Gray Mesa Formation
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Gray Mesa Formation is a geologic formation in New Mexico. Its fossil assemblage dates the formation to the Moscovian age of the Pennsylvanian.
The formation as presently defined includes outcrops previously assigned to many local units, including the Los Moyos Formation, the Armendaris Group, and the Nakaye Formation.
Description
The formation consists mostly of cherty limestone, with a few shale, sandstone, and conglomerate beds. It is exposed in the Sandia Mountains, the Lucero Uplift (34.621°N 107.299°W / 34.621; -107.299), the western Jemez Mountains, and the Manzano Mountains.
The formation has been mapped as the Los Moyos Formation in the Manzano Mountains, but Spencer G. Lucas and coinvestigators have recommended abandoning the name Los Moyos Formation and using Grey Mesa Formation throughout the Madera Group. The Gray Mesa Formation likely correlates with the Porvenir Formation in the southeastern Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
The formation is underlain at most locations by the Sandia Formation, with its base typically placed at the first massive marine limestone bed above the shales of the Sandia Formation. It is overlain by the Atrasado Formation, with the contact placed at the base of a sandstone interval above the uppermost massive limestone of the Gray Mesa Formation.
Members
The lowermost Elephant Butte Member is about 24 meters (79 feet) thick and is 78% limestone, half of which contains minor amounts of chert, with indistinct medium to thick bedding.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gray Mesa 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.