New Mexico Geological Society Downloaded from: http://nmgs.nmt.edu/publications/guidebooks/5 Geology of the Tularosa Basin, New Mexico William M. Sandeen, 1954, pp. 81-88 in: Southeastern New Mexico, Stipp, T. F.; [ed.], New Mexico Geological Society 5th Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook, 209 p. This is one of many related papers that were included in the 1954 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. ! NEW MEXICO GEOLOGICAl SOCIETY * FIFTH FIELD CONFERENCE * SOUTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO ! GEOLOGY OF THE TULAROSA BASIN, mentsare present in the northernportion of thearea NEW MEXICO and Cretaceoussediments may underlieportions of the I southernend of the Basin. by PRECAMBRIAN ROCKS William1 M. Sandeen The majoroutcrops of Pre-Cambrianrocks are found I alongthe eastfront of theSan AndresMountains and The TularosaBasin occupies the geographicde- are presenton the westernand southernflanks of the pressionseparating the Sacramento-SierraBlanc’ OscuraMountains~ Several scattered outcrops are Io- I ChainFrom the Organ-SanAndres-Oscura Chain on catedin the SacramentoMountains southeast of Ala- thewest~ The northernlimit is pickedat thecontact mogardo.The I°re-Cambrianrocks generally consist betweenthe Cenozoicand Pre-Cenozoicbeds as shown of a coarsepink granite, but vary locally. on theState map° Southward, it mergesalmost imper- I ceptiblyinto the HuecoBolson~ A logicaldividing Schists,quartzites, and othermetamorphic rocks lineis thenarrow area west of theJarilla Mountains~ frequentlyoverlie the granite or arepresent as inliers. Suchrelationships are seenin the San Andresand I Structurally,the TularosaBasin is a grabencapped SacramentoMountains~ Although the maximumthickness by bolsondeposits (valley fill). Tilted fault block forany one of themetamorphosed units in the Tularosa mountains,with the upraised fault scarps rising more Basinarea is lessthan 100 feet,Richardson(1909) I than3t000feetabovethedesertfloor,dlp away from reportedthe presenceof 1,800feet of Pre-Cambrian thevalley on the eastand west side. A mantleof Lanoriaquartzite in theFranklin Mountains. Cenozoicdeposits of varyingthicknesses, consisting largelyof gypsumand quartzsand, obscure the under- BLISS I lyingloaleozoic and Mesozoicsediments~ Much of the valleyfill appears to haveoriginated from the erosion Theoldest Paleozoic formation, the Blisssandstone, of the Yesoformation. In placesthe gypsumwas dis- withits characteristic glauconitic and oolitic hema- I solvedand later precipitated in the various playas such tit,beds is a basalsandstone unit which may trans- as LakeLucero~ A seriesof scatteredPermian lime- gresstime boundaries from Upper Cambrian into the LowerOrdovician. Apparently the Blissis younger stoneknolls trend due north from the Jarilla Moun- between6 and I tainsin thecentral portion of thevalley and suggest inagetothenorth.The Blissvaries thepresence of a buriedanticline or faultblock ridge° 120feet in thicknessin theSacramentos, and attains Topographically,thenadir of the basinparallels the a maximumthickness of 16 feetin the Oscurasbefore pinchingout in thecentral portion of ~hisrange. I San AndresMountains and terminatesin LakeLucero~ In viewof thefact that no significantwells have been drilledin theTularosa Basin proper, it willbe neces- EL PASO i saryto discussthe stratigraphy of the region on the The El Paso formationof LowerOrdovician age basisof outcropsin the adjacentmountain ranges~ consistsof a seriesof alternatinglimestones and dol- omiteswhich rest conformably on theBliss through- STRATIGRAPHY out mostof theregion. The El Pasoattains a thick- I nessof approximately400 feetin the Sacramento Sedimentaryrocks ranging in age fromCambrian Mountains.It thickenssouthward to 1,000feet in the throughRecent are present in theregion. Although HuecoMountains and to 1,590feet in the Franklin i Triassicrocks are found in thenorthern portion of the Mountainsaccording to Cloudand Barnes(1946). basinnear Carrizozo and areexposed near the Jicar- Kelleyand Silver(1952) have divided the El Paso iliaand CapitanMountains, no Jurassicunits are the CaballoMountains to thewest into the Sierrite I ~kn~Wn ~ The Pre-Mississippiansedimentarybeds and Bat Cave members.The BatCavecontainsstro- thindepositionally anderoslonally northward to the matoliticreefs with associated bioherms and biastromes, OscuraMountains, where they pinch out completely, by whichit maybe distinguishedfrom the underlying Sierrite~These same units may be presentin theSan I Cretaceous,Triassic and possiblyJurassic sedi- Andresand SacramentoMountains° Although the El I 1. Geologist,Standard Oil Companyof Texas,El Paso. 81 ! I NEW MEXICO GEOLOGICAL ISOC ETY I* FIFTH FIELD CONFERENCE * SOUTHEASTERN NEW MEXICO ! ~ o,u,’,,OeRAWtS,,1 ~ .,~ 1 ,,r,,~. ¯ v..--o,ov,,/ ) /-’~-~ ...,, r,,, | / / ] ’ - ": LINCOLN SOGORRO , ~/ r / S "-. ~" cAiInlZOZO* ~ .C,4~6........... "-’-~¯ rail .,.,"% ~ % ¯ / / ~ ,,,’,, .... =... .... ,,,, I , ~,oL". "- ." /l’~:::" / .." I °.". ’ )D -:.;t- i °-~ ~,. .: I [ --" ii "SIERRA -<< I " ’;,,, ) ,=, ,.,. % "%. o ¯ ~ ~ - .-. -; , ,~ "~ OTERO m - . x~<.., ~ o .\ ; ¢- 1 - %. % I DONA ANA ~ - -fc+ ~.,,.,,., oo~ ,’¢.r. - ~",,,, " ~ "" ;’"~ ~ ~-.-¢ "" : ~r~s. ~- ¯ "-,.,’"M r~s. ~ ¯ - ~ ~,~A ,,,~ ~,,,.,,,,.,,,.,-" o %,,% -,,~ \,s "l ,,~" ,,,,~V/v~:. ~-~"" ~,~,~,~, TULAROSA BASI N ’-~; I ¯ z ,.=~ ADJA C E Ill*r ~-_. ~.~N~.NI.IECO~ X(:I ARIE&S I ,: L PASO O[ MUL£R05~ MEXICO k O’[llA W N lily R,J, KLLSWORTH ¯ l~ll#lt. 82 ! ERRATA - GUID_~BOOK FIFTH NEW MEXICO FIELD CONFEREN(~E "" P. 18 . CaptionI line6 p. 99 Column1, line 10 tJ Change "steamboat" to "Steamboat" add (pages102, 105) after photog[aphs p. 18 Mileage3.0, pare. 3, line6 Column1, line 11 Change "descernibJe"to "discernible" Add (page 18) after ’*one". p. 19 pare.:3, line 3 ’j Column2, pare.2, line 17 Change "alwo" to "also Change "Meremecian" to "Meramecian" p. 20 pare.3, llne2 p. 100 Column1, pare.2, line2 Delete "the" Change "southeast"to "southwest". p. 21 para.1, line4 ¯ Column 2, line 4, add "pre-Aboerosion" after Change "prophyry" to "porphyry .... locally". pare.1, line5 Column2, pare.4, line 4, add "the"after "locally". Change "sulcoretoporaanomalotruncate" to - "Sulcoretoporaanomalotruncata" p. 101 Column1, para. 4, line 4, Change1~100 to 1,400. 14 pare.4, line8 " Column 2, para. 1, line 7, change "Mountains"to Change *’as much as** to "as much at" : "Mountain". pare.5, line5 p. 103 Column1, ,era. 2, line 2, add absence"of outcrops" Change "prophyry’*to "porphyry" of the .... p. 23 Mileage1.2, line 2 Column1, pare. 2, line 3, change"Basin" to Change period after "here" to comma "basin" p. 24 par’a.1, line4 Col.1, pare.4, line10, change"sturct~ral" to Change "fusslinids"to "fusulinids" "structural" p. 24 Caption,line 4 Col.1, pare.5, line4, add after"drawing" (p. 22) Change "Pig Canyon fault*’ to "Fresnalfault". Col.1, pare.6, line2, changeto read:"into p. 25 Mileage7.0, line 6 twomajorgroups’* Ill Delete’*view in northernSacramento Mountains Col. 2, para. 1, line9, change"Mountain" to towardeast along Hew Mexico 83", and substitute "mquntains" "cross-sectionshown on page 27". p. 104 Col. 1, par. 5, line 6; change"mesozoic" to p. 27 Caption, line 2 " "Mesozoic" ~1~ Change"Plumbley" to"Plumley" Col.2, pal 2, llne 10, ’*disturbances*’should be p. 28 Mileage12.5, line 1 "disturbance" Delete comma after Abe Col. 2, par. 3, "structure**should be "structures" ¯ Line2 C01.2, line 19, delete "Age and" Change "in" to "in" p. ]07 p. 29 Mileage13.4, para. 2, line1 p. 185 ::~nd pare.from bottom,line I, "Central"should be Change "exposure’*to "exposures" ¶~central*’. -: L-ine5 p. 186 Mileage1.9. A’Canyon"should be ’*canyon** Change"alteration" to "alternation**