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  • Usage in publication:
    • Deer Creek formation
  • Modifications:
    • Original reference
  • Dominant lithology:
    • Sandstone
    • Siltstone
    • Limestone
    • Conglomerate
    • Shale
  • AAPG geologic province:
    • Las Vegas-Raton basin
Publication:

Bolyard, D.W., 1956, Permo-Pennsylvanian section at La Veta Pass, Colorado: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists Field Conference Guidebook, p. 52-55.


Summary:

Pg. 52-53; AAPG Bull., v. 43, no. 8, 1959, p. 1903 (fig. 5), 1904-1910. Deer Creek formation. Proposed for beds previously called Clastic member of Sandia formation by Brill (1952) from Huerfano River south to New Mexico border. Consists of grayish, reddish, and greenish sandstones, siltstone, conglomerates, and shales, interbedded in upper part with gray sandy to argillaceous limestones; crossbedding and cut-and-fill stratification common in sandstones and conglomerates. Thickness at type section 1,119 feet. Unconformably overlies Precambrian at Huerfano River and La Veta Pass; gradationally underlies Madera formation with contact placed at top of highest redbeds. Name Clastic member of Sandia refers to a basal transgressive suite of gray sandstone, shale, and conglomerate, with a few coal beds, underlying Madera formation in central New Mexico (Read and Andrews, 1944). Abandonment of this term in south-central Colorado proposed because in this area red beds included in member bear impress of a different depositional sequence; furthermore, red coloration provides lithologic basis for separating these beds from Madera, whereas, if Brill's nomenclature were followed, separation would be based on paleontology. Assigned to upper Atokan on basis of fusulinids.
Type section: along Huerfano River, beginning at unconformable contact with Precambrian in E/2 sec. 23, crossing Deer Creek and extending into SW/4 sec. 24, T. 27 S., R. 72 W., Sangre de Cristo Mountains, between La Veta Pass and Westcliffe, [Mosca Pass 7.5-min quadrangle], northeastern Huerfano Co., central southern CO.
[Additional locality information from USGS historical topographic map collection TopoView, accessed Mother's Day 2018.]

Source: US geologic names lexicon (USGS Bull. 1200, p. 1069).


For more information, please contact Nancy Stamm, Geologic Names Committee Secretary.

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