Comparison of two carbonate mound sequences in the Lower Ordovician El Paso Formation, west Texas and southern New Mexico

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985 · Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:6646626

Clemons, R E

The El Paso Formations consists of four members, in ascending order: Hitt Canyon, Jose McKelligon and Padre. Mounds in the McKelligon Member exposed in the southern Franklin Mountains were described by Toomey (1970). Most of these mounds are small but one large one is 5.8 m thick and about 13.7 m long in outcrop. The mound rock is chiefly bioclastic wackestone with minor packstone and boundstone. The varied fauna contains echinoderms, sponges and spicules, gastropods, trilobites, digitate algae, Nuia, Girvanella, Pulchrilamina, Calathium, and minor brachiopods and cephalopods. Intraclastic, bioclastic grainstone fills channels cut in the mounds. Similar, but smaller and less spectacular mounds occur in the McKelligon Member in the Florida, Big Hatchet, and Caballo Mountains, Lone Mountain, Cooke's Range, and elsewhere in southwestern New Mexico. A second type of mound is common in the upper part of the Hitt Canyon Member in the Cooke's Range, Red Hills, Caballo and Big Hatchet Mountains. These mounds also are typically small but one in the Red Hills is 13.7 m thick and about 30 m long in outcrop. The mound complex is about 75-80% SH-C and LLH-C stromatolite boundstone and bioclastic wackestone. The remaining 20-25% is bioclastic packstone and grainstone between the SH-C stromatolites and filling channels cut in the mound complex. The limited fauna contains small fragments of echinoderms, gastropods, trilobites, spicules, and Nuia.

• Research Organization: New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6646626
• Report Number(s): CONF-8510489-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States) Journal Volume: 17
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
580100* -- Geology & Hydrology-- (-1989)
580300 -- Mineralogy
Petrology
& Rock Mechanics-- (-1989)
CARBONATE ROCKS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
FEDERAL REGION VI
FOSSILS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGY
LITHOLOGY
NEW MEXICO
NORTH AMERICA
ORDOVICIAN PERIOD
PALEONTOLOGY
PALEOZOIC ERA
PETROLOGY
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
STRATIGRAPHY
TEXAS
USA