[1][2] At the type section, about 33% of the formation is trough-crossbedded sandstone with beds up to 1.3 metres (4.3 feet) thick and with large foresets.

[2] The formation is exposed in most of the flanking uplifts of the Rio Grande Rift[3] and extends in the subsurface to west Texas.

[3] The Glorieta Sandstone is of Kungurian (upper Leonardian) age[4] and forms a ledge at or near the top of the Permian section throughout central New Mexico.

At the type section at Glorieta Pass, is interpreted as a dune field overlain by eolian sheet deposits.

[6] Detrital zircon geochronology suggests that both formations were derived from deflation of an arid transcontinental river system originating in the Appalachian-Ouachita orogen and Canadian Shield with some local sediment sources in the Ancestral Rocky Mountains.