Victorio Peak Formation

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Victorio Peak Formation
Stratigraphic range: Kungurian
Type Formation
Underlies Cutoff Shale
Thickness1,000 m (3,300 ft)
Lithology
Primary Limestone
Other Dolomite
Location
Coordinates 31°19′31″N104°52′47″W / 31.3254°N 104.8798°W / 31.3254; -104.8798
Region Texas
New Mexico
Country United States
Type section
Named forVictorio Peak (Texas)
Named byKing and King
Year defined1929
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Victorio Peak Formation (the United States)
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Victorio Peak Formation (Texas)

The Victorio Peak Formation is a geologic formation found in the Delaware Basin in Texas and New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the Leonardian Age of the Permian Period. [1]

Contents

Description

The formation consists of light gray limestone and dolomite [1] The total thickness over 1,000 meters (3,300 ft). [2] The base of the formation is largely concealed in the subsurface, and the formation is overlain by the Cutoff Shale. [1] The formation grades laterally to the southeast into the Bone Spring Formation, representing the change from shallow shelf carbonate deposition to deep marine carbonate deposition. To the northwest, the Victorio Peak Formation grades into the Yeso Group and the lower part of the San Andres Formation. [3] [4]

Fossils

The formation contains fossil brachiopods, include Productus ivesii, [5] Dichtyoclostus, and Neospirifer , fusulinids such as Parafusilina, crinoids, corals, and euomphalid gastropods [6] characteristic of the Leonardian.

History of investigation

The formation was first designated the Victorio Peak Member of the (now-abandoned) Leonard Formation by King and King in 1929. [5] It was reassigned as the Victorio Peak Member of the Bone Spring Formation by King in 1942, [2] and finally removed as its own formation by Hay-Roe in 1957. [7]

Economic geology

See also

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 Kues and Giles 2004
  2. 1 2 King 1942
  3. Kerans et al. 1993
  4. Kues and Giles 2004, p.100
  5. 1 2 King and King 1929
  6. Boyd 1958
  7. Hay-Roe 1957

References