The partly isoclinal, partly overturned Adobe syncline extends for at least 75 mi northeastward across the northern Cortez Mountains, the northern Pinon Range, and along the entire length of the Adobe Range. The folded rocks range in age from Ordovician through Jurassic and may include some rocks of Cretaceous age. This syncline is flanked by anticlines in the central and southern parts of the Pinon Range and in the southern Independence Mountains. In places the Adobe syncline is discordantly overlain by nearly flat-lying thrust plates composed of Ordovician, Devonian, Mississippian, and Permian rocks. The geometric relations indicate that these thrust plates moved at least 6 mi, but postfold thrust movement was not great, because the Mississippian and Permian rocks of the thrust plates closely resemble correlative autochthonous rocks nearby. The Ordovician and Devonian rocks have been thrust to their present position in at least two stages; the earlier movement or movements took place long before folding of the Adobe syncline and the later movement immediately afterward. The folding and last stage of thrusting were in Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous time.
