A stratigraphic and faunal study of the Wolfcampian Series (lower Permian) of the Glass Mountains, west Texas, the standard section for North America, establishes a fusulinid zonation for this important series. The Wolfcampian Series, deposited in near-shore environments on the northern flanks of the Marathon orogenic belt, is a complex set of facies having many unconformities. The series is divided into two formations separated by a major unconformity (Ross, 1959a): the lower one (the upper part of the Wolfcamp Formation of Udden, 1917), the Neal Ranch Formation, and the upper one (the Wolfcamp Formation of King, 1931, in the western Glass Mountains), the Lenox Hills Formation. These formations contain distinctly different species of fusulinids but both formations are within the zone of Pseudoschwagerina. The base of the series is raised to exclude strata of late Pennsylvanian age ( i.e., the Uddenites- bearing shale member and bed 2 of the gray limestone member, King, 1931), and the top is raised in the eastern Glass Mountains to include strata previously placed in the lower part of the Leonardian Series. Fusulinid assemblages from the upper Pennsylvanian Gaptank Formation, the Wolfcampian Series (lower Permian), and the lower part of the Leonardian Series (lower middle Permian) include 50 species collected in 43 measured stratigraphic sections and from more than 260 localities. The distribution of the different species is closely associated with rock types. The fusulinid assemblages indicate that bed 2 of the gray limestone member (Gaptank Formation) is probably correlative with the upper part of the Virgilian Series of Kansas, although its upper part may be slightly younger and possibly equivalent to the lower parts of the Pueblo Group of Texas and the Admire Group of Kansas and to portions of the upper part of the Orenburgian Series of Russia. The Neal Ranch Formation is apparently correlative with the lower part of the Asselian Series of Russia, the Council Grove Group of Kansas, part of the Earp Formation of Arizona, and part of the Bird Spring Group of California and Nevada. The Lenox Hills Formation probably correlates with the upper part of the Asselian Series of Russia, most of the Hueco Limestone of west Texas, the Moran, Putnam, and Admiral Formations of north-central Texas, the Chase Group of Kansas, and most of the McCloud Formation of California. The lower part of the Leonardian Series contains fusulinids which are indicative of a correlation with the Tastuba and Sterlitimak stages (Sakmarian Series of Ruzhencev, 1956) of Russia, the Bone Spring Limestone of west Texas, and the Arcturus Formation of eastern Nevada.

Carboniferous and Permian strata of the eastern Klamath terrane, California, include sedimentary and volcanic facies deposited in an island-arc setting. Carboniferous arc volcanism is first recorded in Upper Visean to Namurian portions of the Baird Formation, in which volcaniclastic sediments of marine deltaic origin grade southward to fine-grained, more offshore shelf deposits. During the Westphalian and Stephanian, a volcanic center developed at the southern end of the terrane, and volcaniclastic dispersal aprons of delta-front origin were deposited to the north. Pauses in deltaic progradation are represented by carbonate bank deposits. The Wolfcampian to Lower Leonardian McCloud Limestone represents a period of volcanic quiescence. The McCloud formed as a series of diachronous carbonate platforms that developed on topographic highs of the Carboniferous arc; platforms were bordered by deeper water ramps and escarpments. Renewed arc volcanism in Late Permian time is represented by Lower Guadalupian volcaniclastic sediments of the Nosoni Formation. More proximal volcanic deposition is represented by the overlying Dekkas and Bully Hill formations, with volcanic centers located at the southern end of the terrane. The Carboniferous and Permian sequence of the eastern Klamath terrane resembles Cenozoic deposits of topographically complex intra-arc settings and represents only a small portion of a larger Late Paleozoic island arc.

The Eastern Klamath and Northern Sierra terranes of northern California consist of Devonian to Jurassic arc-related rocks that structurally and/or stratigraphically overlie Devonian(?) or older complexes that consist of quartzite, quartzofeldspathic sandstone, chert, and mafic and ultramafic rocks. These terranes lie within a regional belt of Paleozoic arc-related rocks that can be recognized from the Sierra Nevada to British Columbia. The Eastern Klamath and Northern Sierra terranes are geographically separate and have paleontologic linkage, but lack direct stratigraphic ties in strata of Late Devonian to Early Permian age. This chapter describes new stratigraphic correlations and structural interpretations of rocks that lie in the northernmost part of the Sierra Nevada. These rocks include the Butt Valley block of the Northern Sierra terrane, and rocks herein interpreted as dismembered Eastern Klamath terrane. The rocks of Eastern Klamath terrane affinity, Soda Ravine block, occur as a tectonic sliver that lies to the west of the Butt Valley block. The Soda Ravine block is about 2 to 4 km by 20 km and includes limestone lenses equivalent to zone A of the McCloud Limestone of the Eastern Klamath terrane, and upper Middle and Upper Triassic limestone, slate, siltstone, and pebble conglomerate. Similar Permian limestone with McCloud faunal affinities and slate-bearing slivers have been noted by previous workers in this area and to the south. The Butt Valley block had previously been interpreted as part of the west limb of a regional anticline, the Almanor anticline. New mapping suggests that the block is not contiguous with rocks that lie to the east. The Butt Valley block includes the Devonian and Mississippian Taylor Formation, which is unconformably overlain by an Upper Triassic (Carnian and Norian) basal conglomerate and sandstone, which in turn is overlain by Upper Triassic limestone. The Upper Triassic limestone is overlain by a sparsely fossiliferous, lithic-volcaniclastic sequence containing poorly preserved Triassic or Early Jurassic, and probable Early Jurassic, ammonites and clams. This sequence is similar to conglomerate, Triassic limestone, and volcaniclastic rocks of the Jurassic Sailor Canyon Formation, which overlie a regional Late Triassic unconformity west of Lake Tahoe, thus expanding the known distribution of the unconformity in the Sierra Nevada. The Triassic unconformity overlies Carboniferous and older rocks around the North Fork American River area to the south, and overlies Devonian and older rocks on the Butt Valley block, but overlies Permian rocks east and southeast of the Butt Valley block. These relations suggest that either the Butt Valley block was part of a highland or uplifted block along the western part of the northern Sierra terrane or that the Butt Valley block previously lay closer to the North Fork American River area and has been translated northward by right-slip displacement. Northern Sierra terrane east of the Butt Valley block consists of the Hough and Genesse blocks, which are separated by the Grizzly Mountain fault zone. The Grizzly Mountain fault zone is here interpreted to be a transpressional right-slip fault.

Fusulinid Foraminifera are widespread in the Permian of America, Europe, and Asia and are among the best indices for correlation of Permian rocks. Twenty-six species or varieties of seven genera and two subfamilies are described from the Permian of California. Although Permian fusulinids are abundant in California, only a few species have been described from that area or any part of far western United States. The Permian of America can be divided into four fusulinid faunal zones based on the predominance of certain genera: Zone of Pseudosckwagerina (Wolfcampian), Zone of Parafusulina (Leonardian and lower Guadalupian), Zone of Polydiexodina (upper Guadalupian), and Zone of Yabeina (? post-Guadalupian). The Permian fusulinid faunas of California are compared with all other principal American Permian fusulinid faunas. The McCloud limestone and Nosoni formation of Northern California contain fusulinids of the Pseudosckwagerina and Parafusulina zones. The middle portion of the Bird Spring formation of Southern California contains fusulinids of the Pseudosckwagerina and possibly Parafusulina zones.