Kelly Limestone | |
---|---|
Stratigraphic range: | |
Type | Formation |
Sub-units | Ladron Member Calosa Member |
Underlies | Sandia Formation |
Overlies | Basement rock |
Thickness | 30 m (98 ft) |
Lithology | |
Primary | Limestone |
Location | |
Coordinates | 34°05′24″N107°11′46″W / 34.090°N 107.196°W |
Region | New Mexico |
Country | United States |
Type section | |
Named for | Kelly, New Mexico |
Named by | C.L. Herrick |
Year defined | 1904 |
The Kelly Limestone is a geologic formation in New Mexico, United States. Its fossil assemblage is characteristic of the Early to Middle Mississippian. [1]
The Kelly Limestone consists of approximately 30 meters (98 ft) of marine limestone. [1] It is found in the Lemitar, Ladron, and Magdalena Mountains of west-central New Mexico, US. [2] The formation rests on Precambrian basement rock and is overlain by the Sandia Formation. The Kelly Limestone is divided into a lower Calosa Member and an upper Ladron Member, which are separated by an unconformity. [1]
The Kelly Limestone likely correlates with the Arroyo Penasco Group in northern New Mexico and the Leadville Limestone of Colorado. [1] These were deposited in a major marine transgression (advance of the ocean across the continent) in the Mississippian. [2]
The formation contains fossil conodonts indicating that it ranges from Tournaisian to Visean (Early to Middle Mississippian) in age. [1]
The lower Caloso Member contains fossils of the brachiopods Beecheria chouteauensis and Spirifer centronatus and the fusulinids Latiendothyra , Medioendothyra , and Tuberendothyra . The upper Ladron Member contains a diverse fossil assemblage, including brachiopods such as Rhipidomella and Linoproductus , blastoid echinoderms such as Pentremites conoideus, cnidarians such as Zaphriphyllum casteri, and numerous species of microscopic algae and foraminiferans. [2]
The Kelly Limestone was the principal ore-bearing formation of the historic Magdalena, New Mexico mining district. The ore takes the form of replacement deposits in the limestone produced by nearby igneous intrusions. [3] The best ore was found in the so-called "silver pipes" beds, which were dense dolomitic limestone contrasting with the high-calcium limestone making up most of the rest of the formation. [4]
The formation was first named as the Graphic-Kelly Formation by C.L. Herrick in 1904 for exposures near the mining town of Kelly, New Mexico. [5] The hyphenated name was found objectionable, and the formation was renamed as the Kelly Limestone by C.H. Gordon in 1907. [6] In 1976, A.K. Armstrong and B.L. Mamet divided the formation into the Caloso and Ladron Members. [2]
The San Juan Basin is a geologic structural basin located near the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States. The basin covers 7,500 square miles and resides in northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, and parts of Utah and Arizona. Specifically, the basin occupies space in the San Juan, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, and McKinley counties in New Mexico, and La Plata and Archuleta counties in Colorado. The basin extends roughly 100 miles (160 km) N-S and 90 miles (140 km) E-W.
Silver mining in Colorado has taken place since the 1860s. In the past, Colorado called itself the Silver State.
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McNulty rhyolite is one of four intrusive, igneous geological formations, the Chalk Mountain nevadite, Lincoln porphyry, McNulty rhyolite and Quail porphyry, described, mapped, and named by S. F. Emmons in 1898 within the Tenmile Mining District of southern Summit County, Colorado. The McNulty rhyolite, which is also known as the McNulty Gulch rhyolite, is described by S. F. Emmons as a fine-grained porphyritic rhyolite that is light gray in color and contains many small white feldspars and locally some small smoky quartz crystals. He mapped it as being exposed as small irregular masses in McNulty Gulch and southward beyond the area of the Tenmile Mining District that was mapped at the time. One exposure above the Railroad Boy tunnel, his location 45 in McNulty Gulch, exhibited small drusy cavities containing little tablets of tridymite. He proposed that this rhyolite was either intruded contemporaneously withy or later than the Chalk Mountain nevadite at the time of eruption. Based on field mapping, the McNulty rhyolite was interpreted to cross-cut and post-date the Lincoln and the Quail porphyries. Later geologic mapping in the Tenmile Mining District eliminated the McNulty rhyolite as a recognized geologic formation.
The Bishop Cap Formation is a geologic formation in the Franklin Mountains of southern New Mexico and western Texas and the Hueco Mountains of western Texas. It preserves fossils dating back to the Moscovian to Kasimovian Ages of the early Pennsylvanian.
The Leadville Limestone is a Mississippian geologic formation in the western United States. In Colorado, the upper part is oolitic limestone, while the lower part is primarily dolomite, and somewhat sandy beds indicate the bottom of the formation.
The Lake Valley Limestone is a geologic formation widely exposed in southwestern New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the lower to middle Mississippian.
The Sandia Formation is a geologic formation in New Mexico, United States. Its fossil assemblage is characteristic of the early Pennsylvanian.
The Arroyo Penasco Group is a group of geological formations exposed in the Nacimiento, Jemez, Sandia, and Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico. It preserves fossils characteristic of the late Mississippian.
The Flechado Formation is a geologic formation in the northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the early to middle Pennsylvanian.
The Berino Formation is a geologic formation in the Franklin Mountains of southern New Mexico and western Texas. It preserves fossils dating back to the middle Pennsylvanian.
The Madera Group is a group of geologic formations in northern New Mexico. Its fossil assemblage dates the formation to the middle to late Pennsylvanian period.
The Bisbee Group is a geologic group in Arizona, Mexico, and New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the early Cretaceous period.
The geology of Utah, in the western United States, includes rocks formed at the edge of the proto-North American continent during the Precambrian. A shallow marine sedimentary environment covered the region for much of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, followed by dryland conditions, volcanism, and the formation of the basin and range terrain in the Cenozoic.
The Log Springs Formation is a geologic formation in the Jemez, Nacimiento, and Sandia Mountains of New Mexico. Its age is poorly constrained but is thought to be Namurian.
The Osha Canyon Formation is a geologic formation in the Nacimiento Mountains of New Mexico. It contains fossils characteristic of the Bashkirian stage of the Pennsylvanian period.
The La Tuna Formation is a geologic formation in the Franklin Mountains of southern New Mexico and western Texas and the Hueco Mountains of western Texas. It preserves fossils dating back to the Bashkirian Age of the early Pennsylvanian.
The Rancheria Formation is a geologic formation in the Sacramento and San Andres Mountains of New Mexico, the Franklin Mountains of southern New Mexico and western Texas, and the Hueco Mountains of western Texas. It preserves fossils dating back to the Visean Age of the Mississippian.
The Molas Formation is a geologic formation that is found in the Four Corners region of the United States. Its age is poorly constrained but is thought to be Namurian.
The Canutillo Formation is a geologic formation that is exposed in the Franklin Mountains near El Paso, Texas. The formation is Middle Devonian in age.