The Boquillas Formation of the Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA, A
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Acta Geologica Polonica, Vol. 67 (2017), No. 4, pp. 547–565 DOI: 10.1515/agp-2017-0033 The Boquillas Formation of the Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA, a reference Cenomanian through Santonian (Upper Cretaceous) carbonate succession at the southern end of the Western Interior Seaway DEE ANN COOPER1, ROGER W. COOPER2, JAMES B. STEVENS3, M.S. STEVENS3, WILLIAM A. COBBAN4, and IRENEUSZ WALASZCZYK5 1 Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists, License No. 2238, Austin, TX 78757, USA. E-mail: [email protected] 2 deceased 24 October 2017 3 PO Box 608, Terlingua, TX 79852, USA. 4 deceased 21 April 2015 5 University of Warsaw, Al. Żwirki i Wigury 92, PL-02-089, Warszawa, Poland. ABSTRACT: Cooper, R.W., Cooper, D.A., Stevens, J.B, Stevens, M.S. Cobban, W.A. and Walaszczyk, I. 2017. The Boquillas Formation of the Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA, a reference Cenomanian through Santonian (Upper Cretaceous) carbonate succession at the southern end of the Western Interior Seaway. Acta Geologica Polonica, 67 (4), 547–565. Warszawa The upper lower Cenomanian through middle Santonian (Upper Cretaceous) of the Boquillas Formation in the Big Bend Region of Trans-Pecos Texas consists of a marine carbonate succession deposited at the south- ern end of the Western Interior Seaway. The Boquillas Formation, subdivided into the lower, c. 78 m thick limestone-shale Ernst Member, and the upper, c. 132 m thick limestone/chalk/marl San Vicente Member, was deposited in a shallow shelf open marine environment at the junction between the Western Interior Seaway and the western margins of the Tethys Basin. Biogeographically, the area was closely tied with the southern Western Interior Seaway. The richly fossiliferous upper Turonian, Coniacian and lower Santonian parts of the Boquillas Formation are particularly promising for multistratigraphic studies. Key words: Boquillas Formation; Upper Cretaceous; US Western Interior Seaway; Lithostratigraphy; Biostratigraphy; Paleoenvironment. INTRODUCTION members. The Boquillas Formation is primarily a carbonate sequence, c. 200 m thick. A Cenomanian through Santonian (Upper Creta- During the Late Cretaceous the Big Bend region ceous) marine succession is well exposed in the Big was located at the junction of the Western Interior Bend Region and Big Bend National Park (BBNP) Seaway, a north-south elongated Cretaceous ma- in Trans-Pecos Texas (Text-figs 1, 2). This marine rine basin that extended from the present day Gulf succession of the area is referred to the Boquillas of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, and the western- Formation, subdivided into the Ernst and San Vicente most part of the North Atlantic / Tethys Ocean sys- Unauthenticated Download Date | 1/19/18 6:32 PM 548 DEE ANN COOPER ET AL. Text-fig. 1. Paleogeographic reconstruction of North America ~ 85 Ma during OAE 3 showing location of the Big Bend Region near the height of the Western Interior Seaway (WIS). Reconstruction/illustration used with the permission of Ron Blakey, Colorado Plateau Geosystems, Inc. tem including the Gulf of Mexico and the Proto- the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains) was active Caribbean (Text-fig. 1). The Pacific Ocean was to with a related foreland tectonic / thrust fault system the west and south-west. To the west the Cordillera (Laramide) developing at its eastern side. island arc system (presently represented by parts of The Laramide thrust fault system and related Unauthenticated Download Date | 1/19/18 6:32 PM TURONIAN THROUGH SANTONIAN OF THE BOQUILLAS FORMATION, SW TEXAS, USA 549 Text-fig. 2. Location of study area and geologic quadrangle maps (Cooper, 2011) that include the study area. Major surface exposures of the Boquillas Formation and laterally equivalent units in Texas also showing the location of major structural and physiographic features modifed from Barnes (1979 a and b), Cooper (2011), Cooper and Cooper (2014d), and Donovan (2015) folding in the Big Bend region started in the latest The Boquillas Formation is laterally equivalent Cretaceous and continued to the middle Paleogene to all or parts of the Graneros Shale, Greenhorn (~70–50 Ma) (Turner et al. 2011). Paleogene plutonic Formation, Carlile Shale, and Niobrara Formation, and volcanic igneous activity (46–28 Ma) resulted in exposed in the central Western Interior Seaway in low-grade and contact metamorphism in the region Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, and especially within and near BBNP. Subsequently, South Dakota, and North Dakota; Woodbine the Big Bend Region was affected by Basin and Formation, Eagle Ford Formation and Austin Chalk Range-related high angle normal faults (25–2 Ma) in north central, central and south Texas; Chispa that created a series of graben, half-graben, and horst Summit Formation of the Permian Basin in west- features (Morgan and Shanks 2008; Turner et al. ern Jefferson Davis County, Texas (Text-fig. 1); and 2011; Cooper 2011; Cooper and Cooper 2014d). Ojinaga Formation in adjacent parts of Mexico. It is Unauthenticated Download Date | 1/19/18 6:32 PM 550 DEE ANN COOPER ET AL. also laterally equivalent to the Cuesta del Cura, Agua top of the AHB as being the contact between the Nueva, and San Felipe Formations in northeastern Ernst and San Vicente members. Mexico (Goldhammer 1999). Various aspects of the Boquillas Formation in the The present paper describes and discusses the southern part of the Big Bend Region and BBNP were lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, and biogeographic studied by various authors (Yates and Thompson affinity of the uppermost lower Cenomanian through 1959; Frush and Eicher 1975; Moustafa 1988; Sanders to middle Santonian of the Boquillas Formation. 1988; Stevens and Stevens 1989; Miller 1990; Stevens Although in many aspects the present study is a pre- and Stevens 1990; Stevens et al. 1996; Reed 1996; liminary presentation, the paleogeographic location Stevens et al. 1997; Stevens et al. 1999; Cooper of the Big Bend Region makes the Boquillas succes- 2000; Cooper et al. 2005, 2007, 2008; Cobban et al. sion of extreme significance for the proper interpreta- 2008; Cooper and Cooper 2008; Gray and Page 2008; tion of the Western Interior biogeographic evolution. Tiedemann 2010; Turner et al. 2011; Cooper 2011; The studied area, through its rich and taxonomically and Cooper and Cooper 2014a–e). variable ammonite and inoceramid record, may po- tentially be a critical area in identifying the most suitable standard sections for the Coniacian stage and LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY substages boundaries. The paper presents the results of more than 20 The early Cenomanian Del Rio and Buda for- years of field mapping and research in the Big Bend mations underlie the Boquillas Formation (Text-fig. area by the senior authors. All identified specimens 3, 4). The Del Rio Formation primarily consists of are permanently stored in the Cooper and Cooper bluish and greenish-gray claystone that weathers to Collection and the Stevens and Stevens Collection at shades of yellow, brown, and tan. Thin inter-beds of the Non-vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, Texas sandstone, limestone, and siliceous limestone occur Natural Science Center, University of Texas, Austin. locally. In addition, there are coquina deposits con- sisting of lenticular oyster beds, with Haplostiche texana (Conrad 1857), various Exogyra species, PREVIOUS WORK and the foraminifer Cribratina texana. The Del Rio Formation is extremely variable in thickness in the The Cenomanian–Santonian succession of what southern part of the Big Bend Region and ranges is today the Boquillas Formation, was first defined from less than 1 m to 56 m (Maxwell et al. 1967). as the Boquillas ‘Flags’, in the southern part of the Both the lower and upper contacts of the Del Rio Big Bend Region by Udden (1907) to include sedi- Formation are disconformities. mentary rocks from the top of the Buda Formation to The 30–36 m thick Buda Formation consists of the base of a unit composed of chalk and chalky marl massive limestone at the base and top with a middle zone. Maxwell et al. (1967) redefined the Boquillas part comprised of marly limestone (Maxwell et al. Formation and formally divided it into the Ernst and 1967). The basal massive limestone, often forming San Vicente members in Big Bend National Park a distinctive ledge, is approximately 7.5–9.0 m thick (BBNP). They defined the contact between the two and consists of beds that are 0.6–1.8 m thick. It is members by the presence of an conformable conglo- gray-white in color, fine-grained, compact, and tends merate located c. 30 m above what they referred to to have conchoidal fracture. The middle marly lime- as brown siliceous flagstone containing the hetero- stone unit is 6–9 m thick in average, although locally morphic ammonite Allocrioceras hazzardi. Despite it may be significantly thinner. It consists of nodular numerous efforts by subsequent researchers and de- limestone and marl and forms a distinctive slope be- tailed field mapping (Cooper 2011), none has been tween the lower and upper massive limestone inter- able to identify the contact between the Ernst and vals. The upper massive limestone is 3–18 m thick San Vicente members as described by Maxwell et. and consists of beds that are very similar to the lower al. (1967). massive limestone interval (Maxwell et al. 1967). The contact between the Ernst and San Vicente The upper surface of the upper massive limestone members was revised by Cooper et al. (2005) to be a unit often forms a distinctive ledge or dip slope in lithostratigraphically and biostratigraphically distinct many areas. In the eastern part of Big Bend National ferruginous interval that includes the Allocrioceras Park, detailed mapping of the contact of the Buda hazzardi Beds (AHB). The United States Geological with the overlying Ernst Member of the Boquillas Survey (Turner et al. 2011) formally recognized the Formation indicates that the upper contact of the Unauthenticated Download Date | 1/19/18 6:32 PM TURONIAN THROUGH SANTONIAN OF THE BOQUILLAS FORMATION, SW TEXAS, USA 551 ering blue-gray to dark gray calcareous shale with a few thin (< 10 cm) limestone layers near the base.