Victorio Peak Formation

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]

Victorio Peak Formation Stratigraphic range: Leonardian
Type	Formation
Underlies	Cutoff Shale
Thickness	1,000 m (3,300 ft)
Lithology
Primary	Limestone
Other	Dolomite
Location
Coordinates	31.3254°N 104.8798°W
Region	Texas New Mexico
Country	United States
Type section
Named for	Victorio Peak (Texas)
Named by	King and King
Year defined	1929
Victorio Peak Formation (the United States) Victorio Peak Formation (Texas)

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, fusilinids 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]

See also

• List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in New Mexico
• List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Texas

Footnotes

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

References

• Boyd, Donald Wilkin (1958). "Permian sedimentary facies, central Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources Bulletin. 49. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
• Hay-Roe, Hugh (1957). "Geologic map of Wylie Mountains and vicinity, Culberson and Jeff Davis Counties, Texas". University of Texas-Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology Geologic Quadrangle Map. GQ-0021. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
• Kerans, Charles H.; Fitchen, W. M.; Gardner, M. H.; Wardlaw, B. R. (1993). "A contribution to the evolving stratigraphic framework of middle Permian strata of the Delaware Basin, Texas and New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico Geological Society Field Conference Series. 44: 175–184. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
• King, P.B. (1942). "Permian of West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico: PART 1". AAPG Bulletin. 26. doi:10.1306/3D933466-16B1-11D7-8645000102C1865D.
• King, Philip B.; King, Robert E. (1929). "Stratigraphy of Outcropping Carboniferous and Permian Rocks of Trans-Pecos Texas". AAPG Bulletin. 13. doi:10.1306/3D93286B-16B1-11D7-8645000102C1865D.
• Kues, B.S.; Giles, K.A. (2004). "The late Paleozoic Ancestral Rocky Mountain system in New Mexico". In Mack, G.H.; Giles, K.A. (eds.). The geology of New Mexico. A geologic history: New Mexico Geological Society Special Volume 11. pp. 95–136. ISBN 9781585460106.