Pennsylvanian Rocks of the Mogollon Rim Area, Arizona Frank E
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
New Mexico Geological Society Downloaded from: http://nmgs.nmt.edu/publications/guidebooks/13 Pennsylvanian rocks of the Mogollon Rim area, Arizona Frank E. Kottlowski and Kay C. Havenor, 1962, pp. 77-83 in: Mogollon Rim Region (East-Central Arizona), Weber, R. H.; Peirce, H. W.; [eds.], New Mexico Geological Society 13th Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook, 175 p. This is one of many related papers that were included in the 1962 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. Free Downloads NMGS has decided to make peer-reviewed papers from our Fall Field Conference guidebooks available for free download. Non-members will have access to guidebook papers two years after publication. Members have access to all papers. This is in keeping with our mission of promoting interest, research, and cooperation regarding geology in New Mexico. However, guidebook sales represent a significant proportion of our operating budget. Therefore, only research papers are available for download. Road logs, mini-papers, maps, stratigraphic charts, and other selected content are available only in the printed guidebooks. Copyright Information Publications of the New Mexico Geological Society, printed and electronic, are protected by the copyright laws of the United States. No material from the NMGS website, or printed and electronic publications, may be reprinted or redistributed without NMGS permission. Contact us for permission to reprint portions of any of our publications. 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. NEW MEXICO GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY % THIRTEENTH FIELD CONFERENCE 77 PENNSYLVANIAN ROCKS OF THE MOGOLLON RIM AREA, ARIZONA FRANK E. KOTTLOWSKI and KAY C. HAVENORZ Early Pennsylvanian strata rest unconformably on a where Precambrian rocks probably were exposed to ero- karst surface of Mississippian limestones in much of the sion. This lower clastic sequence is similar in origin and Mogollon Rim area in east-central Arizona. The Pennsyl- lithology to the Molas Formation of the Four Corners region. vanian-Permian boundary, in contrast, is within a broad This Queen Creek Canyon section contrasts with the zone of interbedded red beds and sparse nodular lime- Pennsylvanian sections to the south (in southeastern Ari- stones somewhere in the lower part of the Supai Forma- zona) because of the large amount of clastic rocks. The tion. Thicknesses of the Pennsylvanian are thus merely esti- lower 780 feet of the Pennsylvanian barely includes more mates, based on conjecture as to how much of the lower limestone than siliciclastic beds and, therefore, could be part of the Supai is of Pennsylvanian Age. To the north- termed a lithic equivalent of the Horquilla Limestone. The west, and perhaps to the north, the lower, dominantly upper 390 feet of the section resembles the unit mapped as marine limestones of the Pennsylvanian, grouped in the the Earp Formation in Cochise County to the south, with Naco Formation, are progressively older beneath predomi- shales and sandstones more numerous than limestones, and nant red beds, being of Desmoinesian Age near Fossil with a relatively high percentage of sandstones. The Creek but of Virgilian Age along the Mogollon Rim near amount of shaly nodular limestone and limy shale varies Salt River Canyon and Carrizo Creek. considerably along the strike, most of these beds being a North of a line drawn from Globe to Morenci, Penn- hard to soft marl cementing lenses of fossil coquinas. sylvanian rocks crop out only along the Mogollon Rim and Many of the beds have a reddish to pinkish tint, but the eastern reaches of Salt River, erosion apparently having coloring is more pastel than to the north along the Mogol- stripped off most of the Paleozoic rocks in the intervening Ion Rim, where this type of bed is dark red, a coloring region. The relationships are complex in this area be- more typical of the Pennsylvanian Supai red beds. cause of facies changes from the predominant limestone The most complete section of Pennsylvanian rocks re- typical of the south in southeastern Arizona to the Supai- ported from the Gila River area was measured by Harold type red beds of the north. Reworked residual soil marks R. Wanless, Illinois University, east of Coolidge Dam of the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian contact. The lower Penn- San Carlos Reservoir. The upper 155 feet of the meas- sylvanian is contained in the Naco Formation, consisting of ured section is of red shale and light-gray to brown sand- nodular fossiliferous limestones interbedded with red beds; stone. The highest fusulinids were found 250 feet below the upper Pennsylvanian is within the lower part of the the top, the lowest fusulinids 1,310 feet from the top. red-bed sequence called the Supai Formation. There appears to be no distinctive break with the underlying To the south, thick sections of Pennsylvanian rocks are Mississippian limestones, but the Pennsylvanian part of the exposed near Superior in Queen Creek Canyon and near section probably is about 1,400 feet thick. The beds dip Coolidge Dam of San Carlos Reservoir. Along Queen about 30 degrees, and crop out as alternating ledges and Creek Canyon, the Naco Limestone disconformably overlies slopes, the concealed intervals being deeply covered by the Mississippian Escabrosa Limestone (Harshman, 1939) slope wash and talus, preventing a complete picture of the or Redwall Limestone (Huddle and Dobrovolny, 1945), the lithology; thus it is not known whether the many con- name applied to the Mississippian rocks depending on cealed beds are nonresistant limestone, shale, siltstone, or whether the problem is approached from the south (Esca- sandstone. Trenching several of the thick concealed in- brosa) or from the north (Redwall). From 1,100 to as tervals with a shovel and pick revealed marly limestones much as 1,390 feet of Pennsylvanian has been reported and shales; namely, an intimate intercalation of pinkish from this area, but the Pennsylvanian strata are overlain limy shale and of nodular gray argillaceous limestone. The with deep erosional unconformity either by Tertiary con- clastic rate (about 0.7) is considerably lower than that glomerates or by Tertiary dacite flows and tuffs. North- for the Queen Creek section (clastic ratio about 1) to the ward from Queen Creek, the Naco Limestone is thinned by northwest, and higher than the Gunnison Hills section erosion and is absent at Kings Crown Peak, where dacite (clastic ratio 0.2) to the south. flows overlie the Escabrosa Limestone . Southward, the North of Morenci, near the village of Granville, the Naco Limestone is in places only 200 feet thick beneath Pennsylvanian is probably more than 235 feet thick (Mc- the Tertiary volcanic rocks and volcanic sediments. Kee, 1951) and is unconformably overlain by Tertiary vol- The basal beds of the Pennsylvanian, 30 to 45 feet canic rocks. Near Morenci and Clifton, a thin sequence of thick, are dark-red to purplish sandy shales and chert con- fossiliferous Late Cretaceous beds overlie Mississippian glomerate, which appear to have been derived under karst limestones with erosional unconformity. Possibly erosion conditions from the underlying Escabrosa Limestone and during Tertiary and (or) Mesozoic times may not have cut thus are, in part, a reworked regolith on the Escabrosa. so deeply into Pennsylvanian strata in some parts of the Above are 40 to 45 feet of thin-bedded cherty light-gray volcanic region of northern Graham and northern Greenlee to pink limestone that is overlain by conglomerate lenses. Counties, so that there may be sizable areas north of Mor- Rounded pebbles in the conglomerate are of jasper, quartz- enci wherein thick sections of Paleozoic strata are con- ite, limestone, and schist, the percentage of schist pebbles cealed beneath the volcanic rocks. increasing northward; this suggests a source from the north, To the north along the Mogollon Rim, the Mississippian Redwall Limestone underlies the Pennsylvanian strata. In Economic Geologist, New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Re- sources Division of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Spring Canyon along the upper reaches of Canyon Creek, Socorro, New Mexico. the Redwall Limestone is only about 30 feet thick but thick- 2 Consulting Geologist, Roswell, New Mexico. ens eastward to 210 feet in Salt River Canyon, thickens .0.FlogstafN., I Assoc.-Kellum ...„... 1 \ 300 ? \ , Flagstaff --250 --_, a -.... Gen . Petro11, Brown Assoc. I Creager \ State 2 McKINLEY COCONINO \ State \ La Rue \ 165, \\ 0 Navajo < 1Winslow •Zuni • 530 Z —\--- \ ? \ Holbr—11 o\ \ N Eisele-McCoule \ Gr at Basin i — 750? PAman 1. B Taylor Fuller A PA\CHE CC Jerome A ztec -4- 8 0■,, • < • , 27 9 IPTAztec Argo ,• U0n Cont.- 1084 Franco Ariz.\ 325 -1- i ,.----. Fr 6-- State 2 VALIAENC Monsanto Aztec .0. /Adamana ()0- N Govt.. Cabin Wash 1080 0 •• /-4-950? ?5..\qo 512 Union-Cont. YAVA PA I art .....----. N■ Fossil is 1075 pAanN.m.Ariz.\ N lt 780\ CreekA, \ N j 0......4. 990 ? \ Nr \ .„Skelly 6751,./ -(?z--vt- \ Jotins) roGoqing I .0-- 0 I t) --\... ^ i.. 1 N.1 ----- \ 2.50 Pan N.M.\ Pine <r\ ■ r ,s.-...‘ _,,,j, Ariz.