Map showing outcrops of ash-flow tuffs, Basin and Range Province and vicinity, Trans-Pecos Texas

Water-Resources Investigations Report 83-4121-E
Prepared in cooperation with the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology
Compiled by: Christopher D. Henry and Gail L. Fisher

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Abstract

This map report is one of a series of geologic and hydrologic maps covering all or parts of the States within the Basin and Range province of the western United States, resulting from work under the U.S. Geological Survey's program for geologic and hydrologic evaluation of the Basin and Range province to identify potentially suitable regions for future study relative to isolation of high-level nuclear waste (Bedinger, Sargent, and Reed, 1984) .

The map report on the ash-flow tuffs of Trans-Pecos Texas was prepared from published maps and reports and from recent work in progress by geologists of the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, and was compiled utilizing the project guidelines of Sargent and Bedinger (1984). The map shows the outcrops and localities of measured thicknesses of the ash-flow tuffs that resulted from silicic volcanism 38 to 28 million years ago (Henry and McDowell, 1982). Locally, however, some thin, inadequately studied tuffs of limited distribution have been excluded from the map. Such tuffs are reported in the "lower rhyolite" in the Eagle Mountains (Underwood, 1963), in the southern Davis Mountains (Parker, 1977), within parts of the Shely Group and Morita Ranch Formation in the Chinati Mountains (Cepeda and Henry, 1983) , and in the Rawls Formation in the Bofecillos Mountains (McKnight, 1969). The distribution of most ash-flow tuffs in the northern Davis and Wylie Mountains is not well known. The Chambers Tuff, largely tuffaceous sedimentary rocks, is reported to contain several ash-flow tuffs (Walton, 1972), but their distribution is poorly documented. Metamorphosed ash-flow tuffs of Precambrian age in the Thunderbird Group in the Franklin Mountains (Thomann, 1981) and in the Carrizo Mountain Group near Van Horn (Rudnick , 1983) were not included on the map. In some areas studied in reconnaissance, the definitive lithology of some volcanic units described as lava flows or tuffs has not been determined.

In the Description of Map Units, the general location, caldera source and volume of tuff, isotopic age, if available, lithologic data, and the reference sources for each geologic unit are described. The nomenclature of the geologic units is from published reports and does not necessarily conform to U.S. Geological Survey usage.

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Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Map showing outcrops of ash-flow tuffs, Basin and Range Province and vicinity, Trans-Pecos Texas
Series title Water-Resources Investigations Report
Series number 83-4121
Chapter E
DOI 10.3133/wri834121E
Year Published 1983
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Description Report: 8 p.; 3 Plates: 52.69 x 26.24 inches or smaller
Country United States
State Texas
Datum National Geodetic Datum of 1929
Scale 25000
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