Neogene gravel deposits in the lower Tornillo Creek area of Big Bend National Park, Texas, record the filling of a small structural basin formed during Basin and Range tectonism. Four lithofacies are recognized in the Late Miocene La Noria member (informal name): (1) a medial braided-stream lithofacies consisting of upward-fining packages

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of cross-bedded gravel, sandstone, and siltstone; (2) a distal braided-stream lithofacies consisting of poorly-defined upward-fining packages of fine gravel, sandstone, and mudstone; (3) a calcrete-rich gravel and sandstone lithofacies representing strike-valley and alluvial-fan deposition, and (4) and ephemeral lake-plain lithofacies consisting of massive and burrowed mudstones with sheet-like sandstone interbeds.

Upward-fining packages in the braided-stream lithofacies represent the lateral migration and avulsion of the stream tract across the basin; together with the strike-valley and alluvial-fan deposits, these record the initial stages of basin filling. Provenance studies show that much of this sediment was derived from northern Mexico. Overlying ephemeral-lake deposits record the structural tilting and closing of the downstream (north) end of the basin.

Gravels and minor sandstones of the Pleistocene Estufa member (informal name) represent basinward progradation of alluvial fans. Deposition of the Estufa member resulted from: (1) Quaternary tectonic activity in the Chisos Mountains area; (2) lowering of local base level by post-Miocene development of the Rio Grande drainage through the area; and (3) Pleistocene pluvial-period climatic changes. Subsequent Quaternary faulting has caused minor deformation of the deposits.

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