The middle and upper Holder formation (Upper Pennsylvanian), Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico, comprises terrigenous and carbonate facies that accumulated on a narrow open to restricted marine shelf. Differential subsidence of the shelf combined with eustatic sea level changes caused cyclic deposition.

Deposition began with a varying supply of terrigenous sediments frcm shifting delta lobes. Several carbonate facies, lateral equivalents of the terrigenous strata, are distinguished on the basis of their allochemical constituents. Bioclastic wackestones to grainstones with cortoids and oncoids characterize open marine intervals. Fusulinids , algal , and peloidal grainstones were common marginal-marine facies. Laminoid fenestral mudstones and wackestones with oncoids were common in restricted marine intervals. Restricted marine sediments were deposited after clastic influxes and during marine transgressions.