Delaware Basin
The Delaware Basin is a geologic depositional and structural basin in West Texas and southern New Mexico, famous for holding large oil fields and for a fossilized reef exposed at the surface. Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park protect part of the basin. It is part of the larger Permian Basin, itself contained within the Mid-Continent oil province.
Geology
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/Delaware_Basin_New_Mexico.jpg/220px-Delaware_Basin_New_Mexico.jpg)
By earliest
A narrow outlet that geologists call the Hovey Channel periodically supplied new
The Delaware Basin temporarily stopped subsiding in the
Subsidence of the Delaware Basin restarted later in the mid Permian and by the Guadalupian Epoch of the upper Permian the patch reefs had grown larger. Sediments deposited close to the shore are now the cherty dolomites of the San Andres Formation while deposition a little further out forms the quartz sandstone and scattered patch reefs of the Brushy Canyon Formation.[1]: 194–5§3
Rapid subsidence of the basin started in the middle Guadalupian. Patch reefs responded by rapid (mostly vertical) growth, resulting in the Goat Seep Reef. Three facies developed:
- Sediments deposited in a lagoon, forming the sandstones and dolomites of the Queen and Grayburg Formations.
- to become the Getaway Bank.
- Quartz sand laid down further in the basin became the Cherry Canyon Formation.[1]: 195§4
Subsidence of the basin stopped for good by the later part of the Guadalupian. Capitan Reef was the largest in the basin, and it rapidly grew 350 miles (560 km) around it. The facies were:[1]: 195§5
- Fine-grained sand and carbonates deposited near the shore became the dolomites and sandstone of the Artesia Group.
- Offshore accumulations of sand and limey ooze in the basin were lithified into sandstone and limestone belonging to the Bell Canyon Formation.
- The Capitan Formation consists of Capitan Reef and is made of reef limestone.
Capitan Reef was built primarily from calcareous sponges, encrusting algae such as stromatolites, and directly from seawater as a limey mud. In stark contrast, Cenozoic (current era), Mesozoic (age of the dinosaurs), and even middle Paleozoic (well before the Permian) reefs are mainly composed of corals.[4]
The Delaware Basin was filled at least to the top of Capitan Reef and mostly covered by dry land before the end of the
Uplift associated with the Laramide orogeny in the late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic created a major fault along which the Guadalupe Mountains were thrust into existence. The range forms the tilted upthrown part of the system and the Salt Flat Bolson forms the downfallen block.[1]: 195§8, 184§5 Capitan Reef limestone was exposed above the surface with the 1000-foot-high (300 m) El Capitan being its most prominent feature. Other large outcrops compose the Apache Mountains and Glass Mountains to the south.[5]
Additional uplift of the Guadalupe Mountains in the
The soft and easily eroded gypsum of the Castile Formation was removed, exposing the Guadalupe Escarpment.[1]: 185§7¶1 Additional erosion intersected the upper part of Carlsbad Cavern and other caves, forming their entrances. Drying of cave air has reduced the growth rate of speleothems and encouraged the development of nodular travertine ("cave popcorn").
See also
- List of geographical regions in Texas
- El Capitan (Texas)
- McKittrick Canyon
- Chihuahuan Desert
- West Texas
References
- Earth System History, Steven M. Stanley, (W.H. Freeman and Company; 1999) ISBN 0-7167-2882-6
- Geology of National Parks: Fifth Edition, Ann G. Harris, Esther Tuttle, Sherwood D., Tuttle (Iowa, Kendall/Hunt Publishing; 1997) ISBN 0-7872-5353-7
External links
- Geology of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, US: National Park Service, archived from the original on 2005-04-06.
- Geology of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, US: National Park Service, archived from the original on 2005-03-07
- Localities of the Permian: Glass Mountains, Texas, Berkeley.
- Hill, Overview of the Geologic History of the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico (PDF), vol. 62, Caves.
- Permian Basin Province (PDF), USGS, archived from the original (PDF) on 2004-10-28.
- Delaware Basin, Wolf Energy, archived from the original on 2005-05-27.