Late Paleozoic Tectonic and Sedimentologic History of the Penasco Uplift, North-Central New Mexico

RICE UNIVERSITY LATE PALEOZOIC TECTONIC AND SEDIMENTOLOGIC HISTORY OF THE PENASCO UPLIFT, NORTH-CENTRAL NEW MEXICO by ROY DONALD ADAMS A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS APPROVED, THESIS COMMITTEE: 0^ (3- /jtd&i obfe B. Anderson, Chairman Assistant Professor pf Geology KT Rudy R. Schwarzer, Adjunct Assistant Professor of GSology John /E. Warme Professor of Geology Donald R. Baker Professor of Geology Houston, Texas May, 1980 ABSTRACT LATE PALEOZOIC TECTONIC AND SEDIMENTOLOGIC HISTORY OF THE PENASCO UPLIFT, NORTH-CENTRAL NEW MEXICO Roy Donald Adams The Paleozoic Peiiasco Uplift, located on the site of the present Nacimiento Mountains of north-central New Mexico, acted as a sediment source and modifier of regional sedimentation patterns from Middle Pennsylvanian to Early Permian time. The earliest history of the uplift is still poorly defined. Orogenic activity may have started as early as the Late Mississippian, or there may have been quiescence until after deposition of the Morrow-age Osha Canyon Formation and prior to deposition of the Atoka-age Sandia Formation. Coarse, arkosic siliciclastic sediments inter- bedded with fossilferious carbonates in the Madera Formation indicate that by early Desmoinesian time the Peiiasco Uplift had risen sufficiently to expose and erode Precambrian rocks. Paleotransport indicators in the arkosic sediments show transport away from the uplift. Throughout the remainder of the Pennsylvanian, the Peiiasco Uplift was a sediment source. The siliciclastic sediments derived from the Peiiasco Uplift formed a wedge that prograded out onto and interfingered with carbonate sediments of a shallow normal marine shelf. A change in paleotransport directions from northeasterly to southwesterly occurs on the east side of the Peiiasco Uplift and is due to the arrival of a flood of siliciclastic sediments derived from the Uncompahgre-San Luis Uplift to the northeast. This flood of sediments at or near the Permo-Pennsylvanian boundary, as dated by fauna in the uppermost Madera Formation, quickly breached the waning Penasco Uplift. Polycrystalline/total quartz ratios show that though breached, the Penasco Uplift continued as a sediment source during most, if not all, of Abo time. By the end of the Wolfcampian when Abo deposition ceased, the Penasco Uplift was no longer a sediment source and did not modify regional sedimentation patterns. Field relationships show that the two members of the Madera Formation, the lower gray limestone member of Atokan to Virgilian age, and the upper arkosic member of Desmoinesian to Virgilian age, are laterally equivalent and interfingering facies. The Abo to Madera formations are also, in part, laterally equivalent and interfingering. The Abo Formation ranges in age from Late Pennsylvanian to the end of the Wolfcampian in the Permian. The base of the Leonardian age Yeso Formation is gradational with the top of the Abo Formation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, the Geological Society of America, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and Sigma Xi for their generous financial assistance. The U.S. Forest Service provided access to their aerial photos of the Nacimiento Mountains. Governor Rosillos of the Jemez Indian Reservation allowed me to study outcrops on the reservation. Cathy Hanks was my able field assistant. Becky Lindig typed the entire thesis from a handwritten manuscript. Oleta Doyal assisted with the drafting. John Anderson suggested this project to me and acted as my principal advisor. Rudy Schwarzer, John Warme and Donald Baker served as my committee. To all of the above I extend my thanks for the varied and diverse ways in which they assisted me in this study. Lastly, I would like to warmly thank all my friends for offering advice, knowledge and encouragement at numerous times* In particular I want to acknowledge and thank Rudy Schwarzer, Bob "Bozo” Koehler, Florence Kunze, and Tony Gorody. It is to these four that this thesis is dedicated. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 Purpose. ............... 1 Location 1 Geologic Overview 2 Topography and Accessibility 3 Methods 3 Previous Work 4 PRE-PENNSYLVANIAN GEOLOGIC HISTORY 7 Pre cambrian 7 Cambrian to Devonian 7 Mississippian 11 PENNSYLVANIAN AND PERMIAN GEOLOGIC HISTORY 13 Introduction 13 Paleogeography 13 Introduction 13 Ancestral San Juan Basin and Lucero Basin 15 Uncompahgre-San Luis Uplift 17 POST-PALEOZOIC GEOLOGIC HISTORY 18 Mesozoic 18 . Cenozoic 19 MADERA FORMATION 20 Introduction 20 Age 20 Distribution and Thickness Trends 22 Lower Boundary 23 Upper Boundary 24 Correlation 25 Lower Gray Limestone Member 25 Upper Arkosic Limestone Member 27 ABO FORMATION 30 Introduction 30 Age 31 Distribution and Thickness Trends 32 Upper Abo Boundary 33 Correlation 34 Lithology 35 Introduction 35 Shales, Silty Shales, Mudstones and Claystones. ... 38 Sandstones 38 Siltstones 39 Conglomerates 40 Limestones 41 Page YESO FORMATION 42 Introduction 42 Subdivisions of the Yeso Formations 43 Age 45 Distribution and Thickness Trends 46 Upper Boundary 47 Correlation 48 Lithology 49 Meseta Blanca Member 49 San Ysidro Member 50 PALEOTRANSPORT DIRECTIONS 51 Introduction 51 Madera Formaton 51 Abo Formation 51 Yeso Formation 52 PALEOCLIMATE 53 INTERPRETATION OF THE PENNSYLVANIAN GEOLOGIC HISTORY OF THE PENASCO UPLIFT 61 Pre-Madera History 61 Madera Time 62 Time of the Abo-Madera Transition 64 Abo Time 67 Yeso Time 68 SUMMARY 70 ADDENDA 71 REFERENCES 73 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Generalized pre-Pennsylvanian stratigraphic column 8 for the region around, but excluding, the Sierra Nacimiento. 2 Paleozoic geography of parts of New Mexico, Arizona, 9 Utah, and Colorado. 3 Compositional and textural data from selected 37 Abo sandstones and Madera limestones in sections A—1 and A-2. 4 Permian correlation charts of Baars, 1962 and 44 Irwin, 1969. 5 Sketch maps of continental reconstructions of the 54 Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian and Late Permian (Guadalupian). 6 Idealized diagram of world-wide wind and pressure 55 systems in the lower troposphere. 7 Late Paleozoic paleowind directions on the 56 Colorado Plateau (from Poole, 1964). 8 Three idealized models of continental precipitation 57 patterns on a single large continent spanning a world from pole to pole. 9 Sketch of the probable course of the Intertropical 58 Convergence (I.T.C.) zone in the Upper Permian and the resulting major precipitation climatic regions. LIST OF TABLES 1 Pennsylvanian faunal zones in the Sierra Nacimiento, 21 San Pedro Mountain, and Jemez Plateau showing their relation to North American Pennsylvanian stages (modified from Wood and Northrop, 1946). LIST OF PLATES Plate I. General Geologic Map, Loaction Map and General Stratigraphic section for the Nacimiento Mountains Plate II. Location of Measured Sections and Published Maps of the Nacimiento Mountains. Plate III. Paleotransport Maps and Data. Plate IV. Stratigraphic Sections of this Report and of Wood and Northrop, 1946. Plate V. Correlation Charts. INTRODUCTION Purpose . , The Pennsylvanian Madera Formation, the Pennsylvanian and Permian Abo Formation and the Permian Yeso Formation were studied to refine the timing of the late Paleozoic Penasco Uplift and to define the effects of the uplift on regional sedimentation patterns. This project is one of the first attempts to clarify the history of one of the lesser Paleozoic highlands of northern New Mexico and the southern Colorado Plateau. In addition, the study adds to our knowledge of late Paleozoic tectonics and sedimentation in this region. Location The area studied includes San Pedro Mountain, the Sierra Nacimiento, and several canyons cutting into the Jemez Plateau (see plate I). When referring to these three areas together the informal terms "Nacimientos" or "Nacimiento Mountains" will be used. The Nacimientos are located north of Albuquerque and west of Los Alamos (see plate I). The Sierra Nacimiento and San Pedro Mountain form a north-south trending, eastward-dipping faultblock approximately 80 km (50 mi) long and 15 to 25 km (10 to 15 mi) wide (Woodward, Kaufman, and Anderson, 1972). They form part of the southeastern boundary of the San Juan Basin and the Colorado Plateau, part of the western boundary of the Rio Grande Rift, and are the southernmost range of the Southern Rocky Mountains. The Jemez Plateau, on the east side of the Sierra Nacimiento and San Pedro Mountain, is composed of Quaternary and Tertiary volcanics 1 2 from the Valles and Toledo calderas of the Jemez Volcanic Field. These volcanic rocks have partially covered the Mesozoic and older rocks (Smith, Bailey and Ross, 1970). Geologic Overview The core of the uplifted faultblock forming the Nacimientos is composed of Precambrian metamorphic and igneous rocks that are exposed in the central portion of San Pedro Mountain and the Sierra Nacimiento (see plate I). On the west side of the Nacimientos, sediments of Cretaceous to Pennsylvanian age are moderately to steeply tilted to the west and in some areas are overturned by the Nacimiento Fault north' of • San Pablo Canyon and the Pajarito Fault to the south (plate I). The maximum stratigraphic offset between the upthrust block and the adjacent San Juan Basin is 3000 m (10,000 ft) (Woodward, Kaufman, and Anderson, 1972). East of the range-marginal faults the Mississlppian to Triassic strata onlap the exposed basement rocks and are gently tilted to flatlying. In the southern part of the Sierra Nacimiento, at Guadalupe Box, part of the faulted eastern boundary of the range with the Rio Grande Rift is exposed. There is an estimated 1550 m (5,100 ft) of stratigraphic relief between the rift and the Sierra Nacimiento in this area (Du Chene, 1974a). Most of the eastern Boundary of the uplift is covered by the volcanics of the Jemez volcanic field (plate I). Several approximately east-west trending high-angle faults separate the Nacimientos into smaller blocks (Woodward, Kaufman, and Anderson, 1972). 3 Topography and Accessibility The topography on the west side of the Nacimientos consists of hogbacks, ridges and valleys paralleling the steep western flank of the uplift.

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