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Vieja Group, including Bracks Rhyolite, Chambers and Colmena Tuffs and Gill Breccia

Vieja Group, including Bracks Rhyolite, Chambers and Colmena Tuffs and Gill Breccia
StateTexas
NameVieja Group, including Bracks Rhyolite, Chambers and Colmena Tuffs and Gill Breccia
Geologic agePhanerozoic | Cenozoic | Tertiary | Eocene Oligocene
Original map labelOEv
CommentsBrachs Rhyolite--sl. porphyritic with rhombic anothoclase phenocrysts up to 3 mm in diameter; matrix alkalic feldspar, quartz, and mafic minerals; dk reddish-brown to grayish olive; thickness as much as 360 ft. K-Ar ages 36.5+-1.2 m.y., 36.8 m.y. Chambers Tuff--fine grained, crystal-vitric tuff, mod. to well bedded, pale red, grayish-pink, grayish green, pale purple, and grayish orange pink; a persistent layer of coarse sandst. in southern area (of Marfa Sheet, 1979) with some conglo 130 ft above base; thickness 105-750 ft. contains Oligocene vertebrate fossils. Colmena Tuff-- fine-grained, thin bedded tuffaceous sandst. and limestone-and-sandstone conglomerate; some nonmarine limest., silty claystone, and glassy flow-rock, pale red to white; mostly tuffaceous sandst. and limest. on south , mostly conglo. on north; includes Jeff Conglomerate which is not separately mapped; thickness as much as 450 ft. contains Eocene vertebrate fossils. Gill Breccia (Eocene) consists of flow breccias of three types: a) med-gray fragments in grayish-red matrix, b) variegated mottled fragments in dk-greenish-gray to orange-pink matrix, c) brecciated to massive lt-olive-green to greenish-gray fine-grained rock. Thickness about 360 ft. K-Ar age on volcanic rock from Gill Breccia 40.0+-2.0 Ma.
Primary rock typerhyolite
Secondary rock typesandstone
Other rock typesash-flow tuff; breccia; conglomerate
Lithologic constituents
Major
Igneous > Volcanic > Felsic-volcanic > Rhyolite (Pyroclastic, tuff)
Minor
Igneous > Volcanic > Felsic-volcanic (Pyroclastic, tuff)
Sedimentary > Clastic > Conglomerate (Bed)
Sedimentary > Clastic > Sandstone (Bed)
Map references
Bureau of Economic Geology, 1992, Geologic Map of Texas: University of Texas at Austin, Virgil E. Barnes, project supervisor, Hartmann, B.M. and Scranton, D.F., cartography, scale 1:500,000
Unit references
Bureau of Economic Geology, 1979, Marfa Sheet, Geologic Atlas of Texas: Bureau of Economic Geology and The University of Texas at Austin, scale 1:250,000.
Geographic coverageCulberson - Jeff Davis - Presidio

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