Dip oriented profiles of the Yates Capitan shelf margin were independently constructed from exceptional outcrops in McKittrick and Slaughter Canyons in the Guadalupe Mountains of west Texas and southern New Mexico Comparison of the two profiles reveals significant simi larities in the position and character of high frequency sequence boundaries the internal architecture offacies tracts and cycle stacking patterns and offlap angles of both the shelf and reef The evolution of the Yates Capitan shelf margin is recorded by systematic long term trends in key deposi tional variables measured on individual high frequency sequences in each canyon This comparison of the two profiles located along strike 25 km apart provides athree dimensional model of the extentand variability of genetic components of the Late Permian margin of the Northwest shelf of the Delaware basin

Comparison of the sequence stratigraphic models forthe Yates Formation in McKittrick and Slaughter Canyons indicates that four complete high frequency sequences can be confidently correlated along strike Fundamental architectural characteristics of theYates Capitan shelf margin are evi dent in the comparative profiles from each canyon I The Yates Formation in both canyons exhibits initial aggradational geometries followed by