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Sedimentology of Guadalupian Deep-Water Clastic Facies, Delaware Basin, New Mexico and Texas Charles R

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Sedimentology of Guadalupian Deep-Water Clastic Facies, Delaware Basin, New Mexico and Texas Charles R New Mexico Geological Society Downloaded from: http://nmgs.nmt.edu/publications/guidebooks/31 Sedimentology of Guadalupian deep-water clastic facies, Delaware Basin, New Mexico and Texas Charles R. Williamson, 1980, pp. 195-204 in: Trans Pecos Region (West Texas), Dickerson, P. W.; Hoffer, J. M.; Callender, J. F.; [eds.], New Mexico Geological Society 31st Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook, 308 p. This is one of many related papers that were included in the 1980 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 Guidebook, 31st Field Conference, Trans-Pecos Region, 1980 195 SEDIMENTOLOGY OF GUADALUPIAN DEEP-WATER CLASTIC FACIES, DELAWARE BASIN, NEW MEXICO AND WEST TEXAS CHARLES R. WILLIAMSON Union Science Technology Division Union Oil Company of California Brea, California 92621 INTRODUCTION edge and slope carbonate rocks into the basin. The present relief The Delaware Mountain Group is a 1000- to 1600-m thick section between shelf rocks deposited near sea level and time-equivalent of siltstone and sandstone that was deposited in the deep-water rocks near the base of the slope can be used to estimate Permian Permian Basin. Sandstones of the Delaware Mountain Group are water depth in the basin. Estimates for the Bell Canyon Formation the principle reservoirs in more than 100 oil and gas fields, and range from about 100 m (King, 1934) to 730 m (Adams, 1936). fine-grained, highly organic siltstones interbedded with the sand- uncertainties exist depending upon where the measurements are stones are considered to be source rock facies for oil in Delaware made, allowance for differential compaction, and the amount of Basin reservoirs (Collins, 1975). Excellent outcrops along the west- regional tectonic tilting inferred. Most workers agree that max- ern edge of the basin and abundant subsurface data provide an imum depths near the end of Bell Canyon deposition exceeded opportunity to study the facies distribution, sandstone geometry 300 m, and probably were closer to 500 m (Meissner, 1972). and reservoir properties of deep-water clastic sediments in a struc- turally undeformed setting. This paper summarizes outcrop and STRATIGRAPHY subsurface studies of the Bell Canyon Formation, the uppermost Stratigraphic correlations among rocks of the shelf, shelf-margin member of the Delaware Mountain Group. A more complete dis- and basin have long been a source of controversy for the Dela- cussion of the results presented here can be found in Williamson ware Basin. Figure 1 was compiled from several sources and (1978, 1979). Many of the same observations and interpretations represents the most widely used stratigraphic terminology for the are equally applicable to other members of the Delaware Moun- Delaware Basin. Shelf refers to a complex of shallow-water peri- tain Group (Harms, 1974; Payne, 1976; Bozanich, 1979). tidal, lagoonal and emergent flat environments where water The deep-water depositional setting of the Delaware Mountain depths probably never exceeded several meters. Group is well established by stratigraphic relations with time- The Bell Canyon Formation is the youngest formation of the equivalent shelf and shelf-margin rocks and has led many workers Delaware Mountain Group. Maximum thickness of the Delaware to suggest that sediments of the Delaware Mountain Group were Mountain Group is greater than 1600 m near the center of the deposited by turbidity currents (Newell and others, 1953; Hull, Delaware Basin (Oriel and others, 1967). The lithology of this thick 1957; Silver and Todd, 1969; Meissner, 1972; Berg, 1979). A sub- basinal section is mostly siltstone and fine-grained sandstone with marine fan depositional model for the Delaware Mountain Group a few thin limestone beds. Conglomerate and coarser grained proposed by Jacka and others (1968) commonly is cited as an sandstone are present only in the Brushy Canyon Formation example of deep-sea sedimentation in an intracratonic basin. How- (Harms, 1974). Megabreccias composed of silty sandstone and ever, results of this study indicate that most sand in the Bell Can- allochthonous carbonate blocks occur in the Bell Canyon Forma- yon Formation was deposited in nonbranching, nearly parallel sub- tion, but are restricted to within several kilometers of the basin marine channels oriented at high angles to the shelf margin with margin. no discernible fan morphology. The channels were cut by bottom- The Leonard Series underlying the Delaware Mountain Group hugging, clay-free density currents and filled by sand and silt in a consists of basinal siltstone, chert and dark limestone. The Ochoa complex, unordered manner, similar to that described by Harms Series overlying the Delaware Mountain Group reaches a max- (1968, 1974) from his study of outcrops of the slightly older Brushy imum thickness of about 550 m and consists principally of evap- Canyon Formation. Laminated, highly organic siltstone was depos- orates with increasing amounts of red siltstone in the younger ited as a suspension blanket and occurs in channels and inter- rocks. Shelf-margin rocks equivalent in age to the Delaware Moun- channel areas. The sandstone-filled channels are up to 8 km wide, tain Group are dominantly limestone and dolomite (Capitan and 35 m deep and extend more than 70 km basinward. The channels Goat Seep Formations). The Lamar Limestone, the uppermost set up numerous stratigraphic traps against regional monoclinal member of the Bell Canyon Formation, can be traced in outcrop dip as a result of the pinchout of channel sandstone into less per- to the base of the Guadalupe Mountains where it grades into the meable interchannel siltstone. lower slope carbonate rocks of the Capitan Formation (Tyrell, 1962, 1969; Babcock, 1977). Basinward, the Lamar becomes a dark PALEOGEOGRAPHIC SETTING calcareous siltstone which is referred to in the subsurface as the Major tectonic elements of the Permian Basin were developed in "Delaware Lime." Pennsylvanian or Early Permian time (Oriel and others, 1967). Shelf rocks that are time-equivalent to the Delaware Mountain Through much of the Permian, a deep-water basin was separated Group are described by Meissner (1972) and Smith (1974). In sim- from the shelf areas by carbonate reefs or banks developed along plified terms, the shelf section consists of alternating thick car- the shelf margin, and the Delaware Basin was connected to more bonate units and relatively thin siltstone and sandstone units open oceanic areas through channels at the southern end of the which grade toward the shelf into redbeds and evaporites. basin. One of the most perplexing problems of Delaware Basin stratig- The Guadalupe Mountains, uplifted by Tertiary faulting, expose raphy is the general lack of terrigenous material in shelf-margin outcrops of the Guadalupe Series making it possible to trace shelf- rocks. Thin widespread siltstone and sandstone units within the 196 WILLIAMSON RUSTLER SALADO 0 TAN SILL YATES 0 LA 0 c, U D SEVEN RIVERS CASTILE 0 o 0 < QUEEN D SAN L11 ANDRES CI_ 0 0 1000 1 300 cc BONE 200 z 100 SPRING 0 L.L.1 0 0 NO HORIZONTAL FEET METERS SCALE Figure 1. Permian stratigraphic relations, Delaware Basin. Adapted from King, 1948; Newell and others, 1953; Silver and Todd, 1969. Artesia Group are believed to represent sediment supply routes greatly affects mechanisms of sediment dispersal and the diagene- for the petrographically similar siltstones and sandstones of the tic history of these rocks. Delaware Mountain Group. These shelf terrigenous units extend nearly to the shelf-margin crest (Neese and Schwartz, 1977), but Siltstone there is little direct evidence of how terrigenous sediment was Siltstone is the most abundant rock type in the Delaware Moun- transported through the carbonate shelf-margin and into the tain Group. Approximately 60 to 70 percent of the upper Bell Can- basin. yon Formation is siltstone as estimated from measured sections and subsurface mapping. Three major variations in siltstone are LITHOLOGY OF THE DELAWARE MOUNTAIN GROUP recognized: 1) evenly laminated, sandy coarse siltstone (fig. 2A); 2) Two main rock types are present in the Delaware Mountain bioturbated, sandy coarse siltstone (fig. 2B); and 3) highly organic, Group: coarse siltstone (fig. 2) and very fine-grained sandstone (fig. clayey medium to coarse siltstone.
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