111 cc tr.: • THIS MATERIAL MAY BE PROTECT) BY COPYRIGHT LAW j": DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, Director Professional Paper 98 SOME PALEOZOIC SECTIONS IN ARIZONA AND THEIR CORRELATION BY FREDERICK LESLIE RANSOME Publbilied July 17, 1916 Shorter contributions to general geology, 1916 (Pagea1311-166) WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1916 CONTENTS. Page. Purpose and scope of paper ......................................................................................................................................... 133 Topographic provinces of Arizona .............................................................................................................................. 133 Ray-Globe geologic section ......................................................................................................................................... 135 General featuree .................................................................................................................................................... 135 Piaui schist 135 Scanlan conglomerate ........................................................................................................................................... 136 Pioneer shale ......................................................................................................................................................... 13(1 Barnes conglomerate ............................................................................................................................................. 137 Dripping Spring quartzite 137 Mescal limeetone .................................................................................................................................................. 138 Troy quartzite 139 Martin Limon one 141 Tornado limestone 142 Nomenclature ........................................................................................................................................................ 143 Santa Catalina geologic eection ......144 Bisbee geologic eection ................................................................................................................................................ 145 Tombstone geologic election ......................................................................................................................................... 148 Clifton geologic section 149 Rooaevelt geologic section ........................................................................................................................................... 149 Canyon Creek geologic section .................................................................................................................................... 152 Sierra Ancha anti Matatztel Range ............................................................................................................................. 153 Carr's ranch and vicinity .................................................................................................................................... 153 Greenback Valley and vicinity ........................................................................................................................... 154 Bellamy Basin 155 Pro-Cambrian sediments of the northern Sierra Anella and of the Mazatzal Range. ..................................... 157 Jerome geologic section, with notes On stratigruphy between Payson and Jerome .......159 Grand Canyon geologic sections 162 Correlation .............164 111 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. PLATE XXIV. Map of Arizona ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 134 XXV. Generalized columnar sections of the Paleozoic strata of Arizona from Mexico to the Grand Canyon ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 136 XXVI. A, Barnes conglomerate at south end of Pinal Range, Globe quadrangle, Ariz.; /I, Mescal limestone on El Capitan Creek, Mescal Range, Ray quadrangle, Ariz., showing effect of weathering; C, Barnes conglomerate, El Capilan Creek ..................................................................................... 138 XXVII. Quartzites of the Ray quadrangle, Ariz.: A, Cross-bedded pebbly Troy quartzite, Dripping Spring Range; B, Banded Dripping Spring quartzite, Mescal Range, 1 mile south of Pioneer ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 139 XXVIII. Mescal limestone In the Ray quadrangle, Ariz.: A, Typical exposure of the chert y Mescal limestone in the Dripping Spring Range, 2 miles south of Dripping Spring ranch; B, steeply upturned Mescal limestone with intrusive diabase in the Tortilla Range, about 0 miles south of Kelvin .............................................................................................................................................................................. 140 XXIX. Sections of Paleozoic rocks in the Ray quadrangle, Ariz.: A, Section on El Caption Creek, MeHeal Range; B, El Capitan from the northwest 141 XXX. Abrigo limestone in the Mule Mountains, Ariz.: A, Typical exposure three-fourths of a mile northwest of Military Hill, Tombstone district ; B, Typical exposure on Escabrona Ridge, west of Bisbee ................................................................................................................................................................................... 144 XXXI. Outline map of the Tonto region, Ariz .............................................................................................................................. 148 FIGURE 11. Section through Salt River gorge near Roosevelt, Ariz., looking northwest ........150 12. Diagrammatic section across the Sierra Ancha, Ariz., near Aztec Peak ........153 13. Diagrammatic section on the North Fork of Deer Creek, Ittazatzal Range, Arir ...............................158 !4. Diagrammatic section across Pine Creek at Natural Bridge, Mir ........159 Iv SOME PALEOZOIC SECTIONS IN ARIZONA AND THEIR CORRELATION. By FREDERICK LESLIE RANSOME. puRpOsE AND SCOPE OF PAPER. of other strait igraphic 'sec tions to the southeast During the last 16 years detailed geologic and northwest, and (3) a discussion of the corre- work has been done in a number of mining dis- lation of these sections from the Grand 6anyon, tricts in Arizona, several reconnaissance reports in the northwestern part of the State, to Bisbee, have added to our knowledge of the geology of near the Mexican border. the State, and sections of Paleozoic and older The positions of the sections discussed may rocks in the Grand Canyon and at Globe, Ray, be seen by reference to the outline map (Pl. Clifton, Tombstone, and Bisbee have been XX IV) and to the diagram accompanying the carefully studied; but hitherto the investiga- correlation chart (Pl. XXV, p. 136). tions in most of these fields have been uncon- TOPOGRAPHIC PROVINCES OF ARIZONA. nected by reconnaissance examinations of intervening areas. Realization of this lack of The State of Arizona may conveniently be divided into throe topOgraphic regions—the correlation• led, in 1912, to a preliminary reconnausance of the country extending north- plateau region, the mountain region, and the wostward from Globe to Jerome, in the hope desert or bolson region. The plateau region, that light might thereby be thrown on the which has an area of about 45,000 square nature of the changes that connect the well- miles, occupies the northeastern part of the known stratigraphic section of the Grand Can- State and drains generally northward through the Little Colorado and smaller streams yon With the very different succession of beds into at Globe. A visit to the Santa Catalina Range, the Grand Canyon. The general altitude of this region, which is a portion of the northeast of Tucson, in company with Prof. great C. F. Tolman, jr., who is preparing the Tucson Colorado Plateau, ranges from 7,000 to over folio for the United States Geological Survey, 8,500 feet. As Dutton graphically describes it, afforded an opportunity of partly closing the Its strata are very nearly horizontal, and with the excep- tion of Cataract Canyon and some of its tributaries it is gap of terra incognita between Ray and Tomb- not devply scored. Low mesas, gently rolling and usually stone. Detailed work on the Ray quadrangle, clad with an ample growth of pine, pidon, and cedar; the full results of which are not yet published, broad and shallow valleys, yellow with sand or gray with has supplied the materials for a much more sage, repeat themselves over the entire area. accurate description of the geologic column in Hero and there the Kailmb (Pennsylvanian) central Arizona than was heretofore possible, limestone, the prevalent surface rock, is covered and similar work in the Tombstone district by flows of basalt or bears erosion remnants of has extended the Bisbee section northward. younger strata, and above it, north of Flagstaff, Finally, some additional reconnaissance has rise the lofty extinct volcanoes of the San Fran- been made of the Mazatzal Range and the cisco Mountains. Sierra Ancha. The southwestern limit of the plateau trav- The