It preserves fossils dating back to the late Guadalupian Epoch of the Permian period.

[1] The formation consists of 400–1,970 feet (120–600 m)[2][1] of anhydrite, with interbeds of shale, dolomite, siltstone, and sandstone.

The Seven Rivers Formation is part of the Artesia Group, which is interpreted as a sequence of shelf rocks of the Capitan reef.

[1][3] The unit was first named as the Seven Rivers Member of the (now abandoned) Chupadera Formation by Oscar Edward Meinzer and coinvestigators in 1927.

[5] The unit was promoted to formation rank and assigned to the Whitehorse Group by Ronald K. DeFord and E. Russel Lloyd in 1940.