The formation consists of light gray limestone and dolomite[1] The total thickness over 1,000 meters (3,300 ft).[2] The base of the formation is largely concealed in the subsurface, and the formation is overlain by the Cutoff Shale.[1] The formation grades laterally to the southeast into the Bone Spring Formation, representing the change from shallow shelf carbonate deposition to deep marine carbonate deposition. To the northwest, the Victorio Peak Formation grades into the Yeso Group and the lower part of the San Andres Formation.[3][4]
The formation was first designated the Victorio Peak Member of the (now-abandoned) Leonard Formation by King and King in 1929.[5] It was reassigned as the Victorio Peak Member of the Bone Spring Formation by King in 1942,[2] and finally removed as its own formation by Hay-Roe in 1957.[7]
King, Philip B.; King, Robert E. (1929). "Stratigraphy of Outcropping Carboniferous and Permian Rocks of Trans-Pecos Texas". AAPG Bulletin. 13. doi:10.1306/3D93286B-16B1-11D7-8645000102C1865D.
Kues, B.S.; Giles, K.A. (2004). "The late Paleozoic Ancestral Rocky Mountain system in New Mexico". In Mack, G.H.; Giles, K.A. (eds.). The geology of New Mexico. A geologic history: New Mexico Geological Society Special Volume 11. pp. 95–136. ISBN9781585460106.