The Tuerto Formation consists primarily of conglomerate with minor sandstone.

The clasts (rock fragments) making up the conglomerate consist largely of hornfels and Ortiz porphyry[1] eroded off the Ortiz Mountains and Cerrillos Hills and deposited as a thin alluvial fan in the Hagan basin.

[2] Beds containing limestone clasts eroded off the east slopes of the Sandia Mountains are sometimes also included in the formation.

Stearns in 1953 for exposures southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

[5] Daniel Koning, Sean Connell, Frank Pazzaglia, and William McIntosh described the unit as the Tuerto formation in 2020,[2] and Connell first argued for formalizing it at formation rank in a footnote to a 2002 paper.