Detrital zircon geochronology gives it a maximum age of 1435 million years, corresponding to the Calymmian period.

[1] However, Bauer and Williams noted that the unit is about equally divided between quartzite and metaconglomerate, which led them to redesignate it as the Marquenas Formation.

[2] However, detrital zircon geochronology establishes a maximum age of 1435 Mya, much younger than the Vadito Group.

[6] The beds were originally assigned to the lower conglomerate member of the Vadito Formation by Arthur Montgomery in 1953, who estimated the thickness as up to 600 meters.

[1] Paul W. Bauer and Michael L. Williams redesignated the unit as the Marquenas Formation in their sweeping revision of the stratigraphy of Precambrian rocks in northern New Mexico in 1989.