Red House Formation
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The Red House Formation is a
geologic formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...
found in the
Caballo Mountains The Caballo Mountains, (Spanish: "horse") are a mountain range located in Sierra and Doña Ana Counties, New Mexico, United States. The range is located east of the Rio Grande and Caballo Lake, and west of the Jornada del Muerto; the south of ...
in
New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
. It preserves
fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
dating back to the
middle Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek ...
to
late Pennsylvanian The Pennsylvanian ( , also known as Upper Carboniferous or Late Carboniferous) is, on the ICS geologic timescale, the younger of two subperiods of the Carboniferous Period (or the upper of two subsystems of the Carboniferous System). It laste ...
.


Description

The formation consists mostly of thinly bedded dark gray
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
and
shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...
or
claystone Mudrocks are a class of fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include siltstone, claystone, mudstone and shale. Most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than and are too small to ...
containing limestone nodules and lenses. Some massive cherty limestone beds are locally present. It rests unconformably on the
Lake Valley Limestone The Lake Valley Limestone is a geologic formation widely exposed in southwestern New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the lower to middle Mississippian. Description The Lake Valley Limestone consists of gray cherty limestone with thi ...
or Percha Shale, with a thin sandstone bed at its base. Thickness is about . It is overlain by the Nakaye Formation.


Fossils

Many of the beds are abundantly fossiliferous. The formation dates from the late Morrowan (
Bashkirian The Bashkirian is in the International Commission on Stratigraphy geologic timescale the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage or oldest age (geology), age of the Pennsylvanian (geology), Pennsylvanian. The Bashkirian age lasted from to Mega annu ...
) to the early Atokan (
Moscovian Moscovian may refer to: *An inhabitant of Moscow, the capital of Russia *Something of, from, or related to Moscow *Moscovian (Carboniferous) The Moscovian is in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS geologic timescale a stage (strat ...
).


History of investigation

The formation was first described by V.C. Kelley and
Caswell Silver Caswell Silver (June 25, 1916 – October 18, 1988) was an American geologist and entrepreneur who was President of Sundance Oil Company from 1960 to 1984. In addition to the business of oil and gas exploration, he was active in the American Assoc ...
in 1952 and assigned to the now-obsolete Magdalena Group. G.O. Bachman and D.A. Myers criticized its definition in 1975, but it is accepted by Barry Kues and Katherine Giles. In 2016,
Lucas Lucas or LUCAS may refer to: People * Lucas (surname) * Lucas (given name) Arts and entertainment * Luca Family Singers, or the Lucas, a 19th-century African-American singing group * Lucas, a 1960s Swedish pop group formed by Janne Lucas Perss ...
and coinvestigators recommended that the local names Green Canyon Group, Arrey Formation, Apodaca Formation, Mud Springs Group, Fra Cristobal Formation, and Chuchillo Negro Formation be abandoned in favor of the Red House Formation.


See also

*
List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in New Mexico This article contains a list of fossil-bearing stratigraphic units in the state of New Mexico, New Mexico, U.S. Sites See also * Paleontology in New Mexico References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fossiliferous stratigraphic units in New Mexico ...
*
Paleontology in New Mexico Paleontology in New Mexico refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of New Mexico. The fossil record of New Mexico is exceptionally complete and spans almost the entire stratigraphic column. ...


References

{{Reflist Carboniferous formations of New Mexico Carboniferous southern paleotropical deposits Claystone formations Shale formations of the United States Limestone formations of the United States