New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

During early Permian time, the region that now encompasses the Colorado Plateau was periodically covered by large eolian dune fields. Lower Permian formations in New Mexico, some of which may be eolian in origin, generally have not been included in regional paleogeographic reconstructions. Among these formations is the Glorieta Sandstone. The Glorieta Sandstone is a light gray, cliff forming, fine-to medium-grained, well-sorted quartzarenite or subarkose with calcite cement. There are seven distinct lithofacies within the Glorieta: (1) large-scale crossbeds, (2) small-scale crossbeds, (3) wind ripples, (4) massive sandstone, (5) thin gray shale, (6) dolomite, and (7) limestone. The Glorieta was deposited as eolian dunes and sand sheets. Paleocurrent measurements (n=157) indicate the dunes were transported by northeasterly winds.

Future work will answer the following question: What source area(s) provided detrital sediment to the Glorieta Sandstone and how does it compare to the provenance of coeval deposits on the Colorado Plateau? This question will be addressed by U-Pb ages of detrital zircons. The results will test whether sand of the Glorieta had a similar provenance as that of the Coconino Sandstone.