Glorieta Sandstone

Glorieta Sandstone
Stratigraphic range: Kungurian
Glorieta Mesa, capped with white Glorieta Sandstone over reddish Yeso Group.
Type	Formation
Underlies	San Andreas Formation
Overlies	Yeso Group
Thickness	81 m (266 ft) (maximum)
Lithology
Primary	Sandstone
Location
Coordinates	35.4938126°N 105.6930502°W / 35.4938126; -105.6930502
Region	New Mexico
Country	United States
Type section
Named for	Glorieta Pass
Named by	Charles Rollin Keyes
Year defined	1915
Outcrop map of Glorieta Sandstone in New Mexico.

The Glorieta Sandstone is a geologic formation in New Mexico. It preserves fossils characteristic of the Kungurian age of the Permian geology.

Description

The Glorietta Sandstone is a massive yellowish brown to light gray, cliff-forming, fine to medium grained, very mature quartzarenite sandstone that weathers to reddish brown. At the type section, about 33% of the formation is trough-crossbedded sandstone with beds up to 1.3 metres (4.3 feet) thick and with large foresets. Another 27% of the formation is wind-ripple laminated sandstone. Many beds are extremely well cemented. The formation is exposed in most of the flanking uplifts of the Rio Grande Rift and extends in the subsurface to west Texas. It is particularly prominent in Glorieta Pass but extends west to the Jemez Mountains (where it pinches out in the central Nacimiento Mountains) and south to the Socorro area.

The Glorieta Sandstone is of Kungurian age and forms a ledge at or near the top of the Permian section throughout central New Mexico. It rests comformably on the Yeso Group and is overlain either comformably by thin beds of the San Andreas Formation or disconformably with Triassic beds. At the type section at Glorieta Pass, is interpreted as a dune field overlain by eolian sheet deposits. Further south, it shows cross stratification suggesting subaqueous deposition, except for local coastal eolian deposition. The presence of forams and herringbone crossbedding also suggests a shallow marine environment. It likely correlates with the Coconino Sandstone of Arizona, from which it was separated by the Defiance uplift.

History of investigation

Keyes first named the formation in 1915, mistaking it for a local tongue of the Dakota Formation. It was long considered either the uppermost member of the Yeso Formation or the lowermost member of the San Andreas Formation but was raised to formation rank in 1943.

References

• Baars, D.L. (1961). "Permian Blanket Sandstones of Colorado Plateau". AAPG Special Publication Series. 22: 179–207. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
• Baars, D.L. (1974). "Permian rocks of north-central New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico Geological Society Annual Fall Field Conference Guidebook Series. pp. 167–169. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
• Keyes, C.R. (1915). "Foundation of exact geologic correlation". Iowa Academy of Science Proceedings. 22: 249–267.
• Krainer, Karl; Lucas, Spencer G. (2015). "Type Section of the Lower Permian Glorieta Sandstone, San Miguel County, New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico Geological Society Field Conference Series. 66. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
• Needham, C. E.; Bates, R. L. (1 November 1943). "Permian type sections in central New Mexico". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 54 (11): 1653–1668. doi:10.1130/GSAB-54-1653.\
• Various. "Geologic Unit: Glorieta". National Geologic Map Database. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
• Sakuraf, Shinichi; Loucks, Robert G.; Gardner, John S. (1995). "Nmr Core Analysis Of Lower San Andres/Glorieta/Upper Clear Fork (Permian) Carbonates: Central Basin Platform, West Texas". SPWLA Annual Logging Symposium. 36. Retrieved 28 April 2020.