Shelf margin bioherms and associated facies in the Lower Permian Hueco Group (Late Wolfcampian), Hueco Mountains, West Texas
- Amoco Production Co., Houston, TX (United States)
Late Wolfcampian phylloid algal/Tubiphytes biohermal complexes are exposed in three erosional oilers lying about 3 miles west of and parallel to the main Hueco Mountains in far West Texas. The biohermal complexes are located paleogeographically along the shelf margin between the Diablo Platform and Orogrande Basin. Based on fusulinids the shelf margin buildups correlate with well-bedded shelf carbonates of the type Hueco Group in the main Hueco Mountains. The phylloid algal/Tubiphytes shelf margin bioherms contain an upward shallowing facies succession, which, in ascending order, consists of: (1) phylloid algal wackestone-bafflestone, (2) phylloid algal-fusulinid bafflestone-packstone, and (3) Tubiphytes boundstone and Tubiphytes-fusulinid-phylloid algal packstone-grainstone. The crest of the southernmost outlier has a different type of bioherm that consists of nodular boundstones composed of calcisponges, encrusting bryozoans and laminar red algae. The shelf margin complexes prograded over slope facies of dark-gray cherty limestones, which generally lack skeletal fossils, but contain common ichnofossils in upper slope beds. Overlapping tongues and channels of lithoclastic-skeletal packstones and grainstones extend seaward from the phylloid algal/Tubiphytes bioherms into the dark-gray slope facies. Proximal backreef facies consist of mainly skeletal-peloidal packstones and wackestones. The Hueco Mountains outlier exposures are important because: (1) they confirm a Late Wolfcampian shelf margin with distinct topographic relief in the southern Orogrande Basin, and (2) they provide an easily accessible field laboratory where Wolfcampian shelf-to-basin facies relationships and shelf margin bioherms can be studied. Wolfcampian bioherms represent a significant stage in the evolutionary history of Late Paleozoic reef communities and form important petroleum reservoirs in the adjacent Permian Basin.
- OSTI ID:
- 5828671
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-921058--
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Journal Name: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) Vol. 24:7; ISSN GAAPBC; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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