The formation consists mostly of thinly bedded dark gray limestone and shale or claystone containing limestone nodules and lenses. Some massive cherty limestone beds are locally present.[1] It rests unconformably on the Lake Valley Limestone or Percha Shale,[3] with a thin sandstone bed at its base. Thickness is about 500 feet (150 m).[1] It is overlain by the Nakaye Formation.[2]
Fossils
Many of the beds are abundantly fossiliferous.[1] The formation dates from the late Morrowan (Bashkirian) to the early Atokan (Moscovian).[2]
History of investigation
The formation was first described by V.C. Kelley and Caswell Silver in 1952 and assigned to the now-obsolete Magdalena Group.[1] G.O. Bachman and D.A. Myers criticized its definition in 1975,[2] but it is accepted by Barry Kues and Katherine Giles.[3] In 2016, Lucas and coinvestigators recommended that the local names Green Canyon Group, Arrey Formation, Apodaca Formation, Mud Springs Group, Fra Cristobal Formation, and Chuchillo Negro Formation be abandoned in favor of the Red House Formation.[4]
^ abcdeKelley, V.C.; Silver, Caswell (1952). "Geology of the Caballo Mountains; with special reference to regional stratigraphy and structure and to mineral resources, including oil and gas". University of New Mexico Publications in Geology. 4.
^ abKues, B.S.; Giles, K.A. (2004). "The late Paleozoic Ancestral Rocky Mountain system in New Mexico". In Mack, G.H.; Giles, K.A. (eds.). The geology of New Mexico. A geologic history (Special Volume 11). New Mexico Geological Society. pp. 95–136.
