Timberlake Formation
geologic formation in New Mexico
The Timberlake Formation is a geologic formation exposed in the Animas Mountains of southwestern New Mexico. Its age is estimated to be late Paleocene to Eocene.
Description
The formation is primarily limestone cobble conglomerate. The massive conglomerate beds are separated by thinner beds of sandstone, shale, claystone, and tuff. The clasts in the conglomerate are embedded in a red arkosic matrix or a poorly sorted limestone conglomerate matrix. In some locations, the formation contains boulders of limestone conglomerate over 200 feet (61 m) in diameter that appear to be derived from the underlying Cowboy Spring Formation. The formation is separated from the Cowbow Springs Formation, which it strongly resembles, with angular unconformity. Its maximum thickness is 150 meters (490 ft).
The formation was deposited in the Little Hat Top basin, a downwarp on the southern flank of the Hidalgo uplift. It is overlain by the Bluff Creek Tuff, which has been radiometrically dated as 35.1 million years old.
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This entry incorporates text from “Timberlake 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.