Reevaluation of the Hovey channel in the Delaware basin, West Texas

New evidence calls for a reevaluation of the Hovey channel, Glass Mountains , west Texas, as being the inlet for water into the Delaware basin during t he Guadalupian (Permian). The new evidence includes the following informati on. (1) The upper Cathedral Mountain, Road Canyon, and Word formations of Permi an (upper Leonardian, during Road Canyon deposition, and lower Guadalupian) age in the Glass Mountains are now considered to be shallow-marine, fan-de lta to lagoonal deposits rather than deep-water, basinal deposits. (2) The Permian (Ochoan) Tessey Limestone in the Glass Mountains, at least in part, is a bioepigenetic limestone that formed as a replacement of anhyd rite in the middle Tertiary The Tessey is not a deep-water, marine, limesto ne facies that demarked the position of die Hovey channel. (3) The location of the Capitan reef in the Salt basin is unknown. One poss ible interpretation of the "missing" Capitan is that it was never deposited in the area of the Salt basin because an open channel existed there instea d. (4) Isostatic gravity anomaly maps of southeastern New Mexico and west Texa s show a "channel" entering the Delaware basin on its southwest, Salt basin , side. This may have been the inlet to the Delaware basin in the Late Perm ian; I suggest that it be called the Diablo channel.