culebra Dolomite Member. Note that we have included the Dewey Lake Formation in the Triassic System, based on the work of Renne et al. (1996) in the Texas panhandle. niner Ridge) on the east side of Nash Draw. A mainly sulfatic unit between the of the formation, which has remained Because it crops out poorly, the Rustler Magenta and Culebra was named the unnamed because of poor outcrops and is not well known from surface exposures Tamarisk Member after outcrops near was little studied before the WIPP project. anywhere. Adams (1944) used subsurface Tamarisk Flat in Nash Draw. The lower Here we describe the lithology of the geology to demonstrate continuity of the part of the Rustler remained unnamed lower Rustler, propose Los Medaños Rustler across the Delaware Basin and the because it crops out poorly over the entire Member as the formal name for this relationship of the Rustler to the underly- region. The most common designation is unnamed member, and relate geophysical ing Salado and overlying red beds. Vine “unnamed member” or “unnamed lower log signatures to lithology. This will pro- (1963) included a general lithologic log of member.” Powers and Holt (1990) report- vide a basis for further, efficient communi- the Rustler from drill hole AEC 1 (located ed the intent to formally name this mem- cation about the Rustler and its geological in sec 34 T23S R30E) and described beds ber the Los Medaños Member, but that significance for understanding the final 109 m thick. Gard (1968) described some paper was never submitted for publica- stages of deposition within the Delaware important details of the Rustler from shaft tion. Lucas and Anderson (1994) named Basin. mapping for Project Gnome, a test detona- this interval the Virginia Draw Member, tion of a nuclear device in the underlying from Virginia Draw in the Rustler Hills of Rustler stratigraphy Salado Formation. The Rustler was later Texas (Fig. 1). They reported that “[a]t its addressed as part of U.S. Geological Sur- type section, the Virginia Draw Member is History of Delaware Basin studies vey (USGS) studies to assess southeast 20 m thick and consists of interbedded Richardson (1904) described approxi- New Mexico as a potential site for a sandstone, limestone and dolomite…. mately 45 m of sandstone and pitted, mag- radioactive-waste repository in bedded These beds weather buff, orangish-brown nesian limestone outcrops in the Rustler salt before WIPP was initiated (Brokaw et and gray. The sandstones are fine-grained Hills near Rustler Springs, Culberson al., 1972; Jones et al., 1973; Bachman, and quartzose, display flaser beds and County, Texas, and he named this unit the 1974). indistinct crossbeds, and locally are bio- Rustler Formation. The Rustler Hills out- Since the middle 1970s, the Rustler has turbated. Kaolinite and gypsum inclu- crops are equivalent to the lower part of been studied intensively in southeast New sions are present locally. The base of the the Rustler in our study area. Some early Mexico as part of the WIPP project. Virginia Draw Member is a sandstone bed work on the Rustler in the southern Geological and hydrological studies (e.g., disconformably overlying gypsum of the Delaware Basin was conducted as part of Beauheim, 1987; Beauheim and Holt, 1990; Castile Formation ….” Hill (1996, p. 138) exploration for sulfur deposits (Porch, Beauheim and Ruskauff, 1998; Holt, 1997) lists the members of the Rustler as “… the 1917). of the unit are generally complete under Virginia Draw (Unnamed), Culebra, As part of his work on delineating the this U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Tamarisk, Magenta, and Forty-niner…, a Upper Permian in the Delaware Basin, program. Bachman (1981) remapped Nash five-fold division first proposed by Vine Lang (1935) described Rustler core from Draw, where the Rustler crops out nearest (1963).” Though Vine did show five mem- eastern Loving County, Texas, as provid- the WIPP site (Fig. 1). A variety of sources bers, he left the lower part unnamed. ing “type material for the formations of provide background for geological and In the vicinity of the WIPP site, the the Delaware Basin.” The lower Rustler hydrological studies of the Rustler and the unnamed lower member is dominated by was described as less than 3 m of red beds. WIPP project, in general (e.g., Powers et fine-grained clastics (siltstones, clay- Lang (1938) attributed outcrops that total al., 1978; Weart, 1983; Lappin, 1988; stones, and mudstones) and evaporite approximately 150 m in thickness along Powers and Martin, 1992; or the WIPP beds. The evaporites include anhydrite or the Pecos River in Eddy County, New web page at www.wipp.carlsbad.nm.us/ polyhalite as well as halite with various Mexico, to the Rustler, but we believe the library/cca/cca.htm). admixtures of fine-grained clastics. lower 40 m is a residue from solution of In the southern part of the Delaware Dolomites are not present, and sandstone the upper Salado Formation (Fig.
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