Raton Formation

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The Raton Formation is a geological formation of Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene age which outcrops in northeast New Mexico and southeast Colorado.

The Raton Formation was originally named "Raton Hills Group" by Hayden in 1869 for coal beds in the Raton Hills in Colfax County, New Mexico. In 1913, Lee changed the name to Raton Formation. Lee described the formation in USGS Professional Paper 101 (pp 55-61) as a coal with carbonaceous shale with brown to buff sandstone and conglomerate (usually at the base). The Raton Formation is about 1140 feet thick at the type locality. The formation unconformably overlies the Vermejo Formation, and unconformably (?) underlies the Poison Canyon Formation.

In 1954, Brown (GSA v. 54, pp 65-86) determined that the Raton Formation was of Late Cretaceous and Paleocene age.

Pillmore, 1969 (Mountain Geologist v. 6, p 129) measured the formation thickness as 2000 feet, and divided the Raton Formation into three divisions. The lowest division is a basal sandstone and conglomerate of quartzite, chert and gneiss pebbles and cobbles in a coarse-grained quartzose to arkosi sandstone matrix. The middle division is fine to coarse grained sandstone, with some siltstone, mudstone, and coal. The upper division is coal-bearing and contains sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, shale, and mineable coal.^[1]