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pg 056: Geology of the Marathon region, Texas Publication 6445288.

 
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has been called †"Rough Creek shale member" by Baker and Bowman, but that name is preoccupied in the Pennsylvanian of central Texas.

LOCAL FEATURES

Tesnus and Haymond area

-Along the east side of the Marathon Basin, east of the novaculite ridges that bound the Dagger Flat anticlinorium on the southeast, the Tesnus and other strata of Carboniferous age are folded into broad open anticlines and synclines (sets. B-B', C-C', and D-D'-D", pl. 21). In this region the formation is about 6,500 feet thick. Only the upper part is exposed near Tesnus station, the type locality.

The basal shale member, the lower fourth of the formation, is clearly separable from the upper three- fourths, in which sandstone predominates. The basal member crops out in rolling hills along the flanks of the novaculite ridges and appears on aerial photographs as a dark-colored, featureless surface (pl. 18). It is mostly a soft greenish shale, with interbedded layers and lenses of pale-green argillaceous sandstone. There are also some thin beds of hard platy dark-blue or black shale. The shales are less competent than the sandstones above and the novaculite below and are irregularly folded and crumpled. In places they are sheared and macerated by faulting. The interbedded sandstones are most prominent near the top of the member, and it grades into the main body of the Tesnus formation above. In view of the lenticular character of the sandstone beds, it is doubtful whether the boundary as drawn is at the same level at all places.

The upper part of the formation is predominantly sandstone in massive ledges that stand in low parallel ridges, separated by shallow valleys carved from the interbedded shales. In aerial photographs the outcrops of the sandstones and shales stand out in a striking manner as alternating narrow light and dark bands, which clearly reveal the structure of the formation (pl. 18). The sandstone beds are mostly buff or green and are friable and somewhat arkosic. Some of the members are thick-bedded, and there are a few massive layers as much as 50 feet thick (pl. 9, A). Other sandstone beds, mostly fine-grained, are thinly laminated and flaggy, with numerous shale partings. Some of the layers near the middle of the upper member southwest of Haymond station are coarsely ripple-marked. Near Tesnus station sandstones in the upper part contain the pinnules of ferns. At several places there are layers of thin-bedded black, dull-lustered chert. The upper 300 or 400 feet of the Tesnus is predomi nantly black indurated splintery shale, with subordinate sandstone layers. The contact with the overlying Dimple formation is drawn at the lowest limestone layer interbedded in the shale.

The following section of the Tesnus formation, 6,520 feet in thickness, was measured between Peña Blanca Spring and the Haymond Mountains (sec. 6, pl. 8). The structure of the region is simple and is made plainly evident by excellent exposures, so that there is little chance for duplication by folding and faulting. The writer was aided in the instrument work on this section by A. G. Nance and John Bean.

Section of Tesnus formation between Peña Blanca Spring and the Haymond Mountains Dimple limestone. Tesnus formation: Upper sandstone member: Feet 41. Mostly shale, with many thin sandstone beds, some of which are arkosic .- 460 40. Compact green quartzitic sandstone in 1-foot beds, interbedded with platy sandstone and with shale, which is not exposed- 490 39. Mostly black indurated shale, weathering to splinters and small cubes, with some interbedded sandstone near the base and top_ 345 38. Massive buff friable medium-grained sandstone in 3-foot beds, with a few shale partings near the top. Some of the sandstone is ripple-marked 355 37. Shale, with much interbedded sandstone--- 485 36. Sandstone 50 35. Soft shale, with much interbedded sandstone 290 34. Buff friable sandstone 40 33. Shale, with thin interbedded layers of compact green quartzite. There are some beds of black coaly chert 135 32. Massive buff coarse-grained friable sandstone in thick ledges, with no shale part- ings 185 31. Shale 70 30. Compact pale-green or buff platy sandstone in thin ledges, with some arkosic layers and a few shale partings 65 29. Green shale and indurated dark-blue shale, with some thin layers of green compact quartzitic sandstone 590 28. Massive buff friable medium-grained sandstone without bedding planes 40 27. Shale 60 26. Compact sandstone and coarse-grained arkosic pale-brown sandstone, with a few shale partings 50 25. Green shale and thin beds of black indurated shale, with some sandstone ledges 160 24. Friable pale-brown sandstone in 3-foot ledges, with many shale partings 50 23. Soft green shale with thin beds )f argillaceous sandstone 225 22. Massive friable buff sandstone 62 21. Soft green shale 25 20. Compact green sandstone and some friable buff sandstone in 3-foot ledges 250 Total 4,482

 

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