Outcropping Permian Shelf Formations of Eastern New Mexico Vincent C
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New Mexico Geological Society Downloaded from: http://nmgs.nmt.edu/publications/guidebooks/23 Outcropping Permian shelf formations of eastern New Mexico Vincent C. Kelley, 1972, pp. 72-78 in: East-Central New Mexico, Kelley, V. C.; Trauger, F. D.; [eds.], New Mexico Geological Society 23rd Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook, 236 p. This is one of many related papers that were included in the 1972 NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebook. Annual NMGS Fall Field Conference Guidebooks Every fall since 1950, the New Mexico Geological Society (NMGS) has held an annual Fall Field Conference that explores some region of New Mexico (or surrounding states). Always well attended, these conferences provide a guidebook to participants. Besides detailed road logs, the guidebooks contain many well written, edited, and peer-reviewed geoscience papers. These books have set the national standard for geologic guidebooks and are an essential geologic reference for anyone working in or around New Mexico. 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One printed copy of any materials from the NMGS website or our print and electronic publications may be made for individual use without our permission. Teachers and students may make unlimited copies for educational use. Any other use of these materials requires explicit permission. This page is intentionally left blank to maintain order of facing pages. OUTCROPPING PERMIAN SHELF FORMATIONS OF EASTERN NEW MEXICO by VINCENT C. KELLEY Department of Geology University of New Mexico INTRODUCTION units under Chupadera, Darton may have suffered from having known much more than others on a regional basis. However, Permian beds of Leonardian and Guadalupian ages com- he had neither the means nor the time to work out the facies prising the Yeso, San Andres, and Artesia units are at or near problems. He very likely had seen the intcrtonguing of the surface in expansive areas west of the Pecos River. The Glorieta sandstones with the San Andres in the Lincoln area is one of low regional dip extending across eastern New County area. After leaving his work in New Mexico he re- Mexico from the Pedernal uplift on the west into Texas on the ported to friends that the Chupadera stratigraphy was the one east, a distance of some 200 miles. East of the Pecos, however, problem he would have most liked to restudy. the Permian rocks lie mostly in the subsurface. In the area The Chupadera formation included all beds between the west of the Pecos only Permian Abo and Pennsylvanian underlying Abo Formation and the overlying Triassic Dockum Magdalena beds intervene between Yeso, the oldest formation Group. By 1928 Darton (State Geologic Map) had traced his treated here, and the basement Precambrian. The Abo and Chupadera throughout the Pecos country where it embraced in Magdalena Formations wedge out westward by thinning and its higher part all the beds now designated as Artesia Group, overlap onto the buried late Pennsylvanian to Leonardian land- including the Capitan Limestone and the Bernal Formation. mass. The Yeso likewise wedges by overlap across the Abo and Only slightly later, Fiedler and Nye (1933, p. 44) proposed the onto the landmass, and very locally around Pedernal Peak ap- term, Pecos Formation (now abandoned) for all the beds in pears to be overlapped by the overlying Gloricta. Except for the Pecos Valley between the San Andres and the Triassic. the Yeso and Gloricta the best exposures of the Permian units Needham and Bates (1943), in company with Geological discussed here lie far to the south along the Pecos Valley, the Survey geologists of that time, found the triparte subdivision southern Pecos slope, and in particular the Guadalupe Moun- of the Chupadera beds into Yeso, Glorieta, and San Andres tains. quite acceptable for central and western New Mexico. In fact one of the best and most consistent formation boundaries in GENERAL STRATIGRAPHY New Mexico is that between the Yeso and the San Andres. The The Permian units consist mostly of medium- to very fine- same cannot be said for the Gloricta and San Andres, and grained clastics, gypsum, and carbonates whose proportions recent work has shown (Kelley, 1971, p. 9-12) that the vary in the several mappable facies and formations. Except in Glorieta is a facies of the lower part of the San Andres (Fig. the Yeso and Gloricta, medium-grained clastics are absent or 1). rare, and no coarse-grained sandstone is present, thus causing In 1962 Tait and others introduced the term Artesia Group the rocks to stand in distinct contrast with the coarse-grained to embrace five formations (Grayburg, Queen, Seven Rivers, sandstones and conglomerates of the underlying Abo and over- Yates, and Tansill). This was done mostly to erase confusion lying Triassic Santa Rosa Formations. Likewise arkosic and that had resulted from the simultaneous conflicting usage of clayey sandstone is uncommon to rare in Permian units, Langs (1937) Chalk Bluffs formation, the Oklahoma term, although some sandstone is sparsely muscovitic. Claystone Whitehorse Group (DeFord and Lloyd, 1940), and the Bernal probably is also uncommon as is shaliness. The most common Formation (Bachman, 1953) for beds of this group in central fine clastic is probably best termed mudstone at least until and northeastern New Mexico. Definition of the Artesia term more information on these rocks is available. by Tait and others required, and in fact accomplished, better The Yeso and San Andres Formations were named by Lee description and correlation of the Artesia formations between in 1909 and the Glorieta by Keyes in 1915. Despite this, Dar- the subsurface and the surface. The term was further deemed ton (1922, p. 181) introduced the term Chupadera Formation important and useful for surface outcrops where poor ex- and relegated the earlier terms to members. In doing this Dar- posures and indistinctive lithologies made mapping of the for- ton noted "that while Lees terms were discernible in places, it mation either impossible or too uncertain. Although the term, was impracticable to separate them generally." In the Artesia Group, is a useful term, the constituent formations Chupadera Mesa country there is much mixing of the lithol- have been mapped separately in the Pecos Valley northward as ogies which arc elsewhere more clearly separated into forma- far as Santa Rosa (Kelley, 1971, pls. 2, 4, fig. 7; Kelley, 1972b tions. In the southern Chupadera Mesa and adjoining areas maps 1, 2). Tait and his coworkers recommended discarding there is much gypsum, some redbeds, and sandstone in the San the term, Bernal Formation, in favor of Artesia Group, but I Andres. The Gloricta type sandstone is not very thick in the have recommended retention of Bernal as a well entrenched, basal position and such sandstone occurs higher and even at or useful, and prior term for areas of central and northeastern near the top. The Yeso, however, is reasonably characteristic New Mexico which lack continuity with the more widespread of many other areas. In lumping the now widely accepted outcrops along much of the Pecos Valley of New Mexico. 72 (no 5) (r) C o 0 -o cc cn o o = c 0 a) _o a) _c c° Cr) o o I--o 3 a, ,_C > 1- w D 2 0 o 0 o o 8 o 0 o .,t- cr > C, u_ u) J 1 6 1 5 1 4 11 3 1 2 1 North 1 Townships 1 9SoSouthl Townships 1 1 1 10 1 9 1 1 21 1 20 1 19 I 18 1 17 1 16 1 15 1 14 1 13 1 12 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 i 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 i 10 1 1111213114115116117118 26 1 25 24 1 23 I 22 SANTA ROSA SANDSTONE Rustler Formation On \it3Cs(PleS OA 40d— So\oclo For {ries —400 _\\\ tv E.0906es San Andres -----,f.( 2,‘1" • kesSe\lec‘-,__. , _,_... \.0c\e Formatio 800— —800 lC,c ,,,o ‘°"S 7 , Colw°e' \cPe" 7 . \sba ° —1200 1200 L " n 0 / 0 ,,i9 / ---.1 0 "):3 —1600 1600— 11 (>CAC) Formation Cn ' Iti c•P\e", o \e"ii_ 1' CP 00 ,o —2000 2000 L- III, e. cNr6.\ x:P C\ GO Qc.2" 0 cpc) ce —2400 2400 ,oP (I) C.,P- / 2800 e —2800 ,x(2,0". \Ic)C\ 3200 3200 Figure 1. South to north stratigraphic section showing Grayburg and Queen Formations overstepping San Andres Members and Triassic Santa Rosa overstepping Permian Formations. YESO FORMATION ledge of the Glorieta, tonguing is really unknown. Later the Glorieta and the Upper member (Bernal) were separated from The Yeso Formation consists of gypsum, fine- to medium- the San Andres by most workers until regional mapping in grained sandstone, carbonates, and some green or reddish- Lincoln County demonstrated clearly that the Glorieta is a brown siltstone.