Geological Society of America Centennial Field Guide—South-Central Section, 1988

The Catahoula Formation; A volcaniclastic unit in east Texas

Ernest B. Ledger, Department of Geology, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas 75962

LOCATION

This site is near the dam at Sam Rayburn Reservoir, about

25 mi (40 km) southeast of Lufkin in northern Jasper County,
east Texas (Fig. 1). Jasper Count y is in the Coastal Plain near the
Louisiana border.

SIGNIFICANCE

The Oligocene/Miocene Catahoula Formation of the upper

Texas coastal plain is a fluvial and lacustrine volcaniclastic unit
composed of “normal” quartz-rich fluvial material mixed with
distal rhyolitic air-fall ash from coeval volcanic source areas in
Trans-Pecos Texas and northern Mexico. It consists of poorly
sorted siltstones, sandstones, and mudstones. The silt-size fraction
includes abundant, slightly altered, volcanic glass shards. Sand-
size grains are mostly quartz, some of which are very coarse—the
“rice sands”. The clay-size fraction is montmorillonite, an altera-
tion product of the glass.
The narrow outcrop belt of the Catahoula Formation,
which is somewhat less than 300 ft (100 m) thick in Jasper
County, extends from central Mississippi, through Louisiana and
Texas parallel to the present coastline, and into eastern Mexico
where it is not well studied.
Catahoula deposition is characterized by sporadic influxes of
air-fall ash into low-gradient fluvial and coastal lake environ-
ments. Stratigraphic studies of the Catahoula Formation began as
early as 1857, and the formation has since been studied by nu-
merous stratigraphers and sedimentologists, including Hilgard,
Penrose, Dumble, Veatch, and Deussen. Dumble (1918) gives a
summary of this early work. Bailey (1926) named the lateral
equivalent in the lower Texas coastal plain of south Texas the
Gueydan, and along with Renick (1936) established the Cata-
houla as a mid-Tertiary fluvial unit with abundant volcaniclastic
material. A more recent summary of stratigraphic nomenclature
is given in Sheldt (1976). Other recent studies of the Catahoula
are concerned with petrology, geochemistry, and uranium ore
genesis.
Weeks and Eargle (1963) recognized that uranium in the
south Texas uranium district was derived from local volcanic
material that had been altered by pedogenesis. Differences in the
details of sedimentation and weathering did not favor economic
accumulations of uranium in east Texas (Ledger and others,
1984). In an extensive petrologic and field study of the Catahoula
Formation in south Texas, McBride and others (1968) described
the sedimentology and nature of diagenesis of sandstones and
finer-grained beds. Also, they discuss in detail the evidence for the
volcanic source area of the Catahoula Formation. McDowell
(1978) determined K/Ar ages for many volcanic units of the
Trans-Pecos area and found that the volcanic activity peaked in
Figure 1. Map of part of eastern Texas showing location of Catahoula
Formation outcrop at Sam Rayburn reservoir.
the Oligocene. Sheldt ( 1976) studied the petrology of outcropping
Catahoula sandstones just west of the localities presented here. He
estimated the time of deposition of the basal sandstones as Middle
Oligocene based on eustatic sea level changes (Vail, 1975). Sheldt
(1975) found the sandstones to be subarkoses with igneous rock
fragments from both the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma and
the volcanic terrane of Trans-Pecos Texas. He found no volcanic
glass shards in the sandstones because the high energy of the
fluvial channel environment destroyed these fragile grains before
deposition. Glass shards are more abundant (up to 90% of the
sediment) in the siltstones, which are lake and floodplain deposits.
The concept of depositional systems has been applied to the
Catahoula Formation by Galloway (1977). On the basis of well
logs, he recognizes two depositional systems in Texas, the Chita-
Corrigan fluvial system in east Texas, and the Gueydan fluvial
system of the Rio Grande Embayment. They are separated by the
San Marcos Arch, which may have been breached during part of
Catahoula deposition.
The volcanic material in the Catahoula Formation was cer-
tainly derived from a western source, most probably from Trans-
Pecos Texas and northern Mexico, this being the closest source of
appropriate age and chemical affinity. Caldera-type eruptive cen-
ters were most active during the Oligocene, and such explosive
eruptions produced three units (Sparks and Walker, 1977). Two
of the units are deposited locally in the source area, an ignimbrite

383
384 E. B. Ledger

Figure 2. Catahoula Formation outcrop near the dam at Sam Rayburn

Reservoir, northern Jasper County, southeastern Texas.

and a pumice-fall. The third unit, the co-ignimbrite ash-fall, is

deposited over a wide area and may be measurably thick more
than 620 mi (1,000 km) from the eruption. During an eruption,
ascending magma consists of early-formed crystals suspended in a
volatile-rich magma. The crystals are preferentially incorporated
in the ignimbrite, while the magma freezes to volcanic glass and is
incorporated in all three units. The co-ignimbrite ash-fall is glass-
rich, and the constituent shards exhibit a “bubbly” morphology
because of exsolution of volatiles during the eruption, which
propels them high into the atmosphere. During Catahoula deposi-
tion, upper level winds carried ash clouds to the east. After depo-
sition as a mantle over the paleosurface, the easily eroded ash
washed into the fluvial systems. This resulted in about a five-fold
increase in volume in the fluvial systems based on the areal ratio
of floodplain area to total area in present day east Texas. Delivery
of ash was sporadic, but geologically almost continual. Silty
floodplain deposits were highly tuffaceous, so mudflows were
common because of the buildup of ash by erosion of surrounding
areas.
The only fossils found in the Catahoula are abundant plant
fragments including petrified pine, oak, and palm logs, smaller
reedy plants and palmetto, and diatoms in the lake deposits.
Catahoula fossils need more study.
CATAHOULA FORMATION AT
SAM RAYBURN RESERVOIR
The middle of the Catahoula section is exposed in the vicin-
it y of the dam and spillway (Fig. 2, locality 1). The base is poorly
exposed about 1.2 mi (2 km) to the northwest (Fig. 2, locality 2).
Downstream to the south the upper part of the formation is
homogeneously clayey and very poorly exposed. At the measured
section (Fig. 3) it consists of overbank sandstones and tuffaceous
siltstones and mudstones. The siltstones are particularly glass
Figure 3. Measured section from the middle part of the Catahoula For-
mation, along the spillway south of the dam, Sam Rayburn Reservoir.
shard–rich and commonly contain diatoms, but most units are
more than 50% silt-size volcanic glass shards exhibiting mostly
bubble-wall and micropumice morphologies. A few shards are
sand-size, but are difficult to see with the hand lens (Fig. 4).
Details of glass share morphology are shown in Ledger (1981)
and Ledger and others (1984).
The following is a brief description of the units in the mea-
sured section at the spillway just south the dam:
Unit 13. Mudstone; light gray, no color change with weath-
ering, some sand and silt, lower contact conformable, 7.8 ft (2.4
m) thick.
Unit 12. Sandstone; quartzose, white, no color change with
weathering, subangular to subrounded, some silica cementation,
upper contact not exposed, 2 ft (0.6 m) thick.
Unit 11. Sandstone; light brown, poorly sorted, weathers
lighter color, some silica cementation, lower contact conformable,
3.9 ft (1.2 m) thick.
Unit 10. Sandstone; light gray, no color change with weath-
 The Catahoula Formation, east Texas 385

ering, subangular very fine sand, some plant fragments and iron-
oxide cement (burrows?), lower contact conformable, 0.7 ft (0.2
m) thick.
Unit 9. Sandstone; light brown, poorly sorted, weathers tan,
thinly bedded, subangular to subrounded, minor silica cementa-
tion, 1.6 ft (0.5 m) thick.
Unit 8. Sandstone; light gray, no color change with weather-
ing, thinly bedded, very fine sand, some silica cementation, 1 ft
(0.3 m) thick.
Unit 7. Mudstone; silty, light gray, weathers very light gray,
thickly bedded, contact conformable, 4.9 ft (1.5 m) thick.
Unit 6. Sandstone, light gray, poorly sorted, no color change
with weathering, very fine sand, minor feldspar and black chert,
iron-oxide-cemented burrows, 2.6 ft (0.8 m) thick.
Unit 5. Siltstone; light gray, no color change with weather-
ing, poorly sorted with very fine quartz sand, local iron-oxide
cement, 0.7 ft (0.2 m) thick.
Unit 4. Mudstone; gray, weathers light gray, thinly to
thickly bedded, thickness varies laterally, poorly sorted with some
silt and sand, 1 to 3 ft (0.3 to 0.9 m) thick.
Unit 3. Siltstone; light gray, no color change with weather-
ing, thinly bedded, poorly sorted, some quartz sand, local iron Figure 4. Scanning electron photomicrograph of Catahoula siltstone
oxide, 2 ft (0.6 m) thick. from Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Clay has been removed to show abundant
Unit 2. Mudstone; gray, weathers light gray, thinly bedded, glass shards. Field of view is 10 millimeters wide. Larger shards are
about 100 micrometers.
some silt and sand, local iron oxide, 0.7 ft (0.2 m) thick.
Unit 1. Siltstone; dark gray, no color change with weather-
ing, thickly bedded, local pyrite/marcasite nodules, lower contact
not exposed, 5.9 ft (1.8 m) thick.
The lower part of the Catahoula Formation is poorly ex- were wind-transported from explosive eruptions in the volcanic
posed along the beach to the north, and the contact with the source area and reworked only a very short distance in the small
underlying Whitsett Formation of the Eocene Jackson Group is channel. The path of the channel appears to have been influenced
near the point of land about 1.2 mi (2 km) north-northwest of by contemporaneous slumping of the not yet lithified Catahoula
the dam. About half way along this beach to the north is a small sediments, probably on the edge of a large flood plain that was
fluvial channel filled with almost pure volcanic ash. The delicate choked with air-fall ash washed into the flood plain by smaller
nature of the coarse silt to sand-size shards indicates that they tributary channels.

REFERENCES CITED

Bailey, T. L., 1926, The Gueydan, a new middle Tertiary formation of the
southwestern coastal plain of Texas: University of Texas Bulletin 2645,
p. 1-187.
Dumble, E. T., 1918, The geology of east Texas: University of Texas Bulletin
1869, p. 1-388.
Galloway, W. E., 1977, Catahoula Formation of the Texas coastal plain: Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology Report of Investiga-
tions, no. 100,81 p.
Ledger, E. B., 1981, Evaluation of the Catahoula Formation as a source rock for
uranium mineralization, with emphasis on east Texas [Ph.D. thesis]: College
Station, Texas A & M University, 263 p.
Ledger, E. B., Tieh, T. T., and Rowe, M. W., 1984, An evaluation of the
Catahoula Formation as a uranium source rock in east Texas: Gulf Coast
Association of Geological Societies Transactions, v. 34, p. 99-108.
McBride, E. F., Linemann, W. L., and Freeman, P. S., 1968, Lithology and
petrology of the Gueydan (Catahoula) Formation in south Texas: University
of Texas at Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology Report of Investigations,
V. 632, 122 p.
McDowell, F. W., 1978, Potassium-argon dating in the Trans-Pecos Texas
volcanic field, in Walton, A. W., cd., Cenozoic geology of the Trans-Pecos
volcanic field of Texas: Lawrence, University of Kansas, p. 9–18.
Renick, W. C., 1936, The Jackson Group and the Catahoula and Oakville
Formation in a part of the Texas Gulf coastal plain: University of Texas
Bulletin 3619, p. 1-104.
Sheldt, J. C., 1977, Petrology of the Catahoula sandstones of east Texas Gulf
Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions, v. 27, p. 365-375.
Sparks, R.S.J., and Walker, C.P.L., 1977, The significance of vitric enriched
air-fall ashes associated with crystal-enriched ignimbrites: Journal of
Volcanology and Geothermal Research, v. 2, p. 329-341.
Weeks, A. D., and Eargle, D. H., 1963, Relation of diagenetic alteration and
soil-forming processes to the uranium deposits of the southeast Texas coastal
plain, in Clays and clay minerals; National Conference of Clays and Clay
Minerals Proceedings New York, MacMillan Co., v. 10, p. 23-41.
Vail, P. R., 1975, Eustatic cycles from seismic data for global stratigraphic
analysis [abs.]: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 59,
p. 2198-2199.