Cutoff Formation
geologic formation in Texas
The Cutoff Formation is a geologic formation in Texas and New Mexico, US. It preserves fossils dating back to the Permian period.
Description
The Cutoff Formation consists of 233 feet (71 m) feet of thin limestone beds interbedded with dark shale and sandstone. It grades northwards into the San Andres Formation and is likely correlative with the upper part of the Bone Spring Formation within the Delaware Basin. In age, the formation straddles the Cisuralian - Guadalupian boundary. It lies atop the Victorio Peak or Bone Spring Formation and is overlain by the Brushy Canyon Formation or Cherry Canyon Formation. Both these formations fill paleocanyons cut deeply in the Cutoff Formation, in some cases cutting clear through to the underlying Bone Springs or Victorio Peak beds.
The formation is interpreted as a deep basin formation deposited on a drowned shelf to basin topography. It contains numerous turbidite sequences.
Fossils
Limestone beds of the formation contain chonetid brachiopods (Chonetes) and gastropods. The formation includes a few massive limestone beds that contain a diverse assemblage of fossils, including fusulinids, corals, and crinoids.
“Cutoff Formation” enters the record as geologic formation in Texas. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cutoff, Formation and geologic can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Cutoff Formation” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Cutoff, Formation and geologic provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18149512. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Cutoff Formation”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Cutoff Formation primary sources, Cutoff Formation archive and Cutoff research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cutoff Formation”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Cutoff Formation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.