C\J
O
FICURE 22.—Columnar section of the Cathedral Mountain Formation 0.5 mile east of Split Tank showing stratigraphic level of locality numbers (RC = Road Canyon Formation).
and the supply has not been depleted. T h e section is noteworthy for its bioherms, some of which are characterized by an abundance of particular brachi- opods. Institella and Torynechus (formerly Un- cinuloides) bioherms occur in the lower part of the section. Above them are bioherms replete with Enteletes and Hercosia. In the u p p e r part, just below the thick shales, there occur remarkable bioherms composed almost entirely of Collemataria.
Southwest of the old Word Ranch site the Ca- thedral Mountain Formation is not well preserved;
just east of the Hess Ranch Horst it is greatly dolomitized, and many of the fossils have been destroyed. T h e map by P. B. and R. E. King (in P. B. King, 1931) indicates a belt of Wolfcamp limestone on the south side of the igneous body at the base of the Hess Ranch Horst. These lime- stones are indicated by Ross (1963a: m a p [Plate I]) as of Leonard age. W e corroborated their post- Wolfcamp age by collecting Institella from their upper part at several places, thus clearly establish- ing their position at the base of the Cathedral Mountain Formation. T h e beds with Institella overlie heavy bedded limestone of the upper Skin- ner Ranch Limestone Formation. T h e Skinner Ranch part of this limestone lies against the igne- ous body at a high angle. T h e basal conglomerate of the Cathedral Mountain Formation occurs at the base of these Institella limestones and can be traced northeastward u p the canyon for several miles. It is especially well developed near the Old Word Ranch on the steep dip slope forming the south side of the canyon.
ROAD CANYON FORMATION
T h i s formation forms the top of the Leonard Series throughout the mountains from the Split T a n k area to Dugout Mountain. It is an excellent datum in the stratigraphy of the Glass Mountains.
Its name originally was proposed by Cooper and Grant (1964) as a member of the Word Formation.
Previously it had been designated as the First Limestone Member of the Word Formation by P. B. King (1931:71) but, because of the predomi- nantly Leonardian character (Miller, 1945a) of the fauna, we have transferred it to the Leonard Series. T h e changeable character of the formation from place to place makes its discussion on a geo-
graphic basis necessary. Five areas are considered:
(1) the triangular hill north of Leonard Mountain, which contains the type section, (2) the Old Word R a n c h area, (3) the Sullivan Peak region, (4) Gil- liland Canyon, a n d (5) the area northwest of Old Payne Ranch, northwest of Dugout Mountain.
I N H I L L S N O R T H OF LEONARD MOUNTAIN.—North of Leonard Mountain lies a triangular group of hills, which are bounded on the north by the east- west R o a d Canyon a n d on the west and east, re- spectively, by the convergent canyons Gilliland a n d Hess. T h e type section of the formation is located at the south angle of the triangle, approximately on the 103' 15" parallel. T h e formation crops out on the south side of the m o u t h of Road Canyon and forms a conspicuous ledge on the hillsides facing Hess a n d Gilliland Canyons, b u t it passes under the Gilliland Canyon floor about 1.25 miles south of the western mouth of Road Canyon. T h e formation in these hills displays a great variety of lithologies; in fact, all types occur in the formation except the thin-bedded black shales, which appear to the east a n d west of the type area (Plate 16:
figure 4; Plate 14: figure 2).
At the type section, the formation is 228 feet thick a n d consists of bioherms with Coscinophoro at the base, followed by bioherms abounding in Hercosestria, more limestone with Coscinophora, and then a series of varied thin beds followed by a thick biohermal mass. N o two sections of the for- mation in these hills are alike, a fact that is to be expected when dealing with bioherms. Coscino- phora bioherms of considerable size can be seen on both sides of the triangular block of hills. Other fossils also are abundant; the area is one of the best in the mountains for collecting silicified fos- sils. T h e variety of animals is great. N o t only are brachiopods abundant, b u t also a variety of gastro- pods a n d pelecypods may be retrieved in nearly perfect preservation. Perrinites, found in this area south of the eastern m o u t h Road Canyon (USNM 726c), attests to the Leonardian age of the forma- tion. It is difficult to determine a faunal sequence in the formation, b u t a crude succession of forms seems to be manifest.
T h e bioherms near the base on both sides of the hills are characterized by Hercosestria and a variety of other forms such as Edriostegcs, Texarina, and Cyclacantharia, which also are seen to the east in
the conical knob (USNM 702c) 1.25 miles south- west of Old W o r d Ranch.
One of the best of the bioherms (Plate 16: figure 4) occurs at the base of the type section on the east nose of hill 5779 about 2.5 miles d u e north of the Skinner Ranch house. Over 82 feet thick, it be- gins with a thick limestone conglomerate at the base, followed by fine-grained calcarenite, which is succeeded by the biohermal limestone. T h i s large rounded mass, visible for a considerable distance, is one of the largest bioherms in the mountains.
T h e beds above the bioherms contain one conspicu- ous bed of yellow shale 14 feet thick. T h e top boundary of the section is uncertain because of the appearance of yellow shale in the upper part of the section. T h e uppermost thick calcarenite a n d bioherms (bed 10) are followed by yellow shale with thin, inter-bedded limestone, b u t these contain fos- sils like those of the Road Canyon below. A similar situation exists at the top of the formation on both sides of the triangular hill.
Lenses and thin layers of limestone with R o a d Canyon fossils appear just above Road Canyon on the west side of Hess Canyon and on the east side of Gilliland Canyon. O n the former, the lenses a n d layers are usually only a few feet above the main mass of the R o a d Canyon Formation, but on the east side of Gilliland Canyon, lenses occur 25 feet above the m a i n body of the forma- tion (USNM 720d). Nevertheless, the fossils i n them are Road Canyon types with affinities with the Road Canyon below. W e have, therefore, in- cluded these beds in the Road Canyon Formation.
I N O L D W O R D R A N C H AREA.—This area extends from the east e n d of the Hess Ranch Horst north- eastward along the north side of the canyon that runs from the Hess gate past the Old Word R a n c h to the Appel Ranch house. T h e vicinity of the Old W o r d Ranch is the type area for the Word For- mation; the R o a d Canyon was originally the First Limestone of the Word of P. B. King. T h e best and most accessible sections are at the site of the Old Word Ranch, where P. B. King (1931:143, section 24) records 140 feet, including 60 feet of thin-bedded bituminous limestone weathering light gray and, above it, 80 feet of dark gray dolomite (Plate 13: figure 3). T h e section overlies siliceous shale of the Cathedral Mountain. P. B. King made no mention of the bed of bioherms at the base of
the thinly laminated beds (USNM 703a). These have the same fossils as the bioherms at the base of the Road Canyon Formation just southwest of the m o u t h of Road Canyon (USNM 719x). At the Old Word Ranch site the thin-bedded dark lime- stones contain several lenses teeming with fossils
(USNM 703, 703c, 703d). T h e first of these con- tains a remarkable fauna of ammonites including Perrinites (Miller, 1945a); the second yielded a remarkable sponge a n d molluscan fauna, and the third produced some unusual spirifers and other fossils. Northeast of the Old Word Ranch, the R o a d Canyon Formation becomes dolomitic and merges with the higher limestones of the Word For- mation by pinching o u t of the shale between them
(Plate 13: figure 3).
Southwest of the Old Word Ranch, the Road Canyon can be traced to the fault bounding the Hess Ranch Horst. Near the horst the rocks are greatly dolomitized and difficult to identify, but, near the crossing of the south branch of Hess Can- yon with the road from the Old Word Ranch, two important localities have yielded fine collections.
One of these, USNM 702c, forms the top of a small knob on the inside of a wide loop of the road 1.35 miles southwest of the Old Word Ranch. Here Hercosestria a n d many other species characteristic of the bioherms at the base of the Road Canyon Formation were taken.
I N SULLIVAN PEAK AREA.—The thickest develop-
ment of the Road Canyon appears in Cathedral Mountain and on the hills just east of it to Clay Slide. T h e best place to study the member is on the spur terminating slightly less than a mile south of Sullivan Peak (Plate 1: figure 5; Plate 5: figure 3). T h e section was measured to be 367 feet by P. B. King (1931:70, section 12, Word, beds 1-6) and is composed largely of thin- and thick-bedded bituminous limestone. T h e rocks are very fos- siliferous, with characteristic bioherms at the base.
T h e fauna from the dark limestone includes many species not seen elsewhere or extremely rare in other parts of the formation. Along with the rare specimens, characteristic Leonardian types have been collected, such as Perrinites, Peniculauris, and Rugatia. Clifton (1945:1770) records Waagen.o- ceras dieneri Bose "from strata of the Word First Limestone Member (— Road Canyon Formation) in outcrops near Sullivan Peak." Clifton's Waage-
noceras is now called Stacheoceras normani Miller and Furnish (1957).
O n the east side of the Sullivan (Yates) R a n c h road, two long hills extend to the east; the farthest one contains the Clay Slide. These two hills are capped by the Road Canyon Formation a n d are lithically like the section below Sullivan Peak.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of these hills, especially the one nearest Sullivan Peak, is the occurrence in the bituminous limestones of large bioherms composed mostly of the peculiar lyttoniid Coscinophora. I n places the rock is literally made u p of the pedicle valves of this ostreiform brachio- pod. Similar bioherms also were seen on the east side of Sullivan Peak toward the Yates place. Al- though Coscinophora occurs at other levels in the Skinner Ranch-Cathedral Mountain interval, it is most a b u n d a n t in the R o a d Canyon Formation
(Plate 17: figures 3 a n d 4).
Traced westward along the lower slopes of Ca- thedral Mountain, the Road Canyon Formation seems to be split by insertion of shaly wedges (P. B.
King, 1931:135, section 11). King reports 127 feet of bituminous limestone at the base, followed by 50 feet of shale and another 50 feet of limestone.
Above this there are two thinner limestone beds (15 and 16 feet thick) that may belong to the Road Canyon Formation, the W o r d beginning at the base of King's bed 8, which is composed of 235 feet of siliceous shale and sandstone.
I N GILLILAND CANYON.—About 1.5 miles north
of Clay Slide, King's m a p (in P. B. King, 1931) indicates an isolated mass of Road Canyon For- mation faulted down and appearing inconspicuously in the plain, where it has been exposed by an inter- mittent stream (USNM 724b). T h e m a p also shows a band of the First Limestone of the W o r d ex- tending along the west side of Gilliland Canyon and forming a conspicuous bench along the hill- side. T h e limestone is mapped as overlying Leonardian rocks. W e sampled this limestone in three places (USNM 723t, 723w, 731m) and found it to belong to the T h i r d Limestone of the Word ( = Willis Ranch Member) rather than to the First Limestone ( = Road Canyon Formation). I t con- tains a great abundance of Waagenoceras dieneri, Echinosteges tuberculatus (R. E. King), and other characteristic Word fossils (USNM 723t). Further- more, the limestone generally is light gray, is very
sandy, and also contains much interbedded sand in the form of brown layers and lenses. T h e lithic character of the rock is exactly like that seen in the Willis Ranch Member at the junction of Road and Gilliland Canyons, a well-known location for the T h i r d Limestone of the W o r d and its fossils.
Examination of the m a p will thus indicate that the T h i r d Limestone of the W o r d crosses the can- yon near bench mark 4973 and rises along the west side of Gilliland Canyon. T h e Road Canyon For- mation beneath it descends below the canyon floor
1.25 miles south of the mouth of Road Canyon, b u t it does not rise above the floor on the west side until the isolated mass northeast of Clay Slide is reached (USNM 724b).
NORTHWEST OF DUGOUT MOUNTAIN.—In the low
hills west of the Old Payne Ranch (no longer in existence) on the northwest side of Dugout Moun- tain, the Road Canyon Formation is reduced to two layers of limestone separated by siliceous shale.
T h e lower limestone is recorded by P. B. King (1931:131, section 5) as 40 feet thick and the upper one as 20 feet thick; the two are separated by 60 feet of shale. O u r measurements show the thick- nesses to be variable. We measured 70 feet of the lower limestone of the Road Canyon Formation in the conical hill 0.25 mile northwest of the Old Payne Ranch. T h e lower part of the hill is com- posed of yellow-orange siliceous shale of the Cathe- dral Mountain. T h e cap of the hill is composed of some biohermal limestone in the lower part, but mostly of dark bituminous limestone abounding in fusulinids.
In the low hills 0.75 mile southwest of the Old Payne Ranch, we found the lower limestone to be about 20 feet thick, but the upper limestone is only 8 feet thick and is underlain by 15 feet of sandstone. T h e upper limestone is crumbly and a veritable mass of fusulinids and other less abun- dant fossils. T h e brachiopods proved to be char- acteristic R o a d Canyon species. Above this thin limestone, there occurs a thick sequence of mas- sive sandstone and siliceous shale of the Word For- mation. T h e Road Canyon thus appears to thin significantly west of Sullivan Peak.
Other and hitherto unidentified exposures of the Road Canyon Formation occur 1.5 miles north- west of Old Payne Ranch. In hill 4861, which is conical and with a section like that 0.25 mile north-
west of Old Payne Ranch, the Road Canyon forms the crest of the hill. It is biohermal and has much detrital material in the form of fusulinids between the bioherms. Coscinophora was found here and in the next hill to the northwest. T h i s is a low, flat hill, the lower part of which is marked by the 4750-foot contour. Here the Road Canyon forma- tion consists of two limestones with intervening shale that contains some thin beds of limestone.
T h e lowest bed, 20-30 feet thick, is variable b u t with bioherms at the base. T h e hill is capped by a 5-foot bed in two tiers, mostly of fusulinid lime- stone. T h e Road Canyon in this hill overlies Leonardian beds with Perrinites and is like the section in hill 4861, with the cephalopod-bearing conglomerate of the Cathedral Mountain Forma- tion appearing at the base of the hill. T h e Leonar- dian sediments are in fault relation with the W o r d limestone south of it.
After discovery of the R o a d Canyon Formation in the foothills of the Sierra del Norte, we were able to trace the formation southward for a few miles along the mountain front. T h r o u g h o u t the observed extent of the formation it is very variable, consisting mainly of thin limestones separated by yellowish shales. T h e tracing was facilitated greatly by the discovery of a cobbly, dark bluish limestone abounding in ammonites of the genera Paraceltites and Texoceras. T h i s ammonite bed was found along the mountain front at U S N M 737c, 737g, 737n, 737y, and 739d. Opposite the abandoned house (NW, N W 3; USNM 737g) the ammonite bed is well developed. T h e same bed was seen about 2 miles farther south, 3.5 miles due west of Dugout Mountain, where the following section was measured:
feet K. Yellow shale at t o p of section
J. Fine-grained limestone with fusulinids a n d small
Enteletes like those of U S N M 732j 7 I. Bluish-black limestone w i t h a m m o n i t e s 2
H . Fine-grained limestone 1 G. Blocky, bluish-black limestone b r e a k i n g i n t o
l u m p s a n d with m a n y a m m o n i t e s (like b e d at
U S N M 732z —737n) 20 F. G r a n u l a r limestone with fusulinids 12
E. Siliceous, platy, buff-colored shale 20 D. Seven thick beds of d a r k limestone separated by
yellow shale, fusulinids 75
C. Covered 50 B. Sandstone of t h e C a t h e d r a l M o u n t a i n F o r m a t i o n 20
A. Covered
A mile still farther south, just southeast of the
"s" in "mountains" (SE, N W 3: USNM 737y), an- other section of the Road Canyon is revealed as follows:
feet
G. Fusulinid limestone 4 F. Limestone with the rare brachiopod Collumatus
and showing relationship to USNM 732j 3 E. Dark, blue-black shale and limestone with am-
monites similar to those at USNM 732z 20
D. Yellow siliceous shale 40 C. Yellow siliceous shale with scattered limestone
layers 25 B. Biohermal limestone with Coscinophora 35
A. Covered
N o two sections on the m o u n t a i n front are alike, b u t the presence of the ammonite zone, though variable in thickness, and the presence of the upper fusulinid bed with Collumatus relates these Sierra del Norte localities to those in the foothills, such as U S N M 732j, where the Collumatus and am- monite beds also can be seen. It is believed that west of Cathedral Mountain the Road Canyon thickens by introduction of shale and concentra- tion of detrital material in lenticular beds that tend to fray the formation in a western direction.
T h e Road Canyon was not successfully identified south of USNM 737y.
Guadalupe Series
In the Glass Mountains the Guadalupe Series consists of the Word and Capitan formations. Only the W o r d Formation will be discussed at length here because most of the Capitan Formation and its members, as well as some members of the Word Formation, are dolomitic or otherwise poorly fos- siliferous and, therefore, not collected or studied in detail. So far as known, none of the dolomites yield silicified fossils; however, three limestone members of the Word Formation yield fine fossils in abun- dance.
WORD FORMATION
T h e W o r d Formation was named by Udden, Baker, and Bose (1916:52). Udden (1917) further enlarged on the formation, indicating its type sec- tion on the Word Ranch, where its massive facies is exhibited. P. B. King (1931) redescribed the for- mation, individualized its limestone members by
numbers, and explained the two facies in the west- ern part of the mountains and the carbonate facies in the eastern part.
T h e two facies begin in Gilliland Canyon north of Iron Mountain, approximately in the middle of the mountains. A western facies, predominantly of silty shale and sandstone, is recognized west of Gilliland Canyon, while the rocks to the east are characterized by carbonate (dolomite and lime- stone), which dominates the section in the area east of Split T a n k . T h e western or shaly-sandy facies forms the thickest part of the formation, about 1470 feet, and thins to about 450 feet in the eastern part of the mountains.
East of Gilliland Canyon, and especially on the Hess Ranch in the intermediate zone of the facies P. B. King (1931:71) described four limestones, which were given consecutive numbers. T h e first or lowest limestone that is best exposed near Old Word Ranch is lithically and faunally unlike the others, but it can be traced across the mountains.
This limestone not only is u n i q u e lithically, but also it contains an unusual and characteristic fauna, with strongest ties to the Leonardian rocks below.
Cooper and Grant (1964:1586), therefore, recog- nized it as a member of the Word Formation
(the Road Canyon Member). Later, theyj (1966) raised it to formation rank and placed it in the Leonard Series, as explained above. Separation of this First Limestone Member from the Word Formation does not affect the conception of the formation as outlined by King, because his overall view of the facies remains unchanged. T h e removal of this lowest limestone, however, does affect the numbering of the other Word limestones. There- fore, in order to make our discussion clearer and the location of the collections unambiguous, Cooper and Grant (1966) named the other lime- stones as members of the Word Formation.
T h e sections west of Gilliland Canyon above the Road Canyon Formation ( = F i r s t Limestone of the Word) consist mainly of yellow platy shale, with some thin sandstone and thin limestone beds.
Northwest of Dugout Mountain, thick sandstones appear in the sequence. Inasmuch as the shales are poorly fossiliferous and the thin limestones in this part of the area yield few good silicified fossils, little collecting was done in the Word west of Gilliland Canyon.