Tertiary-Quaternary sediments of the Rio Grande Valley in southern New Mexico

Kottlowski, Frank Ε.

doi:10.56577/ffc-4.144

Cited by 15 publications

(46 citation statements)

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“…The Bell Top Formation was named by Kottlowski (1953) for exposures of volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks at Bell Top Mountain in the Sierra de las Uvas. Subsequently, the formation was recognized in neighboring ranges, including the Caballo Mountains.…”

Section: Bell Top Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Named by Kottlowski (1953) for exposures in the Sierra de las Uvas, the Uvas Basaltic Andesite is part of a vast sheet of flood basaltic andesite that once covered most of southwestern New Mexico and northern Chihuahua (Cameron et al, 1989). In the Socorro area, the basalts are known as La Jara Peak Andesite (Tonking 1957), in the Black Range-Silver City area as the Bear Springs Basalt (Elston, 1957).…”

Section: Uvas Basaltic Andesitementioning

confidence: 99%

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Geology of the Caballo Mountains, New Mexico

Seager¹,

Mack²

2003

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The Caballo Mountains, just south of Truth or Consequences, rise to an elevation of 7,065 feet. Today they are flanked on the west side by Caballo Reservoir and on the east side by the Jornada del Muerto. An extraordinary geologic section is preserved here. Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks (granites and schists) provide a view of the Precambrian history of this part of the country, and an extraordinary thickness of sedimentary rocks (whose collective thickness is more than 3.5 miles) gives us an unparalleled picture of the evolution of southern New Mexico. Development of these mountains began with compression and uplift associated with the Laramide orogeny, at the end of the Mesozoic. Since then the complex geologic history of this part of New Mexico has included uplift, erosion, faulting, volcanic activity, continental deposition, and, finally, the development of the Rio Grande rift. That complex geologic history is well documented in this volume. This memoir is the result of many years of study and field work on the part of the authors, who have drawn together in one place this comprehensive description of the region. The volume is heavily illustrated with photographs, maps, stratigraphic sections, and other graphics. It contains both an index and a glossary.

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Section: Bell Top Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Uvas Basaltic Andesitementioning

confidence: 99%

Geology of the Caballo Mountains, New Mexico

Seager¹,

Mack²

2003

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“…Later, King (1973) described fusulinids from the Derry Series in the Derry Hills. Kottlowski (1953) presented small-scale geologic maps of the area, and Seager et al (1982) mapped the quadrangle as part of the Las Cruces 1° x 2° sheet (scale 1:125,000).…”

Section: Previous Work and Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Geology of Garfield quadrangle, Sierra and Dona Ana Counties, New Mexico

Seager¹,

Mack²

1991

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The Garfield quadrangle is located along the Rio Grande in south-central New Mexico, approximately 40 km (25 mi) south of Truth or Consequences. Located in the Rio Grande rift, the quadrangle encompasses part of the Palomas Basin, as well as outlying fault blocks of the Caballo Mountains. Whereas the Rio Grande and its tributaries have sculpted the prevailingly fine-grained, soft sedimentary deposits of the Palomas Basin into badlands, the far more ancient and durable rocks of the Caballo Mountains have yielded more rugged topography, featuring deeply incised canyons, high peaks, impressive cliffs, and a succession of cuestas.The fault blocks consist mostly of Precambrian granite and syenite, unconformably overlain by Paleozoic and lower Tertiary sedimentary strata. Totaling approximately 885 m (2,900 ft) in thickness, the exposed sedimentary section includes basal Bliss Formation (Cambrian and Ordovician; 33 m, 108 ft thick); El Paso Formation (Ordovician; 152 m, 499 ft thick); Montoya Formation (Ordovician; 116 m, 381 ft thick); Fusselman Dolomite (Silurian; 26 m, 85 ft thick); Percha Formation (Devonian; 19 m, 62 ft thick); Magdalena Group (Pennsylvanian; 277 m, 909 ft thick); Abo Formation (Permian; 141 m, 463 ft thick); Yeso Formation (Permian; 30 m, 100 ft thick); Love Ranch Formation (Eocene; 30 m, 100 ft thick); and Palm Park Formation (Eocene; 60 m, 200 ft thick). Cambrian through Pennsylvanian strata are almost entirely shallow marine in origin, consisting of limestone, sandstone, and shale. Much of the El Paso and virtually all of the Montoya and Fusselman Formations are dolomitized to such an extent that original textures and most fossil remains are obscured. Regional unconformities slightly truncate the top of the El Paso, Montoya, Fusselman, and Percha Formations. Uppermost Magdalena strata mark a transition to nonmarine conditions, and the overlying Abo and Yeso red beds are fluvial and eolian in origin, respectively.An angular unconformity separates Paleozoic strata from lower to middle Tertiary Love Ranch and Palm Park clastics. The unconformity is a product of deformation and erosion of Paleozoic, Cretaceous, and Precambrian rocks during the Laramide orogeny, and the fanglomerates of the Love Ranch and Palm Park Formations document erosion deep into the basement rocks of Laramide uplifts. Southwest-verging, overturned folds and associated thrust faults, exposed in the Derry Hills, are structural elements of an uplifted Laramide block that extended across most of the southern Caballo Mountains region. By middle Tertiary time this block was deeply buried, not only by Love Ranch and Palm Park fanglomerate, but also by a thick succession of andesitic, rhyolitic, and basalticandesite volcanic rocks; most of these were removed from the Garfield quadrangle by erosion during Neogene evolution of the Rio Grande rift.Laramide uplifts and basins and the deposits that buried them were segmented in late Tertiary time by normal faults of the Rio Grande rift. In the Garfield quadrangle, major normal faults include the Red Hills and Derry Hills faults, which separate the Red Hills-Nakaye Mountain and Derry Hills fault blocks from the Palomas Basin. Both faults show evidence for late Quaternary movement; movement along the Red Hills fault probably occurred in Holocene time. Slightly deformed playa deposits of the Miocene Rincon Valley Formation are the oldest exposed basin fill in the Palomas Basin in the Garfield quadrangle. Only the upper 15 m (50 ft) of a section that is at least 600 m (1,968 ft) thick is exposed. Much more widespread is the late Pliocene-middle Pleistocene Palomas Formation. At least 90 m (295 ft) thick, the Palomas Formation consists of an axial fluvial fades, the deposits of an ancestral Rio Grande, as well as alluvial-fan and piedmont-slope deposits derived from both the Black Range and Caballo Mountains. Along the eastern margin of the Palomas Basin, fan and river deposits of the Palomas Formation overlapped adjacent uplifts, burying all or parts of the Derry Hills, Red Hills, and Nakaye Mountain fault blocks by middle Pleistocene time. Late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits include arroyo, terrace, fan, and river alluvium related to periods of entrenchment and backfilling by the modern Rio Grande and its tributaries. Erosional episodes resulted in exhumation of the fault blocks and superposition of drainage across them.

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“…Working mainly in the northwestern part of the basin, these researchers extended the Santa Fe Formation into the Albuquerque Basin from the north and subdivided it into three informal units based primarily on color: lower gray, middle red, and upper buff. Kottlowski (1953) and Spiegel and Baldwin (1963) proposed that the Santa Fe Formation be raised to group rank, and this rank has become accepted by most workers.…”

Section: Geologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geology and paleontology of the Santa Fe Group, southwestern Albuquerque Basin, Valencia County, New Mexico

Lozinsky¹,

Tedford²

1991

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Santa Fe Group outcrops in the southwestern Albuquerque Basin occur in the Gabaldon badlands and Bobo Butte areas. Two oil test wells located near the Gabaldon badlands, the Humble Santa Fe Pacific #1 and Shell Santa Fe Pacific #2, penetrate the Santa Fe Group and pre-Santa Fe Tertiary deposits and bottom in Mesozoic bedrock.In the Gabaldon badlands, the thickness of the exposed Santa Fe Group is at least 1,138 m (3,732 ft) and may be as much as 1,800 m (6,000 ft). In the Humble Santa Fe Pacific #1 and Shell Santa Fe Pacific #2 wells, the Santa Fe thickness is 1,494 and 1,460 m (4,902 and 4,790 ft), respectively. The thickness of the exposed Santa Fe section at Bobo Butte is 246 m (807 ft). In the oil test wells, up to 1,097 m (3,600 ft) of pre-Santa Fe Group Tertiary deposits, which are correlative with possible Baca Formation and an unnamed post-Baca/pre-Santa Fe unit, underlie the Santa Fe Group. These pre--Santa Fe deposits indicate the presence of a depositional basin that predates the Albuquerque Basin.The Santa Fe Group exposed in the Gabaldon badlands area is divided into four units that correlate with the Popotosa Formation (units 1-3) and the Sierra Ladrones Formation. Units 1-3 of the Popotosa Formation were deposited in a closed-basin, distal-fan/basin-floor environment at a calculated sedimentation rate of 204 m/m.y. (669 ft/m.y.). The Sierra Ladrones Formation was deposited by a large, throughflowing, fluvial system and local alluvial-fan distributaries on adjacent piedmont slopes. Santa Fe Group deposits in the Bobo Butte area correlate with parts of the Popotosa Formation and were deposited in a proximal fan area. The caprock unit on Bobo Butte is probably correlative with at least part of the Sierra Ladrones Formation.Analysis of outcrop and thin-section data indicates that the Popotosa Formation in the southwestern Albuquerque Basin was derived from the Lucero uplift. At the time units 1-3 were deposited, the Lucero uplift was covered by at least one Tertiary ash-flow-tuff sheet and Upper Cretaceous strata. These rocks have since been eroded from the Lucero uplift and deposited in the southwestern Albuquerque Basin. The fluvial facies of the Sierra Ladrones Formation was at least partly derived from more distant source areas to the west and northwest. Outcrop data show that the caprock unit on Bobo Butte was derived from the Lucero uplift.Vertebrate fossils recovered from the Gabaldon badlands include Epicyon sp. cf. E. haydeni validus, Dipoides sp. cf. D. vallicula, Michenia sp. cf. M. yavapaiensis, and Plioceros sp. Fossils from units 2 and 3 indicate an early Hemphillian age (7-9 Ma), and the upper part of unit 1 is perhaps slightly older (latest Clarendonian).

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Tertiary-Quaternary sediments of the Rio Grande Valley in southern New Mexico

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

Geology of the Caballo Mountains, New Mexico

Geology of the Caballo Mountains, New Mexico

Geology of Garfield quadrangle, Sierra and Dona Ana Counties, New Mexico

Geology and paleontology of the Santa Fe Group, southwestern Albuquerque Basin, Valencia County, New Mexico

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