Camp Rice Formation

The formation consists of poorly cemented sandstone, conglomerate, siltstone, volcanic ash, and caliche. The color varies from pink to gray to light brown. The thickness at the type section is 88.3 ft (26.9 m), where the formation rests unconformably on the Fort Hancock Formation. The formation is capped by caliche that forms steep slopes. Where the caliche is eroded away, the underlying strata form badlands. The formation is found throughout the Hueco Basin[1] and Mesilla Basin.[2] Outcrops at the Tonuco Uplift northwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico, are unusually well cemented.[3] In the southern Rio Grande rift, the formation contains numerous calcic paleosols (preserved soil layers formed in an arid climate).[4]

The formation is interpreted as fluvial deposits following integration of the ancestral Rio Grande through the region.[2] A piedmont facies is found in addition to the axial river facies in southern New Mexico.[3]

Stable isotope data from the formation is consistent with a gradual warming trend in the latest Pliocene and early Pleistocene, with a generally drier climate but increased summer precipitation.[5]

The lower part of the formation contains vertebrate fossils, such as camelids, odd-toed ungulates, Geochelone, and glyptodonts, characteristic of the Aftonian Age. The middle part of the formation contains a bed of the Perlette Ash of late Kansan age.[1] The upper part of the formation east of Las Cruces contains fossil Equus, Mammuthus, and Cuvieronious.[2]

The exposures near Tonuco Mountain (San Diego Mountain) have yielded fossils of the distinctive Tonuco Mountain Local Fauna, of early Blancan age. These include turtles, tortoises, birds, and mammals, including tapirs.[6]

The formation was first named by W.S. Strain in 1966 for exposures near Camp Rice Arroyo in the Rio Grande valley of west Texas.[1] J.W. Hawley and coinvestigators recommended assigning the formation to the Santa Fe Group in 1969.[2]

Because the exposures of the formation in the Jornada del Muerto basin are relatively undisturbed by human activities, they have been used to test models of floodplain development in a tectonically active basin.[7]

• List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Texas
• Paleontology in Texas

• Various Contributors to the Paleobiology Database. "Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database". Retrieved 17 December 2021.
• Hawley, J.W.; Kottlowski, Frank E.; Seager, William R.; King, William E.; Strain, William S.; LeMone, David V. (1969). "The Santa Fe Group in southcentral New Mexico border region" (PDF). New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Circular. 104: 52–76. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
• Jochems, Andrew P.; Morgan, Gary S. (2018). "A stable isotope record from paleosols and groundwater carbonate of the Plio-Pleistocene Camp Rice Formation, Hatch-Rincon Basin, southern New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico Geological Society Field Conference Series. 69: 109–117. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
• Mack, Greg H.; James, W.C. (April 1992). "Calcic paleosols of the Plio-Pleistocene Camp Rice and Palomas Formations, southern Rio Grande rift, USA". Sedimentary Geology. 77 (1–2): 89–109. Bibcode:1992SedG...77...89M. doi:10.1016/0037-0738(92)90105-Z.
• Mack, Greg H.; Madoff, Risa D. (2005-02-03). "A test of models of fluvial architecture and palaeosol development: Camp Rice Formation (Upper Pliocene-Lower Pleistocene), southern Rio Grande rift, New Mexico, USA: Plio-Pleistocene fluvial sedimentation, Rio Grande rift". Sedimentology. 52 (1): 191–211. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3091.2004.00687.x. S2CID 126626348.
• Morgan, Gary S.; Hulbert, Richard C., Jr.; Gottlieb, Eric S.; Amato, Jeffrey M.; Mack, Greg H.; Jonell, Tara N. (2017). "The tapir Tapirus (Mammalia: Perissodactyla) from the late Pliocene (early Blancan) Tonuco Mountain Local Fauna, Camp Rice Formation, Doña Ana County, southern New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico Geology. 39 (2): 28–39. Retrieved 18 March 2021.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Seager, W.R.; Hawley, J.W.; Clemons, R.E. (1971). "Geology of San Diego Mountain area, Doña Ana County, New Mexico" (PDF). New Mexico State Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Bulletin. 97. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
• Strain, W.S. (1966). "Blancan mammalian fauna and Pleistocene formations, Hudspeth County, Texas". Bulletin of the Texas Memorial Museum. The University of Texas at Austin. 10. Retrieved 3 March 2021.