Lower Permian (Wolfcampian) sedimentation in the Orogrande Basin, New Mexico
— Clifton F. Jordan

Middle Mississippian time marked the beginning of the Orogrande Basin of south central New Mexico. Pennsylvanian sediments account for the bulk of the basinal deposits, and Lower Permian Wolfcampian sediments completed the basin filling. By the time the Middle Permian Yeso Formation was de-posited, the identity of the Orogrande Basin had passed. In all, late Paleozoic sediments are more than 6,000 feet thick in this part of New Mexico.

 

Wolfcampian stratigraphy clearly illustrates the final filling of a fairly large marginal cratonic basin in south central New Mexico. Eight measured sections of Wolfcampian rocks here (Fig. 1) form the basis for this report; detailed petrographic analyses were made of these rocks with nearly 2,000 thin-sections, each with a corresponding polished slab of rock. Much of the following discussion of pre-Wolfcampian geology is based on studies by Kottlowski (1958, 1960, 1963, and 1965) and Wilson (1967).