Coastal Evaporite and Tidal-Flat Sediments of the Upper Clear Fork and Glorieta Formations, Texas Panhandle

RI0115. Coastal Evaporite and Tidal-Flat Sediments of the Upper Clear Fork and Glorieta Formations, Texas Panhandle, by M. W. Presley and K. A. McGillis. 50 p., 38 figs., 5 tables, 1982. ISSN: 0082335X: Print.



To purchase this publication as a downloadable PDF, please order RI0115D.

ABSTRACT
Red beds, evaporites, and carbonates of the upper Clear Fork and Glorieta Formations (Permian) of the Texas Panhandle form an association of facies deposited in nearshore and supratidal environments along an arid coastline. Carbonates were deposited in inner-shelf depositional environments and exhibit upward-shoaling, sabkha-like successions of dolomitic mudstones containing nodular anhydrite. Landward of the shoaling carbonates was a vast salt plain, or sabkha, in which evaporites were deposited in supratidal brine pans and salt flats. Brine pan environments on the seaward parts of the salt plain were intermittently flooded by periodic tides or ground-water seepage. Deposits of gypsum and relatively pure halite formed in the shallow ponded waters. Salt-flat environments landward of brine pans were exposed for long periods of time. Evaporites in salt-flat environments were deposited in surficial salt crusts and interstitially in previously deposited carbonate, evaporite, or clastic host sediments. A common salt-flat facies is red siliciclastic mud in which displacive growth of halite crystals created chaotic mixtures of mud and salt.

The development of broad mud-rich tidal flats that extended across most of the study area periodically terminated evaporite sedimentation. The upper Clear Fork and Glorieta Formations are considered a single lithogenetic unit. Together these units define a broadly regressive cycle of deposition characterized by an increase in supply of clastic sediments through time. During the time of upper Clear Fork deposition, evaporite and carbonate depositional systems were predominant in the Texas Panhandle. In Glorieta time, clastic environments migrated basinward, and mudflat and salt-flat facies were deposited across much of the Texas Panhandle. In addition to the broad cycle of regression that characterizes the upper Clear Fork-Glorieta lithogenetic unit, there were multiple cycles of inner-shelf, brine pan, and salt-flat facies, which are a record of shorter term fluctuations in the pattern of sedimentation. These cyclic facies patterns were controlled by a delicate dynamic balance among competing processes of basin subsidence, eustatic sea-level variation, clastic sediment supply, and aggradation/progradation of intertidal and supratidal sediments.

Keywords: Clear Fork, Glorieta, Panhandle, Texas, red beds, evaporites, facies, salt-flat facies, sediments

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION
Regional setting

Stratigraphy

Previous studies

Data

INNER-SHELF DEPOSITIONAL SYSTEMS

BRINE PAN DEPOSITIONAL SYSTEMS

Laminated dolomite

Nodular mosaic anhydrite

Laminated anhydrite

"Grass mat" anhydrite

Massive salt deposits

Restriction and salinities in brine pan environments

A modern brine pan analog at Karabogaz-Gol
SALT-FLAT DEPOSITIONAL SYSTEMS

MUD-FLAT DEPOSITIONAL SYSTEMS

General relations

Seaward transition from mud flats to sand flats

Landward transition from mud flats to continental environments

GEOLOGIC HISTORY

General history

Evolution of evaporite-carbonate cyclic units

Evolution of mud-flat facies units
Controls of facies variations

CONCLUSIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

REFERENCES

Figures

1. Regional structural setting of Palo Duro and Dalhart Basins

2. Diagrammatic north-south cross section of upper Clear Fork and Glorieta Formations and underlying and overlying units in Texas Panhandle

3. Evaporite and carbonate depositional facies and environments inferred for upper Clear Fork and Glorieta rocks

4. Clastic depositional facies and environments inferred for red-bed units of Glorieta Formation

5. Paleogeography during deposition of upper Clear Fork and Glorieta Formations

6. North-south cross section A-A', Upper Permian salt-bearing formations, Palo Duro and Dalhart Basins

7. Isopach map of upper Clear Fork-Glorieta lithogenetic unit, Palo Duro and Dalhart Basins

8. North-south cross section C-C', upper Clear Fork and Glorieta Formations, Dalhart and Palo Duro Basins

9. East-west cross section D-D', upper Clear Fork and Glorieta Formations, Palo Duro Basin

10. East-west cross section E-E', Clear Fork and Glorieta Formations, Dalhart Basin

11. Thickness of upper Clear Fork Formation in Palo Duro Basin

12. Thickness of Glorieta Formation in Palo Duro Basin

13. Facies interpretations of well logs, upper Clear Fork Formation

14. Facies interpretations of well logs, Glorieta Formation

15. Dolomite and anhydrite facies from upper Clear Fork Formation

16. Carbonate and evaporite environments on southern coast of Bonaire

17. Anhydrite facies from upper Clear Fork Formation

18. Regional map of northern Gulf of California

19. Massive salt facies from upper Clear Fork Formation

20. Modern brine pan and adjacent salt-flat environments at Karabogaz-Gol

21. Chaotic mudstone-salt, upper Clear Fork Formation

22. Mudstone facies in Glorieta Formation

23. Coastal sabkha environments of Laguna Ojo de Liebre

24. Laminated mudstone-siltstone facies of the Glorieta

25. Net sandstone in Glorieta Sandstone and equivalent rocks in north Texas

26. Core descriptions and mud-flat and eolian sandstone facies of Cedar Hills (Glorieta) Sandstone

27. Facies model for Glorieta Sandstone in the northwestern Texas Panhandle where unit intertongues with mudstone and salt

28. Net salt in upper Clear Fork Formation, Palo Duro and Dalhart Basins

29. Net salt in Glorieta Formation, Palo Duro Basin

30. Thickness of salt-bearing rocks in upper Clear Fork Formation, Palo Duro and Dalhart Basins

31. North-south facies cross section F-F', cycle 2A, upper Clear Fork Formation

32. Facies maps, cycle 2A, upper Clear Fork Formation

33. Distribution of facies in upper Clear Fork cyclic units

34. Summary maps of northern limits of anhydrite-dolomite beds and southern limits of salt beds n upper Clear Fork cyclic units

35. Facies distribution maps for Glorieta evaporite-carbonate units

36. Facies distribution maps for Glorieta elastic units

37. Diagrammatic representation of relation between Glorieta mud-flat depositional systems and evaporite-carbonate depositional systems

38. Percent mudstone in upper Clear Fork units 1 and 2

Tables

1. Stratigraphic chart of Permian rocks in the Palo Duro and Dalhart Basins

2. Operators and well names for logs used in this report

3. Depositional systems in upper Clear Fork and Glorieta Formations in the Texas Panhandle

4. Carbonate-evaporite facies of upper Clear Fork-Glorieta rocks

5. Sequence of sedimentary features in upper Clear Fork Formation, Flanagan Field, Texas



Citation
Presley, M. W., and McGillis, K. A., 1982, Coastal Evaporite and Tidal-Flat Sediments of the Upper Clear Fork and Glorieta Formations, Texas Panhandle: The University of Texas at Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology, Report of Investigations No. 115, 50 p.