GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 111{}-M-DD 
ON THE COVER 

Swamp-forest landscape at time of coal formation : lepidodendrons (left) , sigillarias (in the center), calamites, and cordaites (right), in addition 

to tree ferns and other ferns. Near the base of the 

largest Lepidodendron (left) is a large dragonfly 

(70-cm wingspread). (Reproduced from frontispiece in Kukuk, Paul (1938), "Geologie des Niederrheinisch-Westfalischen Steinkohlengebietes" by per.:.· 

mission of Springer-Verlag, New York, Inc.) 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesM. Iowa, by Matthew J. Avcin and Donald L. Koch 

N. Missouri, by Thomas L. Thompson 

0. Arkansas, by Boyd R. Haley, Ernest E. Glick, William M. Caplan, Drew F. Holbrook, and 

Charles G. Stone 

P. Nebraska, by R. R. Burchett 

Q. Kansas, by William J. Ebanks, Jr., Lawrence L. Brady, Philip H. Heckel, Howard G. O'Connor, 

George A. Sanderson, Ronald R. West, and Frank W. Wilson 

R. Oklahoma, by Robert 0. Fay, S. A. Friedman, Kenneth S. Johnson, John F. Roberts, William D. Rose, 

and Patrick K. Sutherland 

S. Texas, by R. S. Kier, L. F. Brown, Jr., and E. F. McBride 

T. South Dakota, by Robert A. Schoon 

U. Wyoming, by David R. Lageson, Edwin K. Maughan, and William J. Sando 

V. Colorado, by John Chronic 

W. New Mexico, by Augustus K. Armstrong, Frank E. Kottlowski, Wendell]. Stewart, Bernard L. Mamet, 

Elmer H. Baltz, Jr., W. Terry Siemers, and Sam Thompson III 

X. Montana, by Donald L. Smith and Ernest H. Gilmour 

Y. Utah, by John E. Welsh and Harold J. Bissell 

Z. Arizona, by H. Wesley Peirce 

AA. Idaho, by Betty Skipp, W. J. Sando, and W. E. Hall 

BB. Nevada, by E. R. Larson and Ralph L. Langenheim, Jr., with a section on Paleontology, by Joseph Lintz, Jr. 

CC. California, Oregon, and Washington, by Richard B. Saul, Oliver E. Bowen, Calvin H. Stevens, 

George C. Dunne, Richard G. Randall, Ronald W. Kistler, Warren]. Nokleberg,Jad A. D'Allt1ra, 

Eldridge M. Moores, Rodney Watkins, Ewart M. Baldwin, Ernest H. Gilmour, and 

Wilbert R. Danner 

DD. Alaska, by J. Thomas Dutro, Jr. 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110- M-D D 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 
UNITED STATES DEPARTlVIENT OF THE INTERIOR 

CECIL D. ANDRUS, Secretm·y 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

H. William lVIenard, Di-rector 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 

\t\Tashington, D.C. 20402 
FOREWORD 

The year 1979 is· not only.the Centennial of the U.S. Geological Surveyit is also the year for the quadrennial meeting of the International Congress on Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology, which. meets in the 

United States for its ninth session. This session is the first time that the 

major international congress, first organized in 1927, has met outside 

Europe. For this reason it is particularly appropriate that the Carboniferous Congress closely consider the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Systems; American usage of these terms does not conform with the more 

traditional European usage of the term "Carboniferous." 

In the spring of 1976, shortly after accepting the invitation to meet in 

the United States, the Permanent Committee for the Congress requested 

that a summary of American Carboniferous geology be prepared. The Geo--

logical Survey had already prepared Professional Paper 853, "Paleotectonic Investigations of the Pennsylvanian System in the United States," 

and was preparing Professional Paper 1010, "Paleotectonic Investigations of the Mississippian System in ·the United States." These major 

works emphasize geologic structures and draw heavily on subsurface data. 

The Permanent Committee also hoped for a report that would emphasize 

surface outcrops and provide more information on historical development, 

economic products, and other matters not considered in detail in Professional Papers 853 and 1010. 

Because the U.S. Geological Survey did not possess all the information 

necessary to prepare such a work, the Chief Geologist turned to the Association of American State Geologists. An enthusiastic agreement was 

reached that those States in which Mississippian or Pennsylvanian rocks 

are exposed would ·provide the requested summaries; each State Geologist 

would be responsible for the preparation of the chapter on his State. In 

some States, the State Geologist himself became the sole author or wrote 

in conjunction with his colleagues ; in others, the work was done by those 

in academic or commercial fields. A few State Geologists invited individuals within the U.S. Geological Survey to prepare the summaries for their 

States. 

Although the authors followed guidelines closely, a diversity in outlook 

and approach may be found among these papers, . for each has its own 

unique geographic view. In general, the papers conform to U.S. Geological 

Survey format. Most geologists have given measurements in metric units, 

following current practice; several authors, however, have used both 

metric and inch-pound measurements in indicating thickness of strata, 

isopach intervals, and similar data. 

III 
IV FOREWORD 

This series of contributions differs from typical U.S. Geological Survey stratigraphic studies in that these manuscripts have not been examined 

by the Geologic Names Committee of the Survey. This committee is 

charged with insuring consistent usage of formational and other stratigraphic names in U.S. Geological Survey publications. Because the names 

in these papers on the Carboniferous are those used by the State agencies, 

it would have been inappropriate for the Geologic Names Committee to 

take any action. 

The Geological Survey has had a long tradition of warm. cooperation 

with the State geological agencies. Cooperative projects are well known 

and mutually appreciated. The Carboniferous Congress has provided yet 

another opportunity for State and Federal scientific cooperation. This 

series of reports has incorporated much new geologic information and for 

many years will aid man's wise utilization of the resources of the Earth. 

H. William Menard 

Director, U.S. Geological Survey 
CONTENTS 

Page 

M. Iowa, by Matthew J. Avcin and Donald L. Koch__________________________________ M1 

N. Missouri, by Thomas L. Thompson____________________________________________ N1 

0. Arkansas, by Boyd R. Haley, Ernest E. Glick, William M. Caplan, Drew F. Holbrook, and 

Charles G. Stone_______________________________________________________ 01 

P. Nebraska, by R. R. Burchett_________________________________________________ P1 

Q. Kansas, by William J. Ebanks, Jr., Lawrence L. Brady, Philip H. Heckel, Howard G. 

O'Connor, George A. Sanderson, Ronald R. West, and Frank W. Wilson____________ Q1 

R. Oklahoma, by Robert 0. Fay, S. A. Friedman, Kenneth S. Johnson, John F. Roberts, 

William D. Rose, and Patrick K. Sutherland_ _________________________________ . R1 

S. Texas, by R. S. Kier, L. F. Brown, Jr., and E. F. McBride__________________________ S1 

T. South Dakota, by Robert A. Schoon____________________________________________ T1 

U. Wyom.ing, by David R. Lageson, Edwin K. Maughan, and William J. Sando____________ U1 

V. Colorado·, by John Chronic--------------------------------------------------- V1 

W. New Mexico, by Augustus K. Armstrong, Frank E. Kottlowski, Wendell J. Stewart, 

Bernard L. Mamet, Elmer H. Baltz, Jr., W. Terry Siemers, and Sam Thompson IlL__ W1 

X. Montana, by Donald L. Smith and Ernest H. Gilmour______________________________ X1 

Y. Utah., by John E. Welsh and Harold J. BisselL___________________________________ Y1 

Z. Arizona, by H. Wesley Peirce------------------------------------------------- Z1 

AA. Idaho, by Betty Skipp, W. J. Sando, and W. E. HalL------------------------------ AA1 

BB. Nevada, by E. R. Larson and Ralph L. Langenheim, Jr., with a section on Paleontology, by 

Joseph Lintz, Jr ·-------------------------------------------------------- BB 1 

CC. California, Oregon, and Washington, by Richard B. Saul, Oliver E. Bowen, Calvin H. 

Stevens, George C. Dunne, Richard G. Randall, Ronald W. Kistler, Warren J. 

Nokleberg, Jad A. D'Allura, Eldridge M. Moores, Rodney Watkins, Ewart M. 

Baldwin, Ernest H. Gilmour, and Wilbert R. Danner__________________________ CC1 

DD. Alaska, by J. Thomas Dutro, Jr·---------------------------------------------- DD1 

v 
The ;Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesIowa 

By MATTHEW .J. AVCIN and DONALD L. KOCH 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-M 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Iowa Geological Survey 

Historical review and sunrnrary of areal, 

stratigraphic, structural, and economic 

geology of Mississippian anti 

Pennsylvanian rocks in l owa 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

FIGURE 1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

CONTENTS 

Page 

Abstract ----------------------------------------------------------------- ~1 

Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------- 1 

Lithostratigraphy --------------------------------------------------------- 1 ~ississippian ___________________________________________ --- __ -- ___ _ _ _ _ 1 

Kinderhook Series ____________________________________________ -- __ _ 3 

Osage Series ----------------------------------------------------- 6 . 

Meramec Series _________________________________________ ----- _- _ _ 7 

Depositional environments of ~issi1ssippian rocks -------------------. 7 

Nature of Mississippian-Pennsylvanian contact -------------------------- 8 

Pennsylvanian -------------------------------------------------------- 8 

Des Moines Series ------------------------------------------------ 8 

Missouri Series _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 8 

Virgil Series __________________________________________________ -- _ 9 

Facies and depositional environments of Pennsylvanian rocks -------- 9 

Economic products -------------------------------------------------------- 11 

Products from Mississippian rocks ------------------------------------- 11 

Products from Pennsylvanian rocks ------------------------------------- 11 

Selected references __ _ __ _ ___ _ __ ______ ___ __ ________ _____ _ __ __ ____ ___ __ __ ___ 13 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Map showing generalized outcrop pattern of Carbonjferous rocks in Iowa -------------------------·---

Nomenclature chart of Mississippian units in Iowa ---------------------------------------------------

Nomenclature chart of Pennsylvanian units in Iowa --------------------------------------------------

Map showing thickness of Mississ,ippian units within and peripheral to the outcrop belt ------------------

Graph showing yearly coal production in Iowa--------------------------------------------------------

Graph showing cumulative coal production in Iowa ---------------------------------------------------

III 

Page 

M2 

3 

4 

5 

11 

12 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) SYSTEMS 

IN THE UNITED STATES-IOWA 

By l\tlATTHEw J. AvCIN1 and DoNALD L. KocH1 

ABSTRACT 

Carbonife·rous rocks crop out in abundance from southeastern to north-central Iowa. Exposures are less numerous 

in south-central Iowa and are extremely limited in the westcentral and southwestern parts of the State·. Early studies 

we·re concentrated on Pennsylvanian strata because of the 

economic importance of their coal· deposits. The: regional 

stratigraphy of Pennsylvanian strata had be·en well summarized in publications of the late 19th and early 20th 

centuries. 

Current interest in energy sources has led to a new interest 

irn evaluation of the State's coal resources. A concerted effort 

is underway to define the stratigraphy of the Pennsylvanian 

in greater detail and to· interpret the environments of deposition a.s they relate to· the formation and occurrence ·of coal 

beds, particularly with respect to variations in thickness and 

quality of the cool deposits. 

Generally, Mississippian strata have received less attention than those of the Pennsylvanian. Recent studies have resulted in recorrelation of the lower part of Mississippian beds 

with Devonian formations. Diagenetic effects on carbonate beds 

of north-central Iowa have resulted in repetitive s.equences of 

limestones and dolostones that have led to confusion and· miscorrelation of several member units. 

Economic products from rocks of the Mississipplian and 

Pennsylvanian Systems are limited· to coal, row"!ld-constuction 

materials, brick and tile, soil-conditioner materials, and gypsum. Although nearly 50 oil-gas test wells have been drilled 

in Carboniferous strata, mostly within the de·eper part of the 

Forest Gity basin, no economic deposits have been discovered 

to date. 

INTRODUCTION 

ca~boniferous rocks underlie approximately 60 

percent of Iowa's 143,209 km:! (55,941 mi 2 ) and are 

the bedrock over most of this area (fig. 1). The combined maximum thickness recorded for the units assigned to the Mississippian (fig. 2) and Pennsylvanian (fig. 3) is 585 m ( 1,909 ft). 

Because of resistant units, Mississippian rocks 

are well exposed along many of the streams that flow 

across the outcrop belt. These natural exposures are 

supplemented by many qua.rries. in the Mississip1 Iowa Geological Survey, Iowa City, Iowa 52242. 

pian limestones. Reg~onal dip is into the Western 

Interior (Forest City) basin from the outcrop belt 

that trends northwest from the southeast corner 

of Iowa. The outcrop belt arcs around to the west in 

the north-central part of the State where Cretaceous 

units overlap Mississippian strata. 

Successively younger Pennsylvanian rocks are exposed downdip toward the deeper parts of the basin 

and are generally more poorly exposed than are 

Mississippian rocks. The Des Moines series is best 

exposed along the Des Moines River and in the 

many small surface mines that roughly parallel its 

course. Younger Pennsylvanian rocks are exposed 

in cutbanks along the smaller streams and in scattered quarries in the limestones. Because thick 

Pleistocene deposits mantle the erosion surface on 

top of the Carboniferous, exposures. are very limited 

in upland areas away from the major drainageways. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used .in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage of 

the Iowa Geological Survey. 

LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY 

MISSISSIPPIAN 

Mississippian formations constitute the bedrock 

in a diagonal belt 32 to 64 km (20--40 mi) wide from 

Lee County in the southeast corner of the State 

northwestward to southeastern Kossuth County in 

north-central Iowa (fig. 1). 

The standard sections of Mississippian rock units 

are found along the valley of the Mississippi River 

from southeastern Iowa into southern Illinois and 

southeastern Missouri. All formational units of the 

Kinderhook, Osage, and Meramec Series are represented in Iowa (figs. 2, 4). Because units of the 

Kinderhook vary lithologically from area to area, 

and because several of the lower units that originally 

Ml 
M2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS OF THE UNITED STATES 

j ..... "'T'", ..._! ,,_..,.-..-...... 11 __.__5.._P_,,..-------'190 MILES 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

EXPLANATION 

~ \ Pennsylvanian rocks -~ Mississippian rocks 

FIGURE 1.-Generalized outcrop pattern of Carboniferous rocks in Iowa. 

were correlated as Mississippian are now placed in 

the Devonian, no standard section has been established for the Kinderhook. The type sections of the 

Burlington and Keokuk Formations are near those 

cities in southeastern Iowa. Exposures at Warsaw, 

Ill., nearly opposite Keokuk, Iowa, provide the type 

section for the Warsaw Formation. The Spergen, 

St. Louis, and Ste. Genevieve Formations are represented in Iowa by facies of formations farther south 

in the Mississippi Valley that are thicker and more 

uniform in lithology. 

None of the Chester formations are represented 

in Iowa; ,the Chester seas probably never extended 

this far north. 

The Mississippian-Devonian boundary is placed at 

the 1base of the North Hill Group by the Iowa Geological Survey. A discussion of this boundary in 

Iowa was presented by Dorheim, Koch, and Parker 

( 1969). 

Along the eastern and northeastern ·edge of the 

outcrop belt, Kinderhook strata are above formations of the Yellow Spring Group (uppermost 

Devonian) . Along the northern boundary in Hancock and Kossuth Counties, Kinderhook strata are 

above the Lime Creek Formation (lower Upper 

Devonian) . In western Iowa and eastern Nebraska, 

Kinderhook strata are above Middle Devonian rocks. 
IOWA M3 

CENTRAL SOUTHEAST 

lil Ste. Genevieve Ste. Genevieve 

~ St. Louis St. Louis 

~ Spergen 

Warsaw Warsaw 

Keokuk Keokuk 

Q) 

Cl 

l'O 

Burlington Burlington Formation (I) 

0 Cedar Fork Member 

Haight Creek Member 

Dolbee Creek Member 

Gilmore City 

Hampton Formation Hampton Formation Iowa Falls Member Wassonville Member Eagle City Member .... 

0 Maynes Creek Member 

0 

-E 

Q) 

"0 

c: 

~ J:o. Chapin Starrs Cave 

-Ee Prospect Hill Prospect Hill 

a(!) McCraney McCraney z 

FIGURE 2.-Nomenclature of Mississippian units in Iowa. 

For the most ·part, the boundary is a transgressive 

nonconformable contact. 

The Mi.ssissippian System is unconfo.rmably overlain by Lower Pennsylvanian (Cherokee Group) 

sedimentary rocks throughout most of southeastern 

Iowa. Jurassic ( ?) (Fort Dodge Beds) and Lower 

Cretaceous units were deposited upon the eroded 

Mississippian surface in north-central Iowa. Pleistocene deposits mantle the Mississippian rocks along 

the outcrop belt. The following discussion of the 

Mississippian units of Iowa is based largely upon 

publications by Parker (1973) and Koch (1973). 

KINDERHOOK SERIES 

The Kinderhook Series in southeastern Iowa includes the North Hill Group and the superjacent 

Hampton Formation. A third unit, the Gilmore City 

Formation, is present above the Hampton in northcentral Iowa. The Kinderhook is compos•ed dominantly of carbonate rocks. Siltstone occurs in the 

North Hill Group and chert in the Hampton. 

The North Hill Group (Workman and Gillette, 

1956) includes in ascending order: McCraney Limestone, Prospect Hill Siltstone, and Starrs Cave Formation. An interval of dominantly oolitic limestone, 

the Chapin For·mation of north-central Iowa, is 

equivalent to the Starrs Cave Formation of southeastern Iowa. The McCraney Limestone is a very 

pale orange to pale-yellowish-brown sublithographic 

limestone. In southeastern Iowa, it is characterized 

by the presence of brown medium-grained dolomite 

in irregular horizontally and vertically oriented 

planes. The basal part in southeastern Iowa consists 

of an oolitic crinoidal limestone, which locally contains a coarse brachiopod coquina composed almost 

entirely of Chonetes. The McCraney is present in 

north-central Iowa only along the eastern outcrop 

belt. The Prospect Hill Siltstone is a light-greenishgray medium siltstone containing discontinuous 

green shaley seams in southeastern Iowa. In northcentral Iowa, the formation varies from a dolomitic 

siltstone along the outcrop belt to a silty dolostone 

toward the west. The Prospect Hill contains fish 

teeth, brachiopods, and pelecypods. The Starrs Cave 

Formation is a very pale orange to pale-gray oolitic 

limestone, which contains fragmented crinoids, 

brachiopods, and corals. In north-central Iowa, the 

equivalent Chapin Formation is dominantly an 

oolitic limestone near the outcrop belt. Farther west, 

this interval is a dolostone, and it usually is inseparable from the superjacent Maynes Creek Member of 

the Hampton Formation. 

The Wassonville Limestone Member is the only 

representative of the Hampton Formation (Laudon, 

1931) in southeastern Iowa. The Wasson ville consists of pale- to dark-yellowish-brown dolostone. 

Over most of the area of its occurrence, the Wassonville contains appreciable amounts of light-gray 

fossiliferous chert. In the extreme southeastern 

counties, the Wassonville is relatively chert free and 

is dominantly a dolomitic limestone. 

In north-central Iowa, the Hampton Formation 

includes, in ascending order: Maynes Creek (equivalent to the Wassonville of southeast Iowa),. Eagle 

City, and Iowa Falls Members. Contacts of these 

members are placed at a change in lithology from 

dolostone (Maynes Creek Member) to limestone 

(Eagle City Member) and from limestone to dolostone (Iowa Falls Member). The Maynes Creek is 

composed of dolostone and chert. Chert generally is 

present throughout the member near the outcrop 

belt. Farther west, chert generally .is absent in the 

upper part of the member. At most localities, the 

upper contact is placed where chert is first observed. 

This result in apparent variations in thickness that 

often are extreme. In addition, the upper part is 

limestone at many localities and is then inseparable 

from the superjacent Eagle City Member. Where the 

upper contact is .placed at the top of a brown dolostone, the unit is about 40 m (131ft) thick and thins 

to about 17 m (56 ft) near the outcrop belt. 

The Eagle City-Iowa Falls interval and the overlying Gilmore ·City Formation ·constitute the most 

variable carbonate sequence of the Kinder-hook in 

north-central Iowa. The limestone interval above 

the Maynes ·Creek dolostone and beneath the Io.wa 
M4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS OF THE UNITED STATES 

SYSTEM SERIES GROUP FORMATION 

French Creek 

Jim Creek 

Friedrich 

Grandharen 

Dry 

Dover 

Langdon 

Maple Hill 

Wamego 

Tarkio 

Willard 

Elmont 

Wabaunsee Harveyville 

Reading 

Auburn 

Wakarusa 

Virgil Soldier Creek 

Burlingame 

Silver Lake 

Rulo 

Cedar Vale 

Happy Hollow 

White Cloud 

Howard 

Severy 

Topeka 

Calhoun 

Deer Creek 

Shawnee Tecumseh 

Lecompton 

Kanwaka 

Pennsylvanian Ore ad 

Lawrence 

Douglas Stranger 

latan 

Weston 

Stanton 

Lansing Vilas 

Plattsburg 

Bonner Springs 

Wyandotte 

Lane 

lola 

Chanute 

Drum 

Missouri Kansas City Quivira 

Westerville 

Cherryvale 

Dennis 

Galesburg 

Swope 

Lad ore 

Hertha 

Pleasanton undifferentiated 

Lenapah 

Nowata 

Altamont 

Marmaton Bandera 

Des Moines Pawnee 

La bette 

Fort Scott 

Cherokee undifferentiated 

FIGURE 3.-Nomenclature of Pennsylvanian units in Iowa. 
IOWA M5 

9 0 

neil Bluffs 

01-

1 

..... , ....... , .-, ...,_,_...,_,I---'--5IL-O ----.,,------1-J~O MILES 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 4.-Thickness, in meters, of Mississippian units within and peripheral to the outcrop belt. 

Falls dolostone is designated as Eagle City. Along 

the outcrop belt, the Eagle City generally is an 

oolitic limestone in the upper part and a micrite in 

the lower part. It grades westward to micrite and 

dolomitic micrite containing beds of dolostone. In 

the subsurface section, the thickness of the Eagle 

City ranges from about 3.3 m (11 ft) to 17 m (56 

ft). This variation in thickness is the result of dif· 

ferences in the vertical extent of dolomitization from 

one location to another. 

The Iowa Falls is a dolostone interval above the 

Eagle City and beneath the Gilmore City Limestone; 

apparently, it is a dolomitized lateral equivalent of 

the Gilmore City as suggested by Thomas ( 1960). 

Thicknesses of as little as 3.3 m (11 ft) and as much 

as 20 m (66 ft) have been interpreted in the subsurface section. Again, the variations in thickness 

are related principally to differences in the vertical 

extent of dolomitization. At some locations, no interval of dolostone is present that is correlative with 

the Iowa Falls. 

A composite thickness of 68 m (223 ft) was indicated for the Maynes Creek-Eagle City-lOtwa Falls 

interval by Laudon (1931). As no exposure of the 

entire sequence was available, composite thicknesses 

for each unit were obtained by correlating fo.s,sil 

zones and lithologic types from one partial exposure 

to another presumed to be higher or lower in the 

section. Multiple facies changes from limestone to 

dolostone both laterally and vertically generally 

were unrecognized. Indeed, the contacts as they are 

identified today usually are gradational contacts 

from limestone to dolostone or from dolostone to 

limestone. Drill cuttings show an average of only 

37m (121 ft) for the entire thickness of the Maynes 

Creek-Eagle City-Iowa Falls interval near the out-
M6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS OF THE UNITED STATES 

crop belt. Toward the west, the average thickness 

increases to 58 m (190 ft). 

The Gilmore City Limestone is conformable above 

the Hampton formation, and, like the Eagle City, 

it is composed dominantly of oolitic limestone near 

the outcrop belt, but toward the west it contains 

alternating beds of oolitic limestone and biofragmental ( crinoidal) limestone. The lower contact 

generally is gradational with the Iowa Falls. However, where the Iowa Falls dolostone is "absent" it 

is extremely difficult to identify a lower boundary, 

and the boundary selected usually is arbitrary. The 

upper contact is unconformable at different locations with younger Mississippian units or with 

Pennsylvanian, Cretaceous, or Pleistocene units. 

Consequently, the thickness of the Gilmore City is 

extremely variable. Where Osage units are superjacent, the thickness of the Gilmore City is about 

45 m (148ft). 

The above discussion of the Hampton and Gilmore 

City Formations of north-central Iowa clearly shows 

that the veracity of current nomenclature is questionable. In summary, the following conditions result in a complexity of geologic factors that obfuscate analysis of the stratigraphy of this part of the 

Mississippian section: 

1. Various units have been partly or completely 

dolomitized, and there is no uniformity, either 

horizontal or vertical, in the extent of dolomitization. 

2. Alternating units of limestone and dolostone are 

the principal basis upon which formations and 

members have been identified. Many subsurface sections show an unusually thick formation or a "missing" member where dolomitization has been more extensive. 

3. Facies changes from oolitic limestone to biofragmental limestone and micrite within 

members and formations further complicate 

correlations. 

4. Most of the natural exposures are limited to the 

eastern outcrop belt. At no exposure is a complete sequence observed. 

5. Where complete sequences are present, they are 

covered by Pennsylvanian, Cretaceous, or Plei,stocene strata. Thus, subsurface data must be 

relied upon for stratigraphic control. 

Hughes (1977) recognized that the greatest thickenings of units of the Hampton Formation and of 

the Gilmore City Formation are mutually exclusive, 

which further demonstrates that formations and 

members are diagenetic and (or) depositional facies 

of each other. The recognized stratigraphic discrepancies can be resolved only through applied 

petrographic studies such as those of Hughes (1977) 

and Lloyd (1973). 

OSAGE SERIES 

The Osage Series in Iowa includes the Burlington 

Limestone (Hall, 1857), Keokuk Limestone (Owen, 

1852), and Warsaw Formation (Hall, 1857). The 

Osage is composed dominantly of cherty limestone 

and dolostone containing minor beds of shale. The 

detailed stratigraphy of and conformable relationships between the Burlington and Keokuk and the 

Keokuk and Warsaw in southeastern Iowa were described by Harris and Parker (1964). 

The members of the Burlington Limestone are, 

in ascending order: Dol bee Creek, Haight Creek, 

and Cedar Fork. In general, the Dolbee Creek Member (Laudon's CactocTinus zone in the type area, 

but including his underlying zones where the member is thick) is a coarsely crystalline crinoidal limestone with a small amount of chert. Spirije1· g1'imesi 

and fragments of bryozoans are common. This unit 

is thickest (5.7 m; 19 ft) in extreme southeastern 

Iowa and is absent in central and north-central Iowa. 

The Haight Creek Member (Laudon's Physetocrinus 

zone) is highly cherty and contains both dolostone 

and limestone beds. The base of this unit is marked 

by a dolostone that contains greenish-black glauconite grains or pellets. In southeastern Iowa, the 

Haight Creek has a rather uniform thickness of 

about 15 m ( 49 ft). Towards the north and west, 

this member is superjacent to Kinderhook beds, and 

where glauconite is absent, it is difficult to discriminate between the biofragmental limestone of the 

lower Burlington and the similar lithology of the 

subjacent Gilmore City. The Cedar Fork (Laudon's 

Dizygoc1'inus and Pent1'wmites zones) is a coarsely 

crystalline crinoidal limestone similar to the Dolbee 

Creek. However, the Dizygocrinus zone commonly 

contains abundant soft flakes of glauconite, which 

gives the limestone a green color, and the Pentremites zone is cherty. In southeast Iowa, the Cedar 

Fork ranges from 3.3 to 10m (11 to 33ft) in thickness. In north-central Iowa, where dolomite content increases and both the carbonate and chert 

become darker, the member generally is not 

differentiated. 

The Keokuk Limestone in southeastern Iowa consists of cherty crinoidal carbonate beds in the lower 

part ("Montrose Cherts" of Keyes, 1894) and fossiliferous cherty carbonate beds and interbedded 

fossiliferous shale in the upper part. The "Montrose 
IOWA M7 

Cherts" are easily distinguished from the relatively 

noncherty Cedar Fork Member of the Burlington 

Limestone. Also, chert in the Keokuk usually contains abundant spicular fossil fragments that serve 

to distinguish the Keokuk from the dominantly 

crinoidal chert of the Burlington. Shale beds in the 

Keokuk increase in number and thickness upward, 

grading into the gray Warsaw shale, and dolostone 

beds replace the limestone. In subsurface usage, the 

upper boundary of the Keokuk generally is placed 

at the top of the uppermost carbonate bed. In extreme southeastern counties, the Keokuk averages 

about 25 m ( 82 ft) in thickness. In north-central 

Iowa, the Keokuk usually is undifferentiated from 

the Warsaw. 

The Warsaw Formation is characterized by shale 

and argillaceous dolostone. Geodes that principally 

contain quartz are common in the southeastern outcrop belt. Chalcedonic chert and crystalline quartz, 

dominantly of geode origin, are particularly abundant in the subsurface toward the west-northwest 

where argillaceous dolostone is dominant over shale. 

The average thickness for the Warsaw is 17 m (56 

ft) in southeastern Iowa. In north-central Iowa, the 

maximum thickness of the Keokuk-Warsaw interval is approximarl:ely 25 m (82 ft). The Warsaw is 

unconformably overlain by the Spergen and St. 

Louis Formations. 

MERAMEC SERIES 

The Meramec Series contains the youngest Mississippian rocks in Iowa, in ascending order: Spergen (Salem) Limestone (Ulrich, 1905), St. Louis 

Limestone (Engelmann, 1847), and Ste. Genevieve 

Limestone (Shumard, 1860). The rocks of the 

Meramec units are more varied than those of the 

Kinderhook and Osage. In southeastern Iowa, the 

Meramec overlies older Mississippian strata unconformably and overlaps formations as old as the 

North Hill Group (Kinderhook). The upper boundary constitutes a post-Mississippian erosional surface that is unconformably overlain by the Pennsylvanian Cherokee Group and by Pleistocene depo1sits 

in southeastern Iowa. Post-Mississippian-pre-Pennsylvanian erosion removed Meramec strata over 

much of north-central Iowa, and pre-Cretaceous and 

Pleistocene erosion further reduced the area of occurrence of these units. Only the St. Louis Limestone and the Ste. Genevieve Limeston·e are recognized in north-central Iowa. 

The Spergen (Salem) Limestone is a brownishgray micaceous dolomitic limestone that has a minor 

quartz san~ fraction. It is restricted to southern 

Iowa by the pre-St. Louis unconformity. The Spergen often has been confused with the basal St. 

Louis. The average thickness is 6.6 m (22ft). 

The St. Louis Limestone in southeastern Iowa is 

dominantly a micritic lim.estone; it has a lower zone 

of brown arenaceous dolostone that in the subsurface contains a high percentage of anhydrite and 

gypsum. The high degree of brecciation of the carbonate rocks in the outcrop section probably is the 

result of dissolution of the evaporites and subsequent collapse. The average thickness is 17 m (56 

fit), although thicknesses of 41.6 m (136 ft) are 

recorded within the evaporite areas. In north-central 

Iowa, sandstone generally is dominant in the lower 

part of the formation; the maximum recorded thickness is 18 m (59 ft). 

The Ste. Genevieve in southern Iowa is composed 

of fine-grained limestone that has a high percentage 

of quartz sand. In central Iowa, the unit is represented mainly by green and red shale and thin beds 

of fine-grained limestone. The contact relationships 

with the subjacent St. Louis are unclear, and both 

the thickness and distribution of the unit vary greatly because of post-Mississippian erosion. 

DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS OF MISSISSIPPIAN 

ROCKS 

The beginning of Mississippian time was a period 

of general emergence; no evidence of localized uplift has been found. The region was a broad plain, 

modified somewhat by differential erosion. Shallow 

restricted seas are evidenced by the distribution of 

the formations of the North Hill Group. Depositional regimes for the Hampton and Gilmore City 

include offshore marine, unrestricted shoal, restricted shoal, restricted nearshore, and tidal environments. The nearly pure biofragmental carbonate rocks of the Osage were deposited in a shallow shelf environment. The shales of the Warsaw 

are the termination of a clastic wedge from the east. 

Carbonate deposition continued into the lower 

Meramec. However, an evaporite facies is present 

in the lower St. Louis. The normal marine carbonate 

rocks of the upper St. Louis and the Ste. Genevieve 

contain an increase in sand and shale northward, 

culminating in a shale facies of the Ste. Genevieve 

in north-central Iowa. No evidence of Chester deposition has been recognized in Iowa. At the end of 

Mississippian time, this region was a landmass of 

low relief undergoing erosion and karst formation. 

The Mississippian surface was further modified by 

uplift, which continued into Pennsylvanian time. 
M8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS OF THE UNITED STATES 

NATURE OF MISSISSIPPIAN-PENNSYLVANIAN CONTACT , 

The Cherokee Group unconformably overlies units 

of the Meramec and Osage Series throughout most 

of its areal extent. However, Pennsylvanian outliers 

overlie progressively older Mississippian, Devonian, 

and Silurian units to the northeast. In some outcrops and cores, a regolith is present on top of the 

Mississippian. A typical exposure of this interval 

consists of 1.5-2.4 m. (5-8 ft) of St. Louis in a 

quarry north of Keosauqua (SE I/~ sec. 36, T. 70 N., 

R. 10 W., Van Buren County). The heavily iron 

stained irregular upper surface of the St. Louis 

has as much as 0.6 m (2 ft) of relief. This surface 

is overlain by a green clay as much as 2.4 m (8 ft) 

thick which contains corroded limestone "clasts" in 

the lower part. The limestone "clasts" decrease in 

size and disappear about midway up, and the clay 

becomes noncalcareous slightly farther up. Next is 

an interval of approximately 6 m (20 ft) of darkgray silty shale of Pennsylvanian age, which in 

turn is overlain by about 45 em ( 18 in.) of highly 

pyritic coal. The contact between the dark-gray shale 

and the green clay is sharp and occasionally shows 

erosional reworking of the green clay into the superjacent dark-gray shale. Where this regolith attains 

a thickness of 4.5-7.5 m (15-25 ft) in the subsurface, the central part of the clay is usually dark 

red. 

Although the contact relationships definitely indicate that the surface of the Mississippian was 

eroded, its present configuration, which is a composite of original topography and post-Pennsylvanian deformation, gives no hint of its configuration at the beginning of Pennsylvanian deposition. 

Preliminary data suggest that the Mississippian surfac·e was slightly undulatory and of low relief, with 

locally prominent positive features. 

PENNSYLVANIAN 

Rocks of Pennsylvanian age occupy an area of 

51,000 km~ (20,000 mi 2 ) in the southwestern third 

of Iowa, and they form the bedrock over a significant part of this area. The Pennsylvanian System 

in Iowa is divided, in ascending order, into the Des 

Moines, Missouri, and Virgil Series (fig. 3). 

DES MOINES SERIES 

Rocks of the Des Moines Series crop out in a 

broad northwest-trending band on both sides of the 

Des Moines River and form scattered outliers along 

the northeast margin of this band. Exposures along 

the southern part of the Des Moines River serve as 

the type area for the Des Moines Series. The maximum reported thickness for this series is approximately 275 m (900 ft), in the subsurface of southwestern Iowa. 

The Des Moines Series is divided into two groups, 

the Cherokee and the overlying Marmaton. The 

Cherokee Group unconformably overlies Mississippian rocks of the Osage and Meramec Series and is 

dominated by a sequence of dark shale and siltstone. 

Sandstone, lighter colored shale, coal, limestone, and 

black phosphatic shale, in decreasing order of 

abundance, complete the suite of lithologies represented in the Cherokee Group. Although the Cherokee reaches a maximum thickness of approximately 

230 m (750 ft) in southwest Iowa, no formational 

subdivisions are differentiated. However, informal 

names have been applied to some persistent limestones and coals in the upper part of the group, particularly in south-central and southeastern Iowa. 

Recent work in southeastern Iowa indicates that 

a significant part of the lower Cherokee Group may 

be Atokan in age, and an outlier exposed near Davenport on the Mississippi River is even older. No 

attempt has been made at this time to redefine the 

boundaries of the Cherokee Group either lithostratigraphically or chronostratigraphically. 

The 45-m (145-ft) -thick Marmon.ton Group in 

Iowa has been divided into 7 formations; 14 members are recognized. Although shale and sandstone 

are dominant, persistent limestones account for 

eight of the named members and permit subdivision 

of the l\iarmaton. Several coals are recognized and 

have been named. However, only the Mystic Coal has 

significant reserves. 

MfSSOURf SERIES 

Rocks of the Missouri Series are divided into three 

groups, in ascending order, the Pleasanton, Kansas 

City, and Lansing. The series is approximately 93 m 

( 305 ft) thick. 

The Pleasanton Group is poorly understood in 

Iowa; it is defined as the interval between the base 

of the overlying Hertha Limestone and the unconformity at the top of the subjacent Des Moines 

Series. Over much of the State, the unconformity is 

not apparent, but Cline ( 1941, p. 70) placed the unconformity at the base of the Chariton Conglomerate 

in Appanoose County. The thickness of the Pleasanton Group is variable but is believed to reach a maximum of approximately 12 m ( 40 ft) in the subsurface. Shale and minor sandstone are dominant. 

The interval also contains several thin limestones ' 

one of which is named, and one named coal. 
IOWA M9 

The Kansas City Group is the thickest of the three 

groups of the Missouri Series at approximately 66 

m (215 ft) and conformably overlies the Pleasanton 

Group. Fourteen formations have been defined in the 

alternating sequence o.f shales and limestones. 

Similarly, four of the limestone and two of the shale 

formations have been divided into alternating limestone and shale members. The shale formations 

range in thickness from 1.5 to 4.5 m (5 to 14.5 ft). 

The limestone formations range in thickness from 

0.6 to 8.5 m (2 to 27.5 ft). 

The conformable superjacent Lansing Group continues the alternating series of limestone and shale 

found in the Kansas City Group. The two limestone 

formations and one shale formation have a maxim urn total thickness of 15 m (50 ft) . 

VIRGIL SERIES 

The rocks of the Virgil Series are divided into 

three groups, in ascending order, the Douglas, Shawnee, and Wabaunsee. The maximum thickness for 

the series is about 150 m (500 ft). 

The Douglas Group in Iowa is a highly variable 

unit consisting of 5.5-25 m (18-80 ft) of shale, siltstone, and locally limestone. Although four formations are officially recognized in Iowa, these units are 

very difficult to recognize, except locally. Hershey 

and others (1960) included the Pedee Group with 

the Douglas and indicated that the basal unconformity cannot be found. 

The Shawnee Group continues the alternating 

sequence of limestone and shale shown by the 

Kansas City and Lansing Groups. Seven formations 

are recognized, which have a total maximum thickness of 55 m (180 ft). The unit is conformable with 

the underlying Douglas Group. All but one of the 

formations, the Calhoun, have been divided into 

members, on the basis of alternating limestone and 

shale. Thirty-six members have been recognized; 

the limestone formations contain at least seven members, and the shale formations, three members. The 

shale formations range in thickness from 1 to 7 m 

(3 to 22ft), and the limestone formations, from 3.5 

to 11 m ( 11 to 35 ft) . 

The Wabaunsee Group has a maximum thickness 

of about 65 m (210 ft) and conformably overlies 

the Shawnee Group. Although this group is divided 

into 25 formations on the basis of an alternating 

sequence of limestone and shale, shale is dominant. 

Secondary lithologies, in order of abundance, are 

siltstone, sandstone, and coal; no members are recognized, but the coals have been informally named. 

Limestone formations are relatively thin, having an 

average thickness of 1 m (3 ft) and a range of 

0.3-3.5 m (1-12 ft) in thickness. Thicknesses of 

shale formations range from 1 to 30m (3 to 100ft). 

The group thins toward the northeast. 

The top of the Virgil Series coincides with the 

beginning of an extensive break in the depositional 

record in Iowa. An angular unconformity marks the 

contact between the Pennsylvanian and overlying 

units. Rocks of questionable Jurassic age overlie the 

Pennsylvanian in several areas in the vicinity of 

Fort Dodge. Although this thin sequence of red and 

green shale covers only about 90 to 130 km2 (35-

50 mi 2 ), it is im·portant because of the industry 

based on the associated gypsum deposits. The remainder of the Pennsylvanian is overlain either by 

Cretaceous or Quaternary clastic deposits. The Cretaceous discontinuously overlies the Pennsylvanian 

in the western third of the State and is in turn overlain by the Quaternary, which overlies the Pennsylvanian wherever the Cretaceous is absent. 

FACIES AND DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS OF 

PENNSYLVANIAN ROCKS 

The Pennsylvanian section in Iowa is less well 

understood than are rocks of equivalent age in nearby States, particularly Kansas and Illinois. This 

lack of understanding results from a paucity of exposures due to a thick Quaternary cover, from local 

structure, from rapid lateral and vertical facies 

changes, and fr-o·m the limited number of geophysical logs available from drill holes that penetrate the 

entire Pennsylvanian sequence. Currently, the Iowa 

Geological Survey is attacking part of the problem 

by means of a coring program in the Des Moines 

Series to evaluate the coal resources of the State. 

The data obtained from this program have served as 

the basis for the Des Moines Series part of this discussion. Similarly, an earlier study of highway construction materials by Hershey and others ( 1960) 

provided the data for the discussion of the Missouri 

and Virgil Series. 

In the Cherokee Group, the rapid facies changes 

result from the interaction of several factors, including original topography, an overall transgression that persisted through the Des Moines Series, 

and repeated widespread eustatic fluctuations of sea 

level. In the southeastern part of the State, the 

oldest Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks are terrestrial to marginal marine and are dominated by 

dark-gray shale, siltstone of various shades of gray, 

small-scale channel sandstone, and interbedded siltstone and sandstone. Successive cyclic units indicate 

a gradually increasing marint:' influence, as shown 
M10 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS OF THE UNITED STATES 

by the progressive appearance of Lingula, nodular 

septarian limestones, light-gray to gray-green shale 

containing calcareous marine fossils, bedded marine 

fossiliferous limestone, and phosphatic black shale. 

Concomitantly, the dark-gray shale and darker siltstone decrease in dominance and eventually disappear, and the size of the channel sands increase. 

Throughout the Cherokee, clastic sediments were 

transported into the basin from two directions. In 

the southeastern part of the basin, transport was 

from the northeast, whereas in the northern part 

of the basin, transport was from the north. 

The first appearance of the various lithologies was 

not synchronous over the entire area but varied 

locally depending on original topography of the site 

of deposition and the proximity of the shoreline. The 

marine influence was felt earlier in the west and 

southwest than in the southeast. Similarly, the 

Cherokee Group thickens to the west, the most dramatic thickening being in the lowermost part of the 

unit. These lowermost beds may be older in the 

west; however, at present, their age is undetermined. 

In the upper part of the Cherokee Group, original 

topography no longer exerted much influence because of the filling of topographic lows on the original surface. Contemporaneously, the overall transgression had progressed far enough so that laterally 

persistent marine limestone and phosphatic black 

shale began to form, and the sequence of lithologies 

began to resemble the cyclothems of the Eastern Interior Basin. A good discussion of the Eastern Interior Basin cyclothems may be found in Hopkins 

and Simon ( 1975, p. 173). Like the cyclothems of 

the Eastern Interior Basin, the upper Cherokee 

cyclothems of Iowa rarely contain all the lithologies 

attributed to the idealized sequence. The one outstanding difference between the upper Cherokee 

Group cyclothems and those of the Eastern Interior 

Basin, is that the units in Iowa, particularly the 

coals, generally are much thinner. 

The general trend toward open marine conditions 

continued upward into the Marmaton Group. Because of the surface of low relief that existed during deposition of the Marmaton, the transgressiveregressive cycles produced by eustatic sea-level 

changes formed thin but laterally continuous shallow-water marine deposits, particularly limestone 

and shale. Minor deeper water sedimentation is indicated by the presence of phosphatic, slaty black 

shale, according to Heckel (1977). The sandstone, 

thick siltstone, and nonfossiliferous shale represent 

prodeltaic and lower delta-plain deposits. Although 

the Marmaton is predominantly clastic, insufficient 

data are available to define the direction of transport, but a northeasterly source is currently favored. 

Only one coal, the Mystic, reaches a significant 

thickness-75 em (2.5 ft)-in the Marmaton Group, 

despite the fact that subaerial conditions existed 

several times; the thinness of the coal beds perhaps 

indicates insufficient time or an unfavorable environment for the formation of peat. 

During deposition of the Missouri Series, marine 

conditions predominated, the characteristics of each 

cycle being determined by the water depth during 

the transgressive phase and the position of the 

shoreline at maximum regression. The Pleasanton 

Group is poorly defined in Iowa. It includes shale 

and siltstone and some sandstone, and it contains 

the Exline Limestone and the Ovid coal. These units 

indicate a minor transgression during which the incoming waters remained relatively shallow, followed 

by a regressive phase during which the shoreline 

migrated through Iowa and the Ovid coal was deposited. 

In the overlying Kansas City and Lansing Groups, 

limestone and marine shale are dominant, and several of the cyclothems (such as the Swope Limestone) show characteristics of the "Kansas cyclothem" as described by Heckel ( 1977). However, 

not all the transgressions reached sufficient depth 

to produce phosphatic black shale, and there appears to have been an irregular upward trend of decreasing water depth during the transgressive phase. 

Concomitantly, an increase in the deposition of shallow-water clastic materials took place, and subaerial conditions prevailed at least once, in the 

Chanute Shale. 

This trend toward decreasing water depth continued into the base of the Virgil Series, where the 

Douglas Group cannot be divided because of the 

suppression of limestone which elsewhere serves as 

a basis for recognition of members. The Douglas 

Group, like the Pleasanton Group, represents a 

minor eustatic event, during which the water remained shallow, and regressive prodeltaic shale was 

dominant. 

The Shawnee Group reflects the earlier pattern 

of the Kansas City Group and is a dominantly 

marine section containing widespread thick limestone beds and several phosphatic black shale beds. 

The black shales indicate several deep-water transgressive events separated by shallower water transgressive and regressive but generally marine deposits. 

Rocks of the W abaunsee Group record a return 

toward shallowing water, possibly as a result of 
IOWA Mll 

basin filling. The Severy Shale, which is the lowermost formation of the Wabaunsee Group, has a 

phosphatic black shale indicating deep marine conditions, but the black shale almost immediately overlies a coal, which illustrates a reversion to an upper 

Cherokee depositional pattern. Above this sequence 

there is a marked increas~e in near,shore sediments, 

particularly prodeltaic .shale, and a general decrease 

in limestone deposits. 

With the exception of a series of thin isolated 

units exposed near Fort Dodge, which have been 

tentatively assigned to the Jurassic, no record of 

deposition exists from the top of the Virgil Series 

to the base of the Dakota Group of the Cretaceous. 

ECONOJVIIC PRODUCTS 

PRODUCTS FROM MISSISSIPPIAN ROCKS 

Mississippian rocks are a significant source of 

industrial minerals in Iowa. About 25 percent of the 

METRIC SHORT 

TONS TONS 

(106

) (106) 

10 

8 

8 

6 

6 

4 

4 

2 

2 

stone used for road construction and maintenance 

is derived from Mississippian strata, principally the 

Hampton, Burlington, and Gilmore City Formations, 

in 23 counties. A substantial amount of the stone 

production is for agricultural lime. Although most of 

the stone is from surface quarries, .six underground 

mines are in operation. 

Gypsum is mined from the lower St. Louis at a 

single location in south-central Iowa. The gypsum is 

used as a retarder by cement plants in Des Moines, 

and some of it is ·pelletized (together with finely 

crushed limestone and bentonite) for use as a soil 

conditioner. 

PRODUCTS FROM PENNSYLVANIAN ROCKS 

Coal mining started in several areas o.f Iowa in 

the early 1840's (figs. 5, 6). The coal was used 

locally for home heating and for smithing operations. Production increased steadily as coal replaced 

wood fuel both for the home and the Des Moines 

1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 

YEARS 

FIGURE 5.-Yearly coal production in Iowa. 
M12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS OF THE UNITED STATES 

METRIC SHORT 

TONS TONS 

(106) (106) 

400 

300 

300 

200 

200 

100 100 

0 04---~~==~~--~~--~--~~--~~--~~--~~~~--~~--~~--~--~~~ 

1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 

YEARS 

1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 

FIGURE G.-Cumulative coal production in Iowa. 

riverboats, but it did not top 100,000 tons per year 

until the late 1860's. About this time, the coal industry in Iowa began to accelerate because of the 

coming of the railroads, and it continued to expand 

until the early 1900's. The State Mining Inspectors 

office was established in 1880 with the responsibJlity 

of collecting production data. The unprecedented increase in coal production between 1880 and 1881 

probably is related more to inaccurate prior records 

than to an actual increase in tonnage. 

By the early 1900's, the industry was beginning 

to peak, although it had its best year in 1917 in 

response to war conditions. In 1900, the population 

of Iowa had reached 2,232,000; it grew only moderately thereafter to the present level of approximately 

2,870,000. Agriculture has been the dominant economic endeavor; .industrial development slowed 

when it became obvious that the State had insufficient natural resources to support large indus1try, 

removed as it was from the main markets to the 

east. These trends created a ceiling on the development of Iowa coal, and a long-term decline was 

assured by events outside the State. 

The principal pressure on the industry was competition for its traditional markets from out-of-state 

coal, which was cheaper, either because of easier 

mining conditions or better applied technology combined with economies resulting from larger operations and thicker coal ·beds. In addition, as oil and 

gas .became readily available they began to compete 

with coal. Without a large industrial base to serve 

as a safe market, the industry slowly slid back to 

production levels comparable with those of the 1860's 

and early 1870's. The industry today supplies small 

amounts of coal on short-term contracts and the spot 

market to local utilities. 

In spite of its inherent disadvantages, namely, 

high sulfur content and high mining cost, Iowa coal 

p!'loduction should be rejuvenated in the near future. 

This prediction is based on the large remaining reserves in the State, rising mining costs elsewhere 

as easily mined coal is exhausted, and increasing 

shipping costs attendant on moving large volumes of 

coal and the necessary upgrading of roadbeds. 

Therefore, the cumulative production curve should 

show a steepening; the only remaining question is 

when? 

In addition to coal, Pennsylvanian strata yield 

limestone and clay. Limestone is produced in 13 

counties in southwestern Iowa, primarily as crushed 

stone. Most of the production is used as bituminous 

and concrete aggregate, roadstone, and road base, 
IOWA M13 

although significant quantities are utilized as agricultural limestone and in the manufacture of cement. 

Clay is utilized in the .manufacture of tile, brick, 

and cement. Accurate production information for 

either clay or limestone cannot be obtained because 

in many of the counties the industries are so small 

that publication of production figures would result 

in the release of information considered proprietary 

by the industry. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Cline, L. M., 1941, Traverse of upper Des Moines and lower 

Missouri series from Jackson County, Missouri, to Appanoose County, Iowa: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists 

Bull., v. 25, no. 1, p. 23-72. 

Dorheim, F. H., Koch, D. L., and Parker, M. C., 1969, The 

Yellow Spring Group of the Upper Devonian in Iowa: 

Iowa Geol. Survey Rept. Inv. 9, 30 p. 

Engelmann, George, 1847, Remarks on the St. Louis Lime--

stone: Am. Jour. Sci., 2d ser., v. 3, p. 119-120. 

Hall, J., 1857, Observations upon the Carboniferous limestones 

of the Mississippi Valley [abs.]: Am. Jour. Sci., 2d ser., 

v. 23, p. 187-203. 

Harris, S. E., Jr., and Parker, M. C., 1964, Stratigraphy of 

the Osage Serie·s in southeastern Iowa: Iowa Geol. Survey Rept. Inv. 1, 52 p. 

Heckel, P. H., 1977, Origin of phosphatic black shale facies 

in Pennsylvanian cyclothems ·of mid-continent North 

America: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 61, 

no. 7, p. 1045-1068. 

Heckel, P. H., and Baesemann, J. F., 1975, Environmental 

interpretation of conodont distribution in Upper Pennsylvanian (Missourian) megacyclothems in eastern 

Kansas: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 59, 

no. 3, p. 486-509. 

Heckel, P. H., and Swade, J. W., 1977, Two types of midcontinent Pennsylvanian black shales and their respective 

conodont faunas [abs.]: Geol. Soc. America Abs. with 

Programs, v. 9, no. 5, p. 604. 

Hershey, H. G., Brown, C. N., Van Eck, Orville,. and Northup, 

R. C., 1960, Highway construction materials from the 

consolidated rocks of southwestern Iowa: Iowa State 

Highway Comm., Iowa Highway Research Board Bull. 

15, 151 p. 

Hinds, Henry, 1909, The coal deposits of Iowa: Iowa Geol. 

Survey, v. 19, p. 21-396. 

Hopkins, M. E., and Simon, J. A., 1975, Pennsylvanian system, in Willman, H. B., and others, Handbook of Illinois 

stratigraphy: Illinois State Geol. Survey Bull. 95, p. 

163-201. 

Hughes, J. E., 1977, Stratigraphic relationships and depositional environments of the Hampton and Gilmore City 

Formations: Iowa City, Univ. Iowa, M.S. thesis. 

Keyes, C. R., 1894, Coal deposits of Iowa: Iowa Geol. Surve~, 

v. 2, 536 p. 

Koch, D. L., 1973, Mississippian stratigraphy of north-central 

Iowa: Iowa Acad. Sci. Proc., v. 80, no. 1, p. 1-3. 

Landis, E. R., 1965, Coal resources of Iowa: Iowa Geol. 

Survey Tech. Paper 4, 141 p. 

Laudon, L. R., 1931, The stratigraphy of the Kinderhook 

Series of Iowa: Iowa Geol. Survey, v. 35, p. 333-451. 

---1937, Stratigraphy ·of northern extension of Burlington Limestone in Missouri and Iowa: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull. v. 21, no. 9, p. 1158-1167. 

Lees, J. H., 1909a, ,History of coal mining in Io·wa: Iowa 

Geol. Survey, v. 19, p. 521-590. 

---1909b, General section of the Des Moines stage of Iowa: 

Iowa Geol. Survey, v. 19, p. 598-604. 

---1909c, Bibliography of Iowa coals: Iowa Geol. Survey, 

v. 19, p. 659-687. 

---1927a, Iowa coal areas and characteristics of Iowa 

coal: Iowa Geol. Survey, v. 32, p. 65-81. 

Lloyd, R. L., 1973, The subsurface stratigraphy of the Gilmore 

City Formation (Mississippian) in Iowa: Iowa City, 

Univ. Iowa, M.S. thesis. 

Owen, D. D., 1852, Report of a geological survey of W.isconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and incidentally of a portion of Nebraska Territory: Philadelphia, Lippincott, 

Gramho, 638 p. (see p. 90-140). 

Parker, M. C., 1973, Mississippian stratigraphy in southeastern Iowa: Iowa Acad. Sci. Proc., v. 80, no. 1, p. 4-7. 

Shumard, B. F., 1859, Observations on the geology of the 

county of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri: St. Louis Acad. Sci. 

Trans., v. 1, p. 404-415. 

Smith, G. L., 1909, The Carboniferous section of southwestern 

Iowa: Iowa Geol. Survey, v. 19, p. 605-657. 

Thomas, L. A., 1960, Guidebook for the 211th Annual Tri-State 

Ge·ological Field Conference, North-Central Iowa, October 

8, 9, 1960: 26 p. 

Thompson, M. L., 1934, The fusulinids of the Des Moines 

series of Iowa: Iowa Univ. Studies Nat. History, v. 16, 

no. 4, p. 227-332. 

Ulrich, E. 0., and Smith, W. S. T., 1905, The lea,d, zinc, and 

fluorspar deposits of western Kentucky: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 36, 218 p. 

Weller, J. M., Wanless, H. R., Cline·, L. M., and Stookey, D. G., 

1942, Interbasin Pennsylvanian correlations, Illinois and 

Iowa: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 26, no. 

10, p. 1585-1593. 

Workman, L. E., and Gillette, Tracy, 1956, Subsurface 

stratigraphy of the Kinderhook Series in Illinois: Illinois 

State Geol. Survey Rept. Inv. 189, 46 p. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesMissouri 

By THOMAS L. THOMPSON 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-N 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Missouri Department of Natural Resources, 

Division of Geology and Land Survf)' 

Historical review and summary of 

areal, stratigraphic, structural, 

and economic geology of Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian rocks in Missouri 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Abstract -----------------------------------------

Introduction ------------------------------------- Geologic setting _________________________________ _ 

Mississippian System -----------------------------

Kinderhookian Series -------------------------

Osagean Series -------------------------------

Meramecian Series ---------------------------

Chesterian Series ----------------------------

Summary of Mississippian System -------------

Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary -------------

Pennsylvanian System ----------------------------

Morrowan and Atokan Series ------------------

Desmoinesian Series --------------------------

Missourian Series ----------------------------

Page 

N1 

1 

1 

4 

6 

8 

8 

12 

12 

13 

14 

14 

16 

17 

Pennsylvanian System-Continued 

Virgilian Series ___________________________ ---

Summary of Pennsylvanian System ------------

Mineral resources --------------------------------

Mississippian System -------------------------

Kinderhookian Series ---------------------

Osagean Series -------------------------·· 

Meramecian Series -----------------------

Chesterian Series -------------------------

Pennsylvanian System ------------------------

Desmoinesian Series ----------------------

Missourian Series ------------------------

Virgilian Series -------------------------- Selected references __________________________ -----

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

N17 

18 

18 

18 

19 

19 

19 

19 

19 

19 

20 

20 

20 

Page 

FIGURE 1. Map of Missouri showing type areas of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Series ------------------- N2 

2. Map of Missouri showing distribution of outcropping Mississippian and Pennsylvanian strata ------ 3 

3. Diagram showing development of nomenclature of Mississippian series in Missouri and surrounding midcontinent region ________________________ ---· _ _ _ __ _ __ __ __ _____ _____ _____ _____ _ _____ __ ___ _ 4 

4. Diagram of Kinderhookian conodont zones, showing relative ages of Kinderhookian formations in 

Missouri --------------------------------------·-------------------------------------------- 6 

5. Isopach map of the Northview Formation, southwestern Missouri --------------------------------- 7 

6. Stratigraphic· column of "Chouteau Group" section in the vicinity of Sedalia, Mo., within the type region of the· Sedalia Formation -------------------·-------------------------------------------- 9 

7. Isopach map of the Chouteau Group, southwestern and western Missouri -------------------------- 10 

8. Stratigraphic cross section of Kinderhookian strata from southwestern to northeastern Missouri, illustl·ating carbonate facies of the Chouteau Group --·----------·---------------------------------- 11 

9. Diagram of Upper M.ississ.ippian (Chesterian) and Lower Pennsylvanian (Morrowan) formations of 

northwestern Arkansas _____________________ ---· __ ------ ____ _____ ___ __ _ _ _ __ _ __ _____ __ __ _____ 14 

10. Diagram showing the stratigraphic framework for Pennsylvanian System in Missouri, to group leveL_ 15 

11. Diagram showing Lower Pennsylvanian sequence in western Missouri ----------------------------- 15 

12. Map of Missouri showing areas of known Morrowan and Atokan strata ------------------------- 16 

13. Diagram showing a proposed sequence of Lower Pennsylvanian formations in western and southwestern Missouri ----------------------------------·-------------------------------------------- 16 

III 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) SYSTEMS 

IN THE UNITED STATES-MISSOURI 

By THOMAS L. THOMPSON I 

ABSTRACT 

Carboniferous rocks crop out over approximately twothirds of the State of Missouri, although much of this region is partially covered by either Pleistocene drift and loess 

(northern part) or residual material from deeply weathered 

bedrock. Mississippian (lower Carboniferous) strata are 

predominantly limestone, although some shale is present in 

eastern and southwestern Missouri. Mississippian limestone 

is an economically important resource to the State and has 

been the host rock for lead and zinc. Pennsylvanian (upper 

Carboniferous) rocks consist of thin beds of limestone, shale, 

and sandstone; limestone and shale beds, although thin, are 

very widespread laterally persistent units. Coal is an increasingly important resource associated with Pennsylvanian 

strata, and many of the limestone beds are thick enough to 

be quarried in some regions of the State. In restricted parts 

of central Missouri, Pennsylvanian clay has been mined for 

its refractory properties. 

INTRODUCTION 

Rocks of Carboniferous age in North America 

have been divided into two systems, the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian. These systems were proposed in a review of Carboniferous strata of North 

America by Williams ( 1891), who described the 

"Mississippian series" of the upper Mississippi 

River valley (cited by Williams, 1891, p. 136, to 

have been originally named the "Mississippi limestone series, or Mississippi group" by Winchell 

1872), and the "coal measures or Pennsylvanian 

series" of the Appalachian province of Pennsylvania. Although not immedi·ately adopted by all 

North American Carboniferous stratigra.phers, 

these nam·es rec.eived general acceptance soon after 

the turn of the century. By the period 1935-1940, 

they seem to have been accepted by most, if not all, 

North Am·erican Carboniferous stratigraphers, and 

the general correlation of Pennsylvanian for upper 

Carboniferous and Mississippian for lower Carboniferous became common usage. Missouri contains at 

1 Missouri Department of Natural Resout·ces, Division of Geology and 

Land Survey, Rolla, MO 654•01. 

least part of the type areas for all four of the formally recognized series in the Mississippian System 

(fig. 1) and includes the type area for one of the 

five rec:ognized midcontinent Pennsylvanian series. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature us·ed in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage 

of the Missouri Department of Nat ural Resources, 

Division of Geology and Land Survey. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

The dominant factor in the present distribution of 

Paleozoic strata in Missouri is the Ozark "dome" 

(or "uplift"). Rocks dip away from the region of 

maximum uplift (in east-central Missouri, the St. 

Francois Mountains) in all directions, and the 

amount of strata eroded decreases away from the 

center. Uplift and erosion before Carboniferous 

deposition (but apparently after Late Devonian 

deposition) produced an arcuate distribution of preCarboniferous formations. Basal Carboniferous 

rocks rest on strata ranging from Early Ordovician 

to Late Devonian in age; strata are progressively 

y·ounger away from the uplift center. 

The basal contact of the Carboniferous is unconformable, with the possible exception of that in 

northeastern Missouri, where the uppermost late 

Upper Devonian Louisiana Limestone underlies 

basal Carboniferous strata (Hannibal Shale) with 

little or no· unconformity. The hiatus at the basal 

Carboniferous contact increases rapidly westward, 

however, as the Louisiana Limestone disappears and 

the Hannibal thins markedly. The region of Devonian-Carboniferous transition is restricted to that 

along the Mississippi River valley in Marion, Pike, 

and Ralls Counties, Mo. 

Except for a sandstone (Indian Cave Sandstone) 

in northwestern Missouri of questionable Permian 

Nl 
N2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

AlCHIS~N ~ -~ WOR~-- \ i. PUTNAM -)OiUYLER i ~T~~AND' ~ODAWM ~---j HARRISON, ME~{~ ~-r t-· CLARK 

. 1 G{NTRY L f-., -j '"'""' i ""'" . . ·-. . I "":}- I I ~"' . """ 

REw_r~~ DAVIESS ~- 4

. ·=-· . ·--t..-+- • • _j Kinderhookian 

M~ri:an•L----h' ~-~ --iuviNGsroN _=_j MAcoN j SHHBY_j_ MARl .~ Series 

r ~"'-I--NAN-I' CLINT~N CALDWEll ~- --., _ _J__;--

·--1 --· CHARITON r-.... I RALLS 

L rn . C2\AY • RAY i CARROLL~ ..~NYDOLPH M.::._j__~ PIH 

(:•~ , ., AUDRAIN j_ ~-

LAFMETTE / SALINE A HOWARD ~BOONE t-·~ :· ~ .h LINCOLN ' 

JACKSON r- ---r-·+--{ ,_ \ (ALL"WAY I §~"' J L ~_,..~2 : ., I . COOPER ' J J!~ r~ARREN I Sl CHARLES .re """' 

L cAss LOHNSON + PETTIS ~-~N~Au~( • _ --~: -~.~ "] s~:~u s (~ j Me~n:ecian 

L

: ·=-i~ f'"" .. :J~. •o•"\i-1{:[:_":-r.GE I.;:>L.sif'J """"··~~ enes 

0 I · =siLLER .----~,!EFFERSON sagean·--.. ----+- ~ MARIES -r- · Series : -~ cLAIR ·---1 CAMDEN .--L.,.....,...,- ___J j ._o~t- . I _ IHICKORV j 1 .... .cRAWFORD, ~~:> .r,. if: . VERNON L ! . ~-J-, J PH£LPS j_ J ~ /: TE G EVIEV · ·r- '\PULASKI .j:' '1'"1 ~ 

J L 0,, PERRY s , ~. --~~ POLK DAllAS LACLEDE 't-- . I , 1~ • .r enes l CEDAR ·l l r-· -, ~=rr.· "'~ . Chesterian 

RTON I - ' -Lr' ~- . -L~ DENT [.....1--·l 01- 'T' "{" . DADE I • . .____j L J, ' MADISON ft.;;- \ ----1 U• ____r ' ' ! ~--- REYNOLDS~ j-~ <:>.._.._), :!!!-~ ) 

I JASPER r· ! GREENE \WEBSTER \WRIGHT I lE\~S I s= ~- !,o ...... '~ $'\:> 

+

,lAWRENCE 1-----.-L _j_ =-T' j SH~NNON ~ wm~E l . ,t - ~-~ r . -~ \ ""\~-~ SCOTT • 

' WTON -:-1· !CHRISliANi DOUGLAS 1 ·:1· (>,~TER t-· \. ~ .. ~~;1 ' , l,.-.-l_. ---T ,___ ·--·~ STODDARD ~ ~">">' S -~ BARRY 1 r- HOWEL: r B<T 'R \ . ~ ~ ··AlD ! ·STONE' TANEY I' OlAH I -=-~!.;ON RIPL!> ~ " L--.---1 't-"J"+-' ,, '· 

__ j__ I I . . I ~ r ) ...... ~ ~ ~~ "'''-·-' 

.• •• SCA=E • •• --)~~~~\ 

~ 1 2~ 1 40 I 60 "I MILES t.:~{~' 

0 20 40 60 8Q KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 1.-Type areas of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Series. 

age, upper Carboniferous rocks constitute the 

youngest consolidated strata in Missouri except for 

the Cretaeeous embayment region of southeastern 

Missouri. Thus, sedim·ents overlying the Carboniferous consist primarily of Pleistocene glacial and 

other deposits north of the Missouri River and residual products derived by in situ weathering of bedrock south of the Missouri River. 

Structural ·events were relatively minor throughout early Carbonifer1ous time until late Meramecian 

and early Chesterian deposition. Increased clastic 

content in eastern Missouri and removal of Meram·ecian and upper Osagean strata by erosion before 

initial deposition of Chesterian strata (Hindsville 

Lime·stone) in western Miss1ouri indicate late Mississippian uplift and associated activity. After Mississippian deposition, uplift and erosion removed 

considerable amounts of Mississippian strata before 

the start of Pennsylvanian deposition. Chesterian 

strata have been preserved in daowndr:opped fault 

blocks in southeastern and southweste:t;"n Missouri. 

Elsewhere, erosion removed strata down to middle 

Mississippian and, in the Ozark uplift region south 

of the Missouri River, to Lower Ordovician strata. 

Most of the Ozark "mountains" lie inside the belt 

of Mississippian outcrop. In western Missouri, the 

Mississippian marks the location of a broad, highly 

diss-ected upland (Springfield Plateau) ; the sharp 

eastern margin (often termed the "Eureka Springs 

escarpment") of this plateau forms a distinctive 

topographic feature above the Ordovician outcrops 

to the east. This plateau is less distinct north of 

Springfield because it has been highly dissected by 

tributaries of the Missouri River system. 
MISSOURI 

0 

I I r 1 

0 

I 

I 

50 

lO 1?0 MILES 

100 Kl LOfvl ~TERS 

EXPLANATION 

Missourian 

. Series 

~Desmoinesian 

~Series 

~Desmoinesian · 

~Channel Sandstone 

Mississippian 

System 

D Pre-Mississippian 

36 

FIGURE 2.-Distribution of outcropping Mississippian and Pennsylvanian strata. 

N3 
N4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Carboniferous strata crop out over almost twothirds of the State (fig. 2). Rocks south of the Missouri River valley (approximately the 39th parallel) 

are generally well exposed except where covered by 

loess (for example, in areas immediately adjacent 

to major river valleys') and (or) residual materials 

produced by weathering of the carbonate terrane. 

Outcrops are less common north of the Missouri 

River valley owing to cover by glacial drift deposited during the Kansan and Nebraskan episodes 

of Pleistocene ice advance. Here, best exposures are 

found where streams have cut down through the 

drift to re-expose the Paleozoic strata. 

Keyes, Schuchart, Ulrich, 

1910 1911 1892 (composite (composite (UMV)' Mo. and Ill.) MV)' 

Cll 

Q) 

·;: 

Q) (U 

1/) C/) C/) :ii:c. G) c: C/) ::I .~ (U 

~e -~ ~ 'i gj(.!) C/) C/) 

1ii ~ c: c: Q) (U .s::. ·~ u 'i G) 

'iii 'iii G) G) 

J:. J:. 

Ste. Genevieve u u Formation c. 

::I 

Cll e 

(.!) .!!! St. Louis :D C/) c: 1/) Limestone ·:; (U C/) 

c: 

(U ...J 

0 ·~ :3 ·~ e·;:: G) ·u C/) Q) ci) tUG) 

E Salem ,_CJ) 

G) c: ~ :::.:!: (U 

Q) Formation ·c:; 

G) :::! E 

(U 

~ Warsaw :::.:!: 

Formation C/) 

G) 

c. -~ ::I C/) Keokuk e c: C/) Cll Limestone (.!) (U G) .!!! G) '5l ·;:: 

lii Cl (U G) 

1/) C/) C/) 

Burlington (U 

c: 0 C/) c: 

"' Limestone 0 (U Q) 

Cl '5l Elsey Formation "' (U 

Cll C/) 

0 0 

Fern Gleri (Pierson) 

Formation 

ci Sedalia-NorthgJ c:; view Formation C/) ·;: ::I G) Q) "' Compton 'iii 1/) Q) 

c. C/) 

c: 5 Formation ::I C/) .~ "' 0 

~B (Bachelor Fm.) 0 c: ~ t5 (U C/) 0 :.;;;: .s::. ..lO: 0 ..lO: 

:D Hannibal Shale 0 0 0 "0 (Bushberg 0 J:. 0 c: -E ~ -E \>2 Sandstone) G) 'C G) 

'C c: 'C c: ~ c: ~ ~ 

c: (Glen Park) 

"' Louisiana 'i: 

0 Limestone > Q) 

0 c: 

~ Saverton Shale ,men 

.... Cl Q) 

"' "'o·- ...I Grassy Creek .s::.o~ Uc:IJ) 

Slate !!! 

MISSISSIPPIAN SYSTEM 

Rocks of the Mississippian System have been 

divided into four series: Chesterian Series (Worthen, 1866) ; Meramecian Series (Ulrich, 1904); 

Osagean (or Osagian) Series (Williams, 1891) ; and 

Kinderhookian Series (Meek and Worthen, 1861). 

Weller and others ( 1948, chart 5) stabilized this 

nomenclature as the "standard stratigraphic section" for the Mississippian System in North 

America (a condition lacking in nomenclature of 

Pennsylvanian stratigraphy). Figure 3 depicts the 

conceptual changes of the four Mississippian series 

Krey, Moore, Laud in, Moore, Schuchart Moore, 1928 and Dunbar, 1924 (general 1931 1933 1933 1935 

(UMV) section Mo. (MV) (MV) (MV) (UMV) 

c. 

::I ~ 

e Q, ,_ Q, 

(.!) C/) :::> G)C/1 ~c. ~c. ... G) ... ::I ... ::I 

~ ·~ Cll·- ltle ltle G),_ 

'iii G) Q) .s::,ID (J<.!:l (J<.!:l G) C/) '6 UCJ) 

J:. ,_ "0 

u G) 

'iii ~ G) 

Q) J:. 

~c. u ; f~e 0 

...I :iic:l c. c. (!) ::I ::I 

e e C/) c. C/) (.!) c. (.!) 

.~ ::I G) ::I 

e 'iii 0 e 0 

~ G) G) 

C/) (.!) C/) E (.!) E (U 0 ~ ~ 0 ~ 0 G) G)" G) G) 

E E E :::.:!: E :::.:!: 

~ ~ (U (U 

G) G) ~ Cll ~ 

:::.:!: :::.:!: :::.:!: Q), :::.:!: 

~~ :D 

> 

Q) 

E 

lij 

> c. C/) c. - c. ::I G) ::I ::I 

e ·a; e 0 

C/) (.!) C/) CD c. t5 .~ G) G) ::I G) G) 

~ Cl Cl Cl Cll e Cl Cll 

C/) (U (U (U .!!! (.!) (U 

C/) C/) .!!! C/) 

~ C/) 

G) 0 0 0 G) 0 ~ Cl 1/) Cl 1/) 

(U c: (U "' C/) "' C/) ~ 0 ~ 0 .2 .2 

C/) c. C/) C/) c. c. 

·~ ::I .~ G) ::I ::I 

G) e ~ 'iii e e C/) (.!) C/) C/) (.!) (.!) 

..lO: ..lO: ..lO: ..lO: ..lO: ..lO: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

-E -E -E -E J:. J:. 

G) G) G) G) Cii ~ 'C 'C 'C 'C 'C 'C c: c: c: c: c: c: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

1Reglon descnbed IS 1n parentheses. General sect1ons mclude: UMV, Upper 

Mississippi River Valley; MV, Mississippi. River Valley1 

FIGURE 3.-Development of nomenclature of Mississippian series in Missouri and surrounding midcontinent region. 
MISSOURI N5 

from 1892 to the present. (See Thompson and 

Anderson, 1976, for synonymies of Mississippian 

nomenclature published for strata in Missouri.) Locations for the type areas of the four Mississippian 

series are shown on figure 1. 

Although the four-part division of the Mississippian is more or less standard for North America, 

inability to agree on the placement of the OsageanMeramecian boundary (whether it is above or below the Warsaw Formation or even whether such a 

boundary exists) led to a three-part division of the 

Mississippian in some States; Valmeyeran Series 

(Weller and Sutton, 1933; fig. 3) replaced Osagean 

and Meramecian in Illinois and Indiana. Kansas 

(Jewett and others, 1968) recognized "Lower: Mississippian" and "Upper Mississippian" Series ··.(fig. 

3), the former composed of the Kinderhookian and:,-

Osagean Stages, the latter of the Meramecian and· 

Chesterian Stages. However, this is nomenclatural 

variation and does not change the overall concept 

of time-stratigraphic correlation of the Mississippian System in the miqcontinent region. 

Rocks of the· Missl·ss''ippian ·age crop out extensively across Missouri (fig. 2). They are or have 

been economically important as a limestone resource 

where exposed and as host rock for lead and zinc 

Weller and 

Sutton 

1940 (Ill) 

Moore, Weller, and Moore, 

1949 

(MV) 

Collinson Collinson Moore, 

1958 

(MV) 

Spreng 

1961 

(Mo.) 

Present Present 

Illinois Kansas 

... 

Q)en 

... Q) en·- Q) ... 

~Q) 

uen 

c. 

,::J 

e 

~ 

-"' 0 

0 

-E 

Q) 

"C 

1: 

~ 

1948 others, 1948 

Std. Am (Strat. Sec. 

Classif. for IV Am.) 

Q) 

Cl 

CQ 

U5 

1: 

CQ 

Q) 

Cl 

CQ 

en 

0 

"C 

Q) 

... .c o·;:: 

c:u 

~ "C 

and others and Swann 

1954 1958 

(MV,III.) ·(MV,III.) 

c. 

::J 

e 

~ 

Q) 

Cl 

CQ 

en 

0 

c. 

::J 

e 

~ 

-"' 0 

0 

-E 

Q) 

"C 

1: 

~ 

... 

Q) 

> Q) 

E 

iii 

> 

.~ a; 

en 

-"' 0 

0 

-E 

Q) 

"C 

1: 

~ 

Q) 

Cl 

CQ 

U5 

1: 

CQ 

't» 

CQ 

en 

0 

FIGURE 3.-Continued 

.~ a; 

en 

1: 

CQ 

Q) 

Cl 

CQ 

en 

0 

Willman Jewett 

and others and others 

1975 1968 

1: 

CQ Q)'- .,.c: 

CQO ...J> Q) 

0 

Present 

Mo. 

1: 

.!!! en '-Q) !·a: 

enQ) 

~en 

u 

.~ a; 

en 

1: 

~ Cl 

CQ 

en 

0 

1: 

CQ 

~ 

o en 

o.~ ~ ... ... Q) 

~en 

1: 

~ 

1: 

CQ 

~·2 

CliO 

...1~ 

0 
N6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

deposits in the presently inactive Tri-State mining district of Missouri-Kansas-Oklahoma. 

KINDERHOOKIAN SERIES 

The "Kinderhook group" was named by Meek 

and Worthen (1861, p. 288) for strata exposed in 

the east bluffs of the Mississippi River valley immediately north of the small town of Kinderhook, 

Pike County, Ill. Formations identified within the 

Kinderhookian Series in Missouri include 

Western and southwestern 

Chouteau Group: 

Northview Formation 

Sedalia Formation 

Compton Formation 

Bachelor Formation 

Northeastern 

Chouteau Limestone 

Hannibal Shale 

Originally this series also included strata later determined to be Late Devonian in age (Grassy Creek 

and Saverton Shales, Louisiana Limestone) and 

other rocks now assigned to the Osagean Series 

(Fern Glen Formation: see Weller, 1909, and 

Schuchert, 1910). As late as 1948 (Weller and 

others), the Grassy Creek, Saverton, and Louisiana 

formations were still identified as Kinderhookian 

in age. Scott and Collinson ( 1961) determined that 

the Devonian-Mississippian boundary was between 

the Louisiana Limestone and the overlying Hannibal Shale, finally defining the base of the Kinderhookian Series as now recognized. One of the best 

exposures of Kinderhookian strata in the type region (fig. 1) is a section along the Burlington 

Northern Railroad track immediately south of the 

town of Hannibal, Marion County, Mo., where the 

entire Hannibal Shale is exposed (the entire Kinderhookian interval in this region), along with the 

underlying Louisiana Limestone (Koenig and 

others, 1961, p. 44--46, stop 11). 

The basal Kinderhookian formation in most of 

the Missouri outcrop area, other than the northeastern (Hannibal Shale) and southeastern (Bushberg Sandstone) regions, is the Bachelor Formation 

(Mehl, 1960, 1961), a very thin (5-10 em), distinctive, persistent light-green to tan calcareous-cemented quartz sandstone that overlapped all preMississippian strata during middle Kinderhookian 

time. This sandstone and overlying thin shale lie 

directly on strata of Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, 

and even early Kinderhookian age (Bushberg Sandstone of southeastern Missouri). Conodonts recovered from the Bachelor (Thompson and Fellows, 

1970) indicate basically the same age (that is, the 

same conodont zone, fig. 4) for the Bachelor 

throughout its outcrop from northwestern Arkansas 

to east-central Missouri. Late Devonian conodonts 

have commonly been reworked into the middle 

Kinderhookian fauna, even where the Bachelor rests 

on Lower Ordovician rocks, indicating that a widespread Upper Devonian sea existed before pre-Mississippian regression. The quartz sand of the Bachelor was most likely derived from Upper Devonian 

sandstone ( Sylamore Sandstone) , a nearshore facies 

of the Chattanooga Shale (Freeman and Schumacher, 1969). 

Older Kinderhookian is represented only in the 

limited outcrop region of the Hannibal Shale on the 

western margin of the Illinois basin. Most of Missouri was still above sea level until middle Kinderhookian, when relatively sudden inundation resulted in the deposition of the Bachelor Formation. 

Stability soon followed, and the basal carbonate 

facies of the Chouteau Group (Compton·facies) and 

its attendant crinoid fauna were deposited over 

most, if not all, of the Missouri region. 

Throughout Missouri, Kinderhookian strata are 

predominantly carbonate rocks, either limestone or 

dolomitic limestone, except in the type area in 

northeastern Missouri where introduction of argillaceous material from the east produced the Hannibal Shale. In places, chert is present in the carbonate rocks, but not in the amounts found in some of 

the overlying beds of Osagean limestone. North of 

the Ozark uplift area (generally in the subsurface 

north of the Missouri River), Kinderhookian shales 

continue westward, resting on shale and limestone 

Conodont Zones r--

Siphonodella coo peri hassi- ~ c: 

Gnathodus punctatus Zone -~ .g > m r---------------1----- =-- "€ E 1-

Siphonode/la isosticha- a. o ... :J z 0 S. cooperi Zone 0 u. 1---------------1-- --- l5 r- ==-=- Gnathodus de/icatus- :J 

Siphonode/la cooperi cooperi Zone ! 

Siphonodella quadrup/icata- - ;:- - --~ ---

S. -crenulata Zone u 

Q) ·---·l:=.'-·-- ... c: Siphonodella lobata- ~ .2 .g 

S. crenulata Zone en Q) m t---------------1--1--£ m m ._ 

Et----- Siphonodella sandbergi- :e co &f 

S. dup/icata Zone § .__ 

t---......;;.------------1-lz _rn· C),.... ----

Siphonode/la sulcata Zone ~ Q) ui 

~~--:---=---:-----:--------11- - ~ .c__cn--- -- Protognathodus kuehni- ...._ P. kockeli Zone 

FIGURE 4.-Kinderhookian conod·ont zones (from Collinson, 

Rexroad, and Thompson, 1971) showing relative ages of 

Kinderhookian formations in Missouri. 
MISSOURI N7 

of Late Devonian age. These Kinderhookian (Hannibal) shales continue in the subsurface to northwestern Missouri (Wells, 1960), where they rest on 

Upper Devonian shale. 

Kinderhookian strata other than the basal Hannibal Shale are composed chiefly of limestone and 

dolomitic limestone (Chouteau"'Group) except for a 

northwest-trending "basin" of dolomitic silt and 

shale (Northview Formation, fig. 5) as much as 25 

m thick in the vicinity of Springfield in southwestern 

Missouri (Clark and Beveridge, 1952; Thompson 

and Fellows, 1970). The Compton Formation, a 

limestone beneath the N orthview, can be traced into 

Arkansas and Oklahoma and into the subsurface of 

eastern Kansas; Manger and Shanks ( 1976) recognized it as a member of the St. Joe Limestone in 

Arkansas. Statewide, the Kinderhookian· carbonate 

rocks include fossiliferous limestone (with or without chert), oolitic limestone, silty and (or) argillaceous limestone, dolomitic limestone (with or 

without chert), dolomite, and even lithographic 

limestone. Interpretation of depositional environments is locally complicated by facies changes, as 

several of the above-mentioned lithologic types occur close together both horizontally and vertically. 

The Chouteau in its type region in central Missouri, first described by Shallow ( 1855), is, from 

the base to top (fig. 6): fossiliferous limestone 

(Compton facies, units 3 and 4) ; lithographic limestone interfingering with silty, dolomitic limestone 

(unit 5) ; lithographic limestone ("Chouteau limestone", unit 6) ; silty, dolomitic, cherty limestone 

(Sedalia facies, unit 7) ; and dolomitic limestone 

(unit 8). The entire group is not more than 15 m 

'FIGURE 5~~Isopacn map of· the Northview Formation, southwestern 'Missouri (modified from Beveridge and Clark, 

1952). Isopachs in meters. 
N8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

· thick. An isopach map of the Chouteau Group in 

southwestern, west-central, and central Missouri 

(fig. 7) shows the "Northview basin" and the ·in·-

creasing thickness of Chouteau strata to the northeast and north into central Missouri. 

An unpublished study of the Chouteau Group of 

Missouri (Frey, 1967) described five carbonate 

facies in detail and presented a cross section of 

Chouteau strata from southwestern to northeastern 

Missouri (fig. 8). In Frey's interpretation of Chouteau strata, the Chouteau consists of the Compton, 

Sedalia, and N orthview Formations; no "Chouteau 

limestone" was specifically identified by name. 

Frey did recognize two distinct facies, other- than 

transitional facies, that had not been previously 

named formally. The "dolomitic limestone facies" 

(unit D, fig. 8) has been referred to in older literature as the "Chouteau limestone" in central Missouri. Facies unitE is a medium to coarsely crystalline fossiliferous limestone in northeastern Missouri and west-central Illinois; it is quite unlike 

the other Chouteau facies, except possibly for the 

Compton facies (unit F) . The facies E grades into 

the upper part of the Hannibal Shale in northeastern Missouri, whereas the Compton facies (F) appears to be at the base of the Chouteau interval 

throughout its outcrop. 

OSAGEAN SERIES 

The "Osage group" was named by Williams 

(1891, p. 169) without further definition or discussion as part of his "Mississippian series." Later 

geologists differed in their definition of this group. 

Keyes (1892), Weller (1914), and Laudon (1948) 

included the Warsaw Formation as the upper unit 

of the Osagean, whereas Weller ( 1898), Moore 

(1928), and many other geologists (Weller and 

others, 1948) placed the top of the Osagean at the 

base of the Warsaw, the top of the underlying Keokuk Limestone. It was this controversy over the 

placement of the Osagean-Meramecian boundary 

that led to the establishment o:fi (the Valmeyeran 

Series in Illinois (Weller and Sutton, 1933) to include strata previously assigned to both former 

series. 

The type area of the Osagean Series is the Osage 

River valley near Osceola, St. Clair County, westcentral Missouri (fig. 1). However, in this region, 

Osagean exposures are poor, and only part of the 

series is represented. Osagean formations recognized in Missouri include, in descending order: 

Keokuk Limestone, Burlington Limestone, Elsey 

Formation ("lower Burlington" of eastern Missouri), and the Reeds Spring and Pierson Formations (Fern Glen Formation of eastern Missouri). 

Strata of the Osagean Series are more than uniform in lithology than those of the Kinderhookian, 

and the formations are thicker. Except for a thin 

(2-3 m) shale or shaJy limestone in the lower part 

near St. Louis in east-central Missouri (part of the 

Fern Glen Formation; Thompson, 1975), the Osagean is almost without exception a fossiliferous 

limestone or a cherty limestone. Lower Osagean 

limestones can be very cherty, and those in southwestern and east-central Missouri (Reeds Spring 

and Elsey Formations, upper part of the Fern Glen 

and lower part of the Burlington) commonly consists of more than 50 percent chert in at least part 

of the sequence. Upper Osagean limestones (Burlington and Keokuk Limestones) are extremely fossiliferous, the Burlington Limestone being more 

than 90 percent fossil debris throughout much of 

its outcrop. Upper Osagean limestones, more than 

50 m thick, do contain some chert, but as 1 to 3-

m zones separated by 10 to 15-m intervals of chertfree limestone. 

MERAMECIAN SERIES 

The "Meramec group" was named by Ulrich 

(1904, p. 110) for exposures and quarries in the 

"Meramec Highlands" adjacent to the Meramec 

River, St. Louis County, Mo. (fig. 1). Some early 

geologists excluded Warsaw and (or) Ste. Genevieve strata from this series, but Weller and others 

( 1948) defined this series as it is now recognized. 

Meramecian formations in Missouri include, in descending order: Ste. Genevieve Formation, St. 

Louis Limestone, Salem Formation, and Warsaw 

Formation. 

Meramecian rocks are, with the exception of the 

Warsaw and lower Salem of east-central Missouri, 

like the underlying Osagean, a thick sequence of 

fossiliferous limestone. Only near the top (Ste. 

Genevieve Formation) does the clastic content become significant, as an increasing amount of quartz 

sand indicates the beginning of instability that culminated in post-Mississippian-pre-Pennsylvanian 

uplift. 

To the east, in the Michigan and Illinois basins, 

a sequence of deltaic siltstones and shales (Borden 

Siltstone: see Lineback, 1969) built up from the 

east toward the Mississippi River valley region. 

During early Meramecian time, this clastic material 

spilled westward over the Osagean carbonate bank 

that was forming west of the Illinois basin, 
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Limestone, gray, coarsely crystalline, crinoidal; 

interbedded chert; nodules in zones. 

'Rubble zone," chert. Weathered limestone 

Limestone, dark-blue gray; medium to coarsely 

crystalline, very fossiliferous, crinoidal; single 

bed. 

Dolomite; coarsely to very finely crystalline, very 

dense, gray, fossiliferous single bed. 

Siltstone, dolomite, dark-blue gray to green, 

blocky; single uneven continuous bed of silty 

dolomite in upper part. 

Dolomite, silty, dark-blue gray, single bed, 

phosphatic zones, laminated. 

Dolomite and dolomitic limestone, silty, 

dark-gray brown; scattered fossils; chert (25 

percent) as nodules and beds, dark-~ ray black; 

scattered calcite-filled vugs. (Sedalia and 

"Chouteau chert"). 

Limestone (Chouteau), light-gray, lithographic·, 

fossiliferous; irregular beds with silty 

dolomitic partings; chert (5-10 percent) as irregular masses and nodules within 

limestone beds. 

Dolomite and limestone, as alternating zones or 

beds; lateral facies. Dolomite (Sedalia 

Formation), buff, silty, calcitic, very finely 

crystalline. Limestone, dark-blue gray, 

lithographic (Chouteau Limestone); beds 1-,2 

ft thick. 

Limestone, dark-gray to buff, very foss.iliferous; 

finely crystalline, incipient nodular bedding 

very prominent lower part; very even major 

beds. (Compton Limestone) 

Limestone (Compton Limestone), light-gray to 

green-gray; even, medium beds having 

incipient nodular bedding when weathered; 

very finely crystalline matrix, scattered fossils. 

Sandstone, light-gray green; calcite cement, 

very irregular base, even top. 

FIGURE G.-Stratigraphic column of "Chouteau Group" section in the vicinity of Sedalia, Mo., within the type 

region of the Sedalia Formation (location at A' on fig. 8). Unit letters designate facies shown on figure 8. 

N9 
NlO THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

FIGURE 7.-Isopach map of the Chouteau Group, southwestern and western Missouri (modified from Beveridge 

and Clark, 1952). Isopachs in meters. 
A 

MISSOURI 

rr EXPLANATION @]sedalia dolomite 

~Northview ~ ~Formation (shale) l...Q_j Dolomitic limestone 

rD1 NorthviewL...!?_J Sed a I ia 

transition beds 

~ ~ossiliferous 

t..=..J limestone 

(£]Compton limestone 

QHannibal 

~Shale 

A' A" 

=Cs -=i:r o 

7 

E /o / 

~' 

22KILOMETERSI 

II 

FIGURE B.-Stratigraphic cross section of Kinderhookian strata from southwestern (A) to northeastern (A") Missouri, illustrating carbonate facies of 

the Chouteau Group (modified from Frey, 1967). 

~ ~ 

r:n 

r:n 

0 

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Nl2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

stopping carbonate deposition by killing the predominantly echinoderm fauna responsible for a 

large part of the Osagean carbonate sediment and 

depositing shale and siltstone of the Warsaw Formation (a condition similar to that during deposition 

of the Hannibal Shale of Kinderhookian age) . The 

Warsaw shales grade westward into calcareous shale 

and limestone, and finally in western Missouri, the 

sequence is again an unbroken one of fossiliferous 

limestone that shows little evidence of unconformity 

at the base of the Warsaw. The Keokuk-Warsaw 

contact is marked only by a thin (1-2 m) oolite 

(Short Creek Oolite Member of Keokuk Limestone). 

The stable depositional conditions that produced 

a growing carbonate bank throughout Kinderhookian and Osagean time continued virtually unabated until upper Meramecian, when depositional 

environments changed, indicated by anhydrite beds 

and increased clastic rocks (St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve Formations) along with inconsistent limestone types of the St. Louis Limestone. Ste. Genevieve strata reflect more closely those of the overlying Chesterian Series and have in fact been recognized as such by Swann (1963). 

CHESTERIAN SERIES 

Worthen (1866) named the "Chester group" 

from a sequence of sandstones and limestones exposed in the bluffs of the Mississippi River valley 

in the vicinity of Chester, Randolph County, Ill. 

(south of St. Louis, Mo., fig. 1). These strata represent a shifting environment that produced an alternating sequence of 10 formations now recognized 

in southeastern Missouri (five sandstone and five 

limestone) : Vienna Limestone, Tar Springs Sandstone, Glen Dean Limestone, Hardinsburg Formation, Golconda Formation, Cypress Formation, 

Paint Creek Formation, Yankeetown Sandstone, 

Renault Formation, and Aux Vases Sandstone. Conditions had changed considerably from the stable 

conditions of limestone deposition of the preceding 

series. 

In addition, a Chesterian sequence is present in 

southwestern Missouri (Thompson, 1972) that has 

little depositional relationship to that in eastern 

Missouri; it is more closely related to Chesterian 

strata in Oklahoma and Texas. This limestone and 

shale sequence (Hindsville Limestone and Fayetteville Formation) appears to have been deposited in 

a depositional basin separate from that of the eastern sequence, as the difficulty of correlation ·by 

conodonts indicates (Thompson, 1972). 

Outcrops of Chesterian rocks in southwestern 

Missouri are very restricted, preserved as downdropped fault blocks surrounded by Osagean strata. 

Obviously, Chesterian strata covered a much larger 

part of southwestern Missouri at one time, but the 

maximum extent is not known. Outcrops in eastern 

Missouri are restricted to the Mississippi River 

bluffs in northern Perry and southern Ste. Genevieve Counties. 

SUMMARY OF MISSISSIPPIAN SYSTEM 

Mississippian rocks in Missouri indicate depositional stability from earliest Kinderhookian into 

late Meramecian time. Thus, during two-thirds of 

Mississippian time, the region was covered by a 

warm shallow sea in which a broad carbonate shelf 

formed that extended throughout the western interior region (Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, northern 

Arkansas, and northeastern Oklahoma) . Exceptions 

were the influxes of shale and silt into northeastern 

and east-central Missouri from the east that are 

represented by the basal Kinderhookian Hannibal 

Shale and the basal Meramecian Warsaw Formation. Both these units grade westward into 

limestone. 

A northwest-trending trough of silty shale and 

dolomitic siltstone (Northview Formation) was 

rapidly deposited during late Kinderhookian time 

in part of southwestern Missouri, but the source of 

this material has not yet been identified. Deposition 

of the shale and siltstone did no more than create 

a pause in the limestone deposition in the region. 

Limestones of the Mississippian System are compo~ed largely of disaggregated echinoderms and 

other bioclastic debris. The percentage of echinoderm material varies, and other fossil groups are 

represented to various extents. Some limestone 

units are high in matrix material; others are very 

low, composed almost entirely of crinoid debris 

(Burlington Limestone). 

The Mississippian carbonate shelf extended a 

short distance into Arkansas, where it abruptly terminated. In less than 8 km the composite Kinderhookian-lower Osagean section in northern Arkansas decreased from more than 25m to less than 0.5 

m (Thompson and Fellows, 1970). The southern 

end of the shelf facies grades within a short distance into a sediment-poor ("starved") limestone 

facies, where the rate of deposition was much slower 

than that of the shelf. 

An uncommon situation exists in east-central and 

southeastern Missouri from the Meramec River valley just west of St. Louis southward. Osagean strata 
MISSOURI N13 

(Fern Glen and Burlington) appear to be similar to 

those in western and southwestern Missouri (Pierson to Burlington sequence), but except for a very 

thin basal Mississippian sandstone (Bachelor Formation and possibly the Bushberg Sandstone), Kinderhookian carbonate rocks are missing; and no 

evidence is seen of prior deposition or erosion of 

these carbonate rocks. Perhaps Kinderhookian time 

in eastern and southeastern Missouri was a period 

of "still-stand." 

Pre-Mississippian strata range from Early Ordovician (Canadian Series) ·to Late Devonian (Famennian Stage) in age. This surface reflects postDevonian-pre-Mississippian erosion that left Upper 

Devonian strata in northern Missouri and scattered 

places in southwestern Missouri (Grassy Creek and 

Chattanooga shales) but removed all strata down to 

Lower Ordovician in western and southwestern 

Missouri. 

The Kinderhookian-Osagean boundary is represented by a hiatus throughout all but possibly the 

extreme southwestern part of the State (Thompson 

and Fellows, 1970). This short period has been recognized by a fauna of late Kinderhookian conodonts 

absent from the Mississippi River valley sections. 

The base of the Osagean Series, as identified by 

conodonts (Thompson and Fellows, 1970; Thompson, 1975), is consistent and well represented 

throughout most of the State. 

The Osagean-Meramecian boundary is transitional in all but the east-central part of Missouri, 

where the abrupt change from Keokuk limestone to 

Warsaw shale marks this boundary. In western 

Missouri, this boundary is identified as the top of a 

thin ( 1-3 m) oolitic limestone bed separating the 

Keokuk and Warsaw. Little, if any, time is lost 

across this "boundary." 

The Meramecian-Chesterian boundary in eastern 

Missouri has traditionally been placed between the 

Ste. Genevieve Formation and the overlying Aux 

Vases Sandstone, identified on the basis of crinoids 

(Swann, 1963). However, lithologically, the basal 

part of the Ste. Genevieve, where the first clastic 

sediments appear, better reflects the conditions attributable to a series boundary. Conodonts do not 

indicate a faunal change between Ste. Genevieve 

and Chesterian strata but do indicate a distinct 

change between St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve rocks. 

MISSISSIPPIAN -PENNSYLVANIAN BOUNDARY 

The Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary in 

Missouri is represented by a hiatus of variable but, 

in many places, considerable magnitude. Lower and 

(or) Middle Pennsylvanian strata rest on rocks ranging from Early Ordovician (Canadian) to Late Mississippian (Chesterian) in age. However, not all the 

inferred removal took place in post-Mississippian 

time; some took place in pre-Mississippian and also 

during Mississippian time. This hiatus contrasts 

sharply with the nearly transitional MississippianPennsylvanian boundary within the second tier of 

counties south of the Missouri-Arkansas border in 

northwestern Arkansas (Washington to Independence Counties) . 

The youngest identified Mississippian rocks in 

southwestern Missouri constitute the middle Chesterian Fayetteville Formation (Thompson, 1972). 

No exposures of upper Chesterian strata ( equivalent to Pitkin and Imo rocks in Arkansas, fig. 9) 

have been identified in southwestern Missouri. However, Thompson (1970) identified uncommon strata 

near an old coal pit in extreme southwestern Missouri as early Morrowan (Early Pennsylvanian) 

in age; the strata consist of marine sedimentary 

rocks that correlate, by conodonts, directly with the 

Prairie Grove Member of the Hale Formation in the 

type region of the Morrowan Series in Washington 

County, Ark. This correlation leads to the possibility 

that the transitional Mississippian-Pennsylvanian 

seas may have extended north into southwestern 

Missouri. 

Current and unpublished studies by the author 

describe late Morrowan and Atokan strata in the 

west-central part of Missouri that are preserved 

within low regions of an undulating erosional surface on middle Mississippian (Meramecian and 

Osagean) limestones. Thus, considerable erosion 

took place before the appearance of Morrowan seas 

in this region. Because the Chesterian formations 

of southwestern Missouri rest on the Osagean Keokuk Limestone (the entire Meramecian and upper 

Osagean are missing), much of the pre-Pennsylvanian erosion might have been pre-Chesterian as 

well. 

Late Morrowan and Atokan sediments were deposited in extreme western Missouri before initial 

deposition of the more widespread Desmoinesian 

sandstones. The total present extent of pre-Desmoinesian strata is quite limited. The overlying continental Desmoinesian sandstones overlapped the 

Atokan shales eastward over the Mississippian erosional surface, extending well beyond the known 

margin of Atokan deposition. Between the top of 

the Mississippian and basal Pennsylvanian sandstones is the "basal Pennsylvanian conglomerate," 
N14 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

E 

Atokan Atokan Formation (Winslow Formation) Q) Series .... 

(/) 

>-

(/) (/) Kessler Limestone Member c:: Q) 

-~ 'i: Bloyd Dye Shale Member Q) 

c:: (/) «l Formation Woolsey Member > c:: 

> «l Brentwood Limestone Member (/) ~ c:: 0 c:: a... 

Q) 0 Hale Prairie Grove Member a.. ~ Formation Cane Hill Member 

E 

Q) (/) .... Q) (/) 'i: >- lmo Formation 

(/) Q) 

(/) Pitkin Formation ~\ c:: Fayetteville Formation ·a. «l 

'i: a. Q) Batesville Sandstone 'iii .... 

(/) (/) Q) Hindsville Limestone 'iii ~ 

.~ u ~ 

FIGURE 9.-Upper Mississippian ( Cheste·rian Series) and 

Lower Pennsylvanian (Morrowan Series) formations of 

northwestern Arkansas. 

composed of well-rounded boulders and pebbles of 

Mississippian chert within a quartz sand matrix 

(Graydon Formation). 

Over much of the basal Pennsylvanian-outcrop 

region, the oldest Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks 

are those of the Desmoinesian Cherokee Group (including the sandstone mentioned above). These sedimentary rocks are generally of a continental nature, 

a complex of distributary channel sandstones, interbedded shales and coals, and widespread sheet 

sandstones. In central and eastern Missouri, Pennsylvanian clay, shale, and sandstone were deposited 

on a karst surface of Lower Ordovician (Canadian) 

dolomites. These strata (Cheltenham Formation), 

previously considered Atokan in age (Searight and 

Howe, 1961), are now regarded as "unassigned" 

(Anderson and others, 1979). The lowest recognizable Pennsylvanian beds overlying these clay and 

shale beds are basal members of the Marmaton 

Group. Cheltenham strata are questionably correlated with Cherokee strata elsewhere. 

PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEM 

Pennsylvanian strata of North America are not 

as easy to relate on a continent-wide basis as are 

those of the Mississippian because of the distinct 

differences in lithologic sequences between major 

depositional regions (such as the Pennsylvania coal 

basin, Illinois basin, and western interior coal basin 

of Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Missouri). Therefore, several separate classifications 

exist, each applicable to a particular region. As described by Moore and others (1944, chart 6) the 

"Mid-Continent Region" Pennsylvanian System consists of five series, originally identified as formations, bounded by major unconformities within the 

Pennsylvanian sequence. They are, in descending 

order: Virgilian Series (Moore, 1932), Missourian 

Series (Keyes, 1894), Desmoinesian Series (Keyes, 

1894), Atokan Series (Taff and Adams, 1900; Lampasas Series, in Moore and others, 1944) and Morrowan Series (Adams and Ulrich, 1905). These unconformities often are marked by the presence of 

bodies of sandstone resting as sheets and (or) channels on an eroded surface of the previous series. 

Pennsylvanian stratigraphic units in the midcontinent region (western-interior coal basin) are distinctive in their extreme thinness, despite great 

lateral persistence. The same formations-even 

members of formations-extend over Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri (and some into Oklahoma) . A single shale bed 1 m thick can be identified 

from western Kansas to northern Missouri, and one 

of the coal beds ( Crowebrug) has been correlated 

from Kansas to Pennsylvania (Hopkins and Simon, 

1975, p. 187). 

In this complex stratigraphic sequence, a great 

number of formations have been recognized-69 

presently in Missouri, alone-composed of more 

than 100 formally recognized members. Because the 

Pennsylvanian depositional history was one of cyclic 

sequences (Weller, 1930; Moore, 1930, 1931), formations have been combined into groups by cyclic 

similarities. Originally proposed as formations, each 

of the nine formally named groups possesses peculiar 

and distinct attributes that distinguish it from 

others. The groups are bounded by unconformities 

of regional distribution. For clarity, and to best describe both physical and economic conditions, Pennsylvanian strata in Missouri will be detailed to the 

group level (fig. 10). 

MORROW AN AND ATOKAN SERIES 

Adams and Ulrich ( 1905) defined the "Morrow 

formation" from outcrops in Washington County, 

Ark. Although identified as the "Morrow series" by 

Moore (1932), Henbest (1962a,b) formally defined 

the Morrowan Series as presently recognized. 

Taff and Adams (1900) named the "Atoka shale" 

from a thick sequence exposed in Atoka County, 
MISSOURI N15 

Virgilian Series 

Wabaunsee Group 

Shawnee Group 

Douglas Group 

M issou ria n Series 

Pedee Group 

Lansing Group 

Kansas City Group 

Pleasanton Group 

Desmoinesian Series 

Marmaton Group 

Cherokee Group 

Atokan Series 

.Morrowan Series 

FIGURE 10.-Stratigraphic framework for 

Pennsylvanian System in Missouri, to 

group level. 

Okla. Unfortunately, this exposure is essentially 

unfossiliferous, and the inability to determine accurately the relationship between type Atokan strata 

and those of the type Morrowan in Arkansas has 

been the basis of a controversy over the validity of 

the Atokan Series as a time-stratigraphic (chronostratigraphic) unit (see Shaver and Smith, 1974). 

Moore and others ( 1944) defined this sequence as 

the Lampasas Series, from a section exposed in 

Texas. Dunn (1976) and Webster (1969) identified 

this interval as the Derryan Series, named by 

Thompson (1942) from a section in New Mexico. 

However, the relationship of Derryan strata to type 

Morrowan is also unclear because Thompson did not 

recognize Morrowan in his sections but identified all 

pre-Desmoinesian strata as "Derryan." Atokan 

Series is still used in the midcontinent region for 

lack of a more clearly defined series. 

Distribution of Pennsylvanian strata older than 

Desmoinesian in Missouri is not well known; strata 

are generally discontinuous and in some areas are 

limited to remnants preserved in collapse or fault 

structures (fig. 11). Before 1970, no rocks of Morrowan age had been positively identified in Missouri. 

Sandstone capping outliers of Chesterian (Upper 

Mississippian) strata in extreme southwestern Missouri (formerly identified as the Hale Formation; 

Searight and Howe, 1961; Thompson, 1972) has recently been identified as Mississippian in age by 

E. Glick (Wedington Sandstone Member of the 

Fayetteville Formation (oral commun., 1975) .) 

Thompson (1970) recovered a conodont fauna of 

definite Morrowan age from one isolated outcrop 

preserved as a block within a fault zone in southwestern Missouri; he correlated these rocks with 

the early Morrowan Prairie Grove Member of the 

Hale Formation in the type Morrowan region of 

northwestern Arkansas. 

Beneath the shale of the Riverton Formation in 

west-central Missouri is a thin (1-3m) calcium carbonate-cemented quartz sandstone (hereafter 

termed "calcareous sandstone") that lies directly on 

the eroded surface of Mississippian limestone. This 

sandstone was included within the Riverton by Searight (1959). However, it has yielded ·a conodont 

fauna that indicates a Morrowan age. Conodonts 

recovered from the shale of the overlying Riverton 

Formation indicate an Atokan age. 

The Burgner Formation (Searight and Palmer, 

1957), named from a core taken in a sink structure 

near Joplin, Mo., was dated by fusulinids (Thompson, 1953) as mid-Atokan in age. In the type 

Burgner Core, limestone of the limestone, shale, and 

coal sequence yielded a conodont fauna younger 

than that recovered from the calcareous sandstone 

c 

(Q 

Q) c. ·c;; (/) cue. (/)::I Warner Formation ~-~ ::.e. ::::I .oe 

·c; Q; ee CUC) 

E(/) ~(!) '-.o 

~::I (/) u (/) Hartshorne ? Formation Q) 

0 

E Riverton Formation Q) 

-(/) 

> 

en 

c: (/) 

Q) Burgner Formation -~ ·c c: Q) 

co en 

> c: > co Mclouth Formation (/) ~ (subsurface only) c: 0 c: .... Q) <( a.. 1-------- ? --------

Cheltenham Formation 

c: ---------? ---------

~:3 g ·~ 

OU'J Hale Formation 

:2 

FIGURE 11.-Lower Pennsylvanian sequence in western Missouri, as presented by Searight and Howe (1961). 
N16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

beneath the Riverton shales in west-central Missouri but definitely older than that recovered from 

the Riverton shales. Burgner strata are interpreted 

to lie approximately at the Morrowan-Atokan boundary and to be of very early Atokan age in at least 

the upper part. The Burgner, like the Riverton in 

the Joplin area, is found primarily within collapse 

or filled-sink structures in Mississippian limestones. 

The limestone of the Burgner Formation is definitely 

marine, as is the calcareous sandstone, and thus its 

presence indicates Morrowan to early Atokan seas 

in southwestern Missouri (Thompson, 1970) and 

into west-central Missouri. 

The Riverton Formation (fig. 11), beneath the 

basal Krebs Subgroup of the Cherokee Group, has 

been preserved in several sink structures around 

Joplin. Riverton strata are also known north of 

Joplin in west-central Missouri beneath the basal 

formation of the Krebs Subgroup (Warner Formation). The pre-Pennsylvanian surface in west-central Missouri is broadly undulating. On the highest 

parts, the sandstone of the basal Krebs Warner Formation rests directly on Mississippian strata. The 

Riverton strata and underlying Morrowan calcareous sandstone are increasingly thick toward the 

lowest parts of the undulating surface. The calcareous sandstone is generally present only in the deepest parts, is more restricted than the overlying 

shale, and has been identified in only one small area 

(fig. 12). In the region of Joplin, beds of the Riverton Formation (coal, shale, and sandstone) have 

been distorted and dip steeply into circular collapse 

structures; this position indicates that the Riverton 

beds were let down into the structures after they 

were deposited. Much of the lead and zinc recovered 

from the Missouri part of the Tri-State mining district was obtained along the walls of these circular 

structures. 

Searight and Howe (1961) regarded the Riverton 

as late Atokan in age (fig. 11). Conodonts recovered 

from the basal part of the Riverton at two localities 

(Thompson, unpub. data), one an open sink structure near Joplin, the other an outcrop in west-central Missouri, clearly indicate an Atokan age for 

the Riverton Shales; that is they are younger than 

the Burgner Formation. From this, the relationship 

of pre-Desmoinesian formations of western Missouri is shown in figure 13. 

DESMOINESIAN SERIES 

The "Des Moines formation" was named by Keyes 

( 1894, p. 82) to "represent the lower Coal MeasMISSOURI 

[J 

0 

)( 

FIGURE 12.-Areas of known Morrowan and Atokan 

strata. X, lower Morrowan strata; O, Riverton and 

Burgner Formations near Joplin, Missouri, Atokan in 

age; 0, Riverton Formation (Atokan) and underlying 

Morrowan calcareous sandstone. 

ures, or the marginal deposits of the Upper Carboniferous." The type locality is along the Des 

Moines River in central Iowa. Originally, the "Des 

Moines series" (Keyes, 1896) extended to the base 

of the present Kansas City Group and included the 

section now named the Pleasanton Group (lower 

Missourian Series). Moore (1932) restricted the 

"Des Moines series" to its present limits, which includes only the Cherokee and Marmaton Groups. 

The name was combined to "Desmoinesian" by 

Moore (1948). 

Desmoinesian strata are divided into two named 

groups, the Cherokee and overlying Marmaton. They 

are quite distinct from each other, the Cherokee 

composed almost entirely of shale, clay, sandstone, 

and coal beds, the Marmaton, of alternating limestone and shale and of minor sandstone bodies associated with the thicker beds of shale. 

Desmoinesian 

Series 

Atokan 

Series 

Morrowan 

Series 

Warner Formation 

Riverton Formation 

Burgner Formation 

"calcareous sandstone" 

"correlative of Prairie Grove 

Member of Hale Formation" 

FIGURE 13.-Proposed sequence of Lower Pennsylvanian formations in western and southwestern Missouri. 
MISSOURI N17 

Cherokee Group.-Most of the minable coal beds 

in Missouri are found in the Cherokee Group. 

Haworth and Kirk (1894, p. 105) named the 

"Cherokee formation" for strata of the "lower division of the Lower Coal Measures" from exposures 

in Cherokee County, Kans. Depositional conditions 

were complex, most sedimentary rocks being sandstone (occurring as shallow channels (of a distributory nature) and broad sheets), siltstone, clay (underclay), overlying coal beds, and a few thin beds 

of limestone. Lower Cherokee strata contain thick 

coal-bearing shales between and contemporary with 

distributary-channel and widespread sheet sandstones. Sandstone is less abundant in upper Cherokee strata, where clay and shale are dominant. 

Marmaton Group.-Marmaton strata are an alternating sequence of limestone and shale; several 

of the limestone beds are thick enough for quarrying. A coal bed (Summit coal) is present above 

the basal limestone but is minable only in a few 

restricted areas. Haworth (1898, p. 92) named the 

"upper division of the Lower Coal Measures" the 

"Marmaton formation" from strata exposed along 

the Marmaton River in eastern Kansas. Originally 

including Pleasanton strata in the upper p·art, 

Moore (1932) restricted the group to its present 

definition. Many early geologists called this sequence 

the "Henrietta formation," or "Henrietta group" 

(named by Keyes, 1898), but Greene and Searight 

(1949) formally abandoned this name in favor of 

Marmaton. 

Marmaton strata are an alternation of two sedimentary cycles: a sequence of thin limestone-shalelimestone units, and a thick shale (in many places 

associated with channel sandstone bodies and coal 

beds) . Four of each of these basic cycles constitute 

the Marmaton. The top of the group is marked by 

major channel sandstone of the basal Missourian 

Pleasanton Group. 

MISSOURIAN SERIES 

Keyes ( 1894, p. 82) named the "Missouri formation" to correspond to the "upper Coal Measures." 

The type locality is in the bluffs of the Missouri 

River valley in northwestern Missouri. Originally 

defined to include all Pennsylvanian strata above 

the Desmoinesian, Moore (1932) restricted the definition to include beds between two important unconformities, one at the base of the Pleasanton, the 

other (top) between the Pedee and overlying 

Douglas Groups. 

The Missourian Series consists of four groups: 

the basal Pleasanton Group, which is an unconformable continental sandstone and shale sequence on 

the underlying marine Desmoinesian (Marmaton) 

strata, and the predominantly marine Kansas City, 

Lansing, and Pedee Groups. 

Pleasanton Group.-The "Pleasanton shales" 

(Haworth and Bennett, 1896, p. 44) were named 

for a sequence of shale and sandstone cropping out 

in the vicinity of Pleasanton, Linn County, eastern 

Kansas. Although almost entirely a clastic unit, a 

conspicuous limestone (Exline in Missouri, Checkerboard in Kansas) about one-fourth to one-half 

meter thick, is persistent in the lower part of the 

group. One important aspect of Pleasanton strata 

is in the impressive channel sandstones exposed in 

west-central (Warrensburg Sandstone Member) 

and north-central (Moberly Sandstone Member) 

Missouri, representing remnants of a once-extensive 

drainage system in early Missourian time. 

Kansas City Group.-The "Kansas City formation" (Hinds and Greene, 1915, p. 23) is a sequence 

of alternating beds of limestone and shale. Formations are defined on the basis of cycles of limestoneshale-limestone formations alternating with shale 

or shale-limestone-shale formations. In all, 17 formations have been named in the Kansas City Group, 

of which 5 are shale units not divided into members. Several limestone members are thick (3 m) 

and have been extensively quarried in the Kansas 

City region. 

Complex cyclic sedimentation is represented in 

some of the Kansas City formations. Sequences of 

distinctive associations (Swope Formation) are repeated almost exactly in younger successions in the 

Virgilian Series (Shawnee Group). 

Lansing and Pedee G1·oups.-The Lansing and 

Pedee Groups (originally part of the Kansas City 

Group) continue the limestone-shale-limestone sequence. The Pedee Group was removed by pre-Virgilian erosion in some places north of Kansas City; 

this removal left a Missourian-Virgilian unconformity. The "Lansing formation" was first identified by 

Hinds (1912, p. 7), and the Pedee was named by 

Moore (1932, p. 88); the type localities are near 

the town of Lansing, Leavenworth County, Kans., 

and along the "Pedee Branch in vicinity of Weston, 

Missouri," in Platte County (Moore, 1936, p. 137). 

VIRGILIAN SERIES 

Moore (1932) named the "Virgil series" for 

strata near the town of Virgil, Greenwood County, 
N18 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Kans. Condra (1949, p. 11) located the type area 

as "on Verdigris River from west of Madison to 

Virgil and southeastward to central Wilson County." 

Virgilian strata are divided into three groups, the 

Douglas, Shawnee, and Wabaunsee. The formations 

of the last two are complex, and cyclic, some consisting of "megacyclothems," a certain repetitive 

cycle of cyclothems. Heckel (1968, 1975, 1977) and 

Heckel and Baeseman (1975) have described in detail the environmental sequences identified by specific rock types within these cyclic sequences. 

Douglas Group.-Named for Douglas County, 

Kans., by Haworth (1898, p. 92, 93), the "Douglas 

formation" was proposed as a group by Moore 

(1932). The base of the group is marked by a channel sandstone (Tonganoxie Sandstone Member of 

Stranger Formation) in parts of northeastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri. The remaining 

Douglas strata are predominantly shale but contain a few thin limestone members. 

Shawnee Group.-Haworth (1898, p. 93) named 

the "Shawnee formation" from strata exposed in 

Shawnee County, Kans. Moore (1932) redefined 

these strata as the Shawnee Group, composed of a 

sequence of "megacycles," each reflecting a complex 

cycle of sedimentation. Limestone beds predominate 

in this sequence, although some beds of thick shale 

are also present. Characteristic of these strata are 

certain units of thin shale that are laterally persistent over much of the midcontinent region. 

Wabaunsee Group.-Named from strata in 

Wabaunsee County, Kans. (Prosser, 1895, p. 689), 

the "Wabaunsee formation" was redefined by Moore 

(1936) as the Wabaunsee Group. It is distinguished 

from the Shawnee Group by a larger relative percentage of shale and relatively more sand and sandstone in the shales. As stated by Moore (1936, p. 

201), "A distinctive feature of the Wabaunsee 

group is the character of the cyclic sedimentary succession, which shows regularly alternating nonmarine and marine units in which a grouping of 

cyclothems in megacyclothems is not evident. This 

serves especially to set the Wabaunsee beds apart 

from those of the Shawnee group." 

SUMMARY OF PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEM 

Whereas Mississippian strata represent a period 

of stable shallow marine deposition in the Missouri 

region, Pennsylvanian strata indicate a period of 

continuous change. Earliest Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks (Morrowan Series) are known from one 

outcrop in southwestern Missouri, which may represent the extension of Morrowan seas of northwestern Arkansas into Missouri. Remnants of Atokan 

strata are primarily shales, which indicate less 

stable, more continental conditions. Strata of the 

lower Desmoinesian Cherokee Group are primarily 

sandstone and shale, which reflect a distributary, 

deltaic to coastal-plain environment; the fluctuating, 

very shallow swampy environment of the "Coal 

Measures" proper is best seen in the upper Cherokee Group. 

Pennsylvanian strata of the upper Desmoinesian 

(Marmaton Group) and above, with the exception of 

the Pleasanton strata, generally consist of alternating limestone and shale. Conditions alternated from 

shallow marine to nonmarine continental. Marine 

phases consist of limestone and thin shale; these alternating with the continental phase, of thick shale, 

sandy shale, and (or) sandstone. Several coal beds 

formed during this continental phase are thick 

enough to be mined. However, most of the economically important coal beds are within the Cherokee Group. 

Thus, in contrast with the stable conditions of 

Mississippian time, Pennsylvanian environments of 

.deposition ranged from shallow open marine to complete regression to low-relief continental (deltaic 

and coastal plain) . 

MINERAL RESOURCES 

Mineral production from Carboniferous strata in 

Missouri has consisted primarily of limestone, refractory clay, shale, lead, zinc, and coal. Few significant amounts of petroleum and natural gas have 

been recovered from these strata, although there is 

current interest in the "tar sands," or heavy oil in 

the lower Pennsylvanian sandstones of western 

Missouri. 

MISSISSIPPIAN SYSTEM 

Limestone is the single most important economic 

product derived from Mississippian strata in Missouri today. Both dimension and crushed and broken 

stone are produced from open-pit and drive-in mines. 

The limestone is used principally for construction 

aggregate, marble and dimension stone, agricultural 

limestone (aglime), riprap, filler, and the manufacture of cement and lime. Throughout the Mississippian outcrop region, quarries are common, and 

many are associated with past highway construction. Large permanent quarries exist where special 

products are produced, such as cement or dimen-
MISSOURI N19 

sion stone, and in urban areas, where the demand 

for construction aggregate is high. Several underground operations have been converted to warehouse storage. In the past, lead and zinc were recovered from Mississippian Formations in the TriState district of southwestern Missouri and the adjoining areas of Kansas and Oklahoma, but this activity has ceased in the last 10 years. 

Lead and zinc were mined extensively in the TriState district (Missouri-Kansas-Oklahoma) from 

the late 19th century to the early 1970's, when low 

prices and decreasing quality or grade of ores forced 

closing of the mining and milling operations. Production of significant amounts had ceased in the 

early 1950's in Missouri. Peak production, in 1916, 

was valued at $41,681,000 and consisted of 155,527 

tons of recoverable zinc and 30,827 tons of recoverable lead (Wharton and others, 1969). 

KINDERHOOKIAN SERIES 

Limestone of the Chouteau Group is quarried 

primarily for use as aggregates in bituminous surfacing, roadstone (base and surfacing), aglime, 

and riprap. It is generally dolomitic and (or) cherty 

and does not always meet the specifications for concrete aggregate. In western Missouri, the region of 

greatest thickness, Chouteau carbonate rocks were 

quarried adjacent to railroads, and several very 

large quarries were developed before 1950. Where 

less dolomitic, as in southwestern Missouri, Kinderhookian limestones are quarried with the overlying 

Osagean strata. 

OSAGEAN SERIES 

Osagean limestones are used extensively throughout their outcrop area as construction aggregate 

and aglime and for cement and lime manufacture. 

The Burlington Limestone is quarried in southwestern Missouri (Springfield) for lime manufacture 

and in northeastern Missouri (Hannibal) for the 

manufacture of cement. Several chert-free zones in 

Osagean formations are quite widespread, and those 

near construction projects are quarried. As stated, 

Osagean strata were the principal source beds for 

lead and zinc ores in the Tri-State district that included southwestern Missouri. 

MERAMECIAN SERIES 

Meramecian limestones, like those of the Osagean 

Series, are extensively quarried throughout their 

outcrop area fbr use as construction aggregates and 

in cement and lime manufacture. The Salem limestone is mined in southeastern Missouri (at Ste. 

Genevieve) for lime, and the St. Louis limestone is 

quarried in the St. Louis region for cement. The 

Mississippi Lime Co. at Ste. Genevieve is the largest 

lime plant in the United States. The Warsaw Formation is mined and quarried in southwestern Missouri (Carthage) for dimension stone, known commercially as "Carthage marble." 

Lead and zinc in t;he Tri-State region have been 

recovered from Meramecian limestones. Several 

large solution structures (sinkholes) in Meramecian 

Warsaw limestone were filled with lower Pennsylvanian shales and sandstones. Galena and sphalerite 

were mined from the wall rock of these sink structures; many of the excavations are more than 200 

feet in both depth and width. 

CHESTERIAN SERIES 

Chesterian strata, which have a very small outcrop area in the State, contain only a few limestone quarries in southwestern Missouri (Hindsville Limestone) and limestone and sandstone quarries along the Mississippi River in southeastern 

Missouri. The limestone and sandstone have been 

used primarily for riprap. 

PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEM 

Pennsylvanian strata are commercially important 

sources of coal, limestone, shale, and refractory 

clay. Several thick beds of shale in central and 

western Missouri have been mined extensively for 

use in the .manufacture of structural clay products 

(brick, tile, lightweight aggregate). Coal from the 

Cherokee Group continues to be used as fuel in 

Missouri's steam-powered electric-generating plants. 

Several beds of limestone in the Marmaton, Kansas 

City, and Shawnee Groups are of sufficient thickness 

to be sources of construction aggregates, aglime, 

and cement manufacture. East-central Missouri is 

one of the major refractory clay (fireclay) producing areas in the United States. 

DESMOINESIAN SERIES 

Che1·okee Group.-Most minable coal beds in Missouri are within the Cherokee Group. Recent emphasis on replacing petroleum-based fuels has led 

to increased study of coal resources of Missouri. 

Evaluation of Missouri coal fields is currently underway by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Land Survey, torefine reserve estimates. 

The major refractory clay resources are preMarmaton but whether they are equivalent to 
N20 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

the Cherokee or are older (pre-Desmoinesian) is 

questionable. 

Marmaton Group.-The principal resources of the 

Marmaton Group are limestone and coal. Several 

limestone beds, chiefly the Higginsville and Myrick 

Station, are quarried where they are of sufficient 

thickness. The principal coal beds that are mined 

locally are the Summit, Lexington, and Mulberry. 

MISSOURIAN SERIES 

Pleasanton Group.-Thick beds of shale in the 

Pleasanton Group in northwestern Missouri are a 

major source of raw material for the manufacture 

of structural clay products. The shale is quarried 

near Chillicothe for the manufacture of brick. 

Kansas City Group.-The principal resource of 

Kansas City Group is limestone for construction 

aggregates and aglime. Several limestone members 

are quarried in the Kansas City region of northwestern Missouri (Bethany Falls, Winterset, Argentine). The Bethany Falls is quarried at Kansas City 

for cement manufacture. A large number of drive-in 

mines have been developed in the Bethany Falls 

limestone, and many of these have been converted 

to warehouse and office space. 

Lansing and Pedee Groups.-A few limestone 

beds have been quarried in northwestern Missouri 

from Lansing (Spring Hill, .Stoner) and Pedee 

(Iatan) strata, although the strata are primarily 

shale. Shale of the Weston Formation (Lansing 

Group) is quarried north of the Kansas City region 

for the manufacture of lightweight aggregate. 

VIRGILIAN SERIES 

Douglas and Shawnee Gr-oups.-The Amazonia, 

Plattsmouth, and Ervine Creek limestones are the 

major source of construction aggregates and aglime 

in the extreme northwestern part of the State. The 

units are thin, and many quarries have been 

opened. 

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MISSOURI N21 

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Spreng, A. C., 1961, Mississippian System, in Koenig, J. W., 

ed., The stratigraphic succession in Missouri: Missouri 

Div. Geol. Survey and Water Resources, 2d ser., v. 40, 

p. 49-78. 

Swallow, G. C., 1855, The first and second annual reports of 

the geological survey of Missouri: Jefferson City, Mo., 

239 p. 

Swann, D. H., 1963, Classification of Genevievian and 

Chesterian (Late Mississippian) rocks of Illinois: Illinois State Geol. Survey Rept. Inv. 216, 91 p., 1 pl. 

Taff, J. A., and Adams, G. I., 1900, Geology of the eastern 

Choctaw coal field, Indian Territory: U.S. Geol. Survey 

21st Ann. Rept., pt. 2, p. 257-311. 

Thompson, M. L., 1942, Pennsylvanian System in New Mexico: Socorro, N. Mex., New Mexico School Mines Bull. 

17,90p. 

--- 1953, Primitive Fusulinella from southern Missouri: 

Jour. Paleontology, v. 27, no. 3, p. 321-327, pls. 41, 42. 

Thompson, T. L., 1970, Lower Pennsylvanian conodonts from 

McDonald County, Missouri: Jour. Paleontology, v. 44, 

n~ 6,p. 1041-1048, pl. 139~ 

--- 1972, Conodont biostratigraphy of Chesterian strata 

in southwestern Missouri: Missouri Geol. Survey and 

Water Resources Rept. Inv. 50, 48 p., 1 pl. 

--- 1975, Redescription and correlation of the Fern Glen 

Formation of Missouri: Missouri Geol. Survey Rept. 

Inv. 57, pt. 5, p. 141-172. 

Thompson, T. L., and Anderson, K. H., 1976, The Mississippian System: Missouri Geol. Survey, Supp. 1 to v. 40 

(The stratigraphic succession in Missouri), 85 p. 

Thompson, T. L., and Fellows, L. D., 1970, Stratigraphy and 

conodont biostratigraphy of Kinderhookian and Osage;an 

(Lower Mississippian) rocks of southwestern Missouri 

and adjacent areas: Missouri Geol. Survey and Water 

Resources Rept. Inv. 45, 263 p., 10 pis. 

Ulrich, E. 0., 1904, Preliminary notes on classification and 

nomenclature of certain Paleozoic rock units in eastern 

Missouri, in Buckley, E. R., and Buehler, H. A., The 

quarrying industry in Missouri: Missouri Bur. Geology 

and Mines; 2d ser., v. 2, p. 109-111. 

--- 1911, Revision of the Paleozoic systems: Geol. Soc. 

America Bull., v. 22, p. 281-680. 

Webster, G. D., 1969, Chester through Derry conodonts and 

stratigraphy of northern Clark and southern Lincoln 

Counties, Nevada: California Univ. Pubs. Geol. Sciences, v. 79, 121 p., 8 pls. 

Weller, J. M., 1930, Cyclical sedimentation of the Pennsylvanian Period and its significance: Jour. Geology, v. 

38,no. 2, p. 97-135. 

Weller, J. M., and Sutton, A. H., 1933, in Moore, R. C. Historical geology: New York, McGraw-Hill Book Co., p. 

261-262. 

--- 1940, Mississippian border of Eastern Interior basin: 

Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 24, no. 5, p. 

765-858. 

Weller, J. M., chairman, and others, 1948, Correlation of the 

Mississippian formations of North America [correlation chart 5]: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 59, no. 2, p. 91-

106. 

Weller, Stuart, 1898, Classification of the Mississippian 

series: Jour. Geology, v. 6, p. 303-314. 

--- 1909, Kinderhook faunal studies, Pt. 5, The fauna of 

the Fern· Glen Formation: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 

20, p. 265-332, pis. 10'-15. 

--- 1914, The Mississippian Brachiopoda of the Mississippi Valley basin: Illinois State Geol. Survey Mon. 1, 

508 p. 

Weller, Stuart, and St. Clair, Stuart, 1928, Geology of Ste. 

Genevieve County, Missouri: Missouri Bur. Geology and 

Mines, 2d ser., v. 22, 352 p. 

Wells, J. S., 1960, Corning fi.eld and Tarkio field in Missouri, 

in Kansas oil and gas fields, northeast Kansas: Kansas 

Geol. Soc., v. 3, p. 199-210. 

Wharton, H. M., and others, 1969, Missouri minerals-resources, production, and forecasts: Missouri Geol. Survey 

and Water Resources Spec. Pub. 1, 303 p. 

Williams, H. S., 1891, Correlation papers: Devonian and 

Carboniferous: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 80, 279 p. 

Willman, H. B., and others, 1975, Handbook of Illinois stratigraphy: Illinois Geol. Survey Bull. 95, 261 p. 

Winchell, Alexandria, 1872, Report of a geological survey of 

the vicinity of Belleplaine, Scott County, Minnesota: St. 

Paul, Minn., 16 p. 

Worthen, A. H., 1866, ·[Geology of Illinois] Stratigraphical 

geology, Tertiary deposits and coal measures; Subcarboniferous limestone; Devonian and Silurian Systems: 

Illinois State Geol. Survey, v. 1, p. 1-152. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Systems 

in the United States-Arkansas 

B)' BOYD R. HALEY, ERNEST E. GLICK, WILLIAM M. CAPLAN, 

DREW F. HOLBROOK, and CfiARLES G. STONE 

GEOLOGICAL SUR\TEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-0 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Arkansas Geological Commission 

Historical review and sununary of areal, stratigraphic, 

structural, and econo1nic geology of Mississippian and 

Pennsylvanian rocks in Arkansas 

UNITED STATES G 0 VERN l\1 EN T PRINTING 0 F F ICE, WASHING T 0 N 1 9 7 9 

FIGURE 1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

TABLE 1. 

2. 

CONTENTS 

Page 

Abstract ----------------------------------------------------------------- 01 

Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Geologic investigations ________________________ --------- _ _ __ __ __ ___ _ __ ___ _ _ 1 

Geologic setting, by Ernest E. Glick ---------------------------------------- 3 

Lithostratigraphy --------------------------------------------------------- 6 

Igneous rocks, metamorphic rocks, and veins, by Charles G. Stone ------------ 7 

Economic products -------------------------------------------------------- 8 

Coal ----------------------------------------------------------------- 8 

Oil and natural gas, by William M. Caplan ----------------------------- 9 

Minerals, by Drew F. Holbrook --------------------------------------- 9 

Metallic minerals __________________________ ------------------- ___ _ 9 

Antimony ---------------------------------------------------- 9 

Barium ------------------------------------------------------ 12 

Manganese --------------------------------------------------- 12 

Mercury ----------------------------------------------------- 13 

Vanadium ---------------------------------------------------- 13 

Zinc and lead ------------------------------------------------ 13 Nonmetallic minerals ------ __ _ __ __ ___ __ _____ ______ __ __ _ _ ____ ___ _ __ 13 

Dimension stone ---------------------------------------------- 13 

Limestone ---------------------------------------------------- 13 

Slate -------------------------------------------------------- 14 Tripoli _________________________________ -· ___ ~- _________ --- __ _ 14 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Index map showing physiographic regions and outcrop of Carbol;liferous rocks ----------------------

Outcrop map of Carboniferous rocks ---------------------------'------------------------------------

Chart showing correlation of Carboniferous rocks ---------------------------------------------------

Diagrammatic section of Atokan and older rocks --------------·--·------------------------------------ Arkansas Valley coal-field map _____________ -------- ___________ ------ ______________ -----------------

Charts showing distribution of estimated original reserves of coal -----------------------------------

Gas-field map ___________________________________ ---"'--------------------------------------------·-

TABLES 

Major contributions pertaining to the Carboniferous rocks of Arkansas ------------------------------

Natural-gas wells of economic and historic significance in the Carboniferous rocks of Arkansas --------

III 

Page 

02 

3 

4 

7 

8 

10 

12 

Page 

02 

11 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) 

SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES-ARKANSAS 

By BoYD R. HALEY, ERNEST E. GLICK, vVILLIAM M. CAPLAN, 1 

DREW F. HoLBROoK; and CHARLES G. STONE • 

ABSTRACT 

Rocks of Carboniferous age are exposed in the northwestern third of Arkansas; more than two-thirds of the exposed rocks are of Pennsylvanian age. The contact between 

Devonian and Carboniferous rocks in most of Arkansas must 

be paleontologically determined. The area that is now Arkansas received shallow- to deep-water marine deposits until the 

start of the Ouachita orogeny (Middle Pennsylvanian). Most 

of the Middle and all of the Upper Pennsylvanian rocks have 

been removed by erosion. Sill-like lenses of soapstone-serpentine of possible Late Pennsylvanian age are found in Middle 

Ordovician rocks. Beds of volcanic tuff are present in Upper 

Mississippian rocks. Hydrothermal quartz veins of Late Pennsylvanian age are abundant in the Ouachita Mountains. 

Commercial quantities of coal, natural gas, antimony, barium, 

manganese, mercury, zinc, lead, dimension stone, limestone, 

slate, and tripoli are present in Carboniferous rocks. 

INTRODUCTION 

The outcrop area of Carboniferous rocks shown 

in figure 1 contains rocks of Devonian and Mississippian age and of Early and Middle Pennsylvanian age. 

The contact between Devonian and Mississippian 

rocks, as paleontologically determined~ is in a rock 

unit that cannot be lithologically separated in most 

of Arkansas; hence, Devonian rocks are included 

in .figure 1. 

Rocks of Carboniferous age are exposed in the 

northwestern third of Arkansas; more than twothirds of the expos·ed rocks are of Pennsylvanian 

age. oa~boniferous rocks are known to be present 

to .the east under younger rocks in the Mississippi 

Embayment and to· the ·South under the younger 

rocks 'in the Gulf Coastal Plain (fig. 1) . 

The unit shown in figure 2 as of Morrowan age 

contains fossils reported to be of youngest Mississippian age in its lowermost parts in areas east of 

long 92°45' W. Changing the lithologic and thus the 

geographic position of the contact between rocks of 

Mississippian and Pennsylvanian age as shown in 

figure 2. or on the ·"Geologic Map of Arkansas" 

(Haley and others, 1976) did not and does not seem 

feasible in view of the available evidence. 

The area that is now Arkansas received shallowto deep-water marine and continental deposits until 

the start of the Ouachita orogeny (Middle Pennsylvanian). The rocks were then folded, faulted, and 

severely eroded until sediments de.posited during 

Cretaceous and Eocene times covered them to about 

their present extent. Even though the presently exposed Carboniferous rocks have been almost continuously eroded since late Paleozoic time, they are 

remarkably fresh where exposed along streams, 

lakes, roads, and in excavations. 

GEOLOGIC INVESTIGATIONS 

Early explorers and scientists made references to 

the rocks in the area that is now Arkansas as early 

as 1817. However, David D. Owen during the years 

1857 to 1860 was the first to publish reports of reoonnaissance studies pertaining in part to the rocks 

of Carboniferous age. Since that time, so many 

people have worked on the rocks of this age that 

space does not allow recognition of their reports. 

Table 1 lists the names and the publications (concerning Arkansas) of those people who have made 

major contributions to geologic knowledge about the 

Carboniferous rocks of the State. These geologists 

have described rock units and have established 

nomenclature for these units; most of them have 

provided geologic maps that have been or will be 

the basic standard for all subsequent geologic investigations. This table serves as a list of references 

for this report. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomen1 Arkansas Geological Commission, Little Rock, Ark. 72204. 

01 
02 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

EXPLANATION 

Outcrop area of 

Carboniferous rocks 

(includes rocks of Devonian· age) 

I'; 

50 

50 

I 

I 

100 MILES 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 1.-Index map of Arkansas showing physiographic regions and outcrop of Carboniferous rocks. 

TABLE 1.-Major geologic contributions pertaining to the Carboniferous rocks of A'rkansas 

Reference 

Adams, G. 1., and Ulrich, E. 0., 1905, Description of the Fayetteville quadrangle 

[Arkansas-Missouri]: U.S. Geol. Survey 

Geol. Atlas, Folio 119, 6 p. 

Collier, A. J., 1907, The Arkansas coal field. 

With reports on the paleontology by 

David White and G. H. Girty: U.S. Geol. 

Survey Bull. 326, 158 p. 

Glick, E. E. (with Haley, B. R., and 

others), 1976, Geologic map of Arkansas 

(see Haley and others, 1976) 

Griswold, L. S., 1892, Whetstones and the 

novaculites of Arkansas: Arkansas Geol. 

Survey Ann. Rept., 1890, v. 3, 443 p. 

Haley, B. R., and others, 1976, Geologic map 

of Arkansas: Reston, Va., U.S. Geol. Sur- . vey, scale 1:500,000. 

Henbest, L. G., 1953, Morrow Group and 

lower Atoka Formation of Arkansas: Am. 

Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull. v. 37, no. 8, p. 1935-1953. 

Hendricks, T. A., and Parks, B. C., 1950, 

Geology of the Fort Smith district, Arkansas: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 

221-E, p. 67-94. 

Hopkins: T. C., 1893, Marbles and other 

limestones: Arkansas Geol. Survey Ann. 

Rept. 1890, v. 4, 443 p. 

McKnight, E. T., 1935, Zinc and lead deposits of northern Arkansas: U.S. Geol. 

Survey Bull. 853, 311 p. 

Area of investigation 

Ozark region. 

Arkansas 

Valley. 

Ozark region. 

Ouachita 

Mountains. 

Ozark r·egion, 

Arkansas 

Valley, and 

Ouachita 

Mountains. 

Ozark region. 

Arkansas 

Valley. 

Ozark region. 

Do. 

Reference 

Miser, H. D., 1922, Deposits of manganese ore in the Batesville district, Arkansas: 

U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 734, 273 p. 

Miser, H. D., 1929, Geologic map of Arkansas: Little Rock, Arkansas Geol. Survey. 

Miser, H. D., and Purdue, A. H., 1929, 

Geology of the De Queen and Caddo Gap 

quadrangles, Arkansas: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 808, 195 p. 

Purdue, A. H., 1907, Description of the 

Winslow quadrangle [Arkansas-Indian 

Territory]: U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, 

Folio 154, 6 p. 

Purdue, A. H., and Miser, H. D., 1916, Description of the Eureka Springs and Harrison quadrangles [Arkansas-Missouri]: 

U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Folio 202, 

22 p. 

Purdue, A. H., and Miser, H. D., 1923, Description of the Hot Springs district 

[Arkansas] : U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. 

Atlas, Folio 215, 12 p. 

Reinemund, J. A., and Danilchik, Walter, 

1957, Preliminary geologic map of the 

Waldron quadrangle and adjacent areas, 

Scott County, Arkansas: U.S. Geol. Survey Oil and Gas Inv. Map, OM-192, scale 

1:48,000. 

Stone, C. G., (with Haley, B. R., and 

others), 1976, Geologic map of Arkansas 

(see Haley and others, 1976} 

Area of irnvestigation 

Ozark region. 

Arkansas 

Valley and 

Ouachita 

Mountains. 

Ouachita 

Mountains. 

Ozark region. 

Do. 

Ouachita 

Mountains. 

Arkansas 

Valley and 

Ouachita 

Mountains. 

Do. 
ARKANSAS 03 

0 50 100 MILES 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

z 

ex: 

z 

ex: 

> 

....J 

>-

!J) 

z 

z 

w 

Q. 

I{ 

EXPLANATION 

Post 

-

Carboniferous 

.,0:~:.,~{ - ""' Boggy. Formation, Savanna· Formation, 

McAlester Formation, and Hartshorne 

Sandstone 

!{ .. ~ .. 

{ 

Bloyd Shale an~ation north of 

latitude 35° N.; Johns Vall~y Shale and 

Jackfork Sandstone south of latitude 35° N. 

Pitkin Limestone, 

~ Fayetteville Shale, 

Batesville Sandstone, Ruddell Shale, Moorefield Formation, Boone Formation, and 

Chattanooga Shale (Miss.-Dev.) north of lati· 

tude 35° N; Stanley Shale and Arkansas Novae· 

ulite (Miss.-Dev.) south of latitude 35° N. 

Pre-Carboniferous 

From Geologic Map of Arkansas, 

(Haley and others, 1976) 

FIGURE 2.-0utcrop map of Carboniferous rocks in Arkansas. 

clature used here conforms with the current usage 

of the Arkansas Geological Commission. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

By ERNEST E. GLICK 

The paleontological base of Mississippian rocks is 

in the Middle Division of the Arkansas Novaculite 

in the Ouachita Mountains and in the Chattanooga 

Shale in the Ozark region. North of the limit of the 

Chattanooga Shale, a thin sandstone at the base of 

the Mississippian ·sequence rests on formations of 

Ordovician, Silurian, or Devonian age. This unit of 

sandstone, generally less than 0.3 m thick, is thought 

to be a lag sand or marine regolith that accumulated 

during late Devonian time. The presence of Devonian 

conodonts in its lower part and Mississippian conodonts in its upper part in some areas indicates that 

it was partly reworked during Early Mississippian 

time. 

Deposition in Arkansa·s was relatively continuous 

during early and part of middle ·Carboniferous time, 

regional breaks being suggestive of sea-level changes 

until the advent of the Ouachita orogeny in Middle 

Pennsylvanian time. Growth faults had the greatest 

magnitude along a northeast-trending zone in westcentral Arkansas. The displacement acros·s this zone 

of faults was large enough to influence the rate and 

type of deposition, and generally these faults mark 

the boundary between the area of shelf deposition 

and the area of trough deposition. The growth-fault 

system in northeastern Arkansas is thought to be 

on the western side of the graben formed by the 

Reelfoot rift system. The fault system in westcentral Arkansas may be on the northern side of a 

rift system that has an extent and existence still 

subject to conjecture. The time at which the Ouachita orogeny began is difficult to establish, but some 

of the rocks of DesMoinesian age have sedimentary 

and structural features that may have resulted from 

the initial compressional pulse of the orogeny. The 

orogeny was active by Late Pennsylvanian time and 

lasted until Late Permian time. All of Arkansas was 

uplifted, the core area of the Ouachita Mountains 
., c ::I co 0 

... ·c G) co .... > ·c > 0 ., ..c c ... c co G) 

u Q. 

Age Ozark Mountains and Arkansas Valley 

Missing 

Maximum 

thickness 

in meters 

Boggy Formation 130 

Paris Coal Bed 

Savanna Formation 1595 

DesMoinesian I Charleston Coal Bed 

Ouachita Mountains 

Maximum 

thickness 

in meters 

~~~=~~~=~~:::-----------------1~;----l Missing 

~ I I Upper Hartshorne Coal Bed 

~ Lower Hartshorne Coal Bed 

Hartshorne Sandstone 11 05 

~ co 

w 

--------------------- unconformity ---------------

Atokan Atoka Formation 

Bloyd Shale 

Morrowan 

Trace Creek Member 

Kessler Limestone Member 

Dye Shale Member 

Woolsey Member 

Brentwood Limestone Member 

Prairie Grove Member 

3,952 

191 

94 

----------------~---- Upper 1,525 

Atoka Formation ~~~~ -~~~~ 

Lower 5,485 

Johns Valley Shale 455 

Hale Formation ----- unconformity -----1-------1 Jackfork Sandstone 1,830 

Cane Hill Member 219 

--~---------~----- unconformity --------------------'-------..... ------------------------------

0 

~ 

1-3 

t:r: 

t.%j 

a:: 

rn 

-rn 

rn 

-rn 

-'i::l 

'i::l 

> z 

> z 

t:l 

""d 

t.%j 

z 

z 

rn 

~ 

t-t 

< 

> z 

> z 

rn 

~ 

rn 

1-3 

t.%j 

a:: 

rn 

z 

1-3 

t:r: 

t.%j 

c::: 

z 

-

1-3 

t.%j 

t::J 

rn 

1-3 

> 1-3 

t.%j 

rn 
Age Ozark Mountains and Arkansas Valley ~hickness Ouachita Mountains ~hickness 

Maximum 1 Maximum 

f----,----.----r----------4~----- unconformity ------------------r~~~~:_r~ ------------------------,~~~ete~-

en 

::J 

e 

~ c: 

0 

-e 

cu 

u 

c: 

cu 

·c. 

c. 

'iii 

en 

·;;;; 

en 

~ 

Q) 

.... 

cu 

-1 

Pitkin Limestone 141 

---------------------------------r-------

Wedington Sandstone Member 

Fayetteville Shale 227 

Chesterian ----------------------------------r-------

Batesville Sandstone 52 

Hindsville Limestone Member 

------ unconformity -------------------+--------

Ruddell Shale 30 

----------f------------------------------------------

Moorefield Formation 60 

Stanley Shale 2,585 

Hatton Tuff Lentil 

Meramecian 1----------------------------------r-----1 Hot Springs Sandstone Member 

'---+---------- 1 Short Creek Oolite Member I -----------------------+-------

Osagean 

~ .... ~-------- cu 

w 

Boone Formation 130 Upper Division Arkansas Novaculite 38 

St. Joe Limestone Member 

Kinderhookian 1--------------------unconformity -----+--------1 Middle Division Arkansas Novaculite 1160 

f--.....J---.....J-...1---------- 1 Chattanooga Shale 20 c: 

cu 

·c 

0 

> 

Q) 

Q 

------------------- unconformity -----.f.--------

Clifty Limestone and Penters Chert 24 Lower Division Arkansas Novaculite 125 

~-------------------~----------------------------------~------~-----------------------~-------

FIGURE 3.-Correlation chart of Carboniferous rocks in Arkansas. 

> 

~ 

~ 

> z 

rn 

> 

rn 

0 

01 
06 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

being elevated more than 9,100 m along the anticlinorium. Compressive features die out northward 

from the recumbent folds and low- and high-angle 

thrust faults in the core area to the gentle folds in 

the Ozark region. During the orogeny, erosion alm1ost kep•t up with the uplift so that few, if any, 

high mountains· were formed. 

After the orogeny and before the transgression 

of the Cretaceous seas, the rocks in the southern and 

eastern .Part of Arkansas were probably eroded to a 

plane; however, cuestas, hogbacks, and synclinal 

mountains were form.ed and continue to be positive 

features on the landscape. Ero•sion by the transgressive Cretaceous sea further beveled the plane on top 

of the Carboniferous rocks and then these rocks 

were covered by sediments of Cretaceous age. A thin 

strip of Carbonife·rous rocks, extending northeastward from Little Rock was later covered by sediments of Tertiary age. 

LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY 

The stratigraphic divisions of the Carboniferous 

rocks in Arkansas are listed and correlated in figure 

3. The unconformities listed between some of the 

rtock units in northern Arkansas represent only the 

major fluctuations of sea level. Many unconformities 

thought to represent lesser fluctuations are not 

shown. 

In the northwestern part of the Ozark region, the 

contact between the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks has been placed at the base of a conglomerate at the base of the Cane Hill Member of 

the Hale Formation. Lithologically and paleontologically, the contact is considered to be unconformable. In the northea,stern part of the Ozark region, 

where the Cane Hill is much thicker, the contact has 

been placed at the base of the conglomerate and has 

been considered to be unconformable. However, 

fossils correlata:ble to only the youngest of European 

Mississippian forms have been reported from above 

the basal conglomerate. On the basis of the age of 

these fossils, some authors have divided the present 

Cane Hill Member into the Cane Hill Formation of 

Pennsylvanian age and the underlying Imo Formation of Mississippian age. The proposed Imo Formation, however, is not a mappable or a recognizable 

lithologic unit, and its top can be established only 

by the existing upper limit of diagnostic fossils of 

Mississippian age. Thus, in the northeastern part of 

the Ozark region, the position and the nature of the 

contact between Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

rocks has yet to be determined. 

In the Ouachita Mountains, the contact between 

Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks is placed at 

the base of the Jackfork Sandstone and is considered 

to be conformable. T}le exact paleontological boundary has not been determined, and some of the rocks 

in the lowermost Jackfork may be of Missis·sippian 

age. 

In the Ozark region and most of the Arkansas 

Valley, the Mississippian rocks consist of shale, 

limestone, cherty limestone, and a lesser amount of 

sandstone. All are thought to have been deposited 

in a shallow-water marine environm.ent, only the 

Batesville and W edington Sandstones being deposited nearshore. 

In the Ouachita Mountains, the Mississippian 

rocks consist mostly of shale, some graywacke, and 

subordinate amounts of sandstone and novaculite. 

All are thought to have been deposited in a deepwater marine environment. The change from shallow-water to deep-water deposition in west-central 

Arkansas is thought to have been abrupt across a 

growth fault system shown as the Johns Valley fault 

system in figure 4. 

In the Ozark region and the western part of the 

Arkansas Valley, rocks of Morrowan age consist of 

sandstone and shale in the Hale Formation and limestone and shale in the Bloyd Shale. All are thought 

to have been deposited in a shallow-water marine 

environment except the Woolsey Member of the 

Bloyd Shale, which is continental in origin. 

In the Ouachita Mountains, the Morrowan rocks 

consist primarily of sandstone· and shale in the Jackfork Sandstone and shale and subordinate amounts 

of sandstone and conglomerate in the Johns Valley 

Shale. All are thought to have been depo•sited in deep 

water. 

Rocks of Atokan age consist of shale and lesser 

amounts of sandstone and siltstone, and a few coal 

beds in the upper part of the formation. Nearly all 

of the Atoka was deposited in an environment that 

was essentially shallow-water marine in the Ozark 

region and deep-water marine in the Ouachita Mountains. The southward transition of shallow- to deepwater deposition was gradational and persisted during all hut the later part of Atokan deposition 

(fig. 4). 

Rocks of Des Moinesian age consist of shale and 

subordinate amounts of sandstone and siltstone and 

a few beds of limestone and coal. Most of the rocks 

were deposited in a shallow-water marine environment; the rest were deposited above sea level. 
ARKANSAS 07 

Uppt~r part of Atoka Formation 

\ 

.Vertical exaggeration X 4 

Line of section. near· Longitude !J4>20' west 

................... ::::::::::::::::::::: 

·:::::~:::::::::::::::: .. :··:::::::::: 

Mississippian age rocks 

(Stanley Shale) 

FIGURE 4.-Diagrammatic section of Atokan and older Carboniferous roc·ks in western Arkansas. 

IGNEOUS ROCKS, 1\'IETAIVIORJ>HIC ROCKS, AND 

VEINS 

By CHARLES G. STONE . 

The only known igneous rocks of possible Late 

Pennsylvanian age in Arkansas are some soapstoneserpentine sill-like lense'S in the Womble and Bigfork Formations about 15 miles west of Little Rock. 

The serpentine is the autometamorphosed product 

of an ultrabasic (peridotite) intrusive that was injected into these Ordovician rocks prior to folding 

proce!sses of the Ouachita orogeny (mostly late 

Carboniferous,). 

Beds of volcanic tuff are present in the lower part 

of the Stanley Shale. They are thickest and most 

numerous near Hatton in Polk County. In this vicinity, beds of the Hatton Tuff are present in the lower 

120 m of the Stanley; some of the individual beds 

are as much as 30 m thick. A typical bed of tuff 

grades upward from. a coarse-grained crystalline tuff 

to a fine-grained vitric tuff, and some of the grading 

may represent reworking by turbidity currents. 

Potash feldspar, sodic plagioclase, perthite, and 

quartz are prominent minerals in the crystal tuff 

and ash, and shards are more common in the vitric 

tuff. The number and thickness of the beds and the 

grain size of the tuff decrease north and east of 

Hatton ; therefore, the volcanic source of the tuff 

is thought to have been to the· s1outh or southwest. 

Radiometric ages on the tuff range from 293 ± 15 

m.y. to 322±26 m.y. before present. The older date 

conforms with the early Chesterian age of the conodont assemblages collected from the interbedded 

shale. 

Beds of tuff composed of sodic plagioclase, volcanic rock fragments, and other materials are present in the uppermost part of the Stanley in Polk, 

Montgomery, and Garland Counties. Fossils collected 

from rocks near the tuff beds are of late Chesterian 

age. 

Beds of bentonite (hydromica-montmorillonite), 

probably derived from volcanic ash falls, are indi-
08 THE MISSISSIP:PIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

EXPLANATION 

Area of Arkansas 

Valley Coal Field 

.... ...- ........ --- Boundary between lowvolatile bituminous coal 

to the west and semianthracite 

to the east 

0 I I I I 'I 0 50 

50 

I 

I 

100 MILES I 

100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 5.-Arkansas Valley coal-field map. 

cated by studies. of well cuttings from the Bloyd 

Shale and the lower p·art of the Atoka Formation in 

the Arkansas Valley. 

A belt of low-rank regional metamorphism ( chlorite stage) has affected the Mississippian and Lower 

Pennsylvanian rocks of the Ouachita Mountains, the 

area of highest intensity being centered near Little 

Rock. Hydrothermal quartz veins often containing 

minor quantities of dickite, adularia feldspar, and 

chlorite are common in these rocks. Most of the 

regional metamorphism and the emplacement of the 

quartz veins are thought to be related to late deformation during the Ouachita orogeny. 

ECONOMIC PRODUCTS 

COAL 

Coal beds are present in the Bloyd Shale in northwestern Arkansas and in the upper part of the Atoka 

.. Formation in west-central Arkansas, but nearly all 

commercial .production of c:oal has. been from coal 

beds in the McAlester and: Sa.vanna::Formations~ ··The 

emiL in the Arkansas Valley coal field (fig. 5) ranges 

in· .rank from ·.low-volatile bituminoU!s ·to ·semianthracite. The Baldwin coal bed in the Bloyd Shale is 

less than 0.4 m thick and has been mined only to 

supply local dem.and in Washington County. 

The coal beds in the Atoka Formation are less 

~than 0.6 m thick and were mined to supply local 

demand; however, so·me of the coal is now being used 

in the manufacture of dry-cell batteries and as an 

additive to charcoal briquets. 

The Lower Hartshorne coal bed, near the base· of 

the M-cAlester Formation, ranges in thickness from 

a featheredge to 1.8 m. It is the most extensive, 

most mined, and moSJt economically important coal 

bed in Arkansas. Most of the mined coal was used 

for steam-generating plants, home heating, and the 

zinc industry, but present production is used almost 

exclusively by the metallurgical industry: 

The Upper Hartshorne coal bed, about 18.2 m 

:above the ba.se of the McAlester Formation, ranges 

in thickness from a featheredge to 0. 7 m in the 

southwest part of the Arkansas Valley coal field. It 

has not been mined. 

The Charleston coal bed near the base of the 

Savanna Formation is less than 0.8 m thick, and in 

recent years the mined coal has been used as a 

metallurgical coal. 
ARKANSAS 09 

The Paris coal bed, near the middle of the 

Savanna Formation, is less than 0.8 m thick. Most 

of the mined coal was used for steam generating 

and ho.m;e heat; however, it could be used as a 

metallurgical coal. 

The distribution o.f the e1stimated 2.2 billion short 

tons of coal in the Arkansas Valley coal field is 

shown in figure 6. The total p-roduction of coal in 

short tons through 1975 is as. follows: Franklin 

County 13,509,527; Johnson ~County 17,992,813; 

Logan County 9,981,039; Pope County 9,313,459; 

Scott County 958,057; Sebastian County 56,827,873; 

other counties or small mines 1,114,992; and a State 

total of 103,697,760. 

OIL AND NATURAL GAS 

By WILLIAM M. CAPLAN 

Commercial quantities of oil have not been produced from Carboniferous rocks in northern Arkansas. Oil is pres.ent in sandstone and shale of Pennsylvanian age and in concretions and black shale of 

Mississippian age in northern Arkansas. A solid 

bitumen deposit is present in sandstone of the Jackfork Sandstone in Scott County. Natural gas. has 

been produced in commercial quantities from the 

Carboniferous rocks of northern Arkansas since 

1902. With few exceptions, the gas is low in sulfur, 

high in methane, low in nitrogen, and has a heating 

value of about 1,000 Btu per cu ft (0.028 m:{). 

The first well to produce co,mmercially was completed in Sebastian County from. the Atoka Formation, and this formation continues to be the most 

proHfic source of natural gas of Carboniferous age. 

(see .table 2) . 

From 1902 to 1944, 19 gas fields were discovered 

in the Atoka Formation. In 1944, gas was discovered 

in the Bloyd Shale in Johnson County, and in 1949, 

gas was discovered in the Hale Formation in Franklin County. 

The first commercial production of gas of Mississippian age was from the Wedington Sands.tone, 

where tit was ·penetrated by a well drilling Franklin 

County. Commercial quantities of natural gas were 

first produced in 1962 .from the Boone Formation in 

Crawford County, and additional co·mmercial.,.quality 

gas was discovered in 197 4 .in Johnson County. The 

Boone production wells also produce gas from the 

Atokan or Morrowan rock·s or both. The gas from 

the Pennsylvanian and pre-Mississippian rocks in 

northern Arkansas is sim:ilar enough to be commingled in the wells, but the gas from the Boone in 

some areas is an exception be·cause of a relatively 

high hydrogen sulfide.content. 

Commercial deposits of natural gas of Carboniferous age in Arkansas were thought orig;inally to 

be related entirely to structure, but the 'importance 

of stratigraphic and stratigraphic-structural traps 

as geologic settings has pecome increasingly significant as more is learned about the region. Exploratory wells drilled on ~structural prospects alone may 

miss the buried stream channels and deltaic deposits 

containing natural gas in trends normal or near 

normal to the strike of the structural feature. 

As of January 1, 1977, the 10 counties of northern Arkansas have 60 gas fields, containing 1,223 

wells. Nat ural gas from rocks of Carboniferous age 

is or could be produced in 58 of these fields irrespective of any deeper production there. 

Cumulative gas p·roduction to January 1, 1977, in 

northern Arkansas is 1,801,722,499 Mcf (50,989 X 

10nmH). Remaining reserves are estimated to be 

1,510,523,000 Mcf ( 42,7 48 x 10(im:1). Bo·th figures 

pertain mainly to natural gas in the rocks of Carboniferous age. · 

Areas underlain by commercial quantities of 

natural gas in the Atoka Formation and the Morrow 

Series are shown in figure 7. Areas in which gas is 

produced from rocks of Mississippian age are not 

specifically shown in figure 7. 

MINERALS 

By DREw F. HoLBROOK 

METALLIC MINERALS 

ANTI~IONY 

The antimony district is a belt. 4 km wide and 

17.6 km long e~tending across northern Sevier 

County in southwestern Arkansas. The antimony 

deposits are present in the tightly folded rocks of 

the Stanley Formation; the fissure veins tend to be 

parallel to bedding. The ore bodies are small and 

lenticular and are known to have a maximum thickness of 1.3 m, a maximum length of 51.7 m, and a 

maximum width of·22.8 m. 

The ore bodies are mainly stibnite-bearing quartz 

veins in which crystals and crystal masses of stibnite are present in comb quartz. Other primary 

minerals are native antimony, chalcopyrite, galena, 

pyrite, sphalerite, j amesonite and zinckenite. Only 

galena, sphalerite, and pyrite are present throughout the district. 

Secondary minerals include cervantite, which is 

the most abundant, stibiconite, bindheimite, anglesite, cerussite, azurite, malachite, and smithsonite. 

The gangue minerals are quartz, ankerite, calcite, 
010 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Sem ia nth racite 

455.8 

A.-DISTRIBUTION. BY 

RANK OF COAL 

10 percent 

Less than 18.3 m 

217.9 

3 percent 

18.3-152.4 m 

1083.2 

152.4-304.8 m 

629.8 

More than 609.6 m 

71.7 

B.-DISTRIBUTION BY AMOUNT 

OF OVERBURDEN 

39 percent 

21 percent 

Thin (35.6-71.1· em) 

876.9 

Intermediate (71.1-106.7 em) 

885.0 

Thick (106.7 em) 

463.7 

D.-DISTRIBUTION BY THICKNESS 

OF COAL 

20 percent 

1 percent 

Upper Hartshorne 

27.9 

3 percent 

74 percent 

• Charleston (Philpott) 

61.6 

Lower Hartshorne 

A .-DISTRIBUTION BY COAL BED 

Sebastian 

1063.0 

B.-DISTRIBUTION BY COUNTY 

EXPLANATION 

I 

Low-volatile bituminous coal 

Semianthracite • coal 

80 

Estimated original reserves 

of coal, in percent 

1~7.5 

Tonnage, in millions of 

short tons 

FIGURE G.-Distribution of estimated original reserves of low-volatile bituminous coal and semianthracite in 

Arkansas. 
TABLE 2.-Natural-gas wells of economic and historic significance in the Carboniferous rocks of Arkansas 

--- Total Production Initial poten- Company and Location County Date depth depth Pay tial in mcfgd Remarks well (Sec., T., R.) completed (ft (m)) (ft (m)) zone ( (m'1) per day) 

Choctaw Oil and I, 4N., 3IW. Sebastian Mar. I902 I,I25 863-873 Atoka 550 Discovery well of MansGas Co. No.2 (343) (263-266) (I5,565) field field and first 

Duncan. producer of natural 

gas in Arkansas. 

I,I25 ____ do ____ 

(343) 

Arkansas Louisiana I5, ION., 24W. Johnson Dec. I944 6,I35 3,402-3,650 Kessler and 3,500 Drilled in Clarksville 

Gas Co. No. I (1,870) (I,037-1,085) Brent- (99,050) field; the first comS.M. Hudson. wood. mercia! Bloyd producer in Arkansas. 

Arkansas Louisiana 27, 9N., 28W. Franklin Sept. I949 6,650 4,850-4,930 Hale 7,000 Discovery well of Cecil 

Gas Co. No. I (2,027) (1,478-1,503) (198,100) field; the first comRalph S. Barton. mercia! Hale producer 

in Arkansas. 

Arkansas Western I5, ION., 28W. ____ do ____ Oct. 195I 3,896 3,348-3,367 Morrow 6,000 The first commercial 

Gas Co. No.1 -(1,188) (1,020-1,026) (169,800) producer from the 

F. A. Parsley. 3,782-3,8I4 Wedington 

W edington or pre2,000 Pennsylvanian rocks 

(I,I53-I,I63) (56,000) in Arkansas. > 

Carter Oil 3, 8N., 19W. Pope Oct. 1956 5,211 3,9I7-4,030 Atoka (71,800) Drilled in Moreland ~ 

Co. No.1 (1,588) (I,I94-1,228) (2,031,940) . field; it had the ~ 

L. B. Chronister. largest initial poten- > 

4,469-4,5I4 Hale 6,700 tial of any well drilled z 

r.n (1,362-I,376) (189,610) in north Arkansas. > 

Arkansas Western 20, I4N., 29W. Washington April 1959 650 565 Wedington 460 Discovery well of Brent- r.n 

Gas Co. No.1 (198) (I72) (I3,018) wood field, but was not 

A. Goa:<.i. completed as a producer. Drilling for additional reserves started in 1977. 

Beard Oil 32, 9N., 11 W. Cleburne July 1959 3,868 1,956-1,998 Atoka 430 Discovery well of QuitCo. No. 1 (1,179) (596-609) (12,169) man field; established 

R. A. Evans. the easternmost com- mercia! producer in 

the Arkansas Valley. 

Field was abandoned 

in 1964. 

Stephens Production 32, 9N., 30W. Crawford June I962 6,161 5,755-5,777 Boone 2,450 Drilled in Kibler field; 

Co. No.1 (1,878) (1,754-1,761) (69,335) the first commercial 

D. L. Fontaine Boone producer in 

5,922-5,952 Penters 7,500 Arkansas. 

(1,805-1,815) (212,250) 

Arkansas Western 12, liN., 25W. Johnson Dec. 1973 3,543 1,815-1,850 Hale 6,000 Drilled in Batson field. 

Gas. Co. No. 1 (1,080) (553-564) (169,800) This well opened the 

Federal ES 5262. first field that pro2,578-2,622 

:~~:: ----) 

7,600 duced Boone gas com- (786-799) (215,080) mercially from more 2,654-2,686 than one well. 

(809-819) 

0 

~ 

~ 
012 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

0 

I I '• 

0 

EXPLANATION 

Area of gas fields in 

the Atoka Formation 

Area of gas fields in 

the Morrow Group 

I 'I 

50 

50 

I 

I 

100 MILES I 

100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 7.-Gas-field map of Arkansas. 

siderite, chlorite, and dickite. Stibnite and the other 

primary minerals were deposited from hypogene 

solutions that moved along thrust-fault planes or 

subparallel fractures. The antimony mineralization 

probably took place after most of the quartz veins 

had been emplaced. 

Production of antimony during the period 1873 

to 1947 was sporadic and generally coincided with 

exceptionally high market prices. The total reported 

amount of antimony produced during the 70 years 

is only 589 sho·rt tons. 

BARIUM 

Barite (barium sulfate) has been produced from 

the Magnet Cove district in Hot Spring County and 

from the Pigeon Roost Mountain and Fancy Hill districts in Montgomery County. The barite deposits 

are in the lowermost part of the Stanley Formation. 

Generally the base of the barite deposit is within 

6 m of the top of the Arkansas Novaculite. Most of 

.the barite deposits are less than 30.4 m thick, but a 

few are as thick as 91.2 m. 

The individual barite deposits contain several 

types of ore, which, in order of abundance, are as 

follows: ( 1) gray to dark-gray finely crystalline ore; 

(2) gray granular to dense ore; (3) nodular ore, as 

much as 5 em in diameter; and ( 4) the least common type, a dark-gray to black granular ore. 

Barite has been continuously produc.ed in Arkansas since 1944. Through 1976, ten million short tons 

has been produced, almost all of which came from 

the Magnet Cove dis.trict. All the barite produced 

is used as a weighting agent in drilling mud. 

MANGANESE 

Manganese is present in Carboniferous rocks in 

Garland, Hot Springs, .Saline, and Pulaski Counties; 

however, the larger deposits are in Montgomery and 

Polk Counties in an east-trending belt about 11.2 km 

wide and 56 km long. The mangane·se deposits are 

present in the Lower, Middle, and Upper Divis.ions 

of the Arkansas Novaculite. The ore bodies are 

small, the largest estimated to contain 50,000 short 

tons. The. manganese ore is, present as nodules, 

pockets, and short irregular veins ranging in thickness from a few centim.e·ters to 1.2 m. 

The ore bodies consist mainly of psilomelane, 

pyrolusite, ma.nganite, and wad; two or more of 
ARKANSAS 013 

thes·e minerals are intimately mixed in the same deposit. Other minerals associated with the manganese 

minerals are limonite, goethite, na.tive copper, 

cuprite, chrysocolla, turquoise·, malachite, pyrite, · 

lith.iophorite, wavellite, variscite, dufrenite, barite, 

and quartz. 

Manganese is P·resent in the S:t. Joe Member of 

the Boone Formation in a. few places in Izard, 

Searcy, and Stone Counties. Manganese was mined 

intermittently in wes.tern Arkansas fro·m. 1885 to 

1959; production was mainly during a few years of 

high market prices and totaled only 6,000 short tons. 

l\'lERCURY 

The mercury district is a belt 9.6 km wide and 48 

km long ex,tending eastward fro·m Howard County 

to Clark County in southwestern Arkansas. The 

mercury deposits are about equally divided in the 

sandstone of the upperm,os.t Stanley Formation and 

the lowermost Jackfork Sandstone. Most of the ore 

bodies are small, the largest being 30.4 m long, 9.1 

m wide, and 36.5 m deep. Cinnabar is present as a 

finely crystalline. ore coating on fracture surfaces, 

coarsely crystalline ore filling larger fractures, and 

sp,aringly, finely crystalline ore filling pore spaces 

in the sandstone. Other primary minerals are dickite, 

quartz, pyrite, siderite, stibnite, barite, and calcite. 

Secondary mercury minerals and iron oxide•s are 

present near the surfac·e. 

Active mining in the mercury district took place 

mostly during the years. 1931 to 1946 and has been 

only intermittent s.ince then. The total amount of 

mercury p·roduc·ed is estimated to be 12,500 flasks 

(946,250 lb). 

VANADIU.M 

Vanadium, ore is in local concentrations within 

large areas of argillic alteration near Wilson Springs 

in Garland· County. Within such areas, fenite feldspathic breccias and metamorphosed sedimentary 

rocks have been altered and mineralized. Rocks of 

the Mississippian part of the Arkansas Novaculite 

may have been mineralized in the Wilson Spring 

area and also in similar ore concentrations near 

Magnet Cove in Hot Spring County. The vanadium 

rarely occurs as discrete vanadi urn minerals but 

generally as a vicarious element in several rockforming minerals and their alteration products. 

ZINC AND LEAD 

Z.inc and lead deposits are present in flat-lying 

carbonate rocks in the Ozark region and in folded 

shale and sandstone in the Ouachita Mountains. 

In the Ozark region, the zinc and lead deposits 

are mostly in Newton County, a few being present 

in Searcy, Marion, and Boone Counties. Lead deposits are found in the· Batesville Sandstone, but 

most of the lead and zinc deposits are in the Boone 

Formation. The ore deposits are in fracture zones, 

along j o·int systems, in irregularly shaped masses 

parallel to bedding of the host rock, and in some 

fault zones. 

The ore bodies are primarily sphalerite and 

galena together with some chalcopyrite, pyrite, and 

marcasite. Secondary minerals are smithsonite, calamine (hemimorphite), cerussite, and traces of malachite, azurite, and aurichalcite. The galena is very 

low in silver, and the sphalerite contains small 

amounts of iron and cadmium. 

From 1902 to 1962, the reported amount of zinc 

concentrates is 29,900 short tons. From 1907 to 

1959, the reported amount of lead concentrates is 

2,000 short tons. 

In the Ouachita Mountains, small deposits of lead 

and zinc are present in mineralized quartz veins in 

the Stanley Formation in Sevier County, in the 

Stanley and the Arkansas Novaculite in Hot Spring 

County, and in the Jackfork Sandstone in Pulaski 

County. Galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite are the 

principal minerals. Small amounts of silver were 

present in the galena in all areas, larger amounts 

being associated with freiburgite in Pulaski County. 

The amount of zinc and lead produced from the 

mines in these counties is unknown. 

NONMETALLIC MINERALS 

Dll\,IENSION STONE 

Dimension stone is being produced from sandstone in the Hartshorne Sandstone in Logan, Franklin, Pope, and Johnson Counties and in the Batesville Sandstone in Stone and Independence Counties. 

Black marble has been produced from the Pitkin 

Limest,one and the Fayetteville Shale in Stone and 

Independence Counties, and gray marble, from the 

Boone Formation in Independence County. 

LIMESTONE 

High-calcium limestone is quarried from the 

Boone Formation in Independence County. It is in 

contiguous beds having an aggregate thickness of 

33.7 m, and the quarried product is converted to 

lime. Limestone is also quarried from the Boone 

Formation and the Pitkin Limestone; the product is 

used as aggrega.te srt:one for construction purposes. 
014 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

SLATE 

Slate has been quarried from the Stanley Formation in Garland County, but its poor weathering 

characteristics precluded its use as an exterior finish. 

Slate is quarried from. the Stanley in Montgomery 

County, where it is crushed and ground for use as 

roofing granules. 

in the Boone Formation in Benton, Washington, and 

Madison Counties, the largest being in Benton 

County. The tripoli is the siliceous remnants of 

weathered calcareous chert layers. Deposits of 

tripoli are also pre'S.ent in the Upper Division of the 

Arkansas Novaculite in Pulaski, Garland, Montgomery, and Piolk Counties, but most of it has been 

TRIPOLI 

1 

produced from Garland County. The tripoli is formed 

Tripoli is a microcrystalline finely particulate by the weathering of calcium carbonate from the 

friable form of silica. Deposits of tripoli are present novaculite. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesNebraska 

By R. R. BuRCHETT 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-P 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Nebraska Geological Survey, 

Conservation ·and Survey Division 

Institute of Agriculture and 

Natural Resources, 

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln 

Historical review and summary of 

areal, stratigraphic, structural, 

and econon1ic geology of Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian rocks in Nebraska 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Page 

Abstract ----------------------------------------------------------------- P1 

Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------- 1 

History ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 Geologic setting ____ ___ ____ __ ______ _____ __ ___ __ _ ___ __ _ _ ______ ____ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ 4 

Lithostratigraphy of the Pennsylvanian System ---------------------------- 5 

~orrovv(?) Series ---------------------------------------------------- 5 

Atoka Series --------------------------------------------------------- 5 

Des ~oines Series ------------------~--------------------------------- 5 

Cherokee Group -------------------------------------------------- 7 

~armaton Group ------------------------------------------------- 7 

~issouri Series ------------------------------------------------------ 7 

Pleasanton Group ---------- _________ ------- _ ___ __ ___ _ ___ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ 7 

Kansas City Group ----------------~------------------------------ 10 

Lansing Group --------------------------------------------------- 10 

Virgil Series --------------------------------------------------------- 10 

Douglas Group --------------------------------------------------- 11 Shavvnee Group _ __ _ _ _____ __ _ ____ _ _ _______ _ __ __ _ _ __ _ ____ _ _ _ __ __ ___ 11 

VVabaunsee Group ------------------------------------------------ 11 

Environments of deposition _______________________________________ --- __ 11 

Biostratigraphy _ _____ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ __ ____ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ ____ _ _ _ __ ___ ___ __ _ 13 

Economic products ------------------------------------------------------- 13 

Coal ---------------------------------------------------------------- 13 

Oil and gas ---------------------------------------------------------- 13 

Shale --------------------------------------------------------------- 13 

Limestone ----------------------------------------------------------- 14 

VVater --------------------------------------------------------------- 14 

References cited ---------------------------------------------------------- 14 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

FIGURE 1. ~ap shovving distribution of the Mississippian System in Nebraska_ P2 

2. ~ap shovving distribution of the Pennsylvanian System in Nebraska 2 

3. ~ap shovving bedrock geology of southeastern Nebraska ---------- 3 

4. Map shovving principal structural features of Nebraska __________ 4 

5. Map shovving structure of base of the Hertha Limestone (base of 

Kansas City Group) in southeastern Nebraska -------------- 6 

6. Map shovving thickness of the Pennsylvanian System in Nebraska _ 7 

7. Composite section of outcropping Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower 

Permian rocks in southeastern Nebraska ------------------- 8 

8. Map shovving thickness of the Des Moines Series and older Pennsylvanian rocks in Nebraska ----------------------------- 9 

9. ~ap shovving thickness of the Missouri Series in Nebraska -------- 9 

10. Map showing thic·kness of the Virgil Series in Nebraska _________ 10 

III 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) 

SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES-NEBRASKA 

By R. R. BuRCHETT 1 

AB8TRACT 

Nebraska is underlain by rocks of Mississippian and (or) 

Pennsylvanian age in all but the extreme northeastern part 

of the State. Only some of the Upper Pennsylvanian strata 

are exposed; outcrops of these rocks are limited to southeastern Nebraska. The .thickness of the Pennsylvanian rocks 

ranges from a featheredge in northeastern Nebraska to 

slightly more than 625 m (2,050 ft) in the southeastern part 

of the State, in the deeper part of the Forest City basin. Outcropping Pennsylvanian rocks have a combined thickness of 

244m (800 ft) and are composed principally of thin to thick 

beds of shale, sandstone, and limestone. Several thin coal 

seams occur in both the exposed and deeply buried sequences 

of Pennsylvanian strata. In ascending order, the Pennsylvanian System in Nebraska is divided into the following 

series: Morrow (?), Atoka, Des Moines, Missouri, and Virgil. 

Of these, only the Missouri and Virgil Series are exposed. 

Pennsylvanian rocks in Nebraska, espec-ially the Missouri 

Series and the lower part of the Virgil Series, consist of 

repeated sequences of marine and nonmarine beds. Some of 

the marine beds contain abundant invertebrate fossils. Shale 

associated with coal seams contains plant fossils. 

Formation of Nebraska's structural features began·before 

and continued through Carboniferous time. Several stratigraphic units recognized in the Forest City basin do not 

extend over the Nemaha arch, which borders on the west. 

Several quarries have been opened into Pennsylvanian 

limestone and shale. Other important economic products are 

oil, gas, and water. Although coal was mined for local use at 

several places, it· has not been mined for several years. 

INTRODUCTION 

Nebraska, in the northern midcontinent part of 

the United States, is underlain by rocks of Mississippian and (or) Pennsylvanian age in all but the 

northeastern corner of the State. (See figs. 1 and 2.) 

However, only some of the Upper Pennsylvanian 

strata are exposed, and the outcrops of these rocks 

are restricted to valley sides in the southeastern part 

of the State (fig. 3). For this reason, the following 

description of Carboniferous rocks in Nebraska is 

limited almost entirely to those deposited during 

Late Pennsylvanian time. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage o.f 

the Nebraska Geological Survey, Conservation and 

Survey Division. 

HISTORY 

The initial recognition and investigation of Carboniferous strata in the northern midcontinent region took place m.ore than a century ago (Owen, 

1852, p. 133-138, Sections 20M-40M; Marcou, 1864; 

Prosser, 1897, p. 12-16; Merrill, 1924, p. 773). However, the first noteworthy report on Pennsylvanian 

stratigraphy in the Missouri-Kansas-Nebraska region was that by Broadhead ( 1873) . Other important 

early work was reported by Meek and Hayden 

(1859), Swallow (1866), Meek (1872), Barbour 

( 1903) , Condra ( 1903) , Woodruff ( 1906) , Prosser 

(1902), Hinds and Greene (1915), and Tilton 

(1920). 

Initially, the State Geological Surveys of the regi,on worked independently in the study, naming, and 

mapping of geologic units. This independent activity 

caused duplication of names, confusion in correlation, and demonstrated a need for interstate study. It 

was followed by cooperative surveys across State 

lines, by regional correlation, and by the establishment of nomenclature on a priority basis. However, 

the thick Pleistocene deposits in the northern part of 

the region and the folding and faulting in the southern midcontinent region made it difficult to run 

traverses between outcrops and very difficult to 

correlate the formations in the more or less buried 

structures. However, by detailed lithologic and faunal study of the outcrops, by logging deep wells 

drilled for oil and gas, and by test drilling to obtain 

1 Nebraska Geological Survey, Conservation and Survey Division, Insti- tute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, The University of Nebraska, 

Lincoln, Nebr. &85'818. 

Pl 
P2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

ggo 

I 

--EXPLA" A TiON- - ~r-----+----==~--l-----+--lr-~~--rl~ri:-\--\t~---~-rl,-

~ Maramec Series 

~Osage Series 

rs=si Kinderhook Series 

D Pre-Mississippian 

rocks 

0 50 100 MILES I I I I I I I I I I I I I 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE I.-Distribution of the Mississippian System in Nebraska (from Carlson, 1963). 

v-A Subsurface Pennsylvanian 

I 

LLJrocks I 

EJ C?utcropping Pennsylvan- 1 1an rocks 1 

4QOiJL..--~ 

0 50 100 MILES I I I I I I I I II I I I 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 2.-Distribution of the Pennsylvanian System in Nebraska. 
I 

1-·· 

I 18 I 

N ' 

NEBRASKA 

R8E R 9 E R 10 E R II E 

R IOE R II E R 12 E R 13 E 

N S A S 

0 10 20 

I I 

I 

I I I 

0 10 20 30 KILOMETERS 

t 

Co•IHo 

reen11orr1- Gronuo1 C R£ TA C EOU S 

SYSTEM 

Do ~oto Grouo 

Outcrops ~ 

Foull .. ~ 

R 14 E Rl5 E R 16 E 

30 MILES 

I 

FIGURE 3.-Bedrock geology of southeastern Nebraska. 

P3 
P4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

subsurface information at various locations, factual 

data were gathered for use in the correlation and 

classification of the units of the system. This kind of 

study by the Surveys, with cooperation from oil geologists, established a knowledge of the nature, 

thickness, and regional· occurrence of the subdivisions in the region and gave a sound basis for the 

description, correlation, and naming of the members, 

formations, groups, and series. It revealed some errors in the early surveys and reports and, contrary 

to early interpretation, showed that the formations 

are comparatively uniform in thickness in the northern part of the region and that most of them were 

formed as cyclothemal units of marine and continental deposition. 

During the past 65 years, but particularly after 

the appearance of the important paper on the Pennsylvanian of Nebraska by Condra and Bengston 

(1915), the modern Pennsylvanian classification has 

emerged. The classification for Nebraska was revised 

in 1927 (Condra, 1927) and then almost yearly for 

about 30 years (see especially Condra and Reed, 

1943; Condra, 1949; Moore, 1932, 1936, 1944, 1948, 

1949; Moore and Newell, 1937; Moore and others, 

1944, 1951; Moore and Mudge, 1956; and Kansas 

Geological Society, 1957). More recent publications 

include Hershey and others, 1960; Howe and Koenig, 

1961; Mudge and Yochelson, 1963; Reed and Burch1040 1030 43~----

1 

I 

EXPLANATION 

Minor features 

1. Richfield arch 

2. Denton arch 

3. Crete· fault or flexure 

4. Union fault or flexure 

ett, 1964; Burchett and Carlson, 1966; Smith and 

Burchett 1967; Burchett and Reed, 1967; Jewett, 

O'Connor, and Zeller, 1968; Burchett, 1968, 1969, 

1970, 1971; Fagerstrom and Burchett, 1972; Prichard, 1975; and Burchett, 1977. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

Pennsylvanian rocks in Nebraska rest unconformably on rocks ranging in age from Precambrian to 

Mississippian. Generally, the unconformity is 

marked by a basal sand or a detrital zone of angular 

quartz sand and weathered chert. The pre-Pennsylvanian rocks have been studied in detail by Carlson 

(1963, 1970). 

Pennsylvanian strata in Nebraska are overlain by 

rocks ranging in age from Permian to Quaternary. 

Where the Pennsylvanian-Permian contact is visible 

in southeastern Nebraska, a period of erosion without significant diastrophism is indicated; at least one 

channel sand of Permian age cuts approximately 

30 m (100 ft) into Pennsylvanian rocks. Placement 

of the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary has been 

summarized by Moore (1940, p. 298-305; 1949, p. 

19-22) and by Mudge and Y ochelson ( 1962, p. 116-

127). 

The principal structural features of Nebraska are 

shown in figure 4. Major movement on many of these 

features tlook place in Early Pennsylvanian time. 

ggo 

0 50 100 MILES I I I I I I I I I I I I I 

0 50 1 DO KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 4.-Principal structural features of Nebraska (from Carlson, 1970). 
NEBRASKA P5 

Formation of the Nemaha arch in post-Mississippian pre-Des Moines (Middle Pennsylvanian) time 

accounts for the unconformable relation of Pennsylvanian strata to the underlying older rocks in eastern Nebraska. This arch extends from the vicinity of 

Omaha southward across Kansas and into Oklahoma. 

In much of Johnson and Pawnee Counties, Nebr., and 

in the adjoining p:art of Kansas, uplift was so great I 

that all strata from Middle Ordovician to Mississip-1 

pian age were removed by concurrent and subsequent 

erosion, resulting in exposure of Precambrian rock$. 

Although deposition of Pennsylvanian strata in eastern Nebraska began during Atoka time, complete 

burial of the arch did not take place until early Missouri time. Crustal unrest continued through the 

deposition of the Pennsylvanian rocks and into deposition of the Permian rocks. Contemporary subsidence of the areas on either side of the arch resulted 

in deposition of thicker sequences of Pen:q.sylvanian 

strata in the downwarped basins. Because the area 

immediately east of the arch subsided at a faster 

rate, the thickness of Pennsylvanian strat~a accumulating there was significantly greater than that on 

the west side. Now known as the Forest City basin, 

that area of subsidence includes parts of Nebraska, 

Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. 

Not all the stratigraphic units in the Pennsylvanian sequence are useful as datum planes. For example, 

the initial clastic sediments were deposited on the 

irregular surface of older rocks and thus differ in 

thickness within short distances; furthermore, most 

individual beds deposited on or close to that surface 

probably deviated from the horizontal. Only those 

beds that originally were nearly horizontal, are of 

large areal extent, and are conformable with underlying and overlying beds are suitable as datums. One 

such bed is the Hertha Limestone, the base of which 

was used as the datum plane for the structural contour lines shown in figure 5. Altitudes of the base of 

the limestone are shown to range from slightly more 

than 305 m ( 1,000 ft ) above mean sea level in Doug- 1 

las and Sarpy Counties to slightly more than 91 m 

(300ft) below mean sea level in Richardson County, 

where the basin is deepest. The Table Rock arch, a 

structural feature in the outcrop area, trends north 

over the buried Nemaha arch ; the east margin of the 

Table Rock arch is sharply defined by the Humboldt 

fault and smaller faults associated with it. (See 

fig. 5.) 

LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE 

PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEM 

The thickness of Pennsylvanian rocks in Nebraska 

ranges fr-om a featheredge in the northeastern part 

of the State to slightly more than 625 m (2,050 ft) in 

the ·extreme southeastern part (fig. 6). Outcropping 

Pennsylvanian rocks have a combined thickness of 

about 244m (800ft ) , as shown in figure 7. 

Composed primarily of thin to thick beds of shale, 

sandstone, and limestone, the Pennsylvanian sequence in Nebraska is characterized by a definite 

repetition of cycles of marine shale and limestone alternating with nonmarine deposits. However, 

lateral lithologic differences are found within the 

formations. 

Pennsylvanian rocks in Nebraska have been divided into five series. In ascending order, these are 

the Morrow ( ?) , Atoka, Des Moines, Missouri, and 

Virgil. Of these, only the rocks of the Missouri and 

Virgil Series are exposed. 

MORROW (?) SERIES 

The oldest Pennsylvanian rocks in Nebraska have 

been assigned to the Morrow ( ? ) Series. They may be 

present in the southwestern part of the State, but 

definite age relationships have not been established. 

Rocks of the Morrow ( ?) Series are not present in 

the Forest City basin, where each of the four other 

series has been identified. 

ATOKA SERIES 

Strata assigned to the Atoka Series are the oldest 

Pennsylvanian rocks in southeastern Nebraska. In 

the Forest City basin, they are about 91 m (300 ft) 

thick and consist mostly of dark shale but include 

some sandstone layers. Because they do not crop out, 

they are known only from logs of drill holes. 

DES MOINES SERIES 

Rocks of the Des Moines Series overlie those of the 

Atoka. Series. They are about 229 m (750ft) thick in 

the deepest part of the F·orest City basin, are thinner-less than 122m ( 400 ft) -at the northern end 

of the basin, and are very thin or absent over the 

Nemaha arch. (See fig. 8.) The series has been divided into the older Cherokee Group and the younger 

Marmaton Group. Like the Atoka' Series, the Des 

Moines Series does not crop out and is known only 

from logs of drilled holes. 
P6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

17 

N 

14 

N 

R 5 E 

R 6 E 

R6E 

R7E RBE 

R7E 

0 

l 

0 

R9E R 10 E R II E 

R II E 

N 

10 

I 

I I 

10 20 

R 12 E R 13 E R 14 E 

5 A S 

20 30 MILES 

I 

I 

I 

30 KILOMETERS 

CONTO..JA INTERVAL 50 FEET 

DATUM MEAN SEA LEVEL 

• 600 CO'HAOL POINT & ELEVATION 

•£800 CONTROL POINT 8 ESTIMATED ELEVATION 

•!..!.Q.9 8ASE OF KANSAS CITY RESTORED 

--ZERO LINE OF MISSOURI SERIES 

----ZERO L.IN[ OF 0£8 MOINES SERIES 

~~~ ZONE OF FAULTING Oh STEE• DIP •.. 

Rl5 E R 16 E R 17 E R 18 E 

FIGURE 5.-Structure of base of the Hertha Limestone (base of Kansas City Group) in southeastern 

Nebraska. 
NEBRASKA P7 

4P 

EXPLANATION 

---1000--

Line of equal thickness of 

Pennsylvanian system 

Thickness interval 500 feet 

0 50 100 MILES I I I I I I I I I I I I I 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 6.-Thickness of the Pennsylvanian System in Nebraska. 

CHEROKEE GROUP 

The Cherokee Group consists mostly of varicolored 

shale but includes several beds of sandstone and coal 

plus a few beds of thin limestone. In the deepest part 

of the Forest City basin, the group has a maximum 

thickness of about 175 m (575 ft), and near the 

northern end of the basin its thickness ranges from 

about 6.1 m (20ft) to 76 m (250 ft). Entirely in the 

subsurface, the Cherokee Group has not been divided 

into formations in Nebraska. 

MARMATON GROUP 

Marmaton rocks in southeastern Nebraska consist 

in large part of varicolored shale but include considerable limestone, some sandstone, and a few thin 

beds of coal. Thickness of the group ranges from 

about 53 m (175 ft) in the deeper part of the basin 

to 35m (115ft) in the northern part. Possibly some 

strata belonging to this group extend westward over 

the crest of the Nemaha arch. Although the Marmaton Group is somewhat difficult to divide in the subsurface of Nebraska, six formations have be:en tentatively identified. In ascending order, they are the 

Fort Scott Limestone, Labette Shale, Pawnee Limestone, Bandera Shale, Altamont Limestone, and Nowata Shale. A disconformity s·eparating Marmaton 

rocks from the overlying Missouri Series indicates 

that the upper Marmaton strata were exposed to 

subaerial erosion before deposition began again in 

the area. 

MISSOURI SERIES 

The oldest outcropping rocks of Pennsylvanian age 

in Nebraska belong to the Missouri Series. They consist mainly of interbedded limestone and shale but 

include a few beds of sandstone. Individual beds of 

this series have a large areal extent and can be 

traced from one outcrop to another. The upper 

boundary of this series is unconformable with the 

overlying Virgil Series. The lower boundary is regionally disconformable with the underlying Des 

Moines Series. As shown in figure 9, the thickness of 

this series is slightly more than 91 m (300 ft) near 

the center of the Forest City basin and is about 61 m 

(200 ft) thick in the northern part of the basin. 

Three groups composing the series are, from oldest 

to youngest, the Pleasanton, Kansas City, and 

Lansing. 

PLEASANTON GROUP 

Most of the rocks of the Pleasanton Group are mottled red and green shales ; some sandstone is also 
P8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

8. Honey Creek coal 

7. Lorton coal 

6. French Creek coal 

5. Dry coal 

4. Wamego coal 

3. Elmo coal 

2. White Cloud coal 

1. Nodaway coal 

~- E:!J"'-

CEdl!:r.~ ~l:lll"' ~.....,_ 

rzllJIIIDDW.l~~OI I!:!]~ 

-~-- [!£)...........,. E;J-

~- !!0!1- 1:?2]--

o- Eil--- ~"'""" 

FIGURE 7.-Composite section of outcropping Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian 

rocks in southeastern Nebraska. 
EXPLANATION 

---500---

Line of equal thickness of Des 

Moines Series and older 

Pennsylvanian rocks 

Thickness interval100 feet except 

in southeastern and parts of 

western Nebraska, where interval is 500 feet 0 

I I I I 

0 

I I 

50 

NEBRASKA 

50 

I I 

100 MILES 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 8.-Thickness of the Des Moines series and older Pennsylvanian rocks in Nebraska. 

EXPLANATION 

--200--

Line of equal thickness of 

Missouri Series 

Thickness interval 100 feet 4Qotu----~ 

0 

I I I I 

0 

I I 

50 

50 

I 

I 

100 MILES 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 9.-Thickness of the Missouri Series in Nebraska. 

P9 
P10 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

present. Resting unconformably on rocks of the 

Marmaton Group, these clastic sediments range in 

thickness from a featheredge to about 8 m (25 ft) in 

southeastern Nebraska and do not crop out anywhere in theN ebraska part of the Forest City basin. 

KANSAS CITY GROUP 

Rocks of the Kansas City Group consist of cyclically alternating limestone and shale. In Cass, Sarpy, 

Saunders, and Washington Counties, where this 

group is exposed, its minimum thickness is about 

49 m (160ft), and, in the subsurface of southeastern 

Nebraska, its maximum thickness is about 79 m (260 

ft). The lower half of the group is missing over the 

Nemaha arch. Fro·m oldest to youngest, the 14 formations com.po·sing the group are as follows : Hertha 

Limestone, Ladore Shale, Swope Limestone, Galesburg Shale, Dennis Limestone, Fontana Shale, Sarpy 

Limestone, Quivira Shale, Drum Limestone, Chanute 

Shale, lola Limestone, Lane Shale, Wyandotte Limestone, and Bonner Springs Shale. (See fig. 7.) 

LANSING GROUP 

Lim·estone and shale are the principal constituents 

of the Lansing Group. Where this group crops out in 

EXPLANATION 

--200--

line of equal thickness 

of the Virgil Series 

Thickness interval 100 feet 

Douglas, Sarpy, and Saunders Counties, it has a 

maximum thickness of about 15m (50ft), and,in the 

deeper part of the Forest City basin, its thickness is 

as much as 18 m (60 ft). Of the three formations 

composing this group, the Plattsburg Limestone is 

the lowest, the Vilas Shale is the middle, and the 

Stanton Limestone is the highest. The upper surface 

of the Stanton is an uncunformity that separates the 

Missouri Series from the overlying Virgil Series. 

VIRGIL SERIES 

The youngest exposed Pennsylvanian rocks in N ebraska constitute the Virgil Series. These rocks are 

marked at the upper and lower boundaries by unconformities and are cyclical, as are those in the Missouri Series. The Virgil rocks consist mainly of shale, 

limestone, sandstone, and thin coal. Outcrops are 

widespread in southeastern Nebraska where some of 

the upper beds have been removed by erosion over 

the Nemaha arch and in the northern end of the 

Forest City basin. As shown by figure 10, the thickness of the Virgil ranges from a featheredge at the 

northern end of the basin to a little more than 244m 

(800ft) in the deeper part of the Forest City basin. 

The Virgil Series is divided into three groups in Ne0 50 100 MILES I I I I I I I I I I I I I 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 10.-Thickness of the Virgil Series in Nebraska. 
N-EB-RASKA P11 

braska, fron1 oldest to youngest: Douglas Group, 

Shawnee Group, and Wabaunsee Group. (See fig. 7.) 

DOUGLAS GROUP 

The Douglas Group consists mostly of shale interbedded with some limestone but also includes. some 

sandstone and a few beds of thin coal. Where the 

group crops out in Cass and Sarpy Counties, it is 

about 18 m (60 ft) thick, but in the subsurface it 

thickens southward to a maximum of 46 m ( 150 ft) 

in Richardson County. In ascending order, the Douglas Group is composed of the Plattford Shale, Cass 

Limestone, and Lawrence Shale. 

SHAWNEE GROUP 

Conformably overlying the Douglas Group is a distinctive cyclic sequence, the Shawnee Group, which 

consists mainly of limestone interbedded with several layers of shale and a few layers of sandstone. This 

group crops out in Cass, Otoe, Pawnee, and Saunders 

Counties. Its thickness ranges from 53 m (175ft) on 

the Nemaha arch to 76 m (250ft) in the Forest City 

basin. From oldest to youngest, the Shawnee Group 

comprises the following seven formations: Oread 

Limestone, Kanwaka Shale, Lecompton Limestone, 

Tecumseh Shale, Deer Creek Limestone, Calhoun 

Shale, and Topeka Limestone. 

WABAUNSEE GROUP 

Although the Wabaunsee Group includes several 

thin persistent layers of limestone and a few very 

thin coal beds, it consists mostly of shale, sandy 

shale, and sandstone. Outcrops occur in Cass, Johnson, Nemaha, Otoe, Pawnee, and Richardson Counties; wherever the basal beds are exposed, the Wabaunsee Group conformably overlies the Shawnee 

Group. Exposures of the group's upper boundary indicate that a period of erosion preceded deposition 

of the overlying rocks of Permian age. Locally, channels incised as much as 30 m (100 ft) into Wabaunsee rocks are filled with Permian sandstone. In the 

northern part of the Forest City basin and over the 

Nemaha arch, the upper part of th.e Wabaunsee 

Group either was not deposited or was removed by 

pre-Permian erosion. The maximum thickness of the 

group is about 122m ( 400 ft). From oldest to youngest, the following 14 formations constitute the Wabaunsee Group: Severy Shale, Howard Limestone, 

Scranton Shale, Burlingame Limestone, Soldier 

Creek Shale, Wakarusa Limestone, Auburn Shale, 

Emporia Limestone, Willard Shale, Zeandale Lim.estone, Pillsbury Shale, Stotler Limestone, Root Shale, 

and Wood Siding F-ormation. 

ENVIRONMENTS OF DEPOSITION 

Pennsylvanian rocks in Nebraska, especially the 

Missouri Series and the lower p~art of the Virgil 

Series, consist of repeated sequences of beds. Such 

evidence for cyclic sedimentation characterizes the 

Pennsylvanian rocks throughout much of the midcontinent area. 

Discovery of cyclic sedimentation is credited to 

Udden (1912), who noted that certain sequences of 

Pennsylvanian strata exposed in the Peoria quadrangle of western Illinois were clearly divisible into 

four parts, the same order of parts being repeated 

several times. Because one of the parts was a bed of 

coal and another a bed of lim.estone, each sequence, 

or cycle, indicated an alternation of nonmarine and 

marine deposition. A cycle was defined as all the 

strata between the base of one coal bed and the base 

of the next younger co·al bed. 

Weller (1930, 1931), who believed that diastrophism accounted for cyclical Pennsylvanian sedimentation, redefined a cycle. According to him (1931, p. 

163), an ideal cycle consists of nine parts, listed from 

oldest (1.) to youngest (9.) as follows: 

9. Shale containing "ironstone" bands in upper part and 

thin limestone layers in lower part. 

8. Limestone. 

7. Calcareous shale. 

6. Black "fissile" shale. 

5. Coal. 

4. Underclay. 

3. Fresh-water limestone. 

2. Sandy and micaceous shale. 

1. Sandstone with unconformity at the base. 

In 1931, the Illinois State Geological Survey sponsored a symposi urn on cyclic sedimentation in the 

Pennsylvanian System. Those who attended included 

R. C. Moore, F. B. Plummer, D. B. Reger, G. H. Ashley, W. E. Stout, H. R. Wanless, and J. M. Weller, 

each of whom presented papers describing evidence 

for cyclic sedimentation in his part of the Central 

United States. The Illinois State Geological Survey 

published these papers in its Bulletin 60 (Weller, 

1931). 

Soon after the symposium, Wanless and Weller 

(1932) proposed that cyclic repetitions of strata, or 

"cyclothems," could be used to confirm interbasin 

and possibly regional correlations. 

In 1936, Moore presented a slightly differe:pt, more 

detailed description of an ideal cyclothem. His sequence of beds, also listed oldest (.0) to youngest 

(.9), was as follows (1936, pp. 24-25) 

.9 Shale (and coal). 

.8 Shale, typically with molluscan fauna. 
Pl2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

. 7 Limestone, algal, molluscan, or with mixed molluscan and 

molluscoid fauna. 

.6 Shale, molluscoids dominant. 

.5 Limestone, contains fusulinids, associated commonly with 

molluscoids. 

.4 Shale, molluscoids dominant. 

.3 Limestone, molluscan, or with mixed molluscan and molluscoid fauna. 

.2 Shale, typically with molluscan fauna. 

.1 c. Coal. 

. 1 b. Underclay. 

.1 a. Shale, may contain land plant fossils . 

. 0 Sandstone. 

In the same publication, Moore introduced the term 

"megacyclothem" for "a cycle of cyclothems." According to him, each cyclothem in a megacyclothem 

could be distinguished by the type of limestone it included. The limestone beds in cyclothems composing 

a megacyclothem were designated, in ascending order, as "lower," "middle," "upper," and "super" 

limestone sequences. Later regional studies showed 

that in a few localities the lower or upper parts of 

some megacyclothems are missing. 

Moore's cyclothemic and megacyclothemic classification for Upper Pennsylvanian strata has aided the 

understanding of the changing environmental conditions during deposition of these beds. 

Examination of sequential relationships in the 

Upper Pennsylvanian of the Nebraska part of the 

Forest ·city basin indicates that the megacyclothems 

differ somewhat from the ideal. If sedimentation 

took place during the early part of the megacycle, it 

usually was interrupted one or more times, resulting 

in the removal, by erosion, of most or all beds that 

had been deposited since the beginning of the megacycle. Thus, the early part of the m·egacyclothem generally is either thin or lacking. On the other hand, 

the middle and upper parts of the megacyclothems 

appear to be complete, or nearly so, and the sequence 

of beds is similar to that in the ideal megacyclothem 

already described. 

Numbered from earliest (1.) to latest (7.), the 

succession of depositional events constituting most 

of the Nebraska megacyclothems is interpreted to 

have been about as follows: 

7. Deposition of shale and sand under conditions 

of rapid accumulation and progressive return to nonmarine environment; swamp development in coastal plain. 

6. Deposition of the "super" limestone in an increasingly brackish environment; only small 

to moderate amounts of argillaceous and 

siliceous impurities derived from adjacent 

land areas. 

5. Deposition of dark shale in shallow seawater 

under conditions of slow accumulation of 

argillaceous and siliceous erosional products 

from adjacent land areas. 

4. Deposition of the "upper" limestone when 

swamp drainage ceased and seawater 

cleared; shallowing of the sea resulted in 

formation of oolites in limestone and eventual cessation :of carbonate deposition . 

3. Deposition of black fissile shale when head ward 

erosion of streams caused drainage of inland 

swamps and inflow of humic material to the 

s·ea. 

2. Simultaneous deposition of thin "middle" limestone and shoreward expansion of inland 

swampy areas. 

1. Simultaneous deposition of gray-green and red 

shale in a marine nearshore environment and 

formation of inland swamps. 

The several rock groups composing the Upper 

Pennsylvanian in Nebraska differ somewhat in those 

parts of the complete megacyclothem of Moore 

(1936, pp. 24-25) that are represented, as indicated 

below: 

Kansas City Group.-Part including "lower" limestone consistently absent; parts including "middle" and "upper" limestone sequences always 

pre,sent. Although the part that includes the 

"super" limestone sequence is generally present, it 

is absent from some megacycles. 

Lansing Group.-All four limestone sequences generally represented. 

Douglas Group.-Consists mostly of shale but includes the Cass Limestone, which is made up of a 

"middle" and an "upper" limestone separated by 

black fissile shale. 

Shawnee Group.-All four limestone sequences generally represented. 

W abaunsee Group.-Consists primarily o.f shale, 

sandy shale, and sandstone interbedded with thin 

to moderately thick marine limestone that generally occurs in pairs. The lower limes~tone of each pair 

commonly is the thicker and more persistent; the 

upper commonly is less pure and is discontinuous. 

Absent from the Wahaunsee Group are limestone 

beds of the "lower" and "middle" lim.estone sequences, and also absent is the black fissile shale 

ordinarily associated with the "middle" limestone 

sequence. All the limestones in the group probably 

are thin repres;entative~s of .the "upper" and 

"super" limestone sequences. 
NEBRASKA P13 

BIOSTRATIGRAPHY 

Some of the marine beds in the Upper Pennsylvanian of Nebraska contain abundant fossils of invertebrates. Brachiopods, pelecypods, gastropods, 

crinoids, corals, bryozoans, and fusilinids are the 

more comm:on types. A few fossils of trilobites and 

ostracodes also are found in these rocks. Publications 

by Condra (1903), Dunbar and Condra (1927; 

1932), Miller, Dunbar, and ·condra (1933), and 

Pabian (1970) describe the fossil fauna present in 

exposed Upper Pennsylvanian rocks. 

Terrestrial beds, particularly those associated with 

coal, commonly contain fossil plant remains. Leaves 

of the ferns N eur-opteris Los hi Brongt. and N eur-opter-is hi1·suta Lesq., stems of rushes, and stems of 

Calamites were reported (Hayden, 1868, p. 327-329) 

from beds ass;ociated with coal seams at Brownville 

in Nemaha County and at Rulo in Richardson County. However, no detailed studies of the fossil flora 

have been made to date. 

ECONOMIC PRODUCTS 

COAL 

Discovery of coal :outcrops in southeastern N ebraska in the 1850's prompted wild claims about an inexhaustible supply of fuel reserves underlying that 

part of the State. Nor were the claimants quieted 

when F. H. Hayden (1868), a geologist from the 

University of Pennsylvania, conducted a survey of 

the area and concluded that no coal beds thick 

enough for large mining operations existed above 

drainage level. Even after borings failed to reveal 

coal beds more than a foot or two thick, many people 

were still convinced that workable supplies remained 

to be discovered. 

Meanwhile, several small drift mines were being 

operated, but each supplied only enough coal for local 

use until, in 1906, the Honey Creek mine was opened 

in a seam 66 em (26 in ) thick. Located about 6.4 km 

(4 miles) southwest of Peru in Nemaha County, this 

was one of the few commercial mines to be operated 

in the Sta.t·e. Coal thickness was as much as 91 em 

(36 in ) , but, in parts of th~ mine, the seam was too 

thin i;o be extracted profitably. Mining operations 

continued for only a year or two. 

The oldest coal beds in Nebraska are in the Cherokee and Marma.ton Groups, which make up· the upper 

part of the Des Moines Series. Because neither of 

these groups crop out, the existence of the coal beds 

in them is known only from the results of test drilling. At least nine coal beds have been identified at 

depths ranging from 305 m (1,000 ft) to 701 m 

(2,300 ft) below land surface. Burchett (1977, p. 60) 

estimated that 7.7 x 109 metric tons (8.5 billion tons) 

of deeply buried coal are in southeastern Nebraska. 

As many as eight coal beds are known in the Wabaunsee Group, the youngest of the three groups 

composing the Virgil Series. One or more of these 

coal beds crop out in each of the following counties : 

Cass, Otoe, Johnson, Nemaha, Pawnee, and Richardson. From oldest to youngest, these c·oals are known 

as the Nodaway, White Cloud, Elmo, Wamego, Dry, 

French Creek, Lorton, and Honey Creek (Burchett, 

1977), as shown in figure 7. All but the last are very 

thin to thin, ranging in thickness from 3 em ( 0.1 ft) 

to 0.37 m (1.2 ft). As stated earlier, the Honey Creek 

Coal is known to be as much as 91 em (36 in ) thick 

in the mine of the same name. The Nodaway, Elmo, 

Wamego, Lorton, and Honey Creek c.oals have the 

. greatest lateral extent but differ in thickness from 

place to place. All have been mined, but only the 

Honey Creek supplied more coal than that needed for 

a few households. Burchett ( 1977, p. 38-55) estimated that 9.25 X 109 metric tons (10.2 million tons) 

of coal in ·southeastern Nebraska has an overburden 

that is less than 15.2 m (50ft) thick. 

All coal in the Pennsylvanian rocks in the N ebraska part of the Forest City basin is black and is either 

bituminous or subbituminous. It has a medium to 

high sulfur content. 

OIL AND GAS 

Oil production from Pennsylvanian age rocks beneath Dundy, Frontier, Furnas, Harlan, Hayes, 

Hitchcock, Lincoln, and Red Willow Counties in 

southwestern Nebraska is from zones ranging in 

depth from 914 m (3,000 ft) to 1,372 m ( 4,500 ft) 

below land surface. These zones occur in the Cherokee, Marmaton, Lansing-Kansas City, Douglas, and 

Shawnee Groups. Of the 9.825 x 105 kl ( 6,180,500 

bbl) of oil produced in Nebraska in 1976, about 

3.46 x 10" kl (2,176,600 barrels) were from rocks of 

Pennsylvanian age. 

Volumes of gas produced were not measured. 

SHALE 

Pennsylvanian shale formerly was used in the 

manufacture of brick and tile at three Nebraska locations-Table Rock in Pawnee County, Humboldt 

in Richardson County, and Nebraska City in Otoe 

County. At the Nebraska City plant, which was the 

most recent to discontinue operations, Wabaunsee 

Group shale was used also for producing lightweight 

aggregate. Currently, shale of the Lansing Group is 
P14 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

being used in the manufacture of cement at a plant 

near Louisville in Cass County. 

LIMESTONE 

About 200 quarries, 26 of which were active in 

1976, have been opened in limestone beds of Pennsylvanian age. Three-fourths of these quarries are in 

Cass County; the others are in Johnson, Otoe, Pawnee, Richardson, Sarpy, and Washington Counties. 

Of the currently operated quarries, 20 are in Cass 

County, 3 are in Sarpy, 1 is in Saunders, and 2 are 

in Washington. Total production fro·m these four 

counties, in 1975, was 3.45 x 106 metric tons (3.8 

million tons) . 

Seven companies operate the 20 active quarries in 

Ca~ss County. Production is from the Kansas City, 

Lansing, Douglas, and Shawnee Groups. Limestone 

from two quarries operated by the same company is 

used in the manufacture of cement. Most of the production from the other quarries is used as crushed 

stone for concrete aggregate, asphalt aggregate, road 

surfacing, riprap, and agricultural lime. The remainder is used for wallstone or is finely ground for use 

as filter or as a feed supplement. 

The three lim·estone quarries in Sarpy County are 

in the Kansas City Group. Their production is used 

for road surfacing, rip·rap, and wallstone. 

The only limestone quarry in Saunders County is 

in the Lansing and Douglas Groups. Its pvoduction is 

used for concrete aggregate, asphalt aggregate, road 

surfacing, agricultural lime, riprap, and wallstone. 

A single company operates both of the limestone 

quarries in Washington County. Production is from 

the Kansas City Group and is used for concrete aggregate, asphalt aggregate, road surfacing, agricultural lime, and riprap. 

WATER 

In areas where Pennsylvanian strata are the uppermost bedrock, water generally can be obtained 

from the overlying glacial drift or from stream alluvium. However, in some places, wells have been 

extended into the Pennsylvanian lim~estone and sandstone where the mantling deposits either are not 

water bearing or yield less water than needed. Yields 

from bedrock generally are small. 

REFERENCES CITED 

Barbour, E. H., 1903, Report of the State Geologist: Nebraska Geol. Survey, 1st ser., v. 1, 258 p. 

Broadhead, C. C., 1873, Geology of northwestern Missouri: 

Missouri Geol. Survey Rept. 1872, pt. 2, p. 209-409. 

Burchett, R. R., 1968, Stratigraphic sequences in the Pennsylvanian of Nebraska in relationship to the Middle 

River traverse, App. 3 of Field Trip No. 4, Middle River 

traverse of Iowa Pennsylvanian stratigraphy, in Geol. 

Soc. America, North-Central Sec. Ann. Mtg., 2d, May 

1968, guidebook: Iowa City, Univ. Iowa, p. 4-42 to 4-46. 

--- compiler, 1969, Geologic bedrock map of Nebraska: 

Lincoln, Nebr., Univ. Nebraska Conserv. and Survey 

Div., scale 1:1,000,000. 

--- 1970, Guidebook to the geology along the Missouri 

River bluffs of southeastern Nebraska and adjacent 

areas: Lincoln, Nebr., Univ. Nebraska, Conserv. and 

Survey Div., 21 p. 

--- 1971, Guidebook to the geology along portions of the 

lower Platte River valley and Weeping Water valley of 

eastern Nebraska: Lincoln, Nebr., Univ. Nebraska, Conserv. and Survey Div., 39 p. 

--- 1977, Coal resources of Nebraska: Nebraska Geol. 

Survey Resource Rept. 8, 185 p. 

Burchett, R. R., and Carlson, M. P., 1966, Twelve maps summarizing the geologic framework of southeastern Nebraska: Nebraska Geol. Survey Rept. Inv. 1, 14 p. 

Burchett, R. R., and Reed, E. C., 1967, Centennial guidebook 

to the geology of southeastern Nebraska: Lincoln, 

Nebraska, Univ. Nebraska Conserv. and Survey Div. and 

Nebraska Geol. Survey, 83 p. 

Carlson, M. P., 1963, Lithostratigraphy and correlation of the 

Mississippian System in Nebraska: Nebraska Geol. Survey Bull. 21, 46 p. 

--- 1970, Distribution and subdivision of Precambrian 

and lower and middle Paleozoic rocks in the subsurface 

of Nebraska: Nebraska Geol. Survey Rept. Inv. 3, 25 p. 

Condra, G. E., 1903, The coal measure Bryozoa of Nebraska: 

Nebraska Geol. Survey, 1st s.er., v. 3, p. 11-163. 

--- 1927, Stratigraphy of the Pennsylvanian System in 

Nebraska: Univ. Nebraska, Conservation and Survey 

Div., Nebraska Geol. Survey, 2d ser., Bull. 1, 291 p. 

--- 1949, The nomenclature, type localities, and correlation of the Pennsylvanian subdivisions in eastern Nebraska and adjacent states: Nebraska Geol. Survey Bull. 

16, 67 p. 

Condra, G. E., and Bengston, N. A., 1915, Pennsylvanian 

formations of southeastern Nebraska: Nebraska Acad. 

Sci. Pub. 9, no. 2, 60 p. 

Condra, G. E., and Reed, E. C., 1943, The geological section 

of Nebraska: Nebraska Geol. Survey Bull. 14, 83 p. 

(Revised 1959, Bull. 14-A, 82 p.) 

Dunbar, C. 0., and Condra, G. E., 1927, The Fusulinidae of 

the Pennsylvanian System in Nebraska: Nebraska Geol. 

Survey, 2d ser., Bull. 2, 135 p. 

--- 1932, Brachiopoda of the Pennsylvanian System in 

Nebraska: Nebraska Geol. Survey, 2d ser., Bull. 5, 377 p. 

Fagerstrom, J. A., and Burchett, R. R., 1972, Upper Pennsylvanian shoreline deposits from Iowa and Nebraskatheir recognition, variation, and significance: Geol. Soc. 

America Bull., v. 83, no. 2, p. 367-388. 

Hayden, F. V., 1868, Remarks on the possibility of a workable bed of coal in Nebraska: New Haven, Conn., Am. 

Jour. Science, 2d ser., v. 45, p. 326-330. 

Hershey, H. G., Brown, C. N., Van Eck, Orville, and Northrup, R. C., 1960, Highway construction materials from 

the consolidated rocks of southwestern Iowa: Iowa State 

Highway Comm., Iowa Highway Research Board Bull. 

15, 151 p. 
NEBRASKA P15 

Hinds, Henry, and Greene, F. C., 1915, Stratigraphy of Pennsylvanian Series in Missouri: Missouri Bur. Geology and 

Mines, 2d ser., v. 13, 407 p. 

Howe, W. B. (coordinator) and Koenig, J. W. (editor), 1961, 

The stratigraphic· succession in Missouri: Missouri Div. 

Geol. Survey and Water Resources [Rept.], 2d ser., v. 

40, p. 82-122. 

Jewett, J. M., O'Connor, H. G., and Zeller, D. E., 1968, Pennsylvanian System, in Zeller, D. E., ed., The stratigraphic 

succession in Kansas: Kansas State Geol. Survey Bull. 

189, p. 21-43. 

Kansas Geological Society, 1957, Guidebook, 21st field con-. 

ference in eastern Kansas, September 19-21, 1957: 126 p. 

Marcou, Jules, 1864, Une reconnaissance geologique au 

Nebraska: Soc. Geol. France Bull., 2d ser., v. 21, p. 

132-147. 

Meek, F. B., 1872, Report on the paleontology of eastern 

Nebraska with some remarks on the Carboniferous rocks 

of that district in, Hayden, F. V., Final report of the 

United States Geological Survey of Nebraska: U.S. 42d 

Cong., 1st sess., House Executive Doc. 19, p. 83-239. 

Meek, F. B. and Hayden, F. V., 1859, Geological explorations 

in Kansas Territory: Philadelphia Acad. Nat. Sci. Proc., 

p. 8-30. ' 

Merrill, G. P., 1924, The first one hundred years of American 

geology: New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, 773 p. 

Miller, A. K., Dunbar, C. 0., and Condra, G. E., 1933, The 

nautiloid cephalopods of the Pennsylvanian System in 

the Midcontinent region: Nebraska Geol. Survey, 2d ser., 

Bull. 9, 240 p. 

Moore, R. C., 1932, Reclassification of the Pennsylvanian 

System in the northern Midcontinent region, in Kansas 

Geological Society Guidebook, 6th Ann. Field Conf., 

Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, 1932: p. 79-98. 

--- 1936, Stratigraphic classification of the Pennsylvanian rocks of Kansas: Kansas Geol. Survey Bull. 22, 

256 p. 

--- 1940, Carboniferous-Permian boundary: Am. Assoc. 

Petroleum Geologist Bull., v. 24, no. 2, p. 282-336. 

--- 1948, Classification of Pennsylvanian rocks in Iowa, 

Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and northern Oklahoma: 

Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 32, no. 11, p. 

2011-2040. 

--- 1949, Divisions of the Pennsylvanian System in Kansas: Kansas State Geol. Survey Bull. 83, 203 p. 

Moore, R. C., Frye, J. C., and Jewett, J. M., 1944, Tabular 

description of the outcropping rocks in Kansas: Kansas 

State Geol. Survey Bull. 52, pt. 4, p. 137-212. 

Moore, R. C., Frye, J. C., Jewett, J. M., Lee, Wallace, and 

O'Connor, H. G., 1951, The Kansas rock column: Kansas 

State Geol. Survey Bull. 89, 132 p. 

Moore, R. C., and Mudge, M. R., 1956, Reclassification of 

some Lower Permian and Upper Pennsylvanian strata 

in northern Mid-Continent: Am. Asoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull, v. 40, no. 9, p. 2271-2278. 

Moore, R. C., and others, 1937, The Missouri-Virgil boundary 

in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma, in Kansas 

Geological Society Guidebook, 11th Ann. Field Conf., 

southeastern Kansas, northeastern Oklahoma, 1937: p. 

37-39. 

Moore, R. C., Chairman, and others, 1944, Correlation of the 

Pennsylvanian formations of North America [Correlation chart 6] : Geol. Soc. America Bull, v. 55, no. 6, 

p. 657-706. 

Mudge, M. R., and Yochelson, E. L., 1962, Stratigraphy and 

paleontology of the uppermost Pennsylvanian and lowermost Permian rocks in Kansas: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. 

Paper 323, 213 p. 

Owen, D. D., 1852, Report of a geological survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, and incidentally of a portion 

of Nebraska Territory: Philadelphia, Lippincott, 638 p. 

Pabian, R. K., 1970, Record in rock-a handbook of the invertebrate fossils of Nebraska: Nebraska U niv., Conserv. and Survey Div. Educ. Circ. 1, 97 p. 

Prichard, G. E., 1975, Nebraska and adjoining parts of South 

Dakota and Wyoming, in McKee, E. D., and Crosby, 

E. J., coordinators, Introduction and regional analyses 

of the Pennsylvanian System in the United States: U.S. 

Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 853, pt. 1, p. 115-126. 

Prosser, C. S., 1897, Comparison of the Carboniferous and 

Permian formations of Nebraska and Kansas: Jour. 

Geology, v. 5, no. 1, p. 1-16; v. 5, no. 2, p. 148-174. 

--·- 1902, Revised classification of the upper Paleozoic 

formations of Kansas: Jour. Geology, v. 10, no. 7, p. 

703-737. 

Reed, E. C., and Burchett, R. R., 1964, Stratigraphic sequences in the Pennsylvanian of Nebraska and their 

relationships to cyclic sedimentation in Kansas: Kansas 

Geol. Survey Bull. 169, p. 441-447. 

Smith, Russell, and Burchett, R. R., 1967, Stratigraphic cross 

section of Paleozoic rocks of Nebraska in Smith, Russell, 

ed., Stratigraphic cross section of Paleozoic rocksOklahoma to Saskatchewan: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Cross Section Pub. 5, p. 7-9. 

Swallow, G. C., 1866, Preliminary report of geological survey 

of Kansas: Lawrence, Kans., Kansas Geol. Survey, p. 

1-122. 

Tilton, J. L., 1920, Missouri Series of the Pennsylvanian 

System of southwestern Iowa: Iowa Geol. Survey, v. 29, 

p. 223-313. 

Udden, J. A., 1912, Geology and mineral resources of the 

Peoria quadrangle, Illinois: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 506, 

p. 47-50. 

Wanless, H. R., and Weller, J. M., 1932, Correlation and 

extent of Pennsylvanian cyclothems: Geol. Soc. America 

Bull., v. 43, no. 4, p. 1003-1016. 

Weller, J. M., 1930, Cyclical sedimentation of the Pennsylvanian Period and its significance: Jour. Geology, v. 

38,no. 2, p. 97-135. 

--- 1931, The conception of cyclical sedimentation during 

the Pennsylvanian Period: Illinois State Geol. Survey 

Bull. 60, p. 163-177. 

Woodruff, E. G., 1906, The geology of Cass County, Nebraska: Nebraska Geol. Survey, 1st ser., v. 2, pt. 2, p. 

171-302. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesKansas 

By WILLIAM J. EBANKS, JR., LAWRENCE L. BRADY, PHILIP H. HECKEL, 

HowARU G. O'CoNNOR, GEORGE A. SANDERSON, RoNALD R. WEsT, and 

FRANK w. WILSON 

GEOLOGICAL. SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-Q 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

/{ansas Geological Survey 

Historical review and su1nm.ary of areal, stratigraphic, 

structural, and econom.ic geology of Mississippian and 

Pennsylvanian rocks in Kansas 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

\ 

CONTENTS 

Abstract 

Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------

History ------------------------------------------------------------------

Geologk setting ----------------------------------------------------------

Lithostratigraphy --------------------------------------------------------

]dississippian --------------------------------------------------------

Pennsylvanian -------------------------------------------------------

Lower and ]diddle Pennsylvanian ----------------------------------

]diddle and Upper Pennsylvanian ----------------------------------

Facies and depositional environments of Pennsylvanian rocks ______ _ 

Biostratigraphy ---------------------------------------------------------- ]dississippian _______________________________________________________ _ 

Pennsylvanian ------------------------------------------------------- Fossil collecting _____________________________________________________ _ 

Economic products --------------------------------------------------------

Coal -----------------------------------------------------------------

Petroleum -----------------------------------------------------------

]detallic ores ---------------------------------------------------------

Limestone and other nonmetallic minerals -------------------------------

References cited ----------------------------------------------------------

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Q1 

1 

3 

5 

6 

6 

9 

9 

9 

12 

17 

17 

18 

20 

21 

21 

21 

24 

24 

26 

FIGURE 1. ]dap showing areas of outcrop of Carboniferous rocks in Kansas ----------------------------------

2. Chart showing subdivisions of the Carboniferous in Kansas --------------------------------------

3. ]dap showing paleotectonic features of Kansas -----------------------------------------------------

4. Generalized lithostratigraphic column of ]dississippian formations in Kansas -----------------------

5.- Generalized lithostratigraphic column of Pennsylvanian formations at the surface in eastern Kansas __ 

6. Chart showing basic vertical sequence of an individual Kansas Pennsylvanian cyclothem ------------

7. Schematic cross section showing basic pattern of lateral facies relations in generalized Kansas cyclothem 

8. Chronostratigraphic chart of outcropping Pennsylvanian rocks in Kansas ---------------------------

9. ]dap showing areas of strippable coal reserves -----------------------------------------------------

10. Graph showing cumulative production of coal in Kansas -----------------------------------------

11. ]daps showing areas of production of oil from subsurface Upper and ]diddle Pennsylvanian rocks in 

Kansas ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12. ]daps showing areas of production of oil from subsurface Lower Pennsylvanian and from ]dississipPage 

Q2 

3 

6 

7 

10 

13 

14 

18 

22 

22 

23 

pian rocks in Kansas ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 

13. Graph showing cumulative production of recoverable lead and zinc from mines in Kansas ------------ 24 

14. ]dap showing locations of large quarries and mines from which limestone is obtained, and locations of 

plants where cement and clay products are manufactured in Kansas -----------~--------------- 25 

III 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) 

SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES-KANSAS 

By WILLIAM J. EBANKS, JR.\ LAWRENCE L. BRADY 1 , PHILIP H. HECKEL 2 , 

HowARD G. O'CoNNOR 1 , GEORGE A. SANDERSON 3 , RONALD R. WEST 4 , 

and FRANK W. WILSON 1 

ABSTRACT 

Carboniferous rocks crop out only in the eastern one-third 

of Kansas, but they are present throughout the rest of the 

State in the subsurface. Because of their economic importance as sources of building materials, industrial and agricultural minerals, metallic ores, and oil and gas, and because 

of their importance to understanding the geologic history of 

the Carboniferous of North America, Mississippian and 

Pennsylvanian rocks have been the subjects of study in 

Kansas since very early in the exploration and settlement of 

the area. The first State Geological Survey of Kansas was 

established in 1864. Co~certed effort to refine nomenclature 

and correlation of these rocks with the Carboniferous of 

other areas began in the early 1900's and is continuing at 

present. 

Tectonic events that began in early Mississippian time resulted in the pattern of regional structures that is evident 

in these rocks now. Unconformities separate Mississippian 

carbonate rocks from underlying Devonian-Mississippian 

shale and from overlying lower-to-upper Pennsylvanian limestone, shale, and sandstone formations. The contact of the 

Pennsylvanian rocks with overlying Permian beds is conformable in Kansas. 

Although only ro::ks of Osagean age crop out in southeastern Kansas, rocks of all four stages of the Mississippian 

occur in the Kansas subsurface, where they are as much as 

500 m (1,700 ft) thick. Kinderhookian beds thicken northward, but Osagean and younger beds thicken southward from 

Kansas. Most of the Mississippian limestone and dolomite 

were formed in a shallow, marine-shelf environment. Oolitic 

and bioclastic limestone and dolomite associated with evaporites are common in the section. Shaly, sandy formations 

are common in the uppermost Mississippian. 

Morrowan and Atokan rocks are the oldest Pennsylvanian 

units present in the Kansas subsurface. They are as thick as 

335 m (1,100 ft) in southwestern Kansas. Surface exposures 

of Desmoinesian, Missourian, and Virgilian are found 

throughout eastern Kansas, where they comprise 49 formations whose combined thickness averages 750 m (2,460 ft). 

1 Kansas Geological Survey. Lawrence, Kans. 66044. ~University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 62240. 3 Amoco Production Research Company, Tulsa, Okla. 74102. ~ Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kans. 66'&02. 

These middle and upper Pennsylvanian stages are also present in the subsurface. 

The repeated occurrence of similar types of rocks in vertical section has led to recognition of cyclothems in the 

Pennsylvanian of Kansas. The "Kansas cyclothem" consists 

of five depositional units that record a single transgressiveregressive sequence of events. 

The biostratigraphy of Kansas Carboniferous rocks, which 

is well known in general, is subject to better definition in 

detail. Correlation of Mississippian rocks has been made on 

the basis of studies of bryozoans, brachiopods, conodonts, 

and calcareous foraminifers. Pennsylvanian beds have been 

correlated mainly on the basis of fusulinid foraminifers and 

brachiopods. The Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary is still a 

subject of dispute. 

Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian coal is an important 

natural resource in Kansas. Seventeen of the 42 coal beds in 

eastern Kansas have economic reserves of medium- to highsulfur coal. Surface strip mining is the most common method 

of recovering these thin coal beds. 

Oil and natural gas have been produced from the Carboniferous rocks of Kansas since the 1860's, and these formations continue to be the targets of exploratory drilling 

and sites of experimentation with enhanced recovery methods. 

Approximately 40 perC€nt of the oil and 10 percent of the 

gas produced in Kansas have come from these formations. 

Lead and zinc ore was an important product of the Mississippian rocks of Kansas until 1970, and there has been 

renewed interest in mining deep subsurface deposits. Limestone and shale from Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian 

Series have been used extensively for crushed stone, building 

stone, cement, and for different clay products in Kansas. 

INTRODUCTION 

Carboniferous rocks crop out only in the eastern 

one-third of Kansas (fig. 1), but ·they are. present 

throughout the State in the subsurface. Mississippian (lower Carboniferous) rocks are divided into 

the Lower Mississippian Series, comprising the 

Kinderhookian and Osagean Stages, and the Upper 

Mississippian Series, comprising the Meramecian 

Ql 
Q2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

•Goodland 

39" 

38" 

0 50 100 MILES I I I I 

0 

I ,·, I I I 

50 100 KILOMETERS 

EXPLANATION 

Virgilian F:>.<·.·:.: ::.1 M~sourian IMi~f~~;,~~~ Desmoinesmn Osagean 

FIGURE 1.-Areas of outcrrop of Carboniferous rocks in Kansas. North of the Kansas River and east of the Little Blue 

River, the surface is partly covered by Pleistocene glacial deposits. 

and Chesterian Stages. Pennsylvanian rocks are 

divided into the Lower Pennsylvanian Series, comprising the Morrowan Stage, the Middle Pennsylvanian Series, comprising the Atokan and Desmoinesian Stages, and the Upper Pennsylvanian Series, 

comprising the Missourian and Virgilian Stages 

(fig. 2). Only the Upper and Middle· Pennsylvanian 

and part of the Upper Mississipp·ian are exposed at 

the surface. 

In northeastern Kansas, in the area roughly 

bounded by t.he Kansas River on the south aud the 

Big Blue and Little Blue Rivers on the west, the 

CarboniferouG rocks are discontinuously overlajn by 

as much as 100 m (330 ft) of Quaternary deposits, 

chiefly glacial till and eolian silt; nevertheless, Carboniferous rocks are exposed along most of the principal drainageways. This area. coincides with the 

physiographic region known as the Dissected Till. 

Plains of the Central Lowland. 

In the remainder of the outcrop area, south of the 

Kansas River, Carboniferous rocks generally are 

overlain only by a .thin soil cover, or, along valleys, 

by 15 m (50ft) or less of fluvial deposits. The Carboniferous rocks have a slight regional west or 

northwest dip of about 2 to 6 m per km (10 to 30ft 

per mi) in most of this area, which gives rise to 

gentle east-southeast-facing cuestas. This area of 

Carboniferous outcrops is part of the Osage Plains 

and the Cherokee Plain of the Central Lowland. 

The effect of Cenozoic events on Carboniferous exposures has been, in •eastern Kansas, a slight accentuation of relief and, in northeastern Kansas, the 

extensive covering of Carboniferous outcrops with 

glacial till, fluvial and lacustrine deposits, and discontinuous but extensive loess deposits. Loess deposits thin rapidly south o.f the Kansas River, and 

they are generally thin or absent in ntost of southeastern Kansas. Weathering of the Carboniferous 

rocks during the Cenozoic took plaoe at about the 

same pace as erosion of the weathered materials, 

and throughout this area, soils are relatively thin. 

The best natural exposures a~e along the streams 
SYSTEM SERIES STAGE 

z 

$ 

...I 

a 

a: 

5 

a: 

w 

Cl. 

Cl. 

::> 

z 

$ z z 

~ $ 

a: ...I ::> >- 0 (/) (/) z (/) 

z 

w ~ Cl. 

(/) z ::> <( 

0 u; a: w w z LL. 0 z w 

...I ~ 0 c (/) CD c w 5 ~ c 

ATOKAN 

a: 

w 

3: MORROWAN 

0 

...I 

CHESTERIAN 

a: 

w z Cl. $ Cl. u ::> w 

~ 

z ~ $ w Cl. ~ Cl. 

u; 

(/) z u; 

(/) ~ 

~ (!) 

<( 

(/) 

a: 0 

w 

3: ,z 0 

...I ffi$ 

c~ zO 

-o 

~:::t: 

GROUP 

WABAUNSEE 

SHAWNEE 

DOUGLAS 

LANSING 

KANSAS CITY 

PLEASANTON 

MARMATON 

CHEROKEE 

UNNAMED 

UNNAMED 

UNNAMED 

KANSAS Q3 

where the Carboniferous rocks are being actively 

eroded. Many excellent artificial exposures ar:e found 

along the newer highways, particularly those trending east-west, and in pits and quarries where limestone, shale, sandstone, or coal have been extracted. 

Both Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Systems 

are extremely important in the economy of Kansas 

as sources of fossil-fuel resources, metallic ores, 

agricultural minerals, building stone; and cera.mic 

raw materials. Ground-water resources in rocks of 

the Upper Pennsylvanian Series are important only 

locally in eastern Kansas. Because of this economic 

importance, study of Carboniferous rocks began 

early in the exploration and s~ettlement of eastern 

Kansas, and this study is continuing today. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage of 

the Kansas Geological Survey. 

HISTORY 

Explorers, traders, missionaries, and others entering the eastern Kansas Territory in the early 1800's 

noticed coal-bearing strata there, especially along 

the route of the Santa Fe Trail and in the drainage 

tributaries through which they passed. The earliest 

purpos,eful stratigraphic studies of Carboniferous 

rocks in eastern Kansas were begun by G. C. Swallow (1855), the first State Geologist of Missouri, as 

he extended his study of .the geology of Missouri 

along the west side of the Missouri Riv~er into what 

is now northeastern Kansas. 

FIGURE 2.-Subdivisions of the Carboniferous in Kansas. 

Swallow also became involved in a dispute over 

priority for the first recognition of Permian rocks, 

not only in Kansas, but also on the whole of the 

North American Continent. The Permian was, at 

that time, considered to be part of the Carboniferous. Major Frederick Hawn, a military surveyer and 

geologist stationed at Fort Leavenworth, submitted 

fossils that he had collected in the course of his work 

in Kansas to Swallow, and the two, on the basis of 

Swallow's recognition o.f the Permian age of the 

specimens, reported their findings in 1858, only a 

few days before an announcement of a similar finding by F. B. Meek (Meek and Hayden, 1858) which 

also was based on fossils submitted to him by Hawn. 

These early studies had economic implications because of the known occurrence of salt and gypsum 

in beds of Permian age and the relation of these 

younger beds to underlying Coal Measures, which 

were known to be widespread in the midcontinent 

area, even at that time. 
Q4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Interest in economic development of the young 

State of Kansas· led the Kansas legislature in 1864 

to authorize the first State Geological Survey of 

Kansas; Benjamin F. Mudge was State Geologist. 

The enacting law provided for certain very specific 

assignments, most of which r~elated to assessment of 

potentially valuable economic minerals and the suitability of Kansas soils for agriculture. Although this 

first State Survey was little more than a g_eneral 

reconnaissance, the geologists of that day had a good 

knowledg,e of the general stratigraphy of eastern 

Kansas, most of which involved rocks of late Carboniferous age. This first report included a revie'Y of 

the occurrence of coal, lignite, lim-e, marble, cement, 

gypsum, alum, salt, sandstone, lead, zinc, iron, and 

s·cattered surface indications o.f oil. The second State 

Geological Survey of Kansas began in 1865; G. C. 

Swallow was the second State Geologist. This work 

was largely an extension of the fi·eldwork begun by 

the Mudge Survey. 

On the basis of Swallow's studies of the geology 

in the extreme southeastern corner of the State, the 

rocks there were for the first time correctly correlated with the lower Carboniferous "Mississippian" 

and the lead-bearing strata of southwestern Missouri. In the coal-bearing or upper Carboniferous 

"Pennsylvanian" rocks, Swallow identified 22 different seams of coal ranging in thickness from 0.3 to 

2.1 m (1 to 7ft). The "Report of the Geological Survey of Miami County, Kansas" (Swallow and Hawn, 

1865), was the first geological report actually published by the initial two Geological Surveys in Kap.-

sas. The first map of the geology of Kansas was 

produced by Mudge (1875), in his capacity as a 

geologist on the State Board of Agriculture. During 

the period 1866-89, there was no official Geological 

Survey in Kansas, but work on the upper Carboniferous was proceeding (Broadhead, 1881; Hay, 

1887). 

After years of development in southwestern Missouri, important deposits of lead and zinc ore were 

finally discovered in rocks of Mississippian age in 

southeastern Kansas, near Galena, in 1876. Erasmus 

Haworth, in 1884, completed a study concerningthe 

geology of Cherokee County in the area of this leadzinc-mining activity. Continued interest in the economy of the developing State led the Kansas Legislature, in 1889, to pass an appropriation act for the 

University of Kansas which provided for the establishment of a Geological Survey. In 1895, the University formally established the University Geological Survey of Kansas. 

Haworth, who was named to supervise the physical geology and mineralogy division of the new 

survey, had begun earlier to put students into the 

field to compile stratigraphic sections along the 

major streams in southeastern Kansas. The emphasis of this early work was in basic stratigraphy 

and paleontology to define the areal boundaries of 

the major geologic subdi·visions. The preliminary results of these studies were published in a timely 

fashion in various issues of the "Kansas University 

Quarterly" (Haworth, 1894, 1895). A summary of 

this work, the first comprehensive stratigraphic description, correlation, and section of the Kansas 

Carboniferous, was published in Volume I, Kansas 

Geological Survey (Haworth, 1896). Continued refinement, including more detailed description and 

correction of earlier miscorrelations, was made by 

these early workers in the process of studying Carboniferous rocks in eastern Kansas and the economically important coal and deposits of oil and gas 

which they contained (Haworth, 1898). The leadand zinc-mining activity in extreme southeastern 

Kansas (Haworth and others, 1904) continued to 

attract attention. The U.S. Geological Survey 

(Smith and Seibenthal, 1907) published a folio on 

the Joplin district of Missouri and Kansas, which 

included discussions of formation names and ages 

of im-portant Mississippian limestone and chert units 

that were being mined. 

In 1916, Raymond C. Moore became State Geologist of Kansas. The first report issued under his 

direction (Moore and Haynes, 1917) was a review of 

the oil and gas resources of Kansas. Moore's appointment marked the beginning of a period of conc·erted effort in the refinement of the correlation and 

nomenclature of Pennsylvanian rocks in Kansas, and 

of integration of these studies of Kansas formations 

with those of surrounding States (Moore, 1920, 

1929, 1931, 1932a, b, 1933). In 1936, Moore published a stratigraphic classification of the Pennsylvanian rocks of Kansas. The work of many other 

geologists, whose work is cited by Moore, contributed to this report. This report included a review 

of early studies of the Pennsylvanian and a redefinition of the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary, a 

considerable revision of the previous classification 

and nomenclature of the Pennsylvanian rocks of 

eastern Kansas, recognition of work in surrounding 

States, and an introduction of the concept of repetitive or cyclic sedimentation. 

During the 1930's and early 1940's, Moore and 

other colleagues (Newell, 1935; Abernathy, 1937; 

Pierce and Courtier, 1938; and Jewett, 1933, 1941, 

1945) extended their efforts to refine the classification of middle and upper Pennsylvanian rocks farther south and to integrate work on paleontology 
KANSAS Q5 

and stratigraphy of the Pennsylvanian in adjac~nt 

States with that in Kansas. The results of this work 

were summarized in reports by Moore (Moore, 1948, 

1949). 

Subsequent work has resulted in the reclassification of several groups and subgroups and in the 

presentation of a stratigraphic classification that is 

more acceptable for regional correlations (Moore 

and Mudge, 1956). Work also continued in the refinement of the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary, 

which culminated in a publication by the U.S. Geological Survey (Mudge and Yochelson, 1962). Other 

stratigraphic work, designed to be more comprehensive and more detailed than earlier studies (Howe, 

1956; O'Connor, 196.3; Ball, 1964; Jewett and others, 

1965), has resulted in other changes in the classification of Upper and Middle Pennsylvanian units. This 

work continues with recent studies of environments 

of deposition and of details of stratigraphy of the 

many limestone, shale, and sandstone units of the 

Pennsylvanian in surfa·ce exposures and in the 

subsurface. 

Although oil had been discovered in southeastern 

Kansas Middle Pennsylvanian rocks in the 186,0's, 

few wells were drilled below the top of the Mississippian limestone, because this was considered to be 

the lower limit of potential production. As additional 

drilling continued, however, more and more wells 

penetrated the Mississippian, and work was initiated 

to map the extent of recognizable Mississippian formations in the subsurface of eastern Kansas (Lee, 

1939; Lee and Girty, 1940). Earlier work by Moore 

(1928) on the Mississippian of Missouri strongly· 

influenced the assignment of formation names to 

Mississippian rocks in Kansas. Two parallel sets of 

terminology have evolved for the Mississippian 

rocks in the small area of outcrop in southeasternmost Kansas. One is based on the similarity of these 

rocks with those in northern Arkansas and Oklahoma (Smith and Siebenthal, 1907; McKnight and 

Fischer, 1970) ; the other is based on age equivalency 

and similarity of these rocks with those of northern 

Missouri and the Mississippi River valley (Moore, 

1928; Kaiser, 1950). The latter has prevailed in later 

work on the Mississippian in the subsurface of Kansas. Studies of the Mississippian in the subsurface 

have resulted in the application of these formation 

names farther west (Clair, 1948; Goebel, 1966, 

1968a, 1968b) and in the refinement of the ages of 

these rocks ( Girty, 1940; Thompson and Goebel, 

1963, 1968; Goebel, 1967). Studies of the Lower 

Pennsylvanian and Mississippian rocks in central 

and western Kansas are continuing today. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

The relationship of the Carboniferous rocks in 

Kansas to older underlying rocks is indicative of the 

eventful history of this sequence of rocks. Many tectonic events contributed to the fact that beds as old 

as Early Mississippian and as young as Late Pennsylvanian are in contact with underlying lower 

Paleozoic or Precambrian rocks. 

Over much of the eastern two-thirds of Kansas, 

the dark Mississippian-Devonian Chattanooga Shale 

is in unconformable conta·ct with older rocks. This 

unit is overlain unconformably by Mississippian carbonate rocks and by Pennsylvanian rocks. The importance of a northern Kansas basinal area and a 

southeastern Kansas archlike positive area,· which 

existed until Early Mississippian time, is apparent 

from the distribution and thickness of rocks deposited before that time (Jewett, 1951). 

Tectonic events that began early in the Mississippian resulted in the pattern of structures that are 

apparent in these rocks at present (fig. 3). Most notably, the central Kansas uplift evolved from an 

older, more subtle, archlike feature in central and 

northwestern Kansas, and the Nemaha uplift began 

in eastern Kansas in Late Mississippian time as a 

strongly positive elongate feature, which today extends from eastern Nebraska to southern Oklahoma 

(Jewett, 1951). 

The continued activity on these positive structural 

elements and the increased importance of the 

Anadarko basin in Oklahoma strongly affected patterns of sediment distribution and areas of erosion 

throughout the Carboniferous. Not until Late Pennsylvanian time did sediments finally cover all these 

underlying structures (Lee and Merriam, 1954). 

Lower .Mississippian carbonate rocks, where the 

basal Chattanooga Shale is absent, rest unconformably on all older deposits. An important period of 

erosion removed these beds from the Nemaha and 

central Kansas uplifts near the close of Mississippian time. Upper Mississippian (Chesterian) beds, 

which are present only in the subsurface of southwestern and southeastern Kansas, are probably unconformable with older rocks, but the nature of their 

contact with overlying Lower Pennsylvanian, Morrowan, beds is unclear. In some areas, this contact 

surely is unconformable, but in others, it may represent continuous, but varied, sedimentation or a long 

period of almost no deposition. 

Sedimentation during the Pennsylvanian Period 

covered progressively larger areas, resulting in overlap of older stratigraphic units by younger ones 

until areas of uplift were covered. The Missourian 
Q6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

0 I I I I I I I I 1 

0 50 

50 

I 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

100 MILES 

I 

FOREST CITY 

BASIN 

FIGURE 3.-Paleotectonic features of Kansas that were formed in Late Mississippian-Early Pennsylvanian time (modified 

from Stewart, 1975, fig. 19). 

Ka-nsas City Group is in direct contact with Pre- , 

cambrian crystalline rocks over parts of these old 

positive areas. Considerable local relief was present 

on the Precambrian terrane, which has been discovered by drilling into buried high areas on the 

ancient rocks beneath the Pennsylvanian cover 

(Walters, 1946). 

The close of Carboniferous sedimentation in Kansas was not marked by any important tectonic event. 

The ·contact of Pennsylvanian with younger Permian beds is conformable, except for local areas on 

the Nemaha uplift, which may have been the sites 

of intermittent structural movement and of channelcutting by terrestrial streams at about this time. 

The Pennsylvanian-Permian contact has been 

chosen by convention to be the top of the Brownville 

Limestone Member of the Wood Siding Formation 

of the Virgilian Stage (Moore, 1936). No important 

discontinuity in the fossil record and no important 

tectonic event mark this transitional boundary in 

Kansas. Some States, notably Oklahoma, disagree on 

the plac·em·ent of this systemic boundary; in fact, it 

has been a subject of dispute for a long time (Moore, 

1936; Branson, 1962; Mudge and Yochelson, 1962). 

After the Carboniferous, no large-scale structural 

movements have taken place in Kansas, other than 

regional tilting to the west and overall uplift, which 

have affected mainly the distribution and character 

of post-Permian rocks (Merriam, 1963) . 

LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY 

MISSISSIPPIAN 

In Kansas, rocks of Mississippian age are exposed 

at the surface only in the southeastern corner of the 

State (fig. 1). Consequently, very little detailed 

mapping of Mississippian formations has been accomplished except at a local level, such as in the 

Kansas part of the Tri-State mining district. Beds 

representing all four stages of the Mississippian 

have been recognized in the Kansas subsurface, and 

they are as much as approximately 500 m (1,700 ft) 

thick in southwestern Kansas. Thinner sections 

of Mississippian rocks are present in most other 

areas of the State except over the crests of the major 

uplifts, where Mississippian rocks are absent 

(Goebel and Stewart, 1978). 
KANSAS 

SYSTEM SERIES STAGE FORMATION 

PENNSYLVANIAN LOWER MORROWAN 

•\".\.7.~!"":1 

en 

ffi 

t:u EXPLANATION ~ 

z \ \_.1__.1_ 

~ =___:--=-- a: ' ' ' • • :J 

C/) 

~ UNNAMED --- -==--==--= 

0 

[09 ~ Limestone 

w I :I: ~ ... u . . . . ·--: :-- m Sandy limestone . 

l· ·. T. ·1 I .. , . o t·o·l o __ ro. 

T. • I·"· I ··I 

LU 6m3 Oolitic limestone 5 ~ en 

STE. GENEVIEVE ::lo"j 0-1· 

LIMESTONE J.o. olo. liB) Dolomite 

-, \ 

a: "'}:' ·. l· · I w In I :>1010 Q.. 

Q.. II• a· .•.1 O•l ~ Shale, gray or green - :::) z ( 

~ TO OIOI u 

w ST. LOUIS ~ LIMESTONE :a;:4}·:~:o <( :I a: 

w O:J 0_10 

~ I I 

SALEM 70 I a I 

\ \ I LIMESTONE LOt 0 L I I f 

0 

~ Shale, black 

It.\ 6 1 Chert 

l~tol Limestone breccia 

t:.7 /~7_ 

WARSAW ILO/ 0/0/ LIMESTONE -/ .I I z 

~ iij_o/_AJ Q.. 

Q.. /.4 I LA 

u; KEOKUK 47 ..0 /~ --n. C/) 

LIMESTONE .0 _ _14 / .0 u; ~L6/ /717 C/) C.l\. I A I~ JD; 

~ I 0 I 0 

~~ 0 

BURLINGTON Z~/ 7 z LIMESTONE A 14 

<( ./ A Q/ w 

(!) 0 A( <( 

C/) I 4 I 0 /~ / I A 

FERN GLEN / I 

LIMESTONE I A I [b a: 

w -1-1-- ~ _,_, _ _I_ 

-I 10 I 0 

GILMORE CITY To I o J 

LIMESTONE 0 o 1 o 

SEDALIA DOLOMITE / / / 

/ L I z j_ l I l ~ CHOUTEAU LIMESTONE ~ I T _j I 

0 - - 0 -- :I: --- w 

a: BOICE - - c SHALE - -- z 

~ 

-~ 

-~-

-----

-----

~-----

CHATTANOOGA ~-

--- -7- a: SHALE ---- w - DEVONIAN Q.. 

Q.. - :::) .. . . ........ 

FIGURE 4.-Generalized lithostratigraphic column of Mississippian formations in Kansas (modified from 

Goebel, 1968b). Thicknesses ·represented are averages. 

Q7 
Q8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

The earliest attempts to map the lithologic units 

within the Mississippian over large areas in Kansas 

were based on studies of well cuttings and cores 

(Lee and Girty, 1940). As more data became available, formation names from type areas in Missouri 

and Iowa were applied to Kansas rocks; however, 

because these formations in some areas of Kansas 

are different from the type sections, a rather loose 

system of names using partly rock-stratigraphic and 

partly time-stratigraphic terms or letter-designated 

subdivisions is in use by economic geologists. 

The following brief discussion is based on the 

formal classification recognized by the Kansas Geological Survey, as derived from the works of Lee 

and Girty (1940). and Lee (1943, 1956), Moore 

(1957), and Goebel (1966, 1968a, 1968b) (fig. 4). 

The contact between the Devonian and the Mississippian Systems is not exposed at the surface in 

Kansas. It is placed within the Chattanooga Shale, 

which is present beneath most of eastern and central Kansas. The black Chattanooga Shale and the 

overlying greenish-gray Boice Shale are more than 

75 m (250 ft) thick in northeastern Kansas, but 

they are not present on the northern end of the 

Nemaha uplift or in the southeastern corner of Kansas. The Chattanooga Shale is exposed at the surface 

beneath Mississippian limestone in southwestern 

Missouri and nearby in Oklahoma. 

Kinderhookian limestone and shale are present in 

the subsurface of eastern Kansas, and successively 

younger formations overlap older ones northwestward, the formations thickening northward into 

Nebraska and Iowa. These rocks are absent in the 

area of outcrop in southeastern Kansas. 

In contrast, Mississippian rocks of Osagean and 

younger age thicken southward, and they overlie 

Kinderhookian beds with angular unconformity on a 

regional scale. Osagean rocks consist mainly of 

coarse-grained crinoidal and finer grained, mixedfossil, bioclastic limestones, some fine-grained dolomite, and dolomitic limestone, all of which are 

usually cherty to some degree. In south-central Kansas, in the subsurface, a facies change takes place, 

and the rocks of equivalent and younger age are 

reddish and greenish, crinoidal, thin-bedded limestone interbedded with green or gray shale. 

Almost all the outcropping Mississippian rocks in 

southeastern Kansas belong to the Keokuk Formation and have been assigned an Osagean age on the 

basis of studies of conodonts (Thompson and Goebel, 

1968). These beds are cherty limestone and dolomite, 

fossiliferous limestone, and chert in beds and nodules. One thin oolitic limestone, the "Short Creek 

Oolite," near the top of the Keokuk, has been 

mapped in local areas to define structure of the orebearing Mississippian in the Tri-State District. 

In southeastern Kansas and contiguous areas of 

Missouri and Oklahoma, the outcropping Osagean 

and M.eramecian rocks, which are estimated to be 

90-135 m (300~50 ft) thick, have been designated 

the "Boone Formation," from studies of rocks in 

northern Arkansas. Different authors have informally subdivided the "Boone" into 16 beds designated by letters of the alphabet (Fowler and Lyden, 

1932), or into seven named members (McKnight 

and Fischer, 1970), but there is disagreement on 

where in the section to place the Osagean-Meramecian contact. The Kansas Geological Survey recognizes the "Boone Formation" only as an informal 

term. 

As noted above, rocks of the Upper Mississippian 

Series may be in disconformable contact with older 

Mississippian rocks in southeastern Kansas, but elsewhere in the State, this unconformity is not present 

or is obscure. Beds of the Meramecian and Chesterian Stages, which are only in the subsurface, are 

themselves separated by an unconformity of regional 

importance. 

Meramecian rocks are as thick as 260 m ( 850 ft) 

in southwestern Kansas, but these units are much 

thinner or are absent in northern Kansas and on 

the crests of pre-Pennsylvanian structures (Goebel, 

1966). Lower Meramecian beds consist of shaly, 

cherty dolomite and interbedded thin limestone 

beneath oolitic and bioclastic, slightly cherty limestone. Upper Meramecian beds are silty and sandy 

fossiliferous or oolitic limestone. 

Rocks of the Chesterian Stage in Kansas are confined mainly to southwestern and southeastern parts 

of the State (Lee and Girty, 1940; Goebel, 1966; 

Nodine-Zeller and Thompson, 1977). Bioclastic limestone near the outcrop in the southeast is much better known at localities in adjoining States. In the 

southwest, beds of fine-grained sandy limestone and 

shaly crinoidallimestone are interbedded with green 

or gray shale. These beds are more than 100 m 

(300 ft) thick in southwestern Kansas near the Oklahoma line. 

These descriptions of stratigraphic units of Mississippian age in Kansas are based on presently 

available data. Additional studies, in progress, suggest that some of the lithofacies in western Kansas 

may be somewhat younger, by as much as a stage, 

than they were thought to be previously. Environments of deposition of the Mississippian have been 

described earlier only in very general terms. Later 
KANSAS Q9 

work (Ball, 1966; Goebel, 1968b; Ebanks and others, 

1977) has demonstrated that there is much room 

for expansion and clarification of knowledge about 

these subsurface rocks, especially because of tlieir 

economic importance. 

PENNSYLVANIAN 

Outcrops of Pennsylvanian rocks are widespread 

in eastern Kansas (fig. 1), and these serve as a 

standard of reference in the study of deposits of 

equivalent age in other parts of the Continent. The 

system in Kansas is divided into Lower, Middle, and 

Upper Pennsylvanian Series, which comprise five 

stages, in ascending order: Morrowan, Atokan, Desmoinesian, Missourian, and Virgilian. 

LOWER AND MIDDLE PENNSYLVANIAN 

Morrowan and Atokan Stages.-Rocks of Morrowan age in Kansas are thought to be restricted to 

the Hugoton Embayment. Atokan rocks, likewise, 

are restricted mainly to the subsurface of southwestern Kansas, but some Atokan shale may be present beneath Desmoinesian rocks in southeastern and 

nor.theastern Kansas subsurface areas (Stewart, 

1975; Nodine-Zeller and Thompson, 1977). Rocks of 

the Morrowan stage in the subsurface of southwestern Kansas comprise approximately 185 m (600 ft) 

of shale, limestone, and sandstone. These rocks have 

been described as the Kearny Formation (Thompson, 1944), and trends in lithostratigraphy have 

been mapped (McManus, 1959). They are overlapped in western Kansas by rocks of Atokan age, 

but there is disagreement about the extent of the 

Atokan and Morrowan rocks in southwestern Kansas (Rascoe, 1962; Stewart, 1975). Rocks of Atokan 

age in Kansas consist of interbedded dark-gray, 

black, and dark-brown cherty limestone and darkgray to black shale, which form a sequence as thick 

as 150m (500ft). The Atokan rocks, where present, 

are in gradational contact with overlying Desmoinesian rocks. 

MIDDLE AND UPPER PENNSYLVANIAN 

The Pennsylvanian System on outcrop in eastern 

Kansas comprises 49 formations that have been 

divided into 129 formally named members and aggregated into 8 groups and 3 stages of the Middle 

and Upper Pennsylvanian Series (fig. 5). Middle 

Pennsylvanian rocks are exposed in southeastern 

Kansas and belong entirely to the Desmoinesian 

Stage. A complete sequence of Upper Pennsylvanian 

rocks is well exposed in eastern Kansas, particularly 

in the Missouri River valley along the northeastern 

border and south of the glacial limit at the Kansas 

River valley, where it serves as the type region for 

the Missourian and Virgilian Stages of this series. 

The following summary is derived from Moore 

(1949), Moore and others (1951), O'Connor (1963), 

Jewett and others (1968), and from observations 

by P. H. Heckel. 

Middle Pennsylvanian, Desmoinesian Stage.-

Rocks of the Desmoinesian Stage are divided, in ascending order, into the Cherokee and Marmaton 

Groups, which together have an aggregate thickness 

of 180 to 190 m (600 to 625 ft). 

The Cherokee Group rests unconformably on Mississippian carbonate rocks and consists largely of 

shale and subordinate sandstone, coal beds, and thin 

limestone beds. Although some cyclothems based on 

coals have been recognized in the Cherokee, difficulty 

o.f mapping has led more recent workers to subdivide the Cherokee into just two formations, Krebs 

and Cabaniss; only a few well-exposed or persistent 

sandstones and limestones receive formal member 

names. The Cherokee Group ranges from 100 to 

150 m ( 325 to 500 ft) in thickness. 

The Marmaton Group lies conformably upon the 

Cherokee. In contrast to the Cherokee, it contains 

mappable, laterally persistent limestones alternating 

with laterally persist,ent sandy shales, which provide 

the basis for. subdivision into eight formations 

(fig. 5). Each limestone formation is subdivided into 

members on the basis of persistent thin shales, and 

the lower three shale formations ,each contain a formally named local sandstone member. Each limestone and shale formation is usually 6-10 m (20-

35 ft) thick, and the Marmaton Group has a total 

thickness of about 75 m (250 ft). 

Upper Pennsylvanian, Missourian Stage.-Rocks 

of the Missourian Stage, the lower subdivision of the 

Upper Pennsylvanian Series, are divided into three 

groups, in ascending order, Pleasanton, Kansas City, 

and Lansing. Total thickness averages about 200 m 

(650 ft). 

The basal Pleasanton Group rests unconformably 

on Desmoinesian rocks of the upper Marmaton 

Group. It is 9-40 m (30-130 ft) thick and consists 

mainly of shale, but locally thick sandstone is present at the base, and minor sandstone, limestone, and 

coal, above. Three constituent formations are recognized only in southernmost Kansas, where the 

Checkerboard Limestone, an important marker unit 

in Oklahoma, is present between the two terrigenous 

detrital formations of the Pleasanton. 

The Kansas City Group conformably overlies the 

Pleasanton Group. Like the Marmaton Group, it con-
QIO THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

SERIES STAGE GROUP FORMATION 

WOOD SIDING 

FORMATION 

ROOT SHALE 

STOTLER LIMESTONE 

PILLSBURY SHALE 

w 

w ZEANDALE LIMESTONE 

en 

z WILLARD SHALE :::> 

<( 

Ill EMPORIA LIMESTONE 

~ AUBURN SHALE 

BERN LIMESTONE 

SCRANTON SHALE 

HOWARD LIMESTONE 

z SEVERY SHALE ~ 

z 

~ z TOPEKA LIMESTONE ...J 

>- ~ en ...J z (3 CALHOUN SHALE z 

w a: 0.. 5 DEER CREEK LIMESTONE a: w w w 0.. z 0.. TECUMSEH SHALE :::> ~ :I: 

en LECOMPTON LIMESTONE 

KANWAKA SHALE 

OREAD LIMESTONE 

LAWRENCE 

FORMATION 

en 

5 

(!) 

:::> 

0 

0 

STRANGER 

FORMATION 

EXPLANATION 

ES:5} Limestone 

~-a Shale, 9rav 

I#@ Shale, black 

~Sandstone ~ 

~Coal 

z 

~ 

z 

~ ):! 

en 

z 

z 

w 

0.. 

a: 

w 

0.. 

0.. 

:::> 

z 

~ 

z 

...J 

~ 

> en 

z 

z 

w 

0.. 

w 

...J 

0 

0 

~ 

z 

~ a: 

:::> 

0 

en 

en 

~ 

z 

~ 

en 

w 

z 

5 

~ 

en 

w 

0 

z 

0 

~ ~ 

a: 

<( 

~ 

w 

w 

~ 

0 

a: 

w 

:I: 

u 

LOWER 

MISSISSIPPIAN 

STANTON LIMESTONE -=t: T "' --r IJ 

VILAS SHALE :=....: •• :7 . •__. :.I 

PLATTSBURG LIMESTONE L I ) 

BONNER SPRINGS SHALE 

--::1 

WYANDOTTE LIMESTONE -I ) 

LANE SHALE • :....-y ~.,;::..--=::1 

lOLA LIMESTONE L 

CHANUTE SHALE 

DRUM LIMESTONE 

CHERRYVALE SHALE 

DENNIS LIMESTONE 

GALESBURG SHALE 

SWOPE LIMESTONE 

T I J 

--:I 

LADORE SHALE 

HERTHA LIMESTONE 

TACKET FORMATION ,.._---1-~;:· 

CHECKERBOARD LIMESTON]): ~~~ 

'":.... 

SEMINOLE FORMATION s: · .. : .~ 

HOLDENVILLE SHALE ~ 

LENAPAH LIMESTONE 

NOWATA SHALE 

ALTAMONT LIMESTONE -'- ~ 

BANDERA SHALE 

PAWNEE LIMESTONE 

LABETTE SHALE 

FORT SCOTT LIMESTONE 

CABANISS 

FORMATION 

KREBS 

FORMATION 

KEOKUK LIMESTONE 

~ 

1 1 J 

_:I ~ 

~~ ~-·.::) 

.I 

==---

:~ 

~I --;-~ 

=-c:t:>-

~~ 

~~ 

~·.·: •• l,. 

~ 

~·~ 

~ 

FIGURE 5.-Generalized lithostratigraphic column of Pennsylvanian formations at the surface in eastern Kansas 

(adapted from Zeller, 1968, pl. 1). Names of members are omitted, but nature of members is indicated by lithic 

symbols within formations. Thicknesses are only approximate; limestone, black shale and coal are generally expanded at the expense of gray shale and sandstone. 
KANSAS Q11 

sists of alternating mappable, laterally persistent 

limestones and sandy shales, which provide the basis 

for division into 12 formations (fig. 5). All limestone formations are subdivided into members, 

mainly on the basis of thin but laterally persistent 

shales. Certain of the shale formations contain formally named sandstone and limestone members, ~nd 

thin coal beds. Maximum thickness of the six limestone formations ranges from 10 to 30 m (35-

100 ft). Three of these limestone formations disappear southward toward the Oklahoma border 

(Hertha, Swope, Wyandotte) ; the other three thin 

to about 2 m (6 ft) southward at the border. The 

intervening shale formations range from minim_um 

thicknesses of 1-4 m (3-13 ft), in northeastern 

Kansas and over thickened facies of the underlying 

limestones, to 15-60 m (50~200 ft) farther south 

over thinner facies of the underlying limestones, 

particularly southward toward the Oklahoma border. 

Total thickness of the Kansas City Group is about 

107 m (350 ft) in east-central Kansas. 

The Lansing Group conformably overlies the Kansas City Group. It consists of three formations (fig. 

5), which essentially continue the alternation of 

limestone and shale formations from the Kansas City 

Group. Both limestone formations are divided into 

members on the basis of persistent thin shales, and 

both formations attain maximum thicknesses of 25-

36 m (80-120 ft) in southeastern Kansas before 

thinning southward as they grade into shale and 

sandstone near the Oklahoma border. The intervening shale forma;tion ranges in thickness from 1 m 

(3 ft) or less over thick limestone (Plattsburg) 

facies up to 30 m (100 ft) over thin Plattsburg 

facies. Total thickness of the Lansing Group ranges 

from about 24 m (80 ft) in northeastern Kansas to 

about 60 m (200 ft) in southeastern Kansas. 

Two thick Missourian shale and sandstone formations in the Kansas-Oklahoma border region (Coffeyville; Wann) are correlated with several Kansas 

formations (Tacket through Galesburg; Lane 

through Stanton, respectively), where intervening 

limestones pinch out near the Kansas-Oklahoma 

border. 

Upper Pennsylvanian, Virgilian Stage.-Rocks of 

the Virgilian Stage, the upper subdivision of the 

Upper Pennsylvanian Series, have an aggregate 

thickness of about 360 m (1,200 ft) and are divided 

into three groups, in ascending order, Douglas, 

Shawnee, and Wabaunsee. 

The Douglas Group (fig. 5) consists predominantly of shale and sandstone and subordinate thin 

limestone beds and coal beds. The group ranges in 

thickness from 72 m ( 240 ft) in northeastern Kansas, where sandstone is only locally prominent, to 

120 m ( 400 ft) southward near the Oklahoma 

border, where sandstone occupies a greater part of 

the thickness. The Douglas is divided at the most 

laterally persistent limestone unit into two subequal 

formations; each formation contains two shale 

members, two thin limestone members, and a thick 

local sandstone member. As presently recognized, 

the Douglas includes the former Pedee Group, rocks 

that were thought to lie unconformably beneath the 

overlying part of the Douglas. Stratigraphic relations within the Douglas, as it is presently defined,. 

and betwe,en the Douglas and the underlying Lansing Group of the Missourian Stage are now considered to be essentially conformable on a regional 

scale. 

The Shawnee Group is about 100 m (330 ft) thick 

and conformably overlies the Douglas Group. Like 

the Marmaton, Kansas City, and Lansing Groups below, it consists of alternating dominantly limestone 

and dominantly sandy shale strata, which provide 

the basis for division of the Shawnee into seven formations (fig. 5). Each of the lim·estone formations 

is subdivided into at least five members on the basis 

of thin, laterally persistent shales. These limestone formations range from 6 to 30 m (20-100 ft) 

in thickness, with an average thickness of 10-20 m 

(33-66 ft). The shale formations are as thick as 

15-45 m (50-150ft), but only one of them is divided 

into members. Only the lowermost shale formation 

shows increased thickening toward Oklahoma like 

the shale formations below; the upper two shale 

formations attain maximum thickness in northeastern Kansas and thin southward as well as 

northward. 

The Wabaunsee Group has a thickness of about 

150m (500ft). It conformably overlies the Shawnee 

Group and caps the Virgilian Stage and Pennsylvanian System in Kansas. It consists of a greater 

proportion of sandy shale, containing several thin 

coal beds, than does the underlying Shawnee Group, 

but it contains enough persistent thin limestones to 

allow subdivision into 12 formations (fig. 5). As in 

several groups below, each limestone formation is 

subdivided into members on the basis of laterally 

persistent shales, but these shale members tend to 

be thicker and more sandy than most of those in 

limestone formations lower in the section. Some of 

the shale .formations are similarly subdivided on the 

basis of thin persistent limestones. Limestone formations generally range from 2 to 12m (7 to 40ft) 

in thickness. The shale formations typically are 
Q12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

thicker than 10 m (35 ft), and one attains a thickness of nearly 40 m (130 ft). Lower Permian rocks 

overlie the top of the Wabaunsee Group (Brownville 

Limestone Member of Wood Siding Formation) with 

apparent conformity in most places. 

FACIES AND DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS OF 

PENNSYLVANIAN ROCKS 

Cyclothems have long been recognized in the 

Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian sequences of eastern Kansas (Moore, 1936, 1949, 1950; Weller, 1958). 

Moore recognized the basically transgressive-regressive sedimentation responsible for formation of 

simple cyclothems in the Cherokee and Wabaunsee 

Groups, in which largely nonmarine sandy shale 

containing coal alternates with marine shale and 

limestone, allowing relatively straightforward interpretation of depositional environments. Moore also 

devised a hierarchical classification of cyclothems of 

the Wabaunsee type (which became viewed essentially as shale-limestone couplets) grouped to form 

megacyclothems, or complex but distinctive successions of different shale-limestone couplets, in the 

Marmaton, Kansas City, Lansing, and Shawnee 

Groups. Megacyclothems in these groups are nucleated around the limestone formations containing the 

thin shale members, and the megacyclothem boundaries lie within the intervening sandy shale 

formations. 

More recent work, summarized by Heckel and 

Baesemann (1975) and Heckel (1977), has shown 

that only the middle part of the megacyclothemspecifically the "middle" and "upper" limestone 

members and intervening thin shale member that 

typically contains a phosphatic black shale faciesoccurs commonly enough throughout these groups 

to have basic genetic significance. Each depositional unit, or "Kansas cyclothem," presently recognized in these groups is nucleated around the limestone formation; it records a single transgressiveregressive marine sequence, consisting, in ascending 

order, of (1) thick nearshore sandy ("outside") 

shale (top of underlying shale formation) ; (2) thin 

transgressive ("middle") limestone; (3) thin offshore ("core") shale (often containing phosphatic 

black facies) ; ( 4) thick regressive ("upper") limestone; and (5) thick sandy ("outside") shale again 

(base of overlying shale formation) (fig. 6). The 

older usage of "cyclothem" in the Marmaton 

through Shawnee Groups for a shale-limestone 

couplet within a megacyclothem is abandoned, and 

the term, "megacyclothem," is applied only to the 

concept of more complex sequences. 

Facies and depositional environments are considered first for the Marmaton through Shawnee 

Groups within the framework of the basic Kansas 

.cyclothem (Heckel, 1977), with comments on major 

facies changes (fig. 7) observed along the Midcontinent outcrop belt extending southward into Oklahoma and northward into Missouri, Iowa, and 

Nebraska. 

Nearshore shales.-Nearshore shales comprise 

mainly those formations that alternate with limestone formations in the cyclic sequence. The fact 

that these shale formations lie "outside" the 

"bundle" of limestones and thin shales that constitute 

the limestone formations caused these shale parts 

(or "members") of the cyclothem to be termed 

"outside shales," in a positional sense, before their 

depositional significance was thoroughly established. 

Nearshore shale formations are typically sandy; 

though variable in thickness, they are usually thick, 

often attaining 15 m (50 ft) and locally 40 m 

(130 ft) in thickness. Commonly, they contain thin 

layers of siltstone and sandstone, which carry 

macerated plant fragments and only a sparse marine 

faunal assemblage of low diversity. They locally contain deposits that are demonstrably nonmarine, such 

as coal and underclay, shale containing well-preserved land-plant fossils, and channel sandstones, all 

of which lack marine fossils. Outside shales are the 

units within which Wanless and his coworkers 

(1970) have mapped many deltaic sequences. 

A depositional model in which abundant terrigenous detritus was deposited in a shallow sea by prograding, laterally migrating lobes of a delta readily 

accounts for the characteristics of these shale formations. Variability in thickness reflects the local 

extent of each delta lobe. The nonmarine deposits 

record the subaerial deltaic plain. Rocks containing 

sparse marine fossils of low diversity record prodelta to delta-front environments where rapid deposition, increased turbidity, and fluctuating salinity 

reduced the abundance and diversity of marine 

organisms. 

In southeastern Kansas, nearshore shale formations constitute a proportionately greater amount of 

the total section, and they thicken substantially in 

the Kansas-Oklahoma border region, in the direction 

of a major deltaic detrital source farther south in 

Oklahoma. The only exceptions to this are places in 

which these shales thin over thickened facies of 

underlying limestone. 

Most nearshore shale formations tend to thin . 

northward into Iowa and Nebraska, away from the 

major directions of detrital influx farther south in 
KANSAS Q13 

Basic Cyclothem Depositional Environment 

(simplified megacyclothem) 

in Kansas-Iowa outcrop belt Nearshore Offshore 

Phase of 

deposition 

4 

3 

w 

z 

~ w 

~ 

::J 

a: 

w 

Q. 

Q. 

:::> 

Lithology 

Gray to green, locally red, sandy 

shale, with siltstone, sparse 

fossils 

Laminated unfossiliferous 

birdseye calcilutite to 

oolite 

Locally crossbedded skeletal 

calcarenite with marine 

biota 

Gray shaly skeletal calcilutite 

with abundant marine biota 

Dense, dark skeletal calcilutite 

with marine biota local 

calcarenite at base 

Sandy shale with marine biota 

Gray to brown sandy shale with 

local coal, sandstone 

Q) 

·= :0 

E 

1: 

0 

z 

Q) 

·= a>- ... Ill 

0 0 .s:.s: 

C/)CI) 

FIGURE 6.-Basic vertical sequence of an individual Kansas 

Pennsylvanian cyclothem, which is generally characteristic 

of Marmaton, Kansas City, Lansing, and Shawnee Groups, 

showing lithology and interpreted environments and 

phases of deposition. Terms on left for cyclothem members 

describe position in cyclothem; "middle" and "upper" for 

... 

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~ a. 

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limestones derive from megacyclothem classification of 

Moore (1936, 1949) ; "outside" and "core" for shales derive from analysis by Heckel and Baesemann ( 1975). Terms 

on right for cyclothem members describe phase of deposition 

and are preferable when environments are :reasonably well 

established (modified from Heckel, 1977, fig. 2). 
Q14 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

SOUTH 

OKLAHOMA SOUTHEASTERN KANSAS NORTHEASTERN KANSAS 

NORTH 

IOWA-NEBRASKA 

I I 

Terrigenous 

detrital 

I Algal mound I 

I I Open marine Northern 

shoreward 

I 

1

-+ Facies 

belt 

I I MEMBERS 

NEARSHORE 

SHALE 

REGRESSIVE 

LIMESTONE 

NEARSHORE 

Nonmarine to 

shallow water 

SHALE ~:..;_~.;...:...-..__+---=.:..::...:::..--1 Shallow water 

to nonmarine 

FIGURE 7.-Basic pattern of lateral facies relations in generalized Kansas cyclothem across facies belts exposed along 

Midcontinent outcrop. Datum is interpreted approximate sea level at time that increased detrital influx terminated 

deposition of regressive limestone member (modified from Heckel, 1977, fig. 4). 

Oklahoma. Some of these shales become more 

abundantly and diversely fossiliferous, reflecting 

less detrital influx with its attendant unstable conditions, whereas some become red, which may indicate enough subaerial exposure for oxidation and 

dehydration of iron minerals. 

TransgTessive limestones.-Transgressive limestones are the thin (0.3-1.5 m) (1-5 ft) dense dark 

skeletal calcilutites denoted as the "middle" limestone of Moore's megacyclothem. They carry a 

diverse and relatively abundant marine biota comprising all the major phyla, although fossils do not 

seem abundant on outcrop because of the density of 

the rock. Fine grain size and diverse biota indicate 

deposition in the open marine environment far 

enough offshore to be below effective wave base, 

though above the effective base of the photic zone. 

If shoal-water facies such as oolite and stromatolite 

are present with the skeletal calcilutite, they are 

present only at its base. Aside from a few transgressive limestones that thicken as content of phylloid 

algae increases in southeastern Kansas, most limestones undergo little lateral facies change either 

northward or southward. Transgressive limestones 

generally record widespread marine inundation of 

the midcontinent and carbonate sediment production 

mainly at depths below effective wave base, where 

minor variations in topography on the underlying 

delta lobes would have caused little lateral variation 

in texture and composition of the limestone. 

OffshoTe shales.-Offshore shales are thin ( 0.3-

2.0 m) (1-7 ft), laterally persistent, only slightly 

sandy, gray, and of marine origin. They are included 

within limestone formations and were termed "core 

shales" by Heckel and Baesemann (1975) because of 

their central position within the megacyclothem. 

They typically contain a black fissile shale facies, 

which is rich in organic matter and generally contains nodules and laminae of nonskeletal phosphorite 

and relatively high concentrations of certain heavy 

metals. The black facies has no definitely benthic 

fossils, containing instead mainly conodonts in great 

abundance, fish remains, orbiculoid brachiopods, and 

other fossils reasonably inferred to have been pelagic or epipelagic. The gray facies typically includes 

only a sparse assemblage of several benthic invertebrate groups, including echinoderms, in addition to 

those found in the black facies; only away from the 

black facies do any of the offshore shales include 

abundant and diverse fossils. Like transgressive 

limestones, offshore shales also change laterally very 

little along the entire length of the outcrop. Those 

offshore shales in which the black facies disappears 

laterally have a sparsely fossiliferous, gray facies, 

which contains phosphate nodules locally. 

Thinness in conjunction with great lateral per-
KANSAS Q15 

sistence, fineness of detrital grain size, presence of 

marine fossils, great abundance of conodonts, and 

conspicuous nonskeletal phosphorite, all point to 

very slow sedimentation away from detrital influx, 

far offshore in deeper water. Preservation of 

abundant organic matter and an absence of benthic 

fossils in these shales indicate anoxic bottom conditions during their deposition. Lack of bottom oxygen 

in conjunction with very high concentrations of 

phosphate and heavy metals is explained by Heckel 

(1977) as the result of a two-layered quasi-estuarine 

circulation cell in the Midcontinent Sea, established 

when water became deep enough to form a thermocline above the bottom and to prevent vertical circulation and replenishment of bottom oxygen. Surface 

water, which was driven out of this sea by prevailing Pennsylvanian trade winds, was replaced by upwelling currents of phosphate-rich water from the 

deeper oxygen-minimum zone. This phosphate-rich 

water had been drawn in below the thermocline from 

intermediate depths of the open ocean. Nutrients 

brought into the photic zone by this upwelling promoted immense blooms of plankton, which settled 

back into the incoming lower water layer. There, 

massive organic decay further depleted the bottom 

water of remaining oxygen, continually enriched it 

in phosphate (as well as in heavy metals that are 

concentrated by organisms), and ultimately caused 

deposition of unoxidized organic matter and phosphorite on the sea bottom along with only very small 

amounts of other sediment to produce the phosphatic black mud facies. 

Similar circulation, which concentrated phosphate, 

but which did not deplete all bottom oxygen, ac..: 

counts for the sparsely fossiliferous gray facies containing phosphorite nodules. Deposition of terrigenous mud far from shore, probably below the effective 

limit of algal production of carbonate mud, but without establishment of the oxygen-depleting, quasiestuarine circulation cell, accounts for the less common, more abundantly and diversely fossiliferous 

facies of some offshore shale. 

R egTessive limestones.-Regressive limestones 

constitute the "upper," sometimes with the "super," 

limestone members of Moore's megacyclothem. They 

are generally thicker (as much as 9 m (30ft)) than 

transgressive limestones and contain a greater 

variety of facies. 

The lower part of this limestone sequence consists 

largely of wavy-bedded skeletal calcilutite with 

many shale partings and containing an abundant 

and diverse marine biota consisting of elements of 

all major phyla. Lateral persistence of this facies, in 

conjunction with fine-grained lithology and diverse 

biota, indicates that this part of the regressive limestones, like most of the transgressive limestones, 

was deposited offshore below effective wave base but 

above the lower limit of algal carbonate production. 

In places, a type of skeletal calcarenite is present at 

the base of the regressive limestone. These calcarenites consist entirely of invertebrate grains that show 

no evidence of grain-abrasion, cross-bedding, or 

definite algal activity; thus, they probably formed in 

quiet water below effective wave base and probably 

below the limit of algal photosynthesis. 

. The upper parts of regressive limestone members 

have the most conspicuous lateral variation of facies 

along the midcontinent outcrop belt (fig. 7), as 

would be expected in deposits formed in shallow 

water where minor differences in bottom topography 

produce conspicuous lateral changes in facies. In 

northeastern Kansas, most regressive limestone 

grades upward to skeletal calcarenite that contains 

various proportions of abraded algal and invertebrate grains, osagia-coated grains, and grains with 

"micrite envelopes," which resulted from boring by 

algae; crossbedding is apparent in places. Although 

this vertical succession records increasing agitation 

of the water with time as water shallowed above effective wave base, this facies still records. a relatively 

open marine environm.ent. This part of the outcrop 

belt is thus defined as the "open marine facies belt," 

where good water circulation and normal marine 

salinity persisted longest during deposition of the 

regressive limestone. In places, the tops of some regressive limestones include deposits formed in very 

shallow water, deposits such as oolite and sparsely 

fossiliferous laminated calcilutite, which probably 

record deposition in local lagoons. Paleocaliche has 

been identified at the top of one regressive limestone. 

Northward from Kansas, nearly all regressive 

limestone grades upward into unfossiliferous, laminated dolomitic calcilutite containing mudcracks and 

birdseye structures, which indicate shoreline and 

tidal-flat environments of deposition. This facies defines the "northern shoreward facies belt," which is 

thickest in Iowa and Nebraska. 

In southeastern Kansas, most regressive limestones thicken as they grade upward into phylloidalgal mound facies, which defines the facies belt of 

that name. Mounds consist primarily of algae-dominated skeletal calcilutite, in which large blades of 

phylloid red and green algae characteristically 

shelter spar-filled voids. Mound-associated facies, 
Q16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

particularly crossbedded, abraded-grain skeletal calcarenite and oolite, overlie and flank some of the 

mound facies, reflecting very shallow water over the· 

buildups during later stages of regression. 

Southward, in southernmost Kansas and northern 

Oklahoma, most regressive limestones grade into 

shale and sandstone, which define the "terrigenous 

detrital facies belt" and which represent a wide 

range of offshore to deltaic environments dominated 

by terrigenous clastic deposits from the Oklahoma 

detrital source. 

Possible controls.-Typical Kansas cyclothems 

were initiated by influx o.f abundant terrigenous 

detrital sediment from encroaching deltaic shorelines, which formed the nearshore shale during a 

time of relatively shallow water in the Midcontinent 

Sea. This shallow-water condition could have resulted from either a eustatic fall in sea level or from 

basin-filling by rapid accumulation of carbonate sediment that formed the regressive limestone, and the 

subsequent influx of terrigenous detritus that produced the overlying nearshore shale. 

Transgression, which resulted from either a 

eustatic rise in sea level or from an increase in subsidence of the basin, caused retreat of detritus 

farther away from the deepening basin in Kansas. 

This transgression allowed a thin layer of relatively 

pure carbonate to accumulate fairly uniformly over 

m·ost par,ts of the inundated delta lobes, probably below effective wave base in deeper water. This process 

formed the calcilutitic transgressive limestone. 

When water became deep enough to inhibit activity 

of benthic algae and to form a thermocline (perhaps 

as little as 100 m near the mouth of the sea; see 

Heckel, 1977), a quasi-estuarine water-circulation 

cell was set up. This circulation pattern drew phosphate-rich, oxygen-poor water in from intermediate 

depths of the open ocean, and, through upwelling 

and the concomitant nutrient-concentrating effect of 

decay of abundant trapped organic matter, oxygen 

in bottom water was depleted to various degrees to 

form both the gray and black phosphatic facies of 

the offshore shale. 

Shallowing of the sea then destroyed the thermocline and broke up the quasi-estuarine cell to allow 

significant reoxygenation of the bottom and reestablishment of benthic invertebrate and algal carbonate production to initiate formation of the regressive limestone. Eustatic fall of sea level seems 

most reasonable as a cause of.- this shallowing because too little sediment to cause significant basinfilling is evident in the offshore shale facies, and tectonic reversal of bottom subsidence, particularly in 

a cyclic fashion, seems less likely. Continued shallowing of the sea allowed the formation of upper 

regressive limestone facies in shoal water, lagoons, 

and tidal flats. Fine terrigenous material from distal 

ends of progressively encroaching deltas accounts 

for the abundance of shaly partings in most regressive limestone. The thickness of sediment in the 

regressive limestone is sufficient to account for a 

slight relative lowering of sea level by partial filling 

of the basin with carbonate sediment; it seems insufficient, however, to account, in itself, for the 

small vertical distance (as little as 6 m, or 12 m, 

allowing for 50 percent compaction) between the top 

of the phosphatic black-shale facies and the supratidal facies at the top of the regressive limestone, in 

light of our present understanding that deposition 

of this type of phosphorite requires water o.f substantially greater depth. 

Formation of the regressive carbonate facies 

ceased when the sediment-producing organisms were 

overwhelmed, in various stages of facies development (depending on topographic position, which was 

related generally to facies belt), by influx of terrigenous detritus from prograding delta lobes that 

initiated the succeeding nearshore shale. The cycle 

then repeated when another relative rise in sea 

level took place. 

Although repeated eustatic rise and fall of sea 

level from some external control seems to be the 

simplest explanation for most aspects (and the best 

for some aspects) of the overall sequence of Kansas 

cyclothems, this explanation by no means negates 

the probability that other cyclic mechanisms played 

a role. In fact, the model of delta progradation, 

abandonment, and subsequent progradation elsewhere, which has been shown to be applicable to 

other cyclic sequences by several authors (see Ferm, 

1970, for the Appalachian Pennsylvanian), not only 

explains the complex changes in thickness and facies 

development in nearshore shales, but this model also 

probably accounts for the occurrence in some areas 

of less common "lower" and "fifth" limestone members in Moore's megacyclothem as resulting from 

production of abundant carbonate sediment during 

a relatively long-term shift of active delta building 

away from the Kansas outcrop during the general 

phase of greatest regression. · 

Cherokee cyclothems.-The interplay of both depositionaf models needs only slight modification to 

account for the simpler cyclothems that Moore 

(1949, 1950) detected in the Cherokee Group (fig. 

5). In the ascending repeated sequence of lithologies-sandstone, sandy shale, underclay, coal, black 
KANSAS Q17 

shale, gray shale, limestone, calcareous shale, sideritic shale-the sandstone through coal part is nonmarine, whereas the black shale through at least the 

lower calcareous shale part is marine. Those sequences in which phosphatic black shale is lacking 

may reflect merely local delta abandonment during 

regression without initiation of a new transgressive 

cycle. Sequences that contain phosphatic black shale, 

however, are examples of Kansas cyclothems that 

are more dominated by nearshore terrigenous sediment than are the limestone-rich cyclothems characteristic of the Marmaton-Missourian-Shawnee 

section. 

Nonmarine delta-plain deposits are very conspicuous in the initial, "nearshore shale" part of Cherokee cyclothems. Transgressive limestone is rarely 

present above the coals, because few algae or calcareous invertebrates could colonize the generally 

inimical low-oxygen environment of the deepening 

sea bottom over partially decayed vegetation of the 

coal swamp. During transgression, the little detrital 

sediment that was carried from the increasingly 

distant shoreline to the drowned swamps in Kansas 

was incorporated with the shells of the few more 

tolerant organisms to form the base of the black 

shale overlying the coal. The remainder of the black 

shale was deposited during maximum transgression, 

in depths great enough for establishment of the 

quasi-estuarine circulation cell that led to formation of non-skeletal phosphate nodules. 

Then shallowing of the sea brought about deposition of the gray shale as the bottom became reoxygenated. Further shallowing allowed limestone 

(equivalent to the regressive limestone of later 

cyclothems) to form, as algae and more invertebrates 

became established. The final units (calcareous shale 

and sideritic shale) are the initial prodeltaic and 

delta-front deposits of the succeeding nearshore 

shale, which prograded seaward rapidly enough to 

prevent the underlying regressive limestone (where 

present at all) from becoming very thick or developing shoal-water facies. 

Wabaunsee cyclothems.-The cyclothems described by Moore (1936, 1949, 1950) in the Wabaunsee Group are basically alternations of nearshore 

sandy shale containing nonmarine sandstone and 

coal, with marine limestone and thin marine shale 

beds. The lowest limestone :formation (Howard) 

(fig. 5) contains a black shale (and gray shale) bo-. 

tween a thin dense limestone, below, and a thicker 

limestone, above, which is similar to the typical 

Kansas cyclothems in older groups (Moore, 1936, 

p. 206). 

Unlike the relationship between cyclothems and 

lithic subdivisions in lower groups, Wabaunsee nearshore shales above the Howard comprise both the 

shale formations and the shale members of the more 

recently named limestone formations, whereas the 

limestone part of the cyclothem is composed of a 

single limestone member, whether or not it is 

grouped with ano.ther limestone member in a limestone formation (compare Moore, 1949, p. 180-181, 

with Zeller, 1968, pl. 1). Black phosphatic shale has 

not been reported from any Wabaunsee unit above 

the Howard, and the possible presence of nonblack 

offshore shale is not established at this time. Thus, 

which ·Of the higher W abaunsee cyclothems resulted 

from major transgressive-regressive events and 

which are merely the result of local delta abandonment during general regression is not known. One 

would suspect, however, that laterally persistent 

limestone that contains a persistent medial shale bed · 

might represent the former, whereas limestone of 

limited extent might represent the latter. 

BIOSTRATIGRAPHY 

MISSISSIPPIAN 

No comprehensive paleontologic study of the outcropping Mississippian limestones in southeastern 

Kansas has been accomplished. Girty (cited in Smith 

and Siebenthal, 1907) recognized rocks in the Missouri-Kansas border area that are equivalent in age 

to the Keokuk Formation (Upper Osagean) of the 

upper Mississippi River valley on the basis of fossil 

brachiopods, bryozoans, and corals. Thompson and 

Goebel (1968) have recovered conodonts at two localities from limestone in surface exposures of the 

Mississippian sequence in Cherokee County, which 

indicate that these rocks are equivalent in age to the 

Keokuk Formation. Nodine-Zeller and Thompson 

(1977) have discussed ·endothyrid foraminifers and 

conodonts in a core from a depth of 15-23 m (50-76 

ft) near outcrops in Cherokee County, which suggest that the uppermost Mississippian in the core is 

Chesterian in age and that it overlies rocks of 

Meramecian age. 

Girty (1940) recognized rocks in the subsurface of 

Kansas that are equivalent in age to those of ·au four 

stages of the Mississippian in the Mississippi River 

valley area; his studies were bas·ed on fossil invertebrates, mainly bryozoans and brachiopods, in cores 

from wells drillt;:u iH·K~nQJ:~.~. 

Thompson and Goebel (1963, l:=JOO). ann Coebel 

( 1966) studied the conodont biostratigraphy of Mississippian rocks in well cores from western Kansas. 
Q18 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

STRATIGRAPHY FAUNAL ZONATION EQUIVALENTS 

SYSTEM SERIES STAGE GROUP FUSULINIDS BRACHIOPODS EUROPE U.S.S.R. 

WABAUNSEE DUNBAR/NELLA 

SHAWNEE 

DOUGLAS 

en 

w 

!::: 

u 

E 

LISSOCHONETES 

AND 

NEOCHONETES 

GRANULIFER 

TRANSVERSALIS 

z 

::!; 

...J 

w 

..., 

(.!) 

z 

<( 

a: 

w 

a.. 

a.. 

:::> I= 

:5 

~ <: 

~ WAER.JNGELLA 

z 

~ > en 

z 

z 

w 

a.. 

z 

::!; 

a: 

:::> 

0 

en 

en 

~ 

LANSING 

KANSAS CITY 

<: 

~ 

CHONETINELLA 

z 

<( 

> 0 

~ 

~ EOWAERINGELLA 

w 

...J 

0 

0 

~ 

z 

<( 

(i) 

w 

z 

PLEASANTON 

MARMATON 

<( * 

z 

::::::i 

:::> 

en 

:::> 

LL. 

MESOLOBUS MESOLOBUS 

AND 

DESMOINESIA MURICA TINA 

z 

<( 

0 

~ 

en 

w 

0 CHEROKEE WEDEKINDELLINA 

> 0 

u 

en 

0 

~ 

FIGURE 8.-Chronostratigraphic chart of outcropping Pennsylvanian rocks in Kansas. 

On the basis of assemblages of conodonts that are 

only partly cnmparable with those of similar age in 

the type areas of the Mississippi River valley, they 

revised somewhat the earlier work of Lee and Girty 

(1940) and extended the knowledge of lithostratigraphy of these subsurface beds. Their results are 

complementary to unpublished work by Selk and 

Ciriacks (1968). Zeller (in Ebanks, Euwer, and 

Nodine-Zeller, 1977) has identified rocks of Meramecian age, on the basis of endothyrid foraminifers, 

from well cores in Hodge man County, western Kansas. There is much room for future work in rectifying the lithostratigraphic correlations of petroleum 

geologists by using the scanty biostratigraphic determinations now available in western Kansas; also, 

some disagreement exists_ .b~tw.ee.n J.ho -agco--as::;Igned 

to certain Mi~~l_'-!.cippictn-oeas on the basis of assem-

---uraies of conodonts and those assigned on the basis 

of calcareous microfossils (D. E. Nodine-Zeller, unpub. data, 1978). 

PENNSYLVANIAN 

Beds of Morrowan ag·e have been recognized in the 

subsurface of southwestern Kansas by Thompson 

(1944) through identification of Millerella and forms 

that would now be assigned to Eostaffella in a well 

core. Dark limestone and shale above this Morrowan 

shale and sandstone sequence have received very 

little paleontologic study, but McManus (1959, p. 49) 

mentioned the presence of Fusulinella sp. in these 

rocks. If Fusulinella is the only fusulinid found in 

these rocks they could be considered as tentatively 

Atokan in age. However, the genus Fusulinella 

ranges from upper Atokan to upper Desmoinesian 

(Douglas, 1977, p .. 476, fig. 5). Basal Pennsylvanian 

bens ·iii the subsurface of northeastern Kansas have 

also been assigned to the Atokan, but there are no 

paleontologic data to confirm this. 

The oldest Pennsylvanian rocks that crop out in 

Kansas are thin beds of dark shale of possible 

Atokan age, which occur only in isolated areas on the 
KANSAS Q19 

eroded surface of Mississippian limestone in southeastern Cherokee County (Stewart, 1975). Paleontologic data for this age assignment do not exist; in 

fact, these beds, where present, are not formally distinguished from the overlying Cherokee Group (Desmoinesian) because of similarity of lithology of the 

two and the lack of paleontologic or palynologic 

studies to define the extent of their contact. Stratigraphy and invertebrate paleontology of the Desmoinesian formations in southeastern Kansas are 

described in reports by Jewett (1945) for the Marmaton Group, and by Williams (1938) and Howe 

(1956) for the Cherokee Group. 

Subdivisions of the outcropping Pennsylvanian 

strata in Kansas are based on the occurrence of 

widely recognized fusulinid genera and on evidence 

of physical breaks in the sedimentologic record 

(Moore, 1936, 1949; Moore and others, 1944) (fig. 

8). The contact between Middle Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) and Upper Pennsylvanian (Missourian) 

rocks is placed at the base of the Hepler Sandstone 

Member of the Seminole Formation, basal unit of 

the Pleasanton Group, because this boundary has 

been thought to separate the zones of T1·iticites, 

above, and Fusulina, below ; this contact may correspond to a regional disconformity (Moore and others, 1944) . One species, Fusulina fallsensis, ho·wever, 

has been found only in the lower Missourian Bethany 

Falls Limestone Member of the Swope Limestone 

(fig. 5) (Thompson and others, 1956; Thompson, 

1957) associated with EowaeTingella ultimata (fig. 

8). This occurrence is below the first appearance of 

T'riticites, in the Winterset Limestone Member of the 

Dennis Limestone (fig. 5), so the generic ranges of 

Fusulina and T1·iticites do not overlap here. This relationship raises a question regarding both the temporal magnitude of the physical break at the base of 

the Pleasanton and the placement of the Desmoinesian-Missourian boundary. Missourian and Virgilian 

beds are distinguished on the basis of paleontology 

(see fig. 8) and differences in the lithologic character of cyclic rock sequences (Jewett and others, 

1968). 

One of the most interesting areas of biostratigraphic work in Kansas has been in recognition of 

the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary. History of the 

changing placement of this boundary was reviewed 

by Moore (1949). Mudge and Yochelson (1962) 

studied the paleontology of beds above and below this 

important datum, which presently is placed at the 

top of the Brownville Limestone Member of the 

Wood Siding Formation, and concluded that this 

assignment is arbitrary but that it is justified on the 

basis of practicality, long-time usage, and some paleontologic evidence. 

The Pennsylvanian-Permian contact continues to 

be a subject of controversy, mainly because of differences in opinion between paleontologists and palynologists. Studies of palynomorphs have led some 

workers to suggest that all of the Gearyan stage 

(Lower Permian) in Kansas should be included in 

the Pennsylvanian, the systemic boundary being 

placed much higher in the section than at present 

(Clendening, 1971, 1975; Wilson and Rashid, 1971). 

Several papers referring to the paleontologic and 

palynologic aspects of this boundary in' Kansas are 

included in a recent symposium (Barlo,w, 1975), 

which is important here, because the PennsylvanianPermian boundary in Kansas has long been the popular one in America. Unfortunately, many biostratigraphers persist in arguing about the relative 

merits of diverse fossil groups, which may be 

stratigraphically or ecologically incompatible and 

therefore do not justify arbitrary juggling of chronostratigraphic boundaries. 

The status of biostratigraphically useful fossils 

(land plants, fusulinids, sponges, corals, bryozoans, 

brachiopods, bivalves, gastropods, cephalopods, trilobites, ostracodes, and crinoids) that are applicable to 

the Pennsylvanian in Kansas was given by Moore 

and others (1944, p. 668-678). Additional notations 

and references to the paleontology of the outcropping 

Pennsylvanian rocks in Kansas may be found in 

Moore and others (1951), Thompson (1957), and 

Jewett and others (1968). The taxonomic groups 

listed above are abundant and diverse in Pennsylvanian rocks of Kansas, but there have been few detailed biostratigraphic studies of occurrences of 

these fossils in Kansas since the 1944 summary by 

Moore. 

Studies by Cridland and others (1963) on land 

plants, by Jeffords (1947) and Cocke (1970) on 

corals, and by Strimple (1951), Strimple and Moore 

(1971), and Moore and Jeffords (1967) on crinoids 

suggest that these groups could be of some biostratigraphic value, but much remains to be done. It 

would be especially valuable to have other summaries, such as that given by Moore and Strimple 

(1973, table 1) for Early Pennsylvanian crinoids. 

Cephalopods, a particularly useful biostratigraphie 

fossil for the Carboniferous, should be studied more 

thoroughly in Kansas, as only o·ne of the· eight genera 

of ammonites (Prou.ddenites), listed as indicative of 

Pennsylvanian faunal zones by Moore and others 
Q20 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

(1944), was reported by Miller and others (1957) to 

occur in Kansas. 

The importance of studies of palynomforphs in 

recognition of the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary 

has already been mentioned, and they will be vainable in future biostratigraphic subdivisions of these 

systems. Numerous studies of conodonts in Pennsylvanian rocks of adjacent States have biostratigraphic application to the Kansas section (Lane, 

1967; Henry, 1970; Lane and Straka, 1974). Within 

Kansas, conodonts have been used more commonly to 

interpret environments of deposition represented by 

the cyclic sequences of rocks in the Upper Pennsylvanian (Von Bitter, 1972; Baesemann, 1973; Heckel 

and Baesemann, 1975; Perlmutter, 1975; and Wood, 

1977). From these studies, we should be able ultimately to develop a better understanding of the biostratigraphic significance of these enigmatic fossils. 

Concerning fusulinids, Wilde ( 1975, p. 123) suggested that the basic pattern of stratigraphic zonation based on fusulinids has been established for 

decades but that refinement of zones continues. This 

is particularly true of the Virgilian of Kansas, where 

very little careful biostratigraphic work has been 

published. 

Calcareous phylloid algae are important constituents of middle and upper Pennsylvanian limestone in 

Kansas (Johnson, 1946; Harbaugh, 1960; Wray, 

1964). Although these fossils have not been particularly useful in studies of biostratigraphy, other fossil 

algae, such as Komia, may be useful for recognizing 

certain time-stratigraphic subdivisions of the Pennsylvanian (D. E. Nodine-Zeller, unpub. data, 1979). 

Much research utilizing fossils of the Kansas 

Pennsylvanian in recent years has been to aid in the 

interpretation of facies and environments of deposition (Toomey, 1969; Heckel, 1975; Senich, 1975, 

1978). Other studies have dealt with ecological aspects of fossil populations (Koepnick and Kaesler, 

1971; Brondos and Kaesler, 1976; Songsirikul, 1977) 

and with "community" ecology (Scott, 1973; Pearce, 

1973). Although these studies are needed and should 

be encouraged, the need is also great for monographic studies of different phyla, classes, orders, 

etc., and for studies of the complete preserved fossil 

assemblage by a team of specialists (that is, faunal 

studies). Examples of faunal studies are those by 

Williams (1938) on the Desmoinesian invertebrates 

of southeastern Kansas and by Mudge and Y ochelson 

(1962) on Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian 

rocks of Kansas. Investigations like those by Cooper 

and Grant (1972-1977) on the Permian brachiopods 

of west Texas and by Sutherland and Harlow (1973) 

on the Pennsylvanian brachiopods of New Mexico 

are examples of the type of monographic studies 

needed. 

Future studies should use large collections to evaluate existing taxa (Koch, 1977) and to create new 

ones. This use will provide a firmer biological basis 

for taxa, and biology is needed in biostratigraphy as 

well as in the other areas of paleobiologic research. 

Three studies (two on brachiopods and one on 

sponges) illustrate the advantages of studying large 

collections. An ecological study of some "in situ" 

chonetellids from the Tacket Formation (Missourian) , using hundreds of specimens from a single stratigraphic and geographic locality in southeastern 

Kansas, suggests that Chonetinella fiwmingi and Chonetinella alata are end members of a single species 

(R. R. West, unpub. data, 1978). The second study 

(Gundrum, 1977) showed that in a large collection 

(hundreds of specimens) from a single stratigraphic 

and geographic locality, specimens of M esolobus 

mesolobus cannot be separated from those of Eolissochonetes b·ilobatus. Lastly, a careful examination of 

silicified specimens of some Missourian heliosponges 

suggests that certain established taxa possess many 

overlapping characteristics and that revision is 

needed (Gundrum, in press) . If this is true for 

brachiopods and sponges, it is very probably true 

also for other biologic groups. The ease of collecting 

abundant fossils from most localities in the Kansa::; 

Pennsylvanian should facilitate studies of large 

collections. 

Further advances in studies, in Kansas, of the biostratigraphy of Pennsylvanian rocks, which comprise interbedded marine, transitional, and nonmarine rocks, awaits integration of knowledge of 

different groups of fossils and better definition of 

species and higher taxa on the basis of sound biological concepts. In the future, the composite standard technique (Shaw, 1964) may well provide the 

most practical basis for biostratigraphic subdivision 

of the Kansas Pennsylvanian. 

FOSSIL COLLECTING 

Excellent fossil collecting is available from Pennsylvanian rocks in Kansas. Some references given 

here (for example, Williams, 1938; Mudge and 

Yochelson, 1962; Ball, 1964) have good descriptions 

of localities, most of which are still accessible. Merriam (1963) has provided road logs for outcrops in 

different parts of the State, especially along major 

highways. Guidebooks of the Kansas Geological Society that deal with outcrops in eastern Kansas, 
KANSAS Q21 

especially in the Kansas River valley and from Kansas City southward to Oklahoma, are very useful. 

Topographic and geologic maps and other information are available at the Kansas Geological Survey in 

Lawrence. 

ECONOMIC PRODUCTS 

COAL 

Rocks of the Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian 

Series in Kansas include the economically important 

coal beds that were mined in the past and the economically important reserves o.f coal yet to be mined. 

At least 42 coal beds are present in the Pennsylvanian strata of Kansas, and 17 of these beds have economic coal reserves. 

One coal bed, the Weir-Pittsburg coal, has accounted for approximately 180 million metric tons 

(200 million short tons) of total Kansas production. 

Production from this coal bed was in Cherokee and 

Crawford Counties, primarily by room-and-pillar 

mining (Abernathy, 1944; Young, 1925, p. 60-96). 

Besides the W eir-Pi:ttsburg coal, other important 

Cherokee Group coals that have been extensively 

mined include the Mineral, Fleming, Croweburg, 

Bevier, and Mulky coals. These coals, described by 

Pierce and Courtier (1938) and Howe (1956), have 

accounted for an additional 64 million metric tons 

(70 million short tons) of production, mainly by 

surface mining. A petrographic study by Hambleton 

(1953) related the characteristics of these Cherokee 

coals to their potential for utilization. 

Two other important commercial coals in Kansas 

are the Mulberry coal of the Marmaton Group 

(Schoewe, 1955) and the Nodaway coal of the Wabaunsee Group (Schoewe, 1946). Approximately 8 

million metric tons (9 million short tons) of Mulberry coal was mined, mainly in Linn County, and 

nearly 11 million metric tons (12 million short tons) 

of Nodaway coal. Most of the Nodaway coal was 

mined in Osage County by old longwall methods 

(Young, 1925, p. 118-119), whereas the Mulberry 

coal was recovered chiefly by area strip mining. 

Two characteristics of Kansas coal that control its 

economic development are the thinness of the coal 

beds and the high sulfur content of the coal. All coal 

reserves in Kansas are medium-to-high-sulfur coal 

(more than 1 percent sulfur) (Allen, 1925) ; 3 to 5 

percent sulfur content is common in most commercial coals. Most of the coal beds are thin, that is, 

less than 71 em (28 in.) ; in the future, most of the 

coal mined in Kansas probably will be recovered by 

surface-mining methods. Several areas of strippable 

coal and most of the Weir-Pittsburgh coal beds are 

of intermediate thickness, that is, 71-107 em 

(28-42 in.). 

The demonstrated reserve base of bituminous coal 

for strip mining totals 905 million metric tons (998 

million short tons) under less than 30 m ( 100 ft) of 

overburden (Brady and others, 1976). For coal beds 

having an overburden-to-coal thickness ratio of 30: 1 

or less, the demonstrated reserve base is 477 million 

metric tons ( 526 million short tons) . In addition, 

1,647 million metric tons (1,816 million short tons) 

of inferred coal reserves is under 30 m (100 ft) of 

overburden ; of this total, 720 million metric tons 

(794 million short tons) has a stripping ratio of 

30 : 1 or less. General distribution of the areas in 

Kansas having coal reserves is shown in figure 9. 

During the 1970's, coal-mining activity has been 

almost entirely in southeastern Kansas in Linn, 

Bourbon, Crawford, and Cherokee Counties, where 

coal of the Cherokee Group is surface mined. Total 

recorded coal production for Kansas is approximately 260 million metric tons (287 million short tons) 

through 1976 (fig. 10). Of this total, nearly 68 percent was won by subsurface mining methods; since 

19€·3, however, all coal mining in Kansas has· been by 

surface methods, mainly area strip mining. 

PETROLEUM 

Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks in the subsurface of Kansas have been extremely important as 

sources and reservoirs of oH and natural gas. The 

first well drilled for oil and gas west of the Mississippi River was completed in 1860, producing oil 

from Middle Pennsylvanian sandstone at about 100 

m (300ft) near Paola in Miami County (Jewett and 

Abernathy, 1945). Among the latest and best oil and 

gas discoveries in the State are those in Mississippian and Pennsylvanian limestone in western Kansas. 

Middle· Pennsylvanian sandstone o.f the Cherokee 

Group was the focal point of early exploration in 

southeastern Kansas (fig. 11) . The famous "shoestring sands" (Rich, 1923; Bass, 1937) of that area 

were economically very important in the early flush 

production of oil and gas and the accompanying industrial develop·ment. As primary production declined, these same fields were the sites of early 

waterflooding activity, which resulted in many techniques presently in use elsewhere. In recent times, 

the third, or tertiary, phase of operations has begun 

in these same fields. Many of them still contain millions of barrels of oil, which is producible only by 
Q22 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

EXPLANATION 

COAL RESERVES 

Wabaunsee Group 

• Douglas Group 

L:::::::::::::::::d Kansas City Group 

E======~1 Marrnaton Group 

~ ~ Cherokee Group 

0 I I I I 

0 

I I 

50 

50 

I 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

100 MILES 

I 

FIGURE 9.-Areas of strippable coal reserves beneath overburden of 30 m (100 ft) thickness or less. 

Formations in which coal reserves occur in the various areas are shown by patterns (Brady, and 

others, 1976). 

methods such as thermal stimulation or the injection 

of surfactant chemicals. Cherokee sandstone also 

contains near-surface deposits of heavy oil and surface occurrences of tar sand in the Kansas-Missouri 

border area, which may be important as future energy resources (Ebanks and others, 1977). 

1975 

1970 

1950 

1930 

1910 

1890 

0 

100 200 

SHORT TONS (MILLIONS) 

50 100 150 200 

METRIC TONS (MILLIONS) 

300 

250 

Large amounts of oil and gas have also been produced from Upper Pennsylvanian rocks of central 

and western Kansas on or near major uplifts in the 

subsurface (fig. 11). These units of the Missourian 

and Virgilian Stages comprise limestone and sandstone reservoirs that usually have discontinuous 

porosity. The result is that many fields produce from 

combination structural-stratigraphic traps, at depths 

of 900-1,400 m (3,000-4,600 ft), both as fields having but one producing formation and as those in 

which the Pennsylvanian traps occur above deeper 

zones of production in Mississippian or Ordovician 

formations (Moore and Jewett, 1942; Merriam and 

Goebel, 1956). Almost one trillion cubic feet of gas 

has been produced from Upper Pennsylvanian limeFIGURE 10.-Cumulative production of coal in Kansas. Almost all the coal produced has come from rocks of Pennsylvanian age. 
KANSAS Q23 

B 

FIGURE 11.-Areas of production of oil from subsurface 

Upper and Middle Pennsylvanian rocks in Kansas: A. 

(upper) production from Wabaunsee, Shawnee, and Douglas Groups; B. (middle) production from Lansing and 

Kansas City Groups; C. (lower) production from Marmaton and Cherokee Groups (Ebanks, 1974, figs. 10, 11; 

Ebanks, 1975, fig. 12). 

stone in one especially important field, the Greenwood Field, on the Colorado-Kansas border, partly 

underlying the famous Permian Hugoton gas field· 

(Beene, 1977). 

Lower Pennsylvanian sandstone and Mississippian 

carbonate oil and gas reservoirs are principally in 

southwestern and south-central counties (fig. 12), 

where they are important in local structural or 

stratigraphic traps in basinal areas at depths of 

1,350-1,800 m ( 4,500-6,000 ft). The variability of 

; .., ' ~-,.,.,,., 0 

__ .. --· ·- -fi~B · · · _;r • · _;i · · -r+·- · J,- · · + · · - -~- - · + -~1- -·l+r i- · 

--- -~ T+- ::-,- . -__ :' --t·. -- \- . 

. - -· . ···--· 

FIGURE 12.-Areas of production of oil from subsurface 

Lower Pennsylvanian and from Mississippian rocks in 

Kansas: A, (upper) production from "Atoka" and "Morrow" rocks; B, (lower) production from Mississippian 

(undifferentiated) rocks (Ebanks, 1974, fig. 13; Ebanks, 

1975, fig. 8). 

limestone and dolo-mite lithofacies in the Mississippian sequence and the complex diagenesis that has 

taken place in these rocks provide almost endless opportunities for imaginative exploration for oil and 

gas. 

Oil and gas in Mississippian rocks tend to be in 

"trends" of favorably porous and permeable lithofacies within the overall interval of limestone and 

dolomite. In south-central Kansas, the most important types are those related to paleogeomorphic features and those in which fracturing of cherty rocks 

of the Osagian Stage has enhanced the permeability 

of the reservoir. Farther northwest, production is 

found in subunconformity traps in which lower 

Meramecian dolomite and dolomitic limestone are 

present beneath Middle Pennsylvanian shale. To the 

southwest, in slightly younger Meramecian beds, the 

oil and gas are trapped in oolitic and bioclastic limestone. Farther south, near the Oklahoma border, 

sandy limestone of Che,sterian age forms oil and gas 

trap·s over local structurally high areas or in 

porosity-pinchout traps (Kansas Geological Society, 

1956, 1959, 1965). 
Q24 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Cumulative oil production in Kansas at the end of 

1976 was about 4.7 billion barrels, and cumulative 

gas production amounted to more than 23 trillion 

cubic feet. Of these total amounts, approximately 40 

percent o.f the oil and 10 percent of the gas are estimated to have been produced from Pennsylvanian 

and Mississippian formations (Beene, 1977). The 

brightest prospects for future discoveries are also in 

these producing zones. 

METALLIC ORES 

Large amounts of zinc and lead were mined from 

the Mississippian rocks in southeastern Kansas. An 

early summary of the geology, mineralogy, and mining techniques used here was given by Haworth and 

others (1904). Ore bodies in Kansas, along with the 

zinc and lead deposits of southwestern Missouri and 

northeastern Oklahoma, make up the large Tri-State 

District (Brockie and others, 1968). This district 

was the major producer of zinc in the world for 

many years and has p·roduced more than 2 billion 

dollars worth of lead and zinc. The most important 

field in this district was the Picher, in Oklahoma and 

Kansas (Lyden, 1950; McKnight and Fischer, 1970). 

The Kansas part of the district has produced more 

than 2.6 million metric tons (29 million short tons) 

of zinc having an estimated value of 436 million dollars, and 590 thousand metric tons (650 thousand 

short tons) of lead worth nearly 91 million dollars 

(data from Martin, 1946, and U.S. Bureau of Mines 

Yearbooks, 1946-75). ·Cumulative production of 

these metals is shown in figure 13. 

1970 

1950 

1930 

1910 

1890 

1870~----~------~----~----~----~-----

0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 

SHORT TONS (MILLIONS) 

0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 

METRIC TONS (MILLIONS) 

FIGURE 13.-Cumulative production of recoverable lead and 

zinc from mines in Kansas (data from Martin, 1946; U.S. 

Bureau of Mines minerals yearbook, 1946-70). 

Ore bodies of the Tri-State District are restricted 

almost entirely to rocks of Mississippian age, specifically, to the Keokuk and Warsaw formations (fig. 

4) (Moore, 1928; Brockie and others, 1968). Important studies of .the relationship of the ores to the 

stratigraphy and structure include works by Fowler 

and Lyden (1932), Fowler (1938), and Moore and 

others (1939). Early geophysical investigations of 

the district were reported . by J akosky and others 

( 1942), and later research into these indirect methods of exploration was reported by Hambleton and 

others ( 1959). In general, exploratory drilling has 

been necessary to the discovery of deeply buried ore 

bodies. 

Within the Tri-State area, sphalerite and ~alena 

are the commercial ore minerals; however, many 

other minerals are associated with the ores, including chalcopyrite, wurtzite, and enargite (McKnight 

and Fischer, 1970, p. 101-124). Forms of the ore 

bodies have been described by Brockie and others 

(19€·8, p. 421-425) as assuming three basic shapes: 

( 1) irregular, relatively narrow, long ore "runs" of 

varying heights; (2) circular "runs"; and (3) flatlying, generally tabular bodies called "sheet ground" 

that cover large areas. The most important ore 

bodies in the district were the elongated "long runs." 

Kansas production of lead and zinc ended in 1970. 

Low-grade ore and new antipollution standards contributed to the cessation of operations in the TriState District. Recently, renewal of interest in exploring for mineral deposits in the subsurface west 

of the areas previously mined has resulted in extensive drilling. Results of this drilling are not presently 

known. 

LIMESTONE AND OTHER NONMETALLIC MINERALS 

Limestone and shale of the Middle and Upper 

Pennsylvanian Series have been used extensively in 

Kansas. Limestone is used throughout eastern Kansas for different construction projects, especially as 

concrete aggregate and road metal, also as agricultural lime. In addition, limestone is used for cement 

manufacture at five different locations. 

At least 20 different limestone units of Pennsylvanian age are presently used for crushed stone in 

Kansas. Total tonnage of crushed stone from Pennsylvanian rocks in 1976 is estimated at 12.1 million 

metric tons (13.4 million short tons), which has a 

value of approximately 29 million dollars. Important 
KANSAS Q25 

limestone units used for crushed stone are listed 

below: 

I ... imcstonc Member 

Ervine Creek ----------------

Plattsmouth -----------------

Stoner ---------------------- Captain Creek ---------------

Argentine -------------------

Raytown --------------------

Bethany Falls ---------------

Laberdie --------------------

Limestone Ji'ormation 

Deer Creek 

Oread 

Stanton 

Stanton 

Wyandotte 

lola 

Swope 

Pawnee 

Three limestone members are p·resently mined by 

underground methods, the Bethany Falls, Argentine~ 

and Plattsmouth. All present underground lim.estone 

mines are using, or plan to use, the mined space fo.r 

commercial storage, and this use is considered in the 

pillar placement and design of their mine plan. Underground mined space is being used extensively for 

storage in the Kansas City and Atchison areas. Figure 14 shows locations of the large mines and quarries in Kansas. 

Dimension stone was extensively quarried from 

Pennsylvanian rocks in Kansas in the past. Local 

limestone and sandstone were used to construct 

Hutchinson 

' IS• WICHITA 

0 I I I I I II I 1 

0 50 

50 

I 

I 

100 MILES 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

•>f< 

X 

39" 

FIGURE 14.-Locations of large quarries and mines from 

which limestone is obtained, and locations of plants where 

cement and clay products are manufactured in Kansas. 

• Limestone quarry or mine (100,000 metric tons, plus); 

0 cement plant; X clay products plant. 

many of the buildings seen in the towns of eastern 

Kansas; the more important units of Middle and 

\Late Pennsylvanian age are listed below (Risser, 

1960; Grisafe, 1976) : 

Rock member Format·ion Area of main use 

Utopia Limestone _ Howard Eastern Kansas, 

Limestone. sidewalks. 

Hartford Topeka Limestone_ Topeka area. 

Limestone. 

Big Springs 

Limestone. 

Kereford 

Limestone. 

Lecompton Lecompton area. 

Lime·stone. 

Oread Limestone _ Atchison area. 

Toronto Limestone _ Oread Limestone _ Atchison area. 

latan Limestone ___ Stranger Leavenworth area. 

Formation. 

Raytown Limestone_ lola Limestone ___ Several 

Westerville 

Limestone. 

Bandera Quarry 

Sandstone. 

localities. 

Cherryvale Shale _ Kansas City. 

Bandera Shale ___ Eastern Kansas 

many areas. 

Of all the units quarried, the Bandera Quarry 

Sandstone was the most extensively worked; it was 

produced comm:ercially in Crawford, Bourbon, Labette, and Neosho Counties. At present, Pennsylvanian rocks are used only as local rubble-stone; no commercial cut-stone quarries are now in existence. All 

the dimension stone presently p·roduced in Kansas is 

from quarries in Lower Permian rocks. 

Portland cement is manufactured at five different 

locations in Kansas, and all the plants use Pennsylvanian limestone. In addition, portland cement was 

formerly produced at 11 other locations, and natural 

cement was produced at one plant, all from Pennsylvanian lim.estone. The Raytown Limestone Member of the lola Limestone is used for cement manufacture at two locations in Kansas. In addition, the 

Argentine Limestone Member of the Wyandotte 

Limestone, the Drum Limestone, and the Stanton 

Limestone are each utilized at other cement plants 

in Kansas. Figure 14 shows locations of cement 

plants in Kansas. Production from Pennsylvanian 

limestone and shale has accounted for an es·timated 

cumulative total of 82.3 million metric tons (90.7 

million short tons) of cement through 1976, having a 

total value of nearly 1,270 million dollars (Schoewe, 

1958; U.S. Bureau of Mines. Yearbooks 1957-1975; 

and Kansas Geological Survey estimates.) 

Brick, sewer tile, pottery, and lightweight aggregate are all products made in Kansas from clay and 

shale of Pennsylvanian age. Extensive shale deposits 

are present in eastern Kansas, which led to widespread use of the shale for brick manufacture. Between 1868 and 1888, nearly every town in eastern 
Q26 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Kansas had a new plant starting the manufacture 

of brick (Douglas, 1910). 

Six plants are now in operation in Kansas that 

utilize Pennsylvanian shale and clay for the manufacture of different clay products (fig. 14). As mentioned above, shale is also used in the manufacture 

of cement at the five portland cement plants. The 

geologic units used for the different clay products 

include the Krebs Formation and Cabaniss Formation of the Cherokee Group, the Lane Shale and the 

Bonner Springs Shale of the Kansas City Group, and 

the Weston Shale Member of the Stranger Formation 

in the Douglas Group. 

REFERENCES CITED 

Abernathy, G. E., 1937, The Cherokee Group of southeastern 

Kansas, in Kansas Geol. Soc., Guidebook 11th Ann. Field 

Conf., southeastern Kansas, northeastern Oklahoma, 

September 3 to September 6, 1937: p. 18-23. 

--- 1944, Mined areas of the Weir-Pittsburg coal bed: 

Kansas State Geol. Survey Bull. 52, pt. 5, p. 213-228. 

Allen, H. C., 1925, The chemistry of Kansas coal: Kansas 

Univ. Bull., v. 26, no. 5 ( Div. Chern. Research Bull. 4), 

p. 127-202. 

Baesemann, J. F., 1973, Missourian (Upper Pennsylvanian) 

conodonts of northeastern Kansas: Jour. Paleontology, 

v. 47, no. 4, p. 689-710. 

Ball, S. M., 1964, Stratigraphy of the Douglas Group (Pennsylvanian, Virgilian) in the northern Midcontinent region: Lawrence, Kans., Univ. Kansas, Ph.D. thesis, 

490 p. 

--- 1966, Prediction of effective porosity in some marine 

oolite deposits: Amoco Production Co., Liberal Dist., 

Explor. Rept. 41, 6 p.; Kansas Geol. Survey open-file 

rept. AMOC0-41. 

Barlow, J. A., ed., 1975, The age of the Dunkard-Proceedings of the First I. C. White Memorial Symposium: Morgantown, W.Va., West Virginia Geol. and Econ. Survey, 

352 p. 

Bass, N. W., 1937, Origin of the shoestring sands of Greenwood and Butler Counties, Kansas: Kansas Geol. Survey 

Bull. 23, 135 p. 

Beene, D. L., 1977, 1976 oil and gas production in Kansas: 

Kansas Geol. Survey Energy Resources Ser. 10, 169 p. 

Brady, L. L., Adams, D. B., and Livingston, N. D., 1976, An 

evaluation of the strippable coal reserves in Kansas: 

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KANSAS Q27 

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Q28 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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KANSAS Q29 

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Q30 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesOklahoma 

By ROBERT 0. FAY, S. A. FRIEDMAN, KENNETH S. JOHNSON, JOHN F. ROBERTS, 

WILLIAM D. ROSE, and PATRICK K. SUTHERLAND 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-R 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Oklahoma Geological Survey 

H iston'cal review and summary of 

areal, stratigraphic, structural, 

and economic geology of Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian rocks in Oklahoma 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Page 

Albstract ----------------------------------------- R1 

Introduction, by Kenneth S. Johnson --------------- l 

Page 

Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian stratigraphyContinued 

History of geologic studies, by Robert 0. Fay ------- 3 Northeastern Alrbuckle Mountains-Continued 

Geologic setting, by Kenneth S. Johnson ------------ 6 "Atokan" Series --------------------------

Underlying rocks ----------------------------- 6 Ardmore basin and southwestern Arbuckle 

Overlying rocks ----------------------------- 7 Mountains 

Structural events ----------------------------- 7 Kinderhookian Series ----------------------

Osagean and Meramecian Series -----------

Chesterian Series -------------------------

Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary ------

Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian stratigraphy, 

by Patrick K. Sutherland ------------------- 9 

Ozark region --------------------------------- 9 

Kinderhookian, Osagean, and Meramecian 

Series _ _____ ___ __ __ _ __ _ __ __ ___ __ __ _ __ _ _ 9 

Morrowan Series -------------------------

"Atokan" Series --------------------------

Chesterian Series ------------------------- 9 Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian stratigraphy, by 

Post-Chesterian erosional surface ---------- 9 S. A. Friedman --------------------------------

Morrowan Series -------------------------

"1\tokan" Series --------------------------

Frontal Ouachita Mountains ------------------

Kinderhookian Series ---------------------

Chesterian Series -------------------------

Morrowan Series -------------------------

"1\,tokan" Series --------------------------

Central Ouachita Mountains ------------------- Kinderhookian and Osagean Series ________ _ 

Meramecian and Chesterian Series ________ _ 

Morrowan Series -------------------------

Morrowan and "Altokan" Series -----------

Northeastern Alrbuckle Mountains --------------

Kinderhookian and Osagean Series ---------

Meramecian and Chesterian Series ________ _ 

Morrowan Series 

12 Alrkoma basin --------------------------------

12 Desmoinesian Series ----------------------

12 Northern Oklahoma shelf ---------------------

12 Desmoinesian Series ----------------------

12 Missourian Series ------------------------

12 Virgilian Series --------------------------

13 Gearyan Series ---------------------------

13, Alrdmore basin -------------------------------

13 Igneous and metamorphic rocks, by Kenne,th S. 

13 Johnson ---------------------------------------

14 Economic resources -------------------------------

14 Coal, by S. A. Friedman -----------------------

14 Petroleum, by John F. Roberts ---------------

14 Metallic ores, by Kenneth S. Johnson -----------

15 Nonmetallic minerals, by Kenneth S. Johnson __ 

15 References cited ----------------------------------

ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE 1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 

10. 

11. 

TABLE 1. 

2. 

Map showing major geologic provinces of Oklahoma ------------------------------------------------

Geologic map showing outcrops of Carboniferous rocks in Oklahoma -------------------------------

Cross sections through major geologic provinces of Oklahoma ----------------------------------------

Correlation chart of Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian rocks in five outcrop regions of Oklahoma __ 

Stratigraphic cross section from central Ouachita Mountains northward to southwestern Ozark region __ 

Stratigraphic chart of Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian rocks in Oklahoma --------------------------

Map showing distribution of remaining coal resources in Oklahoma part of western region of interior coal 

province ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Graph showing crude-oil production and value in Oklahoma, 1891-1976 ---------~---------------------

Graph showing natural-gas production and value in Oklahoma, 1906-76 ------------------------------

Oil and gas map of Oklahoma showing productive areas and giant fields ------------------------------

Map showing distribution of principal nonpetroleum mineral resources in Carboniferous rocks of 

Oklahoma -----------------------------------·-------------------------------------------------

TABLES 

Oklahoma coal produc,tion, by bed, 1976 ------------------------------------------------------------ Uses of Oklahoma coal, 1972-76 __________________________________________________________________ _ 

III 

R15 

16 

16 

16 

16 

17 

17 

17 

18 

18 

18 

20 

20 

21 

22 

22 

23 

23 

23 

23 

26 

29 

29 

31 

Page 

R2 

4 

5 

10 

11 

19 

24 

26 

26 

27 

30 

Page 

R25 

25 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND.PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) SYSTEMS 

IN THE UNITED STATES-OKLAHOMA 

By RoBERT 0. FAY/ S. A. FRIEDMAN/ KENNETH S. JoHNSON/ JoHN F. RoBERTS/ 

WILLIAM D. RosE/ and PATRICK K. SuTHERLAND2 

ABSTRACT 

The Carboniferous rocks of Oklahoma represent both the 

Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Systems. Sedimentary 

rocks make up almost all the Carboniferous in the geologic 

record, although minor occurrences of igneous and metamorphic rocks have been noted. Volcanic ash, pyroclastic flows, 

and tuff beds are present in Mississi1ppian rocks of the 

Ouachita Mountains; some low-grade metasedimentary rocks 

occur in the core area of the Ouachitas. 

Oklahoma's three major mountain systems-the Wichita, 

Arbuckle, and Ouachita--extend through the southern part 

of the State. They were formed during the Pennsylvanian 

Period and are adjacent to the Anadarko, Arkoma, Ardmore, 

and Marie·tta deep sedimentary basins, which contain the 

thickest Carboniferous sedimentary rocks. The northern part 

of the State contains the more stable cratonic shelf areas 

and the southwest flank of the Ozark uplift in the northeast. 

Carboniferous outcrops are limited to the eastern half ~f 

Oklahoma. Pennsylvanian rocks are exposed in the Arkoma 

basin and nearby shelf areas to the north and west as well 

as in parts of the Arbuckle, Ouachita, and Ozark uplifts 

and in the Ardmore basin to the south. Mississippian rocks 

are more limited in extent and are exposed only in the 

Arbuckle, Ouachita, and Ozark uplifts. In general, Mississippian rocks consist of c·arbonate rocks and some shales and 

sandstones, although their lithology varies markedly from 

one depositional basin to another. The greatest thickness of 

Missi,ssippian strata is the 3,300 m of flysch sedimentary 

rocks making up the Stanley Group of the Ouachita basin. · 

Pennsylvanian rocks consist mostly of shale,, but beds of 

sandstone, limestone, conglomerate, coal, and underclay are 

also present; these rocks attain their greatest thickness, 

5,500 m, in the Arkoma basin. 

The Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary now is tentatively 

placed at the top of the Herington. Limestone Member of the 

Oscar Formation by the Oklahoma Geological Survey. This 

usage places rocks of Geary an (Wolfcampian) age in the 

uppermost Pennsylvanian System rather than in the lowermost Permian. 

The principal economic resources of Oklahoma's Carboniferous deposits are coal and petroleum products. In 1977, 

Oklahoma ranked 20th in the Nation in coal production and 

produced a record 5.~ million short tons. In 1976, the State 

1 Oklahoma Geological Survey, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. 

73019. ~School of Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, 

Okla. 73019. 

ranked third in the Nation in natural-ga,s production (1,710,-

586 million cubic feet) and fourth in crude-oil production 

(150,627,000 barrels) ; an estimated 69 percent of the gas 

and 60 percent of the oil produced came from Carboniferous 

rocks. 

Less significant economic resources that have been produced :f.rom Carboniferous rocks include metallic ores (zinc, 

lead, and copper) and nonmetallic minerals (limestone, shale, 

tripoli, sandstone, chat, and iodine). Two major Carboniferous aquifers, the "Boone" (Mississippian) and the Vamoosa (Pennsylvanian), produce large quantities of ground 

water. 

INTRODUCTION 

By KENNETH S. JOHNSON 

Oklahoma, a region of complex geology, contains 

a great thickness of Carboniferous sedimentary 

rocks and underwent major orogenic activity during the Pennsylvanian Period. In the southern part 

of the State are three major mountain systems-the 

Wichita, Arbuckle, and Ouachita (fig. 1)-which 

largely mark the southern boundary of the North 

American craton. The mountain regions, all of 

which were formed during Pennsylvanian orogenies, 

are adjacent to a series of deep sedimentary basinsthe Anadarko, Arkoma, Ardmore, and Mariettawhich received 5,000 to 7,000 m of Carboniferous 

sediments. The northern half of the State, on the 

other hand, contains the more stable cratonic shelf 

areas and the southwest flank of the Ozark uplift 

in the northeast. Much of the data presented in this 

report was collected in the comprehensive studies 

by Branson (1962), Ham and Wilson (1967), and 

Frezon and Dixon ( 1975). The reader is referred 

to these reports as well as to an atlas by Johnson 

and others (1972) that contains a series of generalized maps, cross sections, and a text on the 

geology and mineral resources of Oklahoma. 

Outcrops of Carboniferous rocks are limited to 

the eastern half of Oklahoma (figs. 2, 3). PennsylR1 
R2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

I 

.. , : 

NoRYH~RN s8ELF I ----.L.-___ _j_ ___ _r;.-------,------J AREAS i ~------- ! , ____ -, __ _f-------1 

0 50 100 MILES 

-------:_J _____ _ 

~------~------~ 0 80 160 KM 

FIGURE 1.-Major geologic provinces of Oklahoma (from Johnson and others, 1972, p. 1). 

vanian strata are extensively exposed in the Arkoma 

basin and nearby shelf areas to the north and west, 

as well as in parts of the Arbuckle, Ouachita, and 

Ozark uplifts and in the Ardmore basin to the 

south. Mississippian strata are more limited and 

are exposed only in the Arbuckle, Ouachita, and 

Ozark uplifts. 

Carboniferous strata are well exposed in most 

parts of eastern Oklahoma. The area was not covered by Pleistocene glaciers; thus, only soil and ' 

vegetation conceal the beds of sandstone, shale, and 

limestone that make up almost all the stratigraphic 

section. Average annual precipitation ranges from 

about 85 em in the central part of the State to 110-

140 em in the east. 

Regional eastward tilting of the midcontinent of 

the United States during uplift of the Rocky Mountains in Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary time 

established the dominant east-flowing river systems 

that cross the strike of Carboniferous strata in 

Oklahoma. The simple dendritic pattern is locally replaced by radial drainage along the flanks of the 

Ozark uplift and by poorly defined trellis drainage 

in much of the Ouachita Mountains and the Arkoma 

basin. 

Topographic relief in most of eastern Oklahoma is 

low to moderate; west-dipping cuestas overlook 

broad shale plains. Bedrock exposures are abundant, 

and the many highways and maintained dirt roads 

provide easy access to them. In the Ozark uplift, the 

Ouachita Mountains, and parts of the Arkoma basin, 

the relief is moderate to high (as much as 500 m 

locally in the Ouachitas). Although bedrock is widely exposed in these provinces, ready access to these 

exposures is limited largely to the few highways 

and dirt roads that cross this more rugged terrain. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage 

of the Oklahoma Geological Survey. The following 

series designations of the Carboniferous are now 

used by the Oklahoma Geological Survey: For the 

Mississippian, they are Kinderhookian and Osagean 

(Lower) and Meramecian and Chesterian (Upper) . 

For the Pennsylvanian, they are Morrowan and 

"Atokan" (Lower) ; Desmoinesian and Missourian (Middle) ; Virgilian (Upper) ; and Gearyan 

(Upper?). Terms such as Springeran, Bendian, 

Lampasan, Atokan, and Wolfcampian appear to 

overlap other series and are in controversy. These 

terms have been used in a group or rock .sense in 

Oklahoma and are placed in quotation marks in this 

report to indicate questionable usage and the need 

for restudy. 
OKLAHOMA R3 

As noted in the table of contents, this report was 

prepared by Robert 0. Fay, S. A. Friedman, Ken-· 

neth S. Johnson, and John F. Roberts, staff members of the Oklahoma Geological Survey; and by 

Patrick K. Sutherland, School of Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma. William D. Rose, 

Oklahoma Geological Survey, coordinated the report. 

HISTORY OF GEOLOGIC STUDIES 

By ROBERT 0. FAY 

The early history of geologic studies in Oklahoma 

began with the Indians, who knew about salt, lead 

ore, coal, oil seeps, and limestone. The Indians kept 

no records, but they directed the early explorers 

to most of the deposits. The Spanish (1541-1803), 

French (1682-1803), and American (1803-11) explorers recorded many of their findings. For Spanish history, see Shipp (1881), Winship (1896), 

Thoburn (1916), and Thomas (1928). For French 

history, see Le Page du Pratz (1758), Parkman 

( 1869), Hyde and Conard ( 1899) , Goodspeed 

(1904), Bennitt and Stockbridge (1905), Thoburn 

(1916), Lewis (1924a,b,c), Lyon (1934), Hyde 

(1948), Beers (1957), and Boone (1968). For 

American history, see Austin (1804), John Sibley 

(1805), Lewis and others (1806), Pike (1810), 

G. C. Sibley (1812), Stoddard (1812), Coues 

(1895), Thwaites (1908), Thoburn (1916), Barker 

(1924), Foreman (1930, 1932), Jackson (1966), 

and Stout (1976). 

On April 30, 1803, the Province of Louisiana was 

purchased from the French by the United States. 

On March 26, 1804, the land south of lat 33° N. 

was designated Territory of Orleans, and New 

Orleans, its capital; the land to the north was designated District of Louisiana, and St. Louis, its capital. On April 30, 1812, the Territory of Orleans became the State of Louisiana. On March 2, 1819, the 

Arkansas Territory was created, which included 

present-day Arkansas and Oklahoma ; the land to 

the north was Missouri Territory. On August 10, 

1821, Missouri became a State, and the land to the 

west was known as Missouri Territory. On May 28, 

1828, the western part of Arkansas Territory was 

designated Indian Territory. On June 15, 1836, 

Arkansas became a State. On November 16, 1907, 

Indian Territory became the State of Oklahoma. 

(For more details, see Williams (1904) and Herndon 

(1922) .) 

Fort Smith was established in 1817 and became 

the center for southwestern explorations. Bearss 

and Gibson (1969) gave a history of Fort Smith. 

Schoolcraft (1819, 1821), Nuttall (1821), James 

(1823), Hinton (1834), Featherstonehaugh (1835), 

Shumard (1853), and Marcou (1854) published 

some of the earliest accounts of the geology of what 

is now Oklahoma and adjacent areas. 

In his description of rocks near Fort Smith, 

James (1823, p. 410) first used the name Carboniferous Limestone in what is now Oklahoma: "Conybeare and Phillips [1822] apply this name to the 

limestone of the English coal measures (p. 340, pl. 

1). Compact limestone is a name obviously inapplicable to the whole series of calcareous beds, occurring in connexion [sic] with the coal." Hinton 

( 1834) described the general geology of the Ozarks, 

the Ouachitas, and the Great Plains, summarizing 

from previous sources. Shumard ( 1853) described 

the geology from Fort Smith to the Arbuckles and 

the region southward, showing the Carboniferous 

Limestone, below, and the Coal Measures, above. 

He described the red beds around the Wichita Mountains. Marcou ( 1854) described the geology along 

the Canadian River, distinguishing the Carboniferous Limestone, the Coal Measures, and the overlying New Red Sandstone. 

The completion of the Missouri, Kansas, and 

Texas Railroad across Oklahoma in 1872 was followed by the opening of the coal mines at McAlester. 

Three oil wells were drilled near Chelsea in 1889. 

Asphaltite was known in the Ouachitas in 1890, and 

the first oil production in Oklahoma was recorded 

in 1891. In 1893, tripoli was found near Peoria, 

Ottawa County. 

Chance (1890) studied the Choctaw coal fields. 

Hill (1891) wrote on the Ouachitas. Haworth and 

Kirk (1894) studied the Neosho River section. 

C. R. Keyes (1894, unpub. data) wrote the first 

formal oil and gas prospectus for John D. Rockefeller. Stevenson ( 1896) wrote on the geology of 

Indian Territory. Drake (1897) mapped eastern 

Oklahoma in 1896, noting accurately many details 

of the coal geology. Vaughan (1899) published on 

the Arbuckle Mountains. Taff (1899) described 

and mapped the McAlester-Lehigh area and described asphalt in the Choctaw Nation, following a 

treaty of 1897 to map the segregated coal lands in 

the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations. White (1899) 

and Girty (1899) wrote about Taff's collections of 

invertebrate and plant fossils from near McAlester. 

Taff (1899, 1902) continued his work with the 

help of G. I. Adams, S. H. Ball, J. W. Beede, S. W. 

Beyer, G. H. Girty, C. N. Gould, R. D. Mesler, G. B. 

Richardson, M. K. Shaler, C. D. Smith, E. 0. Ulrich, 

and C. D. White. Almost 20 publications resulted on 
R4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

1·}:~·;·:·\J Post-Carboniferous 

Upper Pennsylvanian(?): 

Gearyan (Wolfcampian) 

Series 

0 10 20 30 40 50 100 MILES 

lr-.j~Tj--~'-,~1Tj---Li--~-----.--------------~' 

0 10 20 30 40 50 1dO· KILOMETERS 

EXPLANATION 

Upper and Middle 

Pennsylvanian: Virgilian 

and Missourian Series 

E~~~~ Middle Pennsylvanian: Desmoinesian Series 

Lower Pennsylvanian: 

"Atokan" and Morrow- an Series 

Mississippian 

Pre-Carboniferous 

FIGURE 2.--Generalized geologic map showing outcrops of Carboniferous rocks in Oklahoma (from Miser, 1954; Johnson 

and others, 1972, p. 4). Cross 1sections shown in figure 3. 
METERS 

Sea 

Level 

-3,000 

-6,000 

-9,000 

-12,000 

A 

METERSB 

Sea ......s:;~~~~;x: Level 

-3,000 

-6,000 

-9,000 

METERS C 

+ + + + 

+ + + + + + + 

OKLAHOMA R5 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + + 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ + + + 

+ + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + 

+ + + + 

+ + 

+ + + 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + . 

+ + + + 

+ 

+ + + + 

+ 

+ 

+ + + + 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ + + + + + 

+ + + + + 

+ + + + + 

+ + + + + 

+ + + + + 

+ + + + + 

+ + + + + 

+ + + 

+ + 

+ + 

+ + 

+ + 

+ + + + 

+ + + + 

+ + + + 

+ + + + 

+ + + + 

+ + + + 

+ + + 

+ + + + 

B' 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + • 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + . 

+ + + + + + 

+ + + 

+ + + + + + 

+++~++++++ 

+ + + + + + . + + + 

+ + 

+ + 

+ + 

+ + + 

+ + + + + + 

C' 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + 

+ + 

+ + + +I + + + + + + + + •I + + + 

++++++l++++(++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

+ + + + + + + + + + 

+ + + + 

0 I I I I I I 50 MILES 

I 

0 ~ 50 KILOMETERS 

j /Fault, with relative 

A 

+ + + + + + 

+ + + + 

+ + + + 

.+ + + /

1 

movement indicated 

EXPLANATION 

@It~ Cretaceous ~ Pennsylvanian(?) 

[]IT] . Perm tan . a Pennsylvanian 

~ Mississippian 

Devonian, Silurian, Ordovician, and Cambrian (sedimentary 

rocks) 

( ~.:; ~i Cambrian (igneous and 

metamorphic rocks) 

0 Precambrian 

FIGURE 3.-Generalized cross sections ·through major geologic provinces of Oklahoma (from Johnson and others, 1972, p. 

5) . Lines of cross sections shown in figure 2. 
R6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

the Ozarks, the Arkoma basin, the Ouachita Mountains, the Arbuckle Mountains, the Ardmore basin, 

the Criner Hills, and the Wichita Mountains. Maps 

of the McAlester, Windingstair, Tuskahoma, and 

Antlers Quadrangles were never published but were 

utilized by Miser in preparation of the first geologic 

map of Oklahoma (1926). 

From 1900 to 1910, more than 30 additional articles were published on all phases of the Carboniferous. In 1907, the Miami-Picher zinc field was discovered in Mississippian rocks, and most of the 344 

gas wells and 7,850 oil wells in Oklahoma were producing from the Carboniferous strata. The new 

Oklahoma Geological Survey was established July 

25, 1908. 

From 1910 to 1930, many changes took place. In 

April 1912, the Cushing field was discovered; oil 

production from this field amounted to 3 percent of 

the world's total for that year. In 1913, most of the 

1,052 producing gas wells and 20,620 oil wells in 

Oklahoma were producing from Carboniferous 

rocks. Everett Carpenter organized the Empire Gas 

and Fuel Co. in 1913, hiring 250 geologists and initiating subsurface studies in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Geological Survey first used automobiles in 

1915; previously horses and mules were used. In 

June 1915, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission 

first regulated oil production. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists· was organized on 

January 7, 1916, in Norman, Okla. Core drilling 

was first used in Oklahoma in 1919. The secondary 

recovery of oil by waterflooding began in 1920. 

Geophysical work was begun in 1921 and was based 

upon a method that was used to locate cannons in 

World War I; the first geophysical company consisted of W. P. Haseman, head of the Physics Department at the University of Oklahoma, and D. W. 

Ohern, Irving Perrine, and J. C. Karcher. By 1924, 

micropaleontology had become popular, rotary drilling had been introduced in Oklahoma, and well cuttings were being preserved. In 1929, electric logs 

were first used. These developments enabled geologists to have a three-dimensional concept of Carboniferous rocks in Oklahoma. A flood of published 

information followed. 

From 1910 to the present, many hundreds of articles have been written on the Carboniferous of 

Oklahoma. Gould (1925) gave the first stratigraphic 

index. Branson and Jordan (1964') and Branson and 

others (1967) published indexes to mapping in 

Oklahoma. Now, more than 100 surface maps and 

250 subsurface maps exist on the Carboniferous of 

Oklahoma. McKnight and Fischer (1970) and Gibson (1972) provided histories of the Tri-State mineral district and gave extensive bibliographies. 

From 1958 to the present, K. S. Johnson, E. A. Ham, 

and others on the Oklahoma Geological Survey staff 

have compiled annual bibliographies of Oklahoma 

geology, which have been published in Oklahoma 

Geology Notes. 

Concerning nomenclature and regional stratigraphy, the following are excellent references: Williams (1891), Wilmarth (1925), Moore (1940), 

Branson (1962), and Frezon and Dixon (1975). 

Various workers have assigned different locations 

for the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary over the 

years (see Moore, 1940, figs. 3, 4). On the new 

geologic maps of Oklahoma, which have been published at a scale of 1:250,000 by the Oklahoma Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey as 

part of a series of hydrologic atlases, rocks of 

Gearyan ("Wolfcampian") age have been considered 

uppermost Pennsylvanian rather than Permian. 

This usage follows the work of Dott (1932), Green 

(1936), Branson (1962), Clendening (1971), and 

Wilson and Rashid (1975). In figure 2 of the present report, Gearyan rocks are included in the map 

unit showing rocks of questionable Pennsylvanian 

age. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

By KENNETH S. JOHNSON 

UNDERLYING ROCKS 

The base of the Carboniferous throughout most 

of Oklahoma lies within a dark-gray to black cherty 

shale of Late Devonian and Early Mississippian age. 

The shale is called the Woodford Shale in most parts 

of the State, but the term Chattanooga Shale is used 

in the northeast on the flanks of the Ozark uplift. 

In the Ouachita Mountains, the base of the Carboniferous is in the Lower Silurian-Lower Mississippian 

Arkansas Novaculite, a siliceous chertlike sedimentary rock, the upper part of which is generally 

equivalent to the Woodford Shale. The Woodford 

Shale or equivalent strata are absent in parts of 

the Panhandle, in the Hollis basin, over the Wichita 

uplift, and over other smaller uplifts; in these areas, 

younger Mississippian and even Pennsylvanian 

strata are at the base of the Carboniferous locally. 

At the base of the Woodford is a major pre-Upper 

Devonian unconformity that extends over most of 

the midcontinent region. The Woodford therefore 

rests with low-angle unconformity upon strata of 

Ordovician, Silurian, and Early Devonian age (Tarr 

and others, 1965). Silurian and Devonian rocks 
OKLAHOMA R7 

underlie the Woodford Shale or Arkansas Novaculite in the deeper parts of most basins, whereas 

Ordovician strata underlie the pre-Woodford unconformity on the north flanks of the Arkoma and 

Anadarko basins and in parts of the Arkoma, Ardmore, and Hollis basins. 

In areas where the Woodford Shale or Arkansas 

Novaculite is present, the Devonian-Mississippian 

contact is transitional and can be only approximated 

by micropaleontologic study of pollen and (or) 

conodonts. Black shale and siliceous sediments were 

deposited without apparent interruption in most 

parts of the State from Late Devonian through 

Early Mississippian (Kinderhookian) time. In the 

Panhandle and in the Hollis basin, limestones of 

Osagean through Meramecian age are at the base of 

the Carboniferous. Mississippian strata were eroded 

during subsequent Pennsylvanian uplift of the 

Wichita block and smaller blocks extending northward from the Arbuckle Mountains across central 

Oklahoma (Hunton arch and Oklahoma City upliftNemaha uplift). In these areas, Middle and Upper 

Pennsylvanian clastic sedimentary rocks lie unconformably upon Cambrian through Devonian sedimentary rocks or, in much of the Wichita uplift, 

upon a Cambrian basement of granite, rhyolite, and 

gabbro. 

OVERLYING ROCKS 

Carboniferous strata are now widely exposed in 

the eastern third of Oklahoma. In the west, however, Pennsylvanian ( ?) rocks of Gearyan age are 

overlain by Lower Permian strata consisting chiefly 

of red-bed clastic rocks. In southeastern Oklahoma, 

Permian rocks are absent, and the Carboniferous is 

overlain by sands of the Trinity Group of Early 

Cretaceous age. 

The contact with overlying Permian strata in 

western Oklahoma appears to be conformable. The 

stratigraphic relations and lithologies of rocks on 

both sides of the boundary indicate that Late Pennsylvanian depositional conditions continued into the 

Permian without appreciable break, except for a 

change into red beds. 

Cretaceous strata in the southeast rest with angular unconformity upon the folded Carboniferous 

rocks of the Ouachita system and the Ardmore 

basin. 

STRUCTURAL EVENTS 

Carboniferous time in Oklahoma was characterized by formation of deep sedimentary basins and, 

in the southern half of the State, by formation of 

the mountain systems. All sedimentary basins-including the Anadarko, Arkoma, Ardmore, Marietta, 

Hollis basins and the Ouachita geosyncline-had 

their principal period of downwarping from Late 

Mississippian through Pennsylvanian time. These 

basins typically are elongate and now contain some 

3,000-12,000 m of sedimentary rocks; Carboniferous strata constitute 50-75 percent of the total 

thickness in each basin (fig. 3). The three mountain belts-the Wichita, Arbuckle, and Ouachitawere the sites of folding, faulting, and uplift during 

several orogenic pulses that took place throughout 

the Pennsylvanian Period. Principal studies upon 

which we have relied heavily for discussion of structural events are those by Cline and others (1959), 

Flawn and others (1961), Branson (1962), Ham 

and others (1964), Ham and Wilson (1967), 

American Association of Petroleum Geologists and 

others (1968, 1975), Ham (1969), Frezon and 

Dixon (1975), and Decker and Black (1976). 

During the first half of the Mississippian Period, 

shallow seas covered all of Oklahoma. Limestone and 

interbedded chert were the predominant sediments 

laid down upon the Upper Devonian-Lower Mississippian Woodford Shale in most areas, whereas 

deposition of the Arkansas Novaculite continued in 

the Ouachita geosyncline. The widespread beds of 

Lower Mississippian limestone are the youngest or 

last of the thick sequence of carbonate rocks that 

attest general crustal stability in Oklahoma during 

early and middle Paleozoic time. 

In the last half of the Mississippian Period, shale 

and sandstone were predominant; major sites of 

deposition were the rapidly subsiding basins in 

southern Oklahoma. Principal formations of southern Oklahoma (excluding the Ouachitas) are the 

Sycamore Limestone, Delaware Creek Shale, and 

Goddard Shale. These strata have a total thickness 

of 500-2,000 m in the Ardmore and eastern Anadarko basins and nearby areas. The greatest thickness of Mississippian strata is the 3,300 m of flysch 

sedimentary rocks making up the Stanley Group of 

the Ouachita basin. Mississippian strata in central 

and north-central Oklahoma have been largely removed by Early Pennsylvanian uplift and erosion, 

and the remaining Mississippian rocks consist generally of 50-200m of cherty limestone that thickens 

to the west and reaches a thickness of 1,500 m in 

the western Anadarko basin. 

The Pennsylvanian Period was the principal time 

of crustal unrest in Oklahoma-a time of both orogeny and basinal subsidence in the south and of 

epeirogenic movement in the north. Preexisting 
RS THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

sedimentary rocks and the underlying basement 

rocks of the Wichita, Arbuckle, and Ouachita Mountain areas were complexly folded, faulted, and 

thrust upward into major mountains, while the 

nearby basins subsided more rapidly and received 

the greatly increased sediment load eroded from the 

highlands (fig. 3). Orogenies took place during all 

epochs of the Pennsylvanian Period, but different 

areas were affected to different degrees by each 

pulse. 

Pennsylvanian rocks comprise mostly marine 

shale, but beds of sandstone, limestone, conglomerate, coal, and underclay are also present. The strata 

are commonly 600-1,500 m thick but are as much 

as 5,000 m thick in the Anadarko basin, 4,500 m in 

the Ardmore basin, 4,000 m in the Marietta basin, 

and 5,500 m in the Arkoma basin. In fact, each of 

these basins, as well as the eastward continuation 

of the Arkoma basin in Arkansas, contains a greater 

thickness of Pennsylvanian strata than does any 

other comparable area in the United States. 

The major Pennsylvanian orogeny, commonly 

called the Wichita orogeny (Morrowan and early 

"Atokan"), was characterized by strong folding and 

uplift of as much as 3,000-4,500 m in the Wichitas 

and in the Criner Hills south of Ardmore. Conglomerate and "granite wash" (a local name given to 

coarse arkosic detritus) were commonly deposited 

near major uplifts. These coarse sedimentary rocks 

grade into sandstone and shale toward the middle 

of the basins. A broad, north-trending arch across 

central Oklahoma was raised above sea level during this time; along its axis was a narrow belt of 

fault-block mountains (Nemaha uplift) extending 

northward from the Oklahoma City area into Kansas. The uplift was accompanied by erosion that removed part or all the pre-Pennsylvanian sediments 

from the mountain uplifts and the central Oklahoma 

arch. In fact, the unconformity at the base of Pennsylvanian rocks is the most profound Paleozoic unconformity in Oklahoma and can be recognized 

everywhere but in the deeper parts of major basins. 

Principal pulses of folding and uplift in the Ouachita Mountains began in Mississippian time and 

continued into the Permian; these structural movements are referred to as the Ouachita orogeny. The 

thick sequence of dark-gray shales, cherts, and flysch 

sedimentary rocks in the Ouachita geosyncline was 

complexly folded and thrust faulted. The Ouachitas 

contain a series of south-dipping thrust faults in 

the northern belt, where the Choctaw fault outlines 

the frontal (north) edge of the mountain system. 

In the southern belt, the major faults dip north. 

After the deformation of the Ouachita trough, 

basinal downwarping shifted northward into the 

Arkoma basin during "Atokan" and Desmoinesian 

time and then ceased after the folding and faulting 

of the Arkoma basin. Of special importance in the 

Arkoma basin and northeastern Oklahoma are the 

coal beds formed during Desmoinesian time. 

The last major Pennsylvanian orogeny, called the 

Arbuckle orogeny, was one of strong compression 

and uplift during Virgilian time. It affected all 

mountain areas of the south and is represented by 

most of the prominent folding in the Ardmore, 

Marietta, and Anadarko basins. Much of the thrusting in the Ouachita Mountains probably also took 

place in late Virgilian time. Thus, by the end of the 

Pennsylvanian Period, the mountain systems of 

Oklahoma were substantially as we know them today, although subsequent gentle uplift and accompanying erosion have cut more deeply into underlying rocks. 

Post-Carboniferous structural movements were 

largely confined to epeirogenic raising and lowering 

of broad regions in Oklahoma. In Early Permian 

time, the Wichitas, Arbuckles, Ouachitas, and Ozarks 

were still fairly high land areas, and they supplied 

sand and mud to shallow seas that covered the Anadarko basin and other parts of western Oklahoma. 

By Late Permian time, the Wichitas were largely 

buried by sediment derived mainly from the lowland 

areas of the Ouachitas and Ozarks in the east. Small 

faults and flexures in Permian sedimentary rocks 

attest minor movement of preexisting major faults, 

principally along the margins of sedimentary basins. 

During the Cretaceous Period, southern and western parts of Oklahoma were gently depressd to accept the last incursion of marine waters into the 

State. Formation of the Rocky Mountains in Late 

Cretaceous and Early Tertiary time elevated the 

western part of the State, imparting an eastward tilt 

to the land surface that has persisted to the present. 

Major drainage systems of today were initiated 

during Pleistocene time. Continental glaciers extended southward only to northeastern Kansas, but 

meltwater from Rocky Mountain glaciers and snowfields provided much of the streamflow that helped 

strip away post-Carboniferous strata and thus exhume the major mountain systems. 
OKLAHOMA R9 

1VIISSISSIPPIAN AND LOWER PENNSYLVANIAN 

STRATIGRAPHY 

By PATRICK K. SUTHERLAND 

Strata of Mississippian and Early Pennsylvanian 

age crop out in five regions in Oklahoma: (1) the 

southwestern Ozark region, in the northeast; (2) 

the frontal Ouachita Mountains; (3) the central 

Ouachita Mountains, in the southeast; ( 4) the northeastern Arbuckle Mountains, in the south-central 

part of the State; and (5) the Ardmore basin and 

southwestern Arbuckle Mountains, in the south 

(fig. 4). These areas show marked differences in 

lithologic character, thickness, and depositional 

pattern. 

OZARK REGION 

Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian strata in 

the Ozark region of northeastern Oklahoma are 

dominated by carbonate rocks. Unconformities are 

numerous. Represented in figure 5 is a typical shallow-water platform facies, which is thinner than the 

clastic, geosynclinal facies that crops out in the 

Ouachita Mountains. The maximum thicknesses recorded for Mississippian formations in the Ozark 

region of Oklahoma total about 250 m, but the total 

preserved thickness for the Mississippian in any 

local area does not exceed 150 m. The maximum recorded thickness for the Lower Pennsylvanian Morrowan Series is 94 m, and that for the "Atokan" 

Series, about 185 m. 

The Upper Mississippian Pitkin Formation is 

truncated northward by pre-Pennsylvanian erosion 

and is absent north ofT. 18 N. The succeeding Morrowan Series is truncated by pre-Atokan erosion in 

T. 20 N. In T. 22 N., Desmoinesian strata overlap 

the "Atoka" Formation and rest directly upon 

eroded Mississippian strata. 

KINDERHOOKIAN, OSAGEAN, AND MERAMECIAN 

SERIES 

The Chattanooga Shale, as much as 20m thick in 

northeastern Oklahoma, ranges in age from Late 

Devonian to Early Mississippian (Kinderhookian) 

and correlates with the Woodford Shale in southern 

Oklahoma (Hass, 1956). 

The Chattanooga is overlain unconformably by 

the "Boone" Group, which consists of beds of chert 

and limestone. This group ranges in age from latest 

Kinderhookian to early Meramecian but is predominantly Osagean. Included are the St. Joe, Reeds 

Spring, and Keokuk Formations. Their maximum 

recorded thicknesses are 12, 55, and 75 m, respectively (Huffman, 1958) ; the thickness of each averages much less, however, and all are missing in the 

southern part of the Ozark outcrop area, where the 

Moorefield Formation rests directly on the Chattanooga. The Keokuk is particularly distinctive 

lithologically, consisting of white- to buff-weathering chert that forms distinctive fractured rubble 

surfaces. It contains abundant fossils, mostly in the 

form of molds and casts. Various formations of the 

"Boone" Group are overlain unconformably by the 

Moorefield Formation, the Hindsville Limestone, or, 

locally, the Fayetteville Shale. 

The Moorefield Formation, predominantly of 

Meramecian age, consists mostly of argillaceous 

limestones, but other facies include oolitic and 

pelmatozoan grainstones and calcareous siltstones. 

Four facies were given local member names by 

Huffman (1958). The formation has a maximum 

thickness of about 30 m but is missing in Craig and 

Ottawa Counties, where the Hindsville rests unconformably on the "Boone" cherts. 

CHESTERIAN SERIES 

The Hindsville Limestone, Fayetteville Shale, and 

Pitkin Limestone, all of Chesterian age, form a continuous depositional sequence in the Ozark region. 

The Hindsville is a widely distributed fossiliferous 

limestone that rests unconformably on the Moorefield Formation or on the "Boone." It has a maximum thickness of 15 m, but it averages 8-10 m 

(Huffman, 1958). 

The Hindsville Limestone is overlain conformably 

by the Fayetteville Shale. The Fayetteville consists 

predominantly of black or gray-green shale, but it 

is interbedded locally near the base or near the top 

with dark nodular layers of carbonate mudstone. 

The formation has a maximum thickness of about 

50m. · 

The Pitkin Limestone conformably overlies the 

Fayetteville Shale and shows marked local variations in facies, ranging from crossbedded oolites to 

skeletal grainstones to dark carbonate mudstones. 

The formation is--typically about 10 m thick but 

has a maximum observed thickness of 25 m (Huffman, 1958). The formation is unconformably overlain by the Pennsylvanian Sausbee Formation. 

POST-CHESTERIAN EROSIONAL SURFACE 

The Pitkin Limestone is regionally truncated 

northward in Oklahoma along a highly irregular 

line; the most northerly exposures are in T. 18 N., 

at the southern edge of Mayes County. Farther 
RIO 

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THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

ARDMORE BASIN 

AND 

SOUTHWESTERN 

ARBUCKLE 

MOUNTAINS 

Shale 

Shale 

NORTHEASTERN 

ARBUCKLE 

MOUNTAINS 

GODDARD 

SHALE 

CENTRAL 

OUACHITA 

MOUNTAINS 

"ATOKA" 

FORMATION 

FRONTAL 

OUACHITA 

MOUNTAINS 

"ATOKA" 

FORMATION 

CHICKA- WAPACHOC NUCKA 

CHERT LIMESTONE 

"SPRINGER" 

FORMATION 

"CANEY" 

SHALE 

SOUTHWESTERN 

OZARK 

REGION 

"ATOKA" 

FORMATION 

Greenleaf Lake Ls. Mbr. 

PITKIN LIMESTONE 

FAYETTEVILLE 

SHALE 

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CREEK 

FORMATION 

DELAWARE 

CREEK 

SHALE 

DELAWARE 

CREEK 

SHALE 

? 

,...._....._,_,_ ? --- ? 

Upper 

Division 

Middle 

Division 

FIGURE 4.-Correlation chart of Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian rocks in five outcrop regions of Oklahoma. 

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OKLAHOMA R11 

CENTRAL 

OUACHITA 

MOUNTAINS 

"Atoka" 

Formation 

........ 

Johns Valley 

Shale', 

Jackfork 

Group 

........ 

......... 

' 

FRONTAL 

OUACHITA 

MOUNTAINS 

'~ ,, 

,f?~~-t ~o$11·­ :.q,y......_ 

"Atoka" 

Formation 

"Springer" 

Formation 

-

"Caney" Shale 

SOUTHWESTERN 

OZARK 

REGION 

PENNSYLVANIAN 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I . Woodford Shale DEVONIAN DEVONIAN 

Stanley 

Group 

I 

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Q((j 

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I 

1,500 5,000 

1,200 4,000 

900 3,000 

600 2,000 

300 1,000 

0 0 

METERS FEET 

I LOCATION OF CROSS SECTION 

I 

Arkansas 

Novaculite 

FIGURE 5.-Stratigraphic cross section from central Ouachita Mountains northward to southwestern Ozark region. 

north, the Pennsylvanian rests directly on the 

Fayetteville Shale; locally it rests on the Hindsville 

Limestone. The post-Mississippian unconformity in 

northeastern Oklahoma has a regional relief of as 

much as 25m (Sutherland and Henry, 1977b). 

The magnitude of the post-Pitkin unconformity 

decreases eastward. In Searcy County, Ark., about 

240 km to the east, the lmo Formation of late 

Chesterian age partly fills the gap (Saunders and 

others, 1977). The Imo overlies the Pitkin Forma-
R12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

tion and is in turn overlain unconformably by strata 

of Morrowan age. 

In Arkansas, reworked Pitkin pebbles are found 

in the Chickasaw Creek Formation at the base of 

the Jackfork Group. 

MORROW AN SERIES 

In northwestern Arkansas, the Pennsylvanian 

Morrowan Series is divided into the Hale and Bloyd 

Formations (in ascending order). These units can 

be recognized in Oklahoma only in the eastern half 

of Adair County. Farther west, the lithologic distinction is lost, as there is a marked westward increase in the percentage of limestone and a corresponding decrease in the percentage of terrigenousrock types. Sutherland and Henry (1977a) divided 

this carbonate facies into the Sausbee and McCully 

Formations on the basis of a regional disconformity 

at the top of the Sausbee. This break coincides in 

Washington County, Ark., with a regional unconformity at the base of the Dye Shale Member of the 

Bloyd Formation. The Sausbee Formation consists 

typically of skeletal grainstones interbedded with 

shale (Braggs Member), overlain by beds of algal 

wackestone and mudstone (Brewer Bend Limestone 

Member). The formation has a maximum thickness 

of 61 m. The overlying McCully Formation is composed of interbedded limestones and shales and has 

a maximum recorded thickness of 23 m. 

"ATOKAN" SERIES 

The "Atokan" Series, which consists of the 

"Atoka" Formation, crops out in a wide belt along 

the south and west flanks of the Ozark dome in 

northeastern Oklahoma. It consists of interbedded 

thick shales and thinner sandstones and a few beds 

of thin discontinuous impure limestone. Wilson 

(1935) gave member names to six of the ridgeforming sandstones in Muskogee County, but Blythe 

( 1959) was unable to differentiate most of these 

members in areas north of Muskogee County. The 

"Atoka" Formation is about 185 m thick in Muskogee County. 

The "Atoka" Formation is truncated northward 

in T. 23 N., R. 19 E., by a regional unconformity 

at the base of the overlying McAlester Formation. 

FRONTAL OUACHITA MOUNTAINS 

Describing and interpreting Carboniferous strata 

in the frontal Ouachitas is complicated by both faulting and lateral facies changes in each of the fault 

blocks from north to south. The column in figure 4 

labeled "Frontal Ouachita Mountains" is a composite section for the several fault blocks north of the 

Ti Valley fault. The block directly south of the 

Choctaw fault, the leading edge of the frontal 

Ouachitas, exposes, in ascending order, the "Caney" 

(Delaware Creek) Shale, "Springer" (Goddard) 

Formation, Wapanucka Limestone, and "Atoka" Formation. Farther south, the block south of the Katy 

Club fault exposes the "Caney," "Springer," Chickachoc Chert, and "Atoka." The block south of the 

Pine Mountain fault, still north of the Ti Valley 

fault, exposes the Woodford Shale (Devonian) , 

"Caney," "Springer," and "Atoka." 

KINDERHOOKIAN SERIES 

Rocks of Kinderhookian age have been reportell 

from only a single locality in the frontal Ouachitas. 

Hass and Huddle (1965) recovered conodonts of 

this age from the basal 0.15 m of shale that directly 

overlies the Woodford Shale at a locality near Pine 

Top School in Pittsburg County, Okla., between the 

Pine Mountain and Ti Valley faults. 

CHESTERIAN SERIES 

The "Caney" Shale of Chesterian age reaches a 

maximum thickness in the frontal Ouachita Mountains of possibly 275 m, but in the frontal block 

directly south of the Choctaw fault, only the upper 

15 m or so is exposed. Farther south, in the fault 

block between the Pine Mountain and Ti Valley 

faults, the "Caney" Shale rests directly on the Woodford Shale. 

The Chesterian age assignment for the "Caney" 

Shale is based on several occurrences of goniatites 

and microfossils. 

MORROWAN SERIES 

Overlying the "Caney" Shale is the "Springer" 

Formation, which contains, at a few localities, 

goniatites of Morrowan age that correlate with the 

Hale Formation and the Brentwood Limestone 

Member of the Bloyd Formation in northwestern 

Arkansas (Gordon and Stone, 1977). Hendricks 

and others (1947) stated that the "Springer" apparently rests conformably on the "Caney" but that 

both units are poorly exposed. The MississippianPennsylvanian boundary has in fact not been established precisely in this outcrop belt. They also reported a thickness of as much as 760 m for the 

"Springer" in the fault block directly southeast of 

the Choctaw fault. The "Springer" sequence was 

recently classed as Goddard (Upper Mississippian) 
OKLAHOMA R13 

in the Ouachita Mountains by the Oklahoma Geological Survey (see Hart, 1974, sheet 1). 

The Wapanucka Limestone overlies the 

"Springer" in the frontal fault ridges of the Ouachitas, where it consists of interbedded spiculiferous 

packstones, carbonate mudstones, pelmatozoan and 

oolitic grainstones, and shales and is typically about 

90 m thick. Basinward (southward), successive fault 

blocks expose changes to the Chickachoc Chert facies, with which the Wapanucka is correlative. This 

facies consists predominantly of shale interbedded 

with as much as 10 layers of dark-gray to black 

spiculite and a few thin beds of spiculiferous limestone. The thickness is typically 180-215 m. Conodonts have been recovered from this facies, as have 

rare goniatites (Gordon and Sutherland, 1975). The 

conodonts make possible a correlation between the 

Chickachoc and Wapanucka (Sutherland and Grayson, 1977). These units are equivalent in age to the 

Dye Shale and Kessler Limestone Members of the 

Bloyd Formation plus the lower part of the "Atoka" 

Formation in northwestern Arkansas and the McCully Formation and lower part of the "Atoka" 

Formation in northeastern Oklahoma. 

"ATOKAN" SERIES 

The uppermost parts of the Wapanucka Limestone and the Chickachoc Chert are "Atokan" in 

age, on the basis of conodonts (Sutherland and 

Grayson, 1977), and these units are overlain conformably in the frontal Ouachitas by the "Atoka" 

Formation. In this area, the "Atoka" consists mostly of gray silty, micaceous shale containing a few 

beds of medium-grained sandstone. The "Atoka" is 

poorly exposed, and only the lower part is preserved 

in the frontal Ouachitas, where Hendricks and 

others (1947) estimated the maximum thickness 

preserved to be 2,750 m. 

CENTRAL OUACHITA MOUNTAINS 

KINDERHOOKIAN AND OSAGEAN SERIES 

The Kinderhookian and Osagean Series are presumed to be represented in the Ouachita Mountains 

of Oklahoma; the location depends upon the distribution in Oklahoma of Hass' (1951) middle and 

upper divisions of the Arkansas Novaculite. Most of 

the Arkansas Novaculite is Devonian in age, but 

Hass (1951) recorded a Kinderhookian age on the 

basis of conodonts for the top 8.5 m of the middle 

division of the formation at Caddo Gap, Montgomery 

County, Ark. In addition, he assigned a tentative 

latest Kinderhookian or Osagean age for another 

conodont collection made 25 m below the top of the 

38-m-thick upper division of the formation at a locality in Polk County, Ark. Thus, Hass considered 

the upper 47 m of the formation to be Mississippian 

in age in Arkansas. Hass (1951) quoted H. D. 

Miser as stating that the upper division of the 

Arkansas Novaculite occurred in Oklahoma only 

in McCurtain County. The only conodonts recovered 

by Hass (1951) from the Arkansas Novaculite on 

Black Knob Ridge, near Atoka, Okla., were Devonian in age. 

MERAMECIAN AND CHESTERIAN SERIES 

Rocks of the Stanley Group are conformable with 

the underlying Arkansas Novaculite in McCurtain 

County, Okla. (Honess, 1923), and are generally so 

in the Potato Hills and at Black Knob Ridge, although a local conglomerate is at the base at smne 

localities on Black Knob Ridge (Goldstein and 

Hendricks, 1962). Nowhere can an unfaulted sequence of the Stanley be seen, but a maximum thickness of 3,300 m has been estimated in the central 

Ouachitas. The group thins abruptly westward and 

northward toward the frontal Ouachitas (Cline, 

1960). Harlton (1938) divided the Stanley Group 

into the Tenmile Creek, Moyers, and Chickasaw 

Creek Formations on the basis of the occurrence of 

several thin siliceous shales that are apparently 

widespread and locally mappable. The Stanley is 

composed predominantly of black shale, but sandstone beds are more common in the upper part. The 

Chickasaw Creek Formation was originally the 

basal unit of the Jackfork (Taff, 1902), and this 

usage is now followed by the Oklahoma Geological 

Survey (see Briggs, 1973, p. 8, 9). 

The Stanley Group contains few fossils. Hass 

( 1950) collected co~odonts of Meramecian age from 

the lower part of the group in both Oklahoma and 

Arkansas. Higher cdnodonts, collected from 23 to 

45 m above the base\ of the Stanley in Arkansas, 

were believed by Hass to be of Meramecian age but 

are now considered to be of early Chesterian age 

(Gordon and Stone, 1977) . Plant fossils of Chesterian age have been recovered from the upper middle 

part of the group in Arkansas, and marine invertebrate fossils of Chesterian age have been recovered 

from erratic blocks of the Stanley in the frontal 

belt of the Ouachitas in Arkansas (Gordon and 

Stone, 1977). Also, the assignment of a Chesterian 

age for most of the Stanley is supported by its stratigraphic position. It is gradational with the overlying Jackfork Group. Chesterian plants, probably 
R14 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

reworked, have been collected from the basal beds 

of the Jackfork (see the following section). 

MORROWAN SERIES 

The Jackfork Group is conformable with the underlying Stanley Group. Sandstone is the prevailing 

rock type, although shales make up as much as 40 

percent of the group in some areas (Shelburne, 

1960). The Jackfork is more resistant to erosion 

than the underlying Stanley Group, which is composed mostly of shale, and is one of the main ridgeforming units in the Ouachitas. The Jackfork Group 

is typically 1,750 m thick in the central Oklahoma 

Ouachitas. Cline (1960) and Shelburne (1960) recorded as much as 1,980 m in northern McCurtain 

County, Okla. These authors reported that the 

group thins abruptly northward toward the frontal 

Ouachitas. The Jackfork was divided by Harlton 

( 1938) into the following formations, listed in ascending order: Wildhorse Mountain, Prairie Mountain, Markham Mill, Wesley, and Game Refuge. 

However, current usage by the Oklahoma Geological 

Survey includes the Chickasaw Creek Formation at 

the base of the Jackfork, according to Taff's (1902) 

original definition (see Briggs, 1973, p. 8, 9). 

The Jackfork Group contains few fossils, and considerable disagreement exists in the literature regarding its precise age. Of particular importance is 

the recovery from the lowermost beds of the group, 

a short distance west of Talihina, Okla., of plants of 

Chesterian age (Gordon and Stone, 1977). These 

plants are possibly reworked (Gordon· and Stone, 

1977, p. 81), however, and the sedimentary rocks 

with which they are associated may be Morrowan in 

age. Collections of marine invertebrate fossils from 

the middle and upper parts of the Jackfork Group 

in the vicinity of Little Rock, Ark., include several 

poorly preserved but identifiable Morrowan species 

of goniatites and brachiopods (Gordon and Stone, 

1977). The basal Chickasaw Creek Formation in 

Arkansas contains reworked Pitkin pebbles. 

The Johns Valley Shale overlies the Jackfork 

Group conformably. It is well known for its great 

variety of erratic limestone boulders, mostly of the 

Arbuckle facies, that range in age from Cambrian 

to Early Pennsylvanian and for its huge slump 

blocks, some more than 900 m in length, of "Caney" 

Shale. The formation is typically 130-275 m thick 

in the central Ouachitas in Oklahoma (Cline, 1960). 

Gordon and Stone (1977) recorded a maximum 

thickness of 565 m, but they did not give a locality. 

An indigenous fauna from the lower part of the 

Johns Valley Shale, from localities in both Oklahoma and Arkansas, includes cephalopods of the 

Branneroceras branneri zone (Gordon and Stone, 

1977). This fauna occurs also in the upper part of 

the "Springer" Formation in the frontal Ouachitas 

and in the Brewer Bend Limestone Member of the 

Sausbee Formation in northeastern Oklahoma. From 

the middle part of the Johns Valley Shale, Gordon 

and Stone (1977) recorded the Axinolobus modulus 

goniatite zone. This zone occurs in the frontal 

Ouachitas in the lower part of the Wapanucka Limestone and in northeastern Oklahoma in the Chisum 

Quarry Member of the McCully Formation. Distinctive fossils have not yet been reported from the 

upper part of the Johns Valley. 

MORROW AN AND "ATOKAN" SERIES 

The "Atoka" Formation in the central Ouachitas 

consists of interbedded gray shale and fine-grained 

sandstone commonly having convolute bedding and 

sole markings. Shelburne (1960) recorded no more 

than 25-percent sandstone in the Boktukola syncline 

and a maximum preserved thickness in that area of 

2,065 m. The top of the formation is eroded. 

The "Atoka" Formation is virtually unfossiliferous in the central Ouachitas. However, L. R. Wilson 

(oral commun., 1978) reported that all the unit 

sampled contained palynomorphs of Morrowan age. 

NORTHEASTERN ARBUCKLE MOUNTAINS 

KINDERHOOKIAN AND OSAGEAN SERIES 

The Woodford Shale in the northeastern Arbuckle 

Mountains is similar to that found in the southwestern Arbuckle Mountains, except that the percentage 

of chert decreases northeastward. In the northeast, 

the formation is composed predominantly of platy 

dark shale interbedded with some chert layers. The 

regional thickness is about 100-125 m (Ham, 1969). 

In the northeastern Arbuckle Mountains, the formation is apparently all Late Devonian in age at most 

localities, but a Kinderhookian conodont fauna has 

been recovered from the top 0.3 m or less at a few 

localities (Hass and Huddle, 1965). 

The Sycamore Limestone, conspicuous in the 

southwestern Arbuckles, is absent from the Mill 

Creek syncline northeastward in the Arbuckle Mountains (Ham, 1969). The same stratigraphic position is locally occupied by the Welden Limestone. It 

is a buff to gray thick-bedded argillaceous limestone 

that is moderately fossiliferous. It has a maximum 

recorded thickness of 1.5 m, but it is typically 0.6 m 

thick (Barker, 1950). Cooper (1939) described a 

conodont fauna from this shale that contained 105 
OKLAHOMA R15 

different species. This fauna was assigned a late 

Kinderhookian age by Ormiston and Lane (1976). 

Probably this pre-Welden shale rests unconformably on the underlying Woodford, and most of the 

Kinderhookian Series is missing in this area. 

Ormiston and Lane (1976) gave an early Osagean 

age to the Welden Limestone on the basis of 

conodonts. 

Branson and Mehl (1941) described a conodont 

fauna from the basal part of the overlying Delaware 

Creek Shale (they termed it Caney). They apparently believed that, for the most part, those conodonts 

represented reworked specimens. Most of their 

specimens apparently came from the basal sandy, 

shaly glauconitic zone that, according to Barker 

(1950), directly overlies a major unconformity. 

Ormiston and Lane ( 1976) placed the Branson and 

Mehl conodont fauna in the lower Osagean. Ham 

( 1969) stated that the regional unconformity at 

the base of the Delaware Creek Shale in the northeastern part of the Arbuckle Mountains explains the 

thinness of strata of possible Osagean and Meramecian age and, in part, the extreme thinness of the 

total Mississippian sequence in this area. Where the 

Welden Limestone is locally cut out below this unconformity, the basal sandy, glauconitic zone of the 

Delaware Creek Shale rests directly on the Woodford (Barker, 1950). 

MERAMECIAN AND CHESTERIAN SERIES 

The Delaware Creek Shale in the northeastern 

Arbuckle Mountains differs from that found in the 

southwestern Arbuckles by being friable and not 

siliceous. It contains the same local abundance of 

small phosphatic nodules and large calcareous septarian concretions. The formation is much thinner 

than that in the southwest, reaching a maximum 

th!ckness of only 49 m. 

The lower 7.5 m of the Delaware Creek Shale is 

calcareous and fossiliferous locally on the Lawrence 

uplift (Barker, 1950). Elias (1956) named this occurrence the Ahloso Member of the Caney Shale. 

Gordon and Stone (1977, fig. 4) recorded four 

goniatite zones for the Delaware Creek Shale in this 

area that ranged in age from late Meramecian to 

early Chesterian. The lowest calcareous part of the 

formation is apparently older than the lowest part 

of the formation in the southwestern Arbuckle 

Mountains, and it appears to be equivalent in age 

to the upper part of the Sycamore Limestone in that 

area. 

The Goddard Shale in the northeastern Arbuckle 

Mountains is more or less similar to the Goddard 

in the southwestern Arbuckles. However, the percentage of sandstone decreases northeastward, and 

the thick sandstone members present in the Ardmore basin are lacking. There is also a marked decrease in its interval, which is only about 75 m in 

the northeastern Arbuckles. Gordon and Stone 

(1977, fig. 4) recorded three goniatite zones in this 

area that range in age from middle to late 

Chesterian. 

MORROW AN SERIES 

The Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary has 

not been defined in the northeastern Arbuckle Mountains. It falls somewhere within the poorly exposed 

shales, which are here included partly in the upper 

part of the Goddard Shale and partly in the lower 

part of the Morrowan, below the Union Valley Formation or the Wapanucka Limestone (fig. 4). 

The Union Valley Formation crops out in a limited 

area on the Lawrence uplift, in the northernmost 

Arbuckle Mountains, and it covers an extensive area 

in the subsurface of the Arkoma basin, northeast of 

the Arbuckles. Where exposed on the Lawrence uplift, it consists of 45-80 m of sandstone overlain by 

3.5-7.5 m of sandy limestone (Barker, 1950). 

The limestone at the top of the Union Valley is 

highly fossiliferous locally. Gordon and Stone (1977, 

fig. 4) recorded the Branner-oceras branneri goniatite zone from this interval. This limestone is of middle Morrowan age and is correlative with the 

Brewer Bend Limestone Member of the Sausbee 

Formation in northeastern Oklahoma and the upper 

Primrose Sandstone in the Ardmore basin. 

On the northeast flank of the Arbuckle Mountains, 

the Union Valley Formation is missing on the outcrop, and the Wapanucka Limestone is underlain by 

100 m or so of poorly exposed and poorly known 

shales. 

The Wapanucka Limestone in this area includes 

a wide variety of carbonate-rock types, including 

crossbedded oolites and skeletal grainstones and 

packstones. In the more westerly exposures, significant shale interbeds are present. The maximum observed thickness for the Wapanucka in this area is 

about 55 m, not including underlying shales (Rowett 

and Sutherland, 1964). The Wapanucka is truncated 

westward along the south margin of the Franks 

graben. The Wapanucka is highly fossiliferous and 

is late Morrowan in age. 

"ATOKAN" SERIES 

Morrowan rocks are overlain unconformably in 

the northeastern Arbuckle Mountain area by the 
R16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

"Atoka" Formation, which consists of thick shales 

interbedded with thinner fine-grained sandstones. 

The "Atoka" onlaps westward and is itself truncated 

farther west by an unconformity at the base of 

overlying Desmoinesian formations. It ranges in 

thickness in this area from about 910 m to a 

featheredge. 

ARDMORE BASIN AND SOUTHWESTERN 

ARBUCKLE MOUNTAINS 

KINDERHOOKIAN SERIES 

The Woodford Shale consists of interbedded dark 

shale and chert and is 107-122 m thick over most of 

its outcrop area in the Arbuckle Mountains. It is 

Late Devonian in age except for the top 0.3 m or 

less at a few localities, from which a Kinderhookian 

conodont fauna was recovered by Hass and Huddle 

(1965). 

OSAGEAN AND MERAMECIAN .SERIES 

The Sycamore Limestone overlies the Woodford 

Shale and occurs only in the southwest segments of 

the Arbuckle Mountains (Ham, 1969). It consists of 

fine-grained silty limestone interbedded with thin 

layers of dark-gray shale. It is 115 m thick on the 

south limb of the Arbuckle anticline and 64 m thick 

on the north limb (Fay, 1969). The Sycamore Limestone has produced very few identifiable megafossils, and age determinations thus far available 

are __ based on a few conodont faunas. These have 

been reported only from the lowest and the highest 

strata. Ormiston and Lane (1976) recovered conodonts from four samples from Fay's (1969, p. 68) 

measured section on the north limb of the Arbuckle 

anticline. Three of their samples came from the 

lowermost 17 m of the Sycamore Limestone ( 64 m 

total thickness) and indicate an early Osagean age 

for this part of the formation. The lowermost sample, of earliest Osagean age, was taken 1 m above 

the base of the formation; it carries the same fauna 

as that from the Welden Limestone in the northeastern Arbuckle Mountains (Ormiston and Lane, 

1976). 

The fourth sample described by Ormiston and 

Lane was from a zone 14 m below the top of the 

Sycamore Limestone, in the same measured section. 

They reported conodonts from this zone to be latest 

Meramecian or early Chesterian in age. The unfossiliferous middle part of the Sycamore Limestone is 

assumed to be Osagean and (or) Meramecian in 

age. 

CHESTERIAN SERIES 

For more than half a century the usage and age 

of the "Caney" Shale in southern Oklahoma has been 

controversial. The type locality of the "Caney" in 

the Ouachita Mountains is in fact a large erratic 

block in the Johns Valley Shale of Early Pennsylvanian age. The term Caney has now been generally 

abandoned in both the Arbuckle and Ouachita areas. 

The name Delaware Creek was proposed by Elias 

( 1956) as a member of the "Caney" Shale in the 

northeastern Arbuckle Mountains. This term was 

more recently used at formation rank throughout 

the Arbuckle Mountains (Hart, 1974, sheet 1). The 

Delaware Creek Shale rests directly on the Sycamore 

Limestone at the northern margin of the Ardmore 

basin. It consists in this area of dark-gray, partly 

siliceous shale that weathers to a lighter color than 

is normal for the formation in the northeastern 

Arbuckle Mountains. Small phosphatic nodules and 

large calcareous septarian concretions are locally 

abundant, but limestone and sandstone are absent 

(Ham, 1969). The formation ranges in outcrop 

thickness in this area from 69 m on Oil Creek to 

134 m on Henryhouse Creek (Elias, 1956) ; it is 228 

m in the subsurface of the Ardmore basin (Hart, 

1974). Gordon and Stone (1977, fig. 4) recorded 

three goniatite zones in the unit in this area, all 

early Chesterian in age. 

The "Springer" Group overlies the Delaware 

Creek Shale in the Ardmore basin. It includes both 

the Goddard Formation (Chesterian) and the Lake 

Ardmore Formation (Morrowan). The Goddard, 

named by Westheimer (1956), conformably overlies 

the Delaware Creek Shale at the north margin of the 

Ardmore basin. As defined by Elias (1956), the 

Goddard included only the beds of shale and thin 

sandstone between the top of the Delaware Creek 

and the base of the Rod Club Sandstone. Hart (1974, 

sheet 1) extended the Goddard Formation upward 

to the base of the Lake Ardmore Formation; in this 

usage, which is followed here, it includes the Rod 

Club and Overbrook Sandstones and interbedded 

shales. The total thickness of the Goddard Formation, as here used, amounts to 1,100 m in the Ardmore basin (Hart, 1974). Named sandstone members distributed upward within the formation include the Redoak Hollow, 8 m thick; the Rod Club, 

75-122 m thick; and the Overbrook, 14-30 m thick 

(Tomlinson and McBee, 1962). These noncalcareous 

sandstones are all fine grained and well sorted. The 

lower Goddard shales differ from the Delaware 

Creek Shale in being more friable and less cliff 

forming and in containing abundant thin sideritic 

layers and concretions (Tomlinson and McBee, 

1962). 
OKLAHOMA R17 

Gordon and Stone (1977, fig. 4) recorded four 

goniatite zones in that part of the Goddard that lies 

below the Rod Club Sandstone Member, and these 

range in age from middle to early-late Chesterian. 

MISSISSIPPIAN-PENNSYLVANIAN BOUNDARY 

The Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary currently is placed arbitrarily at the base of the Lake 

Ardmore Formation in a sequence of apparently 

continuous deposition. This assignment is uncertain 

because few fossils are present in the interval from 

the base of the Rod Club Sandstone Member of the 

Goddard Formation to the base of the Primrose 

Sandstone Member of the overlying Golf Course 

Formation. Its position is most precisely limited by 

conodont faunas described by Straka (1972), who 

recorded conodont faunas of Chesterian age in the 

Goddard Formation as high as the Rod Club Sandstone. He recovered no diagnostic conodonts from 

the top of the Rod Club to the base of the Lake 

Ardmore Formation, but he described what he considered to be definite Pennsylvanian conodonts from 

the Target Limestone Lentil in the lower part of the 

Lake Ardmore Formation. He reported the occurrence of the same conodont fauna from the lowermost beds of the type Morrowan Series in northwestern Arkansas. Thus, the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary apparently lies within the 130-

m interval that includes the Overbrook Sandstone 

Member of the Goddard Formation and extends into 

the lower beds of the Lake Ardmore Formation. 

MORROW AN SERIES 

The Lake Ardmore Formation consists, in the 

northern part of the Ardmore basin, of 152 m of 

shales interbedded with three beds of ridge-forming 

fine-grained sandstone (Tomlinson and McBee, 

1962). Each of these sandstone intervals is 9-21 m 

thick. The Target Limestone Lentil, referred to in 

the previous section, is about 15 m above the base; 

it is only about 1 m thick and is poorly exposed 

along a distance of 3 km or so in the northern part 

of the Ardmore basin. 

The Golf Course Formation includes the members 

listed as follows, in ascending order: Primrose 

Sandstone, Gene Autry Shale (in the north only), 

Jolliff Limestone (in the south only), and Otterville 

Limestone. The Golf Course attains a thickness of 

about 610 m (Tomlinson and McBee, 1962). 

The Primrose Sandstone Member is 46-76 m 

thick and differs from the underlying beds of sandstone of the "Springer" Group in being distinctly 

calcareous in several zones. Two goniatite occurrences indicate an early to middle Morrowan age, 

the upper being the Branneroceras branneri zone 

(Gordon and Stone, 1977, fig. 4). 

North of Ardmore, the Primrose is overlain by 

the Gene Autry Shale Member, which is about 360 

m thick. The Gene Autry contains the late Morrowan 

Axinolobus modulus goniatite fauna in the lower 

part. 

South of Ardmore, a thin shale overlies the Primrose, which is in turn overlain by the distinctive 

Jolliff Limestone Member. The Jolliff is highly variable in character and thickness. A basal limestonecobble conglomerate as much as 9 m thick occurs 

typically, as do irregularly distributed higher conglomerates, packstones, and carbonate mudstones. 

The formation varies in thickness from 6 to 39 m 

by lateral replacement of the lower part of the overlying shale (Cromwell, 1975). 

The unnamed shale between the Jolliff and Otterville Limestone Members is as much as 137m thick. 

The Otterville is either covered or missing in the 

area west of Ardmore, and the covered (and apparent shale) interval between the Jolliff and the 

base of the Bostwick Member of the Lake Ardmore 

Formation is as thick as 360 m (Cromwell, 1975). 

The Otterville ranges from 2.5 to 6 m in thickness 

and consists of fossiliferous oolitic grainstones. It 

is overlain by an unnamed shale as much as 91 m 

thick that extends to the base of the Bostwick. 

The Jolliff Limestone Member contains the 

Axinolobus modulus goniatite fauna. The interval 

from the Jolliff to the shale above the Otterville is 

late Morrowan in age and correlates with the 

whole of the McCully Formation in northeastern 

Oklahoma. 

"ATOKAN" SERIE>S 

This series in the Ardmore basin includes that 

part of the Lake Murray Formation that extends 

from the base of the Bostwick Member to the base 

of the Lester Limestone. The Bostwick Member, 

composed of beds of conglomerate, sandstone, limestone, and intercalated shale, has a maximum thickness of 152 m (Cromwell, 1975). Limestone-cobble 

conglomerate in the south grades into chert-pebble 

conglomerate in the central part of the· Ardmore 

basin. This part of the sequence is characterized by 

marked lateral facies changes. The Bostwick is the 

most conspicuous ridge-forming unit in the southern 

Ardmore basin. 

The "Atokan" age assignment of the Bostwick 

is based primarily on fusulinids. Waddell (1966) defined his Fusulinid Zone I as including the Bostwick 
R18 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Member and part of the overlying shale. This zone 

is characterized by the occurrence of several species 

of Fusulinella. 

Overlying the Bostwick, an unnamed shale, which 

has a maximum thickness of 228 m, was included 

in the "Atokan" Series by Waddell (1966). He 

placed the base of the Desmoinesian Series at the 

base of the Lester Limestone Member of the Lake 

Murray Formation, on the basis of the lowest occurrence in the Ardmore basin of the genera Fusulina and W edekindellina. 

MIDDLE AND UPPER PENNSYLVANIAN 

STRATIGRAPHY 

By S. A. FRIEDMAN 

As defined in this report, the Middle Pennsylvanian consists of the Desmoinesian and Missourian 

Series, and the Upper Pennsylvanian consists of the 

Virgilian and Gearyan ( ?) Series. As explained · 

previously, Gearyan rocks are now tentatively referred to the uppermost Pennsylvanian by the Oklahoma Geological Survey; traditionally, most workers 

have placed them in the Lower Permian. 

Strata of Desmoinesian age crop out in the 

Arkoma basin, the northern Oklahoma shelf, and 

the Ardmore basin. Strata of Missourian and Virgilian age are exposed mainly in the shelf area and 

in the Ardmore basin but are absent because of erosion in the Arkoma basin. Rocks of Gearyan age are 

present in the western part of the northern shelf 

area. Differences in lithology, thickness, structure, 

and depositional environments help in distinguishing 

these strata in the shelf and basin areas. Figure 6 

shows the general stratigraphic relationships of 

these Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian rocks. 

Earlier workers believed that widespread unconformities are present wi~hin the Pennsylvanian of 

Oklahoma. During the last 10 years, detailed stratigraphic mapping has shown that local disconformable surfaces exist at the bases of channels filled 

with sandstone and chert conglomerate and that 

progressive overlap and offlap northward and 

northwestward are responsible for the erroneous 

interpretation of regional unconformities within 

these units. 

Some units of the Desmoinesian Series contain 

many thick beds of sandstone in the Arkoma basin 

that do not persist northward into the northern 

Oklahoma shelf. Beds of Desmoinesian, Missourian, 

and Virgilian limestone are more numerous and 

thicker north of Tulsa in the shelf area than they 

are south of Tulsa and farther south in the Arkoma 

basin area. Some of the upper Desmoinesian sandstones and shales are thick in the western part of 

the Arkoma basin but thin northward, where they 

are replaced by limestones and shales in the shelf 

area. The entire Desmoinesian sequence is only oneseventh as thick on the shelf as it is in the Arkoma 

basin. 

Generally, rocks of the Desmoinesian Series have 

been assigned to three groups, in ascending order, 

the Krebs, Cabaniss, and Marmaton (fig. 6). Rocks 

of the Missourian Series have been assigned to two 

groups, in ascending order, the Skiatook and Ochelata (fig. 6). 

ARKOMA BASIN 

DESMOINESIAN SERIES 

In any one region of the Arkoma basin, the maximum thickness of Desmoinesian shale, sandstone, 

and relatively thin beds of coal and underclay is 

2,000 m. The series is thickest in synclines just 

north of the Choctaw fault, where the basal Hartshorne Formation attains a maximum thickness of 

910 m of sandstone, shale, and a major coal bed. 

Geologists believe that the Hartshorne was deposited 

within a deltaic system whose source was to the 

east and that most of the McAlester and Boggy Formations were deposited within deltaic systems that 

originated to the north, on the northern Oklahoma 

shelf. The Thurman Sandstone and the Stuart Shale 

apparently had southern sources, and they overlap 

underlying strata in the northern shelf area. At least 

two deltaic systems in the Senora Formation have 

eastern sources. 

The Hartshorne Formation conformably overlies 

the "Atoka" Formation ("Atokan" Series) and is 

only 7.5 m thick at the northern part of the basin. 

In places at the southwestern end of the basin, the 

Hartshorne is absent because of pre-Desmoinesian 

erosion. Plant compressions (mostly ferns) and 

casts and molds of upright tree trunks are found 

in the shale and sandstone members, and roots and 

rootlets, in the underclay of the Hartshorne Formation. The Hartshorne coal is ·1.5-3 m thick at the 

western end and 2m thick at the southeastern corner 

of this basin. The Hartshorne coal probably is absent north of Muskogee in the shelf area. 

The McAlester Formation conformably overlies 

the Hartshorne Formation and has a maximum 

thickness of 760 m in the southeastern part of the 

basin ; it is only 60 m thick in the northern part. 

This formation consists of many beds of mediumto dark-gray silty or clayey shale, gray sandstone, 
OKLAHOMA 

~ 

en zen ~ s~ a: ,a: 

m Qm GROUP FORMATION MEMBER OR OTHER KEY BED 

-? ~?~---------------+------------------------,_ ____ 'H'-e~ri~n=glt~o~n~L~i=m~e~&~o~n~e------1 Fort Riley Limestone 

Z OSCAR FORMATION Wreford Limestone 

<( Z Neva Limestone 

Z ~ Red Eaole Limestone 

~ a: Americus Limestone 

~ ~ Brownville Limestone 

en (!) VANOSS FORMATION Grayhorse Limestone 

Z Elmont Limestone 

~ ~-4----------------+-----------------------_, ____ ~R~e=ad~i~n~gL~im~est~o~n=e ____ -1 

Elmo coal 

a: ~ ADA FORMATION Nodaway coal ~ ::::; Lecompton Limestone 

~ ~ VAMOOSA FORMATION L!~g~~i;~7~~~~~e 5 Cheshewalla Sandstone 

z 

~ 

z 

~ ...J 

>-

en 

z 

z 

w 

a.. 

w 

...J 

Cl 

Cl 

~ 

SKIATOOK 

MARMATON 

CABANISS 

/ TALLANT FM. 

HOGSHOOTER LIMESTONE 

COFFEYVILLE FORMATION 

SEMINOLE FORMATION 

HOLDENVILLE SHALE 

WEWOKA ) LENAPAH LS. 

FORMATION ~ NOWATA SH. 

' . OOLOGAH LS. 

WETUMKA~ LABETTE SH. 

CALVIN SS,....£: FORT SCOTT LS. 

SENORA FORMATION 

Cedar Bluff coal 

Checkerboard (DeNay) Ls. 

Dawson coal 

Breezv Hill Limestone 

Iron Post coal 

Verdioris Limestone 

Croweburo coal 

McNabb Limestone 

Fleming Limestone 

Russell Creek Limestone 

Fleming coal 

Mineral (Morris?) coal 

Chelsea Sandstone 

Tiawah Limestone 

Z Tebo (Eram7) coal 

~ ~--------------~~~~~~~?-----------t-----~W~e~ir~-~Pi~tt~s~bu~~~c~o~a~l-----1 w STUART SH. .;s Taft Sandstone 

Z THURMAN SS.,;> Inola Limestone 

0 BOGGY FORMATION Blueiacket (Secor rider) coal 

~ Secor coal 

~ Blueiacket Sandstone 

Cl Drvwood coal 

SAVANNA FORMATION 

KREBS 

MC ALESTER FORMATION 

HARTSHORNE FORMATION 

Doneley Limestone 

Rowe (lower Witteville?) coal 

Upper Cavanal coal 

Sam Creek Limestone 

Lower Cavanal coal 

Soaniard Limestone 

Tamaha Sandstone 

Upper McAlester (Stigler rider) coal 

McAlester (Stigler) coal 

Warner Sandstone 

Riverton coal 

McCurtain Shale 

Upper Hartshorne ss. and coal 

Lower Hartshorne ss. and coal 

FIGURE 6.--Generalized stratigraphic chart of Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian 

rocks in Oklahoma. 

R19 
R20 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

coal, and underclay in cyclic sequences. The McAlester (Stigler) coal occurs in the upper third of 

the formation. The coal is as much as 1.5 m thick 

in the western part of the basin, 1 m thick at 

McAlester in the central part, and about 0.5 m thick 

in the eastern part. The coal thins in the northern 

part of the basin and is absent on the shelf area 

north of Muskogee. 

The Savanna Formation conformably overlies the 

McAlester Formation, except at places where local 

disconformities were formed by channel sandstones. 

The Savanna consists mainly of shales and sandstones and attains a maximum thickness of about 

600 m in the southeastern and southwestern parts 

of the Arkoma basin. Along the northern part of the 

basin, this formation is only 76 m thick. Thin coal 

and underclay beds are present in the Savanna Formation. Upright tree trunks have been preserved 

in some of these beds. In the basin, the lower and 

upper Cavanal, Rowe, and lower Witteville coals are 

important coal beds of the Savanna. 

The Boggy Formation consists mainly of sandstones and shales, and it conformably overlies the 

Savanna Formation except at places where the basal 

Bluejacket Sandstone Member occupies erosional 

channels. The Boggy reaches a maximum thickness 

of 900 m where fully preserved in the McAlester 

area, and it is at least 600 m thick at each end of 

the Arkoma basin. It contains one major coal (the 

Secor) and underclay bed in the basin. The Boggy is 

only 60 m thick in the northern part of the basin. 

The overlying Thurman Sandstone underlies the 

Stuart Shale, at the top of the Krebs Group, in the 

western part of the basin. Both formations contain 

chert-conglomerate, sandstone, and shale beds, but 

the Thurman contains a greater quantity of sandstone. The maximum thicknesses of each formation 

are found in the west-central part of the basin, 

where the Thurman is 76 m thick and the Stuart, 

115 m. The Stuart overlaps the Thurman northward, where it overlies the Boggy Formation. Both 

the Stuart and the Thurman are confined to the 

Arkoma basin. 

The overlying Senora Formation in the northwestern part of the Arkoma basin consists of 45-275 m 

of sandstones and shales. 

The overlying Calvin Sandstone, Wetumka Shale, 

and Wewoka Formation are composed of sandstones 

and shales that are mostly restricted to the basin 

area and thin northward. The Calvin is composed 

mostly of sandstone and shale that have a maximum 

thickness of about 120 m. The Wetumka conformably overlies and overlaps the Calvin northward and 

is composed mostly of shales and some sandstones 

and siltstones. Its maximum thickness is about 60 

m. The Wewoka conformably overlies and overlaps 

the Wetumka and the Calvin northward and attains 

a maximum thickness of about 215 m; it consists 

of limestone, chert conglomerate, sandstone, and calcareous shale. Northward, the Wewoka clastic rocks 

are fine grained, and the formation thins. The Holdenville Shale is present in a small area in the northwesternmost part of the Arkoma basin, where it 

overlies the Wewoka Formation conformably and 

attains a thickness of 79 m. 

NORTHERN OKLAHOMA SHELF 

Undoubtedly an unconformity is present at the 

base of the Desmoinesian Series in places that had 

been exposed to pre-Desmoinesian erosion in the 

northern Oklahoma shelf and Arkoma basin areas; 

it is progressively younger northward. Nondeposition and erosion resulted in progressive northward 

and northwestward thinning or absence of strata of 

Desmoinesian through Gearyan age that crop out 

in the shelf area. 

DESMOINESIAN SERlE'S 

The Hartshorne Formation is 15-30 m thick in 

the southernmost part of the northern shelf or 

homocline area. It is less than 15 m thick in T. 14 

N., south of Muskogee, and is probably absent at, 

and north of, Tulsa. 

The McAlester Formation conformably overlies 

the Hartshorne at most places but overlaps it northward in the shelf area. The contact between the 

Hartshorne and McAlester has been controversial, 

but recent workers have agreed to use the top of 

the Hartshorne coal or the upper Hartshorne coal 

as the boundary (McDaniel, 1961; Oakes and 

Knechtel, 1948; American Association of Petroleum 

Geologists and others, 1978). 

At the southern border of the shelf area, in T. 10 

N., Muskogee County, the McAlester Formation is 

137 m thick (Oakes, 1977), and in T. 15 N., at 

Muskogee, it is only 55 m thick (Oakes, 1977). 

Northward, the basal McCurtain Shale Member 

probably is absent. The Riverton coal, miscorrelated 

with the upper Hartshorne coal by Branson (1962, 

p. 441), is probably a thin coal underlying the 

Warner Sandstone Member (Branson and others, 

1965). The principal coal in the McAlester is the 

Stigler, which is not present north of Muskogee. In 

Ottawa County, only the Warner Sandstone Member 

is recognized, and the McAlester Formation is pos-
OKLAHOMA R21 

sibly only about 18 m thick at the Kansas border. 

The overlying Savanna Formation consists mostly of 30-140 m of shale and sandstone in the northern shelf area. The principal key beds of the 

Savanna are the Spaniard Limestone, Sam Creek 

Limestone, Rowe coal, Doneley Limestone, and Drywood coal. The Savanna is only 30 m thick at the 

Kansas border but is 140 m thick in southern Muskogee County. 

The Boggy Formation overlies the Savanna Formation conformably, although channel-fill sandstone 

in the basal Bluejacket Sandstone Member indicates 

a local disconformity. The Boggy is about 210 m 

thick in Muskogee County, in the southern part of 

the shelf area. Northward in Craig County, the 

Boggy is only about 44 m thick. Key beds of the 

Boggy, besides the basal Bluejacket Sandstone, are, 

in ascending order, the Secor coal, Bluejacket coal, 

Inola Limestone, and Taft Sandstone. The Secor coal 

has not been identified north of Wagoner County, 

and the Bluejacket coal has been recognized in Craig 

County. These coals are possibly correlative, as each 

overlies the Bluejacket Sandstone Member. 

Apparently the Stuart Shale overlies the Boggy 

Formation conformably in the southern parts of the 

shelf, but it is not present north of T. 13 N. 

At most other places in the northern Oklahoma 

shelf area, the Senora Formation conformably overlies the Boggy. The Senora consists of approximately 46-305 m of sandstone, shale, coal, underclay, 

and limestone in conspicuously cyclical sequences. In 

the southern part of the shelf area, key beds are the 

Eram, Morris, and Croweburg coals. In the central 

part, key beds are the Chelsea Sandstone; the Mineral, Croweburg, and Iron Post coals; and the McNabb and Verdigris Limestones. In the northern 

part, key beds are the Weir-Pittsburg, Tebo, Mineral, Fleming, Croweburg, and Iron Post coals; and 

the Tiawah, Russell Creek, McNabb, Verdigris, and 

Breezy Hill Limestones. The limestones are light to 

dark gray, fine grained, massive, and dense; they 

contain marine invertebrates and algae. The coal 

beds are thin, but they do attain thicknesses of 0.25-

1 m, where they constitute recoverable coal reserves 

and have been mined. Some of the limestone beds 

are as much as 9 m thick in the northern part of the 

shelf area. 

·The northward change of lithofacies to beds of 

fine-grained clastic rocks and limestone and the 

northward thinning in the Marmaton Group are no 

less dramatic than in the underlying Cabaniss Group 

(Senora Formation). But the Marmaton is thinner, 

has fewer named units, and is easier to map. It is 

I about 210 m thick at the Kansas border and about 

245 m thick at the Arkansas River. 

South of the Arkansas River, in the shelf area, 

the Marmaton Group comprises, in ascending order, 

the Calvin Sandstone, Wetumka Shale, Wewoka 

Formation, Lenapah Limestone, and Holdenville 

Shale. North of the Arkansas River, the Fort Scott 

Limestone was reported to underlie the Calvin Sandstone (Oakes, 1952). However, some earlier workers 

confused the Breezy Hill with the lower member of 

the Fort Scott. Thus, the Breezy Hill Limestone 

possibly extends as far south as Tulsa, Wagoner, 

and Muskogee Counties. 

The Labette Shale of the shelf is probably equivalent in part to the Calvin Sandstone and Wetumka 

Shale. The Oologah Limestone conformably overlies 

the Labette Shale and is in turn overlain by the 

Nowata Shale. The Lenapah Limestone conformably 

overlies the Nowata. The Wewoka Formation consists of beds of sandstone and calcareous shale, believed to be lateral equivalents of the Labette Shale, 

Oologah Limestone, Nowata Shale, and Lenapah 

Limestone. The Holdenville Shale conformably overlies the Wewoka and the Lenapah and is the top 

formation of the Marmaton Group. Key units in this 

group are shown in figure 6. The Calvin, Wetumka, 

Wewoka, Nowata, and Holdenville thin northward, 

and the Fort Scott, Labette, Oologah, and Lenapah 

thicken northward. 

MISSOURIAN SERIES 

The Seminole Formation, the basal formation of 

the Skiatook Group, probably overlies the Holdenville Shale conformably. In places where chert conglomerate and sandstone fill channels at its base, the 

Seminole is in local disconformable contact with the 

Holdenville, Lenapah, and Nowata Formations. The 

local disconformities led earlier writers to select 

this contact as the Desmoinesian-Missourian boundary because they believed it was a regional unconformity (Oakes, 1952, p. 48-54). The Seminole is 

36 m thick in the southern part of the shelf area 

and about 6 m thick at the Kansas border. It contains a few thin beds of coal in addition to the Dawson coal, a commercial seam in Tulsa and Rogers 

Counties. 

The Coffeyville Formation conformably overlies 

the Seminole Formation. At its base is the darkgray finely crystalline fossiliferous Checkerboard 

Limestone Member. The Checkerboard is probably 

the equivalent of the DeNay Limestone of the southern part of the northern shelf area; it is present 

from Okmulgee County northward into Kansas. The 
R22 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Coffeyville consists mainly of 45-140 m of shale, 

sandstone, and chert conglomerate. The thickest part 

of this formation is in Tulsa County and vicinity. 

It is present in the central and northern part of the 

northern shelf-homocline area and is equivalent to 

the Francis Formation (restricted) in the southern 

part of the shelf area (Hart, 1974, sheet 1), where 

it is only 6-21 m thick. The thin Cedar Bluff coal is 

present below a sandstone at the top of the formation in Washington County (Oakes, 1940, p. 38). 

The Hogshooter Limestone conformably overlies 

the Coffeyville Formation. Locally, the Hogshooter 

attains a thickness of 15 m, but at most places the 

formation is only 1.5 m thick. It contains invertebrate fossils and phosphatic nodules. Generally, the 

Hogshooter is thicker in the northern part of the 

shelf area, in Tulsa and Washington Counties, than 

in the southern part, where it is absent locally. 

The Nellie Bly Formation, 25-167 m thick, conformably overlies the Hogshooter Limestone. The 

Nellie Bly consists of shale, sandstone, and, in the 

southern part of the shelf, chert and limestone conglomerate. The formation thins northward and contains thin limestone beds at the top. 

The Dewey Limestone forms the top unit of the 

Skiatook Group. It conformably overlies the Nellie 

Bly and grades southward into the Belle City Limestone and the base of the Hilltop Formation of the 

overlying Ochelata Group. The Dewey consists of 

limestone and shale 6-18 m thick near the Kansas 

border and calcareous sandstone and sandy limestone in the southern part of the shelf area. The 

Belle City Limestone, 3-6 m thick, is found only in 

the southern part of the shelf area. 

The Chanute Formation, 4-58 m thick, is the 

basal unit of the Ochelata Group and contains the 

members listed as follows, in ascending order: 

Noxie Sandstone, Thayer coal, and Cottage Grove 

Sandstone. In the northern part of the shelf area, it 

also contains a basal limestone conglomerate and a 

gray shale. At some places, the Chanute (probably 

in channels) disconformably overlies the Dewey 

Limestone, the Nellie Bly Formation, and the Hogshooter. Apparently the Chanute grades laterally 

into the Hilltop Formation between Interstate Highway 40 and the Arbuckle Mountains (Hart, 1974, 1 

sheet 1; Bingham and Moore, 1975, sheet 1). 1 

The overlying lola Limestone, 1-30 m thick, contains three members, the Paola Limestone, Muncie 

Creek Shale, and Avant Limestone, in ascending 

order. The lola conformably overlies the Chanute in 

the northern part of the shelf area. Southward, the 

lola apparently grades laterally into the lower part 

of the Barnsdall Formation. 

The Wann Formation, 15-122 m thick, conformably overlies the lola Limestone and consists of units 

of shale, sandstone, and thin fossiliferous limestone. 

The Wann thins and apparently grades laterally 

southward into the Barnsdall Formation. The Wann 

is overlain conformably by the Torpedo Sandstone, 

which consists of 0-18 m of sandstone and 0-29 m 

of shale. The Torpedo apparently thins and grades 

laterally southward into the Barnsdall. The Barnsdall crops out in the central and northern part of 

the shelf area, where it is 14-61 m thick; it grades 

into the Chanute Formation, lola Limestone, and 

Wann Formation. South of Interstate Highway 40, 

the Hilltop Formation, which is about 21 m thick, 

occurs at about the same position as the Barnsdall, 

and the two formations intergrade. 

The Tallant Formation conformably overlies the 

Barnsdall Formation and consists of 23-61 m of 

gray and brown shales and sandstones. It thins 

southward and is cut out south ofT. 13 N. by channels in the overlying Vamoosa Formation, the basal 

unit of the Virgilian Series. 

VIRGILIAN SERIES 

The outcropping part of the Upper Pennsylvanian 

Virgilian Series consists of the Vamoosa Formation, 

76-210 m thick, overlain by the Ada Formation, 30-

122 m thick. 

The Vamoosa Formation consists of brown and 

gray shales and light-gray limestones in the northern part of the northern Oklahoma shelf and lightbrown sandstones and chert conglomerates that fill 

channels in the southern part of the shelf. A maximum thickness of 210m of the formation crops out 

in Okfuskee County, but the Vamoosa is not as thick 

in Osage and Creek Counties. The formation overlaps the entire Ochelata Group and, thus, probably 

overlies the Missourian Series unconformably (Ries, 

1954, p. 81). However, a basal shale of the Vamoosa 

overlies the Tallant Formation conformably at some 

places. 

The Ada Formation consists of beds of sandstone, 

limestone, chert and limestone conglomerates, and 

brown shale. The Ada conformably overlies the 

Vamoosa except near Ada, where a large channel 

cuts out the Vamoosa. In parts of the shelf area to" 

the south, the Ada is the correlative of the Collings 

Ranch Conglomerate (Hart, 1974, sheet 1). 

GEARY AN SERIES 

The Gearyan Series is included tentatively at the 

top of the Pennsylvanian System in Oklahoma, be-
OKLAHOMA R23 

cause its flora and fauna are similar to those of ! 

other Upper Pennsylvanian strata and it conforma- I 

bly overlies the strata of the Virgilian Series. The 

Gearyan comprises the Vanoss Formation and the 

Oscar Formation, which conformably overlies the 

Vanoss. 

The Vanoss Formation consists of beds of shale, 

red-brown arkosic sandstone, limestone, limestone 

and chert conglomerates, and coal. It is 76-183 m 

thick. Thin units of limestone and of shale are common north of the Canadian River in the northern 

part of the shelf area, and units of conglomerate 

and sandstone, in the southern part. However, the 

formation is thickest in the northern part. Many of 

the lithologic units in this formation are red. 

The Oscar Formation conformably overlies the 

Vanoss and consists of limestone, shale, arkosic 

sandstone, and conglomerate beds. Its thickness increases from 91 m in the southern part of the shelf 

to 213 m in the northern part. The Oscar arkosic 

sandstones and conglomerates are present near the 

Arbuckle Mountains. As currently recognized by the 

Oklahoma Geological Survey, the Herington Limestone Member is the highest stratigraphic unit of 

the Oscar Formation and, therefore, of the Pennsylvanian System in Oklahoma. It is conformably 

overlain by Permian strata. 

ARDMORE BASIN 

Only the Desmoinesian and Missourian Series are 

represented in the Ardmore basin, the former by 

the Deese Group and the latter by the Hoxbar 

Group (see Hart, 1974, sheet 1). The stratigraphy 

of these rock groups in this basin is complex, little 

described, and little understood. Lithologies grade 

in short distances from limestone and chert conglomerates to sandstones and shales containing 

many thin beds of limestone. 

The Deese Group attains a total thickness of 

about 2,950 m and is considered equivalent to the 

lower Franks Conglomerate and to the lower part of 

the upper Franks Conglomerate (Hart, 1974, sheet 

1). The Hoxbar Group is about 850 m thick and is 

probably equivalent to the upper part of the upper 

Franks Conglomerate (Hart, 1974, sheet 1). 

IGNEOUS AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS 

By KENNETH S. JOHNSON 

Igneous and metamorphic rocks of Carboniferous 

age are sparse in Oklahoma. Veins, as open-space 

fracture fillings, consist mainly of quartz and contain lesser amounts of barite and calcite; some of 

the veins contain lead, zinc, and copper sulfides. 

The veins are chiefly in the Ouachita Mountains, but 

some also are present in the Wichita, Arbuckle, and 

Ozark uplifts. Introduction of the vein material 

probably took place during late stages of deformation, late in the Pennsylvanian Period; Miser (1959) 

showed a similarity between the abundance of quartz 

veins and degree of metamorphism in the Ouachita 

Mountains. Some workers believe that the zinc and 

lead deposits of the Tri-State district in northeastern Oklahoma also may have been emplaced in Middle or Late Pennsylvanian time. 

Volcanic ash and pyroclastic flows are present in 

the Stanley Shale (Upper Mississippian) of the 

Ouachita Mountains. Tuff beds that range in thickness from 7 to 40 m were deposited in the deepmarine basin as interbeds with flysch sediments. 

Whole-rock samples analyzed for rubidium and 

strontium isotopes yielded an isochron age of 310 ± 

15 m.y. (Mose, 1969), and associated conodonts show 

a late Mississippian age. 

Low-grade metasedimentary rocks in the core 

area of the Ouachita Mountains were apparently 

metamorphosed mainly during the Pennsylvanian 

orogeny. Shales, sandstones, and impure limestones 

of Ordovician age were dynamically metamorphosed 

under considerable shearing stress at relatively low 

temperatures into slate, phyllite, schist, metasandstone, and graphitic marble (Goldstein, 1975). Age 

determinations from micas range from Devonian 

to Early Permian; the younger Pennsylvanian and 

Early Permian ages probably represent the time 

of deformation in the Ouachita Mountains. 

ECONOMIC RESOURCES 

COAL 

By S. A. FRIEDMAN 

Coal-bearing strata of Middle and Late Pennsylvanian age in eastern Oklahoma occur in an area of 

approximately 36,000 km2 in the southern part of 

the western region of the interior coal province of 

the United States (Campbell, 1917) (fig. 7). 

An area of approximately 20,000 km2 contains 

at least 24 coal beds, 20 of which have been formally named. These beds are 0.25-2 m thick, and they 

are of commercial value, or have been during the 

past 104 years. Figure 6 shows the positions of the 

coal beds within the Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian stratigraphic framework. The identified 

bituminous-coal resources are shown by county in 

figure 7. Low- and medium-volatile bituminous coals 

. occur in the eastern part of the Arkoma basin, and 
R24 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

EXPLANATION 

REMAINING 

COAL 

RESOURCES 

(Millions of 

short tons) 

.. 

1-50 

~ 51-100 

~ 101-500 

~ 501-1,000 

1,001-1,500 

~ 

1,501-2,000 

r ..... ..... J • • • 0 0 0 

...... 

Area of doubtful resources 

I 1 r----- _l_l : ' ~- ~----l -L j ~- II i 1 I I 

I I I _ _J 

~-~ j_ __ l,__L ___ _J 

' r-J I I 

---{l ~ I l t-34" 

r• , l "' r, I rl ~i'"'j '""~-~-' '--,_rr ~ (9JO "- /96" 95 

' ~ I 

J ' 

0 10 20 30 40 50 MILES 

'~ 

I I I I 1

1 

I •• 1

1 

I I 

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 7.-Distribution of remaining coal resources in Oklahoma part of western region of interior coal province. 
OKLAHOMA R25 

high-volatile bituminous coals are present in the 

western part of the basin and in the northern Oklahoma shelf area. 

Most of the coals are moderately dull to moderately bright banded, and the lithotypes are thin 

banded. Vitrain is sparse, and bright attritus is 

abundant. The thickest vi train ( 5 mm) occurs in 

the Croweburg coal, and the brightest attritus, in 

the Stigler coal. 

The most recent estimate by the Oklahoma Geological Survey indicates that 7,700 million short 

tons of coal constitutes the original identified resources ; 500 million tons has been mined and lost 

in mining, leaving 7,200 million tons as remaining 

resources, of which only 2,300 million tons is considered to be net recoverable reserves (Friedman, 

1974). Most of the resources are contained in the 

Hartshorne coals, in the base of the Desmoinesian 

Krebs Group (fig. 6). The Hartshorne, McAlester, 

Stigler, and Croweburg coals contain most of the 

low-sulfur (1-percent sulfur or less) coal and all 

the coking coal in the State. Other coals, in isolated 

occurrences, are low in sulfur, and many coals show 

a free swelling index of 5-9 but are high in sulfur 

and ash. Most Oklahoma coals yield low ash-fusion 

temperatures (800° C-1,160° C). 

Desmoinesian coal beds are found in the Arkoma 

basin in a clastic sequence 1,800 m thick and in the 

northern Oklahoma shelf ;:trea in a sequence 300 m 

thick. In the Arkoma basin, coal-bearing strata crop 

out on the flanks of plunging, broadly folded synclines and of some sharply folded and faulted anticlines. Folds commonly plunge only 1 o -3 o, but coal 

beds on the flanks of the folds dip 3 o -65 o. In the 

northern Oklahoma shelf area, the strata show a 

west-northwestward regional dip of :Y:! 0-2° but also 

show superimposed folds and structures associated 

with channel-fill sandstone that cause beds to attain 

dips of approximately 5o. 

The presence of coal in Oklahoma had been noted 

as early as 1821, according to Trumbull (1957, p. 

361), but mining on a commercial scale did not begin until the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad was 

built through McAlester in 1872. Coal production in 

Oklahoma increased gradually until 1900. Then it 

increased sharply, although in spurts, culminating 

in 4.85 million tons of coal in 1920 for a record high 

that was not surpassed for 57 years. Most of the 

coal production during these times was from underground mines in the Arkoma basin, including the 

Henryetta district. 

Production decreased sharply during the economic 

depression of the 1930's, and it increased during the 

wartime economy of the 1940's, peaking at 3.2 million tons in 1946, when the Henryetta district led 

with 37 percent of the total. Thirty years. later 

(1976), that figure was exceeded when coal production reached 3.6 million tons. In 1977, a new record 

high was set at 5.3 million tons. 

Strip mining has been the pr1incipal m,ethod of 

coal mining in Oklahoma since 1942 and has been 

the exclusive method of mining since 1972, except 

for one tandem auger mine. Several companies have 

indicated plans for underground coal production in 

the Arkoma basin by 1980. 

Approximately 35 strip mines produced c01al from 

12 beds in Oklahoma in 1977. During 1976, 28 strip 

mines produced coal from 12 beds; 48 percent 10f this 

production was from the Iron Post coal (table 1). 

From 18 to 32 percent of the coal p;rodueed from 

1972 through 1976 was used for coke manufacture 

in Texas, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Japan. 

Steam electricity-generating plants in Kansas and 

Missouri accounted for the increased coal use in 

1972-77; thus, the percentage of coking-coal production in Oklahoma (table 2) decreased. 

Less than 1 percent of the State's 1976 production 

was from coal beds dipping more than 18°. Most (91 

percent) of the production was from beds dipp1ing 

less than 5°, and 8 percent was fl'lom beds dipping 

5°-18°. The thickness of coal beds mined in 1976 

was 0.25-1.8 m, and the m·aximum thickness. of 

overburden at strip mines was 36 m. 

TABLE 1.-0klahoma coal production, by bed, 1976 

Coal bed Short 

tons P:ercentag~ of total 

Iron Post ---------------------- 1,719,596 48 

Croweburg --------------------- 665,899 19 

Mineral ------------------------ 450,441 13 

Stigler ------------------------- 239,601 7 

Upper Hartshorne and 

Lower Hartshorne (combined)__ 228,159 6 

Secor and Secor rider ----------- 95,843 3 

Weir-Pittsburg ----------------- 58,233 2 

Rowe -------------------------- 27,790 1 

Cavanal ------------------------ 19,447 1 

McAlester ---------------------- 12,541 <1 

Totals _______________________ -3-,5,....,..1='7 ,'=55=-=o=---------:1--=-o-=-oTABLE 2.-Estimated uses of Oklahoma coal, 1972-76 

Year 

1972 ----------- 1973 ----------- 1974 ----------- 1975 ----------- 1976 -----------

Coking coal production 

Short tons 

680,000 

606,828 

582,455 

910,004 

665,924 

Percentage of total 

27 

28 

25 

32 

18 

Steam coal and other coal production 

Short tons 

1,850,211 

1,587,842 

1,792,230 

1,940,423 

2,960,757 
R26 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Most Oklahoma coal mines produced less than 

100,000 short tons in 1976. Only Peabody Coal Co.'s 

Rogers County No. 2 mine produced more than 1 

milli!on tons (in 1976 and in 1977), and this coal 

(the Iron Post) was consumed in steam electricitygenerating plants out of State. Garland Coal and 

Mining Co. ranked second in production but produced less than 50,000 tons, all of which was used 

for coke manufacture out of State. 

In 1976, Oklahoma ranked 20th in coal resources 

and production in the United States. The reported 

cumulative coal production from Oklahoma from 

1873 through 1977 is 212 million short tons. 

PETROLEUM 

By JOHN F. ROBERTS 

In Oklahoma, the oil produced from Carboniferous 

rocks is estimated to constitute 60 percent of total 

cumulative production in the State, as well as 60 

percent of current production and remaining recoverable res.erves. Natural gas produced from the· Carboniferous is estimated to constitute 69 percent. of 

total cumulative production, current production, and 

remaining recoverable reserves in the State. These 

estimates are based on those furnished by the American Petroleum Institute and the American Gas 

Association. 

The recorded cumulative production of crude oil 

in Oklahoma to January 1, 1977, is 11,487,173,000 

barrels ( 42 U.S. gallons per barrel). The value of 

this oil is estimated to be $27,015,173,000. 

Oil production during 1976 was 150,627,000 barrels, valued at $1,432,463,000. Peak production was 

277,775,000 barrels, valued at $397,200,000, during 

1927. Annual production and value through 1976 

are shown in figure 8. 

Natural-gas production in Oklahom1a from 1906 

through 1976 totaled 40,030,023 million ft=J, and its 

value was $6,289,820,000. Natural-gas production 

during 1976 was 1,710,586 million ft:J, and its value 

was $858,714,000. Peak natural-gas production w:as 

in 1972 (1,806,887 million cubic feet, valued at 

$294,523,000). These statistics are shown in figure 9. 

During 1976, Oklahoma's total petroleum products 

amounted to 94 percent of the State's total mineral 

production and had a value of $2.5 billion. This value 

includes $208 million from natural gasoline, hydrocarbons that have been recycled by repressuring of 

reservoirs, and liquefied petroleum gases not included in crude-oil production and values given in 

figure 8. 

300 3.0 

250 2.5 OIL PRODUCTION-

(f) (f) 

...J a: 

~ 200 2.0 ~ a: ...J 

<( 0 CD Cl 

~ 150 u. 1.5 0 

(f) (f) 

z z 0 0 3 100 1.0 3 ~ iii 

50 0.5 

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 

YEAR 

FIGURE 8.-Crude-oil production and value in Oklahoma, 

1891-1976. 

1,800 r----------------~----,1.200 

1,500 

tiJ 

w 

u. 1,200 u 

iii 

::> 

u 

u. 900 0 

(f) 

z 

Q 600 ...J 

...J 

iii 

300 

GAS PRODUCTION ............... 

1,000 

(f) 

a: 800 ~ 

...J 

0 

Cl 

600 ~ 

(f) 

z 

0 400:::::; ...J 

~ 

200 

~~00~~~~~~~==~19~40~~1~95~0~-19~00--1~97-0-~19~ 

YEAR 

FIGURE 9.-Natural-gas production and value in Oklahoma, 

1906-76. 

Oklahoma liquid-pet~oleum production accounted 

for 5.4 percent of the United States total for 1976; 

natur·al-gas production accounted for 8.5 percent. 

Since 1889, when Oklahoma's first producing well 

was drilled, more than 300,000 wells have boon 

drilled in the State. Oil and (or) gas has been produced from more than 218,000 of these wells. In 

1976, 12 crude-oil refineries, 83 natural-gas-processing plants, and 8 petrochemical plants were operating in Oklahoma; at least 43,200 persons were 

directly engaged in these operations. Thus, the petroleum industry continues to have a significant effecrt 

on the economy of Oklahoma. Figure 10 shows the 

extent of the State's producing ar.eas as well as the 

location of giant oil and gas fields. 
OKLAHOMA R27 

~ Area of oil and (or) ULJ gas production 

I I Giant oil field 

Giant gas field 

1. Guymon-Hugoton 

2. Camrick 

3. Mocane-Laverne 

4. Sooner Trend 

5. Tonkawa 

6. Burbank 

7. Avant 

8. Cushing 15. Red Oak-Norris 22. Healdton 

9. Glennpool 16. Bowlegs 23. Sho-Vel-Tum 25 

I 10. West Edmond 

11. Oklahoma City 

17. Little River 24. Eola-Robberson 

18. Allen 25. Golden Trend 40 

12. Earlsboro 19. Fitts 26. Cement 

13. Seminole 

14. Kinta 

20. St. Louis 

21. Hewitt 

27. Elk City 

FIGURE 10.-Generalized oil and gas map of Oklahoma showing extent of productive areas and giant fields (from Johnson 

and others, 1972, p. 7). 

Man's deepest penetration into the earth-9,583 

m-was accomplished by the drilling of the· Lone 

Star Producing Co. 1 Rogers Unit in sec. 27, T. 10 

N., R. 19 W., Washita County, western Oklahoma. i 

At this depth, in rocks of the Arbuckle Group (Ordovician) , molten sulfur entered and surged up 

through the drill pipe; upon cooling, it crystallized 

in the drill pipe and caused the bottom part of the 

hole to be lost. The well was then plugged back to 

3,962 m and completed as a gas well in Pennsylvanian rocks. The well was drilled near the axis of the 

deep Anadarko basin in western Oklahoma. 

Oil and (or) gas has been produced from 72 of the 

State's 77 counties (see fig. 10). In addition to the 

areas of basement-rock outcrops in the Arbuckle 

Mountains in south-central Oklahoma and the Wichita Mountains in the southwest, the three areas. that 

seem unlikely to produce significant hydrocarbons 

are the Hollis basin, the Ozark uplift, and the 

Ouachita Mountains. 

Within the Hollis basin, in extreme southwestern 

Oklahoma, exploratory efforts have been largely unsuccessful in obtaining commercial production. One 

reason may be the lack of suitable reservoir beds. 

Future efforts in this rather sparsely drilled area 

might lead to recogn.ition of areas where the conditions are better for the accumulation of petroleum, 

however. 

In northeastern Oklahoma, the southwest flank of 

the large Ozark uplift exposes Miss.issippian limestones c'overing thin remnants of older Paleozoic 

sedimentary rocks over shallow Precambrian granites. Significant petroleum accumulation seems unlikely, although many outcrops an.d quarries in the 

limestone beds show heavy residual oil in joints and 

fissures. 

In sourtheastern Oklahoma, the Ouachita Mountain sys•tem extends. westward from Arkansas and 

curves southwestward to disappear under the Cretaceous overlap. South of the Choctaw fault, a 

structurally complex series of Pennsylvanian shales, 

siltstones, and sandstones is underlain by an equally 

complex sequence of Mississippian and older Paleozoic calcareous shales, limestones, and cherts. In the 

past, several asphalt mines were worked commercially in these rocks. In the western. part of the 

region, a few noncommercial shallow oil wells have 

been completed in Carboniferous rocks. A few gas 

wells of questionable commercial value are scattered 

throughout the region; they produce from beds, of 

thick, low-porosity and low-permeability sandstone 

and siltstone of Carboniferous age as, well as. from 
R28 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

fractured chert of older formations. The economic 

potential of this sparsely drilled region depends on 

successful exploratory discoveries and on the feasibility o.f new methods to extract gas from these 

rocks of low permeability. Gas, not oH, is. the mode 

of hydrocarbon occurrence in the deeper zones 

throughout the region, owing to the low-grade 

metamorphism that has driven out the heavier 

hydroca:rbons. 

In Oklahoma, hydrocarbons are produced from 

every series of the Carboniferous, but Pennsylvanian 

~ocks account for approximately 75 percent of the 

Carboniferous total. The most prolific series is the 

Desmoinesian of Middle Pennsylvanian age. Both 

oil and gas are produced from Desmoinesian rocks, 

predominantly from sandstones associated with the 

cyclic sedimentation that also contains the commercial coals mined in northeastern Oklahoma. In this 

part of the S·tate, the depths to these sandstone beds 

are as much as about 1,000 m. Equivalent beds o.f 

productive sandstone are found in moslt producing 

areas of Oklahoma, at depths of more than 3,000 

m in the west-central part. None of these individual 

sandstone beds is continuous over a broad area. The 

sandstones originated as a s~eries of deltaic deposits 

combined with accompanying nearshore and offshore 

bars and channel sands. So·me production has been 

obtained f~om carbonate rocks that may have been 

reefal in part; these rocks are generally oolitic or 

oolicastic. 

Next in productive importance are the many beds 

of sandstone within the "Atokan" and Morrowan 

Series of Early Pennsylvanian age. Thes:e older deposits. are not as widespread as the Des·miOinesian 

because more parts of the State se:rved as areas of 

nondepos:ition and (or) erosion during this time. 

Producing sandstone beds extend to depths of 4,000 

m and more in the west·ern part of Oklahoma. These 

beds are n:ot as clearly deltaic in nature as those o.f 

the younger sandstone but are more like channel 

and offshore deposits. The Morrowan Series contains som'e persistent carbonate rocks, but where 

productive, the facies is sandy. 

Hydrocarbon accumulation in these Pennsylvanian 

sandstones typically is due to c:ombinations of structural and stratigraphic traps. Facies changes fro·m 

permeable sandstones to impermeable shales: are the 

predominant entrapping mechanism. Anticlinal 

structures, such as local uplifts or differential compaction, contribute to accumulations. These structural features aid exploration techniques both in 

subsurface mapping and in seismic interpretations. 

Within a given reservoir, min:or faulting may or 

may not limit production. 

In the Mississippian System, limestone is the predominant rock type, followed by shale and sandstone. 

Sandstone in the uppermost part of the Chesterian 

Series, the "Springer," produces over wide areas in 

southern and west-central Oklahoma from several 

thick sections indicative of large offshore bars. In 

north-central Oklahoma, another w.idesp·read sandstone contributes considerable production. 

Hydrocarbon accumulation in Meramecian carbonate is attributable locally to intercrystalline 

poroSJity combined with ex·tensive vertical fractures. 

The fractures are due to deep-seated m10vement, as 

structure maps indicate no appreciable faulting. 

Production from Osagean rocks is limited to 

north-central Oklahoma, where deeply eroded limestone beds have furnished an erratic reservoir 

called the "Mississippi Chat." Hydrocarbons are 

produced from highly fractured, overturned, and 

faulted Kinderhookian chert in a small area in 

southern Oklahoma. 

In 1884, the Cherokee and Choctaw Indian Nations entered into agreements. with eastern U.S. 

interests to drill for oil in northeastern and eastern 

parts of their territories. In 1889, oil was found in 

three of these wells in the northeastern area, near 

Chelsea. Some wells. were also drilled in Muskogee 

in 1894. 

The first well to produce oil in commercial quantities, however, was drilled in 1897 in what is now 

a park at Bartlesville. The well, the Cudahy Oil Co. 

1 Nellie Johnstone, was drilled to 402 m in a Pennsylvanian sandstone. It produced commercially until 

1946. 

During the early years of this century, many la.rge 

fields were discovered and developed in northeastern 

Oklahoma, all producing oil and (or) gas from beds 

of Pennsylvanian sandstone. The locations were 

chos;en by random methods or by offsetting existing 

production. Many natural-gas fields were discovered 

in east-central Oklahoma. Exploration then began 

in south-central Oklahoma. Here, locations were 

chosen near the many known oil seeps and asphaltic 

deposits. Considerable production was obtained from 

Permian sandstones at depths of less than 100 m, 

but deeper drilling soon found the more productive 

Pennsylvanian sandstones. By 1907, the new Sta.te 

of Oklahoma was the Nation's leading producer of 

petroleum. 

During the years 1908-20, the production of oil 

increased and exceeded demand, which resulted in 

depressed prices. Voluntary effo-rts by producers to 
OKLAHOMA R29 

limit production succeeded to a small extent, so that 1 "Boone" Formation or Group. Controversy still 

prices stabi!lized a.t higher levels. During this period, exists about the origin and age of mineralization 

operators discovered that the services of geologists 

could significantly increase their successes in locating new fields and in developing older fields. Most 

of the production at this time came from Carboniferous rocks, but deeper drilling was adding preCarboniferous production. 

Exploration and development from 1920 to 1930 

resulted in the addition of many prolific fields, but 

prices remained stable until 1929, when the nearly 

simul·taneous discoveries and development o.f the 

Seminole, Oklahoma City, and East Texas fields depressed prices to all-tim·e lows. 

During the 1930's, the practice of forced prorationing was instigated in Oklahoma. Regulatory 

agencies in other States adopted this policy, and 

prices were stabilized. At about this tim~e, the Interstate Oil Compact Commission was form·ed, with 

headquarters. in Oklahoma City. During the rest of 

this decade, s:ignificant discoveries and extensions 

continued to be made, production continued to exceed demand, and prorationing continued to drop 

production to even lower levels. 

During the war years, demand for all petroleum 

products increased drama1tically. Demand for petroleum slackened in the postwar years but increased 

gradually as reserves in Oklahoma and the Nation 

continued to decline. 

Sta1te oil production reached a postwar peak in 

1967, and its steady decHne since that time is· a 

direct reflection of new discoveries nort keep·ing pace· 

with depletion. This production decline cannot be 

reversed, but it will be slowed by future discoveries 

and by the development of be·tter methods to recover 

a greater percentage of the oil remaining in the 

reservoirs. 

METALLIC ORES 

By KENNETH s. JOHNSON 

The world-famous Tri-State zinc and lead deposits 

of northeastern Oklahoma (fig. 11) and adjacent 

parts of Kansas and Missouri are found in Mississippian carbonate rocks on the west flank of the 

Ozarks (Brockie and others, 1968; McKnight and 

Fischer, 1970). Sphalerite and galena occur in 

blanket deposits and in breccia zones that are flatlying or that follow the predominant northeast- and 

northwest-trending joint systems. The host rock is 

cherty limestone and dolomite of the Keokuk and 

Warsaw Formations (Osagean and Meramecian), 

which sometimes are collectively referred to as the 

and paragenesis, although workers generally favor 

theories of emplacement coincident either with 

Middle and Late Pennsylvanian orogenies in the 

Arbuckle and Ouachita Mountains or with Late 

Cretaceous igneous activity of the Mississippi Valley region. 

The Tri-State district, which has produced more 

than $2 billion worth of zinc and lead since 1848, is 

one of the greatest .mining districts in the world. 

Approximately 5.2 million tons of zinc and 1.3 million tons of lead have been produced in Ottawa 

County, which contains the Oklahoma part of the 

district. Oklahoma led the United States in zinc production almost every year from 1918 through 1945. 

The recoverable grade of ore produced each year 

since 1907 ranged from about 1.5 to 4.5 percent 

zinc and from about 0.4 to 1.5 percent lead. The 

depletion of higher grade ores and decline of the 

market price caused Oklahoma production to fall 

sharply in recent years, until the last commercial 

mine ceased operations and was abandoned late in 

1970. Production came from underground mines in 

Oklahoma, generally at depths of 30-100 m, and all 

that remains to indicate this past mining are the 

abandoned mines and the large piles of chat, or 

crushed stone, removed during milling of the ores. 

Other small vein deposits of lead, zinc, and (or) 

copper minerals scattered in the Ouachita, Arbuckle, 

and Wichita Mountains and in the Ozark region are 

perhaps of Middle or Late Pennsylvanian age. 

NONMETALLIC MINERALS 

By KENNETH S. JOHNSON 

Principal nonmetallic-mineral resources in Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks are limestone 

and shale. Resources being produced in lesser quantities are tripoli, sandstone, chat, iodine, and ground 

water (fig. 11). 

Limestone.-Thick Mississippian limestone units 

crop out extensively in the Ozarks and in scattered 

parts of the Arbuckle Mountains. Pennsylvanian 

limestone units are thinner, typically 2-15 m thick, 

and they cap a series of subparallel escarpments in 

northeastern Oklahoma and in small parts of the 

Ouachita and Arbuckle Mountains. These limestone 

units are not of exceptional purity, but they are 

widely used in the construction industry as a source 

of aggregate, cement, and dimension stone. Mississippian and Pennsylvanian limestones are currently 

being worked in about 30 quarries and 1 underground mine. 
R30 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

• Coal mine 

X Clay pit 

A Limestone quarry or mine 

o Sandstone quarry 

CD Tripoli pit 

©Cement plant 

FIGURE H.-Distribution of principal nonpetroleum mineral resources in Carboniferous rocks 

of Oklahoma (from Johnson, 1969; Johnson and others, 1972, p. 6). 
OKLAHOMA R31 

Shale.-Pennsylvanian shale units that are 10-

100 m thick and consist mainly of illite, chlorite, and 

quartz are a major source of raw material for the 

manufacture of fired-clay products in Oklahoma. 

Red brick and cement are the principal products 

made from these shales, but clay pipe, expanded 

lightweight aggregate, and pottery are also being 

produced. Nearly 10 shale pits are now being operated in Pennsylvanian shale beds, and 1 pit is being worked in a Mississippian shale. Underclay 

beneath Desmoinesian coal beds is generally 0.3-

1.0 m thick, and a recent study indicates that it may 

be suitable locally for making light-colored brick and 

low-grade refractories. 

TTipoli.-Moderately large deposits of tripoli, a 

lightweight form of silica rock used chiefly for 

abrasive and absorbent properties, are being mined 

from small open pits in Ottawa County in the northeast. Tripoli occurs as lenses 1-4 m thick in cherty 

limestones of the Mississippian "Boone" Group. 

Sandstone.-Thin-bedded and well-cemented 

Pennsylvanian sandstone beds in parts of eastern 

Oklahoma have been quarried for building stone. 

Gray, brown, and buff stone is slabbed by splitting 

it along micaceous bedding planes. 

Chat.-Chat is the name applied locally to the 

crushed chert, limestone, and dolomite produced as 

a byproduct of milling zinc and lead ores from the 

Mississippian "Boone" Group in the Tri-State district of northeastern Oklahoma. The large piles of 

this waste material are now being used extensively 

as crushed stone for road metal, railroad ballast, 

and concrete aggregate. 

Iodine.-Early in 1977, iodine production began 

near Woodward in northwestern Oklahoma. Production is from natural brines in the basal Pennsylvanian (Morrowan) sandstones at a depth of about 

2,100 m. The concentration of iodine in the brines 

ranges from 10 to 700 ppm and averages about 300 

ppm. The 909,000 kg of iodine produced annually at 

this plant will supply more than one-third of the 

Nation's requirements. 

G'round wateT.-Two major ground-water 

aquifers occur in Carboniferous rocks. The Mississippian Keokuk and Reeds Spring Formations 

(sometimes referred to the "Boone" Formation or 

Group) consist of fractured cherty limestone that 

yields large quantities of good water to shallow 

wells and springs in the Ozark uplift area of the 

northeast. The second major aquifer is the Pennsylvanian Vamoosa Formation (Virgilian), which 

consists of sandstone, shale, and conglomerate in the 

central and north-central part of the State. 

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R32 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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OKLAHOMA R33 

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299 p. 

--- 1821, Journal of a tour into the interior of Missouri 

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1819: London, R. Phillips and Co. 

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the country passed over by the exploring expedition to 

the sources of the Red River, in Marcy, R. B., Exploration of the Red River of Louisiana in the year 1852: 

U.S. 32d Cong., 2d sess., Senate Executive Doc. 54, p. 

179-195. 

Sibley, G. C., 1812, Journal of a trip to the Salines in 1811: 

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1812. (See Stout, 1976.) 

Sibley, John, 1805, Historical sketch of Red River area: 

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Thoburn, 1916, p. 28-33.) 

Stevenson, J. J., 1896, Notes on the geology of Indian Territory: New York Acad. Sci. Trans., v. 15, p. 50-61. 

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1087-1099. 

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facies changes in the Wapanucka Formation (Lower 

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no. 2, p. 39-44. 

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no. 3, p. 425-440. 

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in Sutherland, P. K., and Manger, W. L., eds., Upper 

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Geologists Bull.? v. 19, no. 4, p. · 503-520. -~-

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for a Pennsylvanian age assignment of the Gearyan 

Series in Kansas and Oklahoma [abs. and discussion], 

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Morgantown, W. Va., 1972: Morgantown, West Virginia 

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Vazquez Coronado and others.) 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesTexas 

By R. S. KIER, L. F. BROWN, JR., and E. F. MCBRIDE 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-S 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Bureau of Economic Geology, 

The University of Texas at Austin 

· H istoncal review and summary of 

areal, stratigraphic, structural, 

and economzc geology of Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian rocks in Texas 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Page 

Abstrac-t ------ _____ ------ ___ _______ ___ __ _____ ___ _ S1 

Introduction ------------------------------------- 2 

Location and extent --------------------------- 2 

General geology ------------------------------ 2 

Previous work -------------------------------- 2 

Regional setting ---------------------------------- 5 

Central and north-central Texas --------------- 5 

VVest Texas ---------------------------------- 7 

Carboniferous stratigraphy ------------------------ 7 

Central and north-central Texas --------------- 7 

Mississippian System --------------------- 8 

H'Ouy Formation ---------------------- 8 

Chappel Limestone -------------------- 8 

Barnett Formation ------------------- 9 

Pennsylvanian System -------------------- 10 

Marble Falls Formation --------------- 10 

Smithwick Formation ----------------- 11 

Atoka Group ------------------------- 12 

Strawn Group ------------------------ 13 

Canyon Group ----------------------- 16 

Cisco Group -------------------------- 20 

Marathon uplift ------------------------------ 23 

Systems boundaries ----------------------- 23 

Caballos Novaculite ----------------------- 25 

Tesnus Formati'On ------------------------ 25 

Dimple Formation ------------------------ 26 

Haymond Formation ---------------------- 27 

Depositional environments of the Caballos 

Novaculite and overlying flysch ---------- 27 

Carboniferous stratigraphy-Continued 

Marathon uplift-Continued 

Page 

Gaptank Formation ----------------------- S27 

Franklin and Hueco Mountains ---------------- 27 

Bounding units ----------------------------------- 28 

Central and north-central Texas -------------- 28 

Lower boundary -------------------------- 28 

lJpper boundary -------------------------- 29 

VVest Texas ---------------------------------- 29 

Subsurface geology ------------------------------- 29 

Mississippian rocks --------------------------- 30 

Pennsylvanian rocks -------------------------- 30 

Geologic history ------------------------------'---- 31 

Carboniferous events -------------------------- 31 

Central and north-central Texas ------------ 31 

Eastern shelf and Midland basin ------ 34 

Red River arch and Oklahoma mountains 34 

VVest Texas ------------------------------ 35 

Post-Carboniferous events --------------------- 35 

Central and north-central Texas ----------- 35 

VVest T.exas· ------------------------------ 36 

Economic products ___________ ---------- ___ ------ _ _ 36 

Oil and gas ---------------------------------- 36 

Coal ----------------------------------------- 38 

Clay products -------------------------------- 38 

Cons-tructional limestone ---------------------- 38 

References cited ---------------------------------- 40 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

FIGURE 1. Maps showing location of outcropping Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks in Texas --------- S1 

2. Geographic index map to central and north-central Texas -------------------------------------- 4 

3. Map showing Carboniferous tectonic elements in Texas and southern Oklahoma ----------------- 5 

4. Diagram of geologic units in the Carboniferous of central, north-central, and west Texas --------- 6 

5, 6. Schematic cross sections of outcropping Strawn Group: 

5. Brazos River valley ----------------------------------------------------------------- 13 6. Colorado River valley __________________________________________________________ --- _ 13 

7. Schematic cross sections of outcropping Canyon Group, Colorado, Brazos and Trinity River valleys__ 16 

8. Map showing net thickness of sandstone and limestone of VVinchell-VVolf Mountain F'Ormations, 

north-central Texas --------------------------------------------------------------~------- 18 

9. Diagram showing idealized delta sequence, Canyon Group, north-central Texas -------------------- 19 

10. Maps showing evolution of Canyon paleogeography in north-centJ"al Texas ----------------------- 20 

11, 12. Schematic cross sections of outcropping Cisco Group: . 

11. Brazos River valley ------ _________________________ ----- _____ ------------------ __ ____ 21 

12. Colorado River valley --------------------------------------------------------------- 22 

13. Schematic cross section along Cisco paleoslope showing principal depositional systems ------------- 23 

14. Diagram showing the nature of outcropping cyclic facies, Cisco Group, Stephens County, Tex 25 

III 
IV 

FIGURE 

TABLE 

15. 

16. 

17. 

18. 

19; 20. 

21. 

22, 23. 

CONTENTS 

Schematic cross section of flysch units approximately perpendicular to axis of Marathon geosyncline 

Diagram of stratigraphic nomenclature of the Gaptank and adjacent formations -----------------

Diagram illustrating the evolution of depositional systems, north-central Texas: Forth Worth basin, 

Concho platform, and Eastern shelf --------------------------------------------------------

Map showing distribution of Strawn depositional systems, north-central Texas ------------------

Subsurface cross sections: 

19. Canyon Group from Jack to western Haskell County, Tex ------------------------------

20. Facies of the Cisco Group, from Mitchell County to Eastland County, Tex --------------

Net-thickness map, upper Cook-Flippen Sandstone, Cisco Group, north-central Texas -------------

Map showing distribution: 

22. Oil production from Cisco Group on central part of the Eastern shelf, north-central Texas 

23. Pennsylvanian coal deposits, north-central Texas --------------------------------------

TABLES 

1. Contributors to stratigraphic data on the Marathon basin and the Franklin and Hueco Mountains ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Fluvial and deltaic facies in Strawn Group, Brazos River valley --------------------------------

Page 

S26 

28 

31 

32 

32 

33 

33 

37 

39 

Page 

S7 

15 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) SYSTEMS 

IN THE UNITED STATES-TEXAS 

By R. S. KIER/ L. F. BROWN} JR./ and E. F. McBRIDE3 

ABSTRACT 

Carboniferous rocks in Texas crop out in the Colorado, 

Brazos, and Trinity River valleys in central and northcentral Texas and in the Trans-Pecos region of west Texas. 

In central and north-central Texas, Mississippian and Pennsylvanian strata are mainly shale, sandstone, and limestone 

deposited in fluvial-deltaic and interdeltaic environments, 

on open shelves and carbonate platforms, and in shelf-edge, 

slope, and basin environments. In west Texas, Carboniferous 

rocks are exposed in the Marathon and Solitario uplifts, and 

in the Sierra Diablo, Hueco, and Franklin Mountains. In 

the Marathon region, the principal site of Carboniferous 

deposition in west Texas, deepwater sandstone and shale 

(flysch) are capped by shallow-water shale, limestone, and 

conglomerate. Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks in the 

Franklin and Hueco Mountains are chiefly limestone, marl, 

and shale. 

Carboniferous geology of central and north-central Texas 

is closely tied to the tectonic development of the Fort Worth 

(foreland) basin, the eastern shelf of the Midland basin, 

and the Red River uplift-southern Oklahoma mountains. 

In response to Late Mississippian and Early Pennsylvanian 

structural activity in the Ouachita geosyncline, the Fort 

Worth basin became well defined. Thick, westward-prograding terrigenous clastic wedges. (Atoka Group) of probable 

fan-delta and related slope origin entered the basin along 

high-gradient paleoslopes from the Ouachita foldbelt. Fan 

deltas shifted westward over thin, relatively starved basinal 

Smithwick facies. Platform and shelf-edge carbonate environments (Marble Falls, Big Saline, Comyn, and Caddo) contemporaneously dominated the Concho platform. Eastern 

shelf edges of the Concho platform retreated periodically 

westward in response to westward-shifting fan-delta environments. Fan deltas reached the western flank of the Fort 

Worth basin late in the waning stages of Atoka deposition. 

Decreased subsidence of the Fort Worth basin and diminished Atoka sediment supply marked the deceleration of 

Ouachita orogenic activity. Consequently, Strawn (Desmoines 

Series) deposition was dominated by fluvial-deltaic systems 

that overlapp,ed shelf-edge carbonate facies (Marble Falls, 

Caddo, Big Saline) and prograded repeatedly across the 

shallow Concho platform. Youngest Smitl:Jwick prodeltabasinal facies were dEposited in the path of the initial delta 

system to prograde over the Concho platform. 

As the source areas were lowered by erosion and as paleo1 Bureau of Economic Geolojp'. The University of Texas at Austin; presently with Camp Dresser and McKee, Inc., Austm, Tex. · • Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin. s Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin. 

gradients were diminished, less terrigenous sediment reached 

the Pennsylvanian coastline. Extensive and long-lived carbonate-bank and reef systems of the Canyon Group (Missouri 

Series) began to form on the stable platforms provided by 

abandoned Strawn deltas. Some of the carbonate banks 

growing on the western edge of the structurally positiv; 

Eastern shelf of the rapidly subsiding Midland basin, extended upslope and intertongued with Canyon delta systems. 

Rejuvenation in the Ouachita foldbelt and eastern Fort 

Worth basin significantly increased sediment supply and initiated extensive lower Cisco (Virgil Series) delta-fluvial 

deposition. Cisco deltas prograded westward across the relatively stable Eastern shelf, overlapping Canyon carbonate 

facies and supplying sediment to thick, basinward-prograding slope and submarine-fan Environments in the Midland 

basin. During deposition of the upper Cisco Group (Permian, 

Wolfcamp Series), sediment supplied from the east again 

diminished, and thick, low-relief, shelf-edge limestone banks 

became increasingly prominent. 

The complex history of the Red River uplift-Oklahoma 

mountains structural elements is recorded by thick clastic 

wedges extending southward and southwestward into the 

subsurfac,e of north-central Texas. These arkosic sediments 

represent fluvial and fan-delta deposition along steep paleoslopes adjacent to fault blocks in north Texas and southern 

Oklahoma. Fan-delta de·position was contemporaneous with 

limestone deposition on adjacent, structurally positive blocks. 

The Marathon region of west Texas was the site of slope 

and deep basinal sedimentation during most of the Paleozoic. 

Radiolarian chert and shale in the upper part of the Caballos 

Novaculite (Lower Mississippian?) were deposited probably 

in water depths greater than 1,000 m. Black mud of the 

Tesnus Formation was followed by deposition of thin distal 

turbidities and shale that reflect progradation of a delta 

system from east to west. Siliciclastic detritus was derived 

a1most entirely from Llanoria (Africa and South America). 

Uplift of the western margin of the Ouachita geosyncline 

initiated an episode of calcareous flysch deposition (Dimple 

Formation). Sediment derived from carbonate banks on the 

s1elf and from uplifted older rocks was transported into 

the basin as slides, debris flows, and turbidity currents. Renewed uplift of Llanoria broug'ht a return to siliciclastic 

flysch deposition of the Haymond Formation beginning with 

black mud and followed by alternating turbidites and pelagites and by an olistostrome. Turbidite-pelagic deposition 

continued after formation of the olistostrome, but younger 

sandstone beds locally are burrowed, suggesting that the 

geosyncline was becoming shallower. The Haymond passes 

Sl 
S2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

upward into shelf and slope deposits of the Gaptank Formation in the northern part of the outcrop belt. 

Carboniferous rocks in central, north-central, and westcentral Texas have contributed significantly to the economic 

development of Texas and to the Nation. Oil and gas production has dominated the economic picture, but industrial 

and ceramic clays, coal, and constructional limestone historically have been locally and periodically important. Potentially, uranium may be found within Carboniferous rocks 

in sufficient quantities to warrant further intensive exploration. Ground-water potential from Carboniferous roc·ks is 

poor and has not been significantly exploited. Resources of 

economic value have not been recognized in the Marathon 

basin or in the Franklin and Hueco Mountains. 

INTRODUCTION 

LOCATION AND EXTENT 

Carboniferous rocks in Texas crop out in the Colorado, Brazos, and Trinity River valleys in central 

and north-central Texas and in Trans-Pecos Texas 

(figs. 1 and 2). Mississippian and lowermost Pennsylvanian rocks are exposed in isolated areas within 

and as relatively continuous exposures along the 

eastern, northern, and western margins of the central mineral region (Llano uplift; figs. 2 and 3). In 

north-central Texas, younger Pennsylvanian rocks 

are exposed in a north-northeast-trending belt from 

the central mineral region to the Red River (fig. 1). 

Carboniferous outcrops in central and north-central 

Texas cover approximately 15,675 km2 • 

Within the Trans-Pecos region (fig. 1) of Texas, 

Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks are exposed 

in ·the Marathon uplift ( 400 km2 ), Solitario uplift 

(4 km2 ), Sierra Diablo Mountain (1 km2 ), Hueco 

Mountains (20 km2 ), and Franklin Mountains (10 

km2 ). Rocks that crop out in the Marathon and 

Solitario uplifts are similar, and only the Marathon 

uplift is discussed. Outcrops in the Sierra Diablo 

Mountain, which are poorly understood, are not included in this report. 

In central and north-central Texas, a maximum 

of 1,333 m of Pennsylvanian rocks is exposed, but 

only 15m of Mississippian rocks crops out locally in 

paleosinkholes. Approximately 2,800 m of Pennsylvanian rocks and 1,500 m of Mississippian rocks are 

exposed in the Marathon uplift of west Texas. In the 

Franklin Mountains, 965 m of Pennsylvanian rocks 

and 150 m of Mississippian rocks have been measured, and in the Hueco Mountains, approximately 

400 m of Pennsylvanian rocks has been recognized. 

The basal part of the Mississippian section in the 

Hueco Mountains is not exposed. 

This chapter was critically reviewed by Shirley J. 

Dutton, David K. Hobday, and Mark ·W. Presley of 

the Bureau of Economic Geology. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage 

of the Bureau of Economic Geology, The University 

of Texas at Austin. 

GENERAL GEOLOGY 

In central and north-central Texas~ Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian strata consist of shale; sandstone, · 

and limestone (fig. 4). Locally, conglomerate and 

coal deposits are found in the clastic sequences. V ertical distribution of rock types is generally predictable and provides the basis for stratigraphic classification. Pennsylvanian strata were deposited 

principally in deltas and interdeltaic embayments, 

on open shelves and carbonate platforms, and in 

slope and basin environments. Some Mississippian 

shale accumulated in relatively shallow starved 

basins. 

Outcropping Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

rocks in the Marathon uplift consist of about 3,600 

m of deepwater (flysch) deposits capped by about 

550 m ·of shallow-water shale, limestone, and conglomerate (fig. 4). Sandstone and shale make up 85 

percent of the flysch units. One flysch sequence, 

however, the Dimple Formation, is characterized by 

calcarenite turbidites, chert, and shale. Olistostromes 

(boulder beds of submarine debris-flow origin) are 

found in all flysch deposits. Radiolarian chert beds 

in the upper part of the Caballos Novaculite may be 

of Mississippian age. · 

Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks exposed 

in the Franklin and Hueco Mountains (fig. 4) are 

chiefly limestone, cherty limestone, marl, and shale; 

chert conglomerate and sandstone are minor rock 

types. Mississippian sequences contain more shale 

and marl ( 15-20 percent) than Pennsylvanian 

sequences. 

PREVIOUS WORK 

The presence of Carboniferous rocks in Texas was 

first reported by Ferdinand Roemer ( 1848) on the 

basis of observations made during extensive travels 

in central Texas during German colonization. A few 

years later, Roemer (1852) published descriptions 

of Carboniferous fossils collected at two localities, 

probably in the Canyon Group and in the Marble 

Falls Formation (Gries, 1970). Other early explorers who reported Carboniferous-age rocks in 

Texas include Schumard ( 1854), Marcou ( 1856) , 

Shumard (1860), Ashburner (1881), and Glenn (in 

Comstock, 1890) . 
TEXAS S3 

,------------.. 

r··------------_j 

FRANKLIN HUECO MTNS 

MTNS'\IERRA DIA····.····BLO MARATHON til 

UPdF 

SOLITARI<y 

UPLIFT 

0 160 KILOMETERS 

! 

! 

i 

~ \ 

BRAZOS VALLEYi 

OUTCROPS : 

COLORADO VALLEY 

OUTCROPS 

CENTRAL 

MINERAL 

REGION 

B 

0 80 KILOMETERS 

0 

LLANO 

_____ ....L...._ ____ _ 

EXPlANATION 

CJJ Cisco Group 

~ Canyon Group 

0 Strawn Group 

- Smithwick Formation 

lll1 Marble Falls Formation 

+ Barnett Formation 

80 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE !.-Location of outcropping Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks in Texas. 

Earliest systematic studies of Carboniferous rocks 

in Texas were published in annual reports of the 

third Geological Survey of Texas (1889-1901). In 

the First Annual Report, Dumble (1890) divided 

Carboniferous rocks of central Texas into "series," 

including the Berid series, Richland-Gordon Sandstones, Milburn-Strawn series, Brownwood-Ranger 

series, Wildrip-Cisco series, and Coleman-Albany 
S4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

"\ 

I \ 

I '--1--- _;-- "l I WILBARGER I WICHITA' I - I 1 Wichita• 1 (,_/,...\., 

, ~~~~~~~----------~~ ----~-Falls_~ 1 ~ I I I I I 

I I CLAY !MONTAGUE! I BAYLOR i ARCHER I I I 

I 

~---+---l--"--~-WisE~ I I I 1 THROCK· I N:wcastlel JACK ~;ake Bridgeport 

I MORTON I YOUNG 1 . __[Bridgeport I 

_l __ Tcj ___ ~--r --1~ 

1

1 Crystal Falls 1 , Possum'Kingdom R'eserooir I e I 

SHACKEL· 1 1 •1Mineral I 

1

1 FORD 1 STEPHENS PALO PINTO 1 Wells 1 

_l Stra_1. Mingus 1-~ARKE!l r 

I

L - --- _( -AaiiQer • l ~~rb;\1 HOOD ' 

C1scoe •E ~ \ J 1 CAllAHAN I as a / _ 

I EASTLAND I, 

R

. . ~~ 7" ERATH \ 1 ISIOQ re ,. I \ ..-----T --=--( \ /. 

i i BROWN\COMANCHEVI("", 

1

1 COLEMAN 1 Br~ ""'",) 

I I • ;-).-~( 

I ,. \ 

.r1 1 ~ MILLS \ I •-f-..,_r- ''"'-- ,..., 1 MCCULLOCH J~- / ' 

I ~/,. \ 

BRMlY MTNSj San Saba• \ LAMPASAS ' I e I I · \ L_ ~~ad~ SAN SABA <r-----\ i Mas::-----(, BURNET /> 

I • I LLANO 7 / I MASON 1 ' Marble, Falls ___ _j _____ ~ ~ 

-......_, 

0 80 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 2.-Geographic index to central and north-central Texas. 

series. Cummins ( 1890) and Tarr ( 1890) described I 

the results of field explorations of the Colorado River 

valley outcrops. In the Second Annual Report, Cummins (1891) described the general geology of central and north-central Texas, defining five Carboniferous and four Permian "divisions." He also 

compared the stratigraphy of the central (Colorado 

River valley) coal fields with that of the northern 

(Brazos River valley) coal fields. In the Fourth 

(and last) Annual Report, Drake (1893) described 

the geology of the "Colorado Coal Field" and named 

or numbered numerous "beds," many of which subsequently became formal members and formations 

for central and north-central Texas. 

Most early geologic investigations of Carboniferous strata in Texas were centered in central and 

north-central Texas (for example, Hill (1889, 

1901), Paige (1911, 1912), Udden (in Udden and 

others, 1916), and Bridge and Girty (1937)). Plummer (1919) proposed a preliminary classification of 

Carboniferous rocks for the Brazos River valley. 

Later, Plummer and Moore (1921; see also Moore 

and Plummer, 1922) presented a more comprehensive lithostratigraphic classification of Pennsylvanian rocks in the Colorado and Brazos River valleys, 

including formations and groups. Sellards and 

others ( 1932) modified Plummer and Moore's classification, but continued to classify on the basis of 

lithologic characteristics. 

Cheney (1940, 1947, 1948, 1949, and 1950; West 

Texas Geol. Soc., 1951; Cheney and others, 1945) 

initiated a major change in the approach to Pennsylvanian stratigraphic classification in Texas. Following concepts of Moore ( 1936) in Kansas, Cheney 

proposed a provincial time-stratigraphic classification of Pennsylvanian rocks in central and northcentral Texas based on inferred faunal changes and 

unconformities which were thought to be regionally 

significant. The Strawn, Canyon, and Cisco were 

used as series names, and a new Lampassas series 
TEXAS S5 

80 

.r-MARIETTA BASI!II 

SHERMAN BASIN 

MUENSTER 

ARCH 

FIGURE 3.-Carbonife.rous tectonic elements in Texas and 

southern Oklahoma. Modified from Wermund and Jenkins 

( 1970) and Galloway ( 1970) . 

was proposed to encompass strata of the Big Saline 

and Smithwick "Groups". Conceptually, this classification was intended to facilitate correlation between 

different basins or areas of exposure within a basin. 

Although several attempts have been made to apply 

Cheney's classification scheme in the field (Cheney 

and Eargle, 1951; Shelton, 1958), such application 

has proven difficult, if not completely inappropriate 

(see Brown, 1959; Brown and Goodson, 1972). 

Other contributors to the stratigraphy of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks in central and 

north-central Texas include Plummer (1945; 1947a, 

b; and 1950), Eargle (1960), Stafford (1960), 

Terriere (1960), and Myers (1965). Students at 

The University of Texas at Austin, Baylor University, Southern Methodist University, and Texas 

Christian University mapped Mississippian and 

Pennsylvanian rocks and described fossils in central 

and north-central Texas as part of thesis studies. 

Recent contributors to Pennsylvanian geology in the 

region include Bretsky (1966), Brooks and Bretsky 

(1966), Brown (1960a, b; 1962; 1969a, b, c, and d), 

Brown and others (1973), Feray and Brooks 

(1966), Galloway and Brown (1972 and 1973), 

Laury (1962), Wermund (1966, 1969, and 1975), 

Wermund and Jenkins (1964, 1969, and 1970), 

Erxleben (1975), and Cleaves (1975). Regional surface mapping of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

rocks was carried out by Brown and Goodson (1972) 

and by Kier and others (1976 and unpub. data). 

Investigation of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

strata in Tr.ans-Pecos has not been as extensive as in 

central and. north-central Texas. Most studies have 

been concent~ated in the Marathon uplift (figs. 2 

and 3) . Earlie.st studies of Pennsylvanian and Mississippian strata were by Baker (in. Udden and 

others, 1916) and by Baker and Bowman (1917). 

Later, King (1931, 1934, and 1937) published a 

series of reports on Trans-Pecos geology including 

his landmark study of the Marathon uplift. More 

recent studies include those by Fan and Shaw 

(1956), Berry and Nielson (1958), Cotera (1962 

and 1969), Johnson (1962), McBride (1966 and 

1970), Ross (1962, 1963, 1965, 1967, and 1969), and 

McBride and Thompson (1970). Additional references on the Marathon region and the Franklin and 

H ueco Mountains are listed in table 1. 

REGIONAL SETTING 

CENTRAL AND NORTH-CENTRAL TEXAS 

Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks exposed 

in central and north-central Texas were deposited 

(1) on the Llano uplift (fig. 3), a large structural 

dome (Cloud and Barnes, 1948) that has a core of 

Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks; (2) 

on the moderately stable Concho platform during 

Late Mississippian and Early Pennsylvanian 

(Cheney, 1929; Cheney and Goss, 1952); and (3) on 

the eastern shelf of the west Texas basin during 

Middle and Late Pennsylvanian. East of the Llano 

uplift and the Concho platform are the Fort Worth 

basin and the Ouachita foldbelt (Flawn and others, 

1961) ; south of the uplift is the Kerr basin. 

During Early Mississippian, limestone, shale, and 

chert breccia accumulated on a pre-Carboniferous 

karstic erosion surface on the Llano uplift. Middle 

and Late Mississippian shale accumulated in a 

starved basin west of the Ouachita geosyncline. 

Beginning in Late Mississippian and during Early 

Pennsylvanian, orogenic activity in the Ouachita 

geosyncline produced a thrust-faulted foldbelt (fig. 

3) . The Ouachita Mountains served as a source of 

sediment during the rest of the Paleozoic. During 

the same time, the Fort Worth basin formed as a 

foreland trough between the rising Ouachita Mountains and the older Concho platform. The basin was 

initially filled by thick terrigenous clastic wedges of 

mudstone and sandstone deposited by prograding 

fan deltas and related slope systems. Clastic wedges 

grade westward into starved basinal shale of the 
S6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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-----------

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-----------

CABALLOS NOVACULITE 

FIGURE 4.--Geologic units in the Carboniferous of central, north-central, and west Texas. 

western Fort Worth basin and eastern Concho 

platform. 

chita deformation (Galloway and Brown, 1972). 

Fluvial and delta systems originating in the Ouachita Mountains and the uplifted eastern part of the 

Fort Worth basin prograded westward across the 

earlier Concho platform. Cyclic deposition by these 

clastic systems progressively constructed the eastern 

shelf of the Midland basin. Carbonate shelf and 

shelf-edge systems formed along the westward 

margin of the Eastern shelf as the depth of the 

basin increased and slope deposition was initiated. 

The Red River, Muenster, and Matador arches 

(fig. 3) are a discontinuous series of uplifted fault 

blocks across northwest Texas that served as foundations for major carbonate sequences and, from 

time to time, as a source of arkosic sediment. The 

Wichita, Arbuckle, and Amarillo Mountains of 

southern Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle 

provided arkosic sediment to fluvial and fan-delta 

systems in north-central Texas. 

The Midland basin, a moderate-sized interior 

basin, formed in west Texas during and after OuaCyclic progradation of fluvial and delta systems 

westward across shelf and shelf-edge carbonate environments continued throughout the Middle and 
TEXAS S7 

TABLE !.-Contributors to stratigraphic data on the Marathon basin and the Franklin and Hue co Mountains 

Marathon bagjn 

Aberdeen, 1940 

Baker, 1963 

Brooks, 1955 

Ellison, 1962 

Flawn, 1958 

Flawn and others, 1961 

Flores, 1972, 1977 

Folk, 1973 

Goldstein and Hendricks, 

1962 

King and King, 1929 

King and others, 1931 

Skinner and Wilde, 1954 

Thomson and Thomasson, 

1969 

Waterschoot van der Gracht, 

1931 

Franklin and Hueco Mountains 

King, 1934 

King and others, 1945 

Laudon and Bowsher, 1949 

Nelson, 1940 

Seewald, 1968 

Stewart, 1958 

Williams, 1963 

Late Pennsylvanian and Early Permian. Large volumes of sediment were transported across the Eastern shelf through fluvial and deltaic channels. Where 

deltas reached the shelf edge, shallow-marine sediments were redeposited in submarine fans on the 

floor of the Midland basin. Relief between the floor 

of the Midland basin and the Eastern shelf reached 

455 m in the Late Pennsylvanian (Brown, 1973a). 

As the Midland basin subsided, regional upwarping of the Ouachita foldbelt and the eastern flank 

of the Fort Worth basin took place. The hinge or 

axis of rotation between the rising Fort Worth basin 

and the downwarping Midland basin defines the 

Bend arch. Erosion of uplifted Lower Pennsylvanian 

sediments in the Fort Worlh basin contributed 

considerable amounts of second-cycle sediment to 

Upper Pennsylvanian delta and slope environments. 

Principal tectonic elements such as the Llano uplift, Ouachita foldbelt, Fort Worth basin, Concho 

platform, Eas·tern shelf, Bend arch, Red River arch 

trend, Oklahoma mountains, and Midland basin 

significantly determined the nature of depositional 

environments in which Mississippian and Pennsylvanian sediments accumulated. The interplay among 

orogenic pulses in the Ouachita and Oklahoma 

mountains, uplift of the eastern flank of the Fort 

Worth basin, subsidence of the Midland basin and 

westward tilting of the Concho platform affected 

sediment supply and water depth. Depositional processes operative in a myriad of fluvial, deltaic, embayment, shelf, platform, slope, ·and basin environments produced the many Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rock types. 

WEST TEXAS 

Pre-Permian Paleozoic rocks of the Marathon uplift in Trans-Pecos Texas were deposited in the 

Marathon trough, a segment of the Ouachita geosyncline that extended from Mexico to Arkansas 

(fig. 3). Although there are dissenting opinions 

(Folk, 1973; Flores, 1972, 1977), the Marathon 

trough apparently was a deep basin throughout prePermian--Paleozoic time. From Late Cambrian to 

Carboniferous time, the trough received about 1,000 

m of slope and basinal sandstone, limestone, chert, 

shale, and olistostromes. This "early geosynclinal" 

phase of slow deposition culminated with deposition 

of the Caballos Novaculite. 

Deposition of predominantly flysch rocks generally coincided with the beginning of the Carboniferous. During this "late or filling stage" of geosynclinal history, approximately 3,500 m of flysch deposits (Tesnus, Dimple, and Haymond Formations) 

and 550 m of shallower marine deposits (Gaptank 

Formation) accumulated in only 60 m.y. During the 

filling 'stage, most terrigenous detritus was derived 

from a continental mass east of the geosyncline, an 

element designated Llanoria by Dumble (1920) and 

other early workers but considered part of Africa 

or South America in newer plate-tectonic restorations (Rowett and Walper, 1973; Keller and Cebull, 

1973). Locally, carbonate detritus and exotic blocks 

were derived from a positive cratonic element west 

of the depositional basin (McBride, 1970). 

The Ouachita geosynclinal sequence underwent 

several pulses of deformation and mountain building from Desmoines to Middle Wolfcamp ( ?) time 

(King, 1937; Ross, 1962). The sequence was folded, 

faulted, and thrust northwestward at least 70 km 

along a major decollement surface; the deformed 

sequence is underlain by relatively undeformed foreland rocks. The Marathon region underwent broad 

domal uplift and normal faulting early in Tertiary 

time (King, 1937). 

The Franklin Mountains and Hueco Mountains 

are north-trending Laramide fault blocks. About 

1,700 m of Paleozoic rocks, chiefly limestone, is exposed in the Franklin Mountains. About 1,000 m 

of Silurian and younger Paleozoic rocks, chiefly 

limestone and shale, is exposed in the Hueco 

Mountains. 

CARBONIFEROUS STRATIGRAPHY 

CENTRAL AND NORTH-CENTRAL TEXAS 

Major lithologic divisions of the Carboniferous of 

central and north-central Texas (fig. 4) are based 
ss THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

on variations in the vertical succession of the stratigraphic sequence. These principal sequences record 

filling of the Fort Worth basin, cyclic sedimentation on the Eastern shelf, and partial filling of the 

Midland basin (fig. 3). 

The Lower Mississippian (and Devonian) Houy 

Formation is a relict or lag deposit preserved in 

sinks and depressions in an erosion surface on the 

Llano uplift. Middle and Upper Mississippian Chappel Limestone and shale of the Barnett Formation 

were deposited during initial marine transgression 

onto the Llano uplift. In outcrop, the Lower Pennsylvanian Marble Falls Formation, predominantly 

limestone, represents establishment of carbonate 

platform and shelf environments on the Llano uplift adjacent to the Fort Worth basin. Similar 

Upper Mississippian and Lower to Middle Pennsylvanian shelf and shelf-edge facies were deposited 

west of the Fort Worth basin on the Concho 

platform. 

The Smithwick Shale and the overlying Strawn 

Group record the final phase of filling of the Fort 

Worth basin and initial westward progradation of 

deltas onto the Concho platform (Cleaves, 1973, 

1975). Diminished terrigenous influx and increased 

carbonate shelf and bank deposition distinguish the 

Canyon Group from the underlying Strawn and 

overlying Cisco Groups. Several medium to thick 

limestone units that were deposited in platform and 

open-shelf environments intertongue updip (eastward) with deltaic deposits and grade downdip into 

shelf-edge reef and bank deposits at the eastern 

margin of the Midland basin (Erxleben, 1973, 1975). 

The Cisco Group records renewed deposition of 

terrigenous clastic materials and predominance of 

fluvial and deltaic environments. From 10 to 15 

fluvial-deltaic progradational sequences can be 

recognized in the Cisco Group, each one terminated 

upward by transgressive sandstone and open-shelf 

limestone facies (Brown, 1973b). Downdip the 

clastic facies intertongue with extensive shelf and 

shelf-edge limestone deposits. Fluvial-deltaic deposits were the principal sources of sediment that 

ultimately was redeposited by density flows to produce thick, off-lapping wedges of deepwater deposits 

in the eastern part of the Midland ba.sin (Galloway 

and Brown, 1972, 1973). 

MISSISSIPPIAN SYSTEM 

HOUY FORMATION 

The Houy Formation established by Cloud and 

others (1957) includes strata transitional across 

the Devonian-Mississippian boundary. It is divided 

into two formal members, the Ives Breccia and the 

Doublehorn Shale, and several unnamed members. 

The basal Ives Breccia Member is a poorly sorted, 

multicolored angular to subangular chert breccia 

with a matrix of medium to coarse, angular to subangular chert and clear quartz sand. Silicified 

crinoid fragments and conodonts are fairly common (Kier, 1972). Hematite, partly weathered to 

limonite, is very common. Maximum thickness of 

this member is about 1 m. 

The overlying Doublehorn Shale Member is black, 

fissile, slightly radioactive shale that contains spores 

of unknown origin and silicified pieces of Callixylon 

(Cloud and others, 1957) .~It weathers light brown 

and is as much as 4.5 m thick. Other unnamed 

lithic units in the Houy Formation include siliceous 

limestone and silty calcareous shale below the I ves 

and phosphorite beds above the Doublehorn Shale. 

The Ives Breccia Member crops out on the eastern, northern, and western sides of the Llano uplift (fig. 3). The Doublehorn Shale and other unnamed members in the· Houy are found only on the 

northeastern side of the uplift. Poor exposure and 

isolation of the outcrops make interpretation 

·difficult. 

The Ives Breccia apparently is a lag deposit of 

locally derived chert weathered .. "from limestone and 

dolomite beds of the underlying Ellenburger Group 

and deposited during one or more Upper Devonian 

and Lower Mississippian marine transgressions 

(Zachry, 1969; Kier, 1972). The Doublehorn Shale 

may be the offshore facies equivalent of the Ives 

(Kier, 1972). Cloud and others (1957) placed the 

Devonian-Mississippian boundary within the Ives, 

and Seddon (1970) suggested that the boundary is a 

disconformity and that the Doublehorn Shale is, in 

part, time-equivalent to the Ives. Also, at least part 

of the Ives Breccia may have been deposited more 

or less contemporaneously with the Chappel Limestone (Kier, 1972). 

CHAPPEL LIMESTONE 

The Chappel was named by Sellards (Sellards 

and others, 1932) for thin crinoidal limestone beds 

lying directly on the Ellenburger Group. It is predominantly a fine- to very coarse grained, poorly 

sorted, packed, ostracode-bearing, algal, crinoidal 

biomicrite and poorly washed biosparite (Kier, 

1972). Most of the Chappel is light to medium 

greenish gray· or ·dusky yellow. On the basis of 

conodonts, Hass (1959) concluded that the age of 

the Chappel is late Kinderhook to early Osage. 
TEXAS S9 

Chappel outcrops are scattered across the eastern, 

northern, and western sides of the Llano uplift. 

Commonly, the Chappel lies within or adjacent to 

sinks in the Ellenburger Group. Whether these sinks 

formed before, during, or after deposition of the 

Chappel Limestone is uncertain (Cloud and Barnes, 

1948; Freeman, 1962; Turner, 1970). Thickness of 

the unit varies from about 10 em to about 10 m. 

The Chappel Limestone is apparently conformable with the underlying Doublehorn Shale Member and possibly the Ives Breccia Member of the 

Houy Formation. Seddon ( 1970) reported a continuous succession of conodonts from the Doublehorn 

Shale into the overlying Chappel. Locally, the Ives 

Breccia is adjacent to, within, or above the Chappel 

(Turner, 1970; Seddon, 1970; and Kier, 1972). 

Elsewhere, the Chappel Limestone unconformably 

overlies the Ellenburger Group. 

Sellards, (in Sellards and others, 1932) , Cloud 

and Barnes (1948), and Freeman (1962) stated 

that the overlying Barnett Formation was deposited 

unconformably on the Chappel Limestone. More recently, Zachry (1969), Turner (1970), and Kier 

(1972) concluded that the Barnett is probably conformable with the Chappel. Shale beds within the 

Chappel Limestone are similar to Doublehorn and 

Barnett shales (Rose, 1959; Winston, 1963; Turner, 

1970; Kier, 1972). All investigators except Winston 

concluded that the Chappel is the shoreline or nearshore equivalent of the Barnett Formation. Deposition may have taken place during more than one 

marine transgression (Zachry, 1969; Kier, 1972). 

Whether the present distribution of Chappel outcrops approximates the original distribution of 

Chappel depositional environments or whether 

Chappel environments were much more extensive 

is uncertain. 

BARNETT FORMATION 

The Barnett Formation and subjacent Chappel 

Limestone lie between the Ordovician Ellenburger 

Group and the Pennsylvanian Marble Falls Formation and document major ·Mississippian marine 

transgressions across the Llano uplift. The Barnett 

was established by Plummer and Moore (1921). 

Previously, the shale unit was called the lower shale 

of the Bend Series, or simply the Lower Bend Shale 

(Girty in Paige, 1912; Udden in Udden and others, 

1916; Moore, 1919). 

Along the north side of the Llano uplift east of 

the town of San Saba (figs. 2 and 3), the Barnett is 

predominantly a black to olive-gray, very thinly 

laminated shale that weathers light to dark brown 

(Kier, 1972). Thin brown microsparite limestone 

beds, brachiopod and cephalopod coquinas, and large 

ellipsoidal microsparite concretions as much as 2.75 

m in diameter are very common, especially in the 

upper half of the formation. Locally, the shale is 

very petroliferous, and freshly broken concretions 

yield a strong petroliferous odor. 

On the northeast side of the Llano uplift, the 

upper 10-150 em of the Barnett Formation is commonly a dusky to dark yellowish-brown, fine- to 

coarse-grained, poorly sorted, packed pelletiferous 

biomicrite and oomicrite. Cephalopods, brachiopods, 

conodonts, and ostracodes are abundant; glauconite 

is present in varying amounts, and most of the allochems are phosphatic. Thickness of the Barnett 

east of San Saba is 10.6-15.2 m. 

West of the town of San Saba, the Barnett is divisible into two parts (Freeman, 1962; Turner, 

1970). The lower part of the Barnett is a lightcolored clay shale. Concretions are small, and phosphatic limestone is abundant at the top of the lower 

part of the formation. Farther west toward Brady 

(fig. 2), thin limestone beds are abundant in the 

lower part of the Barnett, and the section is progressively more phosphatic and glauconitic. The upper 

part of the Barnett Shale is grayish-black to yellowish-brown, fine- to coarse-grained, packed, glauconitic and phosphatic biomicrite and micrite. 

Micrite becomes predominant westward. Thickness 

of the Barnett west of San Saba is 7.6 m. 

On the east side of the Llano uplift near the town 

of Marble Falls (fig. 2), the Barnett is light-colored 

shale containing concretions. The formation is 

capped by as much as 3.3 m of phosphatic limestone 

(Namy, 1969). Maximum thickness of the Barnett 

on the east side of the uplift is 6.4 m. On the west 

side of the Llano uplift near Mason (fig. 2), shale 

mapped as Barnett Formation (Winston, 1963) is 

probably Marble Falls (W.C. Bell, oral commun. 

1970, reported in Kier, 1972). 

On the north side of the Llano uplift, Gries (1970) 

and Schwarz ( 1975) recognized seven or eight species of ammonoids, four species of nautiloids, and 

several species of pelecypods and brachiopods. 

Algae, corals, bryozoans, brachiopods, conodonts, 

and echinoderm fragments occur in the Barnett on 

the east and northwest sides of the Llano uplift 

(Namy, 1969; Turner, 1970). On the basis of cephalopods, Schwarz (1975) assigned a late Osage to 

Chester age to the Barnett. Using conodonts, Hass 

(1953), and Defandorf (1960) assigned a late 
S10 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Osage to early Morrow age to the Barnett, spanning 

the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary. 

The placement and nature of the upper contact of 

the Barnett Formation have been the subject of dispute. Most recent workers place the Barnett-Marble 

Falls contact between shale or phosphatic limestone 

and nonphosphatic limestone. Earlier workers did 

not include the phosphatic limestone in the Barnett 

(see Kier, 1972) and believed that the BarnettMarble Falls contact is unconformable because ( 1) 

it generally coincides with the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary; (2) in places the Barnett is 

absent, and Marble Falls limestone beds lie directly 

on Ellenburger limestone or dolomite beds; and (3) 

glauconite and phosphate are commonly concentrated at the contact. Zachry (1969), Turner 

(1970), and Kier (1972), however, noted gradational or interbedded Barnett and Marble Falls rock 

types at the contact. Only Namy (1969) presented 

good physical evidence for an unconformity between 

the Barnett and the Marble Falls. Nevertheless, on 

the basis of conodonts, Liner and others (1977, in 

press) inferred that the Barnett-Marble Falls contact on the northeast side of the Llano uplift represents a hiatus from middle Chester to Morrow. To 

the west, however, they found that the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary and the inferred 

hiatus are within the Barnett Shale, below the sequence of phosphatic limestone. 

The Barnett Formation probably accumulated in 

a sediment-starved basin under euxinic conditions. 

Evidence includes the lithic character and general 

absence of benthonic fossils, particularly an infauna, 

and the inferred length of time represented by the 

thin unit. The Barnett of the Llano uplift was probably deposited within an extension of the early, 

sediment-starved Fort Worth basin (Brown, 1973a). 

Maximum water depth was undoubtedly below wave 

base, but still relatively shallow. 

Thin microsparite and coquina layers in the Barnett Formation probably reflect temporary cessation 

of euxinic conditions. Phosphatic beds at the top of 

the Barnett may record a gradual change from 

euxinic restricted conditions to open-marine shelf 

and platform environments characteristic of Marble 

Falls deposition (Kier, 1972). Yellowish-brown 

shale and limestone beds exposed on the eastern and 

northwestern sides of the Llano uplift were deposited under less reducing conditions at the basin 

margins. Where Barnett shale is thin or missing between the Marble Falls and the Ellenburger, it suggests lack of deposition rather than post-Mississippian erosion. 

PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEM 

MARBLE FALLS FORMATION 

The Marble Falls Formation records reestablishment of normal marine conditions and widespread 

limestone environments over the Llano uplift and 

the adjacent Concho platform. Platform, open-shelf, 

and shelf-edge carbonate deposition dominated the 

western margin of the rapidly subsiding Fort Worth 

basin. These carbonate environments ultimately 

shifted westward as they were progressively displaced by advancing Smithwick and Strawn deltaic 

environments. 

Marble Falls was introduced by Hill ( 1889) for 

"Encrinoidal" limestone exposed along the Colorado 

River near the town of Marble Falls in Burnet 

County (fig. 2). Later, Hill (1901) concluded that 

the Marble Falls is correlative with limestone of 

the "Bend division" exposed along the north side of 

the Llano uplift, although the two outcrop areas are 

not physically connected. Various names and stratigraphic ranks have been proposed for the Marble 

Falls Formation at the surface and in the subsurface 

of central, north-central, and west-central Texas; 

Comyn, Big Saline (Cheney, 1940) and Sloan (Plummer, 1945, 1947a; see Kier, 1972). Most investigators have retained the name Marble Falls for surface exposures on and around the Llano uplift. 

Except on the east side of the Llano uplift near 

the town of Marble Falls, the Marble Falls Formation can be subdivided into two outcropping units 

separated by an unconformity (Freeman, 1962; 

Namy, 1969; Zachry, 1969; Turner, 1970; Kier, 

1972). The lower part of the Marble Falls is Morrow in age throughout its outcrop. The upper part 

of the formation, however, becomes progressively 

younger westward. On the east and northeast sides 

of the Llano uplift the upper Marble Falls is Morrow in age (Namy, 1969; Zachry, 1969; Kier, 

1972) ; just west of the town of San Saba (fig. 2), 

on the north side of the uplift, the formation is 

Morrow and Atoka in age (Turner, 1970); and near 

Brady on the northwest side of the uplift, the formation is entirely of Atoka age (Freeman, 1962). 

The upper and lower parts of the Marble Falls accumulated under different depositional conditions. 

The subsurface extent of the unconformity within 

the Marble Falls is uncertain. 

The lower part of the Marble Falls consists predominantly of light to dark cherty limestone and 

thin shale beds. Principal limestone types include 

algal biomicrite and biosparite, oosparite, spiculitic 

biomicrite, pelmicrite, micrite, and mixed skeletal 
TEXAS S11 

fragment biomicrite and biosparite. Locally, coral 

and algal biolithite are found. Diagenetic alteration 

of limestones within the Marble Falls is limited generally to recrystallization of micrite to microspar or 

pseudospar and to inversion of aragonite to calcite. 

Facies patterns in the lower part of the Marble 

Falls Formation are complex, and there is considerable local variation within individual exposures. 

Nevertheless, facies appear to have been arranged 

originally in a semicircular pattern around the 

Llano uplift. The structurally positive uplift apparently acted as the core for a major carbonate platform. Vertical accretion dominated over lateral accretion of carbonate facies, and high-energy facies 

tended to expand in areal extent at the expense of 

lower energy facies. Depositional relief was as much 

as 9 m and was a significant controlling factor in 

determining facies characteristics. Facies patterns 

at or near the end of deposition of the lower part of 

the Marble Falls demonstrate net regression. The 

lower Marble Falls is about 30 m thick but ranges 

in thickness from about 21 to 45 m. Near Mason, 

much of the lower Marble Falls Formation was apparently eroded prior to deposition of the upper part 

of the Marble Falls (W. C. Bell, oral commun., 

1971). 

The upper part of the Marble Falls Formation is 

predominantly light to dark algal biomicrite, calcarenite, siliceous spiculitic biomicrite, and shale. 

Although lithic types are similar to those in the 

lower part of the Formation, the depositional setting 

was distinctly different in several respects: 

1. Facies patterns are oriented approximately 

north-south; a distinct semicircular carbonate 

platform on the Llano uplift cannot be 

recognized. 

2. Shale and spiculitic limestones were deposited 

over the entire Llano uplift, in contrast to patterns in the lower part of the Marble Falls, 

where deposition of shale and spiculitic limestones was mostly restricted to off-platform 

environments. 

3. Individual facies are thin and widespread ; depositional relief was relatively low. 

4. Although high- and low-energy facies were widespread, shifts in facies boundaries are 

common. 

5. High-e~ergy facies become more common upward within the formation, but they are not as 

common as they are within the lower part of 

the Marble Falls. 

6. Facies patterns in the upper part of the Marble 

Falls record westward transgression. 

The upper part of the Marble Falls Formation is 36-

67 m thick in outcrop; average outcrop thickness of 

the entire Marble Falls Formation is 91 m. 

Marble Falls deposition began with establishment 

of more open, less restrictive conditions than e~­

isted during deposition of the Barnett Shale. Incipient calcarenite shoals developed, apparently at 

some slight break in slope. A major carbonate platform centered about the Llano uplift rapidly formed 

over the shoals. Platform margins were approximately coincident with present Marble Falls 

outcrops. On the northeast side of the platform, 

depositional environments resembled the modern 

Bahamian platform, although platform/off-platform 

relief was not nearly so great (Kier and Zachry, 

1973; Zachry and Kier, 1973). Ultimately the lower 

Marble Falls platform either built to sea level or was 

exposed by a drop in sea level. 

The upper part of the Marble Falls Formation 

was deposited predominantly by algal buildups and 

calcarenite shoals and by shale and spiculitic biomicrite deposited in so mew hat restricted depressions on the open-marine shelf marginal to the Fort 

Worth basin. When the lower Marble Falls carbonate platform was subaereally exposed, shale and 

spiculitic biomicrite continued to be deposited on 

the off-platform shelf between the Llano uplift and 

the Fort Worth basin' (Namy, 1969). Subsidence of 

the eastern edge of the lower Marble Falls platform 

allowed shale and spiculitic limestone to onlap the 

erosion surface, followed by establishment of algal 

buildups and calcarenite shoals. Marine energy 

levels and depositional relief were less than during 

deposition of the lower Marble Falls. 

Upper Marble Falls depocenters shifted progressively westward as the lower Marble Falls platform 

subsided. Lengthy erosion of the platform on the 

west side of the Llano uplift removed much, and 

locally all, of the lower Marble Falls Formation 

(Freeman, 1962) prior to deposition of the upper 

Marble Falls. Strawn deltas simultaneously prograded across·the upper Marble Falls carbonate shelf 

from the east. The upper contact of the Marble Falls 

Formation with the overlying Smithwick Shale or 

Strawn sandstones is essentially conformable. 

SMITHWICK FORMATION 

The Smithwick Formation represents the initial 

terrigenous clastic deposits of Atoka and Strawn 
S12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

deltas which prograded across the Fort Worth basin 

and onto the Llano uplift. Regional subsurface correlations from Hill County to Brown County and 

from Dallas County to Stephens County (fig. 2) 

demonstrate the time-transgressive relationships of 

the Atoka and Strawn Groups and the Smithwick 

Formation. In outcrop, the Smithwick is the prodelta 

facies of Atoka and Strawn delta systems. Atoka 

facies are restricted to the Fort Worth basin; 

Strawn facies are found within the basin, but they 

also crop out around the Llano uplift and within 

the Colorado and Brazos River valleys. 

The Smithwick FQ._rmation was named by Paige 

(1911) for shale and sandstone exposed near Old 

Smithwick in Burnet County. Girty (in Paige, 1912) 

inferred that the Smithwick is equivalent to the 

upper shale of the "Bend Series" north of the Llano 

uplift. Although several attempts have been made 

to restrict the Smithwick (Cheney and others, 1945; 

Plummer, 1950), application of the name Smithwick 

to shale overlying the Marble Falls in outcrop and 

in the subsurface of north and west-central Texas is 

generally accepted. 

The Smithwick Formation consists of black, 

slightly calcareous, fissile clay-shale and lesser 

amounts of siltstone and sandstone. Minor amounts 

of dark limestone and conglomerate are composed 

of limestone, chert, and sandstone clasts. Sedimentary bed forms-ripple marks, flute casts, groove 

casts, and slump features-are common on sandstone bedding surfaces, particularly on the east side 

of the Llano uplift (McBride and Kimberly, 1963). 

Locally, hematitic concretions are found in the 

Smithwick. 

Although macrofossils are rare in the Smithwick, 

they are concentrated in a few localities. Gries 

(1970) identified several species of rugose coral, 

particularly Cumminsia aplata, brachiopods, gastropods, pelecypods, and cephalopods. Turner 

( 1970) observed spicules, arenaceous foraminifers, 

and plant fragments. The Smithwick is as much as 

30 m thick or more on the north side of the Llano 

uplift (Kier, 1972) and as much as 121 m thick on 

the east side (McBride and Kimberly, 1963). In general, the Smithwick Formation thins westward; 

locally it is absent. 

In outcrop, the contact between the Smithwick 

Formation and the Strawn Group is gradational. 

Upward within the Smithwick, the amount of sandstone increases, and shales become siltier (Kier, 

1972). A faunal change that ostensibly represents a 

significant hiatus between the Smithwick Formation 

and the Strawn Group (Plummer, 1947a) is undocumented and may simply reflect environmental differences (Kier, 1972). Variations in thickness of 

Smithwick in outcrop probably reflect original depositional variations, differential compaction, and 

the effects of contemporaneous faulting. Differences 

in trends of Marble Falls-Smithwick outcrops and 

Strawn outcrops are due to contemporaneous structural relief on the Llano uplift, to postdepositional 

uplift and doming of the southern exposure of three 

contemporaneous yet time-transgressive facies, and 

perhaps to westward tilting of the Eastern shelf 

toward the Fort Worth basin (Kier, 1972). 

Smithwick Shale exposed on the north side of the 

Llano uplift is the prodelta facies of Strawn deltas 

(Turner, 1970; Kier, 1972). McBride and Kimberly 

( 1963) interpreted a "deep water" environment, 

periodically invaded by turbidity currents to explain 

the Smithwick east of the Llano uplift, but McBride 

(oral commun., 1977) no longer believes the water 

was particularly deep. Conglomerate in the Smithwick Formation on the east and northwestern sides 

of the Llano uplift is related to contemporaneous 

faulting and erosion of the Marble Falls Limestone 

(Freeman, 1962; Freeman and Wilde, 1964; 

McBride and Kimberly, 1963). 

ATOKA GROUP 

Very thick clastic strata were deposited within 

the Ouachita geosyncline during Late Mississippian 

and Early Pennsylvanian time (Stanley, Jackfork, 

and Johns Valley Formations). Near the end of the 

Morrow series, rejuvenation of structural activity in 

the Ouachita foldbelt provided an enormous volume 

of clastic sediment that was transported and deposited within the geosyncline and adjacent Fort 

Worth basin. The depocenter shifted westward during Atoka and Strawn deposition. 

A clastic wedge nearly 2,000 m thick makes up the 

Atoka Group, which is restricted to the subsurface 

of the basin. Deposited by westward-prograding fan 

deltas, the group consists of thick shale and sandstone facies that probably range from shallow 

marine-deltaic to deeper basin facies. Westward, the 

Atoka is, in part, gradational with the older _parts 

of the Smithwick Formation within the Fort Worth 

basin. Atokan clastic rocks may also be partly timeequivalent to upper Marble Falls facies on the 

Concho platform and Llano uplift. Because the 

group is restricted to the subsurface, its description 

is limited in this report. 
TEXAS S13 

STRAWN GROUP 

The Strawn Group consists predominantly of 

cyclic terrigenous clastic facies deposited by Middle 

Pennsylvanian fluvial-deltaic systems that essentially filled and prograded westward across the Fort 

Worth basin, onto the Concho platform and into the 

incipient Midland basin. In the Fort Worth basin, 

the Strawn Group is gradational with the underlying Atoka Group. Only the upper part of the 

Strawn Group crops out, although Strawn facies on 

the Llano uplift may be equivalent to lower Strawn 

in the Fort Worth basin. Regional upwarping of the 

Ouachita foldbelt and the eastern margin of the Fort 

Worth basin continued to supply large volumes of 

eroded Atokan sediments to the Strawn rivers. 

Fluvial and deltaic deposition dominated the Concho 

platform and extended onto the Llano uplift. Near 

the end of Strawn deposition, erosion lowered the 

source area, and the supply of sediments diminished. 

The Strawn Group crops out in both the Colorado 

River valley and Brazos River valley in central and 

NW EASTLAND COUNTY SW PARKER COUNTY ___ SQUT~!S_! ________________ N.QI!Jt!.E8S.J __ _ 

GRINDSTONE 

CREEK 

FORMATION 

LAZV 

BEND 

FORMATION 

Wynn Limestone 

APPROXIMATE 

VERTICAL SCALE 

FIGURE 5.-Schematic cross section of outcropping Strawn 

Group in the Brazos River valley. Modified from Brown 

and Goodson (1972) and Cleaves (1975). 

SOUTH 

CANYON GROUP 

Adams Branch Limestone 

STRAWN 

GROUP 

(UNDIVIDED) 

METERS 

:l 

APPROXIMATE 

VERTICAL SCALE 

NORTH 

FIGURE 6.-Schematic cross section of outcropping Strawn 

Group in the Colorado River valley. Modified from Kier 

and others (1976). Unnamed sandstone units are numbered 

in approximate stratigraphic order from the base. 

north-central Texas, respectively (figs. 1, 2, 5, 6). 

In the Brazos River valley, Strawn rocks have been 

studied more extensively because of exploration for 

coal, oil, and gas; exposures are. better, persistent 

limestone beds facilitate subdivision, and abundant 

marine faunas in the shale sections permitted timestratigraphic interpretations. Five Strawn formations are recognized in the Brazos River valley 

(fig. 4) by Brown and Goodson (1972). Few formal 

1 subdivisions are recognized in the Colorado River 
Sl4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

valley, and most lithic units have simply been· numbered (Drake, 1893; Kier and others, 1976). 

Dumble (1890) first applied the name "Strawn 

series" to coal- and limestone-bearing clay and shale 

exposed near the town of Strawn in Palo Pinto 

County (fig. 2). Equivalent strata in the Colorado 

River valley were apparently called "Milburn 

series," although in the same· report, Tarr ( 1890) 

proposed the names "Richland Sandstone" and 

"Milburn Shales" for Strawn strata in the Colorado 

River valley. Cummins (1891) defined the "Strawn 

division" to include strata from the base of Canyon 

limestones to the base of Coal Seam #1 (Thurber 

Coal). Strata below Coal Seam #l to the top of the 

underlying "Bend division" (Smithwick Formation) 

were called the "Milsap Division." The Milsap was 

not recognized in the Colorado River valley, however, where Cummins presumed that the middle part 

of the Strawn lay unconformably on the Bend. In 

the Colorado River valley, the top of the Strawn 

was placed at the base of the limestone (Capps) 

exposed near Brownwood (figs. 2, 4, 6). 

Drake (1893) applied the name Strawn to all 

strata between the Bend and Canyon "divisions." 

In the course of his work, Drake mapped and numbered 20 Strawn "beds" cropping out in the Colorado River valley; this map was the only detailed 

map and subdivision of Strawn rocks in this area 

prior to publication of the Brownwood Sheet of 

the Geologic Atlas of Texas (Kier and others, 1976). 

Application of the name Strawn underwent considerable evolution following Drake's (1893) work, 

first as a formation (Smith, 1903; Udden in Udden 

and others, 1916), then as a group (Plummer and 

Moore, 1921; Plummer, 1929; Scott and Armstrong, 

1932; Plummer and Hornberger, 1935), and finally 

as a series (Cheney, 1940, 1947; Cheney and others, 

1945; Spivey and Roberts, 1946; Quigley and 

Schweers, 1951). 

In the 1950's, principal studies on the Strawn 

Group were by students working under S. P. Ellison 

at The University of Texas at Austin (Abilene 

Geological Society, 1954) and Leo Hendricks (1957) · 

at Texas Christian University. The Abilene sheet of 

the Geologic Atlas of Texas (Brown and Goodson, 

1972) used essentially the same nomenclature (figs. 

4, 5, 6) as Plummer and Hornberger (1935). Cleaves 

(1973, 1975) studied the upper part of the Strawn 

and extended the lithic units mapped by Brown and 

Goodson (1972) westward into the subsurface. The 

lower part of the Strawn is not exposed in central 

or north-central Texas. 

The Strawn Group consists predominantly of 

shale and sandstone and lesser amounts of limestone, 

coal, and conglomerate. For the group in the Brazos 

River valley, Cleaves (1973, 1975) made the following interpretations: 

1. Shale and sandstone were deposited in delta, 

prodelta, and embayment environments. 

2. Limestone was deposited in open-shelf environments or locally in interdeltaic-bay environments. Open-shelf carbonate rocks, mostly 

algal biomicrites, are regionally extensive in 

outcrop and in the subsurface, and they serve 

as marker beds for delineating formations 

within the Strawn Group. 

3. Coal formed predominantly in marshes and 

swamps on delta-plain and along interdeltaicembayment coastlines. Coal crops out principally in the Brazos River valley area, and 

only the Thurber coal of southern Palo Pinto 

County (figs. 2, 5) has been successfully 

mined. 

4. Source areas for Strawn terrigenous clastic deposits were the Ouachita Mountains, the eastern part of the Fort Worth basin, and the 

Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma (fig. 3). Locally, the Wichita Mountains and the Criner 

Hills in southern Oklahoma supplied sediment 

to Strawn deltas and fan deltas. 

Fluvial, deltaic, and related facies recognized in the 

Brazos River valley by Cleaves (1975) are presented 

in table 2. 

Strawn rock types and facies exposed in the Colorado River valley differ from Strawn deposits in the 

Brazos River valley in several respects (figs. 5, 6). 

There is considerably more sandstone, locally conglomeratic, in the lower part of the outcropping 

Strawn Group in the Colorado Valley. Very little 

coal, none of it economic, is found in the Colorado 

Valley. Only two mappable limestone beds (Capps 

Limestone and Ricker Station Limestone) crop out 

within the Colorado Valley. 

Kier (1972) summarized inferred depositional 

environments of the Strawn Group in the Colorado 

River valley and concluded that much of the outcropping Strawn is of fluvial or fluvial-deltaic 

origin. Source area for the terrigenous clastic sediment was to the east in the Ouachita Mountains. 

Conglomerate, composed of subangular to rounded 

pebbles, cobbles, and boulders of eroded Marble 

Falls Limestone, is found at or near the base of the 

Strawn Group in San Saba County (Kier, 1972) 
TEXAS 815 

TABLE 2.-Fluvial and deltaic facies in Strawn Group, 

Brazos River valley 

[Data from Cleaves (1975)] 

Destructional --------

Delta plain ----------

Distributary channel 

fill. 

Interdistributary bay _ 

Channel-mouth bar __ _ 

Proximal delta front __ 

Marginal delta front__ 

Deltaic facies 

Distinguished on basis of stratigraphic position below open-shelf 

mudstones and limestone beds. 

Lenticular siltstone and silty 

sandstone interbedded with darkgray to black bi·tuminous mudstone; commonly burrowed, local 

long-crested symmetrical ripples; plant debris common; 2-30 em thick. 

Bituminous mudstone and siltstone; numerous root traces and 

tree stumps. Includes thin splay 

sandstone with trough crossbeds 

and meandering stream channel. 

Fine- to very fine grained sandstone; sharp erosional base, 

abrupt gradational upper con- tact, 1 o w e r beds commonly 

contoured where underlying mud 

is thick, no well-developed fining-upwards sequence, although 

base may be coarser grained than 

top, large-scale trough crossbeds 

in base grading upwards to 

small-scale trough beds and 

climbing ripple cross stratification; clay galls common near base; base of channel may con- tain abundant plant debris. 

Variable, distinguished on basis of 

stratigraphic position between 

channel-mouth bar and overlying 

channel sandstones. Commonly unlaminated brown mudstone with 

abundant ironstone nodules and 

thin muddy detrital coal zones; 

faunal content may include 

worthinid gastropods, pectinid 

and nuculanid bivalves, chonetid 

and spiriferid brachiopods, and 

erinoids; 0.3-3 m thick. 

Massive beds of well-sorted fine- to 

very fine grained sandstone; 

plane beds and low-angle largescale trough crossbeds dominant, 

high-angle trough-fill crossbeds 

common, soft-sediment deformation, particularly lower beds, 

growth faults occur; macrofossils rare, small plant fragments 

common; 6 m thick. 

Thin to massive beds of well-sorted, 

fine- to very fine grained sandstone; oscillation ripple cross- stra-tification, plane beds, smallto medium-scale trough-fill cross- beds dominant, growth faults oc- cur; macrofossils rare, small 

plant fragments common; 3-20 m thick (total delta front). 

Massiv;e, blocky beds of sandy, c·oarse siltstone and muddy very 

fine grained sandstone; extensively bioturbated and burrowed. ' 

Marine reworked sands transported along strike from channel-mouth bars and proximal 

delta front. 

TABLE 2.-Fluvial and deltaic facies in Strawn Group, 

Brazos River valley-Continued 

Distal delta front ____ Thin beds of coarse-grained siltstone and fine sandstone interbedded with mudstone; graded 

beds, flow rolls, long-crested 

oscillation ripple cross-stratification, and small-scale trough 

crossbedding dominant; fossils 

and bioturbation rare; 1-10 m thick. Deposited in part by turbidity currents. 

Prodelta ------------- Dark-gray, brown, or black mudstone; fossils rare except in distal parts; 1.5-61 m thick. 

Confined valley fill __ _ 

Fine-grained meanderbelt. 

Fluvial facies 

Fining-upward sequence; basal 

part composed of pebbly con- glomerate with I a r g e - s c a 1 e 

trough crossbeds grading upward 

to medium- to small-scale trough 

crossbeds, tabular c·rossbeds, and 

parallel bedding; found in shallow superimposed valleys com- monly cut into delta-plain facies. 

Fining-upward sequence•; basal 1 

m contains large .. scale trough 

crossbedded chert-p ebb 1 e con- glomerate; overlain by smallscale trough crossbeds; upper 

part contains parallel-bedded silty clay partings and thin 

oscillation-r i p p 1 e d very fine 

grained sandstone. 

Interdeltaic embayment facies 

Sheet sandstone ------

Mudstone ------------

Coal and bituminous 

claystone. 

Bayhead deltas ------

Thin-bedded siltstone and fine- to 

medium-grained sandstone; longcrested symmetrical ripples 

dominate, small- to mediumscale, low-angle crossbeds in 

lenses; burrows very common; 

macrofossils rare; thickness as much as 6 m. Derived from 

marine reworking of adjacent 

deltaic sediments, deposited in 

strand-plain and shoreface en- vironments. 

Massive, dark-gray to brown mudstone; thin discontinuous lenses of 

burrowed sandstone and siltstone; iron oxide and septarian 

nodules present; spiriferid 

brachiopods. 

Thurber coal: 0.3-1 m. thick, jarosite partings; kaolinitic underclay with lycopod stigmaria and 

charcoal fragments; burrowed, 

silty sandstone below underclay 

and above sandstone. Bituminous 

claystone: platy, fissile, lenticular; contain finely divided un- laminated reedy plant debris; 

may or may not contain root 

traces. 

Similar to distributary channelfill deposits, but small, and cut 

into or overlying bay facies. 
S16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

and probably accumulated as fan and fan-delta 

deposits shed from local fault blocks. 

In the Colorado River valley, the base of the 

Strawn Group is in contact either with the Smithwick or the Marble Falls Formation. The StrawnSmithwick contact is conformable and gradational. 

Regionally, the Strawn-Marble Falls contact also is 

conformable (Kier, 1972). Principal evidence of 

conformity is the gradation from intraclastic Marble 

Falls limestones into Strawn sandstones or limestone 

conglomerates, which in turn grade laterally and 

vertically into Strawn sandstones. Paleontological 

evidence summarized by Turner (1957) also indicates a conformable contact. Observed unconformable relationships (relief on the Marble Falls 

·(Turner, 1970) and channeling (Freeman, 1962)) 

are local and result~d primarily from erosion of 

Strawn delta distributaries into subjacent Marble 

Falls limestones. The Strawn Group pinches out between the Marble Falls Formation and Canyon limestones along the north side of the Llano uplift. 

Pinchout is apparently the result of nondeposition 

and perhaps local erosion associated with postMarble Falls and pre-Canyon faulting (Cheney, 

1940; Freeman, 1962; Freeman and Wilde, 1964). 

CANYON GROUP 

The Canyon Group is a sequence of Late Pennsylvanian (Missouri) carbonate and terrigenous clastic 

rocks that crop out in the Colorado, Brazos, and 

Trinity River valleys and are within the subsurface 

of west Texas. Reduction in terrigenous clastic sediment supplied from the eroded Ouachita Mountains 

and deposition of widespread open-marine limestone on the Eastern shelf (Concho platform) distinguish the Canyon Group from the underlying 

Strawn and overlying Cisco Groups. Individual limestone units as much as 26 m thick cap a series of 

:prominent, east-facing cuestas in the Canyon outcrop belt. Steep cuesta slopes and grassy valleys are 

underlain by deltaic and marine shales. Lenticular 

deltaic sandstone bodies within the shales crop out 

in hummocky, post oak-covered ridges. Schematic 

cross sections of the Canyon Group are shown in 

figure 7. 

The Canyon Group was named by Cummins 

(1891) for massive limestone and interbedded shale 

exposed near Canyon, a Texas and Pacific Railroad 

station 6.4 km west of Strawn in Palo Pinto County 

(fig. 2). In the Colorado River valley, Drake (1893) 

described and named many stratigraphic units 

within the Canyon Group. Plummer (1919) and 

Plummer and Moore (1921) named stratigraphic 

SOUTH NORTH 

A 

SOUTH NORTH 

Hom~mestone...._ CISCO GROUP 

~ ~-~ '·:Q::~:.im~n-Lim::~~ S~ ~ 60l w':!j ffi ~ W.nchell Limestone, ~ ~ ~ 

z ~ ~ 30 E ~~ 

~ Staff Lill!estone~ _ ~ 1iiiJf ~ ~ ~ ~ 

(3 ~ Wolf Mountain Shale ~ 0 Wiles Limestone-.. Oran Ss 

Palo Pinto ~ .e:.l.-=-~~ ---1-_ ..F.9!1!111tiQ.n _____ "--'.. 

STRAWN GROUP '-Wynn Limestone 7 

B 

SOUTHWEST NORTHEAST 

30 

:j~ ~ 

0 

c 

FIGURE 7.-Schematic cross sections of outcropping Canyon 

Group, Colorado, Brazos, and Trinity River valleys. A, 

Colorado River valley, McCulloch, Coleman, and Brown 

Counties (modified from Kier and others, 1976). B, 

Brazos River valley, Eastland, Stephens, and Palo Pinto 

Counties (modified from Brown and Goodson, 1972). C, 

Brazos and Trinity River valleys, Palo Pinto, Jack, and 

Wise Counties (modified from Erxleben, 1975). 

units in the Brazos River valley, and Scott and 

Armstrong (1932) named units in the Trinity River 

valley. Other early investigators include Dobbin 
TEXAS S17 

(1922), Reeves (1922), Plummer and Hornberger 

(1935), Bradish (1937), and Lee (1938). 

Cheney (1940, 1947, 1949), who redefined the 

stratigraphic classification of Pennsylvanian and 

Permian strata of Texas, correlated Canyon rocks 

with the Missouri Series of the midcontinent. Lithofacies studies were carried out by Wermund ( 1966,. 

1969, 1975), Wermund and Jenkins (1964, 1969, 

1970), Roepke (1970), and Erxleben (1973, 1975). 

Brown and Goodson (1972) and Kier and ·others 

(1976) mapped Canyon outcrops in the Brazos and 

Colorado River valleys, respectively. Other reports 

on the Canyon Group include: Abilene Geological 

Society (1954), North Texas Geological Society 

(1940, 1956, 1958), West Texas Geological Society 

(1951), Cheney and Eargle (1951), Jenkins (1952), 

Feray and Jenkins (1953), Shelton (1958), Eargle 

(1960), Terriere (1960), Laury (1962), Perkins 

(1964), Raish (1964), Bretsky (1966), Brooks and 

Bretsky (1966), Feray and Brooks (1966), Pollard 

(1970), and Heuer· (1973). Wermund (1966) and 

Erxleben (1975) summarized previous investigations of the Canyon Group.· 

As presently defined (Brown and Goodson, 1972; 

Erxleben, 1973, 1975; Kier and others, 1976), the 

Canyon Group comprises seven formations (figs. 4, 

7). In the Brazos River valley, the contact between 

the outcropping Canyon Group and the underlying 

Strawn Group is placed at the base of the Wynn 

Limestone Member, lowest limestone in the Palo 

Pinto Formation (Brown and Goodson, 1972). The 

Palo Pinto Formation (and Wynn Limestone Member) .pinches out southward and is absent in the 

Colorado River valley outcrop area. In the Colorado 

River valley, the base of. the Adam's Branch Limestone defines the base of the Canyon Group (Kier 

and others, 1976). Although ~several other StrawnCanyon contacts have been used in the past (see 

Shelton, 1958; Laury, 1962; and Roepke, 1970 for 

summaries), the base of the Palo Pinto Formation 

and the base of the Adams Branch Limestone best 

·separate predominantly marine limestone and shale 

deposits (Canyon) and predominantly te.rrigenous 

clastic deposits (Strawn). The Adams Branch Limestone correlates with the Staff Limestone in the 

Brazos River valley (Cheney, 1929). Consequently, 

the base of the Canyon Group in the Colorado River 

valley is younger than the base of the Canyon in the 

Brazos River valley. 

Drake (1893) placed the top of the Canyon Group 

at the top of the "Campophyllum bed" (Gunsight). 

Since the work of Plummer (1919) and Plummer 

and Moore (1921), however, the top of the Canyon 

has been recognized at the top of the Home Creek 

Limestone (figs. 4, 7), the uppermost thick limestone 

unit in the Pennsylvanian outcrop belt. 

Shale and s~ndstone were deposited in terrigenous 

clastic delta, fan-delta, and shelf environments; 

limestone was deposited in carbonate shelf, bank, 

reef, and platform environments. Major influx of 

Canyon terrigenous clastic sediments into northcentral Texa~s was concentrated in a high constructive delta. system that crops out at the north end of 

the Canyon outcrop belt (Erxleben, 1973, 1975) in 

Jack and Wise Counties (figs. 2, 8). Thick shale and 

sandstone beds in the Wolf Mountain, Placid, and 

Colony Creek Formations (figs. 4, 7) were deposited 

in lobate and elongate deltas that prograded from 

Ouachita Mountains westward and northwestward 

across the Ea,stern shelf. Canyon delta facies resemble those in the Strawn Group (table 2). Additional terrigenous clastic sediments were deposited 

in north-central Texas by a fan-delta system (subsurface only) that prograded southward from the 

Arbuckle-Wichita Mountains (Erxleben, 1975). 

Minor amounts of terrigenous clastic sediments 

derived from the Ouachita Mountains were deposited in central Texas (Roepke, 1970). 

Thick Canyon carbonate facies crop out near Possum Kingdom Reservoir in Palo Pinto County and 

Lake Bridgeport in Wise County (fig. 2) where the 

Winchell Limestone and its equivalent, the Devils 

Den Limestone, are composed of bank facies. Limestone banks are predominantly phylloid algal biomicrites including the genera Eugonophyllum and 

Archaeolithophyllum (Wermund, 1966, 1969, 1975), 

which acted as sediment traps for lime mud. A vari-

.ety of other organisms lived in association with 

phylloid algae: encrusting algae; crinoids; fenestrate and encrusting bryozoans; fusulinids; echinoids; local rugose corals of the genera Lophophyllidium and Caninia, colonial syringoporid corals; 

sponge genus H eliospongia; brachiopods including 

the genera Composita, N eospirifer, Echinoconchus, 

and Juresania; gastropods of the genera Bellerophon 

and Straparolus; and pelecypods, including the genera Aviculopinna, Myalina, and Culunana (Wermund, 1969; Erxleben, 1975). Biosparites are uncommon but are found near the top of the bank 

deposits (Wermund, 1975). Both biohermal and 

biostromal banks are found. 

Algal-bank facies are commonly found over paleobathymetric highs caused by differential compaction 

of subjacent deltaic sands or limestone banks and 

interlobe and interbank muds, respectively. The 

banks may also be associated with northeast 
Sl8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

o WILBARGER I 

I I 

,---------------~--------

i i 0 0 

BAYLOR 

I 

I 

I :-/-----:-:---

1 ..• ,;,:.· .• 

i .. ·· 

SANDSTONE THICKNESS 

>200 feet 

W;\~f.!Hl\(@l[J 100-200 feet 

b/b{~.=i)}J 50-100 feet 

PALO PINTO 

EXPLANATION 

LIMESTONE THICKNESS 

~ >200feet 

~ 100-200 feet 

50-100 ·feet 

- Sandstone outcrop 

~ Massive Missourian limestone 

CONTROL: 1570 wells 

50 FEET= 15 METERS 

FIGURE 8.-N et thickness of sandstone and limestone of Winchell-Wolf Mountain Fonnations, northcentral Texas. Area without pattern is shale or less than 50 feet of sandstone or limestone. Data on 

open-file, Texas Bureau of Economic Geology. Modified from Erxleben (1973). 
TEXAS S19 

structural trends (Brown, 1969c; Erxleben, 1975). 1 

Incipient paleorelief was probably a few centimeters 1 

(Wermund, 1966); maximum relief was probably 

10 m ··(Wermund, 1975). Grain size, sorting, and 

crossbeds suggest limestone deposition above wave 

base. Analogy between Pennsylvanian phylloid algae 

and modern Eudotia algae suggests deposition in 

1-3 m of water (Wermund, 1975). 

Regionally~: extensive .... shelf~limestone dep_osits, · 

such as the Palo .Pinto, Adams Br·anch; Winchell, 

Ranger, and Home Creek Limestones (fig. 4), crop 

out in north-central Texas. After each major episode 1 

of delta progradation, shelf limestones onlapped 

(transgressed) subsiding delta lobes, providing 

widespread, relatively continuous marker beds that 

permit subdivision and correlation of Canyon strata 

in outcrop and subsurface. Shelf-limestone facies 

resemble bank facies but are irregularly bedded and 

contain thin marine shale beds. Individual shelflimestone units are 1-15m thick but may be thicker 

within interdeltaic embayments. An idealized 

Canyon depositional cycle (progradational deltaic 

METERS 

sequence, destructional terrigenous clastic facies, 

and transgressive shelf limestone) is illustrated in 

figure 9; evolution of Canyon paleogeography is 

illustrated by figure 10. Platform and reef carbonates occur only in the subsurface along the Red 

River uplift and the eastern margin of the Midland 

basin, respectively (Erxleben, 1975; Wermund, 

1975). 

· _ The Ga-ny~on:-Group·_is .. thickest in .the.-.. Brazos.·River 

valley where outcrops are· near the Canyon ··depocenter, the site of major terrigenous clastic deposition. As much as 545 m of Canyon rocks accumulated in Montague County (Erxleben, 1975; fig. 2) ; 

the Canyon Group thins southward to 273 m in 

Stephens County (fig. 2) and to only 120-135 m in 

the Colorado River valley. Although individual limestone units and interstratified terrigenous clastic 

facies thin southward in the Colorado River valley, 

limestone makes up a greater proportion of the section compared with the Canyon Group in the Brazos 

River valley. Near the Brady Mountains (fig. 2), 

24 PRODELTA 

MARINE 

TRANSGRESSIVE 

DESTRUCTIONAL 

18 

12 

SHELF CARBONATE 

SHELF MUD AND REWORKED SAND, 

highly fossiliferous 

DELTA PLAIN, thin coals and sands 

in mud 

DISTRIBliT ARY CHANNEL, scours, 

clay chips, plant debris 

DISTRIBliTARY-MOUTH BAR, squeezed, 

contorted sand, slump faults 

PROXIMAL DELTA FRONT, contorted 

beds, flow rolls, slump faults 

DISTAL DELTA FRONT, graded beds, 

sole marks, flow rolls 

PRODELTA, silty mud, plant hash, 

ironstone nodules, unfossiliferous 

FIGURE 9.-Idealized delta sequence, Canyon Group, north-central Texas. From 

Erxleben (1975). 
820 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

A 

0 8 24 40 56 I I I I I 

KILOMETERS 

.C, 

8 

OKLAHOMA I I 

i WILBARGER I WICHITA I 

, j Wichita I ~-----L--=-~J~~~- -- I '------1- I CLAY I I 

1 

BA~OR i ARCHER ! j MONTAGUE\ 

1 Seymour• ~----l----L r------~---~ JACK I WISE I 

I THROCK- I YOUNG . I I ..... MORTON I I • I • . 'I I ' I · Jacksboro Bndgeport 1 ',, , Graham. 1 j J .--L---~~---.--j----~C----

1 I ............... i PALO PINTO I , I 'r..... Mineral•' 

!SHACKELFORD\ STEPHENS I ',~ells J 

____ j _____ j ___ ~~ 

INDEX MAP 

FIGURE 10.-Evolution of Canyon paleogeography in north-central Texas. A, Early progradation of delta systems. B, 

Maximum extent of delta development. C, Shelf transgre~sion ovE·r a.bandoned de!:taic facies. Based on three 

Canyon delta cycles. From Erxleben (1973). 

shale and sandstone are essentially absent, and limestone makes up nearly all the Canyon Group. 

CISCO GROUP 

The Cisco Group, as originally defined by Cummins (1891), is a sequence of terrigenous clastic 

and carbonate facies that record rejuvenated uplift 

of the Ouachita foldbelt and Fort Worth basin. The 

increased sediment supply initiated extensive delta 

progradation across the Eastern shelf. Thick sandstone and ·conglomerate deposits disting:uish the 
WICHITA 

GROUP 

Santa Anna 

Branch Shale 

Sedwick 

Formation 

Moran 

Formation 

TEXAS 

SOUTH NORTH 

Coleman Junction Limestones 

u ·~····· =.:.:_.-.·.·::.·.·.:·.·:· 

Santa Anna ... ,, . ._ · ·=<z:5· :-,:. 

Shale 

...-Gouldbusk 

Limestone /lhex 1 imestone 

hJCamp Colo;;; Limestone..._::·.:~;'i'>T~ v .... "'·:·=.-·· .. ·. 

\Speck Mountai ·:·· ls Thrifty Formation V 'Biach Ranch Limestone ~· .....-Ivan Limestone .. ::.:: ::~ . .....,...___ 

,/'~''[;::s.,_ <···'·=:·:-. .-... : ........ :.:<\j;"'Aiits:~omt::\:":"~ "<:\G;/!.-':'i..{< 

Wayland Shale 

METERS 

t: 

Graham and ~/ ' ' ?,~:.L (c::c:, c• x;::• ;x:====-

Thrifty r~~~~~~~) ;:==-=- Necessity Shale :~~;)~CG~un~s~iiRI ... Bunaer h~ti~'"~"' · ·"<._,:}.<? ~~~Li~m~es~to:nft~~~~-~····;:~~;.:.'.~:-.'_:'~·:.>:: -

-? cz;;z:;zz: . . . .. 

'Nortli"'Leon Ls Graham Format•?" 

::cG:t:o::xn~za:le:s:c:r:ee~k:s~h~al~e~-:::;:~.,·.~ .. -·.,~ ...... ,~ ... ··~····~···a .. :Zt.~fu\=~g:,:·. : _·:~:.·:i_:_:~_= .. :£::·.:_:_~~.-.!.·j,v.·.·.:.:_:_,:j: .. : .. _._ ... G .. :_ .... •m .. ·._.~,o-~---·.: .. ·~:_,M~_\_.~:r:.;~~\-\~e.;m~-·-.:~\ftc.:r:Q:·;re __ ,_:_:±·-~.-- .. ,;~_:.·I§,• .. *',.,_ • · .... ·:.:_::;··.~.i.:_._: •;_;ii:<:,:: .. ,_ .. <:-::-

CANYON 

GROUP 

. ···<'::'::: ·: . ,...,.,,_ ·•""'- .\::::}:).:y): 

Eastl~· ·s~~~~~~~e Finis Shale ,Home Creek Limeston:=-· ~:, ,,, ... ,, >:::···.- .. 

APPROXIMATE 

VERTICAL SCALE 

FIGURE 11.-Schematic cross section of outcropping Cisco Group in Brazos River valley. Modified from Brown and Goodson (1972). 

821 

Cisco Group from thick limestone and shale units 

within the underlying Canyon. Group and overlying 

Wichita-Albany Group. Schematic cross sections of 

outcropping Cisco Group in the Brazos and Colorado 

River valleys are shown in figures 11 and 12. The 

Cisco Group as defined by the Bureau of Economic 

Geology (Brown and Goodson, 1972) is Virgil and, 

in part, Wolfcamp in age. Consequently, the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary is within the group 

(fig. 4). 

Cisco, in which the tops of limestone beds were used 

as formational contacts. Lee ( 1938) first documented the complexity of Cisco facies and suggested 

some specific depositional conditions under which 

the group accumulated. 

After Cummins' (1891) establishment of the 

Cisco, Drake (1893) divided it into "beds," many 

of which correspond to members in -later classifications .. Plu.mmer ·(1919} proposed a preliminary 

classification of Pennsylvanian strata, including the 

Cheney (1940) and Eargle (1960) redefined Cisco 

contacts to coincide with paleontologically inferred 

time boundaries, consequently elevating the Cisco 

Group (lithostratigraphic unit) to Cisco Series 

(time-stratigraphic unit). Brown (1959; 1960a, b; 

1962; 1969a, b, c, d) and his students (McGowen, 

1964; Seals, 1965; Waller, 1966; Galloway, 1970) 

studied .. the Ci-sco· Group outcrop and subsurface in 

· north;.central Texas· and devised ·a stratigrap·hic, 

· sedimentologic, and structur.ar framework for the 
• 

822 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Santa Anna Branch Shale, 

Sedwick Formation. and · 

SOUTH 

WICHITA GROUP 

Coleman Junction Limestone 

Moran Formation ~ j-L-~~-:-'::---L..:+--.L.---L---L---L--L__l-.l..-..,+-...L-._L_......U 

(undivided except in a: 

northernmost area) ~ 

Thrifty and 

Graham Formations 

(undivided) 

CANYON GROUP 

METERS 

APPROXIMATE 

VERTICAL. SCALE 

FIGURE 12.-Schematic cross section of outcropping Cisco Group in Colorado River valley. Modified from Kier and others (1976). 

region. They recognized the original lithostratigraphic significance of the Cisco (Group) in surface 

and subsurface mapping programs aimed at lithogenetic interpretation of facies. Galloway and 

Brown (1972, 1973) presented an integrated depositional interpretation of middle Cisco rocks from 

outcrop, across the eastern shelf, into the Midland 

basin. 

Brown and Goodson (1972) mapped outcrops of 

the Cisco Group throughout the Brazos River valley, 

and Kier and others (1976) extended this mapping 

into the Colorado River valley. Using the bases of 

widespread limestone beds as contacts, they divided 

the Cisco Group into six mappable formations in the 

Brazos River valley and four formations in the Colorado River valley (figs. 4, 11, 12). They placed the 

base of the Cisco Group at the top of the Home 

Creek Limestone (Canyon Group), and the top of 

the Cisco at the base of the Coleman Junction Limestone, following the original group definition of 

Plummer and Moore (1921). 

The Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary, which is 

within the Cisco Group as defined by the Bureau of 

Economic Geology (Brown and Goodson, 1972), has 

been the subject of controversy for more than a 

century (San Angelo Geological Society, 1958). 

Moore (1940, fig. 4) illustrated various opinions 

about the placement of the time-stratigraphic 

boundary in Texas during the previous 60 years. 

The controversy is not yet resolved in North America (Wilde, 1975a, 1975b). The Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary in central and north-central Texas 

is difficult to determine because ( 1) no obvious regional physical or paleontological break provides a 

convenient boundary; (2) different boundaries have 

been selected using different faunal elements 

(fusulinids, brachiopods, or ammonites) ; (3) the 

Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary in the Glass 

Mountains of Texas, the reference area for the 

North American Permian, has not yet been settled 

(Cooper and Grant, 1972; Wilde, 1971, 1975a); and 

( 4) few appropriate paleontological investigations 
TEXAS S23 

have been carried out in the Cisco Group of central 

and north-central Texas, and none have been related 

to Cisco biofacies. 

Nevertheless, fusulinids have been the basis for 

zonation in the Carboniferous and Permian throughout the world, and they have been used to recognize 

a Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary in North America for more -than .30 years .(-Wilde, 1975b). The 

boundary in. North America has been recognized QY 

certain species of Triticites and the genus Dunbarinella in latest Pennsylvanian strata and by Schwagerina, Pseudofusulina, Leptotriticites, and other 

species of Triticites in earliest Permian beds (Wilde, 

1975a). Roth (1931) found Pseudofusulina and 

Permian Triticites in Drake's (1893) Waldrip No.2 

limestone, which is within the shale (Waldrip Shale) 

between the Chaffin (Crystal Falls) and Saddle 

Creek Limestones (figs. 4, 11, 12). Cheney (1940) 

and Moore (1949) placed the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary in a shale unit below Waldrip No.2, 

suppressed the Harpersville Formation (Plummer 

and Moore, 1921), which included the boundary, 

and redefined and elevated the Cisco Group to Series 

and the Thrifty and Pueblo Formations to Groups. 

Their contact between the redefined Thrifty and 

Pueblo "Groups" was placed at the inferred timestratigraphic boundary. Because this boundary is 

not mappable, Henhest (1958), Eargle (1960), 

Myers (1965), and others of the U.S. Geological 

Survey placed the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary 

at the base of the Waldrip Shale (top of Crystal 

Falls Limestone, where present). Brown (1959) 

argued against suppression of the Harpersville as 

well as elevation of Cisco to series status. He preferred to apply the time-stratigraphic unit, the 

"Virgil Series" in Texas, rather than to redefine 

lithostratigraphy to "fit" inferred_ faunal-zone 

boundaries. Consequently, Brown and Goodson 

(1972) resurrected the Harpersville Formation as a 

regionally mappable formation and placed the 

highly subjective Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary 

in the upper one-third of the Harpersville Formation somewhere between the Chaffin (Crystal Falls) 

Limestone and the Saddle Creek Limestone. 

The Cisco Group represents the last major episode 

of extensive fluvial-deltaic deposition on the Eastern 

shelf. After Cisco deposition, Middle and Late Permian carbonate, evaporite, and red-bed deposition 

dominated the shelf. Sandstone and shale are principal rock types in the Cisco Group; only thin transgressive shelf limestone beds crop out in central and 

north-central Texas. Downdip in the subsurface, 

thick shelf and shelf-edge limestone facies are 

common, but they commonly pinch out updip into 

nearshore clastic deposits. When each delta system 

was abandoned, it subsided, was reworked, and was 

transgressed by marine destructional facies (barrier 

and nearshore sands) and ultimately by marine 

shale and limestone (fig. 13). Cycles composed of 

regressive terrigenous clastic deposits and transgressive limestone deposits make up vertical sequences 

that show abrupt lateral facies changes (fig. 14). 

Brown ( 1973b) recognized 10 to 15 principal fluvialdeltaic progradational (regressive) episodes in the 

Cisco Group of north-central Texas. 

In the Brazos River valley area during deposition 

of the Cisco Group, a westward or basinward shift 

in facies took place so that outcropping Cisco facies 

grade progressively upward (Brown, 1973b; fig. 

14) from principally deltaic in the lower part (Virgil Series) to principally fluvial in the upper part 

(Wolfcamp Series). Fluvial facies recognized in 

outcrop are parts of braided, coarse-grained meanderbelt and fine-grained meanderbelt systems. Delta 

facies are components of thin high constructive 

el,ongate and lobate systems. Distribution of Cisco 

deltas was controlled by subjacent paleotopography 

induced by Canyon carbonate banks, diff.erential 

sand/mud compaction, and differential rates of structural subsidence (Brown, 1969c). Interdeltaic-embayment facies include mudflats, chenierlike strandplains and coal, and brackish-bay mudstone and 

limestone (Galloway and Brown, 1972). · 

In the Colorado River valley, terrigenous clastic 

facies are restricted principally to the lower part of 

the Cisco Group (fig. 12) within the Graham, 

Thrifty, Harpersville, and Pueblo Formations. 

Scattered sand-filled fluvial channels are found in 

the upper part of the Cisco Group, and lenticular 

limestone beds are common. 

Total thickness of the Cisco Group is 394m in the 

Brazos River valley and 303m in the Colorado River 

valley. 

MARATHON UPLIFT 

SYSTEMS BOUNDARIES 

Neither the Devonian-Mississippian nor the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary has been recognized in the Marathon uplift (fig. 4). The-Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary clearly is within the 

Tesnus Formation; the Tesnus contains fossils as 

young as Early Pennsylvanian and as old as Late 

Mississippian (Ellison, 1962). The youngest (and 

only) fossils dated from the Caballos Novaculite, 

which apparently conformably underlies the Tesnus, 
UJ. 

1:..:1 

~ 

1-3 

::X: 

tz:j 

~ 

-r:n 

r:n 

-r:n 

r:n 

-'"0 

'"0 

-

> 

DEPOSmONAL SYSTEMS Z 

B-B' 

NO SCALE INTENDED 

9 

Open shelf 

D 

lnterdeltaic and 

delta destruction 

[j[(i@~;\W{,~ 

A uvial 

-

Deltaic 

-

Slope 

D 

Basin 

FIGURE 13.-Schematic cross section along Cisco paleoslope showing principal depositional systems. Based on 15 cross sections and 13 net-thickness maps. 

From Brown (1969d); reprinted with permission, Dallas Geological Society. 

> 

z 

tj 

'"0 

tz:j 

z 

z 

r:n 

to< 

t-t 

< 

> z 

-

> 

z 

r:n 

to< 

r:n 

1-3 

tz:j 

~ 

r:n 

z 

1-3 

::X: 

tz:j 

q 

z 

-

1-3 

tz:j 

tj 

r:n 

1-3 

> 

1-3 

tz:j 

r:n 
TEXAS S25 

SOUTHWEST NORTHEAST 

A 

HORIZONTAL SCALE SCHEMATIC 

8 

FIGURE 14.-Nature of outcropping cyclic facies, Cisco 

Group, Stephens County, Tex. A, Fluvially dominated marine-nonmarine cycles, upper part of Cisco 

Group. B, Delta-dominated marine-nonmarine cycles, 

lower part of Cisco Group. Based on detailed mapping and 350 measured sections. From Brown (1973). 

are Late Devonian conodonts (Graves, 1952) some 

50 m below the Caballos-Tesnus contact. Late Mississippian conodonts are found 5-10 m above the 

Caballos-Tesnus contact. 

CABALLOS NOVACULITE 

The Caballos Novaculite is a lens-shaped sequence 30...,.250 m thick containing equal amounts of 

massive novaculite (pure white chert) and thinbedded green to gray radiolarite rhythmically interbedded with shale. The Devonian-Mississippian 

boundary probably is within the upper radiolarite. 

The upper boundary of the Caballos Novaculite is 

placed at the uppermost chert bed thicker than 5 em. 

The formation was named by Udden, Baker, and 

Bose (1916). 

TESNUS FORMATION 

The Tesnus Formation (named Tesnus Shale by 

Baker and Bowman, 1917) is a wedge-shaped unit 

composed predominantly of repetitive beds of olivedrab to black shale and fine- to very fine grained 

sandstone. The formation is 2,000 m thick in the 

southeast outcrop area but thins westward to 100m. 

A blanketlike shale about 100 m thick forms the 

base of the Tesnus in the east and composes nearly 

the entire formation in the west (fig. 15). An olistostrome 10 m thick containing exotic blocks of novaculite and older Paleozoic shelf carbonates crops out 

at the base of the Tesnus in the easternmost exposures (McBride, 1978). The olistostrome oonformably overlies the Caballos Novaculite and is 

composed of siliceous shale in the lowermost part. 

Overlying beds of siltstone and sandstone gradually 

increase in thickness, grain size, and abundance and 

form a transition into the monotonous clastic Tesnus 

Formation. Sandstone layers range from 1 mm to 

3m thick, but most are 30-150 em thick. Sandstoneshale ratios range from about 1 :1 to 5:1, with an 

apparent, but undocumented, increase to the east. 

Carbonaceous plant fragments and spores are 

locally abundant, and casts of wood as much as 30 

em long (chiefly calamarians, pteridosperms, and 

Lepidodendron (King, 1937, p. 61)) are found in 

shale. Sparse conodonts (Ellison, 1962), sponge 

spicules, radiolarians (Baker, 1963; Cotera, 1969), 

inarticulate brachiopods (J. Sprinkle, oral commun., 

1976), and a single crustacean (Brooks, 1955) also 

have been found. 

Most sandstones are olive-drab to light-brown, 

nonporous beds that contain 5-15 percent clay 

matrix and less than 10 percent quartz cement. 

Major framework components other than quartz are 

5-10 percent each of feldspar and rock fragments. 

Several well-sorted, quartz-cemented quartzarenite 

beds, 10-15 m thick, are found only in the southeastern part of the basin. 

Probably the most striking aspect of the Tesnus 

Formation in outcrop is the abundance of slump 

structures. In places, it is impossible to find 10 m of 

undisturbed (unslumped) section. Slump features 

include warped, folded, disrupted, and broken sandstone beds and contorted shale beds. Sandstone dikes 

of uneven: thickness, but generally less than 5 em 
S26 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

NORTHWEST 

Silicic/a . Sftc 

METERS 

0 1 0 KILOMETERS 

Boulder beds and 

coarse sandstone 

sandston.e and shale 

SOUTHEAST 

Caballos 

Novaculite 

FIGURE 15.-Schematic cross section of flysch units approximately perpendicular to axis of Marathon geosyncline. From Thomson and McBride (1964). 

thick, are associated features. Soft-sediment faults 

that transect sandstone soles are commonly regularly oriented and can be used to determine paleoslope direction· (Thomson, 1973). 

DIMPLE FORMATION 

The Dimple Formation (named the Dimple Limestone by Udden and others, 1916, p. 46) has a gradational basal contact with the Tesnus. Over a 5-m 

interval, limestone beds and intercalated shale beds 

increase in thickness until they predominate, marking the basal Dimple contact. Maximum thickness of 

the formation is 300m; the formation thins to 150m 

at the margins of the Marathon uplift. 

From northwest to southeast over a distance of 

35-45 km, the Dimple Formation grades from rocks 

interpreted as "shelf" to slope and then to basin 

deposits (Thomson and Thomasson, 1969). The 

"shelf" facies are characterized by intercalated, 

cross bedded biosparite and oosparite (grains tones) 

in beds, most of which are 30-50 em thick, lesser 

amounts of chert and limestone pebble conglomerate, and partings of shale that are 75 percent carbonate mud and 25 percent illite. Skeletal grains 

include crinoids, bryozoans, brachiopods, echinoids, 

fusulinids, algae, and conondonts. Trace amounts of 

quartz, chert, glauconite, phosphate, and heavy minerals are present. Grain size within calcarenite beds 

ranges from coarse to fine ; sorting is good, and 

porosity may be as much as 10 percent. 

Rocks of the basin facies of the Dimple Formation are about 70 percent calcarenite and cherty 

calcarenite, 20 percent mudstone, and 10 percent 

chert. Calcarenite and some mudstone beds are interpreted to be turbidites, whereas mudstone and 

spicular and radiolarian chert beds are pelagic deposits. Calcarenite beds are chiefly less than 30 em 

thick, but some are 150 em thick. Most calcarenite 

beds are uniform in thickness across an outcrop. 

Also, most beds (96 percent) are graded, but many 

contain other bedding types. 

Rocks of the slope facies of the Dimple Formation 

are intermediate between shelf and basin facies. The 

most conspicuous feature of this facies is the presence of chert and limestone pebble conglomerate in 

beds 10-50 em thick that fill erosional surfaces with 

as much as 30 em relief and of calcarenite beds 60-

100 em thick that contain a single crossbed set. A 

10-m-thick olistostrome containing exotic blocks 

crops out in easternmost exposures. 

Most of the Dimple Formation is Atoka in age, 

but fusulinids suggest that the oldest part may be 

Morrow (Sanderson and King, 1964). 
TEXAS S27 

HAYMOND FORMATION 

The Haymond Formation has a maximum preserved thickness of 1,400 m in outcrop. The basal 

contact with the Dimple Formation is gradational 

over a thickness of 5 m. The placement of the upper 

contact with the Gaptank Formation is disputed. 

About three-fourths of the Haymond is composed 

of thin rhythmic beds of shale and fine-grained 

quartzose sandstones, which comprise more than 

15,000 shale/sandstone couplets .. The formation contains an olistostrome and associated lenticular 

coarse sandstone bodies that are exposed in strike · 

sections along the eastern margin of the uplift. The 

olistostrome, or wildflysch unit, is 330 m thick and 

contains indigenous and exotic debris from pebbles 

to blocks 40 m long. 

Sandstone beds have 3-10 percent clay matrix and 

less than 10 percent calcite or quartz cement. Cementation and compaction have destroyed all porosity. 

Framework composition averages 71 percent quartz, 

15 percent feldspar, and 14 percent rock fragments. 

In the rhythmic sequences, sandstone beds are 

graded, laminated, and current rippled; many show 

convolute lamination. Current-formed sole marks 

are abundant. 

The age of the Haymond is uncertain. Although 

an abundant Pennsylvanian fauna has been collected 

from exotic blocks in the boulder beds (King, 1937, 

p. 72), the only abundant indigenous fossils in the 

Haymond are plant remains and trace fossils. Fragmental remains of fusulinids, echinoids, brachiopods, and mollusks are found in the area of Dugout 

Mountain in beds transitional between Haymond 

and the overlying Gaptank Formation. In addition, 

fusulinids and echinoid fragments are found in two 

calcarenite beds in the lower part of the formation. 

An Atoka age (King, 1937, p. 72; Skinner and 

Wilde, 1954; Wilde, oral commun., 1962) was assigned to the fusulinids. These beds are turbidites of 

"Dimple aspect" that are several hundred feet above 

the base of the Haymond Formation. 

DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS OF THE CABALLOS 

:'\0\'ACULITE AND OVERLYING FLYSCH 

Environments and processes of deposition of the 

flysch units and the underlying Caballos Novaculite 

remain controversial. Most early workers interpreted all formations to be of shallow-water origin 

(Waterschoot van der Gracht, 1931; King, 1937), 

whereas most later workers (King in Flawn and 

others, 1961, p. 84; Johnson, 1962; Cotera, 1969; 

McBride and Thomson, 1970; McBride, 1970) infer 

a deepwater origin. McBride (1970) interprets the 

Tesnus to be chiefly submarine fan deposits, and 

the Haymond to include submarine fan, basin-plain, 

and large-scale submarine slide deposits (wildflysch 

unit). Folk (1973) and Flores (1972, 1977), however, have argued for shallow-water origin of facies 

in the Caballos, Haymond, and Tesnus. 

GAPTANK FORMATION 

The Gaptank Formation conformably overlies the 

Haymond Formation. Although exposures are relatively small, stratigraphic subdivision of the Gaptank Formation has been the subject of controversy. 

Figure 16 charts the ·history of classification and 

shows various contacts· within the Gaptank Formation exposed in the northern part of the Marathon 

uplift. A Chaetetes-bearing limestone 15 m thick is 

interbedded with limestone and sandstone of early 

Desmoinesian age. An overlying lenticular conglomerate member as much as 200 m thick is of early 

Missouri age (Ross, 1963, p. 17) ; five resedimented 

debris beds grading from limestone conglomerate to 

calcarenite characterize this unit. A superposed 

sandstone and shale member 200 m thick is poorly 

exposed. The uppermost ledge-forming limestone 

member about 150m thick is composed of limestone 

bodies that rise southward in the section. Ross 

(1967) recognized shallow-shelf, shelf-edge, and 

deepwater facies in the uppermost limestone member. Conspicuous grainstones, packstones, and 

wackestones are present, and local bioherms are rich 

in dasycladacean algae. 

According to Ross (1967) the outcrop belt of the 

Gaptank trends at a low angle to the northeast to 

north-northeast depositional strike of the formation. 

He inferred that the Gaptank is composed of several 

cyclic carbonate facies, which include (upward) 

slope, shelf-edge, and shelf deposits. Gaptank carbonate facies separate shallow-water clastic deposits 

to the southeast from deep-water clastic deposits 

to the northwest. 

FRANKLIN AND HUECO MOUNTAINS 

In the H ueco Mountains, the Helms Formation is 

composed of interbedded limestone and shale 150 

m thick and is divided into a lower cherty member 

and chert-poor upper member. King and others 

(1945) reported that the Helms is sparingly fossiliferous hut listed no fossils. The Magdalena Group, 

which rests unconformably on ·the Helms, was divided by King and others (1945) into three informal members. The lower mem.ber consists o.f 

150 m of dark-gray, thick-bedded biomicrite; the 
S28 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

UDDEN 

1917 

KING 

1931 

KING 

1937 

ROSS 

1963 

ROSS 

1969 ~ ~------~-4--------~-+--------~~----------~------------~~ 

1----::-HALE-:----t ~t--G_RA_Y_~-:-:-:-O-NE-----1 ~ +--G-:-y_:_:-s-~-:-0-NE----l~i 'BiO;~;f ,, , ~RMA~;: ~ LIMESTONE MEMBER MEMBER ~ f2 LIMESTONE ·~~<Jidft/!·!){~by~\\ 1---------1 ~ ~ MEMBER LIMESTO~~~:(j:: BASAL g UDDENITES tr. UDDENITES UDDf:NITES -BEARING '<\\:(: 

SHALE ~ ZONE g ZONE SHALE MEMBER \ 

MEMBER i 

UPPER 

GAPTANK 

f2 

~i;~~N 5 == $;>i 

5 ~ - SANDSTONE AND ::.:: ~ ~ 0 SHALE MEMBER ~ Z 

~ I.L, ~ ~ 

t---GAPT-L_o_~_R_K------~ f2 t---PO-L-oRTI_WE_;_N------~ ~ co~~=lE ~ ~ ~ ~ 

GAPTANK 

+------------~ I 1--------~ 0 1-------------~ MEMBER 

....., :/2::\:·)t\:Y-'/:'//:::.:.x:Jt\/\.X: 

FORMATION 

CHAE1FIES . 

LIMESTONE 

CHAETFIES-BEARING 

LIMESTONE MEMBER 

CHAETETES-BEARING 

LIMESTONE MEMBER 

YOUNGER ''\J{{f}}.~~: .: .. : 

BEDS ~ 

Base not defined 

HAYMOND 

FORMATION 

HAYMOND 

FORMATION 

HAYMOND 

FORMATION 

HAYMOND 

FORMATION 

CHAETETES-BEARING 

LIMESTONE MEMBER 

HAYMOND 

FORMATION 

FIGURE 16.-Stratigraphic nomenclature of the Gaptank and adjacent formations. From Ross (1969). 

middle member is co-mposed of 100 m of marl, shale, 

and limestone; and the upper member is composed 

of 150 m of light-gray coral and algal biomicrite, 

biosparite, and conglomerate (Seewald, 1968). 

In the Franklin Mountains, Mississippian strata 

include (upward) the Las Cruces Limestone, an 

even-bedded (beds 40-60 em thick) gray micrite 

20m thick; the Rancheria Formation, a black argillaceous and cherty limestone 80 m thick ; and the 

Helms Shale, a gray and green shale 50 m thick 

containing interbedded sandstone and limestone 

(Laudon and Bowsher, 1949). Unconformities 

bound the Las Cruces, Rancheria, and Helms Formations. The overlying Magdalena Group consists 

of more than 500 m of thin-bedded, dark-gray micrite and biomicrite containing some minor shale 

beds. The Berino Member is a shaly unit about 155 

m thick, which separates the overlying Bishops Cap 

Member from the basal La Tuna Member. The uppermost, and unnamed, unit is poorly exposed and 

presumably is composed mostly of shale. The Magdalena-Helms contact is inferred to be unconformable (King and others, 1945). Environmental interpretations have not yet been reported for the 

Franklin Mountain sequence. 

BOUNDING UNITS 

CENTRAL AND NORTH-CENTRAL TEXAS 

LOWER BOUNDARY 

In outcrop, basal Mississippian rocks (fig. 4) generally unconformably overlie the lower part of the 

Ordovician Ellenburger Group, a thick group of 

carbonate strata that crop out around the Llano 

uplift (fig. 3) and extend throughout the subsurface 

of west Texas. The pre-Mississippian erosion surface appears to have little or no topographic relief. 

Regionally, however, the pre-Mississippian unconformity is angular (Barnes and Cloud, 1972) . 

The Ellenburger Group is composed l?redominantly of limestone and dolomite that accumulated in 

warm, shallow-marine environments "sedimentolog-
.. ,. 

TEXAS S29 

ically and ecologically" similar to the Bahamian 

Banks (Barnes and Cloud, 1972, p. 32). Numerous 

sinkholes formed in the Ellenburger during one or 

more periods of exposure, and post-Ellenburger 

strata commonly collapsed into or were originally 

deposited in them. Very locally, Upper Ordovician, 

Silurian, and Devonian limestone, shale and chert 

breccia (assigned to the Burnam, Starke, Piller 

Bluff, Stribling, Bear Spring, Zeson, and Houy Formations and several unnamed stratigraphic units) 

are preserved in collapse structures, cracks, and fissures in the top of the Ellenburger (Barnes and 

Cloud, 1972; Barnes and others, 1946, 1947, 1953, 

1966; Cloud and others, 1957; Seddon, 1970). Aggregate thickness of the sinkhole deposits is less 

than 5 m. 

Stratigraphic relationships among post-Ellenburger and pre-Mississippian deposits, as well as 

relationships with overlying Mississippian strata, 

are poorly understood. Stratigraphic and paleontological information about the remnant formations is 

limited. The Houy Formation apparently is, in part, 

Mississippian (Cloud and others, 1957; Seddon, 

1970) and may record continuous deposition across 

the Devonian-Mississippian boundary. (See Seddon, 1970; Barnes and Cloud, 1972; and Kier, 1972.) 

Distribution of post-Ellenburger and pre-Mississip- · 

pian rocks is so limited on the Llano uplift that the 

basal Mississippian boundary is essentially unconformable. 

UPPER BOUNDARY 

Permian rocks conformably overlie Pennsylvanian 

rocks in central and north-central Texas and record 

continuous sedimentation across the PennsylvanianPermian boundary. The boundary, as defined by 

fusilinids, is in the upper part of the Harpersville 

Formation (Plummer and Moore, 1921; Brown and 

Goodson, 1972) in the middle of the Cisco Group. 

No regionally significant hiatus has been recognized. Deltaic sedimentation, which dominated Cisco 

deposition, continued uninterrupted from Late 

Pennsylvanian into Early Permian time. 

Lower Permian (Wolfcamp) deposition was 

marked by a gradual reduction in the influx of 

Cisco terrigenous clastic materials. During this 

time, shelf carbonates and marine muds onlapped 

the foundering Cisco deltas, and shelf environments dominated the Eastern shelf. Middle Permian 

carbonate and marine clastic shelf environments expanded, especially in central Texas, and were replaced upward by Middle and Upper Permian tidalflat and sabkha environments (Smith, 1974). 

WEST TEXAS 

In the Marathon region of west Texas, the lower 

part of the Tesnus Formation, which is of Mississippian age, gradationally overlies the Caballos N ovaculite, which is inferred to be principally Devonian 

in age. Late Devonian conodonts are found about 

50 m below the top of the Caballos (Graves, 1952), 

and Late Mississippian conodonts are found 5-10 m 

above the base of the Tesnus (Ellison, 1962). 

An angular unconformity separates the youngest 

Carboniferous unit, the Pennsylvanian Gaptank 

Formation, from Permian strata, either the Neal 

Ranch Formation or the Lenox Hills Formation of 

early and late Wolfcamp age, respectively (Ross, 

1963). The Neal Ranch Formation is composed of 

shale, limestone, and siltstone cyclothems, and the 

Lenox Hills Formation consists of chert and limestone conglomerate, shale, and siltstone.-· Both formations were deposited in shallow water on the 

northern flank of the Marathon orogenic belt (Ross, 

1963). 

In the Franklin Mountains, limestone of Kinderhook age (Las Cruces Formation) rests unconformably on Upper Devonian shale (Percha Shale) according to Nelson (1940). In the Hueco Mountains, 

limestone beds of Meramec age (Helms Formation) rest on shale inferred on lithic character to be 

of Late Devonian age (King and others, 1945). 

At the outcrop in the Franklin Mountains the 

Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary is inferred to be 

in the covered interval between limestones in the 

upper part of the Magdalena Group (Missouri age) 

and the overlying Hueco Formation (Wolfcamp 

age). In the Hueco Mountains, the boundary is 

placed within the Hueco Group (Seewald, 1968, p 

47). 

SUBSURFACE GEOLOGY 

The subsurface geology of Carboniferous strata 

on the eastern shelf of north- and west-central 

Texas and within the Midland basin of west Texas 

is as well known as any sequence of rocks in the 

world (fig. 3). Tens of thousands of oil wells have 

penetrated fluvial and deltaic, shelf and shelf-edge, 

carbonate platform, and slope and basin facies 

throughout the region. Less intensively drilled but 

still reasonably understood are Carboniferous rocks 

in the Palo Duro and Dalhart basins of the Texas 

Panhandle and the Fort Worth, Kerr, and Val Verde 

Foreland basins that separate the Ouachita geosyncline on the east and southeast from the Texas 

cratonic region on the west and northwest. 
S30 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Carboniferous strata in the Delaware basin and 

beneath thick Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks along the 

Rio Grande in Trans-Pecos Texas are poorly understood because of structural complications and limited well information. Carboniferous rocks of the 

Marathon region are allochthonous, and little is 

known about their subsurface extent. Subsurface 

geology of Carboniferous strata within the basins 

and on the shelves of the west Texas oil province 

necessarily must be generalized in this report. 

MISSISSIPPIAN ROCKS 

Mississippian strata are of two principal types 

within the subsurface of Texas: ( 1) thick shale 

beds and interbedded sandstone within the Ouachita 

geosyncline and (2) limestone and marine shale 

facies on positive elements of the Texas craton 

(Texas peninsula, Adams, 1954; Concho arch, 

Cheney and Goss, 1952) and within shallow flanking basins, respectively. Within the frontal zones of 

the buried Ouachita foldbelt (geosyncline) are thick 

sequences of Mississippian fan-delta and slope shale 

and interbedded sandstone (Stanley, Jackfork,· lower 

Johns Valley, and equivalent formations; Flawn and 

others, 1961). Upper Mississippian and Lower 

Pennsylvanian terrigenous clastic facies were deposited within the rapidly subsiding geosyncline and 

were highly folded and faulted during Early Pennsylvanian time in central and north-central Texas. 

Farther southwest, in the Val Verde basin (Young, 

1960) and in the Marathon region, orogenic deformation took place as late as Early Permian. · 

Mississippian cratonic facies crop out in small 

areas of the Llano uplift and in some faulted mountains of southwest Texas and southeastern New 

Mexico. These shallow-marine facies grade into or 

intertongue with shale deposited in shallow flanking 

and intracratonic Mississippian basins (Barnett 

Formation). Pre-Pennsylvanian erosion· resulted in 

the removal of Mississippian strata over significant 

areas of the Texas craton. Locally, as in Eastland, 

Stephens, Young, and Jack Counties (fig. 5), Mississippian biohermal reefs ( ?) formed along the 

eastern flank of the Concho arch or platform. Geosynclinal Mississippian deposits are restricted to the 

subsurface in central Texas, although the sequences 

crop out in southern Oklahoma and in the Marathon 

area of southwest Texas. 

PENNSYLVANIAN ROCKS 

In central and north-central Texas, Lower Pennsylvanian subsurface strata are inferred to have 

been deposited by two depositional systems (fig. 

17). Fan-delta and slope clastic deposition (Atoka 

Group and part of Smithwick Formation) dominated in the Forth Worth foreland basin, supplied 

by the orogenically active Ouachita foldbelt. Contemporaneous deposition of limestone and marine 

shale (Marble Falls Formation and associated units) 

took place on the Concho platform and eastern platform margin. In west Texas and the Texas Panhandle, Lower Pennsylvanian platform carbonate 

facies grade laterally into arkosic fan-delta and 

slope facies near positive structural elements and 

grade basinally into deeper marine limestone and 

shale within the incipient Midland basin. 

Middle Pennsylvanian subsurface strata (Strawn 

and Canyon Groups) are composed dominantly of 

proximal fluvial-delta facies from a diminishing 

sediment supply eroded from the Ouachita Mountains and from older Atoka foreland deposits. The 

deltas repeatedly prograded westward across the 

Concho platform into the deepening Midland basin 

(figs. 17, 18, 19). Extensive, contemporaneous, carbonate shelf-edge bank systems intertongue updip 

(sourceward) with nearshore clastic deposits and 

tasinward with thin basinal shale and limes.tone beds. 

Middle Pennsylvanian carbonate shelves define the 

eastern and western flanks of the Midland and Palo 

Duro basins. As the Midland basin deepened during 

Middle Pennsylvanian time, the carbonate shelves 

were successively superposed or, in many places, 

they retreated landward in a recessive manner. 

Many isolated carbonate platforms formed at this 

time, such as the Scurry County "Horseshoe Atoll" 

and many en echelon banks formed along the edge of 

the relict Eastern shelf (fig. 3). Carbonate deposition continued on the Red River fault blocks. 

Upper Pennsylvanian subsurface strata in northcentral and west Texas reflect rejuvenation of the 

eastern source area and accelerated subsidence of 

the Midland basin. Extensive, cyclic fluvial-deltaic 

sandstone and shale sequences of the Cisco Group 

are deposited on the eastern shelf of the Midland 

basin (figs. 20, 21). The delta deposits grade westward into shelf and shelf-edge limestone facies, 

which in turn grade basinward into deep-water 

shale and sandstone. Most of the Midland basin contains only very thin Cisco shale and siliceous limestone beds ("starved basin" deposits (Adams and 

others, 1951) ) . Bas inward progradation of delta, 

shelf, and slope deposits filled the Palo Duro and 

northern Midland basins by Early to Middle Permian (fig. 3). Along the margins of the Amarillo 

uplift and other similar structural elements in 
TEXAS S31 

WEST EAST 

STONEWALL COUNTY 

EXPLANATION 

METERS 

900 

D 

~ 

~ 

~ 

s 

~ 

· Deltaic-fluvial and slope mudstone and sandstone fades 

Extensive prodelta and basinal fades 

600 

Various platform and shelf-edge carbonate fades 

Ordovidan, Mississippian, and PennsylvanianPermian age 

3!X) Restricted basinal(?) fades 

APPAOXIMA TE 

0 VERTICAL SCALE 

GREATlY EXAGGERATED 

FIGURE 17.-Evolution of depositional systems, north-central Te1xas: Fort Worth basin, Concho platform, and Eastern shelf. 

southern Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico are 

thick arkosic fan-delta deposits of Late Pennsylvanian age. Platform carbonates were deposited on 

the central basin platform. 

Strata on the northwestern shelf of the Midland 

basin in eastern New Mexico and the northern shelf 

of the Anadarko basin in Oklahoma generally resemble sequences that compose the eastern shelf of 

the Midland basin. The southern flank of the Anadarko basin in Texas is filled by thick arkosic fandelta deposits. 

GEOLOGIC HISTORY 

CARBONIFEROUS EVENTS 

CENTRAL AND NORTH-CENTRAL TEXAS 

The geologic history of central and north-central 

Texas is closely tied to the tectonic development of 

the Fort Worth (foreland) basin, the eastern shelf 

of the Midland basin, and the Red River uplift and 

southern Oklahoma mountains (fig. 3). Structural 

evolution of these basins and associated tectonic elements determined to a great extent the nature and 

distribution of the principal basin-filling depositional systems. 

Beginning with Late Mississippian and Early 

Pennsylvanian structural activity in the Ouachita 

geosyncline, the Fort Worth foreland basin became 

well defined (figs. 3, 17). Platform and shelf-edge 

carbonate environments (Marble Falls, Big Saline, 

Comyn, and Caddo) contemporaneously dominated 

the Concho platform. Late Mississippian and Early 

Pennsylvanian shelf edges faced generally eastward 

toward the rapidly subsiding, but not necessarily 

deep, Fort Worth basin. Generally equivalent westward-prograding terrigenous clastic wedges (Atoka 

Group) entered. the basin along a high-gradient 

paleoslope from the Ouachita foldbelt to the east. 

Thousands of feet of Atoka mudstone and sandstone of probable fan-delta and related slope origin 

graded westward and basinward into the thin, relatively starved basinal Smithwick facies. Basinal 

Smithwick shale and siltstone intertongued westward with shelf-edge carbonates of the Concho 

platform. 

As Atoka clastic wedges built westward under 

gradually diminished but westward-shifting basinal 

subsidence, the shelf edges of the Concho platform 

carbonates retreated westward in a series of 
832 

WEST 

THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

· ..... 

N 

1 

16 32 KILOMETffiS 

FIGURE 18.--Distribution of Strawn dE·positional systems, north-central Texas. From Cleaves (1975). 

HASKELL COUNTY THROCKMORTON COUNTY 

Cisco Group 

Strawn Group 

YOUNG COUNTY JACK COUNTY 

EAST 

360 

330 

300 

270 

240 en 

ffi 

210 ~ 

1110;;?; 

~ 150 ~ 

120 ~ 

90 

60 

30 

-1Ril KILOMETERS Based on 54 wells 

FIGURE 19.-Subsurface cross section of Canyon Group from Jack County to western Haskell County, Tex., showing deltaic 

and carbonate facies; based on 54 electric and sample logs. From Erxleben (1975). 
TEXAS 833 

WEST EAST 

-MITCHELL CO-+---. ---NOLAN CO -------+- TAYLOR CO -+ ----CALLAHAN CO----+-EASTLANDCO-

"'<'~-rm~ Coleman Junction ~i~!;~Jll~!~t,§roup 

Black shale 

Dark limestone 

~ Limestone with 

interbedded 

shale 

METERS 

D 150 

Logged sandstone 00 APPROXIMATE and siltstone VERTICAL SCALE 

D 30 

Red-gray shale 0 

DATUM: BASE OF COLEMAN JUNCTION LIMESTONE 

Well spacing not to scale 

FIGURE 20.-Subsurface cross section showing facies of the Cisco Group, from Mitchell County to Eastland County, Tex. 

Based on 60 wells. From Brown (1969d). Data on open-file, Texas Bureau of Economic Geology. 

15 KILOMETERS 

N 

,, 

EXPLANATION 

0 Undifferentiated mudstone 

and limestone 

NET SAND THICKNESS 

A..UVIAL-DEL TAlC 

~ 1.&-24 meters 

SLOPE 

L±Jt. 5-30 meters 

II) 30-93 meters 

- Sandstone outcrop 

~ Subjacent shelf edge 

-+ Inferred sediment 

dispersal routes 

CONTROL: APPROXIMATELY 3500 WELLS 

FIGURE 21.-Net-thickness map, Upper Cook-Flippen Sandstone, Cisco Group, north-central Texas. Based 

on 3,500 wells; data on open-file, Texas Dureau of Economic Geology. From Galloway and Brown 

(1972, 1973); reprinted with permission, American Association of Petroleum Geologists. 
S34 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

progressive "back steps," overlapped by the advancing S,m.ithwick facies (fig. 17). Coarse clastic facies 

of Atoka fan deltas ("Bend Conglomerate") reached 

the western flank of the Fort Worth basin late in 

the waning stages of Atoka deposition. Facies within the Fort Worth basin, both terrigenous clastic 

and carbonate, indicate an uncommonly high degree 

of time transgression. Depositional environments 

shifted westward as a result of a shift in basin axis. 

Variable rates of subsidence and sediment supply 

also affected this shift. 

EASTERN SHELF AND MIDLAND BASIN 

Decreased subsidence in the Fort Worth basin 

and diminishing Atoka clastic input marked deceleration of Ouachita orogenic activity. During early 

Strawn (Desmoines Series) deposition, terrigenous 

clastic deposits gradually assumed a deltaic character, having lower paleogradients and a very shallow basin. During middle Strawn deposition, fluvialdeltaic systems overlapped the shelf-edge carbonate 

facies (Marble Falls, Caddo) and began several 

cycles of extensive progradation westward across 

the Concho platform (figs. 17, 18). Youngest Smithwick prodelta-basinal facies were deposited in the 

path of the delta systems. During late Strawn deposition, delta-fluvial sedimentation continued as the 

Concho platform underwent a gradual westward 

tilting and increased subsidence in response to accelerated subsiding of the -Midland basin. Even 

though the stability of the Concho platform decreased near the end of Strawn deposition, this 

structurally positive element provided support for 

many upper Strawn and Canyon reefs and limestone 

banks (figs. 17, 19). Deposition of these carbonate 

systems initiated the high-relief shelf edges that 

later ~characterized the Eastern shelf during deposition of the Cisco Group. 

Regional upwarping in the Ouachita foldbelt and 

the eastern flank of the Fort Worth basin was coincident with Midland basin subsidence and provided 

a significant supply of second-cycle sediments to 

Strawn deltas. The hinge or axis of rotation between the subsiding Midland basin and the gradually rising eastern Fort Worth basin defines the present Bend flexure or arch (fig. 3) . 

As the source areas were lowered by erosion and as 1 

paleogradients<l.Tminished, less terrigenous sedi- · 

ment reached the Pennsylvanian coastline. Extensive and long-lived carbonate-bank and reef systems began to form on the stable platforms provided 

by abandoned Strawn deltaic clastic materials (fig. 

19). As the Midland basin continued to subside, 

many reefs or banks grew vertically to maintain 

necessary water depth. Trends of atoll-like limestone bodies that parallel the basin margin grew 

throughout much of the uppermost Pennsylvanian, 

but they are most common in the Canyon Group. 

Some of the carbonate banks, growing on structurally positive trends of the Eastern shelf, extended upslope to the present outcrop area where they intertongued with Canyon deltaic systems. Although 

Canyon deltas prograded extensively during three 

principal deltaic cycles, terrigenous clastic deposition was about equally balanced with limestone 

deposition. 

Near the end of Canyon (Missouri Series) deposition, rejuvenation in the Ouachita foldbelt and eastern Fort Worth basin slightly increased paleogradients and significantly increased sediment supply~ 

much of which was second-cycle detritus from earlier Atoka fan-delta facies and easternmost Strawn 

fluvial facies (fig. 17). As the supply of terrigenous 

clastic materials increased, extensive lower Cisco 

(Virgil Series) delta-fluvial systems began building 

westward across the eastern shelf, overlapping Canyon carbonate facies (fig. 20). Cisco delta systems 

prograded 10 to 15 times across the relatively stable 

eastern shelf of the Midland basin. Accelerated subsidence of the Midland basin provided as much as 

455 m of relief between Cisco shelf edges and the 

floor of the Midland basin. Fluvial-delta systems 

built across the shelf and supplied sediment to thick, 

basinward-prograding slope-fan facies (figs. 17, 20). 

During deposition of the upper part of the Cisco 

Group (Permian, Wolfcamp Series), sediment supplied from the east again diminished, and thick, 

low-relief limestone shelf-edge banks became increasingly prominent. 

After Cisco deposition, extensive carbonate-shelf 

and shelf-edge facies gradually restricted circulation on the landward parts of the eastern · shelf. 

Minor deltaic and fluvial systems supplied finegrained sediment that prograded the coastline locally and provided sediment to extensive tidal-flat 

systems. These tidal-flat systems accreted basinward 

and were overlapped by broad supratidal-flat 

(sabkha) evaporite systems. 

RED RIVER ARCH AND OKLAHOMA MOUNTAINS 

The complex history of the Wichita, Arbuckle, 

and Red River structural elements (Tomlinson and 

McBee, 1959) is recorded in thick clastic wedges 

extending southward and southwestward into the 
TEXAS S35 

northernmost part of north-central Texas. These 

arkosic or "granite wash" deposits represent fluvial 

and fan-delta deposition along steep paleoslopes adjacent to fault blocks near the Red River in north 

Texas and southern Oklahoma. The fan deltas prograded basin ward as a braided complex; prodelta 

facies and reworked fan-fringe deposits are of 

marine origin. Fan-delta deposition was contemporaneous with limestone deposition on adjacent, 

structurally positive blocks. 

WEST TEXAS 

Reconnaissance work in the Hueco Mountains indicates that the Magdalena Group records deposition on a shallow carbonate platform and adjacent 

slope. Other stratigraphic units have not been interpreted, and no environmental interpretation has yet 

been published for the Franklin Mountains. 

The Marathon region was the site of slope and 

deep basinal sedimentation for most of the Paleozoic, 

including most. of the Carboniferous. Radiolarian 

chert and shale of the upper part of the Caballos 

Novaculite probably were deposited in water depths 

greater than 1,000 m. Initial black mud of the 

Tesnus was followed by deposition of thin distal 

turbidites and shale that reflect progradation of a 

clastic wedge from east to west. Siliciclastic detritus 

was derived almost entirely from Llanoria (Africa 

and South America) . Which deltaic environments 

are represented in addition to distal prodelta environments remains controversial. 

Uplift of the western margin of the geosyncline 

initiated an episode of calcareous flysch deposition 

recorded in the Dimple Formation. Sediments derived from carbonate banks on the shelf and from 

uplifted older rocks were transported down a slope 

and into the basin as slides, debris flows, and turbidity currents. Pelagic calcilutite, shale, and spiculites are minor deposits. Unlike the Tesnus, the 

Dimple is thickest in the center of the geosyncline, 

rather than toward its source. 

Renewed uplift of Llanoria brought a return to 

siliciclastic flysch deposition of the Haymond Formation. Initial deposits of the Haymond, like those 

of the Tesnus, consisted of black mud, which was 

followed by alternating turbidites and pelagites that 

make up the bulk of the formation. Turbidites increased slightly in thickness prior to the deposition 

of the slide, debris-flow slump, and turbidite beds 

of the chaotic boulder-bed member, but the wildflysch deposition apparently began abruptly because 

of the sharp base of the boulder-bed unit. Turbiditepelagic deposition continued after formation of the 

wildflysch unit, but the sandstone beds locally are 

burrowed internally, suggesting that the geosyncline 

was getting shallower. At the northernmost outcrops, the Haymond passes upward into shelf and 

slope deposits of the Gaptank Formation. 

POST-CARBONIFEROUS EVENTS 

CENTRAL AND NORTH-CENTRAL TEXAS 

Progressively restricted depositional environments existed along the margins of the Midland and 

Palo Duro basins (fig. 3) throughout the Permian. 

Tidal-flat, sabkha, and evaporite deposits predominated. Locally, fluvial and deltaic syste·ms prograded 

across the marginal-marine deposits to supply finegrained terrigenous clastic materials to the evaporite basin. As much as 2,350 m of Permian strata accumulated in the Midland basin; 1,200 m crops out 

on the eastern side of the basin. 

Triassic rocks of the Dockum Group are inferred 

to overlie unconformably Permian rocks exposed in 

the vicinity of Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas High 

Plains, but to the south, the Triassic strata apparently are conformable with the Permian (J. H. McGowen, oral commun., 1977). The Dockum is inferred to be Late Triassic on the basis of vertebrate 

remains, but underlying strata assumed to be Permian are unfossiliferous, and no lithologic break has 

been observed in outcrop. Dockum deposition was 

principally l~custrine, centered within the relict 

Midland and Palo Duro basins. Locally, fluvial and 

deltaic systems prograded into the Triassic lakes. 

As much as 667 m of Triassic sediments was deposited; 330 m of Triassic rocks is exposed in 

outcrop. 

After deposition of the Triassic Dockum Group, 

all of central, north-central, and west Texas underwent Jurassic and Early Cretaceous erosion that 

coincided with subsidence and seaward tilting of the 

Gulf Coast basin. Geomorphic patterns-shale valleys, sandstone hills, and limestone cuestas-and 

erosional relief that formed in central and northcentral Texas at that time were similar to modern 

topography in the region. Headward eroding, eastward-flowing rivers supplied sediment derived from 

the exposed Triassic and upper Paleozoic rocks to 

delta and barrier-island systems along a transgressive Cretaceous shoreline. 

Basal Cretaceous deposits in central and northcentral Texas are quartzose and calcareous sand and 

gravel, principally of fluvial and shoreline origin. 

Continued westward onlap of Cretaceous marine 

environments out of the east Texas basin resulted 

in deposition of calcareous shale and limestone. 
S36 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Eventually, all of central, north-central, and west 

Texas was submergent, and a major r~ef-lagoon 

system formed on the structurally high Llano uplift and Concho arch (fig. 3). Shallow-marine environments existed 8ast and north of the reef tract. 

Gradual uplift and erosion followed Cretaceous 

deposition in central and north-central Texas. No 

major Tertiary tectonic events took place in the 

region. Drainage similar to present-day patterns 

was established initially about Eocene time (0. T. 

Hayward, oral commun., 1977). 

Major alluviation in central, north-central, and 

west Texas during Late Miocene and Pliocene time 

resulted in deposition of the Ogallala Formation. 

Aggrading fluvial systems originating in the Rocky 

Mountains deposited sand and gravel in a thick coalescing alluvial plain that ultimately stretched from 

Texas to South Dakota. In Texas, the alluvial deposits extended eastward over Triassic and upper 

Paleozoic rocks to about 144 km east of the present 

caprock escarpment (0. T. Hayward, oral commun., 

1977). At the same time, valley-fill fluvial systems 

(Uvalde gravels) extended westward across lower 

Tertiary coastal deposits to upper Miocene and Pliocene Gulf shorelines. 

During the Pleistocene, much of the distal part 

of the Ogallala alluvial plain was eroded, producing 

the Caprock escarpment. Headward erosion of the 

Pecos River system isolated the Ogallala alluvial 

plain in Texas from its source area in New Mexico 

(Thomas, 1972). Several episodes of Pleistocene 

alluviation followed, during which the Seymour Formation and other high gravels, derived predominantly from the Ogallala Formation and nearby 

Cretaceous exposures, were deposited by gulfwardflowing streams. Subsequent regional uplift, erosion, 

and stream piracy have isolated the Seymour and 

the other gravel deposits along drainage divides that 

are as much as 52 m higher than present-day drainage (Epps, 1973). 

WEST TEXAS 

In the Marathon region, the Paleozoic sequence 

underwent an episode of mountain building by compressional deformation during Late Pennsylvanian 

and early Wolfcamp (Ross; 1962) that caused the 

formation of folds, thrust faults, and strike-slip 

faults. A thick sequence of late Wolfcampian and 

Leonardian clastic and carbonate strata and Guadalupian and Ochoan carbonate strata, which were deposited over parts of the area, were subsequently 

tilted northeastward and eroded. Shelf carbonate 

rocks of Cretaceous age but of unknown thickness 

blanketed the area, and they, in turn, were arched 

and partly eroded during and following domal uplift in Tertiary time. 

The Franklin Mountains and Hueco Mountains 

apparently underwent faulting during Laramide 

tectonism, but the main uplift of the Franklin Mountains began in late Cenozoic during formation of 

the Rio Grande rift. Some faults are still active. 

Quaternary alluvial fans flank both the Franklin 

and Hueco Mountains today. 

ECONOlVIIC PRODUCTS 

Carboniferous rocks in central, north-central, and 

west-central Texas have contributed significantly to 

the economic development of Texas and of the N ation. Oil and gas production has been predominant 

but industrial and ceramic clay, coal, and constructional limestone historically have been locally and 

periodically important. Uranium may occur within 

Carboniferous rocks in sufficient quantities to warrant further intensive exploration. Ground-water 

potential from Carboniferous rocks is poor, and 

ground water has not been· significantly exploited. 

No resources of economic value have been recognized in the Marathon basin or in the Franklin and 

Hueco Mountains. 

OIL AND GAS 

Carboniferous rocks in Texas have undergone 60 

years of intensive exploration for and production of 

petroleum. Earliest discoveries and principal production from Carboniferous rocks took place in 

north- and west-central Texas on the eastern shelf 

of the Midland basin, along the Red River, Muenster-Electra uplifts, and in the "Horseshoe Atoll" 

centered in Scurry County (fig. 3). Between 1916 

and 1921, earliest discoveries were in sandstone beds 

of the Strawn Group and in the Marble Falls Limestone (and associated facies) in fields such as 

Ranger, Desdemona, and Breckenridge. Farther 

west, Cisco sandstone reservoirs were soon discovered (fig. 22). 

Carboniferous sandstone reservoirs are generally 

shallow (less than 1,000 m) fluvial and deltaic facies 

located on subtle structural closures and in stratigraphic traps. Shelf-edge Marble Falls limestone 

facies provide slightly deeper targets directly 

beneath the shallow clastic reservoir rocks. Arkosic 

and feldspathic reservoirs (granite wash) of fandelta origin are productive along the uplifted fault. 

blocks that constitute the Red River, Wichita, and 
TEXAS S37 

0 

.).. 

STONEWALL 

.... • 

:t 

0 

0 16 KILOMETERS 

EXPLANATION 

SHELF (FLUVIAL-DEL TAlC) 

M 0 Moutray 

F t:] Frye 

rO Tannehill 

B 0 Bluff Creek 

FJD Aippen 

c (J Cook 

H 0 Hope 

K 0 King 

s 0 Swastika 

(? Other sand fields 

(POSITIVE) 

(NEGATIVE) 

~ SLOPE SAND AELDS 

Contemporaneous structural 

hinge- based on residual 

structural values and 

other data 

FIGURE 22.-Distribution of oil production from Cisco Group on central part of the eastern shelf, north-central Texas. 

Based on Abilene Geological Society data, by L. F. Brown, Jr., and W. E. Galloway. Modified from Abilene Geological Society ( 1960) . 

Amarillo uplifts (fig. 3). Most shallow structures 

were located by surface mapping. Shallow structures 

supported more than 40 years of intensive wildcatting, and today the oil province is again the site of 

active exploration for marginal. oil and gas left behind in the small lenticular reservoirs. 

After World War II, the single greatest discovery 

in Texas was the Horseshoe Atoll, an extensive 
838 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

complex carbonate system west of the Eastern shelf 

within the Midland basin (fig. 3). This discovery of 

Strawn, Canyon, and Cisco limestone reservoirs 

triggered extensive exploration of Pennsylvanian 

and Permian shelf edges during the 1950's. Many 

similar Strawn and Canyon limestone bank (or 

reef?) reservoirs were discovered trending approximately northeast along the eastern margin of the 

Midland basiri. Some sandstone reservoirs of deepwater, submarine-fan origin were also discovered 

within the Midland basin adjacent to the edge of 

the relict Upper Pennsylvanian eastern shelf. 

Principally gas has been discovered in the thick 

Lower to Middle Pennsylvanian fan-delta and deltaic sandstones and conglomerates in the Fort 

Worth and Sherman basins (fig. 3). Intensive exploration is currently underway in the Kerr and 

Val Verde basins (fig. 3), which are southwestern 

extensions of the foreland basin system separating 

the Texas craton and the Ouachita foldbelt. 

Production from Pennsylvanian carbonate rocks 

takes place on the central basin platform. Deltaic 

sandstone beds of Early Pennsylvanian age were 

discovered recently on the northwest shelf in nearby 

eastern New Mexico. Localized oil fields produce 

from small isolated Mississippian reefs ( ?) found 

along the eastern flank of the broad Concho platform, the precurs,or of the later Eastern shelf. 

COAL 

In the last two decades of the 19th century, coal 

production from cyclic Pennsylvanian fluvial and 

deltaic facies in north-central Texas was a regional 

industry. Coal was used principally within the region for heating, although much of the Strawn coal 

was used until about 1920 as boiler fuel on locomotives of the Texas and Pacific Railroad. Mining in 

the region terminated in 1943. 

Pennsylvanian coal in north-central Texas (fig. 

23) is principally in the Mingus Formation, Strawn 

Group, and in the Harpersville Formation, Cisco 

Group (Mapel, 1967; Evans, 1974). Coal is found 

also in the Canyon Group, but it is very limited in 

distribution. Atoka coal deposits are only in the 

subsurface near the Red River arch. 

The Thurber coal within the Strawn Group was 

the most economic deposit in the region, although 

several other coals were mined. The Thurber coal 

crops out beneath thick Brazos River Sandstone for 

about 19-24 km in southwestern Palo Pinto and 

Erath Counties (fig. 2). Shallow mining was concentrated on dip slopes near Thurber and Mingus 

along the Erath-Palo Pinto County line. The coal is 

about 1 m thick and was deposited within marshes 

and swamps bounding the Thurber embayment 

(Cleaves, 1975). Strawn coals rank as high-volatile 

bituminous with 2-8 percent moisture, 10-25 percent ash, 1.5-4 percent sulfur, and Btu (dry basis) 

from 10,390 to 13,755 per pound. 

Several coal beds in the Harpersville Formation, 

Cisco Group, are found near the PennsylvanianPermian boundary (on the basis of fusulinids). Several lenticular coal beds as much as 1 m thick were 

deposited along shorelines bounding large interdeltaic embayments (Brown, 1973b). Harpersville 

coal production was concentrated near Newcastle in 

Young County, near Crystal Falls in Stephens 

County, near Cisco in Eastland County, and in McCulloch and Coleman Counties (fig. 2). Various local 

names have been applied ; the Newcastle coal was 

the most productive in the Cisco Group. Cisco coals 

are variable and have a moisture content of 8-18 

percent, ash content about 15 percent, sulfur from 

1.1 to 8.9 percent, and heating value (dry basis) 

from 5,669 to 7,054 Kcal per kilogram. 

Limited possibilities exist for future stripping 

and for possible in situ gasification of Texas subbituminous coals. Metal byproducts and special uses 

in cement offer other possibilities for use of Pennsylvanian coal resources. 

CLAY PRODUCTS 

Common industrial clays mined from Middle and 

Upper Pennsylvanian strata are used extensively in 

the brick, tile, clay pipe, and expanded aggregate 

industry in north-central Texas (Brown, 1958). The 

industry is concentrated west of the Dallas-Fort 

Worth metroplex near Mineral Wells, Palo Pinto 

County. Five plants produce industrial clay products from prodelta facies that are associated with 

several Strawn delta systems. Principally illitic in 

composition, the clays are not of ceramic quality. 

Locally near Cisco, Eastland County, and Cross 

Cut, Brown County (fig. 2), Cisco deposits such as· 

the Quinn Clay (Plummer and Bradley, 1949) contain sufficient kaolinite to be used for cast items 

and glazed tile. Large volumes of expanded aggregate are produced from Canyon and Cisco prodeltamarine clays near Ranger and Eastland in Eastland 

County, respectively (fig. 2). 

CONSTRUCTIONAL LIMESTONE 

Limestone deposits of the Canyon Group are extensively quarried for use as aggregate in concrete 

and as base material for highways and airport runways. The largest operation is at Bridgeport in Wise 
I 

( ___ , 

I 

z I 

00 I 

;a I ---~ 

c 

z 

:3 

c 

~ 

I 

I 

I 

TEXAS 

I 

I I I I 

---i_r _:q,~cP, / . J ----! i0 ~ _/~ 

I I 

/' 

\ I I ---, -----

----· ___ _1_ ___ ~ ILLANO 

0 40 

I I UPLIFT I ____ _j 

80 KILOMETERS 

~Cisco 

b-=-=~ Canyon 

EXPLANATION 

,.~·.·.·.·.·.·.·.·.·! s ::::::::::::::::::: trawn ··········· 

~Atoka 

FIGURE 23.-Distribution of Pennsylvanian coal deposits, north-central Texas. From Mapel (1967). 

839 

County (fig. 2), where 200 feet of Canyon limestone 

bank facies, called the "Chico ridge or bank," supplies most industrial limestone for the Dallas-Fort 

Worth region. Other large quarries in both Strawn 

and Canyon limestones operate at Brownwood in 

Brown County, along Interstate Highway 20 in 

Parker, Palo Pinto, and Eastland Counties, and 

along other Texas highways. 
840 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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TEXAS 841 

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S42 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesSouth Dakota 

By ROBERT A. SCHOON 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-T 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

South Dakota Geological Survey 

Historical review and summary of areal, 

stratigraphic, structural, and economic 

geology of Mississippian and 

Pennsylvanian rocks in South Dakota 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Page 

Abstract·------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ T1 

Introduction_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1 

Cenozoic events and subsequent weathering_·----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 

Drainage and areas of best exposures·---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 

History---------------------------------------------------------------------~----------------------------------------------------------------- 2 

Geologic setting .. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 

Structural events during the Carboniferous________________________________________________________________________________ 4 

Lithostratigraphy----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 

Nature of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian contact_______________________________________________________________ 5 

Principal lithologies______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 5 

Events affecting depositional environment·-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 

Biostratigraphy-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 

Age of rocks·------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7 

Types of fossils_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 7 

Economic products·-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 

Coal·------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7 

Uranium·------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7 

Petroleum---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 

Metallic ores·------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8 

Nonmetallic minerals·----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 

Potential geothermal resources.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- . 8 

Ground water----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 

Caverns and abandoned mines·--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 

References cited·------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

FIGURE 1. Index map of Carboniferous exposures in South Dakota·---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- T2 

2. Map showing general surface exposures of Carboniferous rocks and location of caves ... ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3 

3. Map showing subsurface distribution of Carboniferous rocks in South Dakota_·----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 

4. Map showing structural elements in South Dakota·----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 

iii 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) 

SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES-SOUTH DAKOTA 

By.R<JBERT A. SCHOON1 

ABSTRACT 

Carboniferous rocks are widely distributed in the subsurface of 

South Dakota, but surface exposures are limited to approximately 

3,900 km2 (1,500 mi2 ) in the Black Hills area. In the northern Black 

Hills, Tertiary intrusive rocks cut and mineralized the Mississippian 

Madison Formation. These mineralized zones were responsible for the 

gold rush of 1876 to the northern Black Hills. Economic development 

of the Black Hills predated classic studies of the area (1899-1907) and 

South Dakota's admission to the Union (1889). As a result, production 

records were poorly preserved or never existed. 

At present, commercial use is made of the following resources: oil 

(Pennsylvanian rocks), water (Mississippian rocks), scenery that attracts tourism (caves in Mississippian rocks), and road metal and 

ballast (Mississippian rocks). Mississippian rocks appear to have the 

greatest potential resources for future economic development; the 

resources are water, oil in deeper parts of the Williston basin, and 

geothermal energy in the south-central part of the State. 

INTRODUCTION 

In the Black Hills region of South Dakota, Carboniferous rocks comprise the upper part of the DevonianMississippian Englewood Limestone, the Mississippian 

Madison (Pahasapa) Limestone, and the Pennsylvanian 

part of the Minnelusa Formation. Basmward, to the 

northeast and to the east, these Carboniferous units 

increase in thickness and are readily divided into eight 

formations. These formations are, in ascending order: 

Mississippian- Lodgepole, Mission Canyon, and Charles 

Formations (collectively known as the Madison Group); 

Pennsylvanian- Fairbank, Reclamation, Round top, 

Hayden, and Wendover-Meek Formations as defined by 

Condra, Reed, and Scherer, (1940) and McCauley, 

(1956). North of the Black Hills area, the Lower Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks are not as easily divided. 

Here it is a common, but not recognized, practice to use 

two terms, the Amsden (Lower Pennsylvanian) and the 

Minnelusa Formations to include rocks of Pennsylvanian and Permian age. 

The Carboniferous rocks crop out on the periphery of 

the Black Hills (fig. 1). On the geologic map (fig. 2), the 

outcrop pattern forms a band encircling the Black Hills. 

This band varies in width from an average of 4.8 km (3 

mi) on the east side of the Black Hills to 26 km (16 mi) on 

the west side. Carboniferous sedimentary rocks crop out 

in a small area near Bear Butte (sees. 17, 18, 19, and 20, 

Tps. 6 N., R. 6 E.). No other surface exposures of Carboniferous rocks are found in the State; however, Carboniferous rocks are widely distributed in the subsurface 

(fig. 3). . 

During the Carboniferous, no known igneous activity 

took place in South Dakota. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper has 

not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of 

the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here 

conforms with the current usage of the South Dakota 

Geological Survey. 

CENOZOIC EVENTS AND SUBSEQUENT 

WEATHERING 

According to Gries and Tullis (1955, p. 35), the close of 

the Mesozoic Era showed no evidence of impending 

Cenozoic uplift of the Black Hills area. They also stated; 

"White River (Middle Oligocene) beds rest on rocks as 

old as pre-Cambrian in the central Hills, so uplift, concurrent dissection and removal of more than 6,500 feet 

of sediments had been accomplished by that time." 

Plumley (1948, p. 536) suggested smaller scale uplifts 

during Miocene or Pliocene and at the beginning of the 

Pleistocene. Geologic history of the area is imperfectly 

known but sufficient data exist to show that · Carbonife;ous rocks were subjected to subaerial erosion 

throughout most of the Cenozoic Era. 

In the northern Black Hills, Tertiary igneous intrusions (fig. 2) accompanied the early uplift of the area. 

These intrusive rocks cut Paleozoic rock and, according 

to Gries and Tullis (1955, p. 35), in some places extend to 

Upper Cretaceous rocks. Important metallic mineral 

deposition in Carboniferous rocks resulted from this intrusive activity. 

DRAINAGE AND AREAS OF BEST EXPOSURES 

The best Carboniferous exposures generally are found 

1 South Dakota Geological Survey, Vermillion, S. Oak. 57069. 

T1 
T2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

I 

0 l 

104° 103° 102° 101° l.____ _ ___ ...J _____ ....l,__ 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

98° ____ :~ 

I 

I 

~ I 

I 

I 

43~----- -----,--------r------T-----rEXPLANATION 

0 50 MILES 

Carboniferous rocks 0 50 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 1.-Carboniferous exposures in South Dakota. 

adjacent to the well-developed radial drainage courses 

of the Black Hills area and on the west side of the Black 

Hills where Mississippian rocks form a broad high 

plateau. Many caves and sinkholes in the Carboniferous 

rocks (Tullis and Gries, 1938, pp. 233-271, and Brown, 

1944, p. 8) partly circumvent normal drainage routes. 

This diversion was demonstrated by a dye test conducted by Rahn and Gries (1973, p. 12), who stated, "It 

shows that water that disappears into sinkholes in one 

drainage basin may reappear as springs ... in a completely different drainage area." Thus, measurable 

amounts of surface-water runoff do not follow surface 

drainage patterns in the area of Carboniferous 

exposures. 

'HISTORY 

The Englewood Limestone named by Darton (1901, p. 

509) for exposures along the Chicago, Burlington and 

Quincy Railroad cut 2 miles south of Englewood, 

Lawrence County, S.Dak., has since been shown to be 

equivalent to the lowermost Lodgepole Formation (Andrichuk, 1955). Klapper and Furnish (1962, p. 2071) e.xamined conodonts from the Englewood and found an upper Devonian fauna and a lower Mississippian fauna in 

the middle part of the formation. 

In 1901, Darton (p. 509) used the Pahasapa to define a 

massive gray limestone in the Black Hills region that 

ranged from 76 to 152 m (250 to 500 ft) in thickness. 

Earlier, Peale (1893, pp. 33-39) used the term Madison 

to define a 381-m (1,250-ft) thickness of limestone in the 

Madison Valley in southwest Montana. Thus, the term 

Madison is preferred. Subsequently, Collier and 

Cathcart (1922, p. 173), working in the Little Rocky 

Mountain region of Montana, divided the Madison into 

two formations, the Lodgepole Limestone (lower) and 

the Mission Canyon Limestone (upper). Seager (1942, p. 

1420) used the term Charles Formation, and in 1952 

Sloss (p. 67) stated, "Dolomitic and brecciated zones 

high in the Pahasapa section of the Black Hills are probably Charles equivalents." 

In 1875, Winchell (p. 38) used the term Minnelusa to 

define approximately 23 m (75 ft) of"* * * nearly white, 

crystalline, subsaccharoidal sandstone * * * ." Jagger 

(1901, pp. 178-181) expanded the term to include 183 m 

(600ft) of sedimentary rocks in the northern Black Hills. 

Darton (1901, p. 500) used the term in the same manner 

as Jagger and considered the Minnelusa to be of Pennsylvanian age. In 1956, V. T. McCauley showed that the 

Minnelusa of the Black Hills is equivalent to the Hart-
SOUTH DAKOTA 

104° 103° 

I I 

45°----------------------.....,-45° 

I 

I 

I 

1- __,-- J 

I 

I 43o_L _______ _ I 

104° 

Crystal Cave 

-440 

I 

Cave -~ I I 4 

I 

I 

I 

___ j_43" 

I 

103° 

0 

0 

EXPLANATION 

Tertiary intrusive rocks 

Pennsylvanian rocks 

Mississippian rocks 

Precambrian rocks 

25 MILES 

25 KILOMETERS 

~) 

r 

-~ 100° 

~~==~--~-n--~~~45° 

. index map of western So!.!th Dakota showing map locat1on 

FIGURE 2.-General surface exposures of Carboniferous rocks and location of caves. 

T3 
T4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

103° 102° 101° 100° 99° 98° 

Pennsylvanian rocks 

0 .50 MILES 

~ Mississippian rocks 

:=====;-----1 

0 50 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 3.- Subsurface distribution of Carboniferous rocks in South Dakota. 

ville Group of eastern Wyoming and that sedimentary 

rocks above the Wend over-Meek are of Permian age. 

The South Dakota Geological Survey recognizes the 

equivalency of the terms Minnelusa Formation and the 

Hartville Formation. Because the term Minnelusa has 

precedence, it is retained, and the subdivisions of the 

Hartville are used. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

The Englewood Formation in the northern Black Hills 

unconformably overlies the Ordovician Whitewood 

Limestone. Southward, the rocks underlying the Englewood are progressively older. The Devonian-Mississippian contact within the Englewood is transitional (Jack 

Kume, oral commun., 1978). South of the Black Hills, 

the Amerada No. 1 Moody oil test (NW1/4 NE1/4 sec. 12, 

T. 12 S., R. 6 E.) penetrated Carboniferous rocks at a 

depth of 1,308 m (4,290 ft) overlying Precambrian rocks 

at 1,515 m (4,970 ft). 

Agatson (1954) and Jennings (1959, p. 994) suggested 

that the red shale ("red marker") in the upper part of the 

Minnelusa marked the base of the Permian in the Black 

Hills area. McCauley (1956, p. 157) also stated that the 

red shale "marker" was at the top of the WendoverMeek and demonstrated that the Permian-Pennsylvanian contact is unconformable. 

STRUCTURAL EVENTS DURING THE 

CARBONIFEROUS 

Structural events during the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Periods are not well known. Sedimentary 

rocks present in the extreme northwestern part of the 

State (Big Snowy Group) and an undetermined 

thickness of the Charles Formation in deeper parts of 

the Williston basin are absent in the Black Hills. This 

suggests sufficient time for considerable erosion of the 

Madison in the Black Hills area. Gries and Tullis (1955, 

p. 33) stated that, although isopach studies show a wide 

local variation in thickness of Mississippian rocks, field 

evidence indicates an erosion surface of very little relief. 

Thus, at or near the close of the Mississippian Period, 

the Black Hills area was only slightly uplifted. 

The beginning of the Pennsylvanian was accompanied 

by downwarping in the Black Hills area. This downwarping was most pronounced in the extreme southwestern part of the State, where Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks are more than 213m (700ft) thick. North 

of the Black Hills, the same interval is 61 m (200ft) thick 
SOUTH DAKOTA T5 

(Amerada No. 1 State oil test, sec. 4, T. 14 N., R. 4 E.). 

Isopach maps show general thinning of Pennsylvanian 

sediments north of the Black Hills region. These two 

localities may be on opposite sides of the "* * * two nearly flat-topped domes or uplifted blocks" described by 

Noble (1952, p. 31). According to Noble, the eastern 

north-trending block has been more highly elevated than 

the western northwest-trending block; this position suggests that the two blocks composing the Black Hills 

uplift probably moved independently. However, isopach 

maps indicate that only minor structural events took 

place during the Permian-Cretaceous Periods. 

LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY 

NATURE OF MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN-CONTACT 

In South Dakota, the Carboniferous is divided into 

eight units that define subsurface rocks. The correlation 

of these subsurface units· with their equivalents in the 

Pennsylvanian outcrop areas of the Black Hills is 

difficult. Bates (1955, pp. 1991-1995) disclosed the 

reason for this difficulty in his argument that the term 

Minnelusa Sandstone (of Black Hills usage) is a 

misnomer. He also stated that the Minnelusa in the type 

area (Rapid Creek Canyon) contains only about 58 percent sandstone and that subsurface sections contain an 

even lower percentage. 

According to Gries and Mickelson (1964, p. 111), the 

upper surface of the Madison has a pre-Minnelusa karst 

topography and contains sinkhole breccias, cavern filling, and residual clays. Charles Baker (unpub. date, 

1952) stated "Cuts along Highway 16 in the vicinity of 

Jewel Cave National Monument show numerous examples of the collapse and downfolding of the basal Minnelusa red laterite into solution sinkholes and caverns of 

the underlying Madison Limestone." If the term "collapse" is correctly used, then at least some of the 

sinkholes formed after the basal Minnelusa sediments 

were deposited on top of the Madison. This may also explain the uncontrollable lost circulation zones encountered in drilling for oil in deeper parts of the 

Williston basin. A few of these zones are in areas where 

the timespan was relatively short between Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian deposition; this suggests some solution activity after the Pennsylvanian Period began. 

PRINCIPAL LITHOLOGIES 

The Upper Devonian-Lower Mississippian Englewood 

Limestone exposed in the Williston basin (Sandberg 

1962, fig. 6). However, Sandberg (p. 56) recognized an 

angular unconformity between the Englewood and 

Madison Limestones in the Black Hills area. Kume 

(1963, pp. 23-25) divided the formation in the Deadwood 

junkyard section into three units, a lower unit 7.6 m (25 

ft) thick of gray silty shale, a middle unit 7.3 m (24 ft) 

thick of grayish-red, purple, argillaceous, and partly 

shaly limestone, and an upper unit 1.5 m (5 ft) thick of 

yellowish-gray dolomitic limestone. Elsewhere, in the 

northern Black Hills near the city of Deadwood, Andrichuk (1955, p. 2176) described the Englewood as darkgray to dark-purple-gray shale containing Mississippian 

graptolites. 

The Madison· (Pahasapa) Limestone (formerly called 

Gray Limestone) crops out on the periphery of the Black 

Hills, and, according to Gries (1952, p. 71), it consists of 

91.5 to 192m (300 to 630ft) of medium-grained crystalline, light-gray to buff limestone or dolomitic limestone. 

A short distance southeast of the Black Hills, the 

Madison thins to a feather edge on the Precambrian surface. (See fig. 3.) The term Pahasapa is the Sioux Indian 

name for the Black Hills; it was used by Darton (1901, p. 

509) for exposures in the Black Hills. The type of locality 

was not designated. 

The term Minnelusa was used by Winchell (1875, p. 38) 

to define 22.9 m (75 ft) of" * * * nearly white, crystalline, subsaccharoidal sandstone, coarsely granular when 

weathered and hard; has somewhat the aspect" of 

crinoidal limestone but without crinoid stems." Succeeding authors expanded the term Minnelusa Sandstone to include approximately 395 m (1,300 ft) of 

sedimentary rocks in the southwestern part of the State 

that consists of rocks of Permian and Pennsylvanian 

age. Reed (1955, p. 46), McCauley (1956, p. 157), and 

Jennings (1959, p. 994) stated that the top of the Pennsylvanian rocks was marked by the "Red Shale" unit of 

the uppermost Wend over-Meek Formation. 

The principal lithololgies of Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks appear to be better known in subsurface sections than in outcrops in the Black Hills. In the Sun 

Lance No. 1 Nelson oil test (NE1/4 SE1/4 sec. 21, T. 7 S., 

R. 1 E.), the basal Fairbank Sandstone is composed of 

10.7 m (35ft) of silty and sandy, plastic, variegated red, 

gray, green, and purple shale at depths of 900.7 to 911.4 

m (2,955 to 2,990 ft). From 875.4 to 900.7 m (2,872 to 

2,955 ft) is the Reclamation Formation, which is light-· 

tan, fine crystalline to sublithographic limestone containing interbedded green and red plastic shale. The 

Round top Formation, from 804.7 to 875.4 m (2,640 to 

2,872 ft), is composed of white to gray fine- to mediumgrained sandstone, interbedded with light-colored sublithographic limestone and red and green shale. The 

overlying Hayden Formation, from 7 43.7 to 804.4 m 

(2,440 to 2,640 ft) has 12.2 m (40 ft) of white, fine- to 

medium-grained well-sorted, subrounded, friable sandstone at the top. Below this sandstone, the formation is 

predominantly tan to gray fine crystalline dolomite interbedded with splintery, black, highly radioactive 

shale. From 691.9 to 743.7 m (2,270 to 2,440 ft) is the 
T6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Wendover-Meek Formation. The top 6 m (20ft) is soft, 

plastic to flaky, brick-red shale. This shale unit is known 

as the "red marker" bed that is commonly accepted as 

the top of the Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks. 

Underlying the "red marker" is white, light- to-darkgray, fine to microcystalline dolomite and intervals of 

dolomitic and anhydritic, fine- to medium-grained sandstone and shale. 

Except for the term "red marker," subsurface terminology has not been used in outcrop studies in the 

Black Hills area. The reason for this may be the 

preponderance of sandstone in surface exposures, 

whereas, in subsurface sections near the Black Hills 

area, carbonate and evaporite deposits are more plentiful than sandstone. If these observations are correct, 

significant changes occur between the outcrop and subsurface sections. 

EVENTS AFFECTING DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENT 

Gries and Tullis (1955, p. 33) suggested that, 

Sagging of the shelf in early Mississippian time permitted a read vance 

of the sea from the north. Locally dark gray shales were the first to be 

deposited, but over most of the area, carbonates, contaminated with 

iron-rich material from the Deadwood and Pre-Cambrian surfaces, 

formed the Englewood formation. As submergence continued these 

old surfaces were buried, and deposition of very pure carbonates 

followed. The shoreline probably retreated to a line north of the Black 

Hills before Charles time. 

/04° /03° 

~/~DAR CREEK I '\ANTICLINE 

' 

1 

I 

I CHADRON ARCH 

This relatively low-lying landmass existed in the vicinity 

of the northern Black Hills until nearly Middle Pennsylvanian time because the lower two formations (Fairbank and Reclamation) are absent at the Weller No. 1 

Wiesman oil test (SW 1

/4SE1/4 sec. 30, T. 7 N., R. 4 E.) 

owing to nondeposition. Here, only 82.3 m (270 ft) of 

Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks are present. Thus, the 

statement by Jennings (1959, p. 987) that " * * * based 

on new faunal evidence * * * the greater part of the Minnelusa in the northern Black Hills is Permian in age" is 

corroborated by subsurface correlations, and lower Pennsylvanian rocks are not uniformly present in that area. 

Farther south, between the Chadron arch (fig. 4) and 

the southern Black Hills, correlations of the Fairbank, 

Reclamation, and Roundtop Formations are difficult; 

however, from the extreme southwestern part of the 

State to the southern part of the Williston basin, correlations are easily made. This suggests that during 

Early Pennsylvanian time the eastern block of the Black 

Hills (Noble, 1952, p. 31) was elevated in relation to the 

western block. In addition, the northern part of the 

eastern block was apparently elevated more than the 

southern part. The early Pennsylvanian sea encroached 

from the north and surrounded, perhaps covered, the 

area of the Black Hills. The depositional environment 

ranged from nonmarine to nearshore marine through 

CANADIAN 

98° ____ :;~ 

SHIELD 

I 

I r450 

-;---=----- -----,-----~----r-----

0 50 MILES 

0 50 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 4.- Structural elements in South Dakota. 
SOUTH DAKOTA T7 

most of the Early Pennsylvanian Period in the area of 

the Black Hills. This may have prompted Jennings' conclusion (1959, p. 991), "This evidence at hand indicates 

that the northern and southern Hills deposits of the Minnelusa are not even grossly correlative on interval 

along. In addition, individual fossiliferous horizons are 

not consistent between the two ares [sic]." 

BIOSTRATIGRAPHY 

AGE OF ROCKS 

A complete record of Carboniferous floral and faunal 

fossils is not present in the Black Hills area. The hiatus 

between Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks in this 

area represents a timespan equal to that required to 

deposit the upper part of the Mission Canyon, Charles, 

Kibbey, Otter, and Heath Formations of the Mississippian age and rocks of Early Pennsylvanian age that are 

present in deeper parts of the Williston basin. In addition, McCauley (1956, p. 153) recognized an unconformity on the Pennsylvanian surface in shallower parts of 

the basin. Because no sedimentary rocks are found at 

the top of the Pennsylvanian and the Lower Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks are unevenly distributed over 

the Hills area, many individual fossiliferous beds are not· 

consistent from the northern to the southern Black Hills 

areas. Further studies of the caliber of Jennings' work 

may solve many of the present problems in correlating 

Pennsylvanian rocks in the Hills area. 

In 1930, Dille collected fossils from the base of the 

Minnelusa in the southern Hills and concluded that the 

basal beds of the formation were the equivalent of the 

Des Moines stage of the Carboniferous. In the same 

year, Roth described a section at Loring Siding (also in 

the southern Hills) 30.5 m (100ft) above the base of the 

Minnelusa. In this section, Roth recognized a fusulinid 

that resembled Fusulinella euthysepta Henbest and suggested that the lower part of the Minnelusa was 

deposited during the Des Moines stage. On the basis of 

fossils from four fossil-bearing beds near Beulah, Wyo., 

in the northwestern Black Hills, Brady (1931, p. 188) 

suggested that these forms were typical of Missourian 

beds of the midcontinent Pennsylvanian and that the upper part of the Minnelusa in the area was "Upper Coal 

Measures" in age. 

TYPES OF FOSSILS 

Fossils from the Pennsylvanian are generally poorly 

preserved. Most researchers have centered their attention on fusulinids that are present throughout the Minnelusa outcrop. Principal exposures are along the west 

flank of the Black Hills, along the northern flank in Bear 

Butte and Sand Creek Canyons, on the southern flank in 

Beaver Creek and Hot Brook Canyons, and in the vicinity of Loring Siding. Additional exposures are in Spearfish, Little Elk Creek, Rapid, Redbird, and Hell Canyons 

(Jennings, 1959, p. 986). 

Fossils are common in the Madison (Pahasapa) 

Limestone and, according to Gries (1952, p. 71), indicate 

a Kinderhook-Osage age for the formation. The 

Englewood (lowermost Madison) contains fossil corals 

and brachiopods, and exposures above the Deadwood 

junkyard yielded the second known occurrence of 

Mississippian graptolites in North America (Ruedemann 

and Lockman, 1942). Mississippian rocks crop out 

around the entire Black Hills, and collecting areas exist 

in widespread areas. 

ECONOMIC PRODUCTS 

COAL 

To date, no commercially important seams of coal 

have been discovered in Carboniferous rocks in South 

Dakota. The Hayden Formation appears to be the most 

promising prospect in the entire Carboniferous section 

because very carbonaceous shale is present in subsurface sections. Charles Baker (unpub. data, 1952) mentioned a %-m (1

/z-ft) coal seam in the Minnelusa exposure 

along Highway 16 near Jewel Cave and 1

/z-m (11/z ft) of 

coal or oil shale in he Beaver Creek section. 

URANIUM 

The Hayden Formation is viewed with some interest 

by energy companies. This interest has centered on the 

highly radioactive black shale that occurs wherever the 

Hayden is present in the State. At present, no uranium 

is produced from rocks of Carboniferous age. 

PETROLEUM 

The five-well Barker Dome oil field is in sec. 34, T. 6 

S., R. 1 E. and produces from the "Leo Sand" (informal 

term) approximately 10 m (30 ft) below the top of the 

Hayden Formation. This field was discovered in Custer 

County in 1955, and, at present, the total cumulative 

production is 209,326 barrels. Numerous shows have 

been reported from Pennsylvanian rocks in oil tests in 

deeper parts of the Williston basis, but the Barker Dome 

field is the only field in the State that produces from 

Pennsylvanian rocks. 

Mississippian rocks do not yield oil in commercial 

quantities anywhere in the State. Many shows of free oil 

from drill-stem tests of unsuccessful oil wells in the extreme northern part of the State have been reported. 

Nearly all these shows were from the top of the Mission 

Canyon Formation just below the lowermost anhydrite 

bed of the Charles Formation. These reported shows appear to follow a trend, which is not accurately defined 

owing to the scarcity of subsurface information. It is 
T8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

believed that the possibilities are good for the discovery 

of commercially productive oil fields in this area in the 

near future. 

METALLIC ORES 

The Black Hills of South Dakota have a long history as 

a famous gold-producing area. Perhaps the first page of 

this history was inscribed on a stone by an early gold 

seeker. According to Dockery (1952, p. 9), Lewis and 

Ivan Thoen found a.slab of native sandstone at the foot 

of Lookout Mountain near Spearfish. Inscribed on this 

slab was, "Came to these hills in 1833 seven of us, 

DeLacompt, Ezra Kind, G. W. Wood, T. Brown, R. 

Kent, Wm. King, Indian Crow. All ded but me Ezra 

Kind. Killed by Ind beyond the high hill got our gold 

June 1834. Got all the gold we could carry our ponys all 

got by the Indians. I have lost my gun and nothing to eat 

and Indians hunting me." The Theon stone is in the 

Adams Memorial Museum in Deadwood, S.Dak. 

Horatio Ross, attached to Custer's expedition of 187 4, 

panned gold in paying quantities near the present town 

of Custer S.Dak. The story broke in Chicago on August 

24, 187 4, and initiated the gold rush of 1875. According 

to Shapiro and Gries (1970, p. 1), the area of the Black 

Hills has been mined nearly continuously from 1877 to 

the present; total value of production is more than $75 

million in gold and silver. 

The Carboniferous rocks in the Black Hills area appear to have many potential host zones throughout the 

section, but Shapiro and Gries (1970, p. 18) stated, "No 

Tertiary ore deposits are known any higher in the section than the top of the Pahasapa." These Tertiary ore 

deposits in the Madison (Pahasapa) Limestone are concentrated in the northern Black Hills (fig. 2). Shapiro 

and Gries (1970, p. 40) indicated that the most important 

gold-silver ore-bearing Madison rocks are found in the 

Ragged Top mining district. Of lesser importance is a 

small prospect in the Madison near Galena that was 

reported by Irving (1904, p. 172). In the Ragged Top 

district, production was from replacement deposits 

along vertical fissures cutting the Madison Formation 

and from irregular masses of brecciated carbonate rock 

at several localities. In some places, these deposits yielded ores assaying as much as 100 oz of gold per ton. 

The Madison Formation is host to lead-silver ores in 

the Carbonate Mining district. Shapiro and Gries (1970, 

p. 41) described two distinct types of ore. The first type 

of ore partly filled a N. 85 ° E. vertical fissure in the area 

and consisted of soft pinkish-red, ferruginous gangue 

reportedly containing galena, lead carbonate, and 

cerargyrite. This ore-bearing fissure trended east over a 

distance of 823 m (460ft) and varied in width from 0.6 to 

7.6 m (2 to 25 ft). 

The second type of ore consisted of irregular shoots 

filling old solution cavities within the Madison 

Limestone and was intimately associated with porphyry 

dikes. These ores often carried very high values of silver 

and lesser amounts of gold, lead, and manganese. 

Most of the ore deposits in the Madison Formation 

have been discovered by surface investigation. Future 

discoveries may be made by geophysical surveys, by 

prospect drilling, and by the study of the solution-cavity 

network in the Madison and (or) Minnelusa Formations. 

Most of the metallic deposits in the Madison 

Limestone were mined out in the early 1900's. Production records have been lost or poorly recorded; thus, accurate overall figures are not available. Those that do 

exist are found in Shapiro and Gries (1970) or in U.S. 

Bureau of Mines (1954, 1955). 

Metallic ores have not been reported from Carboniferous rocks in the southern Black Hills where 

potential host rocks are present. Post-Cambrian igneous 

activity is not evident in that area; therefore, 

mineralization of Carboniferous rocks has not taken 

place. 

NONMETALLIC MINERALS 

Pennsylvanian rocks in the Black Hills area are not 

used for commercial purposes. Gries (1964, p. 99) stated 

that quarry operations in the purer carbonate rocks of 

the Madison Limestone generally have been along 

railroad routes, and many of these quarries have produced road ballast for the railroads. At Loring Siding, 

two quarries supplied burned lime and limestone for use 

in the sugar-beet industry. At Dumont (south of Lead), 

the Madison Limestone was quarried for use . in the 

Deadwood smelters, and at Pringle, the formation is 

used for the production of lime and various rock 

products. 

POTENTIAL GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES 

Geothermal development is in its infancy in South 

Dakota, but high energy costs will spur its growth. For 

some years, the City of Midland has used water from the 

Madison to heat the grade-school and high-school 

facilities. The hospital management at the city of Pierre 

is investigating the possibilities of using hot water from 

the Madison aquifer in its heating and sterilization 

systems in the hospital complex. The City of Phillip uses 

the Madison aquifer for a water supply, but the heated 

water (73°C, 160°F) is allowed to cool in Lake Waggoner prior to use. 

In this south-central part of South Dakota, a geothermal gradient more than twice the worldwide average exists over an area of 36,260 km2 (14,000 mi2) (Schoon and 

McGregor, 1971, fig. 1). The Madison Limestone is present in most of this area and yields copious amounts of 
SOUTH DAKOTA T9 

fresh water. The long-range aim of the South Dakota 

Geological Survey is to determine the heating 

mechanism that is causing the abnormal gradient. When 

this aim is realized, water from the Madison will almost 

certainly be used in geothermal development. 

GROUND WATER 

The Madison Limestone is present in the subsurface of 

the western two-thirds of the State. This formation 

yields large amounts of water to wells. This fact attracted the attention of engineers, who have formulated 

plans to use large-scale withdrawals of water for industrial use. However, many cities and ranchers in 

western South Dakota use the Madison aquifer as a 

water source. In addition, the Madison aquifer 

recharges the Dakota artesian system in the 

southeastern part of the State, and thousands of wells 

drilled to the Dakota produce water that originates from 

the Madison (Schoon, 197.1, fig. 19). Therefore, an accurate estimate of withdrawal or water loss from the 

Madison cannot be made. Any combination of withdrawal and water loss over recharge will result in depletion of water and in serious economic loss to the 

thousands who use the Madison aquifer and the Dakota 

artesian system. 

Recharge to the Madison aquifer is unique in that 

surface-water runoff can be observed recharging the formation in the Black Hills area. This was demonstrated 

by Rahn and Gries (1973, fig. 6). Brown (1944, p. 19) 

reported that Doty Spring had ceased flowing during an 

extended period of drought. At this time, a man 

entered the spring opening and crawled several hundred 

feet into the fissure. The man reported that the fissure 

opened out into a room 30 feet high. Crooks (1968, p. 

1955) concluded that, rather than a network of small 

solution cavities, conduitlike systems are available to 

transport runoff water, and that water in these conduits 

moves faster than the surface water. Rahn and Gries 

(1973, p. 41) also reported that some caves are below 

streambeds, and in such caves, it is possible to crawl to a 

point where water still flows above. 

The Mississippian rocks in the greater part of the 

Williston basin, as in the Black Hills area, were exposed 

to weathering before the deposition of Pennsylvanian 

sediments. That these areas are also characterized by 

water-filled caverns at depth appears to be confirmed by 

a few drillers, who reported that tool strings drop 6 feet 

or more during the drilling in the Madison Limestone. 

Owen (1898, p. 164), in describing Onyx Cave, mentioned the existence of a "cave river" of considerable 

volume. Crooks (1968, p. 55) is probably well within the 

bounds of reason in suggesting that "conduit-like networks" exist in the formation and serve to transport surface runoff to ground-water storage. 

CAVERNS AND ABANDONED MINES 

Speleologists and the curious tourist can find adventure in the natural caves and the abandoned mines in the 

Madison Limestone of the Black Hills area. In addition 

to the current value of these subterranean passages as 

tourist attractions, these caverns and abandoned mines 

also have potential value as storage areas and shelters in 

the event of nuclear attack. 

All these caves have formed in the Madison 

Limestone. Figure 2 shows. the .general location of. caves 

of the Black Hills. Highway directions are as follows: 

Jewel Cave is 21 km (13 mi) west of Custer on U.S. 

Highway 16 to Newcastle, Wyo.; Jasper Cave is 1.6 km 

(1 mi) west of Jewel Cave; Wind Cave is 16 km (10 mi) 

north of Hot Springs, S. Dak.; Onyx Cave is 4.8 km (3 

mi) southwest of Wind Cave; Rushmore Cave is 6.4 km 

(4 mi) east of Keystone, in Hayward, S. Dak.; Sitting 

Bull Cave is about 19 km (12 mi) southwest of Rapid City 

on U.S. Highway 16; Nameless Cave is 8 km (5 mi) west 

of Rapid City; Wildcat Cave is a short distance west of 

Nameless Cave; Stage Barn Caverns are 14.8 km (3 mi) 

south of Piedmont, S.Dak.; Wonderland Cave is on Elk 

Ridge and is reached by leaving U.S. Highway 14 north 

of Piedmont; Crystal Cave is on the opposite side of Elk 

Canyon. Ice Cave is near Galena, S. Dak.; and Davenport Cave is near Sturgis, S. Dak. Descriptions of these 

caves have been provided by Tullis and Gries (1938). 

The many abandoned mines in the Black Hills may be 

quite hazardous. For an accurate account of the location 

and general condition of these mines, see U.S. Bureau of 

Mines (1954, 1955). 

REFERENCES CITED 

Agatson, R. S., 1954, Pennsylvanian and lower Permian of northern 

and eastern Wyoming: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., 

v. 38, no. 4, p. 508-583. 

Andrichuk, J. M., 1955, Mississippian Madison group stratigraphy and 

sedimentation in Wyoming and southern Montana: Am. Assoc. 

Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 39, no. 11, p. 2170-2210. 

Bates, R. L., 1955, Permo-Pennsylvanian formations between 

Laramie Mountains, Wyoming, and Black Hills, South Dakota: 

Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v.39, no. 10, p. 1979-2002. 

Brady, F. H., 1931, Minnelusa Formation of Beulah district, 

northwestern Black Hills, Wyoming: Am. Assoc. Petroleum 

Geologists Bull., v. 15, no. 2, p. 183-188. 

Brown, C. B., 1944, Repit on an investigation of water losses 

in streams flowing east out of the Black Hills, South Dakota: U.S. 

Soil Conserv. Service, Spec. Rep. 8, 45 p. 

Collier, A. J., and Cathcart, S. H., 1922, Possibility of finding 

oil in laccloithic domes south of the Little Rocky Mountains, 

Montana: U.S. Geol. Survey B~ll. 736-F, p. 171-178. 

Condra, G. E., Reed, E. C., and Scherer, 0. J., 1940, Correlation of the 

formations of the Laramie Range, Hartville Uplift, Black Hills, 

and western Nebraska: Nebraska Geol. Survey Bull. 13, 52 p. 
TlO THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Crooks, T. J., 1968, Water losses and gains across the Pahasapa 

Limestone, Box Elder Creek, Black Hills, South Dakota: South 

Dakota Acad. Sci. Proc., v. 47, p. 49-55. 

Darton, N. H., 1901, Preliminary description of the geology and 

water resources of the southern half of the Black Hills and 

adjoining regions in South Dakota and Wyoming: U.S. Geol. 

Survey, 21st Ann. Rept., pt. 4, p. 489-599. 

Dille, G. S., 1930, Minnelusa of Black Hills of South Dakota: 

Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 14. no. 5, p.619-623. 

Dockery, W. L., 1952, Paha-Sapa Pageant, in Billings Geological 

Society, Third Annual Field Conference, September 4, 5, 6, 7, 

1952, Black Hills-Williston Basin: [Billings, Mont.], p.9-16. 

Gries, J. P., 1952, Paleozoic stratigraphy of western South Dakota, in 

Billings Geological Society, Guidebook, Third Annual Field 

Conference, September 4, 5, 6, 7, 1952, Black Hills-Williston 

Basin: [Billings, Mont.J, p. 70-72. 

--- 1964, Nonmetallic and industrial mineral resources- Limestone, in Mineral and water resources of South Dakota: U.S. 

88th Cong., 2d sess. Comm. Print p. 96-102. (Also issued as 

South Dakota State Geol. Survey Bull. 16.) 

Gries, J.P., and Mickelson, J. C., 1964, Mississippian carbonate rocks 

of western South Dakota and adjoining areas, in Billings 

Geological Society, North Dakota Geological Society, and 

Saskatchewan Geological Society, Third International Williston 

Basin Symposium, Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History, 

Regina, Saskatchewan, September 17, 18, 19, 1964: lBillings, 

Mont.], p. 109-118. 

Gries, J. P., and Tullis, E. L., 1955, The Geologic history of the 

Black Hills, in North Dakota Geological Society Guidebook, 

South Dakota Black Hills [3d] Field Conference, September 14, 

15, 16, 17, 1955: Conrad Publishing Co., p. 31-36. 

Irving, J. D., Emmons, S. F., and Jagger, T. A., 1904, Economic 

resources of the northern Black Hills: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. 

Paper 26, 222 p. 

Jagger, T. A., Jr., 1901, The laccoliths of the Black Hills: U.S. Geol. 

Survey 21st Ann. Rept., pt. 3, p. 163-303. 

Jennings, T. V., 1959, Faunal zonation of the Minnelusa Formation, 

Black Hills, South Dakota: Jour. Paleont., v. 33, no. 6, p.986-1000. 

Klapper, Gilbert, and Furnish, W. M., 1962, Devonian-Mississippian 

Englewood Formation in Black Hills, South Dakota: Am. Assoc. 

Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 46, no. 11, p. 2071-2078. 

Kume, Jack, 1963, The Bakken and Englewood Formations of North 

Dakota and northwestern South Dakota: North Dakota Geol. 

Survey Bull. 39, 87 p. 

McCauley, V. T., 1956, Pennsylvanian and lower Permian of the 

Williston Basin, in North Dakota Geological Society and 

Saskatchewan Geological Society [First International] Williston 

Basin Symposium, Bismarck, North Dakota, October 9, 10, 11, 12, 

1566: Bismarck, Conrad Publishing Co., p. 150-164. 

Noble, J. A., 1952, Structural features of the Black Hills and adjacent 

areas developed since Pre-Cambrian time, in Billings Geological 

Society, Guidebook, Third Annual Field Conference, September 

4, 5, 6, 7, 1952, Black Hills-Williston Basin: !Billings, Mont.J, 

p. 31-37. 

Owen, L. A., 1898, Cave regions of the Ozarks and the Black Hills: 

Cinncinnati, Ohio, 228 p. 

Peale, A. C., 1893, The Paleozoic section in the vicinity of Three Forks, 

Montana: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull., 110, 54 p. 

Plumley, W. J., 1948, Black Hills terrace gravels: A study in sediment 

transport: Jour. Geology, v. 56, no. 6, p. 526-577. 

Rahn, P. H., and Gries, J.P., 1973, Large springs in the Black Hills of 

South Dakota and Wyoming: South Dakota Geol. Survey Rept. 

lnv. 107, 46 p. 

Reed, E. C., 1955, Correlation of the Permo-Pennsylvanian rocks of 

the Black Hills with the northern Mid-Continent region, in North 

Dakota Geological Society Guidebook, South Dakota Black Hills 

[3d] Field Conference, September 14, 15, 16, 17, 1955: Bismarck, 

Conrad Publishing Co., p. 44-47. 

Ruedemann, Rudolf, and Lochmann, Christina, 1942, Graptolites from 

the Englewood Formation (Mississippian) of the Black Hills, South 

Dakota: Jour. Paleontology, v. 16, no. 5, p. 657-659. 

Roth, Robert, 1930, Regional extent of Marmaton and Cherokee MidContinent Pennsylvanian Formations: Am. Assoc. Petroleum 

Geologists, v. 14, no. 10, p. 1249-1278. 

Sandberg, C. A., 1962, Geology of the Williston Basin, North Dakota, 

Montana, and South Dakota, with reference to subsurface disposal 

of radioactive wastes: U.S. Geol. Survey open-file rept., 148 p. 

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in South Dakota: South Dakota Geol. Survey Rept. lnv. 104, 55 p. 

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Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 26, no. 8, p. 1414-1423. 

Shapiro, L. H., and Gries, J. P., 1970, Ore deposits in rocks of 

Paleozoic and Tertiary Age of the northern Black Hills, South 

Dakota: U.S. Geol. Survry open-file rept., 235 p. 

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Basin: [Billings, Mont.], p. 65-69. 

Tullis, E. L., and Gries, J., P., 1938, Black Hills caves: South Dakota 

School of Mines and Technology, The Black Hills Engineer, 

v. 24, no. 4, p. 233-271. 

U.S. Bureau of Mines, Region 5, 1954, Black Hills mineral atlas, South 

Dakota-pt. 1: U.S. Bur. Mines Inf. Circx. 7688, 123 p. 

--- 1955, Black Hills mineral atlas, South Dakota-pt. 2: U.S. Bur. 

Mines Inf. Circ. 7707, 208 p. 

Winchell, Z.H., 1875, Geological Report, in Ludlow, William, Report 

of a reconnaissance of the Black Hills of Dakota made in the 

summer of 1874: Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 

p. 21-66. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesWyoming 

By DAVID R. LAGESON, EDWIN K. MAUGHAN, andWILLIAMJ. SANDO 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-U 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Geological Survey of Wyoming 

Historical review and summary of 

areal, stratigraphic, structural, 

and economic geology of Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian rocks in Wyoming 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Page Page 

Abstract U1 Lower part of the Carboniferous-Continued 

Introduction, by David R. Lageson ------------------ 2 

2 

Summary of geologic history ----------·--------- U14 

Acknowledgments Pennsylvanian (upper Carboniferous) System of ______________ -- _____ -------- Wyoming, by Edwin K. Maughan ----------- 16 Lower part of the Carboniferous, by William J. Sando 

Introduction ----------------------------------

2 

2 

4 

Introduction ---------------------------------- 16 

Previouswork_____________________________ 18 

Acknowledgments ------------------- ____ _ Acknowledgments ------------------------- 18 

Regional stratigraphy ------------------------ 5 

5 

5 

Tectonic framework --------------------------- 18 

Lower depositional sequence ---------------

Madison Group -----------------------

Madison Limestone -------------------

Guernsey Formation ------------------

Englewood Formation and Pahasapa 

Limestone --------------------------

Upper depositional sequence ---------------

Amsden Formation --------------------

Casper Formation --------------------

Fountain Formation ------------------

Hartville Formation ------------------

Minnelusa Formation -----------------

10 

12 

12 

12 

12 

13 

13 

13 

14 

Stratigraphy --------------------------------- 20 

Casper, Hartville, and Minnelusa Formations 20 

Fountain Formation ---------------------- 23 

Round Valley Limestone ------------------ 24 

Morgan Formation ----------------------- 24 

'Veber Sandstone ------------------------- 26 

Wells Formation ------------------------- 26 

Amsden Formation ----------------------- 26 

Tensleep Sandstone ----------------------- 32 

Economic products from Carboniferous rocks, by 

David R. Lageson --------------------------- 33 

Selected references ------------------------------- 34 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

FIGURES 1, 2. Map of Wyoming showing: 

TABLE 

1. Present structural features ___ ___ _ __ ___ _ __ _____ _ _ _ ____ __ _ __ ___ ___ _ ___ _ __ __ __ ___ ____ _ ______ U3 

2. Formational nomenclature of Mississippian rocks and lower part of Pennsylvanian rocks _____ 4 

3. Chart showing nomenclature and temporal re-lations of Mississippian rocks and lower part of Pennsylvanian rocks in Wyoming and adjacent parts of Idaho --------------------------------------- 7 

4. Map showing thickness of Mississippian rocks in Wyoming and adjacent areas, trends of cross sections, and locations of key stratigraphic sections shown in figure 5 ------------------------------ 8 

5. Cross sections showing stratigraphic and structural relations of Mississippian rocks from southeastern 

Wyoming to southeastern Idaho and from southeastern Wyoming to southern Montana ---------- 9 

6. Paleogeologic map showing ages of rocks underlying the Madison Limestone and equivalent rocks in 

Wyoming ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 

7. Paleotectonic map of Carboniferous deposition in the western United States ------------------------- 15 

8. Index map showing localities referred to in text---------------------------------------------------- 17 

9. Map showing paleogeographic elements affecting deposition and preservation of Pennsylvanian rocks in 

· Wyon1ing and adjacent States --------------------------------------------------------------- 18 

10. Chart presenting a summary of nomenclature and correlation of Pennsylvanian rocks in Wyoming ____ 21 

11. Correlation of sections of Pennsylvanian strata in Wyoming from the north flank of the Uinta Mountains, Utah, to the Tongue River area on the northeastern flank of the Bighorn Mountains _______ 25 

12. Correlation of sections of Pennsylvanian rocks in northwestern Wyoming from Targhee Pass, Mont. 

and Idaho, to Wind River Canyon, Wyo ----------------------------------------------------- 28 

TABLES 

1. Geographic locations and sources of information for stratigraphic sections shown on figures 4 and 5 __ 

2. Oil and gas production from Carboniferous reservoirs in Wyoming --------------------------------

III 

Page 

U10 

33 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) SYSTEMS. 

IN THE UNITED STATES-WYOMING 

By DAVID R. LAGESON 1

, EDWIN K. iVfAllGHAN) and ''VILLIAM J. SANDO 

ABSTRACT 

Lower Carboniferous strata of Wyoming (Mississippian 

to early Middle Pennsylvanian) represent two marine depositional sequences separated by a period of epeirogenic uplift 

and erosion. The Mississippian part of the succession is a 

wedge that thickens northwestward from a zero edge in 

southeastern Wyoming; this wedge is disconformably overlain by predominantly thin-bedded terrigenous strata of the 

upper part of the succession. 

In western Wyoming, the lower depositional sequence is 

represented by the Madison Group, which includes the Mission Canyon and Lodgepole Limestones. The Lodgepole includes, in ascending order, a basal dark shale (Kinderhookian), which represents the upper tongue of the Cottonwood Canyon Member; the Paine Member (Kinderhookian); 

and the Woodhurst Member (early Osagean). The overlying 

Mission Canyon Limestone is of middle Osagean to early 

Meramecian age. Throughout most of central Wyoming, the 

lower depositional sequence is represented by the Madison 

Limestone, which includes six members, ranging from Kinderhookian to early Meramecian. These are, in ascending 

order, the Cottonwood Canyon Member (conodont-bearing 

shale, siltstone, and silty dolomite), lower dolomite member 

(thick-bedded crinoidal dolomite), Woodhurst Member (crossbedded crinoidal dolomite and limestone), cherty dolomite 

member (thin-bedded dolomite and dolomitic limestone), cliffy 

limestone member (cherty bioclastic crinoidal limestone), and 

the Bull Ridge Member (a lower red and yellow shale and 

siltstone and an upper stromatolitic limestone and dolomite). 

In the Hartville uplift area of eastern Wyoming, the lower 

depositional sequence is represented by the Guernsey Formation, which consists of limestone and dolomitic limestone unconformably lying on Precambrian, Cambrian, and Ordovician rocks. Strata equivalent to the Madison Limestone in 

the Black Hills include the lower Mississippian Englewood 

Formation (red and purple dolomite, limestone, and shale) 

and the Kinderhookian-to-Osagean Pahasapa Limestone. 

The upper depositional sequence of lower Carboniferous 

strata in Wyoming consists of three (four in western Wyoming) transgressive facies, which are members of the 

Amsden Formation. The Darwin Sandstone Member (late 

Meramecian to late Chesterian), the basal transgressive 

unit, rests disconformably on the Bull Ridge Member of the 

Madison. The Horseshoe Shale Member conformably overlies 

the Darwin and consists of a late Chesterian to Early Pennsylvanian succ·ession of transgressive red beds. The Moffat 

1 Geological Su1·vey of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071. 

Trail Limestone of western Wyoming is a transgressive 

wedge-shaped body of bioclastic limestone between the 

Horseshoe Shale and Ranchester Limestone Members of the 

Amsden Formation. In an alternative to the view expressed 

sequence is the Ranchester Limestone (late Chesterian-toMorrowan in western Wyoming and Morrowan-to-Atokan in 

central Wyoming), which consists of interbedded dolomite, 

limestone, sandstone, and shale. 

Two points of view are presented concerning the stratigraphic relations and paleontologic interpretation of the 

Amsden Formation. In an alternative to the view expressed 

above, the Pennsylvanian rocks in Wyoming comprise two 

stratigraphic sequences bounded by regional unconformities. 

Red mudstone and limestone characterize strata in the lower 

sequence, and sandstone and dolomite characterize strata in 

the upper sequence. Initial deposits of the lower sequence are 

red mudstone probably no older than about middle Morrowan, 

except in the subsurface of southwestern Wyoming, where 

early Morrowan strata may be present. The basal red mudstone lies unconformably upon Mississippian strata, except 

in the vicinity of the ancestral Rocky Mountain Front Range, 

where it lies upon Precambrian rocks. The red beds grade 

upward to interbedded limestone and mudstone of late Morrowan and early Atokan age, but the limestone strata are 

absent at many places because of beveling on a Middle Pennsylvanian erosional surface. 

Initial deposits of the upper sequence are heterogeneous 

and locally may be thinly bedded red, green, or varicolored 

mudstone, sandstone, or dolomite of late Atokan to early 

Des Moinesian age. Basal strata of the upper sequence lie 

unconformably upon lower Pennsylvanian strata at most 

places in Wyoming; however, locally, where: the lower Pennsylvanian strata are absent because of erosion or possibly 

because of nondeposition, the upper sequence lies upon Mississippian rocks. The upper sequence in central and northwestern Wyoming is mostly sandstone no younge.r than Des 

Moinesian. The upper sequence in eastern Wyoming consists 

of sandstone and dolomite about equally and also includes 

Upper Pennsylvanian strata as young as Virgilian. Upper 

Pennsylvanian strata are also part of the upper sequence in 

the thrust belt in western Wyoming. Pennsylvanian strata 

terminate upward at an erosional unconformity be.neath 

Permian rocks everywhere in Wyoming. 

The principal economic products from Carboniferous rocks 

in Wyoming are petroleum and high-calcium industrial limestone. Other commodities of minor importance include building stone and aggregate. 

Ul 
U2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

INTRODUCTION 

By DAVID R. LAGESON 

Carboniferous strata in Wyoming (Mississippian 

and Pennslyvanian) include the Madison, Amsden, 

and Tensleep Formations and their equivalent units. 

This report is divided into two main parts dealing 

with stratigraphy and a third shorter part on economic products. The first part on stratigraphy deals 

with strata equivalent to and including the Mississippian Madison Limestone ; the other discusses the 

Pennsylvanian Tensleep Formation and equivalent 

strata. Two points of view are presented concerning 

the stratigraphy and age relations of the Amsden 

Formation .We hope that this two-part discussion of 

stratigraphy will clearly define the age and stratigraphic relationships of the units involved. 

The Madison Limestone thickens towards western 

Wyoming, where it attains group status and includes the Lodgepole and Mission Canyon Limestones. Throughout central Wyoming, the Madison 

has been divided into six members; these are, in 

ascending order, the Cottonwood Canyon Member, 

lower dolomite member, Woodhurst Member, cherty 

dolomite member, cliffy limestone member, and Bull 

Ridge Member. In the Hartville uplift area and the 

Black Hills of eastern Wyoming and western South 

Dakota, the Madison is represented by the Guernsey, 

Englewood, and Pahasapa Formations. The Amsden 

and Tensleep Formations of central Wyoming (Bighorn Mountains westward to the Gros Ventre and 

Teton Ranges) grade eastward into the Minnelusa, 

Hartville, Casper, and Fountain Formations, and 

southward into the Round Valley Limestone, Morgan Formation, and Weber Sandstone. Pennsylvanian rocks in the thrust belt of western Wyoming 

are included in the Wells Formation. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage 

of the Geological Survey of Wyoming. 

Carboniferous strata are typically exposed along 

the flanks of large asymmetric Precambrian-cored 

anticlines that formed during the Laramide orogeny 

(early Tertiary).· These strata have been exposed 

as a result of late Tertiary regional uplift, erosion, 

and exhumation of Laramide structures. In western 

Wyoming, allochthonous strata are exposed on the 

hanging walls of west-dipping thrust plates of the 

Salt River, Snake River, Wyoming, and Hoback 

Ranges. 

Carboniferous strata in Wyoming were first 

recognized by geologists of the U.S. Geological and 

Geographical Survey of the Territories during the 

1860's and 1870's. Formal naming and recognition 

was done subsequently by the U.S. Geological Survey (Darton, 1904; Peale, 1893). The Geological 

Survey of Wyoming, since its inception in 1933, has 

published (most notably, Thomas and others, 1953) 

on various aspects of Wyoming's Carboniferous 

rocks. In recent years, increased petroleum production in the Rocky Mountains from Carboniferous 

reservoirs has maintained industry and academic 

interest in these strata. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The Geological Survey of Wyoming gratefully 

acknowledges William J. Sando and Edwin K. 

Maughan for their contributions to this report. J. D. 

Love provided helpful suggestions during the compilation of the report. 

LOWER PART OF THE CARBONIFEROUS 

By WILLIAM J. SANDO 

INTRODUCTION 

The lower part of the Carboniferous (Mississippian and lower part of the Pennsylvanian) in Wyoming consists of a marine sequence of predominantly carbonate rocks, which attains a maximum thickness of approximately 660 m. These rocks crop out 

on the flanks of most of the mountain uplifts of the 

State and are present in the subsurface of the intermontane basins (fig. 1). Throughout most of 

Wyoming, the original geographic positions of the 

Carboniferous rocks were not appreciably affected 

by subsequent tectonic movements, but in the western part of the State (Salt River Range, Snake 

River Range, Wyoming Range, Hoback Range), 

Laramide overthrusting brought rocks deposited 

farther west into juxtaposition with an autochthonous sequence. 

The rock sequence is represented by 12 different 

formations or parts of formations in different parts 

of the State (fig. 2). In a large area that occupies 

most of the central part of Wyoming, beds of Late 

Devonian, Early Mississippian, and early Late Mississippian (late Famennian-early Visean) age are 

included in the Madison Limestone, which is overlain by the Amsden Formation of Late Mississippian to early Middle Pennsylvanian (late Viseanearly Westphalian) age. In the westernmost part of 

the State, the Madison is used as a group term that 
WYOMING U3 

50 

I I I I 

I I I I I 

50 

0 I I I I 

0 

I I 

50 MILES 

I 

50 KILOMETERS 

GU!ette0 

I 

I 

i \ 

Laramie \ ~ 

__ _1j _ ~Cheyen~•- __L 

FIGURE 1.-Map of Wyoming showing present structural features (from Welder and McGreevy, 1966). Unnamed areas 

cannot be classified as either major uplifts or as basins. 

includes two formations, the Lodgepole Limestone 

and Mission Canyon Limestone; the group is overlain by the Amsden Formation. In most of southeastern Wyoming, the lower part of the sequence 

consists of an unnamed sandstone unit of probable 

Late Devonian and Early Mississippian age overlain by the Madison Limestone (Early and early 

Late Mississippian), which is in turn overlain by 

the Casper Formation (Pennsylvanian and Permian) or the Fountain Formation (Pennsylvanian). 

In the Hartville uplift and adjacent basinal areas, 

the lower part of the sequence is the Guernsey Formation (Late Devonian and Early Mississippian), 

which is overlain by the Hartville Formation 

(Pennsylvanian and Permian). Terminology is variable in the subsurface of the Powder River basin 

in northeast Wyoming, but the Mississippian 

part of the sequence is most commonly called 

Madison Limestone and the Pennsylvanian part, 

Minnelusa Formation. In the northeastern corner 

of the State, on the flank of the Black Hills uplift, 

the Englewood Formation (Late Devonian and 

Early Mississippian) is overlain by the Pahasapa 

Limestone (Early Mississippian), which is in turn 

overlain by the Minnelusa Formation (Pennsylvanian and Permian). Nomenclature is uncertain 

because of the scarcity of information where the 

Carboniferous rocks are deeply buried in south-
U4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

111° 1100 

45°~----- 109° 108° 1 07° 

------..J_- -- __ I __ -- --.1.. -- 106° 105° 

J 

I 

I Amsden 

:~ 

J Mission Canyon 

44o Limestone 

I 

I 

r Lodgepole 

I Limestone 

I 

Nomenclature 

uncertain 

~ 

Amsden Formation 

Madison Limestone 

410 I -- ---- -,-- -- -T I --~--.,.--r--

_J __ - _ ___!_ __ 

Minnelusa Formation 

= 

Casper /Fountain 

~ 

Formation/ Formation 

Madison Limestone 

unnamed Sandstone 

Minnelusa I 

~~~ Pahasapa 

Limestone 

Englewood I 

Formation I 

I 

I 

t 

I 

___ l 

50 

I I I 

50 

I I I I I 

50 MILES 

I 

0 50 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 2.-Map of Wyoming showing formational nomenclature of Mississippian rocks and lower part of Pennsylvanian 

rocks. Mississippian rocks absent in shaded areas. Wavy line between formation names denotes disconformity; 

straight line indicates conformal contact. Precambrian rocks of the transcontinental arch shaded. 

western Wyoming, which includes the Green River 

basin, Rock Springs uplift, and Washakie basin. 

Boundaries between areas of different nomenclature 

(fig. 2) are largely artificial and reflect different 

historical centers of classification of rocks of similar age and lithology. 

This discussion is based mainly on regional syntheses by Mallory ( 1967), Sandberg and Mapel 

(1967), Sando (1976a), and Sando and others 

( 1969, 1975). Other important regional summaries 

of the stratigraphy are Agatston ( 1954), Andrichuk (1955), Craig (1972), Mallory (1972), Rose 

(1976), Sandberg (1967), Sandberg and Klapper 

( 1967), and Sando ( 1967b). Important studies of 

smaller areas in Wyoming are Bates (1955), Jenkins and McCoy (1958), Love and others (1953), 

Maughan (1963), McCaleb and Wayhan (1969), 

Sando (1967a, 1968, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976b, 1977), 

Sando and Mamet (1974), and Todd (1964). 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

I am deeply indebted to B. L. Mamet for foraminifer zone determinations, many of which are as 

yet unpublished. C. A. Sandberg kindly determined 

conodont zones in many sections and contributed 

1 

stratigraphic data on the lower part of the Madison. 
WYOMING U5 

C. A. Sandberg and J. T. Dutro, Jr., reviewed the 

paper and provided useful suggestions. 

REGIONAL STRATIGRAPHY 

The Mississippian-early Middle Pennsylvanian 

succession in Wyoming represents two principal 

cycles of marine deposition separated by a period of 

epeirogenic uplift and erosion (fig. 3). The lower 

depositional sequence or cycle consists of the Madison Limestone and its correlatives; the upper depositional sequence or cycle consists of the Amsden 

Formation and its correlatives. Throughout most of 

Wyoming, the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary is within the upper depositional sequence; sedimentation was continuous across the systemic 

boundary except in the eastern part of the State, 

where beds of Early to Middle Pennsylvanian age 

rest on beds of Early to Late Mississippian age. 

The lower depositional cycle began in the Late 

Devonian, was interrupted briefly at the DevonianMississippian boundary, and continued into the Late 

Mississippian (early Meramecian). The upper 

depositional cycle began in the Late Mississippian 

(middle Meramecian) and continued into the Middle Pennsylvanian (Atokan). In terms of western 

European chronostratigraphy, the lower depositional sequence is Late Famennian-early Visean, 

and the upper depositional sequence is late Viseanearly Westphalian. Deposition was continuous 

across the lower Carboniferous-upper Carboniferous boundary in most of the State. The major regional break in deposition began in the middle 

"'ilisean and extended into the Namurian. 

An isopach map of the Mississippian part of the 

succession (fig. 4) shows a general thickening of 

these rocks northward and westward from a zero 

edge in southeastern Wyoming. Two cross sections 

parallel to thickness trends (fig. 5; see also table 1) 

show northward- and westward-expanding wedges 

of predominantly shelf earbonate rocks of the lo·wer 

depositional sequence overlain disconformably by 

thin predominantly terrigenous rocks of the upper 

depositional sequence. 

The character of the lower depositional sequence 

changes rapidly in adjacent southeastern Idaho, 

where terrigenous rocks were deposited in a deep 

basin west of the carbonate shelf margin. The Mississippian part of the upper depositional sequence 

thickens rapidly in western Wyoming, where a 

wedge of carbonate rocks extends eastward from a 

thick body of Upper Mississippian shelf carbonate 

rocks in Idaho. The Pennsylvanian (Morrowan and 

Atokan) part of the upper depositional sequence 

(not shown on fig. 5) is a nearly tabular body of 

shaley and sandy carbonate rocks throughout most 

of the State. 

LOWER DEPOSITIONAL SEQUENCE 

!vi ADISON GROUP 

In western Wyoming, the Madison is a group that 

includes the Lodgepole Limestone and the overlying 

Mission Canyon Limestone, formations whose type 

localities are in Montana. The Madison is about 375 

m thick in this area. In parts of western Wyoming, 

conodont-bearing dark shale as much as 18 m thick 

is at the base of the Lodgepole Limestone, which 

rests disconformably on the Devonian Darby Formation. The dark shale represents the upper tongue 

of the Cottonwood Canyon Member of the Lodgepole, a unit of earliest Kinderhookian (early 

Tournaisian) age (fig. 3, column 2). The member 

contains conodonts of the Siphonodella sandbe1·gi 

Zone (Sandberg and Mapel, 1967). 

The Cottonwood Canyon Member is succeeded 

conformably by the Paine Member of the Lodgepole Limestone, which is at the base of the formation where the Cottonwood Canyon Membe1~ is absent. The Paine is about 50 m thick. The lower 3-5 

m of the member consists of silty, glauconitic, 

crinoidal limestone and is overlain by cherty thinbeddeq silty fine-grained limestone. The lower crinoidal part of the Paine contains rare corals and 

brachiopods of Coral Zone A of Sando and others 

( 1969) and conodonts of the Lower Siphonodella 

c1'enulata Zone (Sandberg and Mapel, 1967). The 

poorly fossiliferous remainder of the Paine Member 

contains corals and brachiopods of Coral Zone B, 

foraminifers of Zone pre-7 (Mamet, in Sando and 

others, 1969), and conodonts of the Siphonodella 

isost?:cha-Upper S. crenulata Zone of Sandberg 

(written commun., 1977). The Paine Member is of 

Kinderhookian (middle Tournaisian) age. 

The Paine Member is overlain conformably by the 

Woodhurst Member of the Lodgepole Limestone, 

which consists of about 80 m of cyclically interbedded, thin-bedded silty fine-grained limestone and 

oolitic crinoidal limestone. This unit contains a rich 

fauna of conodonts, foraminifers, brachiopods, 

corals, bryozoans, and gastropods which represent 

the Siphonodella isosticha-Upper S. c1'enulata Zone, 

the Gnathodus typicus Zone, the Pseudopolygnathus 

n. sp. Zone, foraminiferal Zones 7 and 8, and Coral 

Zone C,. The Woodhurst Member includes beds of 

late Kinderhookian (middle Tournaisian) and early 

Osagean (middle and upper Tournaisian) age. 
C) 

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member 3c 9 

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Cambrian 

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member 

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~ber I ,...___ 

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member 

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FIGURE 3.-Nomenclature and temporal relations of Mississippian rocks and lower part of Pennsylvanian rocks in Wyoming and adjacent parts of Idaho. 

[Vertical lines denote hiatus. Sources of data for stratigraphic columns (indicated by numbers) modified from: 1, Dutro and Sando (1963), Sando and others (1976), Poole and 

Sandberg (1977); 2, Sandberg and Mapel (1967), Sando and others (1975), Sando (1977); 3, Sandberg and Mapel (1967), Sandberg and Klapper (1967), Sando (1967a, 1977), Sando 

and others (1975); 4, Sando (1967). Sando and others (1975), M. W. Reynolds (written commun., 1968); 5, Sando (1967a, 1975), Sando and others (1975), Sandberg and Mapel (1967), 

Sandberg and Klapper (1967), Sandberg (1967); 6, Sando (1976b). Sando and others (1975), Sandberg (1967), Sandberg and Klapper (1967), Sandberg and Mapel (1976); 7, Maughan 

(1963), Mallory (1967), Sando and Sandberg (unpub. data, 1977); 8, Love and others (1953), Sando (unpub. data, 1977); 9, Sandberg and Mapel (1967), Sando (unpub. data, 1977). 

Foraminifer and coral zones modified slightly from Sando and others (1969). Conodont zones from Sandberg and Mapel ( 1967) and Sandberg (written commun., 1977]. 

~ 

~ 

0 

~ ~ 

z 

C1 

cj 

-:t 
U8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

---~---------- ~~rtt~ I 

I 

l 

I 

\~k!>AK. _ 

I 

I 

EXPLANATION D O~Jtcrop of pre-Mississippian rocks 

-Fault, shown only where needed to explain 

marked offsets in isopach lines 

-450- Thickness: of Mississippian rocks in meters 

9 _. • line of stratigraphic sections shown in Figure 5; 

10 triangles represent outcrop sections, 

circles represent subsurface sections. 

25 50 100 MILES 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 4.-Thickness of Mississippian rocks in Wyoming and adjacent areas, trends of cross sections, and locations of key 

stratigraphic sections (numbered) shown in figure 5 (modified from Sando, 1976a). 

The Woodhurst Member of the Lodgepole Limestone is succeeded conformably by the Mission 

Canyon Limestone, which consists of interbedded, 

thick-bedded crinoidal oolitic limestone and cherty 

thin-bedded fine-grained dolomite and dolomitic 

limestone in the lower half and dolomite and dolomitic limestone interbedded with cherty predominantly fine-grained limestone in the upper half. The 

upper half is also characterized by two solutionbreccia zones except in the Hoback Range, where 

three evaporitic zones are preserved (Sando, 1977). 

The total thickness of the Mission Canyon in western Wyoming is about 250 m. The formation is 

moderately fossiliferous, containing foraminifers, 
METERS FEET 

600.-2000 

500 

400 

1000 

500 

0 

METERS FEET 

1500 B' 

27 26 

400 

1000 

500 

0 

A 

13 12 10 

24 

9 8 7 

____.......Lithologic boundary, wavy 

where unconformable 

... • Series boundary 

x x x x Evaporite beds or solution 

breccia 

20 

A 

4 3 2 

cp..\\1\Sf\\P,.N vcvv11ian and 

Kinderhookian 

EXPLANATION 

D Mainly pure subtidal and 

intertidal limestone 

-Cyclical impure subtidal 

and interidal limestone 

-Mainly dolomite and 

dolomitic limestone 

I@ : -=@ Argillaceous and silty finegrained limestone 

19 18 17 

- Red siltstone 

and shale 

h<<J Quartz sandstone 

§".o~l Mainly phosphatic 

siltstone 

~-------1 Mainly dark shale 

16 15 

B 

14 

0 Z? 5p 190 MILES 

6 1d0 KILOMETERS 

~ 

~ 

0 

~ ~ 

z 

Cl 

FIGURE 5.-Stratigraphic and structural relations of Mississippian rocks from southeastern Wyoming to southeastern Idaho (A-A') and from southeastern Wyoming to southern Montana (8-B'). Modified from Sando ( 1976a). Locations of stratigraphic sections are shown on figure 4 and described 

in table 1. d 

c.o 
U10 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

TABLE I.-Geographic loca.tions and sources of information foT stratigraphic sections shown on figures 4 and 5 

!Locality numbers refer to numbers shown on figs. 4 and 5] 

Section No. 

1 _____ _ 

2 _____ _ 

3 _____ _ 

4 _____ _ 

5 _____ _ 

6 _____ _ 

7 _____ _ 

8 _____ _ 

g _____ _ 

10 _____ _ 

1L ____ _ 

12 _____ _ 

13 _____ _ 

14 _____ _ 

15 _____ _ 

16 _____ _ 

17 _____ _ 

18 _____ _ 

19 _____ _ 

20 _____ _ 

21_ ____ _ 

22 _____ _ 

23 _____ _ 

24 _____ _ 

25 _____ _ 

26 _____ _ 

27 _____ _ 

Locality name 

Arlington _____________________ _ 

Elk Mountain ------------------

Buck Spring -------------------

Cottonwood Creek ---------------

Sweetwater Canyon ____________ _ 

Sinks Canyon -------------------

Washakie Reservoir ____________ _ 

Bull Lake Creek ----------------

Big Sheep Mountain ____________ _ 

Hoback Canyon -----------------

Haystack Peak -----------------

Wells Canyon -----------.--------

Little Flat Canyon ____________ _ 

Laramie Range -----------------

Wheatland Reservoir ------------

Marshall -----------------------

Casper Mountain ---------------

National Co-op Refining Co., 

Wallace Creek No.2 well. 

Middle Buffalo Creek ___________ _ 

Tensleep Canyon _______________ _ 

Shell Canyon -------------------

Sheep Mountain _______________ _ 

Ohio Oil Co., Easton unit 6 welL_ 

Clarks Fork Canyon 

Ben Bow Mine Road 

Baker Mountain 

Livingston ---------------------

Approximately T. 18 N., R. 79 W., 

Carbon County, Wyo. 

Approximately T. 19 N., R. 82 W., 

Carbon County, Wyo. 

Sec. 33, T. 23 N., R. 88 W., 

Carbon County, Wyo. 

Sees. 27 and 34, T. 27 N., R. 88 W., 

Carbon County, Wyo. 

Sees. 27 and 34, T. 29 N., R. 97 W., 

Fremont County, Wyo. 

Sec. 18, T. 32 N., R. 100 W., 

Fremont County, Wyo. 

Sec. 18, T. 1 S., R. 2 W., 

Fremont County, Wyo 

Sees. 2 and 3, T. 2 N., R. 4 W., 

Fremont County, Wyo. 

Sec. 6, T. 38 N., R. 108 W., and sec. 31, T. 39 N., R. 108 W., Sublette County, Wyo. 

Sec. 3, T. 38 N., R. 115 W., 

Teton County, Wyo 

Sec. 19, T. 34 N., R. 117 W., 

Lincoln County, Wyo. 

Sees. 10 and 11, T. 10 S., R. 45 E., 

Caribou County, Idaho 

Sees. 17 and 20, T. 7 S., R. 40 E., 

Bannock County, Idaho 

Approximately T. 20 N., R. 72 W., 

Albany County, Wyo. 

Sec. 17, T. 23 N., R. 73 W., 

Albany County, Wyo. 

Approximately T. 26 N., and T. 27 

N., R. 75 W., Albany County, Wyo. 

Sec. 9, T. 32 N., R. 79 W., 

Natrona County, Wyo. 

Sec. 16, T. 34 N., R. 87 W., 

Natrona County, Wyo. 

Sees. 20 and 21, T. 40 N., R. 86 W., 

Natrona County, Wyo. 

Sec. 27, T. 48 N., R. 87 W., 

Washakie County, Wyo. 

Sees. 9 and 17, T. 53 N., R. 90 W., 

Big Horn County, Wyo. 

Sec. 35, T. 54 N., R. 94 W., and sec. 2, T. 53 N., R. 94 W., Big 

Horn County, Wyo. 

Sec. 28, T. 56 N., R. 97 W., 

Big Horn County, Wyo. 

Sees. fi, 6, and 7, T. 56 N., R. 103 

W., Park County, Wyo. 

Sees. 20 and 29, T. 5 S., R. 16 E., 

Stillwater County, Mont. 

Sees. 34 and 35, T. 3 S., R. 12 E., 

Sweetgrass and Park Counties, 

Mont. 

Sees. 1 and 2, T. 3 S., R. 9 E., and sec. 35, T. 2 S., R. 9 E., Park 

County, Mont. 

Source of information 

Maughan (1963) 

Do. 

Sando (1967a); Sando and 

others (1975) 

Reynolds, M. W. (written 

commun., 1968) 

Sando (1967a), Sando and 

others (1975) 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Blackwelder, Eliot (unpub. 

data) ; Richmond (1945) 

Sando (1977); Sando and 

others (1975) · 

Do. 

Gulbrandsen and others 

(1956) 

Dutro and Sando ( 1963) , Sando ( 1977) , Sando and 

others (1976) 

Maughan (1963) 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

American Stratigraphic Co. 

Sando ( 1976b), Sando and 

others (1975) 

Sando (unpub. data, 1977), 

Sando and others (1975) 

Do. 

Do. 

American Stratigraphic Co. 

Sando (1972, 1975), Sando 

and others (1975) 

Sando (1972) 

Do. 

Do. 

corals, brachiopods, gastropods, and bryozoans and 

rare conodonts. Foraminiferal Zones 8 through 11 

and Coral Zones C,, C:: and D are represented in 

the sequence. The Mission Canyon ranges in age 

from middle Osagean into early Meramecian (late 

Tournaisian-early Visean). 

formation, the Madison Limestone. Six members are 

recognized in the Madison in most of central Wyoming, but in the Rawlins hills and in southeastern 

Wyoming, the lower four members are not recognizable, and sandstone occurs at the base of the 

Mississippian (fig. 3). Although the members of the 

Madison were based on outcrop studies, examination of well logs from the Bighorn, Wind River, and 

Powder River basins indicate that most of the members are also recognizable in the subsurface. The 

:\lADISON Ll:\lESTONF 

Throughout most of Wyoming, the lower depositional sequence or cycle is represented by a single 
WYOMING U11 

44° 

42° 

110':.._ _____ J.08° 

!==DEVONIAN 

I 

50 

50 

I I 

100 

100 150 MILES 

II I L 

150 . 200 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 6.-Paleogeologic map showing ages of rocks underlying the Madison Limestone and equivalent rocks in 

Wyoming. Modified from Craig (1972, fig. 2) and Baars 

( 1972, figs. 6 and 8). 

Madison Limestone rests unconformably on a variety of formations ranging from Precambrian to 

Devonian in age; the subcrop becomes progressively 

younger northward and westward from the zero 

edge of the Madison in southeastern Wyoming (fig. 

6). 

Throughout most of central Wyoming, the basal 

unit of the Madison Limestone is the Cottonwood 

Canyon Member, which consists mostly of conodontbearing shale, siltstone, and silty dolomite as much 

as 12 m thick. The member includes a lower tongue 

of latest Devonian (Famennian) age separated by 

a disconformity from an upper tongue of early 

Kinderhookian age (Siphonodella sulcata, S. duplicata, and S. sandbergi conodont zones). 

The Cottonwood Canyon Member is succeeded 

conformably by the lower dolomite member, which 

is mostly thick-bedded crinoidal dolomite and dolomitic limestone as much as 30 m thick. The member 

contains a sparse fauna of conodonts, corals, and 

brachiopods and is of Kinderhookian (middle Tournaisian) age. It is approximately equivalent to the 

Paine Member of the Lodgepole, and a lateral transition into the Paine can be observed in outcrop sections in the Beartooth Mountains of southern Montana (Sando, 1972). In the Owl Creek an_q southern 

Bighorn Mountains, the underlying Cottonwood 

Canyon Member is absent, and the lower dolomite 

member rests directly on beds of Cambrian, Ordovician, or Devonian age. 

The lower dolomite member is overlain conformably by the Woodhurst Member or equivalent beds 

throughout most of central Wyoming. In the Abasaroka Range and central and northern Bighorn 

Mountains, the lower part of this member consists 

of crossbedded crinoidal dolomite or thick-bedded 

oolitic limestone, and the upper part consists of 

typical Woodhurst facies silty, thin-bedded, cyclically interbedded fine-grained limestone and bioclastic crinoidal limestone. The Woodhurst Member attains a maximum thickness of about 90 m. 

In the Wind River Mountains, Owl Creek Mountains, and southern Bighorn Mountains, the entire 

member is mostly crossbedded crinoidal dolomite 

and limestone. The typical Woodhurst facies is a 

wedge that pinches out southward from Montana 

and eastward from western Wyoming (fig. 5). The 

typical Woodhurst facies contains conodonts (rare) 

and foraminifers, brachiopods, and corals (moderately abundant). Foraminifer Zones 7 and 8 are 

represented throughout most of central Wyoming, 

and Zone 9 has been identified at the top of the 

member in the Absaroka Range. Coral Zone Ct is 

also represented. The Woodhurst is mostly Osagean 

in age but contains some beds of Kinderhookian age 

in the lower part. The Kinderhookian-Osagean 

boundary is commonly placed at the base of the 

member for convenience. In terms of western European chronostratigraphy, the Woodhurst is middle 

and upper Tournaisian in age. 

The Woodhurst Member is succeeded conformably 

by the cherty dolomite member, whose maximum 

thickness is about 70 m. The member consists of 

shattered and brecciated, thin-bedded, fine-grained 

cherty dolomite and dolomitic limestone at most localities, but elsewhere includes some beds of crinoidal or fine-grained limestone. The commonly shattered character of the beds suggests that the sequence was originally evaporitic in part and has 

subsequently been leached. Fossils are extremely 

rare, but a few brachiopods and corals of Osagean 

age have been found at some localities. The age of 

the cherty dolomite, bracketed by dated units above 

and below, is late Osagean (late Tournaisian) at 

most localities. 

The cherty dolomite member is overlain conformably by the cliffy limestone member, which attains 

a maximum thickness of about 65 m. The upper 

part of the member consists of a very widespread 

sequence of commonly cherty, fine- to coarsegrained, mostly thick-bedded bioclastic crinoidal 

limestone and dolomite that contains abundant spiriferoid brachiopods and some corals and foraminifers. In central Wyoming, a solution breccia that 
U12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED. STATES 

represents a leached evaporite-carbonate-terrigenous sequence occurs at the base of the member, except in the southern Wind River Mountains and 

Rawlins hills. The beds above the solution breccia 

are brecciated as a result of collapse. Red sandstone and siltstone were deposited in solution cavities throughout the member during pre-Amsden uplift and Amsden deposition (Sando, 1974). The 

member contains the Zone 9 foraminifer fauna and 

corals of Zone C~ at most localities, except in the 

northern Bighorn Mountains, where foraminifer 

Zone 10 has been found at a few places. The cliffy 

limestone member is of upper Osagean (upper 

Tournaisian and lowermost Visean) age. For convenience, the Osagean-Meramecian boundary is 

commonly placed at the top of the member. 

The cliffy limestone member is overlain conformably by the Bull Ridge Member in much of central 

Wyoming. The Bull Ridge Member reaches a maximum thickness of about 25 m and consists of a 

lower unit of red and yellow shale and siltstone and 

minor thin carbonate beds and an upper unit of 

thin- to medium-bedded, sparsely cherty, fine- to 

medium-grained, commonly stromatolitic limestone 

or dolomite. The lower unit is commonly a solution 

breccia, and the upper unit is commonly collapsed, 

indicating the former presence of evaporite beds. 

Sinkholes and solution cavities related to preAmsden emergence and filled by Amsden sediments 

are common in the Bull Ridge Member (Sando, 

1974). The member was partly or entirely removed 

by pre-Amsden erosion at many localities in central 

Wyoming, particularly in the southern Wind River 

Mountains, eastern Owl Creek Mountains, and 

southern Bighorn Mountains. The upper part of the 

Bull Ridge Member contains corals and brachiopods 

of Zone D; foraminifers of Zones 10, 11, and 

(rarely) 12; and conodonts (rare) of the Upper or 

Lower Taph1·ognathus ·varians Zone. 

In the Rawlins hills and Ferris Mountains, the 

Madison includes a lower, poorly dated sandstone 

member thought to be of Kinderhookian age, overlain by dolomite equivalent to the lower dolomite 

member, Woodhurst Member, and cherty dolomite 

member, and capped by the cliffy limestone member (fig. 3). In the northern Laramie Range, the 

Madison conformably overlies an unnamed quartz 

sandstone and siltstone sequence of probable Devonian and early Kinderhookian age, formerly regarded as the Cambrian and Ordovician Deadwood 

Formation. The Madison here consists of the cherty 

dolomite member, cliffy limestone member, and, locally, the Bull Ridge Member. Farther south in the 

Laramie Range, the carbonate appears to interfinger with quartz sandstone and conglomerate 

that unconformably overlies Precambrian granite 

(Maughan, 1963) ; exact age relationships remain 

to be determined in this area. 

GUERNSEY FORMATION 

In the Hartville uplift and adjacent subsurface, 

rocks equivalent to the Madison Limestone are included in the Guernsey Formation, which unconformably overlies quartzite of the Cambrian and 

Ordovician Deadwood Formation and Precambrian 

granite (Love and others, 1953). The lower part of 

the Guernsey consists of red siltstone of probable 

Devonian and Mississippian age regarded as an 

equivalent of the Englewood Formation of the Black 

Hills. Above the siltstone is unnamed dolomite and 

dolomitic limestone that is overlain by the cliffy 

limestone member. The Guernsey attains a maximum thickness of about 90 m. 

ENGLEWOOD FORMATION AND PAHASAPA LIMESTONE 

In the Black Hills and adjacent subsurface, the 

base of the Carboniferous is included in the Englewood Formation, a sequence of red to purple dolomite, dolomitic limestone, limestone, and shale as 

much as 27 m thick (Klapper and Furnish, 1962; 

Sandberg and Mapel, 1967). The Englewood is overlain by the Pahasapa Limestone, which includes 

limestone and dolomite of Kinderhookian and Osagean age as much as. 190 m thick. 

UPPER DEPOSITIONAL SEQUENCE 

AMSDEN FORMATION 

In western and central Wyoming, the upper depositional sequence or cycle is represented by the 

Amsden Formation (fig. 2), a transgressive sequence of quartz sandstone, siltstone, shale ,and 

carbonate rocks that attains a maximum thickness 

of about 150 m. The Amsden includes three members, except in western Wyoming, where four are 

recognized (fig. 3). 

The age and correlation of the Amsden Formation have been the subjects of much controversy. 

The interpretations summarized herein are based 

on a comprehensive study of the physical stratigraphy and paleontology of the Amsden Formation 

in Wyoming by Sando and others ( 1975). The 

physical stratigraphy in this detailed analysis was 

based on study of 50 stratigraphic sections in Wyoming. The age and correlation of the Amsden was 

based on study of 160 collections including well over 
WYOMING U13 

6,000 specimens of fossils representing more than 

350 taxa by a team of 10 paleontologists, each expert in one of the biologic groups represented. Critical age determinations rested mainly on study of 

foraminifers, algae, and brachiopods by specialists 

who worked independently and had no preconceptions about the physical stratigraphy when they interpreted the ages of fossil assemblages at various 

localities. In another part of this paper, E. K. 

Maughan presents a different interpretation of the 

Amsden, based mostly on physical stratigraphy, that 

emphasizes two presumed unconformities not recognized by Sando and others (1975). We have examined Maughan's reinterpretations of the paleontologic evidence and cannot agree with his 

conclusions. 

The basal unit of the Amsden at most localities 

is the Darwin Sandstone Member, which consists of 

unfossiliferous, thin- to thick-bedded, ordinarily 

crossbedded, white to red, fine- to medium-grained 

quartz sandstone as much as 65 m thick. The Darwin rests disconformably on the Bull Ridge Member 

or the underlying cliffy limestone member of the 

Madison (Sando and others, 1975, pl. 1). At some 

localities, the Darwin is absent or present only in 

sinkholes in the Madison, and the basal unit is the 

Horseshoe Shale Member, which ordinarily overlies 

the Darwin. The Darwin Sandstone ranges in age 

from late Meramecian (late Visean) in western 

Wyoming to late Chesterian (Namurian) in eastcentral Wyoming, on the basis of paleontologic dating of the overlying and underlying beds. 

The Darwin is overlain conformably by a transgressive red-bed sequence named the Horseshoe 

Shale Member. This unit consists of a much as 45 

m of red siltstone, shale, and rare thin beds of finegrained sandstone and limestone. Although fossils 

are generally rare in the Horseshoe, occurrences of 

ostracodes, mollusks, brachiopods, foraminifers, 

and, to a limited extent, corals support a late Chesterian (early and middle Namurian) age in western and west-central Wyoming and a Morrowan 

(late Namurian-early Westphalian) age in the Bighorn Mountains and Rawlins hills. Foraminifer 

Zones 18, 19, and 20 are represented. 

In western Wyoming, the Moffat Trail Limestone 

Member is a transgressive wedge-shaped body of 

carbonate rock as much as 33 m thick that intervenes between the Horseshoe Shale Member and the 

Overlying Ranchester Limestone Member of the 

Amsden. The Moffat Trail Member is predominantly fossiliferous, cherty, thin- to thick-bedded, medium- to coarse-grained crinoidal bioclastic limestone. The fauna consists of abundant foraminifers, 

bryozoans, brachiopods, ostracodes, gastropods, and 

corals that represent foraminifer Zones 17 and 18 

and coral Zone K. The Moffat Trail is of Chesterian 

(late Visean-early Namurian) age. 

The highest unit in the Amsden is the Ranchester 

Limestone Member, which conformably overlies the 

Moffat Trail Limestone Member in western Wyoming and the Horseshoe Shale Member elsewhere. 

The Ranchester is a heterogeneous sequence of interbedded cherty dolomite and limestone, sandstone, 

and shale that attains a maximum thickness of 

about 75 m. The member contains a sparse normal 

marine fauna dominated by brachiopods and mollusks. The distribution of brachiopods and foramin-

. ifers indicates a late Chesterian-Morrowan age in 

western Wyoming and a l\1orrowan-Atokan age in 

central Wyoming. 

CASPER FORMATION 

The Casper Formation is a sequence of quartz 

sandstone and carbonate rocks in the Laramie basin 

and on the flanks of the Laramie Range in southeastern Wyoming. The Casper includes beds of 

Pennsylvanian and Permian age; the Pennsylvanian 

part ranges from about 30 to 180 m in thickness 

(Mallory, 1967). Equivalents of the Amsden Formation (Morrowan-Atokan) are present in parts 

of southeastern Wyoming, but Missourian and Des 

Moinesian rocks disconformably overly the Madison 

on the Pathfinder and Front Range uplifts (Mallory, 1963, 1967). 

FOUNTAIN FORMATION 

The Fountain Formation, named for exposures 

along the Front Range in Colorado, is a sequence of 

red sandstone, conglomerate, and arkose on the 

flanks of the Pennsylvanian uplifts in southeastern 

Wyoming. According to Mallory (1967), the Fountain ranges in age from Atokan to Virgilian. Hence, 

the Fountain may contain beds equivalent to the 

upper part of the Amsden Formation. 

HARTVILLE FORMATION 

The name Hartville Formation is applied to a sequence of sandstone, shale, and carbonate rocks of 

Pennsylvanian and Permian age in the Hartville 

uplift and adjacent subsurface in southeastern 

Wyoming. The six divisions of the formation are 

numbered from I at the top to VI at the base (Love 

and others, 1953). 
U14 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Division VI, also known as the Fairbank Formation, is mostly unfossiliferous quartz sandstone 

that disconformably overlies the Guernsey Formation. The age of this unit is Chesterian and (or) 

Morrowan, probably the latter, which indicates that 

it is equivalent to the Darwin Sandstone Member 

of the Amsden Formation and, in fact, is probably 

laterally continuous with the Darwin. Division VI 

attains a maximum thickness of about 30 m. Thickness varies greatly depending on the topography of 

the karst surface on which it was deposited. 

Division VI is confor'mably overlain by Division 

V, which consists principally of cherty limestone 

containing red shale beds. The overlying Division 

IV consists of red shale containing limestone and 

dolomite beds. Divisions IV and V are commonly 

lumped together for stratigraphic analysis to form 

a limestone-shale interval that attains a maximum 

thickness of about 90 m. Brachiopods, conodonts, 

foraminifers, corals, and bryozoans found near the 

base of Division V suggest a Morrowan age, and 

fusulinids from Division IV are of Atokan age. 

The combined Division IV-V unit is probably 

equivalent to and continuous with the Horseshoe 

Shale Member and Ranchester Limestone Member 

of the Amsden Formation. 

Division IV is overlain conformably by Division 

III, a sequence of carbonate and quartz sandstone 

of Des Moinesian age that is equivalent to the lower 

part of the Tensleep Sandstone. 

.\11;\:NELUSA FOR.\IATIO:'\ 

The Minnelusa Formation, named for exposures 

in the Black Hills, is a sequence of carbonate, sandstone, and solution breccias or evaporite beds of 

Pennsylvanian and Permian age (Agatston, 1954; 

Bates, 1955; Mallory, 1967). The name has been 

used in northeastern Wyoming on the flank of the 

Black Hills and in the subsurface of the Powder 

River basin. The Minnelusa disconformably overlies the Pahasapa Limestone in the Black Hills and 

the Madison Limestone in the subsurface. A basal 

sandstone of probable Morrowan age, the Bell sand 

of subsurface usage, is probably laterally continuous with the Darwin Sandstone Member of the 

Amsden Formation. Beds equivalent to the Horseshoe and Ranchester Members of the Amsden are 

probably present in the sequence above the Bell 

sand. 

SUMMARY OF GEOLOGIC HISTORY 

During the early part of Carboniferous time, most 

of Wyoming was part of the Cordilleran platform, 

a broad cratonic area of relatively thin marine deposition that extended from southern Canada southward into Mexico (fig. 7) . Extending across the 

southeast corner of the state was the Transcontinental arch, an emergent linear positive area that 

divided most of the United States into eastern and 

western areas of deposition and acted as a barrier 

to faunal migrations. Immediately west of Wyoming 

was the Cordilleran geosyncline, whose eastern 

part was a foreland basin during Mississippian 

time. West of the foreland basin, the geosyncline 

was divided into Antler orogenic highland, innerarc basin, and island arc. The paleogeographic development described below has been illustrated by 

a series of maps in Sando (1976a). 

Late Devonian regression created a land area of 

low relief in Wyoming. During latest Devonian 

(Famennian) and early Kinderhookian (early 

Tournaisian) times, a sea advanced rapidly onto 

the Cordilleran platform from southwest of Wyoming over a terrane composed of Precambrian, 

Cam brian, Ordovician, and Devonian rocks. Terrigenous and silty carbonate rocks (Cottonwood 

Canyon Member of Madison Limestone) were deposited in shallow marine basins on the Cordilleran 

platform, and the Transcontinental arch was a land 

area bordered on the west by an apron of quartz 

sand derived from the arch. Mild epeirogenic movements at the end of the Devonian caused temporary 

emergence or stillstand over most of the State. 

Continued transgression during late Kinderhookian (early middle Tournaisian) time caused 

the sea to expand and cover all but the southeast 

corner of Wyoming. Subtidal and intertidal carbonate sediments (Madison Limestone) were de1 posited over most of the State except for deeper 

I 

water carbonate rocks (Paine Member of Lodgel pole Limestone) deposited on the eastern slope of 

I the foreland basin in western Wyoming. 
WYOMING U15 

0 100 200 300 400 MILES 

I I I I I I I I I 

0 100 200 300 400 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 7.-Paleotectonic map of Carboniferous deposition in western United States. Modified from Sando (1976a) and 

Poole and Sandberg (1977). 

Early Osagean (early Tournaisian) time marked 

the beginning of regression, characterized by westward progradation of shelf carbonate sediments 

(Madison Limestone). The foreland basin in Idaho 

became a starved basin that received fine terrigenous sediment (lower part of Little Flat Formation) during the latter part of the Osagean. Restricted circulation on the Cordilleran platform 

caused evaporite deposition during several periods 

beginning in the middle or late Osagean (middle or 

late Tournaisian) and extending into the early 

Meramecian (early Visean). A reflux system associated with evaporite deposition caused dolomitization of underlying shelf carbonate rocks. 

During latest early Meramecian (early middle 

Visean) time, epeirogenic uplift drained the Cordilleran platform in Wyoming, while the foreland 

basin continued to receive marine sediments. A 

karst topography began to form in Wyoming, and a 

river system began to carry terrigenous sediment 

from the Transcontinental arch across the platform 

to the foreland basin. 

Karst development continued throughout the 

Cordilleran platform until late Meramecian (late 

Visean) time, when subsidence of the platform 

margin permitted encroachment of the Cordilleran 

sea into Wyoming and southwestern Montana. Shelf 

carbonate deposits began to form in the foreland 

basin and to prograde eastward. Continued subsidence caused the sea to transgress eastward in 

three developing basins, the Big Snowy-Williston 

basin in Montana, the Wyoming basin in Wyoming, 
U16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

and the Uinta basin in Utah and Colorado (fig. 7), 

each basin receiving terrigenous sediments from the 

Transcontinental arch on the east. 

In Wyoming, a basal transgressive sand (Darwin 

Sandstone Member of the Amsden Formation and 

its equivalents), composed in part of reworked river 

sediment, was deposited across the Wyoming basin, 

filling irregularities and solution cavities in the underlying karst terrane. The sand was followed by 

an eastward-expanding red-bed facies (Horseshoe 

Shale Member of the Amsden Formation) deposited 

in a lagoonal environment, produced in part by restriction of the mouth of the Wyoming basin. The 

eastern margin of the eastward-prograding carbonate shelf of the foreland basin protruded into the 

mouth of the Wyoming basin in western Wyoming 

during middle Chesterian (late Visean and early 

Namurian) time (Moffat Trail Limestone Member 

of the Amsden Formation). In late Chesterian (late 

Namurian) time, a restricted carbonate-terrigenous 

facies (Ranchester Limestone Member of the 

Amsden Formation) began to form at the mouth of 

the Wyoming basin. 

The three facies of the upper depositional cyclesandstone, red beds, and restricted carbonate-terrigenous rocks-continued to trangress eastward across 

the expanding Wyoming basin until Morrowan 

(latest Namurian and earliest Westphalian) time, 

when the shallow sea of the Wyoming basin 

breached a narrow land area that separated it from 

the Big Snowy-Williston basin in Montana. Hence, 

Pennsylvanian rocks rest disconformably on Mississippian rocks only in eastern Wyoming, where 

the upper depositional transgression did not cover 

the karst plain composed of lower depositional sequence rocks until Morrowan time. Expansion of the 

Wyoming basin continued into the Atokan (early 

Westphalian), followed by the influx of a flood of 

quartz sand (Tensleep Sandstone and equivalents) 

during later Atokan and later Pennsylvanian time. 

PENNSYLVANIAN (UPPER CARBONIFEROUS) 

SYSTEIVI OF WYOIVIING 

By EDWIN K. MAUGHAN 

INTRODUCTION 

Carboniferous rocks in Wyoming originated 

chiefly as marine sediments and are divided into 

lower, chiefly carbonate, deposits of Mississippian 

age, and upper, chiefly terrigenous, detrital sediments of Pennsylvanian age. Four cycles of deposition are recorded in these Carboniferous rocks, 

which accumulated upon the shelf between the 

North American craton and the Cordilleran miogeosyncline. The lower two depositional sequences, the 

Madison Limestone and the Big Snowy Group or 

their equivalents, are of Mississippian age; the 

upper two sequences, the Amsden Formation and 

the Tensleep Sandstone, or their equivalents, are of 

Pennsylvanian age. Regional unconformities separate the four sequences. Generally, red mudstone 

strata that mark the initial deposits of the Pennsylvanian rest unconformably either upon remnants 

of the upper Mississippian sequence, which comprises strata of Late Mississippian (Chesterian) 

age, or upon the lower Mississippian sequence, 

which comprises the Madison Limestone of Kinderhookian, Osagean, and Meramecian age. An exception is in the southern part of the Laramie and the 

Medicine Bow Ranges (fig. 8), where Pennsylvanian 

strata rest unconformably upon Precambrian rocks. 

The upper Pennsylvanian sequence generally rests 

unconformably upon strata of the lower Pennsylvanian sequence, but locally, erosion has completely 

stripped away the lower Pennsylvanian strata, and 

the upper sequence rests upon rocks as old as the 

Madison. 

Upper Carboniferous strata are exposed along 

the flanks of most mountain ranges in the State and 

in thrust plates within the westernmost mountains 

(fig. 8) . Drill logs and cores from boreholes in most 

structural basins provided lithologic and paleontologic data to establish continuity of the strata 

between outcrops throughout the State. 

Pennsylvanian strata were deposited in Wyoming 

in shallow marine water of the continental shelf. 

Highlands of the ancestral Rocky Mountains lay to 

the south in Colorado, and a prong of these mountains, the ancestral Front Range (fig. 9), projected 

northwestward into south-central Wyoming approximately coincident with the present-day Sierra 

Madre. The low Siouxia landmass was east of Wyoming, but shallow seas between the ancestral Front 

Range and Siouxia extended through southeastern 

Wyoming and across eastern Colorado, western 

Nebraska, and Kansas into Oklahoma and the 

Ouachita geosyncline (McKee, Crosby, and others, 

1975, pl. 15A). The Cordilleran miogeosyncline and 

related geanticlinal or island-arc areas lay to the 

west in central Idaho. Northward, in Montana lay a 

continuation of the shallow shelf where shoal deposits similar to those deposited on the shelf in Wyoming characterize most of the Pennsylvanian rocks. 

The Bannock highland (Williams, 1962) was a probable land area in southeastern Idaho and adjacent 
104° 

1(/) 

-------;-1 I~ 0 

POWDER 

BIG HORN 

WASHAKIE 

~~~0- '''ilfll1\~111f.Jfi.l 

:J> 

~ ,o 

~ 

FIGURE 8.-Index to localities referred to in text. Outcrop of Pennsylvanian rocks shown in black and those of older rocks, by stipple pattern. 

~ 

~ 

0 

~ 

z 

0 

c 

~ 

-:) 
U18 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

FIGURE 9.-Paleogeographic elements affecting deposition and 

preservation of Pennsylvanian rocks in Wyoming and adjacent States. 

parts of western Wyoming in Early to Middle Pennsylvanian time, as was the Pathfinder uplift (Mallory, 1963) in east-central Wyoming; however, 

these land areas seem to have been low lying or were 

quickly eroded to base level and subsequently buried 

beneath sediments of the Upper Pennsylvanian sequence in Middle to Late Pennsylvanian time. 

PREVIOUS WORK 

Excellent summaries describing the Pennsylvanian rocks in most of Wyoming have been written by Williams (1962) and Mallory (1967, 1975). 

The present report is taken largely from these 

works, minor changes being drawn chiefly from 

newly available data or from slightly different interpretations of the data for which I am solely responsible. Other important contributions to the understanding of the vertical sequence and the lateral 

correlations of the Pennsylvanian rocks have been 

those of Condra, Reed, and Scherer (1940), who 

established correlations between surface exposures 

of the Minnelusa, Hartville, and Casper Formations; 

Love, Hen best, and Denson ( 1953) , who carefully 

documented the fusulinids in the Hartville Formation; Love (1954), who correlated Pennsylvanian 

rocks in an east-west section in Wyoming; Agatston 

(1954), who summarized much surface and subsurface data of the Pennsylvanian rocks in northern 

and eastern Wyoming; and Foster (1958), who divided the Minnelusa Formation into three members 

bounded by regional unconformities and described 

the thickness and lithofacies of these members in 

northeastern Wyoming. Faunal data for the lower 

Pennsylvanian sequence and the lower part of the 

upper sequence were contributed by Sando, Gordon, 

and Dutro ( 1975). Many other investigations are 

referred to in the text where appropriate. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

I am grateful to H. D. Thomas, former Wyoming 

State Geologist, who initially encouraged my study 

and suggested answers to some of the questions regarding Pennsylvanian rocks in the Laramie Range 

and adjacent parts of southeastern Wyoming. F. F. 

Wilson helped to develop the concepts relative to 

the stratigraphic, paleogeographic, and tectonic 

framework along the northern Front Range in 

Colorado and in southeastern Wyoming; A. E. 

Roberts made similar contributions in Montana. 

Discussions with W. \V. Mallory, H. R. Wanless, 

and J. D. Love were especially useful to test and 

extend these concepts in other parts of Wyoming. 

Many individuals and publications have provided 

fragments of information and have contributed to 

this report. 

TECTONIC FRAMEWORK 

Tectonic movements in Wyoming during the 

Pennsylvanian were subtle and seem to reflect 

epeirogeny peripherally related to strong orogenic 

disturbances in the mobile Cordilleran geosyncline. 

Repeated movement of the ancestral Rocky Mountains south of Wyoming also seems to have been 

approximately contemporaneous with orogenic 

movements in the geosyncline. Thus, low-magnitude 

epeirogenic adjustments in Wyoming that included 

arching, downwarping, and possibly faulting, subtly 

affected the provenance of the sediments, lithological constituents, environments of deposition, and 

preservation of the strata from place to place in 

the State. 

Pennsylvanian deposition succeeded regional uplift, erosion, and karstification of the Mississippian 

strata. All of Wyoming seems to have been emergent at the beginning of the Pennsylvanian Period. 

Chesterian age rocks equivalent to the Big Snowy 
WYOMING U19 

Group of Montana and the Great Blue, Doughnut, 

and part of the Manning Canyon Formations of 

northern Utah are absent in most of the State, except for a wedge of Chesterian strata in the westernmost part and local remnants of the basal sandstone of the Chesterian sequence in the center and 

the east. Chesterian-age rocks of the upper Mississippian sequence probably were deposited across 

most of Wyoming; they were subsequently removed 

by erosion during- latest· Mississippian· and· Early 

Pennsylvanian uplift, except for basal sandstone 

remnants, which are the Darwin Sandstone Member of the Amsden Formation and the probably 

equivalent Fairbank Formation, in eastern Wyoming. In the western Wyoming thrust belt, the 

beveled wedge of these Upper Mississippian strata 

is preserved unconformably below Pennsylvanian 

strata where the Moffat Trail Limestone lies above 

red beds and sandstone strata that seem equivalent 

to the Darwin Member. Elsewhere in the State, 

where pre-Pennsylvanian uplift and erosion removed the Chesterian strata, Pennsylvanian rocks 

lie unconformably upon Kinkerhookian-to-Meramecian Madison or equivalent rocks. In southeastern 

Wyoming, in the vicinity o.f the ancestral Front 

Range uplift (fig. 9), Mississippian-age strata are 

entirely absent, and Pennsylvanian strata lie unconformably upon Precambrian rocks. 

As the Pennsylvanian sea encroached upon the 

Wyoming shelf in late Morrowan time, paralic sedimentation gave way to marine littoral deposition 

across all of the State, except in the south-central 

part, where the northwest-projecting prong of the 

ancestral Front Range uplift remained. Initially, 

the upper Morrowan sediments, composed chiefly 

of highly oxidized and reworked soils that had 

formed during the Late Mississippian to Early 

Pennsylvanian uplift of the Wyoming shelf, were 

red terrigenous muds and very fine grained quartzose and arkosic sands deposited in shallow water of 

the advancing sea. However, carbonate sediments 

were the chief deposits in the Sweetwater trough 

(Mallory, 1975, p. 266) that projected northeastward from Utah into southwestern and central 

Wyoming. By early Atokan time, the sea had inundated the Wyoming shelf and adjacent parts of the 

cratonic margins along the Cordilleran geosyncline; 

the influx of terrigenous sediments was diminished, 

and carbonate sediments (chiefly lime mud) were 

widely deposited. 

Middle to late Atokan time saw a second pulse of 

epeirogenic movement and renewed uplift that 

brought the ancestral Front Range and the ancestral Uncompahgre elements to their maximum relief. This Atokan epeirogeny was nearly contemporaneous with mid-Pennsylvanian orogenic movements in the mobile belt of the Cordilleran geosyncline in Nevada. The Wyoming shelf was warped 

and possibly locally faulted by this epeirogeny, so 

that other uplifts of low relief, such as the Bannock 

highland in western Wyoming and eastern Idaho 

(Williams, 1962, p. 159, 172) and the Pathfinder uplift in east-central Wyoming ·(Mallory, 1963), were 

rejuvenated or newly formed as parts of the ancestral Rocky Mountains. The previously formed 

Morrowan- and early Atokan-age sediments were 

stripped from these uplifts and were beveled in 

areas adjacent to them. Other areas that had been 

arched upward but had not necessarily been exposed above sea level were beveled also. Maximum 

relief of the Pathfinder uplift was probably about 

150-200 m, as determined from the thickness of the 

earlier Pennsylvanian sediments preserved in adjacent downwarped areas and from the thickness 

of later Pennsylvanian sediments that lap onto the 

uplift. Uplift of the Bannock highland seems to have 

been of comparable magnitude, although it may 

have been as much as 300m. 

Deposition of the upper sequence of Pennsylvanian strata in Wyoming began at the time of the 

mid-Pennsylvanian epeirogeny. As the ancestral 

Rocky Mountains rose, sediments stripped from 

them were deposited in adjacent lows. These initial sediments of late Atokan to early Des Moinesian age were alternating beds of argillaceous and 

magnesian or lime mud and some thin beds of 

quartz sand. As the low areas filled and the uplifted 

areas were leveled in late Atokan and Des Moinesian 

time, quartz sand from distant sources to the west 

and northwest spread across western and central 

Wyoming to form an extensive sand blanket. 

Tongues of sand projected eastward from this large 

sand body into the alternating sand and carbonate 

sediments of eastern Wyoming. The ancestral Front 

Range uplift rose to its maximum relief and was a 

local source of arkosic sediment deposited at this 

time around the flanks of the uplift, but these ancient mountains probably contributed relatively little 

to the bulk of the sediments elsewhere in Wyoming. 

Sand continued to be deposited in western and 

central Wyoming in Late Pennsylvanian time, but 

in eastern Wyoming, chiefly carbonate sediments 

were deposited during Missourian time and overlapped onto the Middle Pennsylvanian sand deposits 

of central Wyoming. This relation suggests diminishing delivery of sand from the western sources 
U20 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

in Missourian time; however, another pulse of 

epeirogeny is recorded by an increase in the terrigenous components of the Virgilian sediments. This 

late Pennsylvanian epeirogeny led to the ending of 

Pennsylvanian deposition in Wyoming as uplift took 

place along a north-trending axis in central Wyoming, the Wyoming arch (Thomas, 1949). Virgilian-age sediments either were not deposited or 

were removed from most areas in the State, except 

in the far west and east. Missourian-age strata were 

entirely or mostly removed from the broad crest 

of the Wyoming arch, where rocks of DesMoinesian 

age are unconformably overlain by Permian strata. 

Permian rocks record transgressive onlap of the 

Pennsylvanian strata on the Wyoming arch. Wolfcampian deposits occur in both western and eastern 

Wyoming, and sediments of probable late Wolfcampian to early Leonardian age were deposited 

thinly across a broad saddle on the arch in the 

central part of the State. Northward, the arch 

merged with the Milk River uplift in Montana 

(Maughan, 1966a), and southward it merged into 

the ancestral Front Range. Strata of late Leonardian age wedge out against higher parts of the arch 

in north-central and south-central Wyoming. Lower 

Guadalupian strata overlap the older Permian 

strata and rest on Pennsylvanian rocks in both 

northernmost Wyoming and adjacent parts of 

south-central Montana and in southernmost Wyoming and Colorado in the vicinity of the ancestral 

Front Range. The ancestral Front Range persisted 

as a land feature, and upper Permian strata rest 

unconformably upon Precambrian rocks beyond the 

limits of deposition of the Pennsylvanian strata on 

the flanks of this ancient land area. 

STRATIGRAPHY 

Pennsylvanian strata in Wyoming (fig. 10) comprise the. Amsden Formation and the Tensleep 

Sandstone in the Bighorn Mountains and adjacent 

parts of central Wyoming westward to the Gros 

Ventre and Teton Ranges. In eastern Wyoming, 

they include part of the Minnelusa Formation in 

the Black Hills and adjacent basins, part of the 

Hartville Form.ation in the Hartville uplift, and 

part of the Casper Formation and the Fountain 

Formation in the Laramie Mountains. In southwestern Wyoming, Pennsylvanian rocks in the subsurface of the Green River basin include the Round 

Valley Limestone, Morgan Formation, and Weber 

Sandstone. In the ranges of the thrust belt in westernmost Wyoming, Pennsylvanian rocks are included in the Wells Formation. In the Gallatin 

Range in Yellowstone National Park, Pennsylvanian 

rocks comprise the Amsden Formation and Quadrant Quartzite. 

CASPER, HARTVILLE, AND MINNELUSA FORMATIONS 

The Casper, Hartville, and Minnelusa Formations 

are lithologically and sequentially similar and should 

be identified as a single formation. However, early 

studies and descriptions of these formations at isolated, widely separated exposures in the Laramie 

Mountains, the Hartville uplift, and the Black Hills 

have led to the use of separate names in each of 

these areas. 

The Minnelusa Formation was the first to be 

studied. The name was initially used by Winchell 

(1875) and was later modified by Darton (1901) 

for the sandstone and limestone above the Pahasapa 

Limestone of Mississippian age and below the 

Opeche Shale of Permian age exposed along Rapid 

Creek in the Black Hills. Minnelusa is the Dakota 

Sioux name for Rapid Creek. Condra, Reed, and 

Scherer (1940) divided the Minnelusa into six 

units, which they correlated with similar divisions 

in the Hartville Formation. Two regional unconformities within the Minnelusa (fig. 10), provide 

boundaries for lower, middle, and upper members 

of this formation (Foster, 1958; Maughan, 1966b). 

The lower member of the Minnelusa is of Morrowan 

and Atokan age; the middle member is of Des 

Moinesian, Missourian, and Virgilian age; and the 

upper member is of Wolfcampian age. 

The Hartville Formation was named by W. S. T. 

Smith (1903) for exposures of sandstone, carbonate 

rock, and mudstone between the Guernsey Limestone of Mississippian age and the Opeche Shale of 

Permian age in the hills around the town of Hartville, Wyo. Condra and Reed ( 1935) and Condra 

and others (1940) divided the Hartville into six 

units and gave names to them derived from geographic features in the vicinity of Guernsey Reservoir on the North Platte River in the Hartville uplift. They named the lowest unit the Fairbank Formation and designated the other units as "groups." 

The groups of Condra and others subsequently have 

been modified in rank, and the names have been 

used to identify members of the Hartville Formation (Tranter and Petter, 1963; Hoyt, 1963). The 

Fairbank Formation probably is of Mississippian 

age (Love and others, 1953). An informal threefold 

division into lower, middle, and upper members has 

been used (Maughan, 1966b, p. 97) and is adopted 

in this report in order to simplify comparisons with 

similar subdivisions of the Minnelusa and Casper 
PART OF STATE CENTRAL AND I YELLOWSTONE 

NORTHWESTERN NATIONAL PARK WESTERN 

Thrust belt, Salt 

SOUTHWESTERN 

SOUTH-: 

EASTERN 

Areas where found 'Wl~~r~i~~R~~~ne~' Gros Ventre Range Teton Range Gallatin Range River Range, and !Green River basin 

adjaCent mountains 

Southern Laramie 

Mountains and 

adjacent basin 

Pari< Goose Egg 

Overlying units City ormation 

Formation 

(Lower to 

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(Upper? Permian) 

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-L~~CANYON DARWIN MADISON MOFFAT TRAIL FORMATION MADISON 

Underlying units SANDSTONE LIMESTONE LIMESTONE (LOWER LIMEMEMBER PENNSYLVANIAN PRECAMBRIAN PRE- STONE 

(LOWER (UPPER AND (LOWER (MISSISSIPPIAN?) MISSISSIPPIAN) MISSISSIPPIAN) UPPER MISSISSIPPIAN) CAMBRIAN ISS.) 

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FAIRBANK 

FORMATION 

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FIGURE 10.-Summary of nomenclature and correlation of Pennsylvanian rocks in Wyoming. Boundaries queried where ages uncertain; names in parentheses indicate usage of Tranter and Petter (1963). 

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U22 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Formations. The lower member, which excludes the 

Fairbank Formation and includes, in ascending 

order, the Reclamation and Roundtop Members of 

Tranter and Petter (1963), is of probable Morrowan 

and of Atokan age; the middle member, which includes the Hayden, Meek, and Wendover Members, 

is of Des Moinesian, Missourian, and V irgilian age ; 

and the upper member, which includes the Broom 

Creek and Cassa Members, is of Lower Permian age 

(Love and others, 1953). 

The Casper Formation was named by Darton 

( 1908) for strata he believed to be equivalents in the 

Casper and Laramie Mountains of the Lower to 

Middle Pennsylvanian Amsden and Tensleep Formations. The Casper is more inclusive than Amsden 

and Tensleep as it also comprises strata of Late 

Pennsylvanian and Early Permian ages. In the 

southern Laramie Range, the Casper Formation lies 

unconformably upon Precambrian rocks, and in the 

northern part of the Laramie Range and on Casper 

Mountain, the formation is unconformable upon 

Madison Limestone of Early Mississippian age. The 

Casper Formation may be divided into three members similar in lithology and age to the members of the Hartville and Minnelusa Formations 

(Maughan, unpub. data, 1977). However, the lower 

member is absent at many places in the Laramie 

Range, and strata of the middle member ranging 

from Des Moinesian to Missourian in age form the 

base of the Casper Formation at these places. Onlap 

of the middle member northward along the west 

flank of the Laramie Mountains was recognized by 

Thomas and others (1953); similar onlap occurs 

on the east flank of the range. The lower member 

is present in outcrops along the east flank south of 

Horse Creek to the Colorado border, and probable 

remnants of the lower member are exposed at the 

base of the formation at places elsewhere in the 

range. The absence of the lower member and the onlapping of the middle member are evidence for the 

Pathfinder uplift. Uplift took place after deposition 

of the lower member. Remnants of the lower member that lie unconformably below the middle member must have formed prior to deposition of the onlapping middle member of the Casper. Members of 

the Casper Formation tongue southward into the 

lower and upper parts of the Fountain Formation 

of Pennsylvanian age and into the Ingleside Formation of Early Permian age in Colorado (Maughan 

and Wilson, 1960). 

Basal strata in the Minnelusa, Hartville, and 

Casper Formations are chiefly red mudstone interstratified with fine-grained sandstone and thin beds 

of light-gray to pale-purple and pale-red-purple 

limestone. Detrital sediments predominate in the 

lowermost part of the Casper Formation because 

deposition took place near sources of terrigenous 

sediments in the ancestral Front Range; carbonate 

rocks predominate in the Minnelusa because of its 

more central position in the depositional basin. The 

mudstone and carbonate beds that constitute the 

lower member of these formations are commonly 

as thick as 70 m. However, thickness differs considerably from place to place, largely because of 

erosion prior to deposition of the overlying middle 

member. The lower member of the Casper Formation is beveled, and, locally, in the northern part of 

the Laramie Mountains, it is absent from the area 

of the Pathfinder uplift. 

The limestone of the lower member is mostly 

light gray, although it commonly may be pale purple or pale red-purple. Commonly it contains red 

to dark-brown, white, and dark-gray nodules and 

stringers of chert. The limestone beds are generally 

20-50 em thick and are commonly interbedded with 

red or gray clayey mudstone ranging from a thin 

film to a few centimeters in thickness. 

The late Morrowan and Atokan age of the lower 

member, which constitutes the lower Pennsylvanian 

sequence in eastern Wyoming, is best documented 

in sections of the Hartville Formation by the fusulinid zones of Mille1·ella, P1'olusul-inella, and Fusulinella (Love and others, 1953). Mille1·ella marblensis, Mille1'ella pinguis, P1·ojusulinella, and Fusulinella (with one possible exception) are restricted 

to the lower member. Mille1'ella ma1·blensis and M. 

pinguis range through the lower part (Reclamation 

Member) and into the upper part (Roundtop Member) to an horizon about 34 m above the base of 

the lower member. P1·o{usulinella, which is represented in a collection as low as 6.7 m above the 

base, indicates an Atokan age for the higher beds 

in the lower member; the lower 6 m probably is 

of Morrowan age. Fusulinella ranges from 10.5 m 

above the base to the top of the lower member, and 

the species represented indicate early Atokan age. 

Fusulinella? cadyi, of Des Moinesian age, is an 

exception in the genus of Fusulinella, which usually 

indicates Atokan age. Love and others (1953) suggested that this Des Moinesian species may be regarded as possibly nearer the genus Fu.sulina than 

it is to the genus Fusulinella. 

The lower member of the Casper Formation has 

not yielded fusulinids, although about 50 m of undated strata below the middle member on the east-

' ern flank of the Laramie Mountains is presumably 
WYOMING U23 

of early Atokan and Morrowan age. Fusulinella is 

represented in collections from the lower Minnelusa 

in the southern Black Hills (Thompson, 1936; Jennings, 1959), indicating a late Morrowan or early 

Atokan age of these strata in that area. 

The middle member of the Casper, Hartville, and 

Minnelusa Formations comprises interbedded dolomite, calcareous cemented quartzose sandstone, and 

:mudstone. Generally these strata are light to medium gray and yellowish gray, except in the Casper 

Formation where the middle member commonly is 

pinkish gray, especially in outcrops in the southern part of the Laramie Mountains. In that area, 

the strata tongue into the red arkosic upper member of the Fountain Formation. 

Beds in the lower part of the middle member are 

mostly 20-50 em. thick, but in the upper part of the 

member they reach a maximum thickness of 10 m. 

Thin carbonaceous shale beds found in the lower 

part of the middle member in central eastern Wyoming are exposed in the Hartville uplift and in the 

southern Black Hills. These dark-gray carbonaceous 

shale beds grade laterally to pale olive green where 

exposed in the northern Black Hills and in the 

Laramie Mountains. In the subsurface of the southern Powder River basin, these carbonaceous strata 

are conspicuous on radioactivity logs. 

Foraminifera from the upper Pennsylvanian sequence in eastern Wyoming indicate Des Moinesian 

to Virgilian age. Fusulina occurring as much as 54 

m above the base of the middle member of the Hartvill'e Formation indicates Des Moinesian age for the 

lower part of the member; Wedekindellina ultimata 

and cylindrical forms of Triticites indicate Missourian age for an approximately 40-m-thick middle 

part; and ventricose forms of Triticites indicate 

Virgilian age for as much as 20 m that constitutes 

the upper part of the middle member. 

The zones of Fusulina, W edekindellina, and of 

Kansanella ( Triticites of cylindrical form) indicate 

the Des Moines.ian t1o Missourian age of the middle 

member of the Casper Formation (Thomas and 

others, 1953; Thompson and Thomas, 1953; L. G. 

Henbest, written commuri., 1964). Most collections 

from the lowermost strata of the m1iddle member of 

the Cas·per are <>f poss.ibl·e late Atokan age· according 

to Henbest (written commun., 1964). The zones of 

Fusulina, W edekindellina, and Kansanella also occur 

in the middle member of the Minnelusa Formation 

(Thompson, 1936; Jennings, 1959; Verville and 

Thompson, 1963). 

The upper member of the Minnelusa, Hartville, 

and Casper Formations is of Wolfcampian age and 

I re·sts unc.onformably upon strata of the middle mem1 her, which in some areas are as old as Des Moinesian. At the base of the upper member in most of 

eastern Wyoming is a red sandy to argillaceous 

mudstone known as the red marker. This. distinctive 

stratum, believed to be a regolith or redistributed 

regolith, marks an erosional contact between Pennsylvanian and Permian r.ocks. The red marker crops 

out in the southern Black Hills, the Hartville uplift, 

and the northern Laramie Mountains. The red 

marker is re·adily identified in subsurface logs in 

parts of the basj·ns adjacent to surfa.ce exposures. 

The red marker e~tends northward to about the 

middl.e of the· Powde1r River basin and seems to die 

out there and to the· west on the eastern flank of the 

Wyoming arch, jus1t short of surface exposures of 

this horizon on the southeast flank of the Bighorn 

Mountains. Its extent S'outhward in the subsurface 

of the J ulesberg basin is uncertain becaus.e of sparse 

drilling :into Pennsylvanian rocks of southeastern 

Wyoming, but the red ma.rker has been identified in 

westernmost N ehraska . (Hoyt, 1963) . Red beds 

similar to the red marker are found locally in subsurface logs of the Laramie basin and at the~ base of 

Perm.ian rocks in some exposures on the flanks of 

the adj ac.ent Medicine Bow Mountains, beyond the 

area in central Wyom:ing where the red marker 

seems to he regionally pers:istent. 

FOUNTAIN FORMATION 

The name Fountain Formation is used in southcentral Wyoming for arkosic sandstone and mudstone of Pennsylvanian age where· they crop out on 

the flanks of the southern part of the Laramie Mounta~ins and in the Medicine Bow Mountains. This formation was named by Cross (1894) for red arkose 

exposed along Fountain Creek near Colorado 

Springs, Colo·. The Fountain is. exposed along the 

east flank of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado northward 230 km to the Wyoming State line. The Fountain Formation in Colorado is· of Pennsylvanian and 

Early Permian age (Maughan and Wilson, 1960), 

and the rocks grade northward from. alluvial-fan 

deposits through fan-delta sediments .into littoral 

marine deposit,s. In the vicinity of Lyons., Oolo., the 

Fountain is divided into three units: (1) the lower 

Fountain of probable Morrowan and Atokan age; 

(2) the .upper Fountain north of Lyons of Des 

Moinesian to Virgilian a.ge; and (3) part of the 

upper Fountain south of Lyons, which northward 

merges into the Ingles,ide Formation, of Wolfcampia~ age. The lower Fountain tongues into the lower 
U24 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

member of the Casper Formation in Wyoming, the 

upper Fountain tongues into the middle member of 

the Casper in the vicinity of the Colorado-Wyoming 

State line, and .the Ingleside mer~es into the upper 

member of the· Casper (Maughan and Wilson, 1960). 

ROUND VALLEY LIMESTONE 

The Round Valley Limestone was na.m.ed by Sadlick (1955, p. 56-57) for a thin-bedded limestone 

unit near Mo·rgan, Utah, co·mprising rocks that lie 

unc:onformably above the Upper Mississippian 

Doughnut Formation and unconformably below the 

predominantly red mudstone and carbonate rocks of 

the Morgan Formatdon. The Manning Canyon shale 

of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian age confo·rmably 

underHes the Round Valley at many places in the 

Wasatch Mountains. and the· Uinta Mountains in 

Utah, including the section at Sols. Canyon (Anderman, 1955) illustrated in figure 11. The· Round 

Valley previously had been ~ncluded with the· Mo·rgan Formation, and this. practice is currently followed in well logs that penetrate Pennsylvanian 

strata in southwestern Wyoming. Subsurface logs 

in the Green River basin show chiefly Hmestone in 

the lower Pennsylvanian (Verville and others, 1973; 

Verville and Momper, 1960, fig, 4, col. 2), assigned 

here to the Round Valley, which lies unconformably 

upon Mississippian limestone and below the restricted Morgan Formation. The Round Valley in 

Utah commonly has some red mllldstone at ~the base 

and some dark-gray and locaHy reddish-brown mudstone in partings and thin layers interbedded with 

the thin-bedded limestone. The amount of interbedded mudstone in the formation increases eastward, and these rocks become mostly red mudstone 

eastward in the subsurface of the Green River basin. 

The strata gradually change from the dominant 

limestone facies o·f the· Round Valley Lim:estone in 

southwestern Wyoming into the red mudstone and 

limestone facies that cons·titutes the Horseshoe Shale 

and Ranchester Limes,tone Members. of the Amsden 

Formation lin central Wyoming (fig. 11) and the 

lower memlber of the Casper ~ormation and equivalent strata in ·eastern Wyoming. 

Foram-inifera in the Round Valley Limestone belong in the zone of Millerella and indicate a Morrowan age for thes.e rocks. Thompson (1945) identified Millerella advena, M. infiecta, M. circuli, M. cf. 

M. pressa, and M. aff. M. marblensis in the e·astern 

Uinta Mounta1ins from strata of the Riound Valley 

Limestone that he called Belden Formation. Verville 

and· Momper (1960) and Verville and others (1973) 

recognized the zone of Mille·rella and Morrowan age 

in rocks that are dominantly limestone in the lower 

part of the Morgan Formation in the subsurface· of 

southwester:n Wyoming. The zone of Profusulinella 

seems to be abs.ent in southwestern Wyoming, although conodonts indicate that strata of early 

Atokan age are p.resent, at least locally, in the subsurface of eastern Uinta County (Verville and 

1ot.hers, 1973). Sadlick (1955, 1957, 1959) indicated 

an Early Pennsylvanian age, chiefly on the bas,is of 

brachiopod faunas in the Round Valley Limestone. 

MORGAN FORIMA T.ION 

The name Morgan Formation is commonly used in 

studies of the subsurface of southwestern Wyoming 

for Pennsylvanian rocks that l1ie uncon£o•rmably 

upon the Miss.issipp·ian Madison Limes!tOJne and 

that grade into overlying Middle Pennsylvanian 

Weber Sandstone. The formation was nam.ed by 

Blackwelder (1910) for exposures near Morgan, 

Utah, and the base was. plac·ed above a limestone 

unit of Pennsylvanian age, subsequently named the 

Round Valley Limestone (Sadlick, 1955). Gray limestone and black to dark-gray shale of the Round 

Valley Limestone have been included as basal strata 

of the Morgan Fo·rmation, as used in the· subsurface 

of southwest Wyoming. Limestone beds of the Round 

Valley Formation have been excluded in this report 

from the Morgan of the subsurface; the restricted 

formation is like the Morgan at its type section and 

like outcrops along the flanks of the Uinta Mountains where the Morgan comprises reddish-brown 

sandstone, mudstone, and some dolomite or limestone. 

Sandstone is generally fine to medi urn. grained, commonly calcareous, and white to light pink but 

weathers red. Dolomite and limestone beds are generally light gray, commonly cherty in white to gray 

and red to brown nodules and stringers. 

The Morgan rests unconformably upon the Round 

Valley (Sadlick, 1955), and Sadlick (1957) conside,red the Morgan to be flysch derived from the 

ance·stral Uncompahgre uplift. Williams (1962) suggested that sandstone· and shale deposlited at the 

type section is thicker than that. depos~ted in the 

western Uinta Mountains because· it was derived 

from the Bannock highland. He also stated that dePosition of the Morgan took place in the Sweetwater 

trough between the Bannock and Uncompahgre land 

areas. 

The Morgan Formation is of Middle Pennsylvanian age. The Hells Canyon Formation, an equivalent of the Morgan Fiormation on the southeastern 
WYOMING U25 

SOUTH NORTH 1.-ss Km-~....__-61 Km-~E---118 Km~95 Km--5

---72 Km ~48 Km---7!----86 Km---..:;.8,__-86 Km____; 

Sols Canyon and Sheep Creek Utah 

Sec. 4, T. 2 N., R.18 E .• and Sec. 4, T. 2 N., R. 19 E. 

Cherry Creek Wind River Canyon 

Sec. 19, T. 31 N., R. 99 W. Sees. 18 and 19, T. 7 N., R. 6 E. Tongue River area (Anderman, 1955, and Hansen, 1965) Mountain Fuel Supply Co. 

4 U. P.R. R. 

Sec. 11, T. 19 N., R. 104W. 

American Stratigraphic Co. Log CW1402 Shell Oil Co. 

53X-10 Government-Tribal 

Sec. 10, T. 3 N., R. 2 E. 

U.S. Highway 14 and Amsden Creek 

Sec. 15 and 23, T. 56 N., R. 87 W. 

and Sec. 33 and 34, T. 57 N., R. 87 W. 

Shell Oil Co. 

52-36 State American Stratigraphic Co. Log CW1696 

Tensleep Canyon 

Sec. 1, T. 47 N., R. 88 W. 

Sec. 36, T. 27 N., R. 94 W. 

erican Stratigraphic Co. Log CW1857 

. Juresana sp. 

spirifer occidentalis 

Punctospirifer transversus 

chonetes sp 

Derbyia crassa 

Dictyoclostus sp 

(Anderman, 1955, p. LVII) 

2. Derbyia crassa 

(Anderman, 1955, p. LVI) 

3. Rhipidomella(?) op . 

Spirifer occidental is 

Composite sp. 

Fenestella sp. 

(Anderman, 1955, p. LV) 

4. Spirifer opimus 

S. occidentalis(?) 

Lino productus prattenianus 

Die/asma sp 

METER FEET 

0 0 EXPlANATION 

r-1 Siltstone or Claystone L___j Red 

~ Limestone R:=:3 Mudstone or Claystone 

100 ~ Gray or Green 

Gypsum or Anhydrite ~ No sample or covered 

~Dolomite 

/ ~ / Dolomitic or Calcareous ~ I Well log-Depth in feet · . 6400 shown near top and . 

I ~~ Thin or lenticular _lime- ~~~~ ~~dpi;;t~t~~~~~ed- stone or dolomite 

~ Chert I r Outcrop section 

a Hematitic pisolites )3 Fossil collection 

. ~--- Unconformity 

Sandstone -- Formation or member boundary 

!::::::::/ Siltstone Gray ---lntraformation correlation line 

200 

300 

(Anderman, 1955, LIV) __ "19NT_. -.J · 

.5. Anthracospirifer wellen~shawi zone ~ I (Sando and others, 1975) IDAHO Is. OAK. 

6. Paramillerel/a pinguis I WYOMING ~ 

P. circul: Millerella inflecta I 1 

P. amp/a -1 I NEBR. 

(Gorman, 1963, p. 69) __ _L 

UTAH TCOLO. 

FIGURE H.-Correlation of sections of Pennsylvanian strata in Wyoming from the north flank of the Uinta Mountains, 

Utah, to the Tongue River area on the northeastern flank of the Bighorn Mountains, Wyo. 

flank of the Uinta Mountains includes Pseudostaffella cf. P. lceytei var. 1naccoyensis, Fusulinella 

iowensis var. leyi, F. lounsbeTyi, F. uintaensis, and 

F. haywa1·di (Thompson, 1945, p. 43), fusulinids 

that are similar to species from the basal part of the 

Des Moinesian of New Mexico and Oklahoma. Sadlick (1955, 1957) and Kinney (1955, p. 43) assigned 

an early Des Moinesian age to the Morgan Formation. Sadlick (1955, p. 58) stated that "No fusulinids 

of Atokan age are known from [the Morgan Formation in] the Uinta Mountains." However, Verville 

and others ( 1973) stated that upper ,A,tokan conodonts, fusulinids, and smaller forams as well as 

l10wer Des Moinesian forms occur in the Morgan 

Formation in eastern Uinta County, Wyo., in the 

Mountain Fuel Supply Co., No. 19 Church Buttes 

Unit well. Deposition of the Morgan strarta probably 

was earlier in the Sweetwater trough than in areas 

of outcrop in the eastern Uinta and in the Wasatch 

Mountains-localities that were on the flanks of the 

ancient Uncompahgre and Bannock highlands. 
U26 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

WEBER SANDSTONE 

The name Weber Sandstone (pronounced WEEburr) is used in Wyoming in subsurface descriptions 

in the southwestern pa.rt of the State. The name was 

first used by Clarence King ( 1876) in refe,rring to 

sandstone of the middle Coal Measures in Weber 

Canyon, Utah. Blackwelder (1910) defined the formation at a type l10cality in the uppe'r narrows of 

the Weber River near Morgan, Utah, and described 

it as quartzite and sandstone lying above the redbeds 

of the Morgan ~ormation and below the dom1inantly 

carbonate rocks of the Permian Park City Fo,rmation. The Weber is ·exposed eastward of the type area 

on the flanks .of the Uinta Mountains into northwestern Colorado. Age of the 'Veber in the type area is 

Middle (DesMoinesian) to La,te Pennsylvanian, but 

in the Uinta Mountains, sandstone srtrata of Early 

Permian age are included (Bissell and Childs, 1958). 

Sandstone strata that ·commonly are identified as the 

Weber Sandstone in the subsurface of the Green 

River basin are indicated as ranging from about 

m•iddle Des Moines1ian t10 Early Permian in age (Verville and Momper, 1960). 

WELLS FORMATION 

Pennsylvanfan rocks in the mountain ranges of 

the thrust belt in western Wyoming form the lower 

part of the Wells Formation. This formation was 

named by Mansfield (1927, p. 71) for sandy, cherty 

limestone and calcareous sandstone above the Mississippian Brazer Limestone and below the Permian 

Phosphoria Formation. The type section is in Wells 

Canyon, Caribou County, Idaho. The formation was 

divided by Mansfield into three members. The lower 

member, which constitutes the Pennsylvanian upper 

sequence in western Wyoming, is of Middle Pennsylvanian (Des Moinesian) age and the two upper 

members are of Lower Permian age, according to 

Williams ( 1962, p. 171) . The Wells generally lies 

unconformably upon the Brazer Formation, but 

at places in eastern Idaho and western Wyoming, strata of the lower Pennsylvanian sequence 

intervene. 

Local remnants of the lower Pennsylvanian sequence commonly are mapped with the Wells, although they consist of limestone and red mudstone 

beds that resemble the Round Valley Limestone and 

its equivalent, the Ranchester Limestone Member of 

the Amsden Formation. These remnants probably 

could be identified as Round Valley or Ranchester 

and mapped separately from the Wells. In eastern 

thrust plates of the thrust belt, red mudstone dominates over limestone in the lower part of these basal 

strata. These rocks are differentiated at some places 

into the Horseshoe Shale and Ranchester Limestone 

Members of the Amsden Formation. 

The bulk of the Pennsylvanian rocks in the thrust 

belt are sandy carbonate rocks that are mostly sandy 

dolomite and dolomitic limestone interbedded with 

sandstone and mudstone that grade upward into 

mostly medium- to thick-bedded sandstone. For the 

most part, these rocks seem to be of Middle Pennsylvanian age, although some strata near the top 

of the sequence are Late Pennsylvanian (Wanless 

and others, 1955, p. 35) and are as young as Virgilian, as determined from sparse collections of 

fusulinids (G. J. Verville, oral commun., 1977). 

The pattern of Middle Pennsylvanian deposition 

in western Wyoming seems to be like the pattern of 

deposition elsewhere in the northern Rocky Mountains region. The Upper Pennsylvanian sequence, 

consisting of part of the Wells Formation, was deposited upon an erosional unconformity succeeding 

mid-Pennsylvanian regional orogenic disturbance. 

At the type section of the formation in Wells 

Canyon, an area within the Bannock highland, Des 

Moinesian-age rocks lie unconformably upon Chesterian-age rocks (Williams, 1962). In the eastern 

part of the thrust belt, an area that would have 

been on the flank of the Bannock highland, the 

Wells Formation includes basal strata that have an 

Atokan age, probably late Atokan. In the Green 

River basin, an area within the Sweetwater trough, 

equivalent strata included in the Morgan Formation show little or no hiatus between late Atokan 

and underlying early Atokan strata (Verville and 

others, 1973), which indicates continuous or near 

continuous deposition from the Lower into the Upper 

Pennsylvanian sequence. These relations indicate 

transgressive overlap of middle Atokan to Des 

Moinesian strata from the trough onto the adjacent 

Bannock highland. 

AMSDEN FORMATION 

The Amsden Formation was named by Darton 

(1904). 'The Amsden comprises red shale, white to 

dark-gray limestone, and dolomitic limestone that 

lie unconformably upon the Madison Limestone and 

are overlain by the Tensleep Sandstone. The type 

locality is the vicinity of Amsden Creek, a tributary 

of the Tongue River, on the east flank of the Bighorn Mountains near Dayton, Wyo. Because of poor 

exposures, sparse fossils, and complex stratigraphic 

relations, the Amsden Formation remains the center 

of much controversy. 
WYOMING U27 

The Darwin Sandstone Member was added to the 

Amsden by Blackwelder (1918) for white-to-red 

sandstone unconformably resting upon the Madison 

Limestone. This sandstone was thought by him to 

grade into the overlying red shale. Blackwelder 

(1918, p. 442) indicated that the Darwin Member 

should be mapped separately from the overlying 

weakly resistant shale, sandstone, and limestone 

that compose the rest of the Amsden Formation. 

A reference section for the- An1sden · on Amsden 

Creek, as described by Gorman (1963), is composed of four units: ( 1) the Darwin Sandstone 

Member at the base; (2) red mudstone, siltstone, 

and sandstone; (3) a dominantly carbonate rock 

unit; and ( 4) a dominantly clastic unit characterized by appreciable quartz sandstone and some shale 

and dolomite. Other sections in the type area were 

given by Agatston (1954, p. 569), who used the top 

of the carbonate rock unit as the top of the Amsden. 

Foster (1958) also showed an unconformity directly above the carbonate unit and correlated the 

Amsden with the lower member of the Minnelusa 

Formation; Maughan and Roberts (1967) showed 

correlation from the Amsden type locality with 

equivalent Pennsylvanian-age strata in central 

Montana; Mallory (1967) divided the Amsden above 

the Darwin into two parts and named the. dominantly red mudstone lower part the Horseshoe Shale 

Member, and the dominantly carbonate rock upper 

part, the Ranchester Limestone Member; Sando 

and others (1975, p. All) presented graphic comparisons of several measured sections of the Amsden 

in the type area. 

The correlation of the Horseshoe and Ranchester 

Members by Sando and others (1975) with strata 

of late Meramecian and early Chesterian age in 

western Wyoming differs from the correlation presented in this report. The Moffat Trail Limestone 

and underlying red beds that include sandstone correlated with the Darwin are included by Sando and 

others (1975) as members of the Amsden Formation in the thrust belt. These rocks are a beveled 

wedge of the Upper Mississippian sequence of 

Chesterian age. They correlate lithologically, stratigraphically, and paleontologically with the similar 

Doughnut and Humbug Formations of northern 

Utah and. the similar Big Snowy Formation of 

southwestern Montana. On the other hand, the 

Horseshoe Shale Member unconformably overlies 

the beveled upper Mississippian s·equence (figs. 11, 

12) and does not underlie or tongue into the Moffat 

Trail as shown by Sando and others (1975). Only 

the Darwin Sandstone extends east of the thrust 

belt, where it unconformably lies immediately 

beneath the Horseshoe Shale Member and is included as a member of the Amsden Formation. In 

the thrust belt in western Wyoming, the Chesterianage red beds that include Darwin-like sandstone 

and the overlying Moffat Trail should not be included in the Amsden Formation. 

The Darwin Sandstone Member comprises white 

to light-yellowish-gray, commonly red-stained, fineto medium-grained, moderately sorted sandstone. 

Sand grains are mostly well-rounded to moderately 

well rounded quartz. Clay is common, and ferromagnesian grains range from sparse to abundant. 

The rock is weakly to moderately well cemented by 

calcite, and in places it is siliceous. Bedding consists mostly of low-angle cross laminae in planar 

beds as much as half a meter thick, but at most 

localities, crossbeds containing wedge-planar and 

trough crossbeds, having depositional dip angles as 

high as 20°, occur as sets that are as much as 3 m 

thick, and angles as high as 45° have been reported 

(Houlik, 1973, p. 503). 

The Darwin Sandstone Member lies unconformably upon limestone beds of the Madison Group and 

was deposited above a karst surface on the Madison. 

It includes angular limestone blocks and fragments 

along the contact at most places. Red mudstone, siltstone, and sandstone as well as angular blocks and 

fragments of limestone occur as irregularly shaped 

cavern fillings that extend well downward into the 

upper part of the Madison. Terra rosa beneath 

sandstone at the base of the Darwin is uncommon, 

however, and at most places the quartzose sandstone 

rests directly upon the limestone. 

The Darwin is unconformably overlain by red 

mudstone of the Horseshoe Shale Member. An unconformity above the Darwin is indkated in part by 

truncation of strata at the top of the member and 

by paleoweathering of the upper 10--50 em of the 

sandstone. Most exposures of the weathered upper 

contact of the Darwin show moderate yellow 

staining not seen elsewhere in the sandstone, and · 

weathering is evident at the top of the Darwin in 

cores from south-central Wyoming (Reynolds and 

others, 1975). 

Thickness of the Darwin reaches a maximum of 

50 m (Keefer and Van Lieu, 1966, p. B37), but the 

member is absent at many places throughout nortnwestern Wyoming, commonly within short distances 

of thick remnants of the sandstone. At the type 

section of the Amsden, Gorman (1963) indicated 

an unconformity 8.3 m above the base of the 
U28 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

WEST 

10 11 12 13 7 --125 Km---')~--42 Km ----;~~o-+--81 Km----;~--33 Km---

Targhee Pass 

Horse Creek-Livingston Ranch 

Sees. 19 and 29, T: 43 N., R. 106 W., 

and California Co. 

1 Government-Langguth Sec. 18, T. 13 S., R. 4 E., Mont., and Sec. 6, T. 42 N., R. 107 W. Wind River Canyon Sec. 19, T. 16 N., R. 44 E., Idaho American Stratigraphic Co. Log W812 Sees. 18 and 19, T. 7 N., R. 6 E. 

California Co. 

1 Black Rock Unit 

Sec. 25, T. 44 N., R. 111 W. 

American Stratigraphic Co. Log W833 

Sinclair Oil and Gas Co. 

1 Pumpkin Draw · · 

Sec. 14, T. 8 N., R. 2 E. 

American Stratigraphic Co. Log W667 

Permian 

EAST 

Park City Formation 

Permian 

Shedhorn Sandstone 

Q) 

c: 

c: 0 

<a ti :c;; "C Q) c: c: <a 

'(5 (fJ 

~ 

"' Q) 

0 

z 

~ 

z 

<{ 

> 

~ 

>-

(fJ 

z 

z 

w 

ll. 

c: c: 

Q) :p <a "C .0 ~ "' E e E Q) 

0 <{ ~ 

~ :p 

> 1-

:p 

.0 

E 

Q) 

~ 

z c: 

~ <a 

ll. ·;:: 

Q) ll. ti Ui Q) 

!l2 .s;; 

(fJ u (fJ 

~ Cl 

iii 

__ M_.9NT_. __ .J 

IDAH~· ls.DAK. : WYOMING r=- -1 INEBR. 

---r---__l UTAH 1 COLO. 

EXPLANATION 

r--1 Siltstone or Claystone L__j Red 

~ Limestone ~""":j Mudstone or Claystone Gray or Green 

~ Gypsum or Anhydrite ~ No sample or covered 

I ~I Dolomitic or Calcareous ~ I Well log-Depth in feet 

~ 

· 2800 shown near top and 

~ . . . · ticks indicate hundred Th~~o~~ ~~~~~~~~~~e- foot depth intervals 

EJ Chert I f Outcrop section 

)3 Fossil collection .§§· ..· Hematitic pisolites _____.._,. Unconformity 

: _::_::: Sandstone --- Formation or member boundary 

~ 

~ Siltstone Gray ---lntraformation correlation line 

z 

~ 

z 

~ >- (/) 

z 

z 

w 

ll. 

FIGURE 12.-Correlation of sections of Pennsylvanian rocks in northwestern Wyoming from 

Targhee Pass, Mont. and Idaho, to Wind River Canyon, Wyo. 
WYOMING U29 

Darwin. He indicated the total thickness of the Darwin as 13.1 m, but the Darwin-like sandstone above 

the unconformity is sand that seems to have been 

eroded from the Darwin and redeposited as a lensing channel-fill deposit in the base of the Horseshoe Shale Member. Because of erosion along this 

unconformable surface, the Darwin is absent 600 

m west of Gorman's section, as shown by Maughan 

and Roberts (1967). Similar beveling of the Darwin 

Sandstone is evident in exposures of the Amsden 

in roadcuts along U.S. Highway 14 about 3 km 

southeast of the Amsden Creek locality. Beveling 

was recognized in the vicinity of Wind River 

Canyon (Maughan, 1972a, b), and it has been noted 

where the Darwin is locally absent in the vicinity 

of Horse Creek and Livingston Ranch in the Wind 

River basin and at many other places throughout 

the region. 

Thickness variation of the Darwin has been attributed generally to deposition on the irregular 

erosional surface of the Madison (Agatston, 1954, 

p. 517; Keefer and Van Lieu, "1966, p. B37) ; however, the basal Darwin strata seem nearly conformable with the underlying Madison strata wherever 

the contact is not complicated by karst features 

(Houlik, 1973, p. 504-505). This applies even though 

the contact represents a significant hiatus, as indicated by the time required for the formation of 

karst and the regional transection of faunal zones 

in the Madison (Sando and others, 1975, p. A21). 

Most of the variation in the thickness of the Darwin 

is better attributed to erosional beveling at the top 

of the Darwin. 

Age of the Darwin Member is considered to be 

Mississippian, probably early Chesterian, but this 

probable age determination is based on regional 

physical relations and lithologic similarities rather 

than on any direct paleontologic evidence. Fossils 

diagnostic· of age have not been found in the Darwin. Brachiopods collected from the overlying 

Horseshoe Shale Member are believed to be of Pennsylvanian age, rather than Mississippian, as discussed elsewhere in this report. Thus, the age of 

the Darwin remains little less uncertain than when 

Blackwelder in 1918 (p. 423) noted that "the stratigraphic position of the sandstone indicates its age 

is early Pennsylvanian or late Mississippian-probably the former." Beds of sandstone that are very 

similar to the Darwin Sandstone compose part of 

an unconformable red-bed sequence that lies upon 

the Mississippian Madison Group and below· limestone beds of Chesterian age in the western Wyoming thrust belt. This sandstone is correlated with 

the Darwin by Sando and others (1975). 

Sandstone similar to the Darwin also makes up 

part of a red-bed sequence in the Kibbey Member 

of the Big Snowy Formation of Chesterian age, 

which lies upon the Madison Group in southwestern 

Montana and adjacent areas in Wyoming south of 

Yellowstone National Park (fig. 12, col. 10-12). 

These lithologically similar sandstones in the Big 

Snowy Formation, in the Chesterian . of the thrust 

belt, and in the Darwin suggest that the strata are 

equivalent. Therefore, the age of the Darwin is 

probably Mississippian rather than Pennsylvanian. 

The correlation is possible only by comparing lithologic similarities, probably similar depositional environments, and regional stratigraphic relations. 

The Horseshoe Shale Member of the Amsden Formation was named by Mallory (1967) and comprises 

chiefly red mudstone, siltstone, and fine-grained 

sandstone between the Darwin Sandstone Member 

and the overlying Ranchester Limestone Member 

at the principal reference section of the Amsden 

Formation. The name is from nearby Horseshoe 

Mountain, but the strata do not crop out there. Thin 

beds, generally less than 20 em thick, of purplishor reddish-gray argillaceous lime mud occur at some 

places, mostly in the upper part of the member. 

West of the type section, thin limestone beds are 

found within the mem:ber. Thickness of the Horseshoe generally ranges from 15 to 45 m, but the member is as much as 95 m thick near Casper and in the 

Shirley basin (Mallory, 1967, pl. 2B). 

A few centimeters to a decimeter of pebble conglomerate may lie at the base of the Horseshoe Shale 

in northwestern Wyoming. Along Highway 14 on 

the northeast flank of the Bighorn Mountains, 24 m 

of medium-grained sandstone and mudstone, which 

originated as lenticular channel and overbank deposits, probably were derived chiefly from erosion 

of the Darwin. They constitute the lower part of the 

Horseshoe where it lies unconformably upon Madison Limestone and local remnants of the Darwin 

Sandstone Member. Above the channel and overbank deposits at Highway 14 and at most other 

places, the Horseshoe Shale Member mostly is composed of blocky to poorly fissile mudstone and siltstone and lesser amounts of clayey and very fine 

grained sandstone together with hematite and clay 

cement. Generally the member is covered with soil 

or talus and rarely is well exposed. 

Pisolitic hematite, or possibly hematitic bauxite 

nodules, in beds that reach a maximum thickness 
U30 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

of a meter, are common in the lower part of the 

member. The pisolitic beds lie at the base of the 

Horseshoe at many places; however, where channel 

and overbank deposits form the lower part of the 

member, the pisolitic beds, if present, lie between 

these and the overlying blocky mudstone that forms 

the upper part of the member. Biggs (1951, p. 21) 

suggested that the iron pisolites were formed in a 

shallow enclosed basin, an explanation similar to 

that proposed for deposition of the Silurian Clinton 

ores of the Appalachian region. · 

The Ranchester Limestone Member of the 

Amsden Formation was named by Mallory (1967) 

for the upper predominantly limestone part of the 

Amsden Formation at the principal reference section on Amsden Creek. The member is named for 

the town of Ranchester, about 16 km east of the 

type locality. The member comprises a lower predominantly limestone unit and an upper predominantly shaly unit. The Ranchester in the Tongue 

River area is unconformably overlain by sandstone, 

dolomite and shale strata that compose the lower 

part of the Tensleep Sandstone, although at most 

places in Wyoming, these overlying strata consist 

chiefly of dolomite and commonly are included in 

the Ranchester. In this report, these dolomitic 

strata are excluded from the Amsden Formation and 

are included as a dolomitic member of the Tensleep. 

The Ranchester varies widely in thickness and at 

places is absent because of erosional beveling prior 

to deposition of the basal dolomitic member of the 

Tensleep. The Ranchester Limestone Member is part 

of the lower Pennsylvanian sequence. The unconformity above the Ranchester and beneath the dolomitic member was shown by Foster (1958) to extend throughout the Powder River basin and by 

Maughan and Roberts (1967), through Montana. 

This unconformity extends westward from the Bighorn Mountains and is an element in the Pennsylvanian strata in western Wyoming, as shown on the 

correlation of sections in Wyoming (figs. 11 and 

12). 

The Ranchester comprises mostly light- to medium-gray and reddish- to purplish-gray limestone 

and dolomitic limestone. Dolomite predominates at 

some places, but generally it is a minor component 

in this unit. The limestone beds are mostly 0.2-1.0 

m thick and commonly are interstratified with red, 

at some places purplish, argillaceous mudstone that 

occurs as parting films or in thicknesses as great 

as 15 m. Limestone beds commonly contain nodules 

and stringers of red, brown, white, and dark-gray 

chert. The jasperoid chert is a useful lithologic key 

that aids identification of the member. Carbonate 

rock predominates where only the lower 20 m or 

so of the member is present, but in a few places, 

as at Amsden Creek and along Highway 14, 3 km 

southeast of the type section, the carbonate unit is 

about 45 m thick, and the upper part of the member comprises almost equal amounts of carbonate 

rock and mudstone. Quartzose sandstone rarely occurs in the Ranchester Limestone Member. 

The Horseshoe Shale Member and the lower unit 

of the Ranchester Limestone Member correlate with 

the lower member of the Minnelusa Formation and 

lower member of the Hartville Formation (Foster, 

1958) and constitute the lower Pennsylvanian sequence in central and .northwestern Wyoming. 

Maughan and Roberts ( 1967, pl. 4) showed correlation of the Horseshoe and Ranchester with the 

lithologically similar Cameron Creek Member of the 

Tyler Formation and the Alaska Bench Limestone 

of Morrowan and early Atokan age in central Montana. Correlation of the Horseshoe and Ranchester 

members of the type locality of the Amsden Formation with the Pennsylvanian Round Valley Limestone in southwestern Wyoming and the Uinta 

Mountains is shown in figure 11. Similar stratigraphic relations westward to the Pennsylvanian 

Cameron Creek and Alaska Bench equivalents of 

the Amsden Formation in southwestern Montana 

are shown in figure 12. 

Regional stratigraphic relations show that the 

Horseshoe in central Wyoming must be the same age 

as or slightly younger than equivalent red beds of 

late Morrowan to Atokan age in the lowermost 

member of the Hartville and Minnelusa Formations 

in eastern Wyoming and probably are slightly 

younger than limestone and red beds of Morrowan 

age in the Round Valley Limestone in southwestern 

Wyoming and northern Utah. That the Horseshoe 

Shale Member is younger is emphasized by onlapping of successively younger Lower Pennsylvanian 

conodont zones at the base of the Pennsylvanian 

strata from the Uinta Mountains northward into 

the Green River basin (G. J. Verville, oral commun., 1977). Paleogeographic evidence indicates 

that this onlapping probably continues to the outcrops at Cherry Creek near the southern end of the 

Wind River Range and into the Wind River basin, 

where the base of the Horseshoe Shale Member 

seems to be younger than the approximately equivalent Morrowan strata in the Green River basin and 

no older than about middle Morrowan. Similar 

physical onlapping of the Pennsylvanian Tyler Formation of the Amsden Group in central Montana 
WYOMING U31 

with the Horseshoe Shale Member at Amsden Creek 1 

has been shown by Maughan and Roberts (1967, 

pl. 1). 

The age of the Horseshoe Shale and the Ranchester is Morrowan, probably late Morrowan and 

early Atokan, although the members are sparsely 

dated paleontologically. Gorman ( 1963) identified 

fusulinids that characterize the zone of Millerella 

from limestone at the base of the Ranchester. These 

fusulinids are similar to the fauna from the same 

stratigraphic horizon in the Hartville uplift (Love 

and others, 1953). Fusulinids of the zone of MilleTella also occur near the base of equivalent strata in 

central and southwestern Montana, where they are 

part of the Alaska Bench Limestone (Scott, 1945a, b ; 

Mundt, 1956, p. 50). Early Pennsylvanian fossils 

oecur on the east flank of the Bighorn Mountains 

within 1.5 m of the base of the Horseshoe at South 

Rock Creek (Sando and others, 1975, pl. 6) and 8 

m above the base at U.S. Highway 14 (Gorman, 

1963). Early Pennsylvanian age is indicated for the 

Horseshoe in the Wind River basin as the result of 

paleontological studies by Burk (1954) from collections made by Biggs (1951) 8.5 m above the base 

of the member at Beaver Creek, 8.7 m, at Cherry 

Creek, and 11.3 m, at Horse Creek. 

The brachiopod assemblages from some Wyoming 

localities have been assigned a Mississippian age 

(Shaw and Bell, 1955; Shaw, 1955; Sando, 1967; 

Sando and others, 1975; Gordon, 1975). If these 

assemblages are of Mississippian age, they must be 

very late Chesterian; however, the Pennsylvanian 

age of the brachiopod faunas of the Horseshoe Shale 

Member in the Wind River basin is indicated by the 

regional relations shown in figures 11 and 12. As 

emphasized by Burk (1954, p. 4), the assemblages 

include many species known elsewhere in strata considered to be Pennsylvanian. Burk stated (p. 4) 

that "No genus or species is exclusively Mississippian or older" and "none of the previously identified 

faunas have a range which conflicts with a Pennsylvanian age for the Amsden." The Chester.ian age 

assigned to faunal assemblages from the Horseshoe 

Shale and Ranchester Limestone Members collected 

at Cherry Creek (fig. 11) and at Livingston Ranch 

(fig. 12) ·on the flanks of the Wind River basin 

(Sando and others, 1975; Gordon, 1975) is at variance with the regional, physical-stratigraphic correlations presented in this report. The strata that 

have yielded the Anthracospirifer welleri-shawi 

faunal assemblage seem to be no older than middle 

Morri>wan. 

In agreement with the observations of Burk 

(1954), Anthracospirifer welleri ( = Spirifer welleri) and other elements of the A. welleri-shawi 

zone have been identified in Pennsylvanian strata 

of the Morrowan to lower Atokan Cameron Creek 

Member of the Tyler Formation and Alaska Bench 

Limestone in the Big Snowy Mountains in central 

Montana (Maughan and Roberts, 1967). Elements 

of the Anthracospirifer welleri-shaw zone-AnthTacospirifeT cf. A. shawi exoletus, Composita cf. 

C. poposiensis, and Reticulariina cf. R. browniihave also been identified (B. R. Wardlaw, written 

commun., 1978) from the Pennsylvanian Tyler 

equivalent of the Amsden Formation at Targhee 

Pass on the Montana-Idaho border (fig. 12, col. 10). 

Pugnoides quinqueplecis in several collections assigned to the A. welleri-shawi zone in Wyoming 

(Sando and others, 1975) has been found only in 

Pennsylvanian strata in central Montana (Maughan 

and Roberts, 1967, pl. 4). Thus, the A. welleri-shawi 

zone seems to be Early to Middle Pennsylvanian 

rather than Late Mississippian. 

The age of the Horseshoe Shale Member at Berry 

Creek in the northern part of the Teton Range is 

considered to be Penns,ylvanian, for the strata 

illustrate the same regional stratigraphic relations 

as at Targhee Pass and at Livingston Ranch. The 

Horseshoe at Berry Creek also includes the A. 

welleri-shawi zone in association with foraminiferal 

zone 19 of Mamet (Sando and others, 1975, p. A42). 

Zone 19, which correlates with the European Homoceras zone (Mamet, 1975, p. B6), had been thought 

to indicate a Late Mississippian age, even though 

this zone had not been identified in youngest beds 

of the type Chester in Illinois. The occurrence of 

foraminiferal zone 19 at Berry Creek probably confirms the Pennsylvanian age of these rocks because 

Lane (1977, p. 179) recently has shown that the 

Rachistognathus prim us conodont zone ·occurs both 

in the base of the type Morrowan in Arkansas and 

in the H omoceras zone. 

Assignment of a Mississippian age to the Horseshoe at Livingston Ranch (Sando and others, 1975), 

on the basis of foraminiferal data, is also contradictory to the regional correlations. All the taxa in 

the foraminiferal fauna listed from Livingston 

Ranch (Mamet, 1975, p. B9) also occur in collections of more diverse foraminiferal assemblages 

from the Moffat Trail Limestone of Chesterian age 

and from the Ranchester Limestone Member of 

early Atokan age. The Foraminifera designated as indicative of foraminiferal zone 18 at Livingston 

Ranch on the basis of the published list of taxa are 
U32 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

not necessarily limited to the Late Mississippian 

(B. L. Skipp, oral. commun., 1978; P. L. Branckle, 

oral commun., 1978) and are not contradictory of a 

Pennsylvanian age. 

TENSLEEP SANDSTONE 

The Tensleep Sandstone was named by Darton 

(1904, p. 396-397) for sandstone above the Amsden 

Formation and below red beds that are now named 

Goose Egg Formation of Permian and Triassic age. 

The type section is in the canyon of Tensleep Creek 

on the western flank of the Bighorn Mountains. The 

formation comprises light-gray to yellowish-gray 

sandstone, medium-to coarsely crystalline pinkish to 

gray dolomite and dolomitic sandstone in mostly 

thick to massive beds. Dolomitic strata are mostly 

in the lower part of the formation, and in this report these beds are considered to be a dolomitic 

member of the Tensleep, although they have commonly been regarded as part of the Amsden 

Formation. 

The dolomitic member comprises interbedded yellowish- to pinkish-gray and very light gray, fine- to 

medium-crystalline dolomite, green and red mudstone, and white to yellowish-gray, fine- and medium-grained quartzose sandstone. Dolomite generally predominates in the unit, but at some places, 

either sandstone or mudstone constitute the bulk of 

the rocks. Sandstone beds are increasingly abundant 

in upper parts of the unit. Greenish-gray to palegreen mudstone in beds as much as 0.5 m thick 

form a seemingly characteristic part of the lowermost few meters of this unit everywhere in Wyoming, although moderate-red to moderate-reddishorange and pale-red-purple mudstone commonly occur at the base of the unit and may locally form 

basal red beds as much as 5 m thick. The dolomite 

unit reaches a maximum thickness of about 40 m, 

and pinkish, medium- to coarsely crystalline dolomite beds 2-4 m thick occur throughout the overlying Tensleep Sandstone. 

Sandstone of the Tensleep comprises mostly fineand medium-grained, well-sorted quartz sand. Both 

silica and carbonate minerals cement the sandstone; 

in a general way, siliceous cement dominates in the 

northwestern part of the State and carbonate cement dominates toward the southeast. Dolomite beds 

as much as 4 m thick occur in the upper part of 

the Tensleep, and at some places, these beds are at 

or near the top of the ·formation. Sandstone and 

dolomite beds in the lower part of the Tensleep 

range mostly from 2 to 5 m in thickness, and the 

sandstone commonly has small-scale, low-angle 

planar cross stratification. Beds reach a maximum 

thickness of 10 m in the upper part, and the sandstone includes a variety of crossbedding forms, including large-scale, high-angle, wedge-planar cross 

stratification indicative of offshore bar, beach, and 

aeolian dune deposits (Reynolds and others, 1975). 

Contorted crossbedding is commonly seen in the 

upper part of the Tensleep. In the Bighorn basin, 

transport of the sand was from the northwest 

(Todd, 1966) , and this, as well as the regional geometry of the Tensleep and equivalent sandstone 

formations, suggests that the source of the sand 

was principally northwest of Wyoming, possibly 

from geanticlinal elements within the mobile belt of 

northern Idaho and adjacent areas (Maughan, 1975, 

p. 287-288) . 

Fusulinids of the zone of Fusulina-W edekindellina 

indicate the Des Moinesian age of the Tensleep 

(Henbest, 1954, 1956; Agatston, 1954, p. 528), and 

Love (1954) has shown regional relations of the 

strata and fusulinid and other faunas from the Tensleep and associated strata. In a few places, an advanced form of Profusulinella in the lower part of 

the Tensleep suggests late Atokan age for the base 

of the formation (Henbest, 1956, p. 61, collections 

f-9791 and f-12103). 

Rocks as young as late Des Moinesian may be included in the Tensleep Sandstone in western Wyoming (Love, 1954, col. 5), but those strata in far 

western Wyoming that have yielded fusulinids of 

Late Pennsylvanian age (Love, 1954, col. 3; Wanless 

and others, 1955, col. 19) are in the thrust belt, 

where the Des Moinesian and younger Pennsylvanian rocks are part of the Wells Formation 

(Schroeder, 1976; Jobin, 1972). 

In the southeastern Bighorn Mountains, Pennsylvanian strata, possibly younger than Des Moinesian age (Mallory, 1967, p. G23), and Wolfcampianage rocks are included in the Tensleep Sandstone 

near Mayoworth (Verville, 1957). There is no paleontological evidence in this area for either Missourian- or Virgilian-age rocks in the Tensleep, although a thicker section in this area suggests the 

possibility of Upper Pennsylvanian strata. Agatston 

(1954, p. 526) noted the increase in the number of 

limestone beds in the lower part of the Tensleep on 

the southeast flank of the Bighorn Mountains. Increase of limestone in this area can be attributed to 

gradation from the mos·tly sandstone facies of the 

Tensleep into the interbedded carbonate rock and 

sandstone facies of the middle mem her of the 

Minnelusa. 
WYOMING U33 

The Wolfcampian-age strata on the southeastern 

flank of the Bighorn Mountains (Verville, 1957) 

probably should not be included as part of the Tensleep Sandstone because these rocks unconformably 

overlie thick to massive crossbedded, slightly calcareous sandstone typical of the Tensleep, and the 

sandy strata above are of differing character. The 

Wolfcampian strata comprise thin planar beds of 

moderately to very dolomitic sandstone and sandy 

dolomite. They seem to be equivalent strata to the 

basal member (the "Nowood Member") of the Park 

City Formation (Maughan, 1967, p. 140) and probably could be identified as a tongue of the upper 

member of the Minnelusa. They should be separated 

from the Tensleep rather than incorporated as a 

local exception to the regionally established Des 

Moinesian age of the Tensleep Sandstone. 

Pennsylvanian rocks of the upper sequence are 

overlain unconformably everywhere in Wyoming by 

rocks of Permian age. 

ECONOMIC PRODUCTS FROM 

CAR'BONIFEROUS ROCKS 

By DAVID R. LAGESON 

The principal economic products from Carboniferous rocks in Wyoming are petroleum and highcalcium industrial limestone. Other commodities of 

minor importance include building stone and aggregate. Ground water from Mississippian limestones may have future economic importance in 

eastern Wyoming counties because of increasing 

demands for water in agriculture and in growing 

communities. 

According to statistics of the Wyoming Oil & Gas 

Conservation Commission, oil and gas production 

from Mississippian reservoirs accounts for approximately 6 and 1 percent of the total oil and gas 

production in the State, respectively. Similarly, oil 

and gas production from Pennsylvanian reservoirs 

accounts for approximately 37 and 2 percent of the 

total State oil and gas production, respectively. 

Carboniferous strata have been, and will continue 

to be, important exploration targets for the petroleum industry in Wyoming. (See table 2.) 

The exploration and development history of Carboniferous reservoirs in Wyoming has paralleled 

petroleum development in the Rocky Mountain region as a whole. Oil seeps and prominent "sheepherder" anticlines were the primary exploration 

targets during the late 1800's and early 1900's. Subsequently, as well control increased and as seismic 

TABLE 2.-0il and gas production from Ca-rboniferous reservoirs in Wyoming 

[Data from the Wyoming Oil & Gas Conservation Commission. These data represent 1975 producti.on and were the most current available at the time this report was compiled. bbl, billion barrels; mfc, million cubic feet .I 

Formation 

Calendar Year Calendar Year year oil year gas production total-oil production total-gas 

(bbls) (percent) (mcf X 1,000) (percent) 

8, 756,540 6.44 3,119,545 0.97 147,578 .11 92,184 .03 34,000,464 25.01 5,608,017 1. 75 15,414,228 11.34 301,309 .09 47,506 .04 285,287 .09 338,576 .25 1,249,982 .39 

58,704,892 43.19 10,656,324 3.32 

Madison --------- Amsden ---------

Tensleep -------- Minnelusa -------

Morgan ---------

Weber Total ---------- _________ ____:.;___ __ __;_..:...__ ___ .....:........::..::...:..:..:..=...._ ___ ....:.::.::._ 

Total of all producing formations in Wyoming) ___ _ 135,809,697 99.9 Hl7,646,049 99.3 

technology became available, stratigraphic traps and 

seismic anomalies became exploration targets. More 

recently, deep drilling along basin axes and sophisticated stratigraphic prospects in wildcat areas are 

producing new discoveries. In addition, there may 

be considerable potential for petroleum in Carboniferous strata in the overthrust belt of western Wyoming, an area currently receiving a great deal of 

exploration interest. 

The Powder River basin has produced significant quantities of petroleum from Pennsylvanian 

reservoirs. The Minnelusa Formation received intense exploration interest throughout the 1960's and, 

as a result, is currently producing oil from approximately 170 wells in the basin (Wyoming Oil & Gas 

Conservation Commission, 1975). Minnelusa traps 

typically result from either structural closure or 

truncation of reservoir beds over buried paleotopographic highs. 

Mississippian limestones, although thus far unproductive in the Powder River basin, have excellent reservoir characteristics. Potential Mississippian reservoirs have not been adequately tested because of excessive depths (McGregor, 1972). However, many potentially productive anticlines along 

the basin margins have been flushed with fresh 

ground water, precluding the possibility of Mississippian production. 

In the Bighorn basin, ·the Pennsylvanian Tensleep 

Sandstone is the principal oil producer. Anticlinal 

traps account for most of the Tensleep production in 

the basin; com,bina-tion structural stratigraphic traps 

involve thinning or truncation rof Tensleep reservoir 

beds at the post-Tensle,ep disconformity over large 

anticlines (Welden, 1972). Diagenetic modifications 

of the Tensleep Sandstone, including multiple-stage 
U34 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

cementation, are very important in determining reservoir quality throughout the basin. 

The Mississ.ippian Madison Limestone, an excellent peti'Ioleum reservoir, is productive from several 

anticlines in the Bighorn basin. Drilling experience 

has shown that production from the Madison occurs 

only where the structural closure is greater than the 

thickness of the Phosphoria (Permian) to Madison 

interval (Weldon, 1972). Shale membeTs of the 

Phosphoria Formation, which are rich in organic 

matter, appear to be the source rock for Paleozoic 

oil in the Bighorn basin. 

In the Wind River basin, the Tensleep Sandstone 

is again one of the most productive reservoirs. Large 

asymmetric anticlinal traps along the west flank of 

the basin, where the Tensleep is the deepes1t pi'Ioductive horizon, produce most of the Tensleep oil (Benner, 1972). 

Petroleum production from Carboniferous reservoirs across southern Wyom:ing has progressed 

sporadically. Tensleep pr!oduction at Lost Soldierr 

field was established in the 1920's. Mississippian oril 

was disrcovered at Lost Soldier in 1948. Gas production at Lost Soldier is now used to repressure the 

Tensle.ep reservoir after re·moval of condensate 

(Skeeters and Hale, 1972). Subsequent Tensleep discoveries include Hatfield, Baily Dome, and Sugar 

Creek, the last of which extended Pennsylvanian production south of Lost Soldier and 

west of Hatfield. Other Pennsylvanian reservoirs 

in southern Wyoming include AHen Lake, 

Medicine Bow, and Quealy Dome in the Hanna and 

Laramie basins. In the Green River basin of southwestern Wyoming, Paleozoic production is at prohibitive depths except on major struc.tures (Skeeter 

and Hale, 1972). The Table Rock deep unit, a structure developed off the east flank of the Rock Springs 

uplift," is a significant gas discovery in rthe Madison 

and Weber Formations. Pennsylvanian sour gas was 

discovered in 1969 at Church Buttes field at a depth 

of 5,460 m. Mississippian strata have good reservoir 

qualities but have thus far produced only nonflammable gas. 

High-calcium industrial limes,tone is another im,-

po·rtant commodity from Wyoming's Carboniferous 

rocks. The Mississippian Madison Limestone is the 

best potential source of high-calcium lin1estone in the 

State. High-calcium limestone is in demand in 

Wyoming for irts use in refining sugar from sugar 

beets and in lime scrubber systems for air-pollution 

control of coal-fired eleetric-generating powerpla,nts. 

In air-pollution control, approximately 100,000 tons 

of limestone would have to be mined each ye,ar to 

supply a 1000-MW generating plant, depending on 

variables such as heat value of the coal and purity 

of the limestone. As the use of Wyoming's coal increases, high-calcium-limestone p·roduction may also 

be expected to increase. 

Pisolitic hematite from. the Da:rwin Sandstone may 

have future economic value. Biggs ( 1951) has re-

.ported disCJontinuous lenses of pisolitic hematite 

6-10.5 m above the base of the Darwin Sandstone 

along the northeast flank of the Wind River 

Mountains. 

Ground water from the Madison Limestone in the 

Powder River bas·in is a questionable and disputed 

res,ource. A proposed project involving the removal 

of Madison water for us·e in a coal-slurry pipeline is 

questioned on the basis of the recharge ability of the 

Madison aquifer. Madison water might also have 

future significance in terms of the -increasing water 

demands of agriculture and communities in eastern 

Wyoming. Many ques;tions still remain to be answered before this resource becomes a reality. 

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WYOMING U37 

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U38 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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Assoc. Geologists, Geologic atlas of the Rocky Mountain region: Denver, Colo., p. 270-272. 

Williams, J. S., 1962, Pennsylvanian System in central and 

northern Rocky Mountains, in Branson, C. C., ed., 

Pennsylvanian System in the United States-A symposium: Tulsa, Okla., Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists, p. 159-187, 15 figs. 

Winchell, N. H., 1875, Geological report, in Ludlow, William, Report of a reconnaissance of the Black Hills of 

Dakota ':' * ':': Washington, D.C., p. 21-66. 

Wyoming Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, 1975, Wyoming oil and gas facts and figures: Casper, Wyo., 12 p. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesColorado 

By JOHN CHRONIC 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-V 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Colorado Geological Survf:!Y 

H istoncal review and summary of 

areal, stratigraphic, structural, 

and economic geology of Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian rocks in Colorado 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Page 

Abstract --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VI 

Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 

Flistory ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 

Geologic setting _________________ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 

Lithostratigraphy ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 

Biostratigraphy --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Igneous and metamorphic rocks _____________________________________________________________________ --------- 24 

Economic products ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 24 

References cited _____________________________________ ------ __ ----------------------------------------------- 25 

FIGURE 1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6-9. 

10. 

11. 

12. 

13-17. 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Map showing sub-Mississippian paleogeology __ ------------- _ ------ _ --------------------------- Map showing sub-Permian paleogeology _________ ---- ________________________________ -------- __ 

Mississippian correlation chart __________ ------------- _____________ ---------------------------

Pennsylvanian correlation chart --------------------------------------------------------------

Map showing thickness of the Mississippian System --------------------------------------------

Maps showing thickness and lithofacies of rocks of: 

6. Kinderhook age ----------------------------------------------------------------------

7. Osage age ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

8. Meramec age ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9. Chester age ___________ --------------------- _____________________ --------------------

Map showing thicknes,s of the Pennsylvanian System _________________ .:: _________________________ _ 

Stratigraphic section through the Pennsylvanian System in the Eagle brusin, northwest Colorado __ 

Map showing sub-Pennsylvanian paleogeology ______________ -.-- __________________ --------------

Maps showing thickness and lithofacie,s of rocks mostly of: 

13. Morrow age -------------------------------------------------------------------------

14. Atoka age ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

15. Des Moines age --------------------------------------------------------------------- 16. Missouri age _________________________________________________________________ --------

17. Virgil age _______________________________________________________________ ------------

III 

Page 

V4 

5 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONlFEROUS) 

SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES-COLORADO 

By 1 OHN CHRONIC1 

ABSTRACT 

Carboniferous rocks of Colorado have two contrasting facies, which roughly correspond to the Mississippian and the 

Pennsylvanian. 

The Mississippian was a time of widespread and uniform 

carbonate deposition, which originally covered almost all 

the State; most carbonate beds are referred to as the Leadville Limestone. Later, most of Colorado, especially the central part, was domed above the sea, a karst surface and 

residual soil formed, and, in some places, Mississippian strata 

were completely removed by erosion. 

Slight subsidence at about the beginning of Pennsylvanian 

time brought marginal coal-swamp deposition and then shallow-marine conditions in the basins. These basins bordered 

two elongate ranges of the rising ancestral Rockies, one 

roughly parallel to but west of the present Front Range, and 

the other extending northwest from what is now the San 

Luis Valley to beyond the present Uncompahgre Plateau. 

Until about the middle of Pennsylvanian time, these mountains rose intermittently, shedding coarse alluvium into the 

adjacent basins in a series of complex marine and nonmarine 

cycles; deposits reached a maximum thickness of much 

more than 3,000 m ( 10,000 ft). In central and western Colorado, 29 evaporite cycles, including several deposits of potash, 

are present along the Utah-Colorado border. A multitude of 

names are used for the complex Pennsylvanian sequence. 

The later part of the Pennsylvanian is poorly dated in 

Colorado because the strata lack fossils and datable igneous 

rocks; therefore, the upper boundary is poorly defined. Other 

evidence suggests that late in the period the two uplifts 

and three basins slowed in their differential movement and 

that the entire central part of the State was broadly domed 

and raised above sea level; nonmarine red beds, composed 

largely of debris from the ancestral Rockies, were deposited. 

Carboniferous rocks of Colorado yield significant amounts 

of oil and gas; uranium has been precipitated in economic 

quantities in the carbonaceous shale. Many of the richest 

mines for gold, silve,r, lead, and zinc in Colorado are in Carboniferous rocks enriched during Laramide intrusive and 

tectonic mountain-building activity. Building stone and 

evaporitic minerals are produced from Carboniferous rocks 

as well, but no economic coal of that age is present. 

INTRODUCTION 

Carboniferous rocks in Colorado were first reported on the maps of Jules Marcou and Edward 

1 University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo. 80309. 

' Hitchcock in 1853, but not until1870 were they documented along the Front Range by F. V. Hayden. By 

about 1900, geologists knew that the Carboniferous 

of Colorado represented two very different regimes, 

the earlier one, Mississippian, consisting of a very 

widely distributed but thin limestone sequence deposited in shallow open-marine conditions without 

reefs or reefing, and the later one, Pennsylvanian, a 

highly variable and tectonically complex thick 

sequence of cyclic marine and continental sedimentary rocks. 

Now, after 125 years of study, we know that, 

after deposition, Carboniferous rocks blanketed the 

State. Since then, however, they have been extensively eroded from the mountains and have been almost entirely covered by later deposition on the 

plain's and plateaus; their present outcrops are 

"more or less discontinuous areas exposed along the 

flanks of mountain ranges or sometimes in the channels of rivers" (Girty, 1903, p. 27). 

To paraphrase Girty, the most conspicuous feature 

in the distribution of Carboniferous rocks outcropping in Colorado is their occurrence in a discontinuous band stretching from the northwestern corner 

of the State to the center of its southern border. The 

northwestern part of the band is at the eastern end 

of the Uinta Mountains, where thick fossiliferous 

strata of Carboniferous age are present. 

Southeast of the Uinta Mountains is an isolated 

fault block, Juniper Mountain, of extremely fossiliferous Pennsylvanian strata. Southeast of this block 

is a large area of Carboniferous outcrops having a 

very irregular outline, exposed chiefly along the 

White and Colorado Rivers and their tributaries and 

around the White River Plateau. Continuous with 

this to the south, and really forming a part of it, is 

the area produced by the upturned beds of the 

Sawatch and Elk Mountains, including Maroon Bells 

southwest of Aspen. 

East and southeast of these areas, east of the 

Sawatch Range, a narrow linear area of outcrop exVl 
V2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

tends from near Vail south through Leadville to the 

Arkansas River valley and along the west side of 

South Park. Continuous with this to the south, but 

widening in exposure, is the Sangre de Cristo Range, 

extending to the southern border of the State and 

composed mostly of Carboniferous and Permian 

strata. 

Another well-defined area of Carboniferous exposure is in southwestern Colorado, in the San Juan 

Mountains, and northwestward along the Dolores 

River to Gypsum Valley on the Utah line. 

A last outcrop is the strip of sedimentary rocks 

up1turned along the eastern margin of the Front 

Range. Carboniferous rocks are discontinuous along 

this belt; they extend from the Wyoming line southward to near the Huerfano River at the southern end 

of the Wet Mountains. 

All the outcrops of Carboniferous rocks in Colorado were exposed by Cenozoic mountain building, 

and many thousands of square miles of Carboniferous strata have been eroded from the State in the 

last 60 million years. Many miles of truly outstanding Carbonif,erous outcrops are in the Colorado 

mountains, and notable caverns, some well above 

timber line, have been. cut into the massive limestones of this age. 

In most places, Carboniferous rocks are exposed 

at altitudes of 1820 m ( 6,000 ft) to more than 4,250 

m (14,000 ft). Steep drainag~ basins are normal in 

these areas, and outcrops are well exposed in canyons and cliffs. Probably the best exposures are in 

central Colorado, from the McCoy .area on the Colorado River southeast along the Mosquito Range:~.and 

the Sangre de Cristo Range. An outstanding and 

very accessible exposure of Pennsylvanian strata 

also is present at Molas Pass south of Silverton. 

Most of the red arkose and coarse sandstone along 

the Front Range, from Garden of the Gods northward to the Flatirons at Boulder, are probably of 

Carboniferous age, although they are generally 

unfossiliferous. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature us,ed here conforms with the current usage 

of the Colorado Geological Survey. 

HISTORY 

U.S. Government geologists have made many of 

the studies of Carboniferous rocks of Colorado. In 

addition to and overlapping the extensive activities 

of the Hayden survey (Hayden, 1870), were investigations of the Wheeler, King, and Powell surveys, all contributing information on the strata, 

principally in the central and western parts of the 

State. The U.S. Geological Survey, established in 

1879, began studies in Colorado, especially in and 

around Leadville. One of the first and most significant reports was by S. F. Emmons in the U.S. Geological Survey Second Annual Report published in 

1882. Emmons.' final report on this area, in 1886, 

was U.S. Geological Survey Monograph 12. Then 

followed several folios and monographs that included 

details of local occurrence of the Carboniferous 

System without containing anything generally 

significant. 

In 1903, George H. Gil'lty published "Carbonifer~ 

ous Formations and Faunas of Colorado," U.S. 

Geological Survey Professional Paper 16. All known 

occurrences and all fossils collected by the earlier 

surveys were des·c.ribed and summarized, and an 

excellent chronologie bibliography was included. 

This wo·rk is the most important reference on the 

subject of the present report, even though many of 

the names of formations and fossils have been 

changed by subsequent research. 

Since Girty's classic work, many papers have been 

published on Carboniferous strata of Colorado, only 

the most significant of which can be mentioned here. 

Mo,st of the authors in the early 1900's still used the 

term Carboniferous, but by 1930, most Colorado Carboniferous rocks were called either Mississippian or 

Pennsylvanian, and, as in the rest of the United 

States, the name Carboniferous fell into disuse. 

In 1930, Roth and Skinner published the first descriptions of Colorado Pennsylvanian fusulinids and 

microfossils from the McCoy area, calling the containing rocks the McCoy Formation. In 1934, Read 

and Johnson described rocks and fossils of Pennsylvanian age from the Mosquito Range, and Brainerd 

and Johnson summariz·ed the Mississippian of Colorado. Vanderwilt (1935) described the stratigraphy 

of Pennsylvanian strata in the Elk Mountains, and 

Johnson ( 1940, 1944, 1945) continued his long series 

of publications on the Paleozoic of central Colorado 

and the algae of the Carboniferous. 

Arnold, in 1940 and 1941, called attention to the 

early Pennsylvanian floras of central Colorado, and 

in 1945, Thompson described the fusulinids and 

strata of northwestern Colorado. Brill (1944, 1952) 

studied the Pennsylvanian and Permian of central 

Colorado and named the two principal Pennsylvanian stratigraphic units the Belden and Minturn 

Formations. 
COLORADO V3 

McLaughlin (1952) and Lehman (1953) published descriptions of microfossils from the Glen 

Eyrie Formation near Manitou. Wengerd and 

Strickland, in 1954, described the varied stratigraphy of the Pennsylvanian in the Paradox salt 

basin in southwestern Colorado and adjacent areas 

after oil was discovered there. 

The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists 

(RMAG) held a field conference and published an 

excellent "Symposium on Pennsylvanian Rocks of 

Colorado and Adjacent Areas" (Curtis, 1958). The 

22 articles in this symposi urn represent a co·mprehensive summary of knowledge on the Pennsylvanian to the date of publication. In 1961, another 

RMAG field conference resulted in the "Symposium 

on Lower and Middle Paleozoic Rocks of Colorado" 

(Berg and Rold, 1961), in which the Mississippian 

strata of the State are dealt with in a reasonably 

complete series of articles. 

In 1962, Stevens summarized and illustrated the 

brachiopods of the McCoy area, and, in 1965, Murray 

and Chronic published the results of a study on 

conodonts from the Minturn Formation in western 

Colorado. 

Finally, in 1972, Mallory summarized the Pennsylvanian System (p. 111-127) and Craig (in Mallory, 

1972, p. 100-110) summarized the Mississippian 

System in "Geologic Atlas of the Rocky Mountain 

Region." Much of the stratigraphic infonnation and 

many of the maps presenrted here are from this 

masterful volume; the paleontologic data are from 

the RMAG Symposiums (Curtis, 1958, and Berg ana 

Rold, 1961). 

The Colorado Geological Survey has had two periods of active existence. During the earlier period, 

work was done at the University of Colorado, and 

publications were mostly summaries, bibliographies, 

and reports in bulletin form on the geology of various mining areas. In the first report, published in 

1909, Junius Henderson summarized information on 

"The Foothills Formations Of North Central Colorado," revising and adding to this report in 1920. 

Other early Survey reports document the occurrence 

of Carboniferous rocks and fossils in mining dig. 

tricts of the State, but the rocks were not seriously 

studied. 

After a hiatus of 35 years, a newly organized Colorado Geological Survey began work in 1969 and has 

published reports, maps, and other geologic information since. Most data presented to date have been 

of practical nature, emphasizing oil, coal, gas, minerals, and geologic hazards. No contributive general 

information on the Carboniferous has been published, and none is now being prepared, although 

data on economic products from Carboniferous rocks 

are being gathered and are available at the Survey 

offices. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

Carboniferous rocks of Colorado lie on strata 

ranging in age from Precambrian to Late Devonian 

(fig. 1 ) . In the eastern part of the State, Devonian 

rocks are generally absent, and Precambrian, Cambrian, and Ordovician beds underlie the Carboniferous rocks; in the west, the Late Devonian Ouray or 

Chaffee Formations underHe the Carboniferous 

ro·cks. 

In eastern Colorado, the lower contact is uncon-

:Dormable, but there is little or no angularity between 

the underlying beds and the Carboniferous and no 

marked evidence of erosion, even though much time 

passed between deposition of the two sets of strata. 

Indeed, data on fossils from diatremes in the northern Front Range, indicate that Silurian marine 

strata were deposited over at least that part of the 

State and then completely removed by erosion before Carboniferous deposition. 

On the west, deposition appears to have been continuous during Devonian and Carboniferous time; 

the Ouray Formation of the San Juan Mountains 

contains fossils of both Devooian and Mississippian 

age. The exact contact between Devonian and Carboniferous is impossible to determine in many places 

becaus·e no angular relationship· or weathered zone 

is present. In many places, a darker gray zone of 

carbonate, some of which is soft, is found at about 

the contact level, but in other places, the Upper Devonian Ouray or Chaffee Formations appear stratigraphically continuous with the massive Leadville 

Limestone above. 

Rocks overlying the Carboniferous in Colorado 

are generally red beds of continental origin, except 

in the subsurface of southeastern and southwestern 

Colorado where, in a few wells, Early Permian limestones have been found that contain fusulinids, suggesting a marine origin (fig. 2). In most places, 

except very near the Front Range and Uncompahgre 

uplifts. red beds, whose age is known or strongly 

suspected to be Permian, are composed of sandstone 

or shal·e, indicative of the sharp weakening of tectonism in these areas toward the end of Carboniferous time. In the subsurface of southeastern Colorado, 

a large area known as the Apishapa uplift contains 

no known Carboniferous rocks. There, Precambrian 
V4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

0 

I 

0 

_l J 

100 200 MILES 

I 

I I 

I 

100 200 

EXPLANATION 

300 KILOMETERS 

- Devonian rocks 

- Ordovician-rocks 

Cambrian rocks 

Precambrian rocks 

Cambrian-Ordovician rocks 

Precambrian crystalline rocks exposed 

*This name is not commonly used in the area indicated 

.but its extension would be useful 

FIGURE !.-Sub-Mississippian paleogeology (modified from Mallory, 1972, p. 1()2). 
COLORADO 

_l 

0 100 200 MILES 

.I I I 

' 

I I 

0 100 200 300 KILOMETERS 

EXPLANATION 

PENNSYLVANIAN ROCKS 

-Virgil 

PRE-PENNSYLVANIAN ROCKS 

Missouri 

~~i~(.ii[([.[i_~::;-\·;.:_!((::·1 Des Moines 

Mississippian 

Cambrian-Ordovician (may include some Devonian) 

Precambrian 

FIGURE 2.-Sub-Pennian paleogeology (modified from Bailey Rascoe, Jr., and Donald L. Baars, 

in Mallory, 1972, p. 149). 

V5 
V6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

and ·earlier Paleozoic strata are in contact with 

those of Permian age. 

The upper surface o.f the Carboniferous in Colorado cannot be determined accurately because it is 

unfossiliferous and unsuited for radioactive age 

dating. Because most of the State was a lowland 

area receiving alluvial clastic sediments from the 

residual hills of the Front Range, Uncompahgre, and 

Apishapa uplifts, much of the upper surface will 

probably be found to be irregularly unconformable, 

when and if suitable means of age determination 

are established. 

From the beginning of the Paleozoic Era until 

about the end of the Mississip·pian Period, Colorado 

was relatively stable and had almost no relief and 

little tectonic movement, except for regional uplift 

and subsidence. Mississippian strata are not well 

dated in Colorado, but the early and late parts of 

the p·eriod were apparently times of relative positive 

movement, whereas the middle part was a time of 

subm·ergence. 

Some evidence indicates that local graben and 

horst formation took place along the south side of 

the Uncompahgre uplift during middle Mississippian time, possibly the first signal of later violent 

Carboniferous events in Colorado. 

Late in Mississippian time, Colorado slowly rose 

above the sea and became a lowland on which the 

recently deposited carbonate rocks were deeply 

eroded, almo3t entirely by solution. Many caves and 

a widespread karst surface formed at this time. 

In Early Pennsylvanian time, the seas readvanced 

locally into basins between the Front Range and Uncompahgre uplifts, which were in an incipient stage 

of uplift. · 

As vertical uplift in these elongate regions, as well 

as in the Apishapa uplift, accelerated, and deep 

basins formed between them and at their sides, 

erosion moved great masses of sediment into the 

basins, resulting in the great quantity and variable 

character of Middle· and Upper Pennsylvanian 

strata. 

Orogenic movements must have ceased by about 

the end of Middle Pennsylvanian time, and the entire 

State was regionally uplifted above sea level. As 

Middle Pennsylvanian seas receded from the central 

part of the State, widespread continental deposition 

took plaoe, and seas remained only in the southeastern and southwestern corners. Tectonic stability 

must have prevailed by the end of Carboniferous 

time, for the land was gradually flattened by. erosion 

during the Permian and Triassic Periods. 

The cyclic nature of sedimentation in much of the 

Pennsylvanian Period in Colorado reflects to a remarkable extent the general cyclicity of deposition 

throughout the world at this time. Few cycles in 

Colorado rocks ·contain coal, but most are highly 

variable units in which red beds, conglomerates, and 

arkoses alternate with marine limestone, which is 

usually gray or greenish gray. More than 60 cycles 

have been recorded in the probable Pennsylvanian 

rocks of the Arkansas River valley, and at least 40 

in many other central Colorado .sections. Most of 

these cycles whose ages have been determined are of 

Early and Middle Pennsylvanian age; later cycles 

are completely unfossiliferous. 

For probably 100 million years after the Carboniferous Period, Colorado was extremely stable tectonically, but almost always somewhat above sea 

level. Then, in Early Cretaceous time, the sea invaded the State and covered it completely for about 

40 million years. 

Along with the surrounding Rocky Mountain area, 

the State w·as uplifted locally, and the present mountain ranges formed about 50 to 60 million years ago. 

Intervening areas, the present intermontane basins, 

remained slightly above sea level. Then, about 20 

million years ago, in Miocene time, the whole State 

was regionally uplifted to about its present altitude. 

Violent volcanic activity took place, especially in the 

southwest, and finally, during the last few million 

years, glacial erosion and deposition gave the State 

its present topography. Carboniferous strata that 

formerly covered the entire State were almost completely eroded away from the mountainous area. 

LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY 

Carboniferous stratigraphy in Colorado is a study 

in contrasts. Almost all Mississippian rocks are 

called Leadville Limestone. Because of the many 

isolated outcrops and, in the Pennsylvanian System, 

the abrupt lateral and vertical facies changes, a 

number of stratigraphic units are in use for Colorado Carboniferous rocks (figs. 3 and 4). 

On the east, in subsurface, Kansas terminology is 

generally used, but along the Front Range, the outcrop names Glen Eyrie and Fountain are used for 

the 150- to 1,250-m (500- to 4,000-ft) -thick Pennsylvanian section, a marine and continental cyclic 

sequence overlain by colorful arkosic red beds that 

form the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs, 

the Redrocks west of Denver, and the Flatirons at 

Boulder. 
Eastern 

Plains 

Pennsylvanian 

Unnamed rocks 

of Chester age 

Unnamed rocks 

of Meramec age 

Unnamed rocks 

of Osage age 

Unnamed rocks of 

Kinderhook age 

COLORADO 

Eastern 

Mountains 

Western 

·Fountain Formation Molas Belden 

Permian and Formation Shale 

Pennsylvanian Penn. and Penn. 

Fremont 

Limestone 

Ordovician 

Miss. 

·Unnamed 

upper 

.member 

Chaffee 

Formation 

Devonian 

Northwestern 

(Uinta Mtns.) 

Morgan Formation 

Pennsylvanian 

Doughnut 

Formation 

Deseret 

Limestone 

Madison 

Limestone 

equivalent · 

Cambrian 

and 

Precambrian 

FIGURE 3.-Mississippian correlation chart (modified from 

L. W. Craig, in Mallory, 1972, p. 101). 

V7 
V8 

c: 

0 

·~ 

co 

E 

0 

u. 

THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Laramie 

Range 

Eagle 

basin 

c: 

Q) 

"0 

ai 

[JJ 

Douglas Creek 

arch, Split 

Mountain 

0 

u. 

c: 

co 

Southern 

Front Range 

\ 

\ 

\ 

Qi\ 

0 

u. 

-~ 

:J 

0 

u. 

Q) ..c \ ·-... E \ >Q) 

w~ 

c: 

Q) Q) 

(3cti .r::. 

CJ) 

Northern 

Front Range 

L--

1 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I Oi 

I "E 

I E 

-~L §I 

~I 

I 

I 

I 

I -~I 

~I :J 

0 

u. 

Q) 

c. 

c. 

::> 

Lower 

member 

Denver 

Basin 

Rocks of 

Virgil age 

Rocks of 

Missouri age 

Paradox 

basin 

Rico 

Formation 

co 

(/) 

0 

c: 

0 

·~ 

co 

E 

~ 

I ~ t-----r-.,.....-'----1 

l:::r: 

Rocks of I 

Des Moines age 1 

Rocks of 

Atoka age 

I 

Pinkerton 

Trail 

Formation 

FIGURE 4.-Pennsylvanian correlation chart (modified Mallory, 1972, p. 113). 
COLORADO V9 

In the Maroon basin of central Colorado, the 

sequence of Kerber, Belden, Minturn, and Maroon 

Formations is used for Pennsylvanian strata. In 

the south-central part of the State, terminology of 

New Mexico is used, and in the northwest, that of 

Utah. 

In southwest Colorado, other names have come 

into use because of the physical separation of the 

area from the Maroon· basin. Molas, Pinkerton Trail, 

Paradox, Hermosa, and Honaker Trail are usually 

used for the sequence of Pennsylvanian strata in the 

0 

I 

0 

I 

100 

100 

I 

Paradox basin, but other names for larger and 

smaller units are also used. 

Figures 5-17, from the "Geologic Atlas of the 

Rocky Mountain Region" (Mallory, 1972), convey 

more clearly than any other way the nature of the 

Carboniferous rocks of Colorado. 

In general, the contact between the Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian in Colorado represents an erosion surface that has karst charac.teristics. in many 

places (fig. 11). Commonly; there is an iron-rich, 

red soil zone, which contains chert in many places 

I 

200 

I 

200 MILES 

I 

300 KILOMETERS 

___, 

I 

' 

FIGURE 5.-Thickness of the Mississippian System (modified from L. W. Craig, in Mallory, 

1972, p. 103). Isopach interval 100 feet, dashed where distant from control, dotted where 

conjectural. Precambrian crystalline rocks are patte-rned. Note the extensive areas in northcentral, northeastern, southern and western Colorado where no Mississippian rock now exists; 

also note the thickening of the system to the southeast and west, toward the State margins, 

and the faulted graben on the western state line. 
VlO 

I 

I 

I 

THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

. 108° 

J 

--' 

_j j_ L- - 0 100 200 MILES 

f 

I I 

0 100 200 300 KILOMETERS 

EXPLANATION 

Sandy carbonate rock and calcareous sandstone· 

>80% carbonate rock 

Calcareous shale and shaly carbonate rock 

Precambrian crystalline rocks exposed 

-o-Isopach line 

FIGURE 6.-Thickness and lithofacies of rocks of Kinderhook age (modified from L. W. Craig, 

in Mallory, 1972, p. 104). 

I 

' J 

and may be fo.ssiliferous and of Mississippian age. 

This deposit is called the Molas Formation in central 

and western Colorado; in some places, the contact 

zone and the Molas may be enriched with ores because of its unusual physical and geochemical 

nature. 
0 

I 

0 

I 

100 

COLORADO 

100 

I 

I 

200 

EXPLANATION 

I 

200 MILES 

I 

300 KILOMETERS 

Sandy carbonate rock and calcareous sandstone 

>80% carbonate rock 

Calcareous shale and shaly carbonate rock 

Precambrian crystalline rocks exposed 

-500- Isopach line; thickness in feet. Dashed where 

~istant from control; dotted where conjectural 

--

FIGURE 7.-Thickness and lithofacies of rocks of Osage age (modified from L. W. Craig, in 

Mallory, 1972, p. 105). 

I 

I 

\ 

Vll 
V12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

--

4001- umbug 

1 Formation 

I 

I 

r~ I 

I 

3Wr 

I 

I 

L._ __ t_·- ___ j _ __., 

0 

' 0 

>80% Sandstone 

I 

100 

>80% carbonate rock 

100 

I I 

200 

EXPLANATION 

Precambrian crystalline rocks exposed 

I 

200 MILES 

I 

300 KILOMETERS 

-500- Isopach line; thickness in feet. Dashed where distant from control; dotted 

where conjectural 

FIGURE 8.-Thickn-ess and lithofacies of rocks of Meramec age (modified from L. W. Craig, 

in Mallory, 1972, p. 107). 

l 
~r 

I 

I 

l ~ 

t~ I 

I 

38° r 

I 

I 

-

COLORADO 

,• 

~ .... 

j_ L_ 

0 100 

I I 

I 

I 

0 100 200 

EXPLANATION 

- Sandy shale and shaly sandstone 

Sandy carbonate rock and calcareous sandstone 

I I Calcareous shaly sandstone and sandy shale 

Calcareous shale and shaly carbonate rock 

Precambrian crystalline rocks exposed 

104° r---

I 

--

200 MILES 

I 

300 MILES 

-o- Isopach line; thickness in feet. Dashed where distant from control 

FIGURE 9.-Thickness and lithofacies of rocks of Chester age (modified from L. W. Craig, 

in Mallory, 1972, p. 108). 

I 

I 

\ 

_j 

I 

V13 

\ 

' I 

\ 

I 

I 

' _I 
Vl4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

• • _L: 

0 100 200 MILES 

I I I 

I 

0 100 200 300 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 10.-Thickness of the Pennsylvanian System (modified from Mallory, 1972, p. 115). 

Isopach interval 100 feet, dashed where distant from control, dotted where conjectural. Precambrian crystalline rocks are shaded. Cross section C-C' in northwest, across central Colorado 

trough, is shown in figure 11. The Front Range, Uncompahgre, and Apishapa uplifts were 

above sea level and at times were mountains during the Pennsylvanian Period. Location of 

fig. 11 shown by line C-C'. 

In some areas, especially along the northern Front 

Range, Mississippian rocks were undoubtedly 

present but w·ere completely eroded away before 

Pennsylvanian clastic deposition, as some chert 

pebbles contain Mississippian fossils, especially the 

brachiopod Eumertia sp. and the bivalve Conocardium sp., in the basal Pennsylvanian red beds. 

.Every known class of sedimentary rock can be 

found in the Carboniferous strata of Colorado. The 

principal rocks exposed, however, are the massive 

gray limestone of the Mississippian and the coarse 

reddish..:gray conglomeratic arkose of the Pennsylvania-n. ·The Pennsylvanian, as indicated in figures 

13 to 17, is extremely variable; the very coarse 

conglomerate of the Minturn and Sangre de Cristo 

Formations of south-central Colorado contrast 

strongly with the massive reef and offshore limestones of northwestern Colorado and the thick cyclic 

salt beds of the Paradox basin. 

In Mississippian time, faci,es changes were scarce 

and slight and consisted mostly of minor textural 

changes in the almost pure carbonate. The lower 

beds of the Mississippian tend to be very fine 

grained; the overlying beds are commonly oolitic 

and contain endothyrid foraminifera. 
• Fig. 11 

c 

FEET METERS 

500 oi~oo 200 

1000 300 

0 5 10 MILES I I I I I I I 

" " I I I 0 5 10 15 KILOMETERS 

CONTROL POINT IDENTIFICATION TABLE 

Key no. Name Sec. T. 

Colorado 

1. Miller Creek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2S 

2. Miracle and Wooster, Quiett 1 and ....... . 

North Elk Cr ........................... 26 1S 

3. Buford Oil, Govt. 1 ....................... 16 1N 

4. Phillips Petroleum, Poose Cr. 1 ........... 10 2N 

5. Robinson, Kagie 1 ....................... 29 4N 

A. 

92W 

92W 

91W 

88W 

87W 

EXPLANATION 

Sandstone with some siltstone and shale, white, gray, buff, 

pink, or orange, of the Morgan Formation. 

PRECIPITATED ROCKS 

-

Gypsum, anhydrite, and sulfatiferous siltstone and 

mudstone. 

Limestone (and, locally, dolomite). 

FIGURE 11.-Stratigraphic section through the Pennsylvanian System in the Eagle basin, northwest Colorado (modified 

from Mallory, 1972, p. 125). Location given on fig. 10. 

0 

0 

t'4 

0 

~ 

> 

~ 

0 

< 

...... 

01 
V16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Leadville Limestone::::: 

::::·::.:·::::=:::.m::~ ································ 

0 

I 

0 

I 

100 

100 

I 

I 

200 

I 

200 MILES 

I 

300 KILOMETERS 

EXPLANATION 

Chester rocks 

Meramec rocks 

Kinderhook rocks 

Devon ian System 

Ordovician System 

Cambrian System and Ordovician 

rocks locally 

Precambrian rocks 

Precambrian crystalline 

rocks exposed 

FIGURE 12.-Sub-Pennsylvanian paleogeology (modified from Mallory, 1972, p. 114). 

Abrupt facies changes are the rule in the Pennsylvanian of central Colorado. Outcrops, roughly following the edges of Pennsylvanian highlands, may 

change within a very few miles from continental 

coarse conglomerates to marine limestones, alternating in cyclic repetition with red shales and sandstones. In many places, correlation of the beds in the 

clastic strata for more than a few feet is difficult, 
COLORADO 

k~ I~ 

,~ 

LAND 

38°1--

1 

I 

I 

Mol as 

Formation 

._ ___ _ 0 

I 

0 

------ j_ 

I 

100 

100 

I 

I 

200 

EXPLANATION 

Carbonate rock 

Sandstone and Shaly sandstone 

local conglomerate and sandy. shale 

Center: 

Shale and 

siltstone 

Shale,·sandstone and carbonate rock in subequal proportions 

All end members contain no more than 20% of other rock types. 

I 

200 MILES 

I 

300 KILOMETERS 

-500- Isopach line; thickness in feet. Dashed 

where distant from control; dotted 

where conjectural. 

FIGURE 13.-Thickness and lithofacies of rocks mostly of Morrow age (modified from Mal. 

lory, 1972, p. 116). 

V17 
Vl8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

olas Formation (part} 

t\. 1 -l~=A -

u~~...,~ 

Kerber For?;,ation 

-~~a-rt_)_ 

-' 

0 100 200 MILES 

P ~~----~~~~----~~--~~--------~ri-J1 

0 100 200 300 KILOMETERS 

Carbonate rock 

EXPLANATION 

Limy shale and shalv 

carbonate rock 

-500- Isopach line; thickness in feet. Dashed 

where distant from control; dotted 

where conjectural. 

Sandstone and local 

conglomerate Shale and siltstone 

Center: 

Shaly, sandstone and carbonate rock in subequal proportions 

All end members contain no more than 20% of other rock types. 

FIGURE 14.-Thickness and lithofacies of rocks mostly of Atoka age (modified from Mallory, 

1972, p. 117). 
COLORADO 

0 

I 

0 

I 

100 

100 

I 

I 

200 

I 

200MILES 

I 

300 KILOMETERS 

EXPLANATION 

Sandy carbonate rock 

. and limy sandstone r-r/.r-J.:i<')T.il'Jd. 

Sandstone a loc;:al conglomerate 

Center: 

.Limy shale and shaly 

carbonate rock 

and 

siltstone 

Shale, sandstone and carbonate rock 

in subequal proportions 

All end members contain no more than 

20% of other rock types. 

Precambrian crystalline rocks exposed 

-Gypsum and anhydrite 

. Halite, salts of potassium and interbedded 

black shale 

--c::::::::::a::.o Paradox salt diapirs 

-500- Isopach line; thickness in feet. Dashed where 

distant from control; dotted where conjectural 

1

As used by Wengerd and Strickland, (1954). 

FIGURE 15.-Thiekness and lithofacies of rocks mostly of Des Moines age (modified from Mallory, 1972, p. 119). 

V19 
V20 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

0 

I 

0 

I 

100 

100 

I 

I 

200 

EXPLANATION 

Carbonate rock 

Center: 

Shale, sandstone, and carbonate rock in subequal proportions 

. All end members contain no more than 20% of other rock types. 

I 

200 MILES 

I 

300 KILOMETERS 

Precambrian crystalline rocks exposed 

Gypsum and anhydrite 

-500- Isopach line; thickness in feet. Dashed 

where distant from control; dotted 

where conjectural. 

FIGURE 16.-Thickness and lithofacies of rocks mostly of Missouri age (modified from Mallory, 

1972, p. 120). 
--~-- 0 

I 

0 

Carbonate rock. 

Sandstone and Shaly sandstone 

local conglomerate and sandy shale 

Center: 

COLORADO 

I 

100 

100 

I 

I 

200 

EXPLANATION 

Shale and 

siltstone 

Shale, sandstone and carbonate rock in subequal proportions 

All end members contain no more than 20% of other rock types. 

I 

200 MILES 

I 

300 KILOMETERS 

-500- Isopach line; thickness in feet. Dashed 

where distant from control; dotted 

where conjectural. 

1As used by Wengerd and Strickland, (1954). 

FIGURE 17.-Thickness and lithofacies of rocks mostly of Virgil age (modified from Mallory, 

1972, p. 121). 

V21 
V22 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

although great lateral continuity exists in some 

marine beds. The Jacque Mountain Limestone of the 

Minturn Formation, a bed approximately 6 m (20 

ft) thick, is present from the White River Plateau 

north of Glenwood Springs to the southern Sangre 

de Cristo Mountains, a distance of more than 300 

km (about 200 miles) (fig. 11). 

The depositional environment of the Mississippian 

in Colorado was that of an open unrestricted sea, 

which was receiving almost no clastic sediments. 

Present paleogeographic studies suggest that Colorado was at or near the Equator during Carboniferous time, so there can be little doubt that the entire 

State was in tropical latitudes. The lack of reefs and 

the rather limited marine fauna, in what are believed to have been tropical conditions, suggest that 

the depth of water was too great for reef and 

abundant, varied sh~llow-water faunas. 

Much of the time in the Mississippian Period is 

not now represented by deposits (figs. 6, 7, 8, and 9). 

During the latter part of the period, which must 

have been warm and moist, an extensive karst 

formed, most of the earlier marine deposits were 

eroded a way, and the residual Molas Formation was 

deposited. 

The Lepidodendron forests of central and northwestern Colorado, which formed at about the boundary between Mississippian and Pennsylvanian time, 

suggest that a brief interval of tropical coal-swamp 

environment covered at least part of the State before the great upheaval of the Middle Pennsylvanian 

began. 

Early Pennsylvanian environments were of transgressing seas from east and w·est over a land of low 

relief, where local uplifts were beginning. The darkgray muddy deposits, the rather sparse faunas, and 

the lack of reefs suggest that the turbidity of the 

seas may have stifled marine growth; lin1ited evaporite deposition at this time may also have prevented 

abundant life in some areas and certainly suggests 

that adjacent land areas were arid. 

Middle Pennsylvanian environments, in contrast, 

varied from those of great aridity to those where 

broad evaporite basins were formed and flanked by 

massive reef growth. The climate must have been 

tropical and there appear to have been intermittent 

dry and moist periods, caused by simple climatic 

variation through time or by tectonic events, or both. 

In some localities, particularly the Sangre de Cristo 

Mountains, the Minturn area, and the Paradox basin, 

large reef masses formed at the edges of the marine 

basins. The Weber Sandstone of northwestern Colorado appears to have been deposited as dunes and 

beaches and suggests an arid climate for that area 

during Late Pennsylvanian time. 

BIOSTRATIGRAPHY 

Outcropping Mississippian strata in Colorado, although not very completely dated, are now considered to be mostly of Osage age, but deposits of 

Kinderhook, Meramec, and Chester age occur in the 

subsurface, mainly east of the mountains. At the 

east end of the Uinta Mountains in northwestern 

Colorado, Meremac and Chester deposits are present 

in facies unknown elsewhere in the State. 

Pennsylvanian rocks whose age can be determined 

by fossils are mostly of Des Moines age, but the 

Atoka and Morrow are well documented in central 

Colorado outcrops, as well as in subsurface occurrences both east and west of the mountains. Missouri 

strata probably were deposited extensively over the 

State, but in all outcrops they are unfossiliferous. 

Documented strata of Missouri age are restricted to 

the subsurface of the Paradox basin and southeastern Colorado. Virgil rocks have a similar distribution, but marine facies are somewhat more widely 

distributed than those of Missouri, and occur in the 

subsurface in the Paradox basin and southeastern 

Colorado, as well as in strata at the northern end of 

the Front Range. 

As figures 13-17 show, rocks of each of the series 

of the Pennsylvanian are probably extensively distributed over the State, but most are completely unfossiliferous, and their specific age assignments are 

based on inferences and probabilities. 

The Mis,sissippian faunal succession is very simple 

in outcrop: a lower, probably Osage brachiopod and 

coral fauna and a few gastropods and nautiloid 

cephalopods, mainly in central Colorado, and an 

upper, very restricted Meramec outc!'lop· on the east 

side of the Wet Mountains, oolitic in facies and containing endothyrid foraminifera. Rocks of the other 

Mississippian series are poorly represented or known 

in the State because they are mostly in subsurface 

and have been drilled in only a few places for oil 

and gas. The Chester deposits of northwestern Colorado are dated from plant remains who,se age may 

be in some doubt. 

The Pennsylvanian faunal succession is complex 

in outcrop and in subsurface. The Morrow fauna 

is lh~ited to a rather poorly defined zone that extends from the northwest corner of the State to 

near the ·southeast corner. Millerella, a primitive 

fusulinid, is abundant in most occurrences, along 
COLORADO V23 

with other foraminifers, bryozoans, brachiopods, 

and ostracodes. 

The Atoka and Des Moines faunas generally are 

easily recognized by their abundant fusulinids and 

by a much more diverse biota, especially algae, 

corals, echinoderms, and trilobites. Within the Des 

Moines, most of the fossiliferous strata are of the 

older Cherokee part, and few, if any, late Des 

Moines faunas are known. An excellent succession 

of fusulinids is known within Des Moines rocks, 

and these have been reasonably well documented in 

northwestern Colorado by Thompson ( 1945). 

Missouri and Virgil faunas are known only from 

subsurface and have been recognized by their 

fusulinid content in well cuttings and cores. 

A few vertebrates and plants have been found in 

Pennsylvanian rocks of Colorado, but they have not 

yet been thoroughly studied. 

Girty (1903) included extensive des·criptions of 

Carboniferous fossils from Colorado, differentiating 

55 invertebrates from the Mississippian and 170 

from the Pennsylvanian. 

Of the Mississippian species, 7 were corals, 5 

bryozoans, 23 brachiopods, 5 bivalves, 10 gastropods, 

3 arthropods, and 2 echinoderms. These, Girty believed, came from two faunal realms, one in central 

and southwestern Colorado containing corals, bryozoans, gastropods, and productid brachiopods, and a 

second along the east edge of the Front Range containing bivalves, bryozoans, large ostracodes, and 

five distinctive brachiopods: Orthotetes inequalis 

Hall, Spirifer centronatus Winchell, Punctospirifer 

solidirostris (White), Cranaena subelliptica var. 

hardingensis Girty, and Eumetria woosteri (White). 

Girty suggested that, although they are distinct in 

nature, both faunas represented an early Mississippian (Osage) age for the enclosing Leadville 

Limestone. 

Si.nce Girty's time, a Meramec fauna has been 

recognized in the Hardscrabble and Beulah Limestones, mainly consisting of endothyrid foraminifera, productid brachiopods, and corals. 

In the Pennsylvanian Period, faunas were much 

more diverse and abundant. Girty described 170 

species of invertebrates, including only 2 foraminifers (both fusulinids), 2 sponges, 9 corals, 21 

bryozoans, · 41 brachiopods, 45 bivalves, a single 

scaphopod, 34 gastropods, 2 cephalopods, 6 arthropods, and 7 echinoderms from his scattered 

collections. 

The earliest Pennsylvanian rock units in Colorado, 

the Kerber, Glen Eyrie, and Belden Formations, 

commonly have two biofacies. At the base, a coaly 

cyclic sequence of beds contains Lepidodendron and 

closely related plants; above, a marine, usually cyclic 

series of beds contain a varied assemblage of algae, 

foraminifera including Millerella, bryozoans, brachiopods, mollusks, arthropods including both trilobites 

and ~ostracodes, and echinoderms, mostly echinoid 

parts and crinoid stem segments. Small fish teeth 

and conodonts are evidence of vertebrate life at this 

time. 

The Belden Formation also contains an Atokan 

fauna in many localities, particularly in northwestern Colorado, where several species of Fusulinella 

have been described. Other foraminifera, rhomboporoid bryozoa, productid brachiopods, ostracodes, 

and echinoid fragments are typical of the Atokan 

part of the Belden. 

Minturn Formation faunas are very diverse, depending on sedimentary facies, and their ages are 

difficult to determine unless they contain fusulinids 

because most of the faunas are long ranging. Either 

with or without the fusulinids, which, in many 

places, are Fusulina rockymontana Roth and Skinner 

and a species of W edekindellina, the faunas normally 

are composed of brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, 

echin1oderms, and mollusks. In some localities, extremely varied faunas of gastropods, often diminutive, are present, closely resembling the profuse 

early Des Moines faunas of Central United States. 

Some beds of the Minturn in central Colorado are 

made of crinoid stem fragments or coarse monaxon 

sponge spicules, and nonfusulinid foraminifera are 

locally very abundant. 

Post-Des Moines faunas, rare in Colorado, are 

mostly fusulinids. Ingleside Formation lin1estones 

oontaining fusulinids similar to Triticites cullomensis Dunbar and Condra are characteristic in the 

northern Front Range and in the subsurface of eastern Colorado. 

Mississippian fossils are not common in Colorado, 

and those that are present are not easily collected. 

On Fossil Ridge, however, northeast of Gunnison, 

corals are well preserved and abundant, and near 

Meredith, east of Basalt, brachiopods, usually 

species of Spirifer or productid forms, and large 

horn corals may be easily collected. 

Pennsylvanian fossils, by contrast, are very abundant and diverse and can be found weathered from 

shale beds at many places in the State. From the 

many localities, four may be selected as outstanding 

and easily accessible: ( 1) At Molas Pass, nea,r Silverton, great numbers of corals and brachiopods are 

present in the limestone beds of the cyclothems. (2) 
V24 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

At McCoy in central Colorado, Roth and Skinner 

(1930) de•scribed Fusulina rockymontana, as well as 

many other microfossils. The limestones east and 

w·est of Rock Creek at this locality have yielded 

great numbers of these and other Des Moines fossils. 

(3) At Wellsville, southeast of Salida on the south 

side of the Arkansas River, are excellent outcrops 

of abundantly fossiliferous early Pennsylvanian 

faunas. ( 4) On Juniper Mountain, west of Craig, 

are many well-exposed and excellently preserved invertebrates and fusulinids. 

IGNEOUS AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS 

No igneous or metamorphic rocks of Carboniferous age are found in Colorado, although some of the 

Carboniferous strata were metamorphosed by Laramide mountain building. 

ECONOMIC PRODUCTS 

Although a few feeble attempts have been made to 

mine coaly beds of the Kerber and Belden Formations in south-central Colorado, no production of 

Carboniferous coal is known. 

However, oil from Carboniferous beds in the State 

is big business, especially if production from the 

Weber Sandstone at Rangely is included. In 1976, 

about 900,000 barrels of oil were produced along 

the eastern border of the State; although some of 

this oil came from beds that may be either Mississippian or Pennsylvanian, most of the total amount was 

from Mississippian beds. 

If we assume that the Weber Sandstone is at least 

partly Carboniferous, then Pennsylvanian production in 1976 was 21,619,918 barrels (State of Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, 1976). 

The Weber, however, produced 20,781,123 barrels of 

this, and a small part of the total may have come 

from the Lyons Sandstone, which is probably of 

Permian age. 

Gas production is also of importance to the State; 

in 1976, probable Carboniferous production was 

about 13 billion cubic feet. 

Excellent prospects for Carboniferous oil and gas 

production probably still exist in the eastern plains, 

in the Paradox basin, and in the northwestern part 

of the State. 

A large part of Colorado's lead, zinc, gold, and 

silver has come from Laramide replacement of the 

Leadville Limestone. In 1976, more than $24 million 

in zinc was produced, and lead production was about 

$9 million. Production of gold and silver was $5,-

459,111 and $14,292,695, respectively; most of it 

was from Leadville and Gilman. 

Many years ago, iron for the furnaces of the Coliorado Fuel and Iron Co. was produced from replacement in the Leadville Limestone of the northern 

Sangre de Cristo Mountains, but the volume was 

limited and mining ceased long ago. Some copper 

has been produced from Carboniferous red beds at 

several localities, but none is now being mined. 

Many localities have produced uranium, mostly in 

small amounts, from Carboniferous rocks of the 

Belden Formation in central Colorado. Most uranium 

from the Belden Formation is produced from the 

Pitch mine in the Monarch Pass-Marshall Pass district, where the uranium has been precipitated in 

and around carbonaceous beds of cyclothems. The 

Pitch mine is along a reverse fault on the southwest 

corner of the Sa watch Range; the Belden is faulted 

against the granite and is highly brecciated. Ore 

valued at several million dollars was produced in 

the early 1960's, after which the mine lay dormant 

until the recent revitalization of the uranium industry. The Homestake Mining Co. now owns the mine 

and has driHed its rocks extensively. They are planning production from an open pit and have about 20 

years' production now on reserve. 

The famous Yule Marble, used in the Lincoln 

Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, is 

Leadville Limestone metamorphosed by a Laramide 

intrusion in an area south of Glenwood Springs. 

About $7 million worth of this snow-white marble 

was produced between about 1900 and 1940, but the 

remoteness of the area has led to the closing of the 

quarry. 

Many limestone quarries are in Carboniferous 

strata along the Front Range, but there is little production elsewhere at present, except east of Monarch 

Pass, where the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. quarries 

Leadville Limestone as flux for its smelters in 

Pueblo. 

Lyons Sandstone of the Front Range, at one time 

considered to be of Carboniferous age, is now 

thought to be Permian and so is not included in this 

discussion. 

Gypsum is produced in considerable quantities 

from Pennsylvanian rocks, particularly at Gyp·sum 

in west-central Colorado and at Coaldale on the 

Arkansas River. Potash, from evaporitic beds of the 

Paradox basin, is produced just over the State 

border in Utah; it is not yet being mined in Colorado, although it has economic potential. 
COLORADO V25 

REFERENCES CITED 

Arnold, C. A., 1940, Lepidodendron johnsonii, sp. nov., from 

the Lower Pennsylvanian of central Colorado: Michigan 

Univ. Mus. Paleontology Contr., v. 6, no. 2, p. 21-52. 

--- 1941, Some Paleozoic plants from central Colorado and 

their stratigraphic significance: Michigan Univ. Mus. 

Paleontology Contr., v. 6, no. 4, p. 59-70. 

Berg, R. R., and Rold, J. W., eds., 1961, Symposium on lower 

and middle Paleozoic rocks of Colorado, 12th field conference, south central Colorado: Denver, Rocky Mountain Assoc. Geologists, 236 p. 

Brainerd, A. E., and Johnson, J. H., 1934, Mississippian of 

Colorado: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 18, 

no. 4, p. 531-542. 

Brill, K. G., Jr., 1944, Late Paleozoic stratigraphy, west central and northwest Colorado: Geol. Soc. America Bull., 

v. 55, no. 5,p. 621-655. 

--- 1952, Stratigraphy in the Permo-Pennsylvanian 

zeugogeosyncline of Colorado and northern New Mexico: 

Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 63, no. 8, p. 809-880. 

Chronic, John, and Chronic, Halka, 1972, Prairi,e, Peak and 

Plateau: a guide to the geology of Colorado: Colorado 

Geol. Survey Bull. 32, 126 p. 

Colorado Division of Mines, 1976, A summary of mineral 

industry activities in Colorado, pt. 1, Coal, 40 p.; pt. 

2, Metal-Nonmetal: Denver, Colo., Colorado Div. Mines, 

105 p. 

Curtis, B. F., ed., 1958, Symposium on Pennsylvanian rocks 

of Colorado and adjacent areas: Denver, Rocky Mountain Assoc. Geologists, 168 p. 

Emmons, S. F., 1882, Geology and mining industry of Leadville, Colo.: U.S. Geol. Survey 2nd Ann. Rept., p. 201-

290. 

--- 1886, Geology and mining industry of Leadville, 

Colo.: U. S. Geol. Survey, Monograph 12. 

Girty, G.H., 1903, Carboniferous formations and faunas 

of Colorado: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 16. 

Hayden, F. V., 1870, Report (third annual) of the U.S. 

Geological Survey of Colorado and New Mexico: Washington, 155 p. 

Henderson, Junius, 1909, The foothills formations of north 

central Colorado: Colo. Geol. Survey 1st Rept., p. 145-

188. 

--- 1920, The foothills formations of north central Colorado: Colorado Geol. Survey Bull. 19, p. 58-96. 

Hitchcock, Edward, 1853, Outline of the geology of the globe, 

and of the United States in particular,· with two geological maps and sketches of characteristic American 

fossils: Boston, 136 p. 

Johnson, J. H., 1934, Paleozoic· formations of the Mosquito 

Range, Colorado: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 185-

B, p. 15-43. 

--- 1940, Lime-secreting algae and algal limestones from 

the Pennsylvanian of c1entral Colorado: Geol. Soc. 

America Bull., v. 51, no. 4, p. 571-596. 

--- 1944, Paleozoic stratigraphy of the Sawatch Range, 

Colo.: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 55, no. 3, p. 303-378. 

--- 1945, Calcareous algae of the uppe.r Leadville Limestone near Glenwood Springs, Colo.: Geol. Soc. America 

Bull., v. 56, no. 9, p. 829-847. 

Lehman, E. P., 1953, Foraminifera from the Glen Eyrie 

shale of Central Colorado: Cushman Found. Foram. Research Contr., v. 4, pt. 2, p. 67-76. 

McLaughlin, K. P.; 1952, Microfauna of the Pennsylvanian 

Glen Eyrie Formation, Colorado: Jour. Paleontology, v. 

26, no. 4, p. 615-621. 

Mallory, W. W., ed., 1972, Geologic Atlas of the Rocky Mountain Region: Denver, Rocky Mountain Assoc. Geologists, 

331 p. 

Marcou, Jules, 1853, A geological map of the United States 

and British provinces of North America, with an explanatory text, geological sections and plates of fossils 

which characterize the formations: Boston, 92 p. 

Murray, F. N., and Chronic, John, 1965, Pennsylvanian 

conodonts and other fossils from insoluble residues of 

the Minturn Formation (Desmoinesian), Colorado: Jour. 

Paleontology, ·v. 39, no. 4, p 594-610. 

Read, C. B., 1934, A flora of Pottsville age from the Mosquito Range, Colorado: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 

185-D, p. 79-96. 

Roth, R. I., and Skinner, J. W., 1930, The fauna of the 

McCoy Formation, Pennsylvanian, of Colorado: Jour. 

Paleontology, v. 4, no. 2, p. 332-352. 

State of Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, 

1976, Oil and gas statistics: Denver, Colo., 168 p. 

Stevens, C. H., 1962, Stratigraphic significance of Pennsylvanian brachiopods in the McCoy area, Colorado: 

Jour. Paleontology, v. 36, no. 4, p. 617-629. 

Thompson, M. L., 1945, Pennsylvanian rocks and fusulinids 

of east Utah and northwest Colorado, correlated. with 

Kansas section: Kansas Geol. Survey Bull. 60, pt. 2, p. 

17-84. 

Vanderwilt, J. W., 1935, Stratigraphy of Pennsylvanian 

Hermosa Formation in Elk Mountains, Gunnison County, 

Colorado: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 

19,no. 11, p. 1668-1677. 

Wengerd, S. A., and Strickland, J. W., 1954, Pennsylvanian 

stratigraphy of Paradox salt basin, Four Corners region, 

Colorado and Utah: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists 

Bull., v. 38, no. 10, p. 2157-2199. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesNew Mexico 

By AUGUSTUS K. ARMSTRONG, FRANK E. KOTTLOWSKI, 

WENDELL]. STEWART, BERNARD L. MAMET, ELMER H. BALTZ, JR., 

W. TERRY SIEMERS, and SAM THOMPSON III 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-W 

Prepared z:n cooperation with the 

New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources 

Historical review and summary of 

areal, stratigraphic, structural, 

and economic geology of Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian rocks in New Mexico 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Abstract -----------------------------------------

Mississippian System -----------------------------

Previous work --------------------------------

Geologic setting -------------- _____________ ---

Lower boundary of the Mississippian -------

Units overlying the Mississippian ----------

Structural events during the Mississippian ------

Locations of Mississippian outcrops ------------

Pennsylvanian System ----------------------------

History -------------------------------------- Geologic setting _____________________________ _ 

Underlying rocks -------------------------

Nature of contact with underlying rocks ___ _ 

Overlying rocks ---------------------------

Nature of contact with overlying rocks _____ _ 

Structural events during Pennsylvanian time __ _ 

Page 

W1 

1 

1 

4 

4 

5 

5 

9 

13 

13 

16 

16 

16 

16 

16 

17 

Pennsylvanian System-Continued 

Structural events following Pennsylvanian deposition _________________________________ _ 

Lithostratigraphy ____________________________ _ 

Lithostratigraphic subdivisions ____________ _ 

Principal rock types --------------------

Facies changes --------------------------

Environments of deposition ----------------

Biostratigraphy -------------------------------

Age of rocks ----------------------------- Faunal succession and assignment of series __ 

Igneous and metamorphic rocks ----------------

Economic products --------------------------------

Coal ----------------------------------------- Petroleum resources --------------------------

Metallic ores ------------ _____ - ---------------

Limestone and other nonmetallic minerals -------

References cited - _ --- ___ - _- _ ----------------------

ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE 1. 

2. 

3-6. 

Index map showing locations of Mississippian outcrop sections, pre-Pennsylvanian Mississippian isopachs and paleogeography, and locations of lines of biostratigraphic correlation charts in New 

Mexico annd nearby areas ---------------------·-------------------------------------------- Correlation chart of Mississippian rocks of New Mexico and nearby areas --------------------------

Chart showing regional biostratigraphic and lithologic correlation of Mississippian strata along lines 

shown in figure 1 : 

3. Line A-A' ___________________________ ------· ---- ___ -------------------------------------

4. Line B-B' ---------------------------------·-------------------------------------------- 5. Line C-C' ----- ______________________ ------·--------------------------------------------

6. Line D-D' _ ----- _________________________ --·- ________ -----------------------------------

7. Map of New Mexico showing areas where Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks crop out, are more 

Page 

W17 

17 

17 

19 

20 

20 

21 

21 

21 

21 

21 

21 

21 

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22 

22 

Page 

W2 

3 

6 

8 

10 

12 

than 300 m thick, and are absent ----------------·-------------------------------------------- 14 

TABLE 

8. Correlation chart of Pennsylvanian rocks of New Mexico ----------------------------------------- 18 

9. Graph showing the amount of crude oil produced from- Pennsylvanian reservoirs in New Mexico, 1945-

1976 -----------------------------------------·-------------------------------------------- 22 

TABLE 

Page 

1. Reports on the Pennsylvanian deposits of New Mexico, 1937-1978 ---------------------------.... ------ W15 

III 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) SYSTEMS 

IN THE UNITED STATES-NEW MEXICO 

By AuGusTus K. ARMSTRONG, FRANK E. KoTTLOWSKI/ WENDELL J. STEWART/ 

BERNARD L. ~1AMETJ3 ELMER H. BALTZ, JR.) W. TERRY SIEMERSJ4 and 

SAM THOMPSON III;, 

ABSTRACT 

Initial Lower Mississippian deposits of New Mexico are 

Tournaisian (pre ... zone 7) in age and are unconformable on 

older rocks of Late Devonian or Precambrian age. These 

Mississippian rocks were laid down during transgression of 

the sea across an abraded surface of very low relief. Early 

and middle Tournaisian marine transgression began in the 

southwestern and south-central part of the State and deposited the Keating (207 m), Caballero (18 m), and Lake 

Valley (180 m) Formations on a carbonate platform. By the 

end of Tournaisian (Osagean) time, epicontinental seas had 

flooded the central and northern part of the State and had 

deposited the Kelly Limestone (35 m) and Espiritu Santo 

Formation. The latter is a sequence of subtidal to supratidal 

quartz sandstones and carbonate rocks. Leadville Limestone 

(50-100 m) in the San Juan Basin is a time-stratigraphic 

equivalent to the Espiritu Santo Formation (35 m) and is 

an eastern extension of part of the Redwall Limestone of 

Arizona. The Zuni Highlands and remnants of the transcontinental arch, the Pedernal Highlands, were two low 

islands. The end of Tournaisian (Osagean) time was marked 

by marine regression, regional uplift, and erosion of Tournaisian carbonate sedimentary deposits. 

A major regional marine transgression took place in 

Visean (Meramecian) time and is represented by the massive encrinites of the Hachita Formation (107 m) in southwestern New Mexico, the deeper water basin carbonate rocks 

of the lower part of the Rancheria Formation ( 46 m) in 

south-central New Mexico, and part of the Tererro Formation (18 m) in north-central New Mexico. 

The Cowles Member (10 m) of the Tererro Formation indicates that sedimentation ceased in northern and central 

New Mexico in late Visean (early Chesterian) time. In 

southwestern New Mexico, the Paradise Formation (134 m) 

represents shallow-marine sedimentation and ranges from 

Zone 15 (Meramecian) through Zone 19 (late Visean and 

Namurian or end of Chesterian). The upper part of the 

Rancheria Formation (69 m) and the Helms Formation (50 

1 Director, New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Minel'lll Resou1:ces, Socorro, 

NM 87801. 

~Texaco Inc., Box 3109, Midland, TX 79701. 

a Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3J7, Canada. 

·'Industrial Mineral Geologist, New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral 

Resources, Socorro, NM 87801. 

~.Petroleum Geologist, New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources, Socorro, NM 87801. 

m) of south-central New Mexico are a deeper water facies of 

the Paradise Formation. 

Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks in northern, central, and 

southern New Mexico truncate Mississippian sedimentary 

rocks of Namurian, Visean, and Tournaisian age. The Pennsylvanian sequence is as much as 2,300 m thick in northcentral New Mexico and is more than 600-900 m thick in 

the Delaware, Orogrande, and Pedregosa Basins areas. The 

most complete section is in the Big Hatchet Mountains, where 

a relatively continuous sequence is essentially conformable 

with underlying Chesterian strata and overlying Wolfcampian beds and contains Morrowan through Virgilian faunal 

equivalents. 

Rocks of the Pennsylvanian System are present throughout 

New Mexico except where they were not deposited or where 

they have been removed by subsequent erosion. The major 

positive features during the Pennsylvanian were the Uncompahgre, Sierra Grande, Zuni, and Pedernal uplifts and 

the central-basin platform, a shallow-marine feature. Many 

of the sections consist of a lower clastic phase, a middle limestone unit, and an upper intertongued limestone and clasticrock sequence, but facies change greatly from units on the 

margins of uplifts into dark carboniferous basinal sequences. 

These sequences indicate transgression of the sea in the Early 

Pennsylvanian, maximum inundations in the. Middle Pennsylvanian and regression near the close of the· period. 

Age determinations are based mainly on fusulinid zones, 

but numerous other marine fossils are present. Pennsylvanian 

ro~ks have yielded significant quantities of oil and .gas, contam some local coal lenses, are host rocks for base-metal and 

fluorite-barite-galena ores, and are quarried for road metal, 

flagstone, and material to make cement, brick, and tile. 

MISSISSIPPIAN SYSTEM 

PREVIOUS WORK 

Fossils from Mississippian rocks of New Mexico 

(fig. 1) were first identified by White (1881) at 

Lake Valley, N. Mex. Cope (1882a, b) referred to 

the rocks at Lake Valley and proposed the name 

Lake Valley Formation. 

Herrick (1904) used the name Kelly Limestone 

for the Mississippian rocks of the Magdalena 

Wl 
W2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

EJ . 

. Precombrion highlands 

of low relief 

Areas where Mississippian sediments 

were uplifted ond removed during 

lote Mississippian ond Early 

Pennsylvonion time exposing 

Precombrion terrane 

34.:,~ 

35.:.~% 

36tP \ 

EXPLANATION 

Areas where Mississippian sediments 

were uplifted ond removed during 

tote Mississippian ond Eorly 

Pennsylvanian time exposing early 

Paleozoic sediments 

50 .I 

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:--·------------------:_i 

\ Mississippian racks i~ subsurface; 

! outline from McKee and Crosby 

(1975, pl. 2) 

03° 

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D 

Mississippian 

morine deposits 

--so--

Isopach 

Showing thickness 

of Mississippian 

strata in meters 

ll 

Outcrop section location 

numbers given in text 

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I 

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A---A' 

Lines of regional biostratigraphic_ and 

lithologic correlotion, 

figures 3-6 

FIGURE !.-Locations of Mississippian outcrop sections, pre-Pennsylvanian Mississippian isopachs and paleogeography, and locations of lines of biostratigraphic correlation charts (figs. 3-6) in New Mexico and nearby areas. 
NEW MEXICO W3 

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Devonian Devonian Devonian Devonian Precambrian Precambrian Precambrian Precambrian Devonian 

FIGURE 2.-Correlation chart of Mississippian rocks of New Mexico and nearby areas. 

mining district. Laudon and Bowsher (1941, 1949) 

divided the Mississippian System and south-central 

New Mexico into five formations and divided the 

Lake Valley Formation into six members (fig. 2). 

They named the Caballero Formation for rocks of 

Kinderhookian age in the Sacramento and San 

Andres Mountains and at Lake Valley, N. Mex., and 

named the Las Cruces and Rancheria Formations for 

Meramecian rocks in the Franklin Mountains of 

western Texas and in the southern San Andres and 

Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. They restricted Beede's (1920) designation of the Helms 

Formation to beds of Chesterian age. Laudon and 

Bowsher (1941, 1949) gave macrofauna! lists for 

the Lake Valley, the Rancheria, and the Helms 

Formation. 

A section of pre-Pennsylvanian predominantly 

carbonate rocks of Paleozoic age in the San Pedro, 

Nacimiento, Jemez, Sandia, and Sangre de Cristo 

Mountains of northern New Mexico was studied by 

Read and others (1944), who first recognized the 

distinctiveness of these rocks. They mapped them as 

the lower limestone member of the Pennsylvanian 

Sandia Formation of the Magdalena Group. The 

lower gray limestone member was mapped and described by Wood and Northrop ( 1946) in the San 

Pedro and Nacimiento Mountains and by Northrop 

and others ( 1946) in the southeastern foothills of 

the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. 

In 1955, Armstrong proposed the name Arroyo 

Penasco Formation for the lower gray limestone 

member of the Sandia Formation in the San Pedro, 
W4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Nacimiento, Sandia, and Sangre de Cristo Mountains of north-central New Mexico. 

Fitzsimmons, Armstrong, and Gordon (1956) 

listed a fauna of St. Louis (Meramecian) age that 

consisted of megafossils from the top of the Arroyo 

Penasco Formation in exposures on the northwestern side of the San Pedro Mountains and from its 

type section. Armstrong (1958a, 1967) described 

part of the Meramecian endothyrid fauna of the 

Arroyo Penasco Formation and demonstrated that 

at the type section and in the Sangre de Cristo 

Mountains, the rocks had the same lithologies and 

endothyrid species and were thus of the same age. 

Because of the discovery of the Spinoendothyra 

spinosa ( Chernysheva) microfauna in cherts of the 

basal carbonate rocks by Lee Holcomb of the Shell 

Oil Company, Armstrong (1963, p. 115; 1965, p. 

133; 1967; Armstrong and Holcomb, 1967) determined the age of the Arroyo Penasco Formation to 

be late Osagean and Meramecian. 

In 1960, Baltz and Read divided the pre-Pennsylvanian sandstone and carbonate rocks of the 

Sangre de Cristo Mountains into two newly named 

formations, the Espiritu Santo (Devonian ( ?) ) and 

the Tererro (Kinderhookian to Meramecian). The 

Tererro Formation was divided into three members, 

in ascending order, the Macho, Manuelitas, and 

Cowles Members. 

Armstrong (1967) considered Baltz and Read's 

(1960) Espiritu Santo and Tererro Formations of 

the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to be laterally 

equivalent parts of his (Armstrong, 1955) Arroyo 

Penasco. He recognized the Arroyo Penasco 

throughout northern New Mexico. Armstrong and 

Mamet (1974) raised the Arroyo Penasco to group 

rank. The age and nomenclature of these rocks are 

shown in figure 2. 

The Escabrosa Limestone of Mississippian age 

was named by G. H. Girty Un Ransome, 1904) for 

the lower Carboniferous section in the Escabrosa 

Cliffs, west of Bisbee, Cochise County, southeastern 

Arizona. The Escabrosa Limestone in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona and 

southwestern New Mexico was elevated by Armstrong (1962, p. 5) to the Escabrosa Group, which 

he divided into two newly named formations-the 

Keating Formation, consisting of two members, A 

and B, and the overlying Hachita Formation (fig. 

2). This nomenclature was extended into Luna, 

Hidalgo, and Grant Counties, southwestern New 

Mexico. The two informal members, A and B, of 

the Keating Formation were named the Bugle and 

Witch Members of the Keating Formation by Armstrong and Mamet (1978). The names are taken 

from the Bugle Ridge and Witch Well, published on 

the U.S. Geological Survey's 1 :62,500 scale topographic map of the Big Hatchet Quadrangle. The 

type sections for the members are Elj~ sec. 30, T. 

29 S., R. 15 W., northeast side of the Big Hatchet 

Mountains. Armstrong (1962) illustrated and described the brachiopod and coral faunas of the 

Escabrosa Group. 

The Paradise Formation was named by Stoyanow 

( 1926) for outcrops a few kilometers east of the 

old mining camp of Paradise, on the east side of 

the Chiricahua Mountains. The macrofauna o.f the 

Paradise Formation in the Chiricahua Mountains 

was studied and described by Hernon (1935). Zeller 

(1965) gave M. K. Elias' macrofossil lists of the 

Paradise Formation for the Big Hatchet Mountains outcrop. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage 

of the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral 

Resources. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

LOWER BOUNDARY OF THE MISSISSIPPIAN 

The Leadville Limestone of the San Juan Mountains, Colo., and in the subsurface of San Juan 

County, N. Mex., has at its base a Tournaisian 

(Osagean) microfossil assemblage of Zone 9 (Armstrong and Mamet, 1976, 1977), and the underlying 

Ouray Limestone contains a well-defined fauna of 

Late Devonian brachiopods near its top (figs. 2, 3). 

In north-central New Mexico, Mississippian rocks 

of Zone 9 age unconformably overlie Precambrian 

metamorphic and igneous rocks (figs. 2-4) . In westcentral New Mexico, Zone 8 rocks overlie Precambrian rocks. In the Sacramento Mountains, pre-Zone 

7 rocks overlie shale and limestone of Late Devonian age. In the northern San Andres Mountains, 

Tournaisian-age rocks rest unconformably on Upper 

Devonian shale and marl ; in the southern part of 

the range, pre-Zone 7 beds unconformably overlie 

the Upper Devonian rocks. In the Mimbres Range 

and Silver City region, pre-Zone 7 rocks unconformably overlie the Upper Devonian Percha Shale. In 

the southwestern part of the State, pre-Zone 7 

carbonate rocks unconformably overlie the l:Jpper 

Devonian Percha Shale (figs. 5, 6) . 
NEW MEXICO W5 

UNITS OVERLYING THE MISSISSIPPIAN 

Pennsylvanian rocks unconformably overlie the 

Mississippian at most places in New Mexico. In the 

mountains of north-central New Mexico, the Mississippian Arroyo Penasco Group and the Log 

Springs Formation are overlain by Pennsylvanian 

sedimentary rocks. The Lower Pennsylvanian Molas 

Formation overlies the Leadville Limestone in the 

subsurface of San Juan County. The hiatus probably represents active erosion of Mississippian rocks 

during Zones 17 to 20 (Chesterian to Morrowan) 

time. 

In west-central New Mexico in the Lemitar, 

Ladron, and Magdalena Mountains, the Mississippian carbonate rocks are unconformably overlain 

by nearshore clastic rocks of the Pennsylvanian 

Sandia Formation. In the Coyote Hills southwest of 

Socorro, Tertiary volcanic rocks overlie and truncate 

the Mississippian outcrops. 

Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks in northern, 

central, and southern New Mexico truncate Mississippian sedimentary rocks of Namurian, Visean, 

and Tournaisian (Chesterian to Osagean) age. In 

the Big Hatchet Mountains, however, the contact 

between the Paradise Formation and the Horquillo 

Limestone is at the boundary between Zones 19 and 

20, and a hiatus, if present, must be minimal. In 

the Florida Mountains, the Mississippian is unconformably overlain by Wolfcampian (Permian) 

carbonate rocks. 

STRUCTURAL EVENTS DURING THE MISSISSIPPIAN 

An idealized illustration of the total thickness of 

Mississippian rocks is shown in figure 1. The map 

shows disconnected areas of Mississippian rock 

remnants of extensive sheets that were dissected 

and beveled in northern and central New Mexico in 

Namurian (Chesterian) time and throughout the 

entire State by erosion on structurally active features in Pennsylvanian and Permian time. 

Marine flooding of the State began in early Tournaisian (pre-Zone 7) time in the southwestern and 

south-central part of the State and formed the 

Escabrosa carbonate platform. By the end of Tournaisian (Osagean) time, epicontinental seas had 

flooded the northern and central parts of the State. 

Two possible low islands may have existed, the Zuni 

Highlands and remnants of the transcontinental 

arch, the Pedernal Highlands (fig. 1). The Espiritu 

Santo Formation (figs. 2-4) is composed of carbonate tidal deposits in the Sangre de Cristo, Sandia, 

Nacimiento, and San Pedro Mountains of northcentral New Mexico (Armstrong, 1967; Armstrong 

and Mamet, 1977; Vaughan, Eby, and Meyers, 

1977). The Leadville Limestone is the time-stratigraphic equivalent in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico and is an eastern extension of 

the Redwall Limestone of Arizona. The end of 

Tournaisian (Osagean) time was marked by a 

marine regression, a regional uplift, and extensive 

erosion of the Tournaisian (Osagean) carbonate 

deposits (figs. 2-6). 

The geographic and stratigraphic extent of this 

hiatus at the end of the Tournaisian (Osagean) is 

shown in figures 2-6. A major regional marine 

transgression took place in middle Visean (Meramecian) and is represented by the massive encrinites of the Hachita Formation in the southwestern 

part of the State, the deeper water carbonate rocks 

of the Rancheria Formation in the southern San 

Andres and Sacramento Mountains, and the Turquillo Member (Meramecian) of the Tererro Formation in north-central New Mexico. Late Visean 

carbonate rocks of Zone 16i (Chesterian) are also 

widely distributed in disjunct outcrops. These are 

the Cowles Member of the Tererro Formation, the 

upper part of the Rancheria Formation, and the 

lower part of the Paradise Formation. 

Marine sedimentation ceased in northern and 

central New Mexico at the end of Zone 16i time. In 

southwestern New Mexico, marine sedimentation 

continued through Zone 19 time. The Paradise Formation (figs. 2, 5, 6) is a series of shallow-water 

shoaling to nearshore oolitic carbonate rocks to 

plant-fossil-bearing crossbedded sandstones and siltstones. The Helms Formation to the east appears to 

be a deeper water facies equivalent of the Paradise 

Formation (figs. 2, 5). 

The Log Springs Formation of the San Pedro, 

Nacimiento, Jemez, and Sandia Mountains of northcentral New Mexico unconformably overlies the 

Arroyo Penasco Group and in turn is truncated by 

limestones of Pennsylvanian (Zone 20) age. The Log 

Springs Formation is composed of terrigenous, redbrown iron-rich shale, siltstone, and lithic to arkosic 

conglomerate formed of angular cobbles of Mississippian and Precambrian rocks. It is interpreted as 

being post-Zone 16i and pre-Zone 20 in age (Namurian (Chesterian) ) and represents, in part, a regolith and tectonically derived sediments washed into 

small basins adjacent to uplifted, faulted, and tectonically active highlands (figs. 2-4). 

The biostratigraphy and facies relations of the 

Mississippian carbonate rocks in the San Andres 
W6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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FIGURE 3.-Regional biostratigraphic and lithologic correlation of Mississippian strata along line A-A' from the San Juan 

Mountains of southwestern Colorado to the San Pedro, Nacimiento, .Jemez, Sangre de Cristo, Sandia, Manzano, Ladron, 

and Magdalena Mountains of northern New Mexico. Line of section is shown in figure 1; symbols are explained in figure 5. 

and Sacramento Mountains of south-central New 

Mexico are well described. The first modern studies 

of the Mississippian of the Sacramento and San 

Andres Mountains were by Laudon and Bowsher 

( 1941, 1949) on the stratigraphy and megafaunas 

of the Mississippian Caballero and Lake Valley Formations and the bioherms of the Lake Valley. They 

described the wedge-on-wedge relations between 

these Lower Mississippian strata and the Upper 

Mississippian Rancheria and Helms Formations. 

James Lee Wilson ( 1975, p. 125) stated the problem of the stratigraphic relationship of the Lake 

Valley Formation to the Rancheria and Helms 

Formations: 

The distribution of Mississippian beds in southern New 

Mexico is stratigraphically puzzling. Fine-grained and siliceous limestone and shale of the La.te Mississippian Rancheria 

and Helms formations are apparently the only strata representing the system in the Franklin and Hueco Mountains 

around El Paso, whereas to the north and west in New Mexico thick crinoidal Osagean beds are present; only Early Mis-
NEW MEXICO W7 

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FIGURE 3.-Continued. 

sissippian strata are known in the northern San Andres and 

Sacramento Mountains. Is this reciprocal distribution of 

major parts of the Mississippian best explained by differential tectonic uplift· and erosion, or could it be in some way 

depositional in origin? Some data· bearing on the problem are 

given below. 

Regional Mississippian isopachs of southern New Mexico 

by A. K. Armstrong (1962) and F. E. Kottlowski (1970) indicate a considerable thickness ( 500 meters) of mostly Early 

Mississippian shelf encrinite in the southwestern part of the 

state and in adjacent Arizona. Control points for this occur 

in the Big Hatchet Mountains, Sierra de Palomas, and the 

Los Chinos oil test of Petroleos Mexicanos. These thick open 

marine shelf deposits grade eastward into thinner and more 

micritic limestone with some shale and with large scattered 

bioherms as displayed by the Sacramento Mountain ou.tcrops. 

Pray (1961) and Meyers (1973) have demonstrated that the 

Sacramento Mountain strata represent deposition down a 

gentle southward slope. Correlation of detailed stratigraphic 

profiles along the north-south trending Sacramento scarp 

shows this clearly. Well-bedded shelf encrinites, with lensshaped Waulsortian micritic bodies change southward to 

larger, equidimensional Waulsortian mud mounds surrounded 

by encrinites and dark micritic limestones. The strata thin 

unit by unit and together form a wedge tapering out in the 

Franklin and Hueco Mountains (Lane, 1974). The absence 

of Osagean Mississippian in the El Paso area and the presence there of only fine-grained and siliceous Meramecan 

[sic] and Chesteran strata were first pointed out by Laudon 

and Bowsher (1949). Late Mississippian strata· wedge out 

northward, the uppermost Rancheria and Helms being present only in the southern Sacramento Mountains. Was an 

originally widespread sheet of Osagean limestone eroded from 

this southern area along a trend cutting transvers.e to the 

later Paleozoic structural grain, across both the Diablo pla.tform and the Pedregosa basin? Or was the later Paleozoic 

depositional topography already set in Mississippian time? 

Could there have been an extended Oro Grande-Pedregosa 

basin in New Mexico and Chihuahua which was starved of 

sediment during Kinderhookian and Osagean time and filled 

with the basinal Rancheria during Meramecan [sic]? Armstrong (1962), the writer (Wilson, 1969, 1971 [1970]), and 

Kottlowski (1970) have all suggested the latter interpretation. The following lines of evidence indicate that this is 
W8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

8 

60 

55 

so 

45 

40 

35 

25 

20 

15 

10 

0 

FIGURE 4.-Regional biostratigraphic and lithologic correlation of Mississippian strata along line B-B' from the :N;cimiento and Sangre de Cristo Mountains of north-central New Mexico. Line of section is shown in figure 1; syinbols 

are explained in figure 5. 

reasonable but do not offer compelling proof. No paleontologic 

evidence of Early Mississippian beneath the Rancheria has 

yet been presented. 

The facies of the southward tapering and prograding wedge 

of Early Mississippian strata in the Sacramento Mountains 

are best explained by deposition on a gentle slope south into 

a starved basin; e.g. the Waulsortian bioherms get larger 

and more equidimensional to the south before they disappear. 

W. J. Meyers' (1974, 1975) reports on the Mississippian stratigraphy and diagenesis are based on 

petrographic and cathodo-luminescence studies of 

the carbonate sediments, cementation, and chert. He 

demonstrated that the nonferroan calcite cement 

zones in the Lake Valley Formation reflect ancient 

phreatic lenses established during pre-Visean (preMeramecian) and pre-Bashkirian (pre-Morrowan) 

periods, when meteoric waters cemented these rocks 

below unconformities. 

D. A. -Yurewicz' (1975) investigation of, the 

basin-margin sedimentary rocks of the Visea~ and 

Namurian (Meramecian) Rancheria Formation in 
NEW MEXICO W9 

r? 

10 

ci. -q' 

-q 

ci. 

. r-: [~ ~ ]' 

8.~gl§ "'u e- -~ ~ ~ ~ "5Q).:Cr? 

0g,Q)c: 

~Jl~£' 

8' 

FIGURE 4.-Continued. 

the Sacramento Mountains shows that the Rancheria Formation is younger than the Lake Valley 

Formation (Tournaisian (Osagean)) and is separated from it by an unconformity. 

H. Richard Lane's (1974, fig. 4; 1975, fig. 3) study 

of the conodont faunas of the Lake Valley, Rancheria, and Helms Formations conclusively demonstrates that the Visean and Namurian Rancheria 

Formation of the Franklin Mountains of east Texas 

and the southern San Andres and Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico has a wedge-on-wedge relation with the Tournaisian (Osagean) shelf carbonate rocks and bioherms of the Lake Valley Formation ; the Rancheria and Lake Valley wedges are 

separated by an unconformity. The Visean and 

Namurian (Zones 14-19, Meramecian-Chesterian) 

Rancheria and Helms Formations of western Texas 

and the Florida Mountains, N. Mex., also have a 

wedge-on-wedge relation with the Tournaisian Keating Formation of southwestern New Mexico (fig. 

5) and are separated from the Keating by an 

unconformity. 

LOCATIONS OF MISSISSIPPIAN OUTCROPS 

Locations of Mississippian outcrop sections used 

in this report are shown on figure 1 and are described in the publications listed as follows, by section numbers: 

1-20. Armstrong (1967), Armstrong and Mamet 

(1974), Baltz and Read (1960) ; The 

areas are the San Pedro, Nacimiento, 

Sangre de Cristo, ·Sandia, Manzano, and 

Jemez Mountains, N. Mex. 

21-24. Armstrong (1958b); Ladron, Magdalena, 

Lemitar Mountains, and Coyote Hills, 

N.Mex. 

25-33. Laudon and Bowsher (1949), Kottlowski 

and others (1956), Kottlowski (1975b); 

San Andres Mountains, N. Mex. 

34-36. Laudon and Bowsher (1941, 1949), Pray 

(1958, 1961), Meyers (1973, 1974, 1975), 

Lane (1974, 1975), Yurewicz (1973, 

1975); Sacramento Mountains, N. Mex. 

37-48. Laudon and Bowsher (1949); Mimbres and 

Cooks Ranges, Silver City area, New 

Mexico. 
WlO THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

EY3 sec. 30, T. 2 N., 

R. 2 W., New Mexico 

Arizona 

SE\4 sec. 22, 

T. 25 S., R. 21 W., center sec. 3, 

T. 26 S., R. 21 W., New Mexico 

LITHOLOGIC SYMBOLS 

COMPOSITION. IN PERCENT 

90 

Limestone Dolomitic 

limestone 

50 Calcitic 

dolomite 

10 

Dolomite 

0 Limestone 

Shale Sandstone Conglomerate Bedded chert Covered interval 

-- .... .. --. Nodular chert 

<> 

Calcite pseudomorphs after 

gypsum and anhydrite 

M 

Lime mudstone 

G Grainstone 

in limestone 

Carbonate lithoclast Irregular bedding 

Crossbedding Vugs 

TEXTURE 

w Wackestone Packstone 

D X 

Dolomite Crystalline 

CARBONATE PARTICLES OTHER THAN FOSSILS 

Coated particles 

One layer 

-{)-

Superficial 

ooid 

More than 

one layer 

0 

Ooid 

@ 

Pi said 

SYMBOLS FOR FOSSIL PARTICLES 

Algal mats 

T 

Bryozoans 

Foraminifera 

Solitary coral Calcareous algae 

Sponge spicules Brachiopods 

Pelecypods Ostracodes 

Echinoderm 

USGS fossil localities 

<>"" """ Conodonts Algae 

Foraminifera 

. .., Brachiopods 

56 Blue Mountain 

Chiricahua Mts. 

sec. 20, T. 16 S., 

R. 31 E. Arizona 

FIGURE 5.-Regional biostratigraphic and lithologic correlation for Mississippian strata along 

tains, southeastern Arizona, the Peloncillo Mountains, New Mexico, the Pedregosa Mounern New Mexico, to the Franklin Mountains and Vinton Canyon, western Texas. Line of 
55 Pedregosa Mts. 

SE14 sec. 19, 

SW14 sec. 20, 

NE sec. 29, T. 21 S., 

R. 30 E., Arizona 

52 Big Hatchet Mts. 

. Nl4 sec. 30, T. 30 S., 

R. 15 W., and NE14 sec. 32 

T. 30 S., R. 15 W., New Mexico 

NEW MEXICO 

R. 13 W., New Mexico 

Armstrong (1970, fig. 2) 

Nl4 sec. 18, 

T. 26 S., R. 7 W., 

New Mexico 

200 

150 

"' Q; 

Cii 

E 

£ 

(J) 

100 0 

l;l 

0 

~ 

Q; 

> 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

o. 

line C-C' from the Ladron Mountains, west-central.New Mexico, to Clifton, Arizona, the Chiricahua Mountains, southeastern Arizona, the Big Hatchet Mountains, Klondike Hills, and Florida Mountains, southwestsection is shown in figure 1. 

Wll 
W12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

52 Big Hatchet Mts. N\4 sec. 30, 

T. 30 5., R. 15 W., and NE\4 sec. 32, 

T. 30 5., R. 15 W., New Mexico 

45 Bear Mountain 

5E\4 sec. 11, T. 17 5., 

R. 15 W., New Mexico 

48 North Cooks Range 

5W\4NEY4 sec. 24, 

T. 20 5., R. 9 W., New Mexico 

200 

150 

100 

Tierra Blanca 

Member 

Alamogordo 

Member 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

44 Lake Volley type section 

Lake Volley NE\4NW\4 

~ 

2 

Q) 

E 

.!:: 

Q) 

] 

] 

G; 

> 

sec. 21, T. 18 5., R. 7 W., New Mexico 

FIGURE 6.-~Regional biostratigraphic and lithologic correlation of Mississippian strata along line D~D' from 

the Big HatChet Mountains to Bear Mountain and the Mimbres Range, southwestern New Mexico. Line 

of section is shown in figure 1 ; symbols are explained in figu·re 5. 
NEW MEXICO W13 

49-52. Armstrong (1962, 1970) ; Peloncillo, Big 

Hatchet, and Florida Mountains, Klondike Hills, N. Mex. 

53, 54. Laudon and Bowsher (1949), Lane (1974, 

1975) ; Vinton Canyon, Franklin Mountains, and Hueco Mountains, west Texas. 

55. Epis (1956); Pedregosa Mountains, Ariz. 

56. Sabins (1957) ; Chiricahua Mountains, 

Ariz. 

57. Lindgren ( 1905) ; Clifton-Morenci district, 

Arizona. 

58, 59. Armstrong and Mamet (1976); San Juan 

Mountains, Colo. 

PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEl\'1 

Pennsylvanian rocks in New Mexico represent a 

complete section in several areas, particularly in the 

southwestern and southeastern parts of the State, 

where a continuous section contains Morrowan to 

Virgilian equivalents. Rocks of this system are present throughout the State, except where they have 

been removed by erosion since the Pennsylvanian 

or where they were not deposited on the Pennsylvanian-age uplifts or preexisting highs. These major 

uplifts (fig. 7) were the Uncompahgre Uplift, in 

the north-central part of the State; the Sierra 

Grande, in the northeastern area; the Pedernal Uplift, extending through the central part of the State; 

the Zuni Uplift, in the west-central area; the Matador Arch, in the east-central area; and the Florida 

Uplift, in the southwestern part of the State. 

The major outcrops of Pennsylvanian rocks are 

( 1) in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and N acimiento Mountains, in the north-central part of the 

State; (2) in the Sandia, Manzano, Ladron, and Los 

Pinos Mountains and Lucero Mesa area, in central 

New Mexico ; ( 3) in the Oscura, San Andres, Sacramento, Caballo, Fra Cristobol, and Robledo Mountains, of south-central New ·Mexico; and (4) in the 

Black Range, on Cookes Peak and Lone Mountain, 

in Silver City, and in the Peloncillo, Animas, and 

Big Hatchet Mountains, of southwestern New Mexico. The outcrops in southwestern New Mexico are 

in basin-and-range fault blocks. 

Thick subsurface sections of Pennsylvanian rocks 

are present in the San Juan Basin of northwestern 

New Mexico, in many graben valleys of the southwestern and south-central part of the State, and in 

the subsurface of the western part of the Permian 

Basin in southeastern New Mexico and western 

Texas in the areas of the Delaware Basin and the 

northwest shelf. Sections of Pennsylvanian rocks 

are thickest ( 1) in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, 

where they probably exceed 2,300 m in thickness 

(Baltz, 1972; Read and Wood, 1947; Sutherland, 

1963), (2) in the Big Hatchet Mountains area of 

southwestern New Mexico and in the flanking 

Pedregosa Basin, where thicknesses are greater than 

750 m, (3) in the Orogrande Basin of south-central 

New Mexico, where they are thicker than 900 m, 

and (4) in the Delaware Basin of southeastern New 

Mexico and western Texas, where more than 600 m 

of Pennsylvanian rocks are present. 

Uplifting of mountain ranges in Cenozoic time, 

particularly those bordering the Rio Grande rift and 

those in the basin-and-range country of south-central 

and southwestern New Mexico, resulted in exposure 

of many spectacular sections of Pennsylvanian 

rocks, particularly in the Sangre de Cristo, SandiaManzano, San Andres, Sacramento, Caballo, and 

Big Hatchet Mountains. Owing to the semiarid 

climate of the southern part of the State, Pennsylvanian limestones are well preserved in prominent 

peaks such as the Big Hatchet Mountains in southwestern New Mexico and the Oscura, Caballo, and 

San Andres Mountains of the south-central region. 

HISTORY 

Jules Marcou (1856), J. S. Newberry (1876), and 

others recognized Carboniferous rocks in early reconnaissance surveys. Stratigraphic sections and lists 

of Carboniferous fossils from the north-central areas 

were published by J. J. Stevenson (1881). Keyes 

( 1906) summarized the Carboniferous sections in 

south-central areas. Gordon (1907) named the 

Magdalena Formation from outcrops in the Magdalena Mountains, and Lee (1909) and Darton 

( 1928) briefly described Pennsylvanian rocks in 

various areas of New Mexico. The Carboniferous 

rocks in the Silver City mining area were described 

by Paige (1916) and Spencer and Paige (1935). 

Many of the early descriptions of Carboniferous 

rocks were from the mining districts in the southwestern, central, and north-central parts of the 

State. 

Exploration for oil and gas, spurred by World 

War II, led to many reports in the 1940's and essentially began modern studies of the Pennsylvanian 

in the State (table 1). Expansion of the work by 

the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources and by the U.S. Geological Survey and many 

projects by unive'rsity professors and their students, 

many of them supported by the New Mexico Bureau 

of Mines and Mineral Resources, led to a rapid 
W14 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES _, 

-·· 

33°~l~---·-----~-~--~-~--~-~-~~~~~~~L_~~--~--t~~~~~~~----~~-+--~~~7-:-

l 0 Central! 

0 I I I 1. 

0 

~ Basin 

ro Platform{\ 

~0 ::1 

I 

50 

50 

I 

v .. , Delaware :-: 

Basin ----~-----

I 

100 MILES 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

~ Outcrop areas 

[::!:·:_q Up I ifts 

-300m. isopach ( !P); 

dotted where conjectural 

• Isolated outcrops 

FIGURE 7.-Map of New Mexico showing areas where Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks (1) crop out, (2) are more 

than 300m thick, and (3) are absent. Positive areas are labeled. 
NEW MEXICO W15 

TABLE !.-Reports on the Pennsylvanian deposits of New 

Mexico, 1937-1978 

Year 

1937 

1940 

1942 

1942 

1944 

1944 

1946 

1946 

1946 

1946 

1946 

1947 

1948 

1949 

1950 

1951 

1952 

1952 

1952 

1953 

1953 

1953 

1954 

1954 

1955 

1956 

1956 

1957 

1958 

1958 

1958 

1958 

1958 

1958 

1958 

1959 

1959 

1959 

1959 

1959 

Author(s) Area or subject 

1930's 

Needham Fusulinids. -------------------------------- 1940's 

Needham ---------- Thompson _________ _ 

Loughlin and 

Koschmann. 

Henbest and Read __ _ 

Read --------------

Northrop -----------

Henbest ------------ Wilpolt, MacAlpine, 

Bates, and Vorbe. 

Kelley and Wood __ _ Stark and Dapples __ 

Read and Wood ____ _ 

Thompson ----------

Lloyd 

Bradish and Mills __ _ Wilpolt and Wanek _ Brill ______ ---------

Borden ------------- Kelley and Silver __ _ 

Kottlowski ________ _ 

Bachman ----------- Plumley and Graves_ 

Pray --------------

Kuellmer __________ _ 

Thompson and 

Kottlowski. 

Baltz and Bachman __ 

Kottlowski, Flower, 

Thompson, and 

Foster. 

Herman and BarkelL 

Wengerd and 

Matheny. 

Kottlowski ---------

Galley -------------

Hardie -------------

Gillerman ----------

Gehrig ------------- Bachman and Hayes_ 

Cline -------------- Kottlowski ---------

Oppel --------------

Otte --------------- Wengerd -----------

Fusulinids. 

Statewide. 

Type Magdalena 

Formation. 

Sierra Nacimiento. 

North-central New 

Mexico. 

Southeastern Sangre 

de Cristo Mountains. 

Central New Mexico. 

Do. 

Lucero uplift. 

Los Pinos Mountains. 

Northern New 

Mexico. 

Southern New 

Mexico. 

Southeastern New 

Mexico. 

San Juan Basin. 

Central New Mexico. 

N OI'it.h-central New 

Mexico. 

San Juan basin. 

Caballo Mountains. 

Central New Mexico. 

Mora County. 

Virgilian reefs. 

Sacramento Mountains. 

Black Range. 

South-central New 

Mexico. 

Southeastern Sangre 

de Cristo Mountains. 

San Andres Mountains. 

Paradox basin. 

Four Corners region. 

Southwestern New 

Mexico. 

Southeastern New 

Mexico. 

N orthe·rn H ueco Mountains. 

PelonciUo Mountains. 

Brachiopods. 

Sacramento Moun-

•tains. 

Do. 

West-central New 

Mexico. 

Sacramento Mountains. · 

Do. 

Northwestern New 

Mexico. 

TA•BLE !.-Reports on the Pennsylvanian deposits of New 

Mexico, 1.937-1978-Continued 

Year 

1960 

1961 

1961 

1961 

1962 

1962 

1962 

1962 

1963 

1963a 

1963b 

1963c 

1965 

1965 

1965 

1966 

1967 

1967 

1969 

1969 

1969 

1970 

1971 

1972 

1972 

1972 

1972 

1972 

1972 

1972 

1973 

1973 

1973 

1974 

1974 

1974 

1975 

1975 

1975a, b 

1975 

1975 

Author(s) 

1960's 

Kottlowski ---------

Pray ---------------

Northrop----------- Kottlowski ________ _ 

Adams -------------

Wray -------------- Kottlowski ________ _ 

Wengerd -----------

Sutherland 

Kottlowski 

Kottlowski ________ _ Kottlowski ________ _ 

Baltz -------------- Kottlowski ________ _ 

Zeller --------------

Meyer -------------

Sutherland and 

Harlow. 

Wilson -------------

Kottlowski ________ _ 

Wilson -------------

Wilson, MadridSoils, and MalpicaCruz. 

1970's 

Kottlowski and 

Stewart. 

Martin -------------

Baltz -------------- Clark and Read ____ _ 

Foster, Frentress, and 

Riese. 

Harbour ----------- Hills---------------

Wilson -------------

Sutherland 

King -------------- Myers -------------

Siemers ------------

DuChene -----------

LeMone, King, and 

Cunningham. 

Northrop ----------

Bachman ---------- Bachman and Myers_ 

Kottlowski ---------

Thompson and 

Bieberman. 

Zidek --------------

Area or subject 

Southwestern New 

Mexico. 

Sacramento Mountains. 

Paleontology. 

North-central New 

Mexico. 

Eastern New Mexico. 

Algal banks. 

Southwestern New 

Mexico. 

Northwestern New 

Mexico. 

South Sangre de 

Cristo Mountains. 

South-central New 

Mexico. 

Socorro County. 

Sante Fe area. Raton Basin. 

Southwestern New 

Mexico. 

Big Hatchet Mountains. 

Southeastern New 

Mexico. 

Brachiopods .. 

Sacramento Mountains. 

South-central New 

Mexico. 

Southwestern New 

Mexico. 

Do. 

J oyita area; 

fusulinids. 

Lucero Mesa. 

Gallinas Creek area. Eagle Nest area. Eas•t-central New 

Mexico. 

Franklin Mountains. 

Southeastern New 

Mexico. 

Sacramento Mountains. 

Sangre de Cristo 

Mountains. 

Fusulinids. 

Manzano Mountains. 

Socorro County. 

North-central New 

Mexico. 

Silver City Ran~e. 

Paleontology. 

Entire State. 

South-central New 

Mexico. 

San Andres Mountains. 

Dona Ana County. 

Fossil fish. 
W16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

TABLE 1.-Reports on the Pennsylvanian deposits of New 

Mexico, 1937-1978-Continued 

Year 

1976 

1977 

1978 

Author(s) 

1970's 

Roberts, Barnes, 

and Wacker. 

Greenwood, 

Kottlowski, and 

Thompson. 

Siemers ------------

Area or subject 

N ol'ltheastern New 

Mexico. 

Pedregosa Basin. 

West-central New 

Mexico. 

increase in the number of reports in the 1950's and 

1960's (table 1). In the 1970's some notable regional 

papers and many detailed geologic maps showing 

areas of Pennsylvanian outcrops have been published. Some of these are listed in table 1. 

The early regional papers were by Stevenson 

(1881), Gordon (1907), Lee (1909), and Darton 

( 1928). More recent regional reports were those 

of Meyer (1966) and Galley (1958) on southeastern 

New Mexico, Wengerd (1962) on the San Juan 

basin area, Kottlowski (1960, 1962) on south-central 

and southwestern New Mexico, Read and Wood 

(1947) on north-central New Mexico, Baltz (1965) 

on the Raton Basin area, and Bachman (1975) as a 

summary of the Pennsylvanian in the State. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

UNDERL Y·ING ROCKS 

Mississippian rocks immediately underlie Pennsylvanian strata throughout New Mexico except 

along the flanks and on the crest of uplifts present 

in Pennsylvanian time. Along the flanks of the uplifts, particularly in south-central New Mexico, 

Pennsylvanian rocks lap northward onto Devonian, 

Silurian, Ordovician, or Cambrian units. The system rests on Precambrian rocks on the Sierra 

Grande Arch, Uncompahgre Uplift, Penasco Uplift, 

Zuni Uplift, Joyita Hills, Pedernal Uplift, Florida 

Uplift area, Central Basin Platform, Matador Arch, 

and Bravo Dome. 

NATURE OF CONTACT WITH UNDERLYING ROCKS 

In many parts of southern New Mexico, oldest 

Pennsylvanian (Morrowan) rocks rest upon youngest Mississippian (Chesterian), and no hiatus is 

evident, although an erosion surface of low relief 

is seen locally. In the central and northern regions, 

the Morrowan laps out so that Atokan strata rest 

unconformably on older rocks. Moreover, the 

Chesterian is absent, adding to the missing section. 

The erosional unconformity is evidenced by local 

channeling and slight reworking of Mississippian 

residual chert fragments into the lowest clastic 

strata of the Pennsylvanian. In some areas, such as 

the San Andres Mountains, Pennsylvanian beds 

were deposited on a pronounced erosional surface; 

in places, this surface cuts through the entire Mississippian section and the basal channel fills of the 

Pennsylvanian are chiefly chert-pebble conglomerates. In most areas where detailed mapping has 

been done, the basal clastic phase of the Pennsylvanian varies greatly in thickness from place to 

place and is almost entirely absent above low-relief 

hills of pre-Pennsylvanian rocks. 

OVERLYING ROCKS 

Pennsylvanian rocks are overlain by Permian 

(Wolfcampian) strata throughout the State except 

along the crest of some of the Laramide and Cenozoic uplifts where post-Paleozoic erosion has 

stripped off the overlying Permian deposits, and 

Tertiary volcanic rocks rest unconformably on the 

Pennsylvanian. 

NATURE OF CONTACT WITH OVERLYING ROCKS 

The Pennsylvanian-Permian contact in many 

areas appears to be conformable. In these areas, the 

boundary is somewhat arbitrarily drawn within a 

few tens of meters between the highest Virgilian 

and the lowest Wolfcampian fossil control. Permian 

rocks at some localities, as well as Cretaceous and 

Tertiary rocks in other places, are erosionally unconformable on the Pennsylvanian strata. 

Along the edges of the uplifts that persisted into 

Permian time, such as the Pedernal and Uncompahgre Uplifts, Pennsylvanian beds were overlapped 

by Permian strata or were removed by erosion prior 

to Permian deposition. Upper Pennsylvanian rocks 

probably never were deposited on the crests of these 

uplifts. Pennsylvanian rocks may never have been 

deposited in parts of the Florida Uplift in southwestern New Mexico. Erosion during early and middle Mesozoic time stripped pre-Mesozoic rocks from 

the crest of the Burro Uplift in that area; on the 

northeast flank, Cretaceous beds rest with erosional 

unconformity on Pennsylvanian strata. Likewise, 

during the Laramide deformation in southwestern 

New Mexico, erosion stripped the crests of the highs 

so that Tertiary volcanic rocks rest unconformably 

on upper Paleozoic rocks in some localities. 

In the north-central part of the State in· the 

Sangre de Cristo Mountains area, Pennsylvanian 
NEW MEXICO W17 

rocks are overlain by the Sangre de Cristo Formation of Late Pennsylvanian and early Wolfcampian 

age. The nature of the contact is problematic at 

places because nonmarine arkoses and red beds of 

the Sangre de Cristo Formation transgress the time 

boundary and intertongue with the underlying fossiliferous Upper Pennsylvanian mixed-marine-nonmarine sedimentary rocks. Throughout most of the 

northern half of New Mexico, the Wolfcampian Abo 

red beds or time-equivalent continental facies overlie 

Pennsylvanian strata. In some central areas, a gradational sequence of interbedded limestones and red 

beds at the base of the Permian rests conformably 

on Virgilian rocks. In south-central and southeastern New Mexico, marine shelf carbonate rocks of 

the Hueco Formation overlie Pennsylvanian rocks 

conformably and in some places with an abrupt unconformity, as in the Hueco Mountains area. In 

southwestern New Mexico in the Big Hatchet Mountains area, the systemic boundary is within the upper part of the thick Horquilla Formation, a monotonous marine limestone sequence containing some 

shale. 

STRUCTURAL EVENTS DURING PENNSYLVANIAN 

TIME 

Positive and negative elements active in prePennsylvanian time (fig. 1) were modified during 

the Pennsylvanian. The regional depositional surface in early Pennsylvanian time was tilted down 

to the south, and a general northward thinning resulted from the overlap of that surface by Pennsylvanian rocks. More localized elements that formed 

during the Pennsylvanian appear, in contrast, to 

trend roughly north, for example, the Pedernal, 

Sierra Grande, Uncompahgre, J oyita, and Penasco 

Uplifts (fig. 7). However, the Bravo Dome and 

Matador Arch on the east side of the State are 

Texas. The Delaware Basin in the southeast, the 

Pedregosa Basin in the southwest, and the Orogrande Basin in south-central New Mexico were 

areas of thick deposition throughout Pennsylvanian 

time. 

STRUCTURAL EVENTS FOLLOWING PENNSYLVANIAN 

DEPOSITION 

In the Rowe-Mora Basin area of north-central 

New Mexico, a thick sequence of nonmarine red beds 

and arkoses of the Sangre de Cristo Formation was 

deposited in late Pennsylvanian and Wolfcampian 

time indicating uplift and erosion of the bounding 

uplifts. Similarly, as part of the Rocky Mountain 

orogeny, in south-central New Mexico, the Pedernal 

Uplift was active in early Permian; it remained as 

a highland in local areas until middle Permian time, 

as shown by areas such as Pedernal Mountain and 

Pajarito Mountain, where Precambrian rocks are 

overlapped by Abo red beds, the Yeso Formation, 

and the San Andres Limestone of Leonardian and 

early Guadalupian age. Laramide structural deformation greatly affected the State; overthrust belts 

formed in southwestern New Mexico. Present distribution of Pennsylvanian rocks has been greatly 

affected by basin-and-range faulting during Miocene 

to Holocene time. Much of this late Cretaceousearly Tertiary and middle and late Cenozoic structural deformation appears to have been controlled 

somewhat by the features of Pennsylvanian and 

early Permian age. For example, the Rio Grande rift 

is subparallel to the string of central New Mexico 

Pennsylvanian-age depositional basins that ran essentially from the southeast corner of the San Juan 

Basin area southward into south-central New 

Mexico. 

LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY 

east-trending uplifted features, whereas Central LITHOSTRATIGRAPHIC SUBDIVI·SIONS 

Basin Platform is essentially aligned north-south. Gordon (1907) proposed the term Magdalena 

The Zuni, Florida, and Cimarron Uplifts had north- Group for all the sedimentary rocks in central New 

west trends. In the Sangre de Cristo Mountains Mexico above the Mississippian and below the Abo 

area, more than 2,300 m of Pennsylvanian clastic red beds, which are the basal Permian. The unit in 

sediments were deposited in a deep north-trending places is synonymous with Pennsylvanian, but in 

structural basin called the Rowe-Mora Basin by other areas, it has been used to include MississipRead and Wood (1947) and the Taos Trough by pian rocks at the base and (or) Wolfcampian rocks 

Sutherland (1963). A southeastern extension of the at the top. 

Paradox Basin into northwestern New Mexico dur- Gordon divided the Magdalena Group into a lower 

ing Pennsylvanian time was connected southeast- clastic phase, the Sandia Formation, and an upper 

ward with a chain of small basins that connected carbonate phase, the Madera Limestone. In many 

southward with the Orogrande Basin; the Oro- areas, the Madera was subdivided into a lower limegrande Basin occupied an area along the west side ; stone member and an upper arkosic limestone memof the Pedernal Uplift and extended southward into J ber. In addition, at the top of the Magdalena Group 
W18 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

in central New Mexico, is the Bursum Formation, 

which in most areas is entirely of Wolfcampian 

age. 

In the Silver City mining district of southwestern \ 

New Mexico, Spencer and Paige (1935) used the 

term Magdalena Group; however, they divided the I 

group into a lower Oswaldo Formation and an upper Syrena Formation, which were roughly comparable to the Sandia and Madera units. Thompson 

( 1942, 1948) divided the Pennsylvanian into correlatives of the Des Moines, Missouri, and Virgil 

Series and introduced a new series, Derry, for the 

pre-Des Moines strata in the southern part of the 

State. He subdivided each series into two groups 

and then into thin formations on the basis of rock 

types and fusulinid zonation. 

Geologic mapping of isolated mountain ranges in 

New Mexico has led to a nomenclature being used I 

in each range that is somewhat distinct from the 

general classification. The terms "Sandia" and "Ma-~ 

dera" have been used in north-central New Mexico 

in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, although in the . 

vicinity of Pecos, Sutherland (1963) combined rocks 

equivalent to the Sandia and the lower member of 

the Madera into the La Pasada Formation. Because 

to the north, facies of this unit are different, he applied the name Flechado Formation to the rocks 

generally equivalent to the La Pasada to the south. 

The upper member of the Madera was called the 

Alamitos Formation by Sutherland, and the uppermost Pennsylvanian rocks are in the lower part of 

the Sangre de Cristo Formation in this area. In the 

San Juan Basin region, where essentially all the 

Pennsylvanian units are in the subsurface in New 

Mexico but crop out north of Durango, Colo., on the 

edge of the San Juan Mountains, the Atokan part 

of the Pennsylvanian is the Molas Formation and 

is overlain by the Hermosa Group (fig. 8). The 

Hermosa Group consists of, in ascending order, the 

Pinkerton Trail Formation, the Paradox Formation, 

and the Honaker Trail Formation. 

In the Lucero Mesa area southwest of Albuquerque, Kelley and Wood (1946) mapped the Sandia 

Formation and Madera Limestone and divided the 

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NEW MEXICO Wl9 

Madera into the Gray Mesa Member at the base, the 

middle Atrasado Member, and the upper Red Tanks 

Member. Myers (1973) recently mapped in the Manzano Mountains area, southeast of Albuquerque; he 

retained the use of the Sandia Formation and raised 

the Madera to a group that includes at its base the 

Los Moyos Limestone and at its top, the Wild Cow 

Formation. He divided the Wild Cow into three 

members. Kelley and Silver (1952), in their mapping of the Caballo Mountains in south-central New 

Mexico, used essentially the threefold division of 

Sandia, Madera Limestone, and upper clastic units 

of the Madera. However, they named their map 

units, in ascending order, the Red House, Nakaye, 

and Bar B Formations. In the Sacramento Mountains area of south-central New Mexico, Pray (1954, 

1961) divided the Pennsylvanian into the Gobbler, 

Beeman, and Holder Formations, in ascending order. In general, the Gobbler Formation is correlative with the Sandia and the lower part of the 

Madera Limestone, and the Beeman and Holder 

Formations are correlative with the upper arkosic 

limestone member of the Madera. 

In the subsurface in the Delaware Basin area and 

adjoining marine shelves, lithic subdivisions have 

not generally been used; the strata have been referred mainly to series by utilizing the Midcontinent 

(or Texas) series names and thus have been labeled 

as rocks of Morrowan, Atokan (or Bend), Des 

Moinesian (or Strawn), Missourian (or Canyon), 

and Virgil ian (or Cisco) age. In south westernmost 

New Mexico, in the Big Hatchet, Animas, and Peloncillo Mountains, the Pennsylvanian has been referred to the Horquilla Formation, which in that 

area also includes Wolfcampian beds in its upper 

part. In the San Andres Mountains area of southcentral New Mexico, the lower part of the Pennsylvanian has been called the Lead Camp Limestone of 

Bachman and Myers (1975), which includes equivalents of the Sandia Formation and the lower part of 

the Madera Limestone; the upper units are mapped 

in the Panther Seep Formation. 

PRINCIPAL ROCK TYPES 

Generally speaking, the Pennsylvanian sequence 

consists of a lower clastic unit roughly 150 m thick, 

a middle limestone unit 200-300 m thick, and an 

upper 150-m-thick unit of interbedded limestone and 

shale containing red beds near the top of the Pennsylvanian. In the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the 

basal Sandia Formation consists mainly of shale, 

siltstone, and fine-grained to very coarse grained 

sandstone in varying proportions. In most of the 

area, shale beds form the greatest part of the Sandia, and most of these shales, even those containing 

marine fossils, are carbonaceous. Some coal beds 

and thin marine limestones are minor constituents; 

in the eastern part of the area, coarse arkosic sandstones are common in the Sandia Formation. The 

lower member of the Madera Formation in the 

southern and southeastern part of the mountains is 

characterized by light-gray marine limestones, many 

of them biostromal or biohermal, and interbedded 

calcareous shale and some thin sandstones. Northward in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, limestones 

become subordinate, and thick arkosic sandstones 

and thick calcareous shales become major constituents. The upper part of the Madera Formation and 

the Alamitos Formation consist of varying proportions of red, greenish-gray, and gray shale, coarsegrained arkosic sandstone, green limestone, and 

nodular limestone. 

Outcrops in the central part of the State in the 

Sandia, Manzano, and Los Pinos Mountains, Lucero 

Mesa, and Magdalena Mountains show a typical 

sequence of a lower clastic unit, middle limestone 

unit, and upper interbedded limestone and clastic 

unit. A similar sequence is seen in the southern and 

south-central part of the State, in the Caballo, San 

Andres, Sacramento, and Robledo Mountains as well 

as in the northern Franklin Mountains. However, 

the upper clastic unit, the Panther Seep Formation 

in the San Andres Mountains and the Beeman and 

Holder Formations in the Sacramento Mountains, 

is as much as 750 m thick. This upper clastic unit 

was deposited in or near the Orogrande Basin on 

the west side of the Pedernal Uplift and is lithologically distinct from beds typical of this part of the 

section in surrounding parts of New Mexico. Deposits are deltaic to brackish-water clastic rocks and 

precipitates, all deposited in relatively shallow waters; they include silty brownish shales, dark carbonaceous shales, dark-gray argillaceous limestones, 

laminated calcilutites, silty calcarenites, silty calcareous sandstone, thick lenses of massive biostromal limestone, and numerous biohermal reefs. 

Two thick gypsum beds are near the top of this 

sequence in south-central New Mexico. 

In the southwestern panhandle of New Mexico, 

especially in the Big Hatchet Mountains area, the 

Pennsylvanian rocks are included with an overlying conformable unit of lower Wolfcampian age in 

the Horquilla Limestone and are conformable on 

Chesterian strata. This formation is about 700 m 

thick ; the shelf facies consists dominantly of limestone; some interbedded siltstones are in the lower 
W20 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

part. Along the margin of the Alamo Hueco-Pedregosa Basin (Zeller, 1965) to the southwest, porous 

dolostones are interlayered with limestones. In the 

deep-marine-basin facies, argillaceous limestone and 

mudstone are dominant. 

FACIE'S CHANGES 

The Pennsylvanian sections of central New Mexico were the first to be studied by geologists because 

they are near the populous Rio Grande Valley and 

also are near some of the early mining districts. In 

this limited area, the Pennsylvanian appeared to be 

relatively uniform. However, when Read and Wood 

(1947) and Thompson (1948) traversed from 

Pennsylvanian uplifts into the large basins, abrupt 

facies changes became obvious. 

In the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the Sandia 

Formation is a suite of mixed marine and nonmarine sedimentary rocks. In the southern part of 

the area, the Sandia is relatively thin but thickens 

greatly northward into the Rowe-Mora Basin; the 

prop,ortion of black shale increases markedly from 

shelf to basin. In the southern part of the Sangre 

de Cristo Mountains, the lower member of the Madera Formation is mainly biohermal and biostromal 

limestone and contains lesser amounts of gray shale 

and thin sandstone, indicating a shallow-marine 

environment. Northward, the equivalent rocks grade 

into a facies in which dark-gray shale predominates 

and in which arkoses become conspicuous constituents. In the upper member of the Madera and the 

equivalent Alamitos Formation are mixed-marine 

and nonmarine deposits ; marine limestone and shale 

are the predominant constituents in the south, but 

thick arkoses and red beds are predominant in the 

north. 

In the southwestern panhandle, outcrops in the 

Big Hatchet Mountains are predominantly shallowmarine shelf limestone. Along the shelf margin, porous dolostone is interbedded with the limestone. To 

the south in the Alamo Hueco Basin, the facies 

changes into deep-marine basinal limestone and 

mudstone. 

In south-central New Mexico, the lower part of 

the Pennsylvanian sequence in the Sacramento 

Mountains, on the west flank of the Pedernal Uplift, 

is similar to that in the San Andres Mountains 65 

km to the west on the west side of the Orogrande 

Basin. However, the overlying strata of Missourian 

and Virgilian age in the Sacramento Mountains are 

feldspathic sandstone, limestone, and shale, and discontinuous algae reefs and upper reddish marl, 

nodular limestone, and whitish massive limestone. 

This facies contrasts greatly with the Orogrande 

Basin deposits in the Panther Seep Formation of 

the San Andres Mountains. These deposits include 

many types of fine-grained shales, siltstones, and 

sandstones as described above. On the edge of the 

Pedernal Uplift in the northern Sacramento Mountains, Otte (1959) determined the order of facies, 

from west to east (toward the landmass) , to be: ( 1) 

massive marine limestone, (2) nodular argillaceous 

fusulinid-bearing limestone, (3) silty limestone 

containing shallow-marine fossils such as mollusks 

and brachiopods, ( 4) dolomitic limestone, ( 5) green 

calcareous shale, and ( 6) marine to nonmarine red 

shale and other terrigenous clastic rocks. 

Similar facies changes exist on the east side of 

the Pedernal Mountains from the shelf into the 

Delaware Basin area. Pennsylvanian rocks do not 

crop out in southeastern New Mexico but have been 

explored by thousands of oil tests in that area. 

ENVIRONMENTS OF DEPOSITION 

Throughout New Mexico, depositional environments during Pennsylvanian time were strongly influenced by their tectonic positions relative to the 

subsiding basins and rising uplifts. The major subsiding elements were the Paradox Basin, the 

Rowe-Mora Basin, a central New Mexico basinal 

area, the Orogrande Basin, the Pedregosa Basin 

(Greenwood, Kottlowski, and Thompson, 1977), and 

the Delaware Basin. The depositional areas between 

the basins and the uplifts ranged from wide, tectonically stable shelves to narrow unstable belts 

where terrigenous deposits predominated and intertongued basinward with marine limestone and dark 

carboniferous basinal deposits. 

In such a sedimentary framework, a wide variety 

of terrigenous and nonterrigenous sediments was 

deposited. Outcrops and subsurface data show examples of nearshore deposits including: (1) swamp 

and marsh deposits consisting of dark, organic-rich, 

carbonaceous, bioturbated claystone containing a 

few silt laminae and a little well-preserved plant 

debris; (2) tidal-flat sand and mud; (3) mud and 

sand indicative of overbank and channel deposition 

associated with small, nearshore deltaic complexes; 

and ( 4) bioturbated, muddy sediments containing 

sandy layers indicative of lagoonal conditions. Shelf 

environments are shown by carbonate ·wackestone 

and mudstone and terrigenous sandstone and mudstone. Dark carbonate mudstone, bedded with dark 

clay-shale admixed with carbonate deposits or fprming thin distinct layers, also is present at some 

localities and reflects deeper basin sedimentation. 
NEW MEXICO W21 

BIOSTRATIGRAPHY IGNEOUS AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS 

AGE OF ROCKS 

In all quadrants of the State, the standard Pennsylvanian series, Morrow, Atoka, Des Moines, Missouri, and Virgil, are present. However, in places, 

particularly along the flanks of uplifts, the entire 

Morrowan or its lower part is absent. In other areas, 

the uppermost part of the Virgilian is missing. The 1 

most complete section is in the Big Hatchet Mountains area of southwestern New Mexico, where all 

the Pennsylvanian series are present in a dominantly carbonate-rock sequence and where contacts 

with the underlying Chesterian and overlying Wolfcampian units are conformable. 

FAUNAL SUCCESSION AND ASSIGNMENT OF SERIES 

Marine rocks are dominant in the Pennsylvanian 

sequences in New Mexico, and marine invertebrate 

fossils are abundant throughout most of the sections. Fusulinids provide the main basis for the assignment of series boundaries and correlation of 

biostratigraphic units. In some areas, the brachiopod 

faunas have been described in detail, particularly in 

the Sangre de Cristo Mountains by Sutherland 

(1963) and Sutherland and Harlow (1973). 

Morrowan rocks contain a distinctive fauna of 

Eostafjella and Millertella which differ from the 

same genera in the lower part of the Atokan. The 

Atokan series is divided into a lower zone on the 

range of the genus Profusulinella and into an upper 

zone on the range of Fusulinella. Des Moinesian 

rocks are marked by Beedeina and Wedekindellina. 

Missourian beds are marked by more primitive 

forms of the genus Triticite.-, and by Eowaeringella. 

The biozone of Eowaeringella is one of the best 

defined and most restrictive fusulinid zones (Stewart, 1968, 1970) and is present near the base of the 

Missourian series. Virgilian rocks are distinguished 

by the ranges of certain species TTiticites, by Dunba'rinella, and by certain species of Pseudofusulinella. TTiticites ranges up into the lower part of 

the overlying basal Permian (Wolfcampian) series; 

Schwagerina, Pseudofusulina, and Leptot1·iticites 

occur in the lower part of the Wolfcampian and 

extend up into younger Permian but do not occur 

in Virgil ian rocks. Wilde ( 1975) has systematically 

studied the fusulinids in the Big Hatchet Mountains section and places the Pennsylvanian-Permian 

boundary on the basis of the evolutionary development of various species of TTiticites and at the 

first appearance of Leptot1'iticites and (or) Schwage1·ina. 

No igneous rocks of Pennsylvanian age are known 

in New Mexico, although some of the Missourian 

shales in the area east of Socorro are bentonitic, 

indicating their possible derivation from volcanic 

ash. In many mining districts, Pennsylvanian rocks 

have been metamorphosed by Laramide- and Cenozoic-age intrusions and, along with the Mississippian rocks, are hosts for some of the base-metal 

ore deposits. 

ECONOlVIIC PRODUCTS 

COAL 

Scattered lenses of coal are present in the lower 

part of the Pennsylvanian in the Sangre de Cristo 

Mountains. In general, these coal lenses are in the 

shoreline deposits on the east and west sides . of 

the Rowe-Mora Basin and are in beds ranging in 

age from Atokan to Des Moinesian. Some of the 

coal lenses are as much as 2 m thick but are very 

local in extent. This coal was used only in homes 

and in small limestone kilns. Thin coal beds and 

coal laminae are present in Virgilian strata in the 

Sandia and Manzano Mountains; they are intercalated with red beds and marine limestone in 

shoreline deposits on the west side of the Pedernal 

Uplift. 

Lenses of coal have been found in oil tests on 

the northwest shelf of the Delaware Basin amid 

the deltas and along the irregular coastlines of the 

shallow seas that bordered the Pedernal Uplift on 

the east and southeast during the Pennsylvanian. 

These coal lenses are associated with barrier-bar 

and point-bar stream-channel sandstones and with 

clay and silty flood-basin deposits. Most of these 

thin coal lenses (detected only by drilling) are 

Morrowan or Atokan in age. During early Pennsylvanian time, this area may have been dominated 

by large deltas similar to those of the Illinois Basin. 

PETROLEUM RESOURCES 

Prolific production of oil has been obtained 

from Pennsylvanian reservoirs in the Delaware 

Basin area of southeastern New Mexico and in 

the San Juan-Paradox Basin of northwestern New 

Mexico. Annual production from Pennsylvanian 

rocks reached its height of about 27 million barrels per year in 1969 and has dropped off since 

then to a little more than 7 million barrels in 1976. 

Cumulative production from the Pennsylvanian 

reservoirs in the State (fig. 9) is about 260 million 

barrels. 
W22 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

4 

3 

2 

FIGURE 9.-Amount of crude oil produced from Pennsylvanian reservoirs in New Mexico, 1945-1976. Data from 

Roy W. Foster (written commun., 1978). 

Production from Mississippian rocks is restricted 

mainly to southeastern New Mexico and the Delaware Basin area; peak production was in 1960 

when 80,000 barrels was produced from Mississippian rocks. The last production of any significance 

from Mississippian strata was in 1972 when about 

20,000 barrels was produced. The cumulative production from the Mississippian for New Mexico 

has been about 450,000 barrels. 

Pennsylvanian rocks are a major source of natural gas in southeastern New Mexico. In 1976, production from these reservoirs was about 300 billion 

cubic ·feet. However, an accurate estimate of total 

natural gas produced from Pennsylvanian reservoirs is difficult to obtain because many wells are 

multiple completions in Pennylvanian as well as in 

older and younger rocks. Most of the natural gas 

from the Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian is casinghead gas (produced with crude oil). Most of the 

gas produced from lenticular sandstone bodies in 

the deltaic Morrowan sequences of the Delaware 

Basin is dry gas. 

METALLIC ORES 

Some of the red beds in Upper Pennsylvanian 

units, particularly in the north-central part of the 

State, contain scattered deposits of copper sulfides 

and carbonates. These are present.mostly as nodules 

and as disseminated grains associated with small 

amounts of uranium and vanadium in arkose, green 

and gray shale, and nodular limestone (Zeller and 

Baltz, 1954). In the base-metal mining districts 

of central and southwestern New Mexico, Pennsylvanian limestones are host for some replacement 

deposits. They are also fractured and faulted and 

contain vein and stocklike metallic deposits. In most 

areas, however, the purer crinoidal limestones of 

the Mississippian are more favorable horizons for 

replacement deposits than the Pennsylvanian. The 

Carboniferous limestone sequence is also host to 

vein and breccia deposits of fluorite-barite-galena 

in south-central and central New Mexico where 

locally massive crystalline limestones have been 

selectively replaced. 

LIMESTONE AND OTHER NONMETALLIC MINERALS 

Throughout the State where Carboniferous limestone crops out, it is used locally for manufacture 

of cement (as at Tijeras east of Albuquerque), 

road metal, flagstone, lime, and dimension stone. 

Production of road metal is by far the largest use 

of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian limestones. 

Fossiliferous flagstones of Pennsylvanian limestone 

were placed in the courtyard of the Palace of Governors in Santa Fe almost four centuries ago. 

Clay and shale of the Pennsylvanian have been 

used locally to make brick and tile, although for 

the most part, the argillaceous rocks are too highly 

calcareous. In south-central New Mexico, in the San 

Andres, Organ, and northern Franklin Mountains ' 

gypsum beds in the upper part of the Pennsylvanian 

have been used locally in the manufacture of cement 

and as a soil conditioner. Some of the more evenbedded Pennsylvanian sandstones have been used 

in minor amounts for flagstones and for building 

some of the ancient dwellings. 

REFERENCES CITED 

Adams, J. E., 1962, compiler, Foreland Pennsylvanian rocks 

of Texas and eastern New Mexico, 1:n Branson, C. C., 

ed., Pennsylvanian System in the United States-A 

symposium: Tulsa, Okla., Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists, p. 372-384. 

Armstrong, A. K., 1955, Preliminary observations on the 

Mississippian Sys.tem of northern New Mexico: New 

Mexico Bur. Mines and Mineral Resources Circ. 39, 42 p. 

--- 1958a, Meramec-ian (Mississippian) endothyrid fauna 

from the Arroyo Penasco Formation, northern and central New Mexico: Jour. Paleontology, v. 32, no. 5, p. 

970-976, pl. 127. 

--- 1958b, The Mississippian of west-central New Mexico: 

New Mexico Bur. Mines and Mineral Resources Mem. 5, 

32 p. 
NEW MEXICO W23 

Armstrong, A. K., 1962, Stratigraphy and paleontology of 

the Mississippian System in southwestern New Mexico 

and adjacent southeastern Arizona: New Mexico Bur. 

Mines and Mineral Resources Mem. 8, 99 p. 

--- 1963, Biostratigraphy and paleoecology of the Mississippian System, west-central New Mexico, in New 

Mexico Geological Society, Guidebook of the Socorro region, New Mexico-14th field conf., Oct. 4-6, 1963: p. 

112-122. 

--- 1965, The stratigraphy and facies of the Mississippian 

strata of southwestern New Mexico, in New Mexico 

Geological Society, Guidebook of southwestern New 

Mexico II-16th field conf., Oc,t. 15-17, 1965: p. 132-140. 

--- 1967, Biostratigraphy and carbonate facies of the 

Mississippian Arroyo Penasco Formation, north-central 

New Mexico: New Mexico Bur. Mines and Mineral Resources Mem. 20, 80 p., 12 pls., 45 figs. 

--- 1970, Mississippian stratigraphy and geology of the 

northwestern part of the Klondike Hills, southwestern 

New Mexico, in New Mexico Geological Society, Guidebook of the Tyrone-Big Hatchet Mountains-Florida 

Mountains region__.:21st field conf., Oct. 29-31, 1970: 

p. 59-63. 

Armstrong, A. K., and Holcomb, L. D., 1967, Interim report 

on Mississippian Arroyo Penasco Formation of northcentral New Mexico: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists 

Bull., v. 51, no. 3, pt. 1, p. 417-424. 

Armstrong, A. K., and Mamet, B. L., 1974, Biostratigraphy 

of the Arroyo Penasco Group, lower Carboniferous ( Mississippian), north-central New Mexico, in New Mexico 

Geological Society, Silver anniversary guidebook, Ghost 

Ranch, central-northern New Mexico-25th field conf., 

Oct. 10-12, 1974: p. 145-158, 17 figs. 

--- 1976, Biostratigraphy and regional relations of the 

Mississippian Leadville Limestone in the San Juan 

Mountains, southwestern Colorado: U.S. Geol. Survey 

Prof. Paper 985, 25 p., 3 pis. 

--- 1977, Biostratigraphy and paleogeography of the 

Mississippian System in northern New Mexico and adjacent San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, in 

New Mexico Geological Society, Guidebook of San Juan 

basin III, northwestern New Mexico-28th field conf., 

Sept. 15-17, 1977: p. 111-127. 

--- 1978, The Bugle and Witch Members of the Keating 

Formation, Escabrosa Group, and the Mississippian 

nomenclature in the Big Hatchet Mountains, Hidalgo 

County, New Mexico, in Sohl, N. F., and Wright, W. B., 

Changes in stratigraphic nomenclature by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1977: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1457-A, p. 

A90-A94. 

Bachman, G. 0., 1953, Geology of a part of northwestern 

Mora County, New Mexico: U.S. Geol. Survey Oil and 

Gas Inv. Map OM-137, scale 1:48,000. 

--- 1975, New Mexico, 1'n McKee, E. D., and Crosby, E. J., 

coordinators, Introduction and regional analyses of the 

Pennsylvanian System, Pt. 1 of Paleotectonic investigations of the Pennsylvanian Systems in the United States: 

U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 853, p. 233-243. 

Bachman, G. 0., and Hayes, P. T., 1958, Stratigraphy of 

Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian rocks in the 

Sand Canyon area, Otero County, New Mexico: Geol. 

Soc. America Bull., v. 69, no. 6, p. 689-700. 

Bachman, G. 0., and Myers, D. A., 1975, The Lead Camp 

Limestone and its correlatives in south-central New 

Mexico, in New Mexico Geological Society, Guidebook of 

the Las Cruces country-26th field conf., Nov. 13-15, 

1975: p. 105-108. 

Baltz, E. H., Jr., 1965, Stratigraphy and history of Raton 

basin and notes on San Luis basin, Colorado-New Mexico: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 49, no. 11, 

p. 2041-2075. 

--- 1972, Geologic map and cross sections of the Gallinas 

Creek area, Sangre de Cristo Mountains, San Miguel 

County, New Mexico: U.S. Geol. Survey Misc. Geol. Inv. 

Map 1-673, 2 sheets, scale 1:24,000. 

Baltz, E. H., Jr., and Bachman, G. 0., 1956, Notes on the 

geology of the southeastern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, New Mexico, in New Mexico Geological Society, 

Guidebook of southeastern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, 

New Mexico-7th field conf., Oct. 19-21, 1956: p. 96-

108. 

Baltz, E. H., Jr., and Read, C. B., 1960, Rocks of Mississippian and probable Devonian age· in Sangre de 

Cristo Mountains, New Mexico: Am. Assoc. Petroleum 

Geologists Bull., v. 44, no. 11, p. 1749-1774. 

Be,ede, J. W., [1920], Notes on the geology and oil possibilities of the northern Diablo Plateau in Texas: Texas 

Univ. Bull. 1852, 40 p., 2 figs., 7 pls 

Borden, J. L., [1952], Paradox Member of the Hermosa Formation, in Four Corners Geological Society, [1st] Geological Sympos.ium of the Four Corners Region, October 

1, 1952: p. 27-35. 

Bradish, B. B., and Mills, N. K., 1950, Pennsylvanian rocks 

of the San Juan basin, in New Mexico Geological Society, Guidebook of the San Juan basin, New Mexico 

and Colorado-1st field conf., Nov. 3-5, 1950: p. 58-61. 

Brill, K. G., Jr., 1952, Stratigraphy in the Permo-Pennsylvanian zeugogeosyncline of Colorado and northern New 

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W24 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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NEW MEXICO W25 

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W26 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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135, 22 p. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesMontana 

By DONALD L. SMITH and ERNEST H. GILMOUR 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110·-x 

Prepared z'n cooperatz'on wz'th the 

Montana Bureau of Mz'nes and Geology 

Hzstorz'cal revz"ew and summary of 

areal, stratigraphz'c, structural, 

and economz'c geology of Mzsszssz'ppz'an 

and Pennsylvanz'an rocks z'n Colorado 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Page Page 

Albstract ----------------------------------------- X1 

2 

4 

4 

5 

5 

8 

8 

8 

8 

9 

9 

Stratigraphy-Continued 

Introduction --------------------------------------

History of nomenclature --------------------------

Big Snowy Group ---------------------------- X19 

Kibbey Sandstone ------------------------ 19 

Madison Group nomenclature ------------------ Otter Formation ------------------------- 20 

Big Snowy Group nomenclature ____________ ..:. __ _ Heath Formation ------------------------- 21 

Almsden Group nomenclature ------------------

Quadrant Formation nomenclature ------------- Almsden Group ------------------------------- 21 

Tyler Formation ------------------------- 22 

Geologic setting ____ ------ ________ ---- __ - -------- The Bear Gulch Limestone problem -------- 24 

Regional paleotectonic setting ------------------

Mississippian paleotectonic elements ------------

Pennsylvanian paleotectonic elements ----------

Allaska Bench Limestone ----------------- 25 

Devils Pocket Formation ------------------ 26 

Quadrant Formation -------------------------- 27 Stratigraphy ------------------------------------- Upper Devonian and Lower Mississippian strata 10 

13 

14 

17 

Petroleum and natural gas ------------------------ 28 

Madison Group ------------------------------- Mississippian strata -------------------------- 28 

Lodgepole Limestone ______ ---------------- Pennsylvanian strata ------------------------- 29 

Mission Canyon Limestone ---------------- References cited ___ _ __ _ ___ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ ___ ___ _ _ __ _ ____ 29 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

FIGURE 1. Index map of major exposures of Carboniferous rocks in Montana, showing areas modified by preJurassic and Tertiary erosion ------------------·-------------------------------------------- X3 

2. History of Carboniferous nomenclature in Montana, 1893-1976 ------------------------------------ 6 

3. Mississippian paleostructural features in Montana ----------------------------------------------- 9 

4. Map of uppermost Devonian and lowermost Mississippian rocks and structural features ------------- 10 

5. Stratigraphic relationships of uppermost Devonian and lowermost Mississippian strata in northern 

Wyoming, southern Montana, and southern Allberta ------------------------------------------ 12 

6. Total thickness of Mississippian rocks in Montana ----------------------------------------------- 14 

7. Nomenclature, faunal zones, and temporal relationships of Mississippian rock units in Montana and adjacent areas ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 16 

8. Map of total thickness of the Pennsylvanian System --------------------------------------------- 22 

9. Diagrammatic cross section of Big Snowy and Almsden groups in central Montana ------------------ 25 

10. Carboniferous oil and gas fields in Montana ----------------------------------------------------- 28 

Ill 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND-PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONil-.EROUS) 

SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES-MONTANA 

By DoNALD L. SMITH1 and ERNEST H. GILMOUR2 

ABSTRACT 

Carboniferous strata underlie all but the northwestern 

corner of Montana and are well exposed on the flanks of 

Tertiary uplifts throughout the State. The Carboniferous 

rock package attains a maximum thickness of 1,000 m along 

the Big Snowy trough, an east-trending paleostructural feature in central Montana; it thins to 300 m and 450 m in 

northern and southern Montana, respectively, on the flanks 

of the trough. 

The contact of the Carboniferous rocks with underlying 

strata is unconformable, the rocks beneath the unconformity 

ranging in age from Ordovician to latest Devonian and generally increasing in age toward the southern part of the 

State. The contact of Carboniferous strata with overlying 

rocks is also unconformable, the overlying s,trata ranging 

from Permian and Triassic at the Montana-Wyoming border 

to Middle Jurassic in the northern part of the State. 

Carboniferous rocks of Montana are divided into four 

lithologic units, each deposited under a different set of 

tsctonic and environmental conditions. These units are the 

Madison Group, the Big Snowy Group, the Amsden Group, 

and the Quadrant Formation. In the Carboniferous section 

in Montana, a general upward decrease in clean limestone 

and an increase in both fine and coars::; detrital components 

reflects the increasing epeirogenic-orogenic tempo of the 

later Carboniferous. 

Major groups of Carboniferous strata were named or recognized in the late 1800's; since then, detailed studies have 

refined the stratigraphic nomenclature to its present complexity. The Madison Group of Kinderhookian, Osagean, and 

Meramecian age consists of the Lodgepole, Mission Canyon, 

and Charles Formations, in ascending order. The Lodgepole 

is divided into the Cottonwood Canyon, Paine, and Woodhurst Members. The Big Snowy Group is Chesterian in age 

and incorporates the Kibbey, Otter, and Heath Formations. 

The Amsden Group is latest Mississippian (Springerian), 

Morrowan, and Atokan ( ?) in age and includes three formations-the Tyler, Alaska Bench, and Devils Pocket. The 

Tyler is divided into the unnamed lower memb2r and the 

Cameron Creek Member. The Desmoinesian-age Quadrant 

Formation is the fourth package, completing the Carboniferous section in Montana. 

Carboniferous strata in Montana were deposited predominantly on the western edge of the North American craton, 

1 Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, 

M~Jj~p ~-~~ent of Geology, Eastern Washington State University, 

Cheney, Wash. 99004. 

but in the extreme western part of the State, Carboniferous 

sediments accumulated in the Cordilleran miogeosync1ine. 

During the latest Devonian and earliest Mississippian, the 

craton was divided into four shallow marine basins, all separated by low-lying arches that, through the erosion of rocks 

as old as Cambrian, provided a source of fine-grained sediment. Throughout the remainder of Madison and Big Snowy 

deposition, the Montana part of the craton was characterized 

by stable shelves to the north and south, separated by the 

elongate Big Snowy trough that extended from the Cordilleran miogeosyncline on the west to the Williston basin in 

the extreme northeastern corner of the State. During deposition of the Amsden Group, uplift in northern Montana on 

the site of the ·former northern stable shelf provided clastic 

sediment to the Big Snowy trough, which continued to subside. Deposition of the Quadrant Formation brought the 

Carboniferous to a close; the coarse clastic sediments were 

provided from large western uplifts as well as from the 

eastern craton. 

Deposition of Carboniferous roc-ks began with a complex 

interplay of sea-level change and ·epeirogenic warping of 

the craton. In shallow basins between low-lying arches, black 

shale and siltstone of the late Devonian Bakken, Exshaw, 

and Englewood Formations and the Sappington Member of 

the Three Forks Formation were deposited. This latest 

Devonian transgression was short-lived and the sea partly 

regressed from Montana as epeirogenic movements continued 

to block out arches and basins on the Montana craton, providing coarser clastic sediment to the intervening basins. The 

earliest Mississippian transgression from the Cordilleran 

miogeosyncline is recorded in the black shale and siltstone 

of the Cottonwood Canyon Member of the Lodgepole Formation and the upper black shale of the Bakken Formation. The environments in which these fine-grained clastic 

rocks accumulated quickly gave way to higher energy environments in which the bioclastic facies at the base of the 

Paine Member of the Lodgepole Formation were deposited. 

After the deposition of the bioclastic facies of the Paine 

Member, the rate of transgression and/or subsidence of the 

Big Snowy trough outstripped the rate of carbonate sediment production, creating a deeper water environment in 

central Montana while shallow-wa.ter carbonate sediments 

contemporaneously accumulated on the stable shelves to the 

north and south. A decrease in the rate of sea-level rise and/ 

or rate of subsidence of the Big Snowy trough and concomitant increased production of carbonate sediment led to 

the progradation of high-energy, shallow-water carbonate 

sediments from the north and south into the Big Snowy 

Xl 
X2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

trough, leading to deposition of the cyclic neritic deposits of 

the Woodhurst Member of the Lodgepole Formation. 

The Mission Canyon Limestone was deposited under similar but more stable conditions than was the Woodhurst 

Member of the Lodgepole Limestone. The limestone of the 

Mission Canyon records shallow-water high-energy conditions that eventually gave rise to restricted environments 

in which extensive evaporite deposits accumulated, creating 

the evaporite-solution-breccia couplets of the surface and 

subsurface of Montana. The Charles Formation is probably 

the evaporite-rich subsurface equivalent of the upper brecciated part of the Mission Canyon Limestone. After deposition of the Mission Canyon-Charles evaporites, the Madison 

sea retreated to the Cordilleran miogeosyncline from the 

craton, and the ensuing exposure and erosion produced a 

karst surface of regional extent. 

In Chesterian time, the Big Snowy sea transgressed across 

this surface, beginning in southwestern Montana and proceeding across the Big Snowy trough to the Williston basin. 

At the leading edge of this sea, the Kibbey Sandstone was 

deposited in beach and nearshore environments. Synchronously, in deeper, quieter water eastward of the coarse clastic 

zone, shale and limestone of the Otter Formation were deposited. In the deep and quiet water of the trough axis, 

dark shale and limestone of the Heath Formation accumulated. After deposition of the Big Snowy Group, the sea 

withdrew from most of the Big Snowy trough, creating an 

unconformity between Big Snowy strata and overlying 

deposits. 

During the next major transgressive phase of the Carboniferous, strata of the Amsden Group were deposited. The 

Tyler Formation was deposited in either stagnant marine 

or nonmarine environments in central and eastern Montana 

along the axis of the Big Snowy trough. A marine limestone 

tongue, the Bear Gulch Limestone Member, near the top of 

the Tyler in central Montana, bears a marine fauna identified as latest Mississippian. Thus, the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian systemic boundary appears to be within the Tyler 

Formation rather than at the unconformity at the Big 

Snowy-Tyler contact. 

After deposition of the Tyler Formation, limestone, dolomite, and mudstone of the Alaska Bench Formation accumulated in the Big Snowy trough in marine environments 

that ranged from supratidal to subtidal. 

Dolomite, limestone, sandstone, and shale of the Devils 

Pocket Formation were deposited unconformably over the 

top of the Alaska Bench Formation in the Big Snowy trough. 

These sediments, like those of the underlying Alaska Bench 

Formation, were deposited in shallow marine environments. 

After deposition of the Amsden Group in Montana, the 

Quadrant Formation accumulated in Desmoinesian time. The 

contact with the underlying Devils Pocket is gradational. 

The Quadrant Formation is probably of shallow marine 

origin. Uplifts to the west and the craton to the east provided 

abundant quartz sand. 

INTRODUCTION 

Carboniferous rocks of Montana have been the 

subject of man's curiosity and exploitation from approximately 2,000 years before the present, when 

stone-age miners quarried Mississippian chert from 

bluffs overlooking the Madison River in southwestern Montana (Davis, 1976), to the last several 

decades, when Carboniferous strata have produced 

petroleum, water, and aggregate and have provided 

abundant intellectual stimulus and challenge to 

students of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks. 

Geologic investigation of Carboniferous strata from 

Peale's (1893) early work to the present has revealed a complex and detailed geologic history of 

transgressions and regressions, depositional environments, and epeirogenic activity; however, in the 

process of providing answers, this investigation has 

supplied a great number of unanswered questions. 

As a consequence, this paper is a compilation of 

work on diverse topics by many geologists having 

diverse backgrou-nds and orientations and should be 

read accordingly. The manuscript is a joint effort: 

Smith is responsible for the Mississippian parts; 

Gilmour, for the Pennsylvanian. We have made little 

attempt to resolve current stratigraphic, paleontologic, and sedimentologic conflicts and have chosen to 

present both arguments where two interpretations 

exist. 

Carboniferous strata underlie all of Montana except the northwest corner, where they have been 

removed by Tertiary erosion (fig. 1). They are well 

exposed in the Cenozoic uplifts of central Montana, 

in the overthrust belt of western Montana, around 

large Laramide intrusive bodies, and on the flanks 

of basement block uplifts. In these exposures, the 

Madison Group forms a series of strong cliffs and 

ridges above the relatively nonresistant Devonian 

Three Forks Formation, the Big Snowy and Amsden 

Groups form a swale with low ridges, and the Quadrant Formation crops out in a series of cliffs and 

ridges. 

Carboniferous rocks attain a maximum thickness 

of 1,000 m in an east-trending belt in central Montana, thinning to less than 300 m to the north and 

450 m to the south. These thickness trends reflect 

cratonic paleotectonic elements that controlled Carboniferous sediment accumulation as well as Carboniferous and post-Carboniferous erosional events. 

The contact of the Carboniferous rocks with the 

underlying rocks is generally unconformable, the 

age of the rocks under the unconformity generally 

increasing southward into Wyoming. However, in 

central and eastern Montana, the time value of this 

unconformity increases along the Bearpaw and 

Cedar Creek anticlines and the central Montana uplift, reflecting the positive nature of these structures 

during latest Devonian and earliest Mississippian 
MONTANA X3 

.lij~@ffi~~- CARBONIFEROUS RO 

REMOVED BY 

TIARY EROSION 

0 

I ill ,I I II 

0 50 

50 

I 

I 

100 MILES 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 1..-lndex map of major exposures of Carboniferous rocks in Montana, showing areas modified by pre-Jurassic 

and Tertiary erosion. Numbers refer to Carboniferous type and reference sections. (1) Logan-Three Forks area-type 

section of the Madison Group. (2) Northern Little Belt Mountains-type sections of the Paine and Woodhurst Members 

of the Lodgepole Limestone and reference section for the Mission Canyon Limestone. (3) Big Snowy Mountains-type 

sections of the Kibbey, Otter, and Heath Formations of the Big Snowy Group, the Bear Gulch, Cameron Creek, and 

Stonehouse Canyon Members of the Tyler Formation, and the Devils Pocket and Alaska Bench Formations. ( 4) Arro 

Oil and Refining Company and California Gompany No. 4 well-type well of the Charles Formation. (5) Little Rocky 

Mountains-type sections of the Lodgepole and Mission Canyon Formations. (6) Sawtooth Range-type sections of Allan 

Mountain Limestone, Castle Reef Dolomite, and Sun River Dolomite. (7) Quadrant Mountain, Gallatin Range, Wyoming-type section of the Quadrant Formation. (Map modified from Ross, Andrews, and Witkind, 1955, and Sando, 

1976). 

time. This deformation may be related to the Antler 

orogeny in the Cordilleran geosyncline to the west. 

The contact of Carboniferous rocks with overlying 

strata is also unconformable and reflects the tectonosedimentary history of the area from the beginning 

of the Permian through the Middle Jurassic. 

Beneath this unconformity, rocks as old as Osagean 

are unconformably overlain by the Middle Jurassic 

Ellis Group in northern Montana, whereas, to the 

south, Permo-Triassic rocks truncate the Middle and 

Upper Pennsylvanian Quadrant Formation. This 

erosional interval produced a northern zero edge on 

the Big Snowy, Amsden, and Quadrant Formations 

and significantly thinned the upper part of the 

Madison Group. This truncation suggests late Paleozoic-early Mesozoic uplift along the "Milk River 

uplift" of Maughan and Roberts (1967). 

Carboniferous strata of Montana consist of four 

depositional packages of rock, each deposited under 

unique paleotectonic conditions. These are the dominantly carbonate Madison Group, the clastic and 

carbonate Big Snowy and Amsden Groups, and the 

clastic Quadrant Formation. The upward increase 

in detrital components in these Carboniferous units 

reflects increasing epeirogenic tempo on the craton 

and the influence of the Antler orogeny in the Cordilleran geosyncline to the west. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this·paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomen-
X4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

clature used here conforms with the current usage 

of the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology. 

HISTORY OF NOMENCLATURE 

Carboniferous nomenclature in Montana has 

evolved from Peale's (1893) naming of the Madison limestone and overlying Quadrant Formation to 

the present Madison, Big Snowy, and Amsden 

Groups and the Quadrant Formation. The history of 

this evolution has been reviewed and clarified for 

the Madison Group by Sando and Dutro (1974) and 

has been discussed for the Big Snowy and Amsden 

Groups and the Quadrant Formation by Maughan 

and Roberts (1967). The following discussion has 

been derived from original sources, with the guidance of these papers. Important developmental 

stages are charted in figure 2. 

MADISON GROUP NOMENCLATURE 

Madison Group nomenclature was initially derived from the Three Forks area of southwestern 

Montana, but formation names were soon added 

from the· Little Belt Mountains and, decades later, 

from the Little Rocky Mountains, the subsurface of 

central Montana, and outcrops in northwest Montana (fig. 1). 

Prominent lower Carboniferous outcrops in the 

Three Forks area were given the name Madison 

Limestone by Peale ( 1893). In this area, these rocks 

are sandwiched between the Devonian Three Forks 

Formation and the upper Carboniferous Quadrant 

Formation. Although Peale did not designate a type 

section, and there has been much subsequent debate 

about whether the type section is along the Madison 

River or in the Madison Range, Sloss and Hamblin 

(1942) proposed and Sando and Dutro (1974) have 

concurred that the type section is along the Madison River at Logan (fig. 1). In this area, Peale 

(1893) divided the Madison into the Laminated 

limestones, the Massive limestones, and the J aspery 

limestones, in ascending order. Several years later, 

Weed (1899, 1900) recognized three similar lithologic units in the Little Belt Mountains, which he 

termed Paine Shale, W oodhurst Limestone, and 

Castle Limestone. However, here, as in the Three 

Forks area, type sections were not designated, and 

Sando and Dutro (1974) proposed type sections for 

the Paine and W oodhurst and a reference section 

for the Mission Canyon Formation (Jaspery limestones) in the northern Little Belt Mountains (fig. 

1). 

Collier and Cathcart (1922) identified similar 

Madison rocks in the Little Rocky Mountains (fig. 

1) and applied the local physiographic names Lodgepole and Mission Canyon to formations within the 

Madison that they recognized as a formal group (fig. 

2). However, the threefold division of Peale (1893) 

and Weed (1899) is recognizable in the Little Rocky 

Mountains, and the Lodgepole also contains the 

lower two of the three stratigraphic units (Sando 

and Dutro, 1974). 

In their synthesis of Madison nomenclature, Sloss 

and Hamblin (1942) gathered these lower Carboniferous names into a single classification scheme 

(fig. 2) that included Weed's (1899) Paine Shale 

and W oodhurst Limestone as members of Collier 

and Cathcart's (1922) Lodgepole Formation and 

that equated Peale's (1983) Jaspery limestones, 

Weed's (1899) Castle Limestone, and Collier and 

Cathcart's (1922) Mission Canyon Limestone, retaining the last name as a second formation at the 

top of the Madison group. 

The name Charles was proposed by Seager (1942) 

for an interbedded sequence of limestone, dolomite, 

and evaporite above the Madison and below the Kibbey Formation in the subsurface of central Montana 

(fig. 1). Seager designated the Charles Formation 

as the basal unit of the Big Snowy Group, but a decade later, Sloss (1952) suggested that the Charles 

should be considered the uppermost unit of the 

Madison Group (fig. 2). Seager (1942) designated 

a type well for the Charles, for which a graphic log 

was prepared by Perry and Sloss (1943). The 

Charles is presently in a state of stratigraphic 

limbo, as indicated by Balster (1971, p. 220) : 

There is some doubt that the Charles Formation persists to 

the outcrop. Stratigraphers disagree: some believe that the 

brecda zones in the uppermost part of the Mississippian 

repres'ent the Charles with evaporites removed by selective 

solution; others believe that the Charles is restricted to the 

subsurface. Obviously, more study is necessary. 

Sando and Dutro (1974) suggested that until a definitive study is conducted, the Charles should be 

considered the equivalent of the upper part of the 

Mission Canyon ,and that the use of the name should 

be restricted to the subsurface of the Williston 

basin. 

The name Little Chief Canyon Member was 

proposed by Knechtel, Smedley, and Ross (1954) for 

a thin black shale at the base of the Lodgepole Limestone at its type section in the Little Rocky Mountains. This black shale is in a similar stratigraphic 

position in many parts of the State and is variously 

included in the Bakken Formation and the Cotton-
MONTANA X5 

wood Canyon Member of the Lodgepole Formation 

(Sandberg and Klapper, 1967; Macqueen and Sandberg, 1970). The name Cottonwood Canyon Member 

was proposed by Sandberg and Klapper (1967) 

from exposures of black shale and siltstone at the 

base of the Madison Formation in the northern Big 

Horn Mountains of Wyoming, and Sando and Dutro 

(1974) recommended the use of this term and the 

abandonment of the name Little Chief Canyon 

Member. 

The names Silvertip Conglomerate, Saypo Limestone, Dean Lake Chert, Rooney Chert, and Monitor 

Mountain Limestone were all proposed by Deiss 

(1933) for five members of the Madison Limestone 

in northwestern Montana. Later, Deiss (1941, 1943) 

included these members in the Hannan Limestone, 

replacing the term Madison. Since that time, these 

terms have been only locally used, and the Montana 

Geological Society (Balster, 1971) recommended 

that "more current terminology" be applied to these 

rocks. 

Additional Madison terms for northwestern Montana (figs. 1, 2) were proposed by Mudge, Sando, 

and Dutro (1962, p. 2004) because " ... formational 

boundaries recognized in the type locality cannot be 

consistently followed in this area." These names are 

Allan Mountain Limestone and Castle Reef Dolomite, which are chronologically and lithologically 

similar to the Lodgepole Limestone and Mission 

Canyon Limestone, respectively (Mudge, 1972). The 

Allan Mountain Limestone is divided into three 

unnamed members, and the Castle Reef Dolomite is 

composed of an unnamed lower member and the 

overlying Sun River Dolomite (Mudge, Sando, and 

Dutro, 1962; Mudge, 1972). The Montana Geological 

Society (Balster, 1971) suggested that the names 

Allan Mountain and Castle Reef should be abandoned in favor of the more widely used names 

Lodgepole and Mission Canyon. 

BIG SNOWY GROUP NOMENCLATURE 

The Big Snowy Group was named by Scott (1935) 

from exposures in the Little Belt and Big Snowy 

mountains of central Montana (fig. 1). In the north-_ 

ern Little Belt Mountains, he included the Kibbey 

and Otter Formations that were previously describer] 

as part of the Quadrant Group by Weed ( 1899, 

1900). The third formation of the Big Snowy 

Group-the Heath-is absent in the Kibbey and 

Otter type area, but is present in the eastern Little 

Belt Mountains and in the Big Snowy Mountains, 

where it was described by Scott (1935). With few 

exceptions, Scott's (1935) terminology has been 

used in subsequent syntheses; the marked exception 

was Gardner (1959), who expanded the Big Snowy 

Group to include rocks that Scott (1935) and subsequent investigators included in the Amsden Group 

(fig. 2). 

AMSDEN GROUP NOMENCLATURE 

Originally, rocks now considered part of the 

Amsden Group were included in the Quadrant Formation as used by Peale (1893), Weed (1896), Freeman (1922), and Reeves (1931). Freeman (1922) 

divided the Quadrant Formation into the Kibbey 

Sandstone, Otter Shale, Tyler Sandstone, and Alaska 

Bench Limestone (fig. 2). 

Scott (1935) established the Big Snowy Group, 

which included the Kibbey Sandstone, -the Otter 

Shale, and the overlying Heath Shale. Rocks above 

the Heath Shale were placed in the Amsden Formation, named by Darton ( 1904) for similar rocks exposed in northern Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming. 

Mundt (1956a) referred to sandstone and shale beds 

between the Heath Shale and the overlying limestone as the Tyler Formation and the overlying 

limestone as the Alaska Bench Formation (fig. 2). 

Rocks overlying the Alaska Bench Limestone were 

called the Amsden Formation by Mundt ( 1956a). 

Gardner ( 1959) and Easton ( 1962) placed the contact between the Heath Shale and the overlying 

sandstone and red beds at the lithologic break between the black shale and red beds. Gardner named 

this sandstone and red-bed sequence the Cameron 

Creek Formation and used the Alaska Bench Formation for the overlying limestone. He substituted 

the name Devils Pocket Formation for the overlying 

dolomite and sandstone referred to as Amsden Formation in earlier studies. Willis (1959) used the 

Tyler Formation to include the lower dark shale interstratified with sandstone above the black shale 

of the Heath Formation, which he called the lower 

member. The red shale and interbedded limestone 

sequence above the lower member was named the 

Cameron Creek Member. The carbonate rocks were 

grouped into the Amsden Formation (restricted) 

and divided into two members: the Alaska Bench 

Member and the dolomite member. Rocks above the 

dolomite member were referred to as the Tensleep 

Sandstone. 

Easton (1962) and Gilmour (1967, 1969) used 

essentially the nomenclature suggested by Gardner. 

Gilmour (1969, p. 181) used Tyler Sandstone and 

Bear Gulch Limestone as member designations for 

parts of the Cameron Creek Formation. 
Three Forks Area Little Belt Mountains Central Montana 

Collier Central Montana Central Montana and Cathcart (1922) Peale (1893) Weed (1900) and Freeman (1922)* Reeves (1931) Scott (1935) 

u u u u u 5 (j) (j) Ellis (j) Ellis (j) N Ellis C/) Ellis and Ellis C/) 

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0 <{ Teton Formations <{ Formation Formation <{ C/) Formation a: a: a: a: Formation w ::::> ::::> ::::> ::::> ~ .., .., .., .., __... ~ ,... ........ ....... 0 z - ---- - ~- - <{ 

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z o. Alaska Bench ij; <i E E ~Iaska Bencl1 ~ S 5 Formation ~ 7 <( ~ Member all 

!£ (5 Cameron ~reek ~ g Tyler Cameron Ck ~ 

~ ~ Format1on ~ Fm Member ~ 

c;; o Heath lower)!.!e~ (/) c: . ..-::: -:. ~ CJ) Format1on t Heath Format1on 

.5!1 Otter lii 0 !:! Otter 

ffi m Formation gj ~ e Formation 

~ Kibbey 6 !:!'CI Kibbey 

:J Form~iOJ:l... liil Fo,!...mation 

Charles "' Charles- z 

·.Formation ~ Formation S 

------ Devils Pocket 

Formation 

o. Alaska Bench 

::J Formation 0~....;..;;.;.;.;;.;.;;;,;~ 

(5 Cameron Creek 

~ Formation 

0 

c: 

(/) 

.5!1 Otter 

m Formation 

Kibbey 

Sandstone ............... Charles 

Formation. 

Q. 

::J 

Mission Canyon it Mis~ion Canyon !£ 

limestone c;; o. Limestone ~ o. (/) ::J - ::J 

a: 

w 

~ ...J 

e 

<.!) 

Lodgepole 

Limestone 

c;; e ~ e (/) <.!) - <.!) 

~ c: :::?! c: 0 0 0 0 

'g Lodgepole 'g 

:::?! Limestone :::?! 

Montana Montana Northwestern Montana 

Mudge, Sando,and Dutro 

(1962); Mudge (1972) 

Central Montana 

Maughan and Roberts 

(1967) 

Sando, Mamet, and Dutro (1969), 

Sando (1976) Jensen and Carlson (1972) 

u 

c;; 

~ :J 

..., 

lii 

gj 

..r::. 

u 

~ 

Quadrant 

Formation 

Q. 

::J e..,....._.. ........ _....._,.,. <.!) 

c: 

~~---~~~~~ 

E 

<( 

Heath Formation 

Otter Formation 

Kibbey Formation 

Sun River z ~ ~ Member ~ ; ~ 

Q. ~ ~ (/) 

z 5 (/) Q. (/) 

<('- 5Q 5 c;; a: <.!) .5 upper member CJ) '- 5Q ~ c: .!!! Gl 5Q <.!) :::?! (/) g c:c: :::?! c: 

~ =g 5 ~ middle member ~ -~ 

5Q :::?! :::?!E 8 ~ 

:::?! ~ ::::i lower member ~ :::?! 

z 

s 

z 

g 

w 

0 

<( "C 

upper part of Three-ForkS · For~_, 

Three Forks 

Formation 

c: 

~ 

Lodgepole 

Limestone 

~~~Q ~ ~e u .#' 

III 

~ 

Heath Formation 

Otter Formation 

Kibbey Formation 

z 

s 

a.. 

a.. Q. c;; ::J (/) 

e ~ c;; <.!) 0 (/) 

5 gj ~ 

~ :5 .5 0 (1) ...J 

_g :::?! ~ 

lii 8. "C Gl 

Paine Shale 

Member c: Cl 

~ "8 .. 1-:c~o~tt:-:=o~n~w~o~oa~e~an~y~o~n-11 

....l~g~ 

z 

s 

z 

0 

> w 

0 

Ellis 

Group 

Charles Fm 

g. 1--.!:l.l.l.l~:o:.:.:.l'---f 

e 

<.!) 

c: 

g ~ '6 0 (1) 

_g :::?! 

Lodgepole 

Limestone 

lii 

"C 

c: 

~ 

~ 

Three Forks 

Formation 

FIGURE 2.-History of Carboniferous nomenclature in Montana, 1893-1976. (Compiled from original sources with guidance from Maughan and 

Roberts, 1967, and Sando and Dutro, 1974.) 

t:= 

0 

z 

~ 

> z 

> 

~ -:J 

; ' 
X8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Maughan and Roberts (1967) and Maughan 

(1975) included all the rocks above the Heath Formation and below the uppermost sandstone beds 

(Quadrant Formation) as the Amsden Group, consisting of the Tyler Formation, Alaska Bench Limestone, and Devils Pocket Limestone. The Tyler Formation was divided into the Stonehouse Canyon 

Member and the overlying Cameron. Creek Member. 

These units are overlain by the Alaska Bench Limestone, which, in turn, is overlain unconformably by 

the Devils Pocket Limestone. Maughan and Roberts 

(1967, p. B19) also recommended that this nomen-

.clature be used in the subsurface throughout eastern Montana to the State boundary where the Minnelusa Formation is used in North Dakota, South 

Dakota, and eastern Wyoming. They also suggested 

that the strata found in southwestern Montana and 

western Wyoming, approximately equivalent to the 

Amsden Group in central Montana, be referred to as 

the Amsden Formation. 

For this report, the nomenclature suggested by 

Maughan and Roberts (1967) is used. However, the 

use of formations and members should be based 

strictly on lithology and not on questionable unconformities in black-shale sequences, or between partially dolomitized limestones and totally dolomitized 

limestones. 

QUADRANT FORMATION NOMENCLATURE 

The Quadrant Formation was named by Peale 

(1893). Weed (1896) designated the type locality as 

Quadrant Mountain in the Gallatin Range, Wyoming (fig. 1), which included 32 m of limestone and 

shale now referred to as the Amsden Formation. 

Maughan and Roberts (1967, p. B6) used the name 

Quadrant Formation for the quartzite or sandstone 

sequence overlying the Devils Pocket Formation in 

central Montana and the Amsden Formation in 

southwestern Montana. Mallory (1972) also used 

Quadrant "Sandstone" for the same rocks in his synthesis of the Pennsylvanian System. Other workers 

(Scott, 1935; Mundt, 1956a; and Willis, 1959) assigned these rocks to the Tensleep Formation, which 

was named by Darton (1904) from the lower canyon of Tensleep Creek in the Big Horn Mountains, 

north-central Wyoming. 

The term Quadrant Formation is used in this report in accord with workers in the U.S. Geological 

Survey. However, the authors recognize the general use of Tensleep Sandstone by workers in 

the petroleum industry in central and southern 

Montana. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

REGIONAL PALEOTECTONIC SETTING 

Carboniferous sedimentation patterns are closely 

tied to the latest Devonian and Carboniferous tectonic framework of the northern Rocky Mountains. 

In eastern and central Montana, this framework 

was dominated by the North American craton. 

Western Montana was the site of the Cordilleran 

miogeosyncline. Because most of the Carboniferous 

strata were removed from western Montana by 

Tertiary erosion, the Carboniferous history of the 

Cordilleran miogeosyncline is incompletely known 

there. However, Huh (1967) documented the cratonmiogeosynclinal margin in extreme southwestern 

Montana and adjacent Idaho, where he recognized 

a "transition zone" between these two major tectonic elements. Other students of the northern 

Rockies Carboniferous place the craton-miogeosyncline boundary in the vicinity of Huh's craton-tran-

. sition line (figs. 3, 4). 

MISSISSIPPIAN PALEOTECTONIC ELEMENTS 

During the latest Devonian and earliest Mississippian, the craton in Montana was the site of parts of 

four shallow marine basins (fig. 4), the Bakken and 

Exshaw basins in northern Montana and the Sappington-Cottonwood Canyon and Englewood basins 

in the southern part of the State. These basins were 

separated by linear uplifts that may have been a 

cratonic manifestation of the Antler orogeny. The 

largest of these positive features was the central 

Montana uplift, an anticline that separated the two 

northern basins from the two southern basins and 

that probably provided sediment to both sides from 

the weathering and erosion of Cambrian through 

Devonian strata. In eastern Montana, the Cedar 

Creek anticline was similarly active, and as much 

as 230m of Cambrian through Devonian rocks was 

eroded along a high-angle fault on its western flank 

(Sandberg and Mapel, 1967). 

This uppermost Devonian and lowermost Mississippian pattern of shallow cratonic basins and uplifts changed markedly in Early Mississippian time. 

East of the craton-miogeosyncline hingeline, the 

Mississippian cratonic setting of Montana featured 

three major tectonic elements: the Cordilleran platform (Sando, Gordon, and Dutro, 1975) in northern 

and southern Montana, the unstable shelf or Big 

Snowy trough in central Montana, and the Williston 

basin in easternmost Montana and adjacent western 

North Dakota (fig. 3). The Cordilleran platform is, 

in turn, divided into a northern Alberta shelf and 
MONTANA .X9 

0 

I I I I II I I I 

0 50 

50 

I 

I 

100 MILES 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 3.-Mississippian paleostructural features in Montana. The shelf-trough boundaries are drawn on Craig's 450-m 

isopach for the Mississippian. (Map modified from Sando, 1967; Rose, 1976; Sando, 1976; and Craig, 1972). 

a southern Wyoming shelf, both having stable or 

relative~y neutral Mississippian histories. These 

structural elements remained intact during deposition of the Madison Group but began to be modified 

at the onset of Big Snowy deposition (latest 

Meramecian-earliest Chesterian). During accumulation of the diverse rocks of the Big Snowy Group, 

the Big Snowy trough was inundated and the 

Wyom-ing shelf formed an east-trending peninsular feature-the southern Montana arch (Sando, 

1976) -that separated the Wyoming basin to the 

south from the Big Snowy trough on the north. This 

uplift influenced sedimentation until the latest 

Chesterian when parts of the Big Snowy trough 

were uplifted, providing sediment to the Amsden 

Formation of the northward-expanding Wyoming 

basin (Sando, Gordon, and Dutro, 1975; Sando, 

1976). 

PENNSYLVANIAN PALEOTECTONIC ELEMENTS 

At the beginning of Pennsylvanian time, the sea 

occupying the Big Snowy trough was severely restricted. Uplift to the north exposed land areas that 

provided much of the terrigenous sediment for the 

Tyler, Alaska Bench, and Devils Pocket Formations. 

The Big Snowy trough continued to subside through 

Morrowan and Atokan time, and deposition was 

more or less continuous in local areas. The Montana 

uplift (Sando, Gordon, and Dutro, 1975) produced 

a large island area in south-central and southeast 

Montana in late Morrowan time. During Atokan 

and Desmoinesian time, large uplifts in the west 

provided sand-sized clastic sediment for the Quadrant and equivalent formations. 

STRATIGRAPHY 

Carboniferous strata of Montana are divisible into 

four depositional packages, each representing a 

transgressive-regressive event. These packages are, 

in ascending order, the Madison Group, Big Snowy 

Group, Amsden Group, and Quadrant Formation. 

The time value of the hiatus separating these packages is variable, but, in general, is greater on the 

Cordilleran platform than in central Montana and 

the Williston basin. 
XlO THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

0 

11 1

1 1

1 

I\ 

0 50 

50 

I 

I 

100 MILES 

I 

100 Kl LOM ETERS 

FIGURE 4.-Map of uppermost Devonian and lowermost Mississippian rocks and structural features. Light-shaded areas 

are basins in which rocks of the Bakken, Exshaw, and Englewood Formations and Cottonwood Canyon and Sappington Members accumulated. Unshaded areas in central and eastern Montana are uplifts that separated these basins. 

Dark-shaded areas along the axes of the central Montana uplift and the Cedar Creek anticline are areas where uppermost Devonian and lowermost Mississippian erosion cut down into Cambrian, Ordovician, and Silurian strata. (Map 

modified from Sandberg and Klapper, 1967; Sandberg and Mapel, 1967; and Baars, 1972). 

UPPER DEVONIAN AND LOWER MISSISSIPPIAN 

STRATA 

Black shale and dolomitic siltstone below and at 

the base of the Madison Group unconformably overlie earlier Devonian and other lower Paleozoic strata 

and record the complex history of the DevonianMississippian transition in Montana. Rocks included 

in this sequence are the Bakken and Exshaw Formations, the Sappington Member of the Three Forks 

Formation, and the Englewood Formation. 

The Bakken Formation is restricted to the Bakken 

basin in northeastern Montana (fig. 4). Here, it attains a maximum thickness of 42 m in the North 

Dakota part of the Williston basin, and it thins from 

21m along the international boundary to zero on the 

northern flank of the central Montana uplift. The 

Bakken is composed of two black radioactive carbonaceous shale beds that sandwich a medial dolomitic siltstone and sandstone (Coleville Sandstone 

Member). To the west, the upper black shale has 

been removed by earliest Mississippian erosion on 

the Bearpaw anticline, and an arbitrary western 

limit has been drawn along this axis (Macqueen and 

Sandberg, 1970). Conodonts from the Bakken Formation indicate a Late Devonian age (lower and 

upper to V), and a spore flora indicates a position 

near the Devonian-Mississippian boundary (Macqueen and Sandberg, 1970). This boundary may be 

within the Coleville Sandstone Member (fig. 5). 

In northwestern Montana, the Exshaw Formation is a southern extension of that formation from 

Alberta and, according to Macqueen and Sandberg 

(1970), represents a western continuation of the 

basal black shale and medial siltstone of the Bakken 

Formation (fig. 5). The Exshaw Formation is restricted to the Exshaw basin that is bounded on the 
MONTANA X11 

east by the Bearpaw anticline, on the south by the 

Scapegoat-Bannatyne anticline, and on the west by 

the Cordilleran miogeosyncUne (fig. 4). The formation attains its maximum thickness in Alberta and 

is only approximately 40 m thick at the international 

boundary. It thins southward onto the ScapegoatBannatyne anticline, where it is less than 6 m thick 

and where the siltstone was removed by erosion in 

early Mississippian time. The basal black carbonaceous shale is fissile and has at its base a thin phos;.. 

phatic sandstone bed. This bed has been interpreted 

as a basal lag deposit, a product of the erosional interval represented by the Three Forks-Exshaw unconformity (Macqueen and Sandberg, 1970). The 

upper siltstone is calcareous, grading in places to a 

silty limestone. Its contact with the underlying black 

shale is gradational. South of the Scapegoat-Bannatyne anticline, the basal black shale of the Exshaw 

is equated with a similar shale at the base of the 

Sappington Member of the Three Forks Formation, 

and the medial Exshaw siltstone is considered to be 

equivalent to limestone, siltstone, and shale (units 

2 through 5) of the Sappington Member (fig. 5). 

Conodonts collected from the Exshaw Formation 

north of the international boundary indicate a very 

late Devonian and early Mississippian age for the 

unit, the contact being somewhere within the blackshale unit (Macqueen and Sandberg, 1970). 

The Sappington Member of the Three Forks Formation occupies the western end of the incipient Big 

Snowy trough, sandwiched between the ScapegoatBannatyne anticline and the Wyoming shelf (figs. 

3, 4). lt attains a maximum thickness of approximately 30 m in the center of the "Sappington 

basin" ( Gutschick, McLane, and Rodriquez, 1976) 

and thins northward onto the Scapegoat-Bannatyne 

anticline and southward and eastward onto the Wyoming shelf. The Sappington Member was divided 

into five units by Sandberg (1962, 1965). These are: 

( 1) a basal black carbonaceous shale, similar to the 

basal shale of the Exshaw, with which i·t is equated: 

(2) an alga-sponge biostromal limestone; (3) a 

lower siltstone; ( 4) a middle olive-gray shale; and 

(5) an ·upper calcareous sHtstone, which is a cliff 

former and which is occasionally cross stratified and 

ripple marked. Analysis of conodont faunas and 

spore floras suggests that units 1 through 4 are all 

latest Devonian but ·that the upper part of unit 4. 

and all of unit 5 are earliest Mississippian (fig. 5). 

The Cottonwood Canyon Member of the Lodgepole Formation occupies that part of the Cordilleran 

platform called the Wyoming basin. The member is 

in a linear belt from west-central Wyoming to the 

flanks of the Big Snowy uplift in central Montana 

(fig. 4) . Along the axis of this bel:t, thicknesses are 

as great as 18 m, but the unit thins abruptly both 

east and west and is less than 3 m thick over half 

its extent (Sandberg and Klapper, 1967). In Montana, the Cottonwood Canyon Member unconformably overlies the Sappington and Trident Members of 

the Three Forks Formation and is overlain by and 

intertongues in its upper part with the Paine Member of Lodgepole Limestone. The Cottonwood Canyon Member is composed of two tongues (fig. 5), 

each of which is divisible into a western shale and 

siltstone facies and an eastern dolomitic facies 

(Sandberg and Klapper, 1967). The base of each 

tongue is characterized by a basal conglomeratic 

sandstone that contains phosphatic nodules, coprolites, conodonts, fish fossils, and glauconite grains. 

Sandberg and Klapper (1967) interpreted this rock 

as .a lag deposit, the product of erosion and reworking during marine transgression. This basal lag 

deposit is similar in character and origin to those 

of the Sappington, Exshaw, and possibly the Bakken 

black-shale beds. The lower tongue of the Cottonwood Canyon Member is restricted for the most part 

to the Wyoming basin, bears latest Devonian conodonts, and intertongues with the basal beds of the 

Madison Formation. The upper tongue is more extensive than its lower counterpart, interfingers with 

the Madison Li1mestone, and is entirely of Mississippian age (fig. 5), according to Sandberg and 

Klapper's (1967) analysis of conodonts. 

The Englewood Formation unconformably underlies the Madison-equivalent Pahasapa Limestone in 

the Black Hills and subsurface of southeastern 

Montana. Here, it accumulated in an embayment 

that extended from southeastern Wyoming to central North Dakota (Sandberg and Mapel, 1967). In 

Montana, the Englewood is 0 to 6 m thick and unconformably overlies the Devonian Three Forks and 

Jefferson Formations and the Ordovician Bighorn 

Dolomite (Baars, 1972). The Englewood is characterized by a basal shale that is overlain by silty 

dolomite, dolomitic limestone, and limestone containing beds of sandstone, shale, and siltstone. 

Conodont faunas from the Englewood were sampled 

and analyzed by Klapper and Furnish (1962), 

Sandberg (1963), and Klapper (1966) and determined to be of Late Devonian-Early Mississippian 

age. 

A complex depositional history was proposed for 

these uppermost Devonian and lowermost Mississippian rocks by Sandberg and Klapper (1967.), a history that features shallow marine basins isolated 
~ (/) WYOMING SOUTHERN MONTANA ALBERTA ROCKY MOUNTAINS SOUTHEASTERN ALBERTA 

1-

w w AMMONOID CONODONT (SUBSURFACE\ l a: WEST-CENTRAL NORTHERN (/) w ZONES ZONES >- (/) (Sandberg and Klapper, 1967) (Sandberg and Klapper, 1967) (Macqueen and Sandberg, 1970) (/) (Macqueen and Sandberg, 197?21 

Pericyc/us Madison Limestone Lodgepole Limestone Banff Formation Banff Formation 

c (cu Ila) Lower (lower part) (lower part) (lower part) (lower part) 

z co Siphonodella <( ·a. - ere nulato ....5 ?-

a: c. Basal Shale Upper black shale c.. ·u;_ Siphonodella ..S" Ci5 -~ t:: ? Ul co sandbergi · Cottonwood Canyon Member ,.... 

~1U1J J l Ullll!JliiiJIII (/) -~ c. r-r"" ... 

Ci5 ~- Siphonodella (upper tongue)r-- ,.... r-r"" 

V\ (/) > Gattendorfia duplicata r"",.... r"",.... c 

~ -.:::: (cuI) 

?~ .g co 

w Siphonodella c Coleville Sandstone co 

7 L- L- 0 E 

sulcata ~~ Upper · Qj ~ ·.o: 

co Member 0 

siltstone r E LL. 

Madison Limestone { 

.c 

Wocklumeria !}Medial shale E 0 c 

Q) 

(toN) Q) 

~ LL. 7 .:.1. 

r-.. (lower part) ~ ~ ~ .:.1. Lower black shale 3: co 1m ~-~ siltstone c c 

~ co co Lower 0 0 ) .c 

Spathognathodus - ;;;; Biostromal 0, ·.o: ' Ul 

co'l~~~od c~~Jo~ v 

co X 

c C/ymenia co status limestone c E w Lower black shale 

z co (to V) ·a. 0 '-

<( ·c: Upper Basal black c. 

z c..-... Po~gnathus I I Memberl I shale co LL. 

>t:: (/) Ul 

0 Q) co h yriaca r (lower tonl}ue) .:.1. J IJIJ IJ 11 11 l1JJJlllilW1U w > o.e 0 w Q) Scaphignathus LL. .... Platyc/ymenia c co IlL,........ 1.-o -- Q) 

...J (to III-N} uelifera Q) COstigan Member 

._.. 

bl""" Trident Member ..c ~ c Big Valley Formation c .... o ::Jc. 1- Q) ..... IlL,.. UlCO E;:, 

Cheiloceras Ill- Morro Member :E coo 

Logan Gulch Member Stettler Formation .C'- co .... co(!) (to II) v-1...1 a..o LL. ~ 

FIGURE 5.-Stratigraphic relationships of uppermost Devonian and lowermost Mississippian strata in northern Wyoming, southern Montana, and southern Alberta. (Modified from Sandberg and Klapper, 1967; Sandberg, 1965; Gutschick, Suttner, and Switek, 1962; and Macqueen and Sandberg, 1970). 

>< 

"'"""' ~ 

1-3 

::Il 

tz:.j 

~ 1-4 

rn 

rn 

1-4 

rn 

rn 

1-4 

'"0 

'"0 

> z 

> z 

t:l 

'"0 

tz:.j 

z 

z 

rn 

l<l 

t"" 

<! 

> z 

> z 

rn 

l<l 

rn 

1-3 

tz:.j 

~ 

rn 

1-4 

z 

1-3 

::Il 

tz:.j 

c: 

z 

1-4 

1-3 

tz:.j 

t:l 

rn 

1-3 

> 1-3 

tz:.j 

rn 
MONTANA X13 

by Antler orogeny-related cratonic uplifts and by 

minor transgressions and regressions. 

In the latest Devonian (Lower to V), a marine 

transgression took place that inundated the shallow 

marine basins of the Montana craton (fig. 4). This 

transgression is recorded by the basal sandstone and 

black shale of the Sappington, Exshaw, and Bakken. 

The sandstone in each of these units represents lag 

accumulations on the weathered and eroded surface 

of the Three Forks Formation. Fine-grained clastic 

debris was probably derived from weathering and 

erosion of low-lying, basin-separating uplifts (fig. 

4) and was deposited in shallow stagnant marine 

water. 

Accompanying this brief transgression were more 

intense movements of the uppermost Devonian and 

lowermost Mississippian arches and uplifts, most 

notably the central Montana uplift and the Cedar 

Creek anticline (fig. 4). Erosion of these and other 

positive elements provided coarser sediment to the 

regressing latest Devonian sea, resulting in the accumulation of the medial siltstone of the Bakken 

Formation, the upper siltstone of the Exshaw, and 

units 2 through 5 (Sandberg, 1965) (units E 

through H of Gutschick, Suttner, and Switek, 1962) 

of the Sappington Member of the Three Forks Formation. These sediments accumulated in a variety 

of intertidal and subtidal depositional environments 

in the Bakken, Exshaw, and Sappington basins. 

At the same time that the sea was regressing from 

the Montana basins and these coarser clastic rocks 

were accumulating there, the lower tongue of the 

Cottonwood Canyon Member of the Lodge·pole Limestone was deposited in a shallow trangressive sea 

in the Cottonwood Canyon or Wyoming basin in 

western Wyoming. Here, deposition of the basal 

black shale and sandstone of the lower tongue took 

place in an environment similar to that of the earlier Montana basins. This stagnant marine environment gave way in time and space to less restricted 

environments in which the lower part of the Madison Limestone was deposited during latest Devonian time (Upper V and to IV) . This initial transgression of the Madison sea was short lived, ending 

in a brief regression during earliest Mississ-ippian time (Lower cuI). At approximately this same 

time, the sea may have regressed from the Sappington basin, but shallow seas continued to occupy the 

Exshaw and Bakken basins, and black shale and 

siltstone continued to accumulate there. However, 

prior to the invasion of the craton by the second 

and major advance of the Madison sea, these shallow seas regressed from all the Montana basins, 

with the exception of the western part of the Sappington basin (Sandberg and Klapper, 1967), producing the interregional unconformity shown in 

figure 5. 

The second advance of the Madison sea was not 

restricted to isolated basins and embayments as was 

the first transgression, but was an eastward transgression along the entire length of the Cordilleran 

miogeosyncline (Sandberg and Klapper, 1967). During this relatively rapid transgression, the basal lag 

sandstone and black shale of the upper tongue of the 

Cottonwood Canyon Member accumulated in shallow 

stagnant environments, as did the contemporaneous 

upper black shale of the Bakken Formation (fig. 5). 

As transgression continued, these stagnant conditions gave way to the more agitated and oxygenated 

environments in which the shale and siltstone facies 

and dolomite facies of the upper tongue of the Cottonwood Canyon Member were deposited in intertidal and shallow subtidal environments. As the 

transgressing Madison sea rapidly engulfed and effectively mantled sources of detrital sediment, the 

bioclastic facies at the base of the Paine Member of 

the Lodgepole Limestone was deposited in a series 

of shoals. This coarse-grained, glauconitic, bioclastic 

limestone spread rapidly eastward across the stable 

and unstable shelves of Montana in response to the 

rapid expansion of the shallow detritus-free Madison sea. 

MADISON GROUP 

Excellent syntheses of sedimentation, stratigraphy, paleontology, and depositional history of the 

Madison Group in Montana and adjacent areas have 

been published by Craig (1972), Sando (1976), Rose 

(1976), and Gutschick, McLane, and Rodriguez 

(1976), and comprehensive lists of references are 

found in these papers. 

The Madison Limestone covers all of Montana except for the centers of Tertiary uplifts and the 

northwestern part of the State, where it was removed by Tertiary erosion. It is a blanket of limestone and dolomite that reaches maximum thicknesses of 550 to 660 m in the Big Snowy trough and 

Williston basin, respectively, 600 m in the miogeosyncline of extreme southwestern Montana, and that 

ranges in thickness from 200 to 450 m on the Wyoming and Alberta shelves (fig. 6). The northward 

thinning is due to pre-Jurassic erosion; the southward thinning is primarily depositional, although 

original thicknesses may have been modified here 

by the formation of a late Mississippian karst across 

much of the area (Henbest, 1958; Roberts, 1966; 

Sando, 1974). 
X14 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

0 50 100 MILES 

1111 Ill\ I I 

I 

0 50 100 Kl LOM ETERS 

FIGURE 6.-Total thickness of Mississippian rocks in Montana. Light-shaded area indicates extent of Big Snowy Group. 

Isopach values are given in meters, and isopachs are modified from those of Sando (1976) and .McMannis (1965). 

In Montana, the Madison Group is composed of 

the Lodgepole, Mission Canyon, and Charles Formations. The Lodgepole is divided into the Cottonwood Canyon, Paine, and W oodhurst Members. 

These rocks are products of the first major transgression of the Madison sea onto the North American craton in Montana. The Lodgepole records (1) 

the initial rapid inundation of the Montana stable 

and unstable shelves, beginning with the accumulation of shallow-water sediments of the Cottonwood 

Canyon Member; (2) accumulation of deeper water 

deposits in the Big Snowy trough and expansion of 

the Madison sea on the Cordilleran platform as 

transgression continued; and (3) progradation of 

shallow-water carbonate sediment from the stable 

shelves across the Big Snowy trough, bringing to a 

close the deeper water phase of Lodgepole deposition. The Mission Canyon and Charles Formations 

accumulated as the Madison sea began to retreat 

prior to the late Mississippian emergenc~ of the 

craton. 

The biostratigraphic studies of conodonts, foraminifers, and corals and brachiopods summarized by 

Sando, Mamet, and Dutro (1969) indicate that the 

Lodgepole is Kinderhookian and early Osagean and 

that the Mission Canyon and Charles are late 

Osagean and early Meramecian. 

LODGEPOLE LIMESTONE 

The Lodgepole Limestone is a slightly lenticular 

deposit 240 m thick in the Big Snowy trough and 

Williston basin; it thins northward to 170 m in the 

Little Rocky Mountains on the Alberta shelf and 

southward to 130 to 150 m in the Beartooth Mountains on the Wyoming shelf. In the miogeosyncline 

of extreme southwestern Montana, the Lodgepole is 

more than 300 m thick. Lodgepole strata unconformably overlie Upper Devonian rocks throughout 

most of Montana, except along the central Montana 

uplift and the Cedar Creek anticline, where they 

overlie rocks as old as Cambrian and Ordovician 

(fig. 4). 

Throughout most of Montana, the Lodgepole 

Limestone is divided into two members, the Paine 

and the Woodhurst. However, in southwestern Montana, a third member is present where the upper 
MONTANA X15 

tongue of the Cottonwood Canyon Member intertongues with and is overlain by the widespread bioclastic and glauconitic limestone at the base of the 

Paine Member. A similar stratigraphic configuration exists in north-central and northeastern Montana, where the upper black shale of the Bakken 

Formation unconformably overlies the medial Bakken siltstone but conformably underlies the Lodgepole Limestone (fig. 5). In northwestern Montana, 

temporal and lithologically equivalent strata are 

called the Allan Mountain Limestone, which is 

divided into three unnamed members (fig. 2). 

The Paine Member of the Lodgepole Limestone is 

most extensive and thickest in the Big Snowy trough 

in central Montana, where it is 75 to 90 m thick. 

From this slight thickening along the axis of the 

trough, the Paine Member thins north and south 

onto the Alberta and Wyoming shelves. On the 

Wyoming shelf, the Paine Member thins to 45 m before it becomes indistinguishable by intertonguing 

with the lower dolomite member of the Madison 

Formation (Sando, 1972). 

At the base of the Paine Member, Upper Devonian strata or the siltstone of the Cottonwood Canyon Member are overlain by a widespread but discontinuous sheet of light-gray bioclastic and 

glauconitic limestone 0 to 17 m thick. Rocks of this 

unit are both micritic and sparry and are composed 

of coarse fragments of crinoids, brachiopods, bryozoans, and corals. This basal unit is abruptly overlain by 30 to 70 m of uniformly thin-bedded dark 

argillaceous lime mudstone and calcareous shale. 

Alternation of these rocks produced the distinctive 

rhythmic outcrop pattern of the Paine Member. 

These dark lime mudstone beds are characterized by 

a sparse fauna of crinoids, corals, bryozoans, brachiopods, and spicules of unknown origin, in addition to the trace fossils Cosmoraphe and Scalarituba 

(Gutschick, McLane, and Rodriguez, 1976). Large 

"interformational truncation surfaces" and smaller 

scale soft-sediment deformation features are also 

found in this dark lime mudstone (Wilson, 1969; 

Smith, 1977). 

The dark lime mudstone of the Paine Member enclosed lime mud bioherms in the Bridger Range and 

the Big Snowy Mountains, as well as in several 

other localities in central Montana and along the 

Cedar Creek anticline. These are "W aulsortian" 

bioherms, comparable with those of similar age in 

North America and Europe (Cotter, 1965, 1966; 

Stone, 1972). The cores of these bioherms are characterized by alternating bioclast-rich and bioclastpoor layers, inclined at as much as 35° to the enclosing dark lime mudstone bedding and traceable 

vertically for as much as 50 m. Fossil components 

of these layers are more diverse than those of the 

enclosing dark lime mudstone and include crinoids, 

fenestrate bryozoans, brachiopods, coelenterates, 

and mollusks (Merriam, 1958). Between bioherm 

cores is a flank facies, composed of large crinoid 

fragments in a lime-mud matrix. 

The upper few meters of the Paine Member is 

gradational from dark lime mudstone to thicker 

bedded, lighter colored, pellet and bioclastic Hmestone beds. The top of the member is placed " ... at 

the base of the lowest crinoidal limestone bed, which 

marks the beginning of cyclical alternation of crinoidallimestone (commonly oolitic) and shaly, predominantly fine grained limestone characteristic of 

the Woodhurst Member" (Sando and Dutro, 1974, 

p. 4). 

The Woodhurst Member of the Lodgepole Limestone is easily distinguished from the underlying 

Paine Member by its distinctive outcrops of medium 

to thick resistant beds that are cyclically interspersed with recessive units of thinner beds. This 

member is more widespread than the Paine Member 

and occurs not only in central Montana but also on 

the Cordilleran platform in southern and northern 

Montana. The W oodhurst Member is nearly 180 m 

thick in the Big Snowy trough in central Montana, 

thinning to less than 90 m to the north and south 

on the Alberta and Wyoming shelves. 

Woodhurst lithologies are arranged in cyclic 

packages, each package consisting of a thin-bedded, 

fine-grained, nonresistant lower part that is capped 

by more thickly bedded, coarser grained bioclastic 

and oolitic limestone beds that form distinctive resistant ledges. Definition of these cycles has varied, 

from the 28 described by Laudon and Severson 

(1953) in the Bridger Range to the 5 to 8 described 

by Wilson (1969) and Smith (1972) from central 

Montana. A typical Woodhurst cycle begins with a 

mixed oolite and bioclastic lime grainstone interval 

that commonly overlies an undulating surface on 

top of the capping bed of the previous cycle. Overlying this initial unit are thin beds of pellet and 

bioclastic grainstone and packstone beds. Bioclastic 

components in these beds inClude crinoid fragments, 

dasyclad algae, fragments of bryozoans, and endothyrid foraminifers. These beds grade upward into 

more bioclast-rich, cross-stratified lime grainstone 

beds which are capped by resistant thick-bedded 

oolitic and bioclastic grainstone beds that complete 

the cycle. This capping bed is composed of ~rinoidcored oolites and abundant crinoid debris and is 
X16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

characterized by trough cross-stratification and 

ripple-drift cross-lamination (Jenks, 1972). 

hookian Siphonodella sandbergi-S. duplicata Zone 

and is included in the Cordilleran megafauna! pre-A 

Zone and global foraminiferal pre-7 Zone. The Paine 

Member is also included in the pre-7 Zone but is 

characterized by Kinderhookian Zone A corals and 

brachiopods and by conodonts of the Siphonodella 

crenulata Zone (Sandberg and Klapper, 1967). The 

Woodhurst Member includes the latest Kinderhookian-early Osagean megafaunal C1 Zone and 

foraminiferal zone 7 and the lower part of zone 8 

(fig. 7). 

The contact of the W oodhurst Member is conformable with the overlying Mission Canyon Formation and is generally placed at the base of the first 

massive cliff-forming limestone bed above the base 

of the Madison Group. According to Sando and 

Dutro (1974, p. 4), " ... the top of the Woodhurst 

is placed at the top of the highest shaly, thin-bedded, 

predominantly fine grained limestone beneath the 

thicker crinoidal beds of the Mission Canyon." 

According to Sando, Mamet, and Dutro (1969), 

the Lodgepole Limestone includes two foraminiferal 

zones and part of a third, four coral-brachiopod 

megafauna} zones (fig. 7), and, at its base, three 

conodont zones (fig. 5). The Cottonwood Canyon 

Member contains conodonts of the early KinderThe depositional history of all or part of the 

Lodgepole Formation has been reviewed by Sando 

(1976); Gutschick, McLane, and Rodriguez (1976); 

Rose (1976) ; Rodriguez and Gutschick (1970) ; 

Sandberg and Klapper (1967) ; and Smith (1972, 

1977). 

J:<t 

~--~ a:: a: ow 

z~ <t 

~ en w w I- a: en w >- en en 

-

z 

<( r:: a: co fl.. '(3 

U5 Q) 

en E 

U5 ~ en Q) 

~ ~ 

r:: 

co 

Q) 

C) 

co 

II) 

0 

I--

or: "-co Q),_ 

"ColO: r::O 

·- 0 :::.:::.r:: 

w 

a.. 

0 

a: 

:::) 

w 

~ 

w 

Ien 

>- en 

<( 

•en l!Jen Ow ww a::z ~z SOUTHWESTERN MONTANA CENTRAL AND EASTERN WESTERN NORTH DAKOTA NORTHWESTERN MONTANA 

~0 zO ~N <tN 

MONTANA 

I- ....I w<t 0::....1 

w-et (Sando, Mamet, and Dutro, 1969; (Sandberg and Mapel, 1967; (Sandberg and Mapel, 1967; (Mudge, Sando, 

en ~z ....lz w ~:::) Sando, 1972) Sando, Gordon, and Dutro, 1975) Sando, 1978) and Dutro, i962; Mudge, 1972) 

a: 

w 

en 

<t;:) O-ct ~~ a::u. 

0 

u 

16s 

16 

11 

I-- D 

10 

9 

~- Jl l 

Big Snowy Formation 

c. 

Mission Canyon Limestone 

c. 

M;~ Limestone c. :I :I :I e o o 1-- c2 l!) t5 t5 c c c 

Charles Formation 

Mission Canyon 

Limestone 

lij 8 I-- Ul 0 .._ ________ -I :6 0 .....__ _______ ~ :6 0 .....__ _______ ~ 

'iii ~ ~ Woodhurst Limestone <a <a 'iO c,· ~ ~ ~ E 7 Ql Ql Member 

::I 1---+----1 g_ $ .._ ______ -I 

~ B ~gj r-. 7 '8.§ £ ~' ....1 ....1 1---------1 : <t Cottonwood Canyon ..... Member (upper part) 

Paine Shale Member 

Lodgepole Limestone 

Bakken Formation 

·(upper part) 

Lodgepole Limestone 

Bakken Formation 

(upper part) 

c. 

:I 

0 

(5 

c 

0 

Ul 

Castle Reef Dolomite 

~ .....__ _______ ~ 

~ 

Allan Mountain 

Limestone 

II II I 

FIGURE 7.-Nomenclature, faunal zones, and temporal relationships of Mississippian rock units in Montana and adjacent 

areas. Vertical lines indicate hiatus. (Modified from Sando, 1976). 
MONTANA X17 

Lodgepole strata record the initial incursion of the 

Madison sea from the Cordilleran miogeosyncline 

onto the craton in Montana. This transgression began in latest Devonian time and resulted in the accumulation of the Cottonwood Canyon Member in 

southwestern Montana and the upper black shale of 

the Bakken Formation in the northeastern corner of 

the State. These rocks were deposited over an irregular erosion surface in shallow basins between 

latest Devonian-earliest Mississippian tectonic elements. Rocks of the Cottonwood Canyon Member 

occur in two facies tracts-an eastern dolomitic 

shale and siltstone facies deposited in shallow-water 

marine environments at the rapidly advancing margin of the Madison sea, and a western siltstone and 

shale facies that accumulated in slightly deeper 

offshore marine environments (Sandberg and Klapper, 1967; Rodriguez and Gutschick, 1970). Clastic 

sediments for these facies were probably provided 

by low-lying uplifts adjacent to this shallow basin. 

Continued rapid transgression in the late Kinderhookian resulted in the deposition in shallow agitated water of the widespread bioclastic and 

glauconitic limestone at the base of the Paine Member as low-lying terrigenous sediment sources were 

progressively inundated and effectively mantled. 

Sedimentation apparently kept pace with the combined effects of downwarping of the incipient Big 

Snowy trough and rising sea level. 

As rapid transgression of the late Kinderhookian 

Madison sea continued to its latest Kinderhookian 

maximum, downwarping of the Big Snowy trough 

and (or) rise of sea level exceeded rates of carbonate and terrigenous sediment influx, resulting in 

deeper water environments there. Along the slope of 

this trough, lime-mud bioherms were raised by the 

combined activities of crinoids and bryozoans from 

the shallow sea floor into shallower water. 

At this same time, shallow-water carbonate sediments were deposited on the Wyoming shelf (Sando, 

1972). However, between the Big Snowy trough and 

the Wyoming shelf, there was no abrupt break-inslope and attendant marginal carbonate buildups. 

During the early Osagean, regression of the Madison sea began and subsidence of the Big Snowy 

trough diminished. In the trough, deeper water conditions that prevailed during deposition of the Paine 

Member gave way to shallower depositional environments, resulting in the cessation of bioherm growth 

and an increase in the bioclastic content of the limestones that overlie the dark rhythmic lime mudstone 

beds. On the Wyoming shelf, and probably on the 

Alberta shelf, carbonate production and accumulation exceeded subsidence, resulting in northward 

and southward progradation of oolitic and bioclastic 

shoals of the W oodhurst Member across the Big 

Snowy trough. 

Widespread intertidal and subtidal environments 

prevailed throughout Montana during the first half 

of Osage time, and bioclastic and oolitic shoal and 

finer grained intershoal carbonate sediments accumulated. Alternate high- and low-energy shallowwater lithotopes migrated across the State in response to minor transgressions and regressions 

(Sando, 1976) or to some combination of eustatic 

change, varying rates of carbonate production, and 

differential subsidence (Smith, 1977). The migration of these shoal and intershoal lithotopes produced the cycles that characterize the Woodhurst 

Member. 

MISSION CANYON LIMESTONE 

The Mission Canyon Limestone is a prominent 

cliff- and ridge-forming limestone above the less 

resistant Lodgepole Limestone and below the recessive Big Snowy and Amsden Groups. The formation 

is present throughout the State, except where it has 

been removed by Tertiary erosion. However, the 

original thickness and lithologic distribution is 

masked by Triassic and Early Jurassic erosional 

thinning in the northern part of Montana. 

The Mission Canyon Limestone conformably overlies the Lodgepole Limestone and is, in turn, overlain by various upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata. 

In the Big Snowy trough, the Mission Canyon is unconformably overlain by the Big Snowy Group. However, to the north, it is unconformably overlain by 

the Jurassic Sawtooth and Nesson Formations. 

South of the Big Snowy trough, the Mission Canyon 

is unconformably overlain by the Pennsylvanian 

Amsden Formation, the contact marked by a regional karst surface (Roberts, 1966; Sando, 1974). 

The Mission Canyon Limestone is thickest in the 

Big Snowy trough and Williston basin (300 m), 

thinning northward because of Triassic and early 

Jurassic erosion and southward because of deposition. This lenticular geometry reflects the relative 

negative and positive aspects of these paleotectonic 

elements both during and after deposition of the 

Mission Canyon Limestone. 

The Mission Canyon Limestone is characterized 

by less detrital sediment than is the underlying 

Lodgepole; it is composed of massive beds of limestone and dolomite, the percentage of dolomite in the 

formation generally increasing southward onto the 

Wyoming shelf (Andrichuk, 1955). Interbedded 
X18 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

with these carbonate rocks in the upper part of the 

formation are beds of gypsum or anhydrite in the 

subsurface that are manifest in surface sections as 

solution breccia zones (Roberts, 1966). Evaporite 

beds are more abundant in the Big Snowy trough 

and Williston basin than they are on the northern 

and southern shelves (Craig, 1972). 

On the shelf in southern Montana, Sando (1972) 

delineated three members of the Mission Canyon: 

the lower limestone member, the cliffy limestone 

member, and the Bull Ridge Member, in ascending 

order. The lower limestone member ranges from 85 

to 100 m in thickness and is the time-stratigraphic 

equivalent of the cherty dolomite member of Wyoming (Sando, 1972). The base of this member consists 

to 15 to 30 m of cross-stratified, oolitic, and crinoidal limestone. This basal unit is overlain by interbedded limestone and dolomite, and the top of the 

member is placed at the base of a widespread evaporite solution breccia. The cliffy limestone member 

includes this 7.5 to 15-m-thick breccia at its base. 

This breccia bed appears in most sections of southwestern Montana and is the "lower solution zone" of 

Sando (1972). Above this breccia, the cliffy limestone member consists of 55 to 70 m of cliff-forming 

oolitic and bioclastic limestone and dolomitized limestone. The Bull Ridge Member is 3 to 36 m thick, 

and its base is characterized by an evaporite solution breccia or brecciated dolomitic siltstone and 

shale interval 3 to 7.5 m thick, the "upper solution 

zone" of Sando (1972). Above this breccia, the 

member consists of cherty bioclastic limestone. 

Brecciation in the Bull Ridge Member is common; 

red sand, clay, and silt from Pennsylvanian erosion 

and deposition fill cavities and sinkholes (Sando, 

1972). 

Although these three members have not been extended out of the Beartooth Mountains area, the 

lower breccia zone has been extended to the type 

section at Logan, as well as to the Monarch section 

in the Big Snowy Mountains (Sando and Dutro, 

1974). The upper breccia zone has been correlated 

only through the Beartooth Mountains. Because it 

is roughly coincident with the Osagean-Meramecian 

boundary, it is a good correlation horizon (Sando, 

1972). However, in both the Logan and Monarch 

sections, this breccia may be absent because of nondeposition and is absent in the type section of the 

Mission Canyon because of pre-Jurassic erosion. 

In its type area in the Little Rocky Mountains, 

the Mission Canyon section was abbreviated by preJurassic erosion, and the 90 m of section there is 

considered to be the time-equivalent of the lower 

two-thirds of the lower limestone member in the 

Beartooth Mountains (Sando and Dutro, 1974, pl. 

1). In the Little Rockies, the Mission Canyon consists of medium- to coarse-grained crinoidal limestone in beds reaching a maximum thickness of 

1.5 m. These coarse-grained beds are interbedded 

with finer grained limestone. Both limestone types 

contain lentils and nodules of chert that may constitute as much as 20 percent of the section. 

In northwestern Montana, Mudge, Sando, and 

Dutro (1962) and Mudge (1972) used the term 

Castle Reef Dolomite for time-stratigraphic equivalents of the Mission Canyon Limestone. This unit 

was divided into a lower member and the Sun River 

Member. The lower member is 116 to 156m of thickbedded, fine to coarsely crystalline dolomite and 

limestone. Many of the coarsely crystalline limestone beds are crinoidal and are cross stratified. The 

Sun River Member ranges from 76 to 100m in thickness and correlates with the upper part of the Mission Canyon in the Three Forks area (Mudge, 1972). 

It contains thin to thick beds of very fine to medium 

crystalline dolomite interbedded with thick lenses of 

dolomitized crinoidal limestone. The upper part of 

the Sun River Dolomite contains sandstone lenses 

that are interpreted as Jurassic cave fillings, but the 

karst surface that is so extensive over the southern 

part of the State is absent here (Mudge, 1972). 

The Charles Formation has been the subject of 

controversy since Seager ( 1942, p. 863) applied the 

name to a "series of interbedded limestones, dolomite, anhydrite, and some shales" in a well in central Montana (fig. 1). Sloss (1952, p. 67) described 

the Charles of the Williston basin as "three major 

evaporite cycles which include normal fossiliferous 

limestones, sugary dolomites, dense dolomites, and 

anhydrite in upward succession." The base of the 

Charles is usually picked at the base of the lowest 

evaporite; the top is the unconformable contact with 

the Kibbey Formation of the Big Snowy Group. Attempts have been made to identify the Charles Formation in outcrops of central Montana but "it is 

defined on criteria that are difficult to use with precision in outcrop areas" (Sando and Dutro, 1974, p. 

2). Until definitive stratigraphic work has refined 

knowledge of the relationship between the Charles 

and the Mission Canyon, the Charles is probably 

best considered as the subsurface lithic and temporal 

equivalent of the upper part of the Mission Canyon 

Formation (Sloss, 1952), and the use of the term 

should be restricted to the subsurface of the Williston basin (Sando and Dutro, 1974). 
MONTANA X19 

The Mission Canyon Limestone and its equivalents include three and part of two more foraminiferal zones and two coral-brachiopod megafauna! 

zones (fig. 7). Both biostratigraphic schemes give 

the formation a middle Osagean to early Meramecian age (Sando, Mamet, and Dutro, 1969). 

The depositional history of the Mission Canyon 

Limestone and its equivalents was summarized by 

Andrichuk (1955) and recently by Rose (1976) and 

Sando (1976). These summaries suggested that Mission Canyon carbonate and evaporite strata record 

the regression of the Madison sea from the craton 

in Montana. As shallowing and exposure progressed, 

the shelves became the sites of sabkhas and salt pans 

in which evaporites were deposited; dolomitizaton 

of intertidal and subtidal limestone took place at 

the same time. Progressive shallowing of the Madison sea also restricted circulation, which led to the 

accumulation of thick evaporite beds in the Big 

Snowy trough and Williston basin. Periodic freshening of the sea by normal marine water, related to 

transgressive pulses of the major regression or to 

differential sedimentation and epeirogenic warping, 

probably accounted for the carbonate-evaporite 

cycles that characterize both basins and shelves. 

After its early Meramecian restricted phase, the 

Madison sea withdrew from most of the craton in 

Montana, exposing the upper part of the Mission 

Canyon and its equivalents to subaer!al weathering 

and subsequent karst formation prior to the later 

Meramecian and earliest Chesterian transgression 

of the Big Snowy sea. 

BIG SNOWY GROUP 

The lithology, stratigraphy, and paleontology of 

the Big Snowy Group have been described by Scott 

(1935), Walton (1946), Mundt (1956a, b), Willis 

(1959), Easton (1962), Maughan and Roberts 

(1967), Harris (1972), Craig (1972), Jensen and 

Carlson ( 1972), and Sando, Gordon, and Dutro 

(1975). The least known but probably the most detailed of these studies is that of Harris (1972), who 

measured 58 Big Snowy sections in central Montana 

and who also used existing subsurface data in his 

synthesis. Much of the following is from Harris' unpublished work. 

The Big Snowy Group is restricted to the Big 

Snowy trough in central Montana, the Williston 

basin in eastern Montana, and an extension of the 

Big Snowy trough in southwestern Montana (fig. 

6). In central Montana, the Big Snowy trough was 

bordered on the north by the "Milk River uplift" 

of Maughan and Roberts (1967) and on the south 

by the southern Montana arch (Sando, 1976). The 

group is thickest (360 m) along the axis of the Big 

Snowy trough; it thins abruptly north and south 

away from the trough axis. To the north, this thinning is due, in part, to pre-Jurassic erosion (Maughan and Roberts, 1967). South of the trough, the 

thinning is due to a combination of depositional 

thinning and latest Chesterian erosion (Sando, 

Gordon, and Dutro, 1975; Sando, 1976). 

In the Big Snowy trough of central Montana and 

the Williston basin, the Big Snowy Group consists 

of three formations-the Kibbey Sandstone and the 

Otter and Heath Formations, in ascending order 

(fig. 7). However, in southwestern Montana, where 

these members have not been formally delineated, 

the Big Snowy has formational rank. Rocks of the 

Big Snowy Group are interpreted as products of the 

second major Mississippian transgression in Montana. The Kibbey is the basal transgressive unit, 

deposited at the eastward-advancing margin of the 

Big Snowy sea ; the Otter consists of shale and limestone, deposited just offshore from the Kibbey; and 

the Heath is an accumulation of dark limestone and 

shale along the axis of the Big Snowy trough 

(Sando, Gordon, and Dutro, 1975). These formations are a classic diachronous transgressive sequence (fig. 7), older in southwestern Montana 

(latest Meramecian), progressively younger eastward in the Big Snowy trough of central Montana 

(earliest Chesterian), and youngest in the Williston 

basin of eastern Montana (middle Chesterian) 

(Sando, 1976). 

KIBBEY SANDSTONE 

The contact of the Kibbey Sandstone with the 

underlying Madison Group is reported to be conformable in eastern Montana and in the center of 

the Big Snowy trough in central Montana (Maughan and Roberts, 1967; Harris, 1972), where it is 

said to intertongue with or conformably overlie the 

Charles Formation or its Madison Group equivalent. 

However, these same workers stated that the ·Big 

Snowy Group rests unconformably on Madison 

strata in southwestern Montana, as well as in the 

southern part of the Big Snowy trough in central 

Montana. These interpretations suggest that during 

the regressive phase of the latest early Meramecian, 

the Madison sea regressed from the central and 

western parts of the Big Snowy trough; it remained 

as an isolated marine body in the more negative 

eastern parts of the trough and Willistqn basin, 

producing the Madison-Big Snowy unconformity in 

western and central Montana and the conformable 
X20 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

and intertonguing relationships between these 

groups in the eastern trough and Williston basin. 

Counter to this view is the concept that the Madison sea retreated from the Big Snowy trough and 

the Williston basin, as well as from the surrounding 

shelf areas during the latest early Meramecian 

(Sando, Gordon, and Dutro, 1975; Sando, 1976), 

producing a major disconformity between the Madison and Big Snowy Groups. In support of this concept, Sando (1978) identified megafauna} zone D 

corals 15 to 20 m below the top of the Charles Formation in the subsurface of the Williston basin. Additional faunal evidence bearing on this problem was 

provided by Scott (1945) and Easton (1962), who 

indicated that faunas from the Otter Formation are 

Chesterian. Inasmuch as the age of the intervening 

Kibbey Formation has not been definitely established by fossil evidence, at least three and possibly 

four megafauna! zones are absent at the MadisonBig Snowy contact. The absence of these fossil 

zones, the classic transgressive stratigraphic and 

sedimentologic sequence of the Big Snowy Group, 

the paleogeographic problem presented by an 

isolated marine body in a cratonic basin, and similar 

stratigraphic relationships of the Darwin Sandstone 

in Wyoming, all strongly suggest the presence of an 

interregional disconformity between the Madison 

and Big Snowy Groups. 

The Kibbey Formation is thickest along the northern edge of the Big Snowy trough (76 m), thinning 

abruptly to the north and south. In southwestern 

Montana, the Kibbey equivalent is 45 m thick. 

Where the formation is thickest and most extensive 

in central and ·eastern Montana, Harris ( 1972) 

delineated three informal members. The lower member is 0 to 30 m thick and consists of red shale containing beds and lenses of green shale, sandstone, 

and gypsum. The middle member is 1.5 to 12 m thick 

and occurs only in the middle and eastern parts of 

the Big Snowy trough. In the central Montana part 

of the trough, this member is composed of dolomite 

containing thick gypsum beds. However, in the eastern part of the trough, this dolomite grades into 

oolitic and fragmental limestone (Rawson, 1968). 

The upper member of the Kibbey consists of finegrained quartz sandstone and interbedded red and 

gray shale and lenses of dolomite. This member is 

46 m thick in the axis of the Big Snowy trough, 

where shale is the predominant rock type. At the 

southern margin of the trough, sandstone is 

dominant. 

The Kibbey Formation is interpreted as intertidal 

to subtidal deposits at the leading edge of the advancing Big Snowy sea. During deposition of the 

lower member, sand from the craton accumulated 

along high-energy shorelines at the same time as 

finer-grained detritus was deposited in intertidal and 

shallow subtidal environments. Thick beds of gypsum interbedded with these clastic rocks indicate 

that circulation of shallow marine water in the Big 

Snowy trough must have been spatially and temporally restricted, probably by a combination of the 

irregular topography of the eroded Madison surface, 

minor transgressive-regressive fluctuations of the 

Big Snowy sea, and gentle epeirogenic activity in the 

trough. Similar environmental controls and configurations prevailed during deposition of the middle 

member of the Kibbey, but the supply of coarse 

clastic debris from the craton had diminished and 

parts of the Big Snowy trough were less restricted, 

resulting in the accumulation of evaporite and dolomite in central and western Montana and oolitic and 

bioclastic limestone in the eastern Big Snowy trough 

and Williston basin. This facies pattern of rocks 

of hypersaline origin in the western . part of the 

trough and normal marine limestone in the eastern 

part of the trough and the Williston basin presents 

a paleogeographic problem concerning the source 

of the water for this marine embayment. Rawson 

( 1968) suggested that normal marine water fed into 

the Williston basin from a northwestern link with 

the Cordilleran miogeosyncline. An equally strong 

argument may be made for nonrestricted flow of 

normal marine water through the Big Snowy trough 

from the Cordilleran miogeosyncline on the west to 

the Williston basin on the east, peripheral shallow 

restricted embayments providing sites for evaporite 

accumulation at the margins of the trough. The upper member of the Kibbey records an influx of 

coarser clastic material from the Canadian shield 

(Ballard, 1964; Harris, 1972), sand that was deposited in high-energy intertidal shoreline environments near the margins of the Big Snowy trough. 

However, shale dominates this member in the central part of the trough, suggesting deeper quieter 

depositional conditions there. 

Throughout most of Montana, the Kibbey grades 

into the Otter through 3 to 6 m of intertongued 

typical Kibbey sandstone beds and light-gray shale 

typical of the Otter. However, in parts of southwestern Montana, the Kibbey and Otter are unconforma~ 

bly overlain by the Tyler Formation equivalent 

(Sando, Gordon, and Dutro, 1975). 

OTTER FORMATION 

The Otter Formation or its equivalents occur 

throughout the Big Snowy trough, the Williston 
MONTANA X21 

basin, and southwestern Montana (Sando, Gordon, 

and Dutro, 1975). Along the trough axis, the formation is 150 m thick, but it thins abruptly to a 

featheredge to the north and south. In central Montana, Harris (1972) divided the Otter into three 

informal and unnamed members. The lower member 

is 75 m thick along the trough axis and consists predominantly of gray and dark-gray shale and interbedded green and maroon shale, thin sandstone 

lenses and beds, dolomite, and thin beds of stromatolitic and oolitic limestone. Green shale and dolomite predominate along the southern margin of the 

trough, and dark-gray shale and limestone are dominant in the trough axis. The middle member of the 

Otter is 35 m thick in the Big Snowy trough and is 

predominantly oolitic, pelletal, bioclastic, stromatolitic, and micritic limestone containing minor beds 

of green to dark-gray shale, cherty dolomite, and 

gypsum. The darker rocks generally occupy the 

center of the trough; the green shale and dolomite 

are found at the southern trough margin. The upper 

member is 90 m of green shale containing lenses of 

variegated calcareous and siliceous shale and beds 

of chert-rich, stromatolitic, oolitic, and bioclastic 

}jmestone. These light-colored rocks dominate the 

upper member along the trough margins. The axial 

part of the trough is characterized by dark shale and 

interbedded limestone. 

The carbonate-rich Otter Formation records a 

change from the coarse clastic deposits of the Kibbey Formation to more normal marine, more 

agitated, but sand-free depositional conditions. The 

lower member was deposited in intertidal and shallow subtidal environments, where fine-grained 

clastic sediment, ooliths, calcareous skeletal debris, 

and lime mud were synchronously deposited under 

variable environmental conditions. Concentration of 

green shale and dolomite along the southern trough 

margin suggests oxidizing and, possibly, supratidal 

environments there, close to the source of terrigenous clastic sediment. The predominant gray shale 

and limestone of the lower member suggest deposition in agitated and calm subtidal environments toward the trough axis. In the center of the Big 

Snowy trough, deeper water environments favored 

accumulation of dark shale. 

The Otter-Heath contact is gradational through a 

15- to 30-m sequence of interbedded black Heath-like 

shale and limestone and typical green shale of the 

Otter Formation. However, in parts of southwestern 

Montana, the Otter is unconformably overlain by 

the Tyler equivalent, and in the northern part of the 

Big Snowy trough, by the Tyler Formation, the 

Quadrant Formation, or the Ellis Group. 

HEATH FORMATION 

Along the axis of the Big Snowy trough, the 

Heath is 120 m thick, thinning abruptly toward the 

northern and southern trough margins. In southwestern Montana, the Heath is 45 m thick; darkgray to black shale and limestone are dominant. The 

dark shale is fissile, petroliferous, and is the predominant Heath lithology in the middle of the Big 

Snowy trough. Heath limestone beds are massive, 

micritic, sparsely fossiliferous, and may have sparse 

chert nodules or beds and scattered quartz sand 

grains. Limestone is the dominant Heath lithology 

at the southern margin of the trough. 

Heath shale accumulated in calm, oxygen-poor 

environments in the center of the Big Snowy trough. 

Depositional environments at the margins of the 

trough, however, were shallower, more agitated, and 

were conducive to the accumulation of lime mud and 

well-washed bioclastic debris, both containing admixtures of quartz sand from a cratonic source 

(Harris, 1972). 

Relief of as much as 45 m on the unconformity 

between the Tyler and the Heath indicates that extensive erosion took place in the Big Snowy trough 

after deposition of the Heath. At the southern 

trough margin, as well as in southwestern Montana, 

the Tyler or its equivalent unconformably overlies 

Kibbey, Otter, and Heath equivalents (Sando, Gordon, and Dutro, 1975). At the northern margin of 

the Big Snowy trough, rocks of the Jurassic Ellis 

Group unconformably overlie and truncate all three 

formations of the Big Snowy Group (fig. 9). 

AMSDEN GROUP 

The Amsden Group as de,fined by Maughan and 

Roberts (1967) consists of three formations-the 

Tyler Formation, Alaska Bench Limestone, and 

Devils Pocket Formation (fig. 2). This terminology 

is used for central and eastern Montana. Maughan 

and Roberts (1967) arbitrarily used Amsden Group 

terminology eastward to the Montana-North Dakota 

border, at which point they used Minnelusa Formation. In southwestern Montana, strata approximately equivalent to the Amsden· Group were referred to as the Amsden Formation (Maughan and 

Roberts, 1967). 

The Amsden Group ranges from a featheredge to 

more than 270 m in thickness in central Montana 

(Mallory, 1972). More commonly, the group is about 

150 m thick through the center of the Big Snowy 
X22 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

0 

I I I I I I I I I 

0 50 

50 

I 

I 

100 MILES 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 8.-Map of total thickness of the Pennsylvanian System (adapted from McKee and Crosby, 1975, pl. 11). Thicknesses include Stonehouse Canyon Member of the Tyler Formation, part of which may belong in the Mississippian 

System. Isopach thicknesses in meters. 

trough. The group extends from southwestern Montana northeastward through the Big Snowy trough 

to the Montana-North Dakota border (fig. 8). 

Northward, pre-Jurassic erosion has truncated the 

group (Maughan and Roberts, 1967) ; southward, 

the group thins over the southern Montana arch, 

where it grades into the Ranchester Limestone Member of the Amsden Formation (Sando, Gordon, and 

Dutro, 1975). Lithologies present are sandstone, 

siltstone, shale, limestone, dolomite, sandy dolomite, 

and a few dolomite beds with chert nodules. 

The Amsden Group grades upward from darkgray shale and sandstone to red beds to interbedded 

limestone, shale, and dolomite to sandy dolomite and 

sandstone. This vertical relationship is similar to 

that described by Sando, Gordon, and Dutro (1975, 

p. A3-A7) for the Amsden Formation in Wyoming. 

Lateral gradations of rocks between and within formations have been reported by several workers 

(Gardner, 1959; Maughan and Roberts, 1967; Gilmour, 1969; S~ando, Gordon, and Dutro 1975). 

Sando, Gordon, and Dutro (1975, p. A64) postulated 

an east-west facies relationship across Montana of 

a nearshore sand belt, an intermediate offshore 

lagoonal facies, and a central dolomitic carbonateshale facies. 

TYLER FORMATION 

The lowest unit of the Amsden Group is the Tyler 

Formation, named by Freeman (1922) for exposures in the Big Snowy Mountains (fig. 1). The 

Tyler Formation was redefined by Maughan and 

Roberts (1967) as consisting of two members: a 

lower member called the Stonehouse Canyon Member and an upper member called the Cameron Creek 

Member. The two members were established ''largely 

on color and partly on lithology" (Maughan and 

Roberts, 1967, p. B12). 

In Easton's (1962) section at Stonehouse Canyon, 

designated as a reference section and reinterpreted 

by Maughan and Roberts (1967, p. B12), the Stonehouse Canyon Member consists of 31 m of covered 
MONTANA X23 

black fissile shale and poorly exposed dark-greenishgray to very dark brownish-gray ·shale. At the type 

section given by the authors, the member is 76 m 

thick and consists of buff to brown sandstone 

(21 m), black and dark-gray fissile shale (53 m), 

and light-gray to buff limestone (2 m). Both these 

sections were included in the Heath Formation by 

Easton (1962). 

The Cameron Creek Formation was originally 

named by Gardner (1959) and was reduced in rank 

to member status by Willis (1959) and again by 

Maughan and Roberts (1967) (fig. 2). This unit 

comprises the varicolored shale, gray and brownish 

sandstone, and thin gray limestone above the sandstone and dark shale of the Stonehouse Canyon 

Member and below the Alaska Bench Limestone. 

The two members are lithologically similar, as 

pointed out by Maughan and Roberts (1967, p. 

B12): "The boundary between Stonehouse Canyon 

and Cameron Creek is difficult or impossible to pick 

consistently at the same stratigraphic position from 

place to place owing to the gradation and intertonguing of one into the other." At the west end of 

Alaska Bench (locally called "Beacon Hill") , the 

Cameron Creek Member is 25 m thick (Easton, 

1962, p. 117) and at the Stonehouse Canyon section, 

it is 67 m thick (Easton, 1962, p. 123). 

The extent of the Tyler Formation approximates 

the same area defined as the Big Snowy trough. It 

generally thins eastward towards the Cedar Creek 

anticline in eastern Montana but thickens again · 

eastward into the Williston basin area after crossing 

the anticline. The formation also thins southward 

across the southern Montana arch toward Wyoming. 

Westward, the Tyler Formation or its equivalent 

extends into the Cordilleran miogeosyncline. Total 

thickness for the Tyler Formation ranges from a 

featheredge to more than 242m near the Little Belt 

Mountains in central Montana. Generally, the formation is 30 to 90 m thick. 

Vertically, the formation changes from domi~ 

nantly sandstone and black shale at the base to sandstone and red beds in the middle to interbedded limestone and red shale at the top in central Montana. 

The percentage of ~andstone in the lower part 

(Stonehouse Canyon Member) increases westward 

toward southwestern Montana; the percentage of 

limestone 'in the upper part ·(Cameron Creek Member) increases eastward toward the Williston basin 

(Mailory, 1972, p. 112). 

Most of the fossils found in the Tyler Formation 

indicate an Early Pennsylvanian (Morrowan) age. 

Several detailed reports on the fauna and flora of 

the Tyler Formation have been published by Easton 

(1962), Maughan and Roberts (1967), Gordon 

(1975), and Sando, Gordon, and Dutro (1975). 

Easton (1962) interpreted the fauna in the Tyler 

Formation (Cameron Creek Formation of Easton) 

as Late Mississippian (Chesterian). Sando, Gordon, 

and Dutro (1975) listed three brachiopods from the 

Tyler Formation that are exclusively Mississippian 

in Wyoming and two species that are Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian in Wyoming. Exclusively Mississippian are Pugnoides quinqueplecis Easton, Anthracospirifer curvilateralis curvilateralis (Easton), 

and A. cf. A. occiduus (Sadlick) form A. Schizophoria depressa Easton and Eolissochonetes pseudoliratus (Easton) are found in both Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian rocks. Sando, Gordon, and 

Dutro (1975) also listed six species of brachiopods 

in the Tyler Formation that are exclusively Pennsylvanian. These include Orthotetes sp. A. Gordon, 

Echinoconchus sp. A. Gordon, Antiquatonia cf. A. 

coloradoenis ( Girty), Linoproductus eastoni Gordon, Composita ovata Mather, and Anthracospirifer 

occiduus (Sadlick). Petrocrania chesterenis (Miller 

and Gurley) was collected near the top of the Stonehouse Canyon Member and is regarded as Chesterian, according to Gordon (Maughan and Roberts, 

1967, p. B20). This brachiopod occurs with Eolissochonetes pseudoliratus (Easton), considered by 

Sando, Gordon, and Dutro (1975) as Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian. This type of information tends 

to support the contention of Easton (1962, p. 

25) ". . . that the fauna of the Big Snowy group 

[Easton included the Cameron Creek Formation in 

the Big Snowy Group] may prove to be particularly 

significant in subsequent attempts to recognize the· 

Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary, because the 

fauna occurs in the critical interval and is replete 

with species." 

Maughan and Roberts (1967, p. B12-B14) gave 

particular attention to the age of the Tyler Formation and concluded that the Tyler Formation above 

the regional unconformity with the Heath Formation is Morrowan. They reported Early Pennsylvanian plant spores from the upper part of the Stone;. 

house Canyon Member and extended this age assignment to the base of the Tyler. However, they 

(Maughan and Roberts, 1967, p. B21) also quoted 

R. H. Tschudy as saying that spores from the lower 

part of the Stonehouse Canyon Member "may be 

from a Pennsylvanian horizon not ·yet examined, or 

may represent a transitional flora between the Late 

Mississippian and the Early Pennsylvanian." Mal-
X24 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

lory (1972) also described the Tyler Formation as 

Morrowan in age. 

The Cameron Creek Member contains several 

brachiopods that are restricted to Morrowan or 

younger rocks (Maughan and Roberts, 1967). These 

include Linoproductus eastoni Gordon, Rugoclostus 

nivalis Easton, and "M arginifera" planocosta 

Easton. Easton (1962, pl. 3) illustrated Millerella 

collected from the Cameron Creek Member. According to B. A. Skipp, this form "may be considered 

Pennsylvanian as much as they may be Mississippian forms" (Maughan and Roberts, 1967, p. B21). 

From the foregoing discussion, it appears that the 

upper part of the Stonehouse Canyon Member and 

the Cameron Creek Member are Morrowan on the 

basis of the faunal evidence. However, the exact age 

of the lower part of the Stonehouse Canyon Member 

(upper part of Heath Formation of Easton, 1962), 

as redefined by Maughan and Roberts (1967), is still 

open to question, and additional work is needed. 

Both marine and nonmarine environments of deposition have been proposed for the Tyler Formation 

in central and eastern Montana (Mundt, 1956b; 

Gardner, 1959; Willis, 1959; Foster, 1961; Ballard, 

1964; Maughan and Roberts, 1967; Jensen and 

Carlson, 1972). The Stonehouse Canyon Member is 

believed to have been deposited on an erosional surface of the Mississippian Heath Formation (Beekly, 

1955). The interbedded sandstone and dark-gray to 

black shale of the Stonehouse Canyon Member are 

lagoonal, deltaic, and estuarine deposits varying 

from marine to nonmarine (Beekley, 1955). Mundt 

( 1956b) interpreted the dark gray and black shale 

in the lower Tyler as nonmarine and the erratic 

sands in the lower part of the formation as channel 

deposits. He believed that "a gradation upward from 

nonmarine to normal marine shale apparently coincides with the color change" from dark gray to reddish shades. 

According to Gardner ( 1959, p. 337, 344), the 

Tyler Formation represents deposition in a shallow 

marine basin where currents of water, flowing seaward from tributary rivers, cut local channels across 

tidal flats and shallow parts of the sea. These channels were filled with sand, as well as debris torn 

from the sides and bottom of the channel. When 

changes in current velocity or positions of currents 

took place, typical marine sediments could be interbedded with channel deposits. Gardner (1959) presented evidence opposing a nonmarine interpretation of the paleontological data. Thus, Gardner supported an interpretation that both the Heath and 

the Tyler Formation are part of a continuous marine sequence. 

THE BEAR GULCH LIMESTONE PROBLEM 

Mundt (1956a, b) included a marine limestone 

tongue in the Tyler Formation that is locally present 

near the top of the formation. This limestone was 

shown in a diagrammatic correlation section 

(Mundt, 1956a, p. 1925). Mundt (1956c) also measured and described a section designated as "Bear 

Gulch composite section" that contained a detailed 

description of the Tyler Formation and the included 

limestone tongue. Willis (1959, p. 1953) referred to 

this limestone as the Bear Gulch limestone tongue 

for exposures along Bear Gulch Creek, south of 

Forest Grove. Other workers (Foster, 1956, p. 122; 

Norton, 1956, p. 58, 62; Todd, 1959) also made 

reference to this limestone tongue. 

All the above workers placed the Bear Gulch limestone tongue in some part of the Tyler Formation 

and above the regional unconformity between the 

Heath and Tyler described by Maughan and Roberts 

(1967). Maughan and Roberts (1967, p. B11, fig. 5) 

also showed an extensive limestone tongue in the 

middle of the Tyler Formation that thins from north 

to south (fig. 9). However, they did not discuss the 

lithology, age, or extent of the limestone unit. Mundt 

(1956a, p. 1924) depicted a depositional model for 

the Tyler Formation showing sandstone deposited 

simultaneously with the Bear Gulch limestone 

tongue, both of which are above the regional unconformity between the Heath and Tyler. 

On the basis of studies of conodonts and fish 

(W. G. Melton and J. R. Horner, written commun., 

1978), the age of the Bear Gulch limestone tongue is 

believed to be Springeran (latest Mississippian). 

This age may be equivalent to that of foraminiferal 

zone 19, which was included in the Chesterian by 

Sando, Gordon, and Dutro (1975). Mackenzie Gordon, Jr. (written commun., 1978)? in 1970 studied 

the cephalopod fauna of the Bear Gulch limestone 

tongue at the Allen Surprise quarry in Fergus 

County and concluded that because it contained 

Epistroboceras, Tylonautilus, and Anthracoceras,' it 

was of late Chesterian (Late Mississippian) age. 

This information throws doubt on the interpretation 

that the unconformity between the Heath and the 

Stonehouse Canyon Member of the Tyler Formation 

represents the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary. The position of the systemic boundary appears 

to be somewhere in the Stonehouse Canyon-Cameron 

Creek sequence (fig. 9). 
MONTANA X25 

SOUTH NORTH 

E IIi s Group Probable Mississippian-Pennsylvanian 

~~;---~~--~~b~ou~n-da~~~(~se~e~te_x~t)--~------~--~--~ 

FEET 

750 

500 

250 

5 10 15 MILES Madison Group 

APPROXIMATE SCALE 

FIGURE 9.-Diagrammatic cross section of Big Snowy and Amsden Groups in c·entral Montana. (Modified from Mundt, 1956a, 

and Maughan and Roberts, 1967.) 

ALASKA BENCH LIMESTONE 

Freeman (1922) was the first to apply the name 

Alaska Bench Limestone to the gray fossiliferous 

limestone that forms the sloping benches and hogbacks around the Big Snowy Mountains (fig. 1). 

Mundt (1956a), Gardner (1959), Easton (1962), 

Maughan and Roberts (1967), and Gilmour (1969) 

used the name as a formational designation. Only 

the limestone in the Big Snowy trough is called the 

Alaska Bench, although Willis (1959) stated that 

the lower limestone of the Minnelusa Formation in 

the Williston bas,in is probably equivalent to the 

Alaska Bench. Carbonate units at the same interval 

in southwestern Montana constitute the upper part 

of the Amsden Formation (Maughan and Roberts, 

1967). In Wyoming and southern Montana, lime·-

stone of similar age belongs to the Ranchester Limestone Member of the Amsden Formation (Sando, 

Gordon, and Dutro, 1975). 

The Alaska Bench Limestone thins northward 

toward the depositional edge of the Big Snowy 

trough (Gilmour, 1969). The formation is also 

truncated northward by pre-Jurassic erosion. This 

combination of depositional thinning and postdepositional erosion accounts for the northward thinning 

and truncation of the Alaska Bench. The formation 

is truncated southward, where it was probably 

eroded from ~he Montana uplift of Sando, Gordon, 

and Dutro (1975) during Atokan time. 

Thickness of the formation varies considerably 

over short distances owing to nondeposition and 

periods of postdepositional erosion. Maximum thicknesses reported are 43 m at Durfee Creek Dome 

(Easton, 1962), 40 m at Beacon Hill (Gilmour, 

1967), and 88 m at Judith Gap (Maughan and 

Roberts, 1967). The formation thins eastward toward the Williston basin, where it does not exceed 

38m. 

Lithologically, the Alaska Bench consists of interbedded gray limestone, red mudstone, and dolomite. 

Limestone beds generally range from 0.3 m to 0.6 m 

in thickness, but beds as thick as 1.5 m do occur. 

Beds of red mudstone 0.3 to 1.5 m thick occur 

throughout the formation (Gilmour, 1967). Dolomite beds are also found throughout the Alaska 

Bench. Maughan and Roberts (1967) reported a 

greater proportion of carbonate in the lower 30 m 

of the Alaska Bench and equal amounts of carbonate 

and mudstone in the thicker sections (Judith Gap). 

In the North Fork of Flat Willow Creek, the Alaska 

Bench Limestone is 25 m thick and contains 33 percent mudstone (Gilmour, 1967, pl. 20). The lower 

10m of the Stonehouse Canyon section is 50 percent 

mudstone (Gilmour, 1967, pl. 3). 

Contacts between the Alaska Bench Limestone 

and the underlying Cameron Creek Member of the 

Tyler Formation are gradational with interbedded 

gray limestone and red mudstone. Lateral intertonguing between these two lithologies was mentioned 

by Maughan and Roberts (1967) and discussed in 

detail by Gilmour. (1967). Evidence for an unconformity between the Alaska Bench Limestone and 

the overlying Devils Pocket Formation was presented by Mundt (1956a) and further supported by 

Maughan and Roberts (1967, p. B15). However, the 

use of a limestone-dolomite contact between the two 
X26 THE MISSISSIPP'IAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

formations as the unconforimity is open to question 

because of secondary dolomitization downward into 

the Alaska Bench Limestone. 

Fossils compose a large percentage of the limestone in the Alaska Bench Limestone. Occurrence of 

specific fossils or fossil debris depends on which 

microfacies is represented by a particular limestone 

bed (Gilmour, 1969). Ostracodes are particularly 

abundant, as they occur in most of the microfacies 

described, especially in the algal biolithites and ostracoda! muds. Brachiopods, bryozoans, .Pelmatozoans, echinoids, opthalmid Foraminifera, gastropods, and millerellids are major components in the 

normal marine microfacies. 

Six species of brachiopods were listed by Sando, 

Gordon, and Dutro (1975) as present in the Alaska 

Bench Limestone and exclusively Pennsylvanian in 

Wyoming. These species are: Antiquatonia cf. A. coloradoensis (Girty), Linoproductus eastoni Gordon, 

Composita ovata Mather, Anthracospirifer occiduus 

(Sadlick), Orthotetes sp. A. Gordon, and Echinoconchus sp. A. Gordon. 

Scott (1945) reported fusulinids from the lower 

part of the Alaska Bench Limestone near Beacon 

Hill, identified as Millerella marblensis Thompson 

and Millerella advena Thompson. Easton (1962) 

identified Dicromyocrinus granularis Easton from 

the Alaska Bench. 

Most paleontological evidence supports a Morrowan age for the Alaska Bench Limestone (Scott, 

1945; Gilmour, 1967; Sando, Gordon, and Dutro, 

1975), although some writers place the uppermost 

part of the Alaska Bench in the Atokan (Willis, 

1959; Maughan and Robe-rts, 1967; Mallory, 1972; 

Maughan, 1975). The Alaska Bench is equivalent 

to the upper part of the Namurian Series and possibly extends upwards into the base of the Westphalian Series (Sando, Gordon, and Dutro, 1975). 

The Alaska Bench Limestone was deposited in a 

shallow-water marine environment, resulting in a 

series of microfacies, described by Gilmour (1969). 

These microfacies represent rocks deposited in 

supratidal-intertidal, marginal subtidal marine, and 

normal subtidal marine environments. These microfacies were deposited as cyclic units and record the 

transgressive-regressive movements of the strandline of the Morrowan sea across central Montana. 

The strandline was oriented east-west, the sea floor 

gently sloping to the south. Maughan (1975) stated 

that an increase of terrigenous sediments in western 

Montana and the Dakotas suggests land areas west 

and east of central Montana. Because of the fine size 

of the material, he believed that the sedimentary 

source areas probably were moderately distant or 

low lying or both. Gilmour (1969) believed that 

these interbedded terrigenous sediments in central 

Montana were deposited in both marine and nonmarine environments concurrently with the various 

carbonate microfacies. 

DEVILS POCKET FORMATION 

Gardner (1959, p. 347-348) proposed the name 

Devils Pocket Formation for 43 m of cherty dolomite, limestone, red sandstone and shale, and chert 

breccia that overlies the Alaska Bench Limestone in 

Road Canyon, southeastern Big Snowy Mountains 

(fig. 1). According to Maughan and Roberts (1967, 

p. B15) similar rocks in the equivalent position extend throughout eastern and southern Montana and 

have been included previously within the Minnelusa 

Formation. Dolomite and sandstone of the Devils 

Pocket Forn1ation intertongue with and grade into 

sandstone of the Quadrant Formation toward western Montana (Maughan, 1975, p. 286). The Devils 

Pocket overlaps older strata toward the south. 

Thickness of the Devils Pocket Formation varies 

considerably because of pre-Middle Jurassic erosion, which removed much of the formation. A 

thickness of 67 m in southwestern Big Snowy 

Mountains is the most complete exposure of the formation. Gardner (1959, p. 348) listed thicknesses 

of 5.5, 11.5, and 21.5 m in central Montana. The 

formation thins eastward toward the Williston basin 

(Willis, 1959, fig. 12). 

The Devils Pocket Formation consists of sandstone and siliceous dolomite and som.e dolomitic 

limestone and siltstone (Gardner, 1959, p. 338, 

342-343). The formation changes from predominantly dolomite in the lower part to sandstone in the upper part. Mundt (1956a, p. 1931) presented evidence for an unconformity between the 

Devils Pocket and the underlying Alaska Bench 

Limestone. Maughan and Roberts (1967) and Mallory (1972) also ·supported this idea. Alternatively, 

Gardner (1959, p. 335) stated that the Devils 

Pocket rests conformably on the Alaska Bench Limetone and thaJt lithologies are transitional from one 

formation to the other. In central Montana, the 

Devils Pocket Formation is overlain unconformably 

by Jurassic rocks of the EHis Group. In eastern 

Montana, southern Montana, and western Montana, 

the carbonate rocks of the Devils Pocket grade upward into the sandstone or quartzite of the Quadrant Formation. Maughan and Roberts (1967, p. 

B16) reported an increase in sand westward until 

the Devils Pocket Formation cannot be separated 
MONTANA X27 

from the overlying Quadrant Formation. They also 

stated that the dolomitic middle member of the 

Minnelusa Formation in eastern Montana grades 

laterally into the Quadrant of central Montana and 

the Tensleep o.f Wyoming and should be included 

in the Devils Pocket Formation. 

Few fossils have been reported from the Devils 

Pocket Formation. Henbest (1954, p. 50, 51) and 

Easton (1962, p. 16-17) reported fusulinids from 

clasts and matrix of the breccia near the top of the 

formation. Included in their faunal lists are: Climacammina sp., Endothyra sp., Bradyina sp., Tetrataxis sp., Millerella sp., Pseudostafjella sp., Profusulinella sp., Co·rnuspira sp., Spiroplectammina sp., 

Climacammina magna? Roth and Skinner, 1930, 

Derbyia sp., and Straparollus (Euomphalus) sp. 

Both authors believed that the formation is Atokan 

because of the presence of Profusulinella sp. George 

Verville (oral commun. reported by Maughan, 1975) 

assigned a late Atokan age to the Devils Pocket 

Formation on the basis of fusulinid studies. 

Dolomite and sandstone of the Devils Pocket Formation are believed to have been deposited in " ... a 

marine environment of above normal salinity" 

(Maughan, 1975, p. 288). This assumption is based 

on the type of fossils described and a belief that the 

dolomite is either primary or penecontemporaneous. 

Easton (1962, p. 26) believed that the formation 

"represents warm, emergent conditions, which 

favored the deposition of interbedded red clastics 

and sandy calcareous deposits which altered penecontemporaneously or later to cherty dolomite." 

Some of the dolomite beds in the Devils Pocket Formation are very similar to those in the underlying 

Alaska Bench Formation described by Gilmour 

(1967) as dolomitized normal marine beds. Fossils 

listed in the Devils Pocket Formation indicate normal marine conditions (fusulinids and brachiopods). 

Present available evidence suggests that the Devils 

Pocket Formation was deposited in a marine environment of normal salinity. 

A rising land area to the west or northwest is 

suggested by the great thickness of sandstone in 

western Montana, the rapid eastward thinning, and 

the overlap of sandstone over carbonate rocks eastward (Maughan, 1975, p. 287). Maughan believed 

that Ordovician sandstone was eroded and served 

as the principal source for the Pennsylvanian sand. 

He also suggested that the mudstone in the eastern 

part of the area was derived from land areas to the 

east or southeast. 

QUADRANT FORMATION 

The Quadrant Formation as used in this report 

refers to the quartzite or sandstone sequence that 

overlies the Devils Pocket Formation in central 

Montana and the Amsden Formation in southwestern Montana. The Quadrant grades eastward into 

dolomite and sandy dolomite that are included in the 

middle member of the Minnelusa Formation in eastern Montana. 

The Quadrant ranges in thickness from zero in 

central Montana to more than 80 m at the northwest 

corner of Yellowstone Park (Williams, 1962). South 

and west it thickens markedly to more than 800 m 

near the Idaho-Montana State line (Sloss and 

Moritz, 1951, p. 2163). Sandstone and dolomitic 

sandstone referred to as Quadrant or Tensleep extends from the Williston basin southwestward to 

the Idaho-Mantana border and southward to the 

Wyoming-Montana border. Scott (1935) described 

the Quadrant "quartzite" as well-bedded, white to 

pink, fine- to medium-grained quartzite, containing 

thin beds of siliceous limestone. Gardner and others 

(1945) described the Quadrant as light-gray quartzitic sandstone with pink or yellowish-brown tints, 

composed of fine- to medium-grained, angular to 

subangular quartz grains. In southwestern Montana, the Quadrant is composed of sandstone and 

quartzite; sandy dolomite beds are found in the 

lower part of the formation. The percentage of dolomite increases towards centra! Montana, and dolomite is the dominant lithology in eastern Montana. 

The contact between the Quadrant Formation and 

the underlying Devils Pocket Formation is gradational; the boundary is generally arbitrarily placed 

between the dominantly carbonate sequence and the 

overlying dominantly quartzite or sandstone sequence (Maughan and Roberts, 1967, p. B16). Near 

the Idaho-Montana border, Sloss and Moritz (1951) 

placed the base of the Quadrant at the base of the 

lowest massive sandstone bed, leaving several thin 

sandstone beds in the Amsden and some dolomite 

beds in the basal Quadrant. 

The top of the Quadrant is marked by a major unconformity throughout most of Montana. Rocks 

overlying the unconformity range in age from Early 

Permian to Middle Jurassic and, locally, Cretaceous 

(Mallory, 1972, p. 122). 

The age of the Quadrant Formation is Desmoinesian, on the basis of fusulinids (Thompson 

and Scott, 1941 ; Hen best, 1954, 1956). Hen best 

( 1954, p. 52) listed the following fossils for the 

Tensleep (Quadrant Formation of this paper) in 

Montana: Endothyra sp., WedekindeUina .euthy-
X28 THE MISSISSIPP[AN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

septa (Herbert), Fusulina tregoensis ( ?) Roth and 

Skinner, Bradyina sp., and Fusulina sp. Henbest believed that this fauna represents the lower half or 

two-thirds of the Desmoinesian. 

Scott (1935) and Williams (1962) supported a 

marine origin for the Quadrant Formation in southern Montana and Wyoming. Mallory (1972, p. 122) 

and Maughan (1975, p. 288, 289) stated that during 

deposition of the Quadrant, the entire area was 

inundated by a shallow sea in which the circulation 

of marine water was restricted. The uplift to the 

west was the source of clastic materials in western 

Montana; an eastward source continued to supply 

fine clastic sediments to the east and southeast. Thin 

beds of chert and dolomite in the Quadrant contain 

the fusulinids described by Henbest (1954). As 

fusulinids are known only from normal marine enEXPLANATION 

!<<<<~! Tensleep-Quadrant Production 

~~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~Tyler-Amsden Production 

/:!:!!!!!::::.:·:c·::H Big Snowy Production 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Madison Production 

vironments, the conclusion is that at least some of 

the Quadrant Formation was deposited under such 

conditions. 

PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS 

MISSISSIPPIAN STRATA 

Mississippian strata produce oil and gas from approximately 1,100 wells in 37 fields in Montana. Of 

these fields, 26 produce only oil, 2 produce only gas, 

and 9 produce both oil and gas (Montana Board of 

Oil and Gas Conservation, 1976). 

Production figures for the 21 largest of these 

fields indicate average production depths of 1925 m, 

cumulative production through 1976 of 252,793,000 

bbls of oil, and reserves of 58,457,000 bbls of oil. 

Total 1976 oil production from these wells was 

0 50 100 MILES 

II I I I I I I 1 I I 

I 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 10.-Carboniferous oil and gas fields in Montana. 
MONTANA X29 

6,697,853 bbls. Total 1976 gas production from Mississippian wells was 524,282 MCF. 

Of these 21 largest fields, 18 produce from Madison Group strata, primarily the upper Mission Canyon and Charles Formations, and 3 produce from 

Big Snowy Group rocks (Kibbey and Heath 

Formations). 

Madison fields occur in front of the overthrust 

belt in northwestern Montana, along the northwestern margin of the Williston basin, on the Cedar 

Creek anticline on the southwestern margin of the 

Williston basin, and on the flanks of the Bighorn 

and Powder River (fig. 10). Big Snowy Group fields 

are centered on the Big Snowy trough, along Tertiary structures east of the Big Snowy Mountains. 

PENNSYLVANIAN STRATA 

Thirty-four fields produced oil from 305 wells in 

Pennsylvanian strata during 1976 (Montana Board 

of Oil and Gas Conservation, 1976). No fields produce only gas, but three fields produce both oil and 

gas (Elk Basin, Keg Coulee, and Sumatra). Approximate cumulative production from Pennsylvanian 

fields in Montana is 127,984,000 bbls. Known oil 

reserves in the 26 largest fields are 33,346,000 bbls. 

Sixty-two percent of the Pennsylvanian fields produce from the Tyler Formation. Tyler oil ranges 

from 28 to 34 gravity o API, having a mean value 

of 32 o API. The Amsden Formation accounts for 22 

percent of the producing fields; the oil ranges from 

19 to 30 gravity o API. Sixteen percent of the Pennsylvanian fields produce from the Tensleep Formation (Quadrant Formation) ; the oil ranges from 27 

to 37 gravity o API. 

Nearly all fields producing from the Tyler and 

Amsden Formations are in central Montana (fig. 

10). Fields producing from the Tensleep (Quadrant) are in south-central Montana. Largest Pennsylvanian fields on the basis of past production are 

Elk Basin (Carbon County), Sumatra (Rosebud 

County), and Stensvad (Musselshell County). In 

1976, Sumatra field produced 2,019,813 bbls of oil 

and 160,915 MCF of gas. Jim Coulee (Musselshell 

County) produced 489,808 bbls of oil, and Elk Basin 

produced 482,390 bbls of oil and 369,660 MCF of 

gas. In 1976, two new fields were found in the 

Tyler Formation and two extensions were made in 

Tyler producing fields. 

The dark organic shale and limestone of the 

Heath Formation (Mississippian) and the black 

limestone of the Bear Gulch Limestone tongue (Mississippian?) are believed to be the source of oil for 

the Tyler Formation (Varland, 1956; Willis, 1969). 

Principal production is from sandstone in the Stonehouse Canyon Member of the Tyle~. Traps are 

found in the crests or axes of domes or anticlines 

and on the flanks of anticlines (Jensen and Carlson, 

1972). 

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X30 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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Aug. 16-18, 1956: p. 16. 
MONTANA X31 

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X32 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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Spec·. Pub. 14, p. 4-19. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systen1s in the United StatesUtah 

By JOHN E. WELSH and HAROLD J. BISSELL 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-Y 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Utah Geological and Mineral Survey 

Historical review and summary of 

areal, stratigraphic, structural, 

and economic geology of Mississzppian 

and Pennsylvanian rocks in Utah 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Page 

~bstract ---------------------------------------------------------------- ):1 

Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------- 1 

~cknolVledgT.nents ----------------------------------------------------- 3 

History of stratigraphic nomenclature ------------------------------------- 6 

Historical background ------------------------------------------------ 6 

Mississippian nomenclature ------------------------------------------- 6 

Pennsylvanian nomenclature ------------------------------------------- 7 Geologic setting _____ --------- _______ ---------- _________ ------- ___ ___ __ __ 12 

Lithostratigraphy -------------------------------------------------------- 16 

Mississippian lithostratigraphy ---------------------------------------- 17 

Pennsylvanian lithostratigraphy --------------------------------------- 21 Carboniferous biostratigraphy _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ __ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ 25 

Collecting localities ------------------------------------------------------- 27 

Igneous and metamorphic rocks -------------------------------------------- 29 

Economic products ------------------------------------------------------- 29 

Selected references ------------------------------------------------------- 32 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

FIGURE 1. Map sholVing locations of outcrops of Carboniferous rocks in Utah -------------------------------- Y2 

2. Chart sholVing generalized biostratigraphic zonation of Carboniferous deposits in Utah ------------- 4 

3. Chart sholVing lithostratigraphic correlation of Carboniferous deposits in Utah -------------------- 5 

4. Outline map sholVing numbered stratigraphic sections of the Mississippian in Utah ------------------ 9 

5-9. Paleogeographic maps of Utah sholVing approximate present thicknesses of deposits of: 

5. late Kinderhookian through Osagean into early Meramecian time -------------------------- 10 

6. late Meramecian to late Chesterian time ---------------------- --·-------------------------- 11 

7. MorrolVan and ~tokan time ------------------------------------------------------------ 13 

8. Des Moinesian time -------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 

9. Missourian and Virgilian time ----------------------------------------------------------- 15 

10. Outline map sholVing numbered stratigraphic sections of the Pennsylvanian in Utah ---------------- 18 

11. Outline map sholVing collecting localities for Carboniferous fossils in Utah ------------------------ 28 

12. Outline map of Utah sholVing localities at lVhich economic products have been obtained from Carbonifierous rocks ___ -------- _ -----------------------·---- ---------------- ____________ ---------- 31 

lit 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) 

SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES-UTAH 

By JoHN E. WELSH1 and HAROLD J. BISSELL2 

ABSTRACT 

A la.te Kinderhookian to Osagean Redwall carbonate bank 

prograded northwestward from southeastern Utah over a 

starved phosphatic basin and formed the clinoform Monte 

Cristo Lim~tone in southwestern Utah and the Deseret 

Limestone in central Utah. The interior of the Redwall carbonate bank was extensively dolomitized in southeastern 

Utah; the same lithofacies in northern Utah is Brazer 

Dolomite. Later, in late Meramecian and Chesterian time, 

the Great Blue carbonate bank prograded westward nearly 

to the present Nevada borde·r and covered Antler flysch deposits. Clastic materials in the Mississippian were derived 

primarily from two sources. Erosion of the Antler Highlands 

in central Nevada provided fine clay and silt to the Chainman Formation and fine quartz sand and coarse chert pebbles 

to the Diamond Peak Formation. Erosion on the craton northeast of Utah provided clay, silt, and sand which were transported westward down the Doughnut trough and then deposited as prograding prodeltaic and deltaic deposits of the 

Dese.ret Lime·stone, Humbug Sandstone, and Manning Canyon 

Formation. 

The Pennsylvanian Oquirrh basin in north-central Utah 

and the Paradox basin in southeastern Utah were elongated 

downwarps that received feldspathic sands beginning in the 

Morrowan and 'received an increasing volume of clastic material in late Des Moinesian through Virgilian time from the 

Uncompahgre uplift. Evapori.tes were deposited during a 

short period of the early Des Moinesian (Cherokee) time 

when the southeast inle·t to the Paradox basin was barred 

by algal stratigraphic reefs. The Antler Highlands in central 

Nevada contributed fine clastic chert and quartz to the Hogan 

Member of the Ely Limestone on the Ely shelf in weste.rn 

Utah during the Des Moinesian. The Antler Highlands never 

were a source for the feldspathic sandstones of the Oquirrh 

Formation. Pre-Wolfcampian erosion stripped all the Pennsylvanian rocks off the Emery high in central Utah and 

beveled the Pennsylvanian rocks across the entire southwest 

quarter of the Sta.te. 

Late Mesozoic (Sevier) structures are strongly influenced 

by the Carboniferous stratigraphy and paleogeography. The 

Leamington Canyon tear fault and the Charleston-N ebo 

allochthon are spatially controlled by the original northwestern edge of the Redwall carbonate bank and the south 

side of the Doughnut trough. The Chainman decollement of 

northeastern Nevada and northwestern Utah has caused the 

overlying Pennsylvanian, Permian, and Triassic sequence to 

1 4780 Bonalr Street, Holladay, Utah 84117. 11 Brigham Young Unlvenity, Provo, Utah 84602. 

shear into multiple nappes. Now these nappes, consisting of 

distinctly different parts of the upper Paleozoic and Triassic 

sequence, rest structurally upon plastically deformed shale of 

the Chainman Formation or directly upon the footwall of the 

Devonian carbonate rocks along the flanks of the Mesozoic 

anticlinoria and gneiss domes. Lower Mississippian limestone, 

particularly the Joana Limestone, was widely boudinaged by 

the Chainman decollement. 

The Carboniferous Tocks of Utah do not contain any 

economic coal deposits; however, they have yielded more 

than 361 million barrels of oil, mostly from the Paradox 

basin. Carbo·niferous limestones contain ores of copper lead 

silver, gold, zinc, and arsenic. Potash, clay, and lim~ston: are produced from the Carboniferous deposits. 

INTRODUCTION 

Carboniferous rocks crop out in the fault-block 

mountains of western Utah, in the asymmetrical 

overthrust anticlines of the Wasatch Hinge Line, in 

the deep canyons of the Canyon Lands (fig. 1, locs. 

42, 45), in the Paradox salt anticlines (fig. 1, loc. 

43), and along the flanks of the Uinta Mountains 

(fig. 1, loc. 29). The Carboniferous sequence has 

been densely drilled for oil and gas only in the Paradox basin in southeastern Utah. Widely spaced drilling in the High Plateaus and Uinta Basin has provided useful Carboniferous stratigraphic control for 

this compilation. A few holes have penetrated the 

sequence in the Basin and Range province, but samples and logs are incomplete. Excellently exposed 

sequences of the Carboniferous are found in the 

tilted ranges in western Utah. 

In northeastern Utah, the Lower Mississippian 

limestone sections crop out either as hogbacks or as 

near-vertical canyon walls. In southeastern Utah, 

where no Mississippian outcrops exist, the Pennsylvanian cyclical limestones form ledge and slope 

topography. at Cataract Canyon (fig. 1, loc. 42) of 

the Colorado River and at the Gooseneeks (fig. 1, 

loc. 45) of the San Juan River. Tilted fault blocks 

of Pennsylvanian limestone, anhydrite, and black 

shale form linear ridges in the Paradox salt anticliYl 
Y2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

0 

z 

<( 

0 

g 

39 

EXPLANATION 

111 • ............. Physiographic boundaries 

- ............... -A-Willard Thrust 

8-North Oquirrh Thrust 

C-Raymond Thrust 

0-Charleston~Nebo Thrust 

£-Leamington Tear Fault 

F-Pavant Thrust 

G-Shurtz Creek Thrust 

H-Beaver Dam Mountains Thrust 

o<CJ Approximate outcrop areas of Carboniferous rocks including some 

Permian rocks 

no· 

------, I 

c;:::::=' I 

29 /~ 

v=~ 

CANYON 

I 

I 

\ 

38°4+---------------#---c~--~----~--------~-

/ _ .. ·· I . ..- Gj/ 

/: 

/: 

,..,.,., :" 

-- ! 

J 44 0~~ GL~·- 0 50 100 MILES 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

I 

\ 

I 

I 

\ 

FIGURE 1.-Locations of outcrops of Carboniferous rocks in Utah. Outcrops west of the thrust belt are allochthonous. Numbers refer to locality list. (See locality list on facing page.) Uppercase letters refer to thrust and tear faults recognized along eastern boundary of the Sevier Orogenic Belt. Physiographic boundaries are indicated by a dotted line. 
UTAH Y3 

nal valleys near Moab and Lisbon (fig. 1, loc. 43). 

Salt solution in these anticlines has caused collapse 

structures to form. 

In the Basin and Range province, Upper Mississippian rocks generally crop out as long strike valleys. Where resistant limestones or sandstones are 

present in the Mississippian sequences, these strike 

valleys may have a series of parallel minor hogbacks. 

Cuestas are less common than hogbacks because the 

dip is generally greater than 10°. Pennsylvanian 

cyclical limestones and sandstones in the same province give rise to steplike topography which usually 

extends to the crest of the ranges. Most of the magnificent skyline of Mt. Timpanogos (fig. 1, loc. 28) 

and Mt. Nebo (fig. 1, loc. 35) in the southern Wasatch Mountains is formed by the Pennsylvanian 

Oquirrh Formation. 

A generalized biostratigraphic zonation of Carboniferous deposits in Utah is shown on figure 2; 

figure 3 is a lithostratigraphic correlation chart of 

the Utah Carboniferous. Displacement of allochthonous sequences is recognized in the belt of overthrusting along the Wasatch Hinge Line from southwesternmost Utah to near Logan and in areas of 

denudation adjacent to the Raft River gneiss dome 

in northwestern Utah and the Snake Range-Deep 

Creek gneiss dome in eastern Nevada and western 

Utah. 

The stratigraphic data from the Uinta and Wasatch Mountains and northern Utah were compiled 

by Bissell; the remaining surface and subsurface in-

. formation was compiled by Welsh. This paper includes a generalization of much unpublished stratigraphic information originated by Welsh. The 

writers have attempted to simplify the stratigraphic 

terminology and to relate it to specific lithostratigraphic facies. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage of 

the Utah Geological and Mineral Survey. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The writers acknowledge the exchange of information with C. A. Sandberg, W. J. Sando, and R. 

Gutschick concerning the starved-basin concept and 

paleontological zonation. The writers are, however, 

wholly responsible for the data presented. Graduate 

students of many universities deserve credit for undertaking mapping and stratigraphic projects in remote areas which have complex geology. 

Welsh is indebted to A. Shaw for a rigorous introduction to paleontology, to R. Spivey for an introduction to fusulinids, and to A. James and W. L. 

Stokes for an appreciation of the value of stratigraphy in solving geologic problems. Bissell has benefited greatly from source data collected by some of 

his graduate students and also is grateful to various 

FIGURE !.-Continued 

Locality list 

1. Goose Creek Mountains 24. South Mountain 

2. Raft River Range 25. North Oquirrh Mountains 

3. Curlew Valley 26. South Oquirrh Mountains 

4. Silver Island Range 27. Lake Mountains 

5. Crater Island 28. Timpanogos Mountain 

6. Newfoundland Mountains 29. Uinta Mountains 

7. Grassy Mountains 30. Confusion Range 

8. Lakeside Mountains 31. West Tintic Mountains 

9. Terrace Mountains 32. Gilson Mountains 

10. Hogup Mountains 33. East Tintic Mountains 

11. Rozel Point 34. Tintic Mountains 

12. Promontory Mountains 35. Mt. Nebo 

13. Hansell Mountains 36. Burbank Hills 

14. Blue Hill Mountains 37. Needles Range 

15. West Mountains 38. Southern Wah Wah Mountains 

16. Wellsville Mountains 39. Star Range 

17. Bear River Range 40. Bradshaw Mountain 

18. Crawford Mountains 41. Pavant Range 

19. Gold Hill 42. Cataract Canyon 

20. Cedar Mountains 43. Lisbon Valley 

21. Dugway Range 44. Beaver Dam Mountains 

22. Stansbury Mountains 45. Goosenecks of San Juan River Canyon 

23. Onaqui Mountains 46. Grouse Creek Mountains 
Y4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

~ w (JJ w (.!) w r ~ 0: CARBONATE BANKS-UNSTABLE SHELF-OPEN BASIN ZONATION IN OTHER ENVIRONMENTS (JJ 

>- w (JJ (JJ (JJ 

z a. <t: E ~ ca 

~ Fusulind Zones, Corals, Brachiopods, Bryozoa3•

1 

a: 

w 0 a.. 3:. 

Dunbarinella 

·~ syringoporids 

ca 

c: > Triticites 

·c Waeringella ca 

~ 

a. ~ 

Q) 

en '§ Kansanella 0 Triticites Pseudozaphrentoides VI 

VI 

z ~ <t: W. ultimata 

z 

~ Bartra mel/a ...J 

>- VI (JJ Q) 

EUXINIC BASIN 4 z c: z '(5 w Des Moinesia a.. ~ Fusulina Chaetetes D c: VI Wedekindellina Prismopora trianulata Hindeodella irregularis Q) 

.~ Cl ldiognathodus de/icatus 

(ij Gnathodus dilatus ~ 

a. G. bassleri - Fusulinella ti Barbouria Gondolella bella Q) ca Multithecopora fish remains 3: ~ 

~ Profusulinella Chaetetes orbiculoids, linguloids 

carbonized wood 

- agglutinated Foraminifera 

pelecypods 

3: Millerella Rugoclostus semistriatus 

- e Anthracospirifer occidus c: 0 Michelina DELTAS AND FLYSCH BASINS ca 

'§ ~ Endothyrid Zones2 t-- E I-- Rhipidomella nevadensis ca +18 ~ Diaphrag'mus z Mi/lerella Archimedes t-- -

! 18 VI I--

Q) K Caninia excentrica 17 ~ Spirifer brazerianus u I--

16s 

r----- 1--

16i Endothyra scitula K 

c: 

ca 15 F Striatifera brazeriana -G) r----- Faberophyllum VI 14 1--

z > u 

Q) r----- E Ekvasophyl/um <t: 131 E 1-- Lithostrotian whitneyi 0::: ca r-----

a.. li) 12 E- U5 r----- Endothyra spiroides (JJ ~ 11 fU5 r----- Lithostrotian oculinum 

(JJ 10 D Dorlodotia inconstans 

~ 

Q) 9 ~2 Homophyllites 

C) r----- ca 8 Endothyra tumula 1--

c: VI r----- Michelina expansa «< 0 c, Vesiculophyllum 'iii 7 

'iQ 1-- Lithostrotion microstylum 

c: ~ B stromatolite biostrome 

:; 0 -7 Amplexus 0 0 1--

r ~ Cleiothyridina li) Granuliferalla A Cyrtina "C 

c: 1-- ~ A1Welsh and James (1961) 

28. L. Mamet and Betty Skipp, 

in Sando and others (1969) 

3Sando and others (1969); J. T. Dutro, Jr., 

in Tooker and Roberts (1970) 

4Stone (1968) 

Cephalopods5 

1-- Eumorphoceras bisulcatum 

E2 

T, 

E. varians; Rayenoceras 

Cravenoceras hesperium 

1-- Eumorphoceras girtyi 

p2 Goniatites granosus 

p, STARVED BASIN 

G. multiliratus 1-- G. crenistriae 

B prolecantid zone 

1--

Conodontss 

Taphnognathus 

Doliognathus 

OPEN BASIN 

Pseudomultistriatus 

Siphonodella crenulata 

Gnathodus kuchni 

sSadllck (1965) 

sSandberg and Gutschick (1977) 

FIGURE 2.-Generalized biostratigraphic zonation of Carboniferous deposits in Utah. 

c:: 

0 

~ 

~ 11) ~·!!! "ll•t:: ·'!::: ~ 

........ 

.g~e:e: 11) 1:)) 

!~a~ 

.!!_! 

~ o:ll 

~'0«1 

t; ·c; ~ ~ 

.~ g·c;::! ..c:: >- 0 J:::::l-

·~ 0~ ~ 

~:§o~ 

~ a 
NORTHWEST 

> .....1 

w 

z 

0 

I= 

<( 

~ 

rr: 

0 

u.. 

z 

<( 

~ 

z 

<i: 

J: 

u 

Strathern 

Formation 

unnamed 

limestone 

Diamond 

Peak 

Formation 

Joana 

Limestone 

Pilot 

Formation 

WEST 

CENTRAL 

Riepe Springs 

Limestone 

. NORTH 

CENTRAL 

Curry Peak 

Formation 

Bingham Mine 

Formation 

Commercial and 

Jordan Limestones 

Butterfield 

~ Peaks 

0 Formation rr: 

(!) 

---==-- ~ 

z 

0 

I= 

<( 

~ 

unnamed 

limestone 

Jensen 

Member 

Willow Gap Ls. 

rr:---

l:2 

z 

<( 

~ 

z 

<i: 1l J: 

u E 

Q) 

~ 

~ 

i 

z 

P* 

Joana 

Limestone 

Pilot 

Formation 

j 

rr: 

5 

0 

0 

West 

Canyon 

Limestone 

Manning Canyon 

Formation 

P* 

Gardison 

Limestone 

Fitchville 

Limestone 

Pinyon Peak 

·Formation 

UTAH 

NORTH NORTHEAST SOUTH 

NORTHWEST SOUTHWEST 

Permian Permian 

Pakoon Dolomite 

Weber Sandstone 

Wells Formation 

Monroe Doughnut Canyon Formation Limestone 

w 

z 

0 Bullion Canyon 

P* t- Limestone (/) 

w ., ~ c 

0 ::i Anchor 

~ 0 Limestone 

t- Lodgepole (/) ::; Limestone cc CD u 

l 

"0 

_g 

SOUTHEAST 

Elephant 

Canyon Limestone/ 

Halgaito Formation 

w 

z Mooney Falls 0 Limestone t-

(/) 

w 

~ Thunder 

::i Springs 

.....1 Limestone .....1 

~ 0 Whitmore w Wash rr: Limestone 

"' CD 

c: 

·a 

~ 

"' CD 

0 

CD 

Cl 

<0 

cg 

z 

s 

~ 

rr: 

w 

D.. 

z 

s 

z 

§ 

~ (/) 

z 

z 

w 

D.. 

z 

~ D.. 

iii 

(/) 

iii 

(/) 

~ 

2: 

oz 

><( 

w0 

::i:s 5a: 

FIGURE a.-Lithostratigraphic correlation of Carboniferous deposits in Utah. The presence of phosphatic shale is indicated by p•. 

Y5 
Y6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

oil companies for releasing some data accrued while 

he was in their employ. 

The writers appreciate the cooperation of the 

Utah Geological and Mineral Survey personnel 

under the directorship of Don McMillan. Brent 

Jones supervised the drafting of the illustrations. 

Martha Smith has immeasurably improved the 

manuscript by helpful suggestions and editing. 

Carlton Stowe provided the oil-production data. 

HISTORY OF STRATIGRAPHIC 

NOMENCLATURE 

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 

More than a century ago, Clarence King (1876) 

named the Weber Quartzite in Weber Canyon east 

of Ogden. Blackwelder, in 1910, separated the red 

sandstones and shales at the base of the quartzite 

cliffs as the Pennsylvanian Morgan Formation. 

Shortly thereafter, in 1912, Richards and Mansfield 

gave the name Wells Formation to rocks below the 

Phosphoria Formation in Wells Canyon, Bannock 

County, Idaho. The Wells Formation is in the same 

stratigraphic position as the Weber Formation, but 

their correlation is not well documented, even today. 

Discovery of replacement ore bodies of precious 

and base metals in Carboniferous rocks at Park 

City, Bingham, Tintic, Ophir, Gold Hill, and other, 

lesser districts resulted in generalized stratigraphic 

studies and a proliferation of formation names. 

Formations were poorly defined because of structural and alteration complications, and names were 

extended to other areas on the basis of paleontology 

rather than lithology. This practice has resulted in 

an imprecise use of lithostratigraphic terms. The 

nomenclature of the Mississippian sequences has 

been sufficiently revised, as discussed below, that 

these sequences represent coherent lithofacies. The 

Pennsylvanian sequences are still in a state of confusion, particularly in the Oquirrh basin where 

9,000 m of Pennsylvanian and Permian section are 

referred to as the "Oquirrh Formation." Unfortunately, paleontologic extension of formation names 

continues. 

MISSISSIPPIAN NOMENCLATURE 

The Mississippian sequences were lithologically 

divided by Gilluly (1932) in the Oquirrh Mountains 

(fig. 1, loc. 26) and by Nolan (1935) in the Gold Hill 

district (fig. 1, loc. 19). The Oquirrh Mountain terminology of the Deseret Limestone, Humbug Sandstone, Great Blue Limestone, and Manning Canyon 

Formation has been extended as the accepted terminology of the allochthonous sequences west of the 

Wasatch Hinge Line. The Deseret Limestone and 

Humbug Sandstone have also been accepted to the 

east for the autochthonous sequences. The Lower 

Mississippian sequences, formerly called "Madison," 

are now called the Gardison and Fitchville Limestones because of correlation with those limestones in 

the Tintic district (Morris and Lovering, 1961). 

Equivalent rocks in northern Utah are now called 

the Lodgepole (Holland, 1952). The Chesterian 

Manning Canyon Formation of the Oquirrh Mountains has been found in all the allochthonous sections of the proto-Oquirrh basin, whereas the thinner 

Doughnut Formation includes the late Meramecian 

to Chesterian rocks on the shelf to the east in the 

Wasatch and Uinta Mountains. Nolan's Upper Mississippian units of the Woodman Formation and 

Ochre Mountain Limestone at Gold Hill were extended by Staatz (1972) into the Dugway Range 

(fig. 1, loc. 21), but these units need to be further 

defined by larger scale mapping at Gold Hill before 

· they can be correlated regionally. 

Williams ( 1948) and his students measured reconnaissance sections in northern Utah, but the descriptions of the rocks were generalized. Parks 

(1951) first described the coral zones of the Upper 

Mississippian section in the Wellsville Mountains 

(fig. 1, loc. 16). Sando and his colleagues (1959 and 

1976) have further revised the lithostratigraphy 

and biostratigraphy in northern Utah by restricting 

the name Brazer Dolomite to the Crawford Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 18) and by using the name Little 

Flat Formation for basinal siltstones equivalent to 

the Deseret Limestone. Limited stratigraphic 

studies of the Mississippian in northern Utah were 

done in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey's phosphate program in the late 1940's and early 

1950's. 

Oil companies initiated regional stratigraphic 

studies in the early 1950's, but very little critical 

work was accomplished until oil was discovered in 

the mid-1950's in the Paradox basin, Utah, and at 

Eagle Springs, Nevada. These discoveries spurred 

investigations throughout both States. The U.S. 

Geological Survey geologists restudied th~ stratigraphy of the Tintic district in the 1950's, then later 

initiated an investigation of the northern Oquirrh 

Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 25) following the completion 

of the stratigraphic field work in the southern 

Oquirrhs by Bissell (1959) and in the overall 

Oquirrh Mountains by Welsh and James (1961). 

Sadlick, in graduate studies at the University of 
UTAH Y7 

Utah (1956, 1957, 1965), contributed substantially 

to the biostratigraphy in northeastern and western 

Utah and was the first to describe the flysch facies 

of the Upper Mississippian sections in western 

Utah. Sadlick and Mackenzie Gordon, Jr. (oral 

commun., 1960), did most of the goniatite zonation 

of the Upper Mississippian sequences. By the late 

1950's a geologic mapping program, supervised by 

Lehi Hintze and Lee Stokes, was initiated and was 

funded by the Utah State Land Board. Graduate 

students at Brigham Young University and the 

University of Utah received partial field expenses 

for much of the original geologic mapping in remote 

areas of the State. These mapping and stratigraphic 

theses resulted in new regional information on the 

Carboniferous rocks and made possible the compilation of the 1 :250,000-scale "Geologic Map of Utah" 

(Hintze and others, 1962-1964). 

Hose and Repenning (1959) and Langenheim 

( 1963) formally extended the Joana Limestone, 

Chainman Formation, and Monte Cristo Limestone 

terminology into western Utah, where oil company 

geologists had been using the terminology informally since the early 1950's. Parker and Roberts 

(1966) formally used McKee and others' (1969) 

members of the Redwall Limestone to designate 

units in the subsurface of southeastern Utah. The 

recognition that the Redwall Limestone was the interior carbonate bank deposit and that the Monte 

Cristo Limestone was the clinoform slope deposit 

was made in the early 1960's by oil company geologists in southern Nevada. Rose (1976b) found this 

relationship to extend along the Wasatch Hinge Line 

across Utah into Idaho. The basinal siltstone facies 

of the Deseret in the Pavant Range (fig. 1, loc. 41), 

now known to be equivalent to the Little Flat Formation, was first recognized by Welsh (1972). Several recent oil tests (fig. 4, sees. 13, 21) between 

Meadow in the Pavant Range and Hiawatha southwest of Price (fig. 1) have provided the control 

necessary for defining the initial northeast trend of 

the Osagean Redwall carbonate bank (fig. 5). 

Gutschick (1976) and Sandberg and Gutschick 

(1977) interpreted conodont zones in the phosphatic 

shales of the lower part of the Deseret Limestone as 

having been deposited in a starved basin of the early 

Osagean. The recognition of this starved basin (fig. 

5) helped explain the northwest progradation of the 

Osagean and lower Meramecian limestones. Dolomitization of the interior carbonate bank (fig. 5) 

was recognized by Sando and others (1959) as the 

Brazer Dolomite. This same dolomitization had been 

recognized in outcrops earlier by oil geologists at 

Frenchman Mountain near Las Vegas. Drilling since 

the mid-1950's in south-central Utah has shown the 

universality of dolomitization in the interior Redwall carbonate bank. 

Oil geologists in 1954 recognized that the western 

margin of the Chesterian carbonate bank of the 

Great Blue and Ochre Mountain Limestones, also 

called the Great Blue Carbonate Bank (fig. 6), was 

in the Confusion Range (fig. 1, loc. 30) -Gold Hill 

(fig. 1, loc. 19) area. This bank margin crops out in 

the Skunk Springs section (fig. 4, sec. 17) of the 

Confusion Range. Rose (1976b) first illustrated the 

regional progradation of this Chesterian carbonate 

bank almost to the Nevada border. Research on 

source beds by Sandberg and Gutschick (1977) has 

renewed interest in Mississippian stratigraphy and 

we hope that more detailed investigations will result from this economic interest. 

PENNSYLVANIAN NOMENCLATURE 

The quality of Pennsylvanian stratigraphic ~ata 

from Utah is directly proportional to the past economic incentive to study the geology of the State. 

Oil exploration in southeastern Utah, and the resultant discovery of the Greater Aneth field in 1956, 

stimulated the early synthesis of subsurface data by 

Wengerd and Strickland (1954), Herman and 

Sharps (1956), and Herman and Barkell (1957). 

These investigators assumed lateral facies changes 

from evaporites to carbonate rocks around the 

margins of the basin; thus, their correlations cross 

time-stratigraphic units. In 1958, Welsh showed 

that in the subsurface of southeastern Utah, an unconformity separates the Des Moinesian and Missourian series and a disconformity separates the 

lowermost Des Moinesian and Atokan series. Wengerd and Matheny ( 1958) revised the lithostratigraphy of the Paradox basin and used the top of the 

Desert Creek Limestone or the equivalent Horn 

Point Limestone at Honaker Trail (fig. 1, loc. 45) as 

the top of the· Paradox Formation. They included all 

the superjacent limestone in the Honaker Trail 

Formation. In 1963, Welsh used fusulinid data to 

show that the evaporites of the Paradox Formation 

were equivalent to disconformities on the western 

margin of the basin and were not equivalent to the 

fossiliferous marine limestones that overlie and underlie the evaporites. The fact that the contact between the Missourian and Wolfcampian series is 

unconformable was further documented by fusulinid 

data. Baars, Parker, and Chronic (1967) reverted 
Y8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

383 meters 

9 10 20 30 6 I I I 1

1 I II 

10 20 30 40 50 

50 

I 

LOCATION E X P LA N AT I 0 N 

1 10 

I 

.:g 1· ... ~ [MI Lodgepole ·~ ~ .. . g Mm Monte Cristo 

W ~ - co Mr Redwell 

cf o - E Mg Gardison 

£ ~ Mf Fitchville 0 

469 meters 

t Surface section 

-¢' Well section 

F Fault 

100 MILES I 

100 KILOMETERS 

Mj Joana 

Md Deseret 

Mb Brazer 

Mlf Little Flat 

Mdo Doughnut 

Mdp Diamond Peak 

Me Chainman · 

Mmc Manning Canyon 

Mgb Great Blue 

Mh Humbug 
UTAH Y9 

to the lateral facies concept, ignored time-stratigraphic units, and correlated the evaporites of the 

Paradox Formation with open-circulation limestones 

of both Des Moinesian and Missourian ages. Since 

1967, many papers have been written on the Paradox 

basin, but the time-stratigraphic correlation of the 

facies has not been adequately documented in the 

literature. 

At present, the name Hermosa Group can logically 

be restricted to the limestone-clastic sequence in the 

immediate area of the Paradox basin and to the 

type area in southwestern Colorado. The Pinkerton 

Trail Formation is the preevaporite carbonate rock 

of the Atokan and early DesMoinesian; the Paradox 

Formation is the evaporite sequence; the Desert 

Creek, Ismay, and unnamed Des Moinesian limestones are the overlying, open-marine formations. 

The Honaker Trail Formation is restricted to the 

Missourian and Virgilian limestones. The Callville 

Limestone as used in this paper is the western platforD} facies of the Hermosa in south-central Utah. 

The Wolfcampian Pakoon Dolomite is the western 

platform facies of the Elephant Canyon Limestone 

and the red beds of the Halgaito Formation, all of 

which unconformably overlie Pennsylvanian rocks 

of either the Callville Limestone or the Hermosa 

Group. 

The Pennsylvanian rocks of the type Oquirrh Formation in the southern Oquirrh Mountains (fig. 1, 

loc. 26) were not divided by Gilluly (1932). He included approximately 9,000 m of Pennsylvanian and 

Permian rocks in one map unit and implied complex 

facies changes within the Stockton and Fairfield 

quadrangles. Nolan ( 1930) had earlier applied the 

Oquirrh name to Pennsylvanian and Permian 

sequences in the Gold Hill district of western Utah; 

today the Pennsylvanian part of these sequences is 

considered to be the Ely Limestone. Nolan's correlation was based upon similar faunal elements, not 

lithology. Detailed descriptions of the "Oquirrh" 

sequences at Gold Hill have never been published. 

Bissell (1959) was the first to publish descriptions 

of mappable formations in the southern Oquirrh 

Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 26), and he divided the Pennsylvanian sequence into the Morrowan Hall Canyon 

Member, the Atokan Meadow Canyon Member, the 

DesMoinesian Cedar Fort Member, the Missourian 

Lewiston Peak Member, and the Virgilian Pole 

Canyon Member. Unquestionably these lithologic 

units are mappable; however, the youngest rocks in 

the southern Oquirrh Mountains are DesMoinesian, 

not Virgilian. Welsh and James (1961) divided the 

entire Pennsylvanian and Permian sequence of the 

Oquirrh Mountains into mappable time-stratiFIGURE 4.-Numbered stratigraphic sections of the Mississippian in Utah. Formational subdivisions and generalized lithologies are shown. Where no section number is supplied, the stratigraphy is a composite of information from more than 

one section. Stratigraphic sections 13-23 and 25-28 are based on original unpublished data of Welsh; the other sections 

are modified from published sources as indicated. 

1. Silver Island Mountains, T. 1 N., R. 19 W. (modified 

from Schaeffer, 1960) 

2. Lakeside Mountains, T. 6 N., R. 9 W. (modified from 

Doelling, 1964) 

3. Promontory Mountains, T. 7 N., R. 6 E. (modified from 

Olson, 1960) 

4. South Oquirrh Mountains, T. 5 S., R. 4 W. (modified 

from Gilluly, 1932) 

5. Morgan, T. 4 N., R. 3 E. (modified from Nohara, 1966) 

6. Causey Dam, T. 7 N., R. 3 E. (modified from Mullens 

and Izett, 1964) 

7. Old Laketown Canyon, T. 13 N., R. 6 E. (modified from 

Sando and others, 1976) 

8. Crawford Mountains, T. 11 N., R. 8 E. (modified from 

Sando and others, 1976) 

9. Duchesne River, sec. 14, T. 1 N., R. 8 W. (modified from 

Sadlick, 1957) 

10. Sols Canyon, sec. 11, T. 2 N., R. 18 E. (modified from 

Sadlick, 1957) 

11. Whiterocks Canyon, T. 2 N., R. 1 E. (modified from 

Kinney, 1955) 

12. Ute Federal, sec. 12, T. 4 S., R. 22 E. (modified from 

Sadlick,1957) 

13. Hiawatha, sec. 13, T. 15 S., R. 7 E. 

14. Miller Creek, sec. 26, T. 15 S., R. 10 E. 

15. Mounds, sec. 33, T. 15 S., R. 12 E. 

16. Needles Range, T. 25 S., R. 19 W. 

17. Skunk Springs, T. 17 S., R. 16 W. 

18. Elephant Canyon, T. 28 S., R. 12 W. 

19. Bradshaw Mountain, T. 29 S., R. 10 W. 

20. Cove Fort, T. 24 S., R. 6 W. 

21. Scipio Lake, see. 14, T. 20 S., R. 2 W. 

22. Antimony Canyon, sec. 30, T. 30 S., R. 2 W. 

23. South Last Chance, sec. 18, T. 26 S., R. 7 E. 

24. Little Valley, sec. 29, T. 26 S., R. 20 E. (modified from 

Parker and Roberts, 1966) 

25. Beaver Dam Mountains, T. 42 S., R. 18 W. 

26. Kanab, sec. 2, T. 43 S., R. 8 W. 

27. Judd Hollow, sec. 19, T. 43 S., R. 2 E. 

28. Upper Valley, sec. 12, T. 36 S., R. 1 E. 

29. Moqui, sec. 83, T. 37 S., R. 15 E. (modified from Parker 

and Roberts, 1966) 

30. Coalbed Canyon, sec. 20, T. 35 S., R. 26 E. (modified 

from Parker and Roberts, 1966) 

31. Desert Creek, sec. 2, T. 42 S., R. 23 E. (modified from 

Parker and Roberts, 1966) 
YlO THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

114° 112° 

EXPLANATION ·2·r------

,, 

113° Transport direction ofterrigenous clastic material derived from Antler Highlands in west and craton in east 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

Dolomitized interior bank 

I .1R\\ 9 Oolitic, algal shoals 

1 uoo .,.,,o.-;;;:o-m-----~--+--*f----+--..,.,.~-"9--___..........._.J...LL_ ____ r------2-1-s-m --------~ 

I 0 SALT LAKE I 

39° 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I \.... ~ CITY 

I "" Deseret Ls. 230 m 1 

~ Lodgepole Ls. 

I 

I 

I Woodman Fm. 

/ Joana Ls. 

Lower part of 

Chainman Fm. 

Joana Ls. Sevier / 

% ~<P 

275m~ 

-Lake~~~-----

DOLOMITIZED 

INTERIOR 

~ 

~ CARBONATE 

~ BANK OF 

REDWALL 

0 50 100 MILES 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

-------L 

FIGURE 5.-Paleogeographic map of Utah showing approximate present thicknesses in meters of deposits of the late Kinderhookian through Osagean into early Meramecian time. 
oSt. George 

UTAH 

112° 

-------- -----

0 

I 

0 

I 

50 

50 

I 

Ill o EXPLANATION 

J' Eastern limit of Manning Canyon 

y Formation in Mesozoic 

allochthon 

J Transport direction of terrigenous 

/ clastic material derived from 

Antler Highlands in west and 

craton in east 

I 

I 

1_ 

--------L 

100 MILES 

I 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 6.-Paleogeographic map of Utah showing approximate present thicknesses in meters of deposits of 

the late Meramecian to late Chesterian time. 

Yll 
Y12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

graphic units in conjunction with structural mapping in the Bingham district. Welsh (in Welsh and 

James, 1961) recognized the importance of the 

South Mountain (fig. 1, loc. 24) section of Des 

Moinesian through Wolfcampian rocks for understanding the correlation of other structural blocks. 

He also first recognized the Permian Kirkman Limestone, Diamond Creek Sandstone, and Park City 

Formation at South Mountain (fig. 1, loc. 24) and in 

the northern Oquirrh Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 25) ; 

_ these formations completed the sequence. Lateral 

continuity of Pennsylvanian formations and marker 

limestone beds throughout the Oquirrh Mountains 

was demonstrated by Welsh and James (1961). Th~ 

Oquirrh Group was logically restricted to the Pennsylvanian sequence, and these mappable Permian 

units in ascending order were established for the 

first time in the Oquirrh Mountains: Curry Peak 

Formation, Freeman Mountain or "Clinker" Sandstone, Kirkman Limestone, Diamond Creek Sandstone, and Park City Formation. Tooker and 

Roberts in 1960 obtained complete access to Welsh's 

stratigraphic and structural data for the 1961 guidebook (Welsh and James, 1961), and in 1970 published their interpretation of the Oquirrh 

stratigraphy. 

Bissell (1937) and Baker (1947) recognized the 

usefulness of fusulinids in dividing the Oquirrh 

Formation in the central Wasatch Mountains (fig. 1, 

loc. 28) . M. L. Thompson and George Verville identified fusulinid collections for Bissell, and Lloyd 

Henbest identified collections for Baker. Baker's 

(1972, 1973, 1976) geologic maps of the CharlestonNebo allochthon (fig. 1, thrust fault D) make it 

possible to correlate time-stratigraphic units with 

units in the type section of the Oquirrh Formation 

in the Oquirrh Mountains. As accurate time-stratigraphic data become available in a few mountains 

besides the type area, we will be able to synthesize 

the Oquirrh depositional history. 

Chamberlain and Clark (1973) began an environmental interpretation by describing trace fossils in 

the deeper water environment of the Pennsylvanian 

and Permian of the Oquirrh basin, but unfortunately they used Bissell's (1959) inaccurate timerock units of the southern Oquirrh Mountains (fig. 

1, loc. 26) for the South Mountain section. 

Geologic mapping in isolated mountain ranges by 

Croft (1956) in the Onaqui Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 

23), Rigby (1958) in the Stansbury Mountains _(fig. 

1, loc. 22), Costain (1960) in the East Tintic Mountains (fig. l, loc. 33), and Maurer (1970) in the 

Cedar Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 20) has contributed 

data about the Oquirrh. Few lithostratigraphic 

units have been mapped; reliance on time units 

based on fusulinids has not stimulated structural 

interpretations or regional lithologic correlations. 

J. K. Rigby (oral commun., 1977) now suspects that 

the described onlap of Pennsylvanian Oquirrh Formation on the Mississippian Manning Canyon Formation in the Stansbury Mountains is structural 

rather than stratigraphic. Many similar structural 

problems in western Utah await resolution before 

the Pennsylvanian stratigraphy can be further 

resolved. 

The Callville platform and Ely shelf (figs. 7-9) 

have been extensively studied by oil company geologists. Hose and Repenning ( 1959) described in detail the Ely Limestone in the Confusion Range (fig. 

1, loc. 30) of western Utah. Bissell (1962) and Brill 

( 1963) presented reconnaissance overviews of the 

Pennsylvanian in the Cordilleran region. Roberts 

and others (1965) compiled the Pennsylvanian and 

Permian data for northwestern Utah, but the 

critical stratigraphic information was and still is 

lacking for this region. 

Much of the better stratigraphic information 

gathered by oil company geologists and students is 

in guidebooks of the Intermountain Association of 

Geologists, Utah Geological Association, Four 

Corners Geological Society, and Rocky Mountain 

Association of Geologists. The Brigham Young University Geology Studies, the Utah Geological So-

. ciety, and the Utah Geological and Mineral Survey 

have published many of the graduate theses. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

The lowermost Carboniferous limestones disconformably overlie calcareous siltstones of the Pilot, 

Pinyon Peak, and Leatham Formations in the 

miogeosyncline of central and western Utah. The 

time-stratigraphic boundary between the Famennian and lower Kinderhookian is placed by conodont 

studies near the top of the Pilot and Leatham Formations and within the Fitchville Limestone that 

overlies the siltstone of the Devonian Pinyon Peak 

Formation. In the Colorado Plateau region in southeastern Utah, the Whitmore Wash Member of the 

Redwall Limestone rests disconformably either upon 

the siltstone of the middle Famennian Pinyon Peak 

Formation or upon the Ouray Limestone. In the 

central Wasatch Mountains (fig. 1, thrust fault C), 

the Fitchville Limestone rests unconformably upon 

the Middle Cambrian Maxfield Limestone near the 
114° 113° 42':r-------

l 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

UTAH 

112° 111° EXPLANATION 

-~----l00 ~r" \ I carbonate platlorm margin 

Ogden I 

I I 

41,

1 

!-------+-l--~~~-~d-\--I------J.1- ____ -----r-------: 

ROUND VALLEY SHELF \ 

I 

I 

I 

<150m 

1000 m I 

I 

0~ ·EL Y--~\--_____ _)_..:!_ _ __::4--~--1-------+-----:;--::f----~ 

:UNSTABLE SHELF 

J 45Q-600 m 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

39°-f-l--------= 

I 

I 

oSt. George 

0 

I 

0 

---I 

~------~--~--~1-------?t~~ 

~: 

I 

50 

50 

I 

100 MILES 

I 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

\ 

I 

I 

~\ ..r:l 

~I 

~\ ::01 

..cl 

£f\ 

I 

~l,.l \ e..,. 

-------L 

FIGURE 7.-Paleogeographic map of Utah showing approximate present thicknesses in meters of deposits of 

Morrowan and Atokan time. 

Y13 
Yl4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

114° 112° 111 o EXPLANATION 42r------

!'. 

--3oam-/10o-m I p Carbonate platform margin 

~an 1 ~ Algal stratigraphic reefs 

I 

I 

I 

I ~ Direction of transport ofterrigenous 

; clastic material 

Alluvial fanglomerates adjacent to 11~ highland 

I 110° 

41 ~-~------l--f---._,~-f--H-.\d--·l------~--- ----t---------,--

1 

HELLS CANYON-MORGAN I 

en SHELF. \ ~ SALJrf'..fKE <150m 

.:c 

CJ) 

u.z 

-J "- w Q) 

:r:+= 

(/)~ 

0 st. George 

CALLVILL)/~n) PLATFORM 

0 50 100 MILES 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 8.-Paleogeographic map of Utah showing approximate present thicknesses in meters of deposits of 

Des Moinesian time. 
114° 

ELY 

SHELF 

<100m 

co 

c 

0 

·u; 

e 

w 

0 st. George 

____ t __ ---

UTAH 

------- --. ---

0 

I 

0 50 

50 

I 

EXPLANATION 

100 MILES 

I 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

I 

~& \1 ~ .... 

------L 

FIGURE 9.-Paleogeographic map of Utah showing approximate present thicknesses in meters of deposits of 

Missourian and Virgilian time. 

Y15 
Yl6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

site of the Upper Devonian Stansbury uplift; in the 

Uinta Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 29), the Lodgepole 

Limestone rests unconformably upon the Cambrian 

Lodore Sandstone (fig. 3). 

Regional depositional breaks within the Carboniferous are ( 1) a diastem of slow deposition or nondeposition at the top of the Joana, Gardison, 

Thunder Springs, and Lodgepole Limestones; (2) a 

lateritic regolith on top of the Horseshoe Mesa Member of the Redwall Limestone in southeastern and 

southern Utah; (3) an unconformity at the top of 

the Brazer Dolomite in the Crawford Mountains of 

northern Utah; ( 4) a regional disconformity between the Des Moinesian and Missourian series ; and 

( 5) an angular unconformity below the Wolfcampian which beveled on a regional scale the Pennsylvanian rocks down to the Mississippian rocks on the 

Emery high (figs. 8 and 9). 

Early Mississippian depositional patterns were 

affected by the Upper Devonian subaerial highs and 

restricted basins. This is reflected in the Redwall, 

Joana, Fitch ville, and Lodgepole lithostratigraphic 

units. Renewed downwarping of local Devonian restricted basins in western and northern Utah produced a regional starved basin in late Osagean and 

Meramecian time. This downwarping, which began 

in Late Devonian and: -continued intermittently 

through the Chesterian, was east of the central 

Nevada Antler orogenic belt. 

By Late Mississippian, the region of thick carbonate deposition in northwestern Utah of the Deseret and Great Blue Limestones (figs. 5 and 6) became the proto-Oquirrh basin, which extended 

eastward as a downwarp (known as the Doughnut 

trough) into the craton. Clastic material was eroded 

from the Roberts Mountain overthrust sheets of 

oceanic sediments and lava flows in central Nevada 

and was redeposited in eastern Nevada and western 

Utah as flysch. Renewed thrusting or uplift and erosion in the Antler belt during the Des Moinesian 

provided fine quartzose and chert clastic deposits to 

the Ely shelf in western Utah (fig. 8). 

The Uncompahgre uplift in eastern Utah and 

southwestern Colorado (figs. 8 and 9) raised the 

Precambrian basement approximately 6,000 m during Des Moinesian through Early Permian time. 

The Paradox basin and Oquirrh basin were negative areas at the same time, and both received 

the clastic material eroded from the Uncompahgre 

uplift. Other positive elements of the ancestral 

Rocky Mountains had less influence on Utah depositional patterns but did provide some sand that 

crossed the carbonate banks. The Weber shelf and 

the Wells slope contained clastic sediments that 

were moving toward the Oquirrh basin. 

Lower Permian depositional patterns were controlled by renewed uplift of the Uncompahgre in 

east-central Utah and by influx of chert-pebble 

conglomerates from the Antler belt in extreme 

northwestern Utah. Wolfcampian limestones and 

dolomites unconformably overlie Pennsylvanian carbonate deposits in southern and western Utah. 

Wolfcampian siltstones unconformably overlie Pennsylvanian sandstones in the Oquirrh basin, but the 

Permian contact is problematical within the Wells 

and Weber sandstones of the northeastern shelf. 

Red beds of the Halgaito Formation disconformably 

overlie the Pennsylvanian limestones in southeastern Utah. 

The Upper Jurassic and Laramide overthrusts of 

the Sevier belt had a profound effect upon the distribution pattern of the Carboniferous rocks in the 

eastern Great Basin (fig. 1). The eastward piling of 

overthrust asymmetrical anticlines onto the Wasatch Hinge Line belt has telescoped lithofacies. 

Contrastingly, the decollement-type thrusting in the 

area of denudation associated with gneiss domes in 

eastern Nevada and western Utah has structurally 

reduced the thickness of Mississippian sections and 

scattered Pennsylvanian outcrops in a grandiose 

chaos of nappes. The one major palinspastic problem 

is the Oquirrh basin, because the amount of transport on the Charleston-Nebo thrust (fig. 1, D) is unknown. The allochthon is restricted to rocks of the 

Oquirrh basin and is separated from the thin eastern and southern Carboniferous sections by the 

Leamington tear fault (fig. 1, E) and the CharlestonNebo thrust (fig. 1, D). The Leamington fault appears to follow the northeasterly ancestral_ break 

between the Redwall platform and the Doughnut 

trough (fig. 6). 

LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY 

The Utah Carboniferous lithostratigraphic terminology is shown on the correlation chart in figure 3. 

Rock units and biostratigraphic zones (fig. 2) are 

shown in relationship to different biofacies and lithofacies. Regional stratigraphic sections of. the Mississippian are illustrated in figure 4 and those of the 

Pennsylvanian, in figure 10. The Mississippian sections are divided into formational units, whereas the 

Pennsylvanian sections are divided into approximate 

series units. 
UTAH Y17 

MISSISSIPPIAN LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY 

The Mississippian depositional history may be 

summarized as a succession of prograding carbonate 

banks and adjacent restricted reducing basins (figs. 

5 and 6) . The earliest Mississippian basins were a 

continuation of the restricted siltstone deposition in 

the Devonian Pilot, Pinyon Peak, and Leatham Formations (fig. 3). Carbonate deposition expanded 

across Utah by late Kinderhookian time, resulting 

in the time-equivalent limestone units of the Joana 

in the west, the Fitchville in the central, the Whitmore Wash in the southern, and the Lodgepole in 

the northern regions (fig. 3). The Whitmore Wash 

oolitic and algal limestones were deposited on a 

Bahamian-type platform, whereas the other timeequivalent units were deposited on open-marine 

shelves. The darker carbonate, gray chert, and widespread stromatolitic "Curley" bed of the Fitchville 

Limestone indicate deposition in a deeper, lower 

energy environment than the oolites and oncoliths of 

the Whitmore Wash Limestone. These differences in 

the limestones of the late Kinderhookian indicate 

that the Redwall carbonate bank was already differentiated from the basin to the northwest (fig. 5). 

The Thunder Springs Member of the Redwall, 

Gardison, and upper parts of the Joana and Lodgepole Limestones are lithostratigraphic equivalents 

(fig. 3). All units are characterized by dark-gray 

thin-bedded limestones and abundantly bedded and 

n()dular dark chert. These clinoform units were deposited in deeper water. than the earlier Mississippian limestones. Thicknesses for this interval range 

from 15 m at Desert Creek (fig. 4, sec. 31) in the 

Four Corners area to 134 m at Elephant Canyon 

(fig. 4, sec. 18) in the Star Range. On parts of this 

slope, Waulsortian mounds accumulated within the 

Thunder Springs and the Joana. Where these encrinite mounds were dolomitized in the interior Redwall bank, they are porous petroleum reservoirs in 

the subsurface at South Last Chance, Ferron, and 

Big Flat fields (fig. 12, locs. 19, 17, 21). 

At the end of the deposition of the Thunder 

Springs cherty limestones and equivalent units, subsidence in northwestern Utah accelerated, resulting 

in the sharp differentiation of the starved basin 

from the Redwall carbonate bank in southeastern 

Utah. From middle Osagean to early Meramecian, 

the carbo~ate bank prograded northwestward over 

this starved basin (fig. 5). The Mooney Falls and 

Horseshoe Mesa Limestones of the interior carbonate 

bank of the Redwall Limestone are equivalent tO 

the prograded slope deposits of the Bullion Canyon 

and Yellowpine Limestone Members of the Monte 

Cristo Limestone in extreme southwestern Utah and 

the Deseret Limestone of central and northern Utah 

(fig. 3). The original edge of the carbonate bank is 

defined by fine clastic quartz in the Mooney Falls 

Member and lower part of the Deseret Limestone. 

These quartzose clastic deposits directly overlie the 

phosphatic shales of the starved basin. The phosphatic shales crop out in the basal Deseret Limestone at the Gilson, Tintic, Oquirrh, Wasatch, 

Pavant, and Wah Wah Mountains (fig. 1). The 

quartzose clastic deposits are present in the surface 

sections at Bradshaw Mountain (fig. 4, sec. 19) in 

the Mineral Range, at Cove Fort (fig. 4, sec. 20) in 

the Pavant Range, and in the subsurface wells near 

Meadow, Scipio Lake (fig. 4, sec. 21), North 

Springs, and Miller Creek (fig. 4, sec. 14). Clastic 

deposits and gamma-ray logs are the basis for defining the original edge of the starved basin (fig. 5) . 

Biostratigraphic studies by Gutschick (1976) have 

confirmed the synchronous start of the starved basin 

in central Utah. Conodont studies by Sandberg and 

Gutschick (1977) show that the phosphatic shales 

of the basal parts of the Deseret, Chainman, and 

Little Flat are the time-stratigraphic equivalents of 

the late Redwall carbonate bank. The phosphorite 

beds of the starved-basin facies of the Deseret are 

overwhelmed by increased deposition of quartzose 

silt. The surface section at Cove Fort (fig. 4, sec. 

20), the Scipio Lake (fig. 4, sec. 21) subsurface 

section, and the Shell Sunset Canyon subsurface section near Meadow in the Pavant Range (fig. 1, loc. 

41) have a predominance of silt over carbonate material in the Deseret Limestone. The similarity of 

these three sections contrasts with the all-carbonate 

facies at the Elephant Canyon section (fig. 4, sec'. 

18) in the Star Range. The subsurface sections at 

North Springs, Mounds (fig. 4, sec. 15), and Miller 

Creek (fig. 4, sec. 14) south of Price are also in the 

basinal siltstone facies, whereas the subsurface section at Hiawatha (fig. 4, sec. 13) is in the 

dolomitized interior carbonate bank. The surface 

sections in the allochthon of the Charleston-N ebo 

thrust (fig. 1, thrust D) contain predominantly limestone above the phosphatic shales, which suggests 

that the siltstone of the Deseret was deposited par- · 

allel to the carbonate bank near the original basin 

margin by bypassing quartz from the craton to· the 

northeast (fig. 5). No evidence exists for any quartzose source on the Redwall platform to the southeast. 

The Horseshoe Mesa Limestone, the uppermost 

member of the Redwall Limestone, .progrades north-
Y18 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

114° 113° 42~n-----------r--- -----.,42" 

l I 

I I 

I I 

41'1~1:~-~ I 0 i OM~ 

I 

I I 

·t 

I 

I 

r 39°~ 

I 

I I 

I I 

38f 

I 

l I 

16 

657 meters 

2115 - A 

•. 1 ~ 

- M 

0 =:: 637 

met ern 

2 

3 

1136 .2 metel'1l 

29 

... o 

+ 

+ 

1120 

metern 

17 

·:-~ 151 meters 

18 .5~ •_eM 

0 

161metern 

4832 metern 

+ 

+ 

+ 

1

6 p 

7 

1 : 

M 

0 

582 meters 

34 ~M 

46 meters 

33 

~M 85metern 

11.~ .. ~ 

'<~<: 0 

305 metern 

21 

0 ~M¢" . 61 metern 

+ 

+ 

EXPLANATION 

.S -g !~··.~·. L~':"~~~ Mo- Missouri l .> ::! D - Des Moines Pennsylvanian= II' 7 of g· A -Atoka 

~ '·.. M -Morrow 0 .. 

Permian=P series 

305 metern 

c:J l~complete seclion 

-¢" Well section 

• Surface seclion 

F Fault 

11 

::;~;.},~, ----:t----~r, mU:;,I;'l/j)~ .. -·· 1 ·I 

J'io ,I I"' 

~::.: + <mm- ~~ 

26 

~ ~D 

. 171 metern 

24 

o~o 113 metern 

+ 

• 620 

r~· 

I 

l39° 

I 

i I 

1

22 Mo 

0 M 

427 metern 

I I 

' 

' + + _j38° 

I 

36 I 

1441 metern 

1

35 0 :Mo I 139 meters 31 I .. B. -¢-~ ~M 32 342 meters _ A 

37oLI • 

114o ~ meters 

I I 

~M - D I 0 - M 

0

73meters ~M I I 0 - M ----37° ______ j____z.3 metern _______ ..1,.___ 40 --------...L..------------~ 625 metern 0 113o 112o metern 111o 110 109 

0 10 20 30 40 50 100 MILES 

~~~I-Ll r;~jLI -rj ~~~--~~~~~~--~~--------------~1. 

0 10 20 30 40 50 100 KILOMETERS 
UTAH Y19 

westward over the Deseret siltstone facies in the 

Price area and Pavant Range (fig. 1, loc. 41) 

sections. 

In the interior of the Redwall carbonate bank, 

reflux dolomitization is common in the subsurface 

sections (figs. 4 and 5). This dolomitization is also 

present in outcrop in the Brazer Dolomite of the 

Crawford Mountains (fig. 4, sec. 8) in northern 

Utah and in the Redwall Limestone at Frenchman 

Mountain in southern Nevada. Superposition of imbricate thrusts in southern Nevada has juxtaposed 

the clinoform limestones of the Monte Cristo against 

the interior platform dolomite of the Redwall. In 

southwestern Utah, the Redwall or Monte Cristo 

Limestones reach their maximum thicknesses of 383 

min the Beaver Dam Mountains (fig. 4, sec. 25) and 

409 m at Elephant Canyon (fig. 4, sec. 18) in the 

Star Range. The Yellowpine, Bullion Canyon, Anchor, and Dawn members of the Monte Cristo Limestone are recognized in th~se prograded carbonate 

deposits. From the High Plateau province to the 

Four Corners region, the Redwall Limestone thins 

approximately from 300 to 90 m. Parker and Roberts 

(1966), using the top of the Thunder Springs cherty 

limestone as a datum, demonstrated that there is 

both erosional wedging out and depositional thinning of the individual limestone members of the 

Redwall in a southeasterly direction. At Rockwood 

quarry, the. nearest surface section in LaPla.ta 

County, Colorado, the RedwaU (Leadville) Limestone is only 30 m thick (Baars and Knight, 1957). 

All the Mississippian rocks of the Redwall Limestone in southeastern Utah are on the carbonate 

bank and are oolitic, pelletal, birdseye micritic, 

stromatolitic, and fossiliferous. Dolomitization is 

variable and crosscuts lithologies, but it is spatially 

restricted to the interior of the carbonate bank (fig. 

5) 0 

In the Confusion Range (fig. 1, loc. 30) synclinorium of western Utah, there are well-exposed, unfaulted sections of the Carboniferous in the Needles 

Range (fig. 4, sec. 16), Burbank Hills (fig. 1, loc. 

36) , and Confusion Range (fig. 4, sec. 17) . The Mississippian-Devonian boundary here is determined on 

the basis of conodont zones to be within the siltstones 

of the upper part of the Pilot Formation. For mapping, the base of the Joana Limestone is used as the 

base of the Mississippian. The Joana Limestone is 

approximately equivalent to the Lodgepole, Fitchville, and Gardison Limestones and the lower half 

of the Redwall and Monte Cristo Limestones (fig. 

3). Most stratigraphers have traditionally placed a 

FIGURE 10.-Numbered stratigraphic sections of the Pennsylvanian in Utah. Series subdivisions and generalized lithologies are shown. Where no section number is supplied, the stratigraphy is a composite of information from more than 

one section. Stratigraphic sections 1 and 15-36 are based on original unpublished data of Welsh; the othe,r sections 

are modified from published sources as indicated. 

1. Rishel Peak, T. 1 N., R. 18 W. 

2. Lakeside Mountains, T. 2 N., R. 11 W. (modified from 

Doelling, 1964) 

3. Cedar Mountains, T. 4 S., R. 10 W. (modified from 

Maurer, 1970) 

4. Oquirrh Mountains, T. 4 S., Rs. 3-5 W. (modified from 

Welsh and James, 1961) 

5. Wellsville Mountain, T. 10 N., R. 1 W. (modified from 

Williams, 1948) 

6. Mt. Aire, T. 1 S., R. 2 E. (modified from Crittenden, 

1959) 

7. Weber Canyon, T. 4 N., R. 3 E. (modified from Bissell 

and Childs, 1958) 

8. Crawford Mountains, T. 11 N., R. 8 E. (modified from 

Sando and others, 1959) 

9. Deadman Mountain, T. 1 N., R. 11 E. (modified from 

Bissell and Childs, 1958) 

10. Duchesne River, sec. 14, T. 1 N., R. 8 W. (modified from 

Sadlick, 1957) 

11. Sols Canyon, sec. 11, T. 2 N., R. 18 E. (modified from 

Sadlick, 1957) 

12. Ute Federal, sec. 12, T. 4 S., R. 22 E. (modified from 

Sadlick, 1957) 

13. Whirlpool Canyon, sec. 27, T. 3 S., R. 25 E. (modified 

from Sadlick, 1957) 

14. Watson, sec. 34, T. 9 S., R. 25 E. (modified from Sadlick, 

1957) 

15. Skunk Springs, T. 17 S., R. 16 W. 

16. Needles Range, T. 25 S., R. 19 W. 

17. Cove Fort, T. 24 S., R. 6 W. 

18. Bradshaw Mountain, T. 29 S., R. 10 W. 

19. Scipio Lake, sec. 14, T. 20 S., R. 2 W. 

20. Emery, sec. 34, T. 22 S., R. 5 W. 

21. South Last Chance, sec. 18, T. 26 S., R. 7 E. 

22. Cainville, sec. 29, T. 28 S., R. 8 E. 

23. San Rafael, sec. 28, T. 24 S., R. 10 E. 

24. Sinbad, sec. 5, T. 22 S., R. 12 E. 

25. Hiawatha, sec. 13, T. 15 S., R. 7 E. 

26. Grassy Trail, sec. 1, T. 16 S., R. 12 E. 

27. The Knoll, sec. 11, T. 26 S., R. 19 E. 

28. Beaver Dam Mountains, T. 42 S., R. 18 W. 

29. La Verkin, sec. 30, T. 40 S., R. 12 W. 

30. Kanab, sec. 2, T. 43 S., R. 8 W. 

31. Kaibab Gulch, sec. 34, T. 42 S., R. 2 W. 

32. Judd Hollow, sec. 19, T. 43 S., R. 2 E. 

33. Upper Valley, sec. 12, T. 36 S., R. 1 E. 

34. Antimony Canyon, sec. 30, T. 30 S., R. 2 W. 

35. Nokai, sec. 27, T. 40 S., R. 12 E. 

36. Lime Ridge, sec. 28, T. 40 S., R. 20 E. 
Y20 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

regional unconformity at the top of the Joana Limestone in western Utah and eastern Nevada. Sadlick 

(1965) followed this interpretation but was first to 

recognize a fondothem facies in the overlying Chainman Formation. Current interpretation ( Gutschick, 

1976) is that the lowermost part of the Chainman 

Formation represents the starved-basin facies and 

that its phosphatic shales are equivalent to the 

lower part of the Deseret Limestone (fig. 3). Most 

of the terrigenous clastic deposits of the Chainman 

Formation are turbidite shales and silts derived 

from the Antler Highland about 161 km farther 

west. Sadlick (1965) divided the Chainman Formation into six lithostratigraphic members. In ascending order, they are: the Needles Siltstone, Skunk 

Springs Limestone, Camp Canyon, Donner, Willow 

Gap Limestone, and Jensen. The Donner has not yet 

been recognized in Utah. The Needles Siltstone and 

Skunk Springs Limestone Members and the shale 

and siltstone in the lower part of the Camp Canyon 

Member represent the basinal infillings. The phosphatic shale in the Needles Siltstone Member above 

the Joana Limestone represents the time equivalent 

of the Osagean-lower Meramecian carbonate bank 

farther east (Rose, 1976b). The shale in the lower 

part of the Camp Canyon Member in the Confusion 

Range is a restricted basinal facies, which is equivalent to, and is covered by, the upper MeramecianChesterian carbonate bank of the Great Blue and 

Ochre Mountain Limestones (fig. 6). The Woodman 

Formation (fig. 3) of the Gold Hill district (fig. 1, 

loc. 19) is approximately equivalent to the Needles 

Siltstone Member and the lower part of the Camp 

Canyon Member of the Chainman Formation. 

The upper part of the Camp Canyon Member and 

the Willow Gap Limestone Member of the Chainman Formation are approximately equivalent to the 

Ochre Mountain or Great Blue Limestones (fig. 3). 

In the Confusion Range synclinorium, the facies on 

the east limb are markedly different from those on 

the west limb. At Skunk Springs (fig. 4, sec. 17) 

and in the Burbank Hills (fig. 1, loc. 36), coarse 

clastic limestones of the Camp Canyon and Willow 

Gap Limestone Members represent the westernmost 

exposures of the Chesterian carbonate bank. In the 

Needles Range (fig. 4, sec. 16) and on the west side 

of the Confusion Range, the Chainman Formation 

is entirely within the basinal facies. The limestones 

of the Chainman Formation are black calcilutites, 

whereas the Great Blue carbonate bank consists of 

light-gray calcarenites. 

In northwestern Utah, a decollement in the 

Chainman Formation has complicated the stratigraphic sequence of the Mississippian rocks. Thicknesses of lithostratigraphic units are variable because younger units have been thrust over older 

units. Sadlick (1965) reported that the lower part 

of the Camp Canyon Member of the Chainman rests 

unconformably upon either the Joana Limestone or 

the Pilot Formation in the Silver Island Mountains 

(fig. 4, sec. 1). Earlier, Sadlick and Schaeffer (1959) 

had interpreted this observation as evidence for their 

Wen dover phase of the Antler orogeny. The present 

writers, recognizing the structural complications in 

northwestern Utah, suggest that the Mississippian 

stratigraphy needs to be reexamined. At this time, 

no reliable sections have been published for Mississippian deposits in northwestern Utah or northeastern Nevada. 

In northern Utah, the Tintic nomenclature of 

Morris and Lovering (1961) is applicable to-all the 

outcrops west of Logan (fig. 1). The Lodgepole 

Limestone of the Loga~ area is equivalent to the 

Fitchville and Gardison Limestones of the East 

Tintic Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 33). The Deseret Limestone and Humbug Sandstone are present in both 

the allochthonous and autochthonous sequences of 

the Wasatch, Uinta, and Basin and Range Mountains (fig. 1). The Great Blue Limestone and Manning Canyon Formation terminology has been extended into the Wellsville Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 16) 

west of Logan and into the Deep Creek l\iountains 

of southeaste·rn Idaho. To the east in -the Uinta and 

Wasatch Mountains, the Upper Mississippian rocks 

of late Meramecian and Chesterian age are better 

termed the Doughnut Formation rather than the 

Great Blue or Manning Canyon. The Doughnut Formation includes the rocks of late Meramecian 

through Chesterian age that are reduced in stratigraphic thickness and occupy the stratigraphic 

position between the Humbug Sandstone and the 

Pennsylvanian Round Valley Limestone (fig. 3). 

This abbreviated Uppe·r Mississippian section extends eastward in the outcrop to Whiterocks Canyon 

(fig. 4, sec. 11) along the south flank of the Uinta 

Mountains and into the subsurface at Mounds (fig. 

4, sec. 15) in the northern San Rafael area near 

Price. A similar section of Upper Mississippian 

rocks is present in southwestern Utah in the southern Wah Wah Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 38) and northern Beaver Dam Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 44). Both 

these sections are allochthonous and are equivalent 

to the Battleship Wash Limestone and Indian 

Springs Formation in southern Nevada (fig. 3). 

In Old Laketown Canyon (fig. 4, sec. 7) at the 

southeast corner of Bear Lake in northern Utah, 
UTAH Y21 

Sando and others (1976) have described an Upper 

Mississippian section that is similar to the Skunk 

Springs (fig. 4, sec. 17) section in the Confusion 

Range in western Utah. The section above the 

Lodgepole Limestone includes the Little Flat Formation and the Monroe Canyon (Great Blue) Limestone. The lower phosphatic shales of the Little Flat 

Formation are equivalent to the starved basin facies 

of the lower part of the Deseret Limestone, and the 

upper siltstones of the Little Flat are equivalent to 

the Humbug Sandstone. The Monroe Canyon Limestone has prograded over the siltstone of the Little 

Flat Formation as the Great Blue;..Ochre Mountain 

Limestones have prograded over the Chainman or 

Woodman Formations in western Utah. 

Shale of the Manning Canyon Formation was deposited in deltaic, estuarine, and near.;.shore marine 

environments. The formation extends from the East 

Tintic Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 33) northward into 

southern Idaho. In contrast to the Diamond Peak 

and Chainman Formations that are. flysch that filled 

the Antler Foreland basin west of the Great Blue 

carbonate bank, the Manning Canyon Formation 

consists of clastic deposits that prograded westward 

through the Doughnut trough across the interior of 

the Chesterian carbonate bank (fig. 6). The deposition of these clastic sediments on the Upper Mississippian carbonate bank in Utah caused a swamp to 

form near sea level. Shale deposited in temporary 

swamp environments had earlier encroached upon 

the Great Blue carbonate bank during deposition of 

the Long Trail, Chiulos, and Herat Shales (fig. 3). 

The Manning Canyon Formation and the upper part 

of the Chainman Formation eventually buried the 

carbonate bank in shale and sandstone. Contemporaneously during the Late Mississippian, a lateritic regolith formed on the exposed Redwall subaerial platform to the southeast. The· present edge 

of the erosional wedge of the Upper ·Mississippian 

rocks is shown in figure 6. · · 

PENNSYLVANIAN LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY 

Key stratigraphic columns of surface and subsurface sections of the Pennsylvanian are illustrated 

on figure 10 and the approximate series time units 

are designated. Formational names of rock units are 

shown in the correlation chart (fig. 3). Figures 7-9 

are paleogeographic maps of Utah in Early, Middle, 

and Late P~nnsylvanian time. 

Morrowan and Atokan (fig. 7) deposits are well 

represented throughout Utah; the thickest deposit 

is 1,000 m of calcilutite in the Oquirrh basin. On the 

unstable Ely shelf, 350 to 425 m of cyclical calcarenite, calcisiltite, and calcilutite was deposited. 

Less than 150 m of pelletal and birdseye calcilutite, 

oolitic calcarenites, and biostromal calcirudite was 

deposited on the Bahamian-type Callville platform. 

Coral biostromes are common rocks deposited in all 

three environments. 

The West Canyon Limestone in the Oquirrh basin 

was deposited in deeper water than deposits on the 

Ely shelf or Callville platform, but the environment 

was still in the photic zone. This lower limestone 

of the Oquirrh Group has been recognized north to 

the Utah-Idaho border in Cache and Box Elder 

Counties, where the Oquirrh and Sublette basins 

merge. No evidence is preserved to indicate that 

the Oquirrh basin of Utah and the Bird Spring basin 

of southern Nevada were connected along the 

Wasatch Hinge Line; instead, the connection between these basins was farther west. In both basins, 

marine carbonate deposition was continuous from 

Morrowan through Atokan to DesMoinesian time. 

Southeastern Utah was invaded by Early Pennsylvanian seas which reworked the lateritic regolith 

on the Redwall carbonate platform into the Molas 

Formation. Chert-pebble conglomerates, derived 

from Paleozoic rocks stripped during the initial uplift of the Uncompahgre, are common in the lower 

part of the Molas in southwestern Colorado, but red 

siltstones are more characteristic in southeastern 

Utah. Reduction in the marine environments produced green shales and siltstones. Overlying the 

time-transgressive clastic units of the Molas Formation is a predominantly carbonate section of Atokan 

and earliest Des Moinesian age ; this section is generally placed in the Pinkerton Trail Formation, although a disconformity probably exists between the 

Atokan and DesMoinesian in southeastern Utah. 

In northern Utah on the Round Valley shelf (fig. 

7), which overlies the Mississippian Doughnut 

trough (fig. 6), sedimentation was continuous or 

only slightly interrupted from Chesterian to Morrowan time. The Round Valley Limestone of Morrowan age represents a marine invasion over the 

deltaic and estuarine environments of the Doughnut 

Formation. Because the Upper Mississippian rocks 

in northern Utah contained only a few lateritic beds,-

the Round Valley does not ~ontain a basal red-bed 

unit comparable to that in the Molas Formation. 

The Round Valley Limestone is the shelf equivalent 

of the West Canyon Limestone of the Oquirrh basin. 

By Atokan time, the seas had submerged the entire State of Utah, and carbonate depositiGn was 

dominant. The only clastic material being ~eposited 

was interbedded with limestone i-n southeastern 
Y22 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Utah near the Uncompahgre (fig. 8). Atokan rocks 

are not reported to be in the Round Valley Limestone or Hells Canyon Formation in the Uinta 

Mountains; however, Bissell and Childs (1958) reported that Fusulinella is present 250 m above the 

base of the type section of the Weber Sandstone 

northeast of Morgan (fig. 10, sec. 7). The absence of 

reports of Atokan rocks in the Uinta Mountains may 

be the result of nondeposition, pre-Des Moinesian 

erosion, or a lack of fusulinids in the rocks. Probably some rocks in the Hells Canyon and Morgan 

Formations are Atokan in age (fig. 3). 

The Des Moinesian depositional patterns were 

strongly affected by the eroding of the Uncompahgre Mountains and the sinking of the adjacent 

Oquirrh, Paradox, and Eagle basins (fig. 8). Erosion of the Precambrian crystalline rocks resulted 

in thick arkosic alluvial fans that intertongued with 

sabka evaporites and euxinic shales. Northwest of 

the Uncompahgre, the Oquirrh basin was a major 

depocenter for fine arkosic sandstones. Submarine 

sandstones episodically prograded over the carbonates of the basin. North of the Uncompahgre, the 

sands were distributed as a thick uniform blanket 

on the Hells Canyon-Morgan shelf and then passed 

down the Morgan slope into the Oquirrh basin. The 

Oquirrh basin received 1,900 m of Des Moinesian 

strata in a sandstone-to-limestone ratio of 1:1. 

Actually, detrital quartz is present in the limestone 

as well as in the sandstone because many of the 

limestones are calcisiltites. This influx of sand definitely had its source in the Uncompahgre uplift. 

The Callville platform remained a broad, stable, 

Bahamian-type environment. Biostromes flourished 

along its western and southeastern edges. Algal 

stratigraphic reefs were a barrier across the only 

access into the Paradox basin during salt deposition 

at Aneth in southeastern Utah (fig. 8). Smaller algal 

patch reefs are in limestones equivalent to the evaporites in the outcrops of the Hermosa Group in the 

San Juan River Canyon (fig. 1, loc. 45). The western 

margin of the Paradox basin was intermittently a 

subaerial tidal flat, and the Paradox salt units are 

represented by diastems in the limestone sequence. 

Figure 8 shows the inner depositional edge of halite 

and the outer depositional edge of anhydrite. Primary dolomite was precipitated contemporaneously 

with gypsum;· however, extensive .secondary dolomitization of the Callville Limestone around the 

Emery high is related to reflux replacement below 

the Wolfcampian unconformity. Black organic dolomitic shales interbedded with the halite beds of the 

Paradox Formation are the principal hydrocarbon 

source rocks. Anhydrite beds of the Eagle basin had 

a similar depositional history north of the Uncompahgre. Most of the sabka evaporites are in Colorado. The Paradox Formation, containing a maximum of 1,200 m of evaporites, represented a very 

short period of the early Des Moinesian. Deposition 

of these evaporites was followed by a sudden extensive marine invasion which produced the widespread 

Desert Creek and Ismay Limestones which have 

equivalents in all areas of Utah, except where removed by pre-Wolfcampian erosion. 

The Morgan shelf of the Uinta Mountains and 

northern Utah (fig. 8) received clastic material 

throughout the Des Moinesian. The Hells Canyon 

Formation on the south flank of the Uintas is thinbedded red-gray-purple shale, siltstone, sandstone, 

and fossiliferous limestone containing early Des 

Moinesian fusulinids. The overlying Morgan Formation is predominantly reddish-brown siltstones 

and sandstones and thin limestone. Estuarine environments are common in both formations. The red 

beds and clastic deposits of the Morgan are approximately equivalent to the evaporites of the Paradox 

Formation. The reddish Morgan is overlain by and 

is laterally equivalent to the yellowish-gray rocks in 

the lower part of the Weber Sandstone. These yellowish-gray rocks are overlain by gray fossiliferous 

limestone which is also in the lower part of the 

Weber Sands.tone and is equivalent to the postParadox Desert Creek and Ismay Limesones and unnamed limestones (fig. 3). 

The Ely shelf in western Utah received increasing 

quantities of very fine quartz and chert silt from the 

Antler belt. Calcisiltites of the Hogan Member of the 

Ely Limestone (Robinson, 1961) are as much as 70 

percent silica, as fine clastic quartz and chert and 

spicules. Chert-pebble conglomerates are present 

locally in the DesMoinesian sections 161 km farther 

west in central Nevada. The Des Moinesian lithologies are cyclical, like those of the Morrowan and 

Atokan, but calcarenites make up a much smaller 

percentage of the rock column. Calcisiltites also 

characterize the Des Moinesian rocks of the Bird 

Spring basin in southeastern Nevada. 

A disconformity exists between the Middle and 

Upper Pennsylvanian deposits in all the marine 

sequences in Utah, but the boundary'is undefined in 

the Weber Sandstone and in the arkoses adjacent to 

the Uncompahgre uplift. 

Missourian and Virgilian time was a period of accelerated uplift of the Uncompahgre (fig. 9). Con-
UTAH Y23 

tinental sedimentation on alluvial fans was continuous in the Late Pennsylvanian, and more than 

1,500 m of arkose was deposited adjacent to the 

south flank of the Uncompahgre Mountains. Much 

of this arkose was reworked by marine currents and 

bypassed the Weber shelf to be deposited in the 

Oquirrh basin. The Jordan and Commercial Limestones at the base of the Bingham Mine Formation 

are the oldest Missourian rocks in the Oquirrh basin. 

The Jordan Limestone rests unconformably upon 

the Des Moinesian Butterfield Peaks Formation 

(fig. 3). Above the Commercial Limestone, more 

than 1,200 m of arkosic sandstone is in the 2,000-mthick Bingham Mine Formation (fig. 10, sec. 4). 

Even though the ratio of clastic material to limestone is 4:1, subsidence exceeded the rapid deposition in the Oquirrh basin. Fine-grained laminated 

sandstone containing trace fossils on bedding planes 

suggests low-energy below-wave-base deposition. In 

contrast, sandstones in the Weber are tabular and 

crossbedded, indicating a high-energy shelf environment. At the base of the Wolfcampian Curry Peak 

Formation, a polymictic carbonate, chert-pebble 

conglomerate containing reworked Pennsylvanian 

silicified fossils marks the Lower Permian boundary 

in the Oquirrh Mountains (fig. 3). This boundary 

is not defined in the Weber Sandstone. 

Upper Pennsylvanian limestones and clastic sedimentary rocks in southeastern Utah are named the 

Honaker Trail Formation (fig. 3). In the type section at Honaker Trail, no Virgilian rocks are present, and red beds of the Permian Halgaito Formation unconformably overlie Missourian limestones. 

In the Paradox basin, Missourian rocks rest unconformably upon Des Moinesian limestones that have 

been more deeply eroded toward the west margin 

of the Paradox basin where the Honaker Trail Formation rests unconformably upon the Desert Creek 

Limestone. Virgilian rocks are restricted to the 

Moab trough (fig. 9). Erosion on the pre-Wolfcampian unconformity has removed much of the 

Upper Pennsylvanian sequence in southwestern and 

south-central Utah. Now in the Paradox basin, the 

Wolfcampian Elephant Canyon Limestone to the 

east and the Pakoon Dolomite to the west unconformably overlie, respectively, the beveled Pennsylvanian rocks of the Hermosa Group and Callville 

Limestone. Near St. George (fig. 10, sec. 28), a 

small area contains Virgilian limestones in the 

upper part of the Callville; no Missourian rocks 

have been reported. Similar calcarenites and calcilutites of the Virgilian series are present on the 

Callville platform in southern Nevada and on the 

Ely shelf in northeastern Nevada and northwestern 

Utah. At Frenchman Mountain near Las Vegas, 

clinoform Virgilian limestones are transitional between the Callville platform and the Bird Spring 

basin. The Pakoon Dolomite overl~es unconformably 

the Pennsylvanian Callville Limestone everywhere 

in southwestern Utah, except at Scipio Lake where 

the Kaibab Formation rests unconformably upon 

the Mississippian in a subsurface section (fig. 10, 

sec. 19). 

The Weber Sandstone, which is 700 m thick at its 

type locality in Weber Canyon (fig. 10, sec. 7) 

northeast of Morgan (Bissell and Childs, 1958), includes both Upper Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian sandstone (fig. 3). The highest DesMoinesian 

fusulinids are present approximately 300 m above 

the base, so the upper 400 m may be either Late 

Pennsylvanian or Permian. Bissell and Childs 

(1958) also indicated that the Weber Sandstone is 

310 m thick along the Duchesne River (fig. 10, sec. 

10) on the south flank of the Uinta Mountains. 

Poorly preserved Triticites are reported to be 90 m 

above the base of the Weber Sandstone in the 

Duchesne River section (Bissell and Childs, 1958). 

An accurate age assignment was impossible because 

of the poor preservation. Schwagerina was also collected in the same study in the upper 30 m of the 

Weber Sandstone at the Morris Ranch section northeast of Vernal (fig. 1). Bissell estimates that 100 to 

200 m of the lower Weber Sandstone in northeastern Utah is Pennsylvanian and that the remaining 

part is Permian. 

In west-central Utah, Wolfcampian Riepe Springs 

Limestone containing a thin basal chert-pebble 

conglomerate overlies unconformably the Atokan or 

Des Moinesian Ely Limestone. In northwestern 

Utah, Virgilian limestones rest unconformably upon 

the Des Moinesian. Chert-pebble conglomerates of 

the Virgilian (?)-Wolfcampian Strathern Formation 

overlie fusulinid-bearing Virgilian limestones. Most 

of these conglomerates are Wolfcampian; however, 

Schaeffer (1960) included those in the Silver Island 

Range in the Virgilian. These conglomerates are well 

exposed at Rishel Peak (fig. 10, sec. 1) north of 

Wendover and in the Spruce Mountain area of 

northeastern Nevada. Detailed descriptions of the 

Pennsylvanian rocks of the Gold Hill district have 

not been published, but the district does contain 

Morrowan, Atokan, Des Moinesian, and Virgilian 

limestones that are not of the Oquirrh facies. The 

Wolfcampian Ferguson Mountain Formation, not 

the Strathern Formation, overlies the Vi!."gilian 

limestones at Gold Hill. 
Y24 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Late Pennsylvanian fusulinids have been reported 

in isolated ranges in northern Utah. Maurer (1970) 

reported a thin, 30- to 120-m Missourian section in 

the Cedar Mountains (fig. 10, sec. 3); Rigby (1958) 

reported 2,000 m of Missourian in the Stansbury 

Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 22) ; and Williams (1948) reported 900 m of Missourian and Virgilian in the 

Wellsville Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 16). Reported 

fusulinid-bearing strata of Virgilian age are more 

widespread than those of Missourian age in the 

Basin and Range province. 

The lithostratigraphy of Upper Pennsylvanian 

rocks in northern Utah has not been sufficiently investigated to synthesize a meaningful paleogeography for the Oquirrh basin, the Wells slope, or the 

Weber shelf. Stratigraphy of the Pennsylvanian 

rocks in the northwest quarter of Utah is described 

sufficiently for general characterization in only two 

ranges: the Silver Island Range (fig. 10, sec. 1) and 

the Cedar Mountains (fig. 10, sec. 3). Stratigraphic 

knowledge is lacking because (1) all the rocks between the Upper Mississippian strata and the 

Upper Permian Phosphoria Formation have been 

lumped into the Oquirrh Formation, and (2) denudation faulting has caused the rocks of the Oquirrh 

Formation to have a chaotic present distribution. 

Graduate students have not adequately lithologically 

divided the Oquirrh Formation in order to resolve 

the structural complexities in northwestern Utah. 

Rock sequences have only been grossly assigned to 

time series on the basis of scattered fusulinid collections. Even series designations are few and scattered in the Grouse Creek and Goose Creek 

Mountains and Raft River Range (fig. 1) of northwesternmost Utah. 

The Silver Island Range north of Wendover (fig. 

1, loc. 4) has excellently exposed sections of the 

Pennsylvanian at A-1 Canyon and Rishel Peak (fig. 

10, sec. 1). Schaeffer (1960) did not divide the 

cyclical limestone, but Morrowan, Atokan, and Des 

Moinesian calcarenites, calcisiltites, and calcilutites 

are disconformably overlain by Virgilian-Wolfcampian dolomites and chert-pebble conglomerates of 

the Strathern Formation. Des Moinesian calcisiltites 

of the Hogan Member of the Ely Limestone are distinctive. Anderson ( 1957) reported that limestones 

at Crater Island (fig. 1, loc. 5) may be Virgilian and 

mentioned that two lithologies of Permian age there 

rest unconformably upon the conglomerate of the 

Mississippian Diamond Peak Formation. He described thinning of the Chainman Formation from 

365 to 0 m and of the Joana Limestone fro in 10 to 

0 m along strike. Neither Schaeffer (1960) nor 

Anderson (1957) recognized the decollement thrusting in the Silver Island Range that has caused structural thinning of the shale in the Chainman Formation and of the Joana Limestone. This thrusting 

juxtaposed different Pennsylvanian and Permian 

rocks upon the decollement surface. 

Paddock (1956) reported that the Leonardian 

Pequop Formation unconformably overlies the Devonian Stansbury carbonate conglomerate in the 

Newfoundland Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 6). In the 

southern Grouse Creek Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 46), 

the Wolfcampian Ferguson Mountain and Strathern 

Formations are unconformable upon the Chainman 

Formation. These omissions of Pennsylvanian sequences have been interpreted previously by several 

investigators as evidence for a northwest Utah 

highland during the late Paleozoic. However, firm 

paleogeographic conclusions should not be drawn 

from the incomplete stratigraphic data. in northwestern Utah until structural studies are completed 

because denudation faulting above the Chainman 

decollement has placed structurally different sequences of Pennsylvanian through Triassic rocks as 

discrete nappes upon both the Mississippian Chainman Formation and Devonian carbonates. Adjacent 

to the Raft River gneiss dome in the Goose· Creek 

Mountains and Raft River Range, Compton (1972, 

1975) has mapped Pennsylvanian rocks in thrust 

contact with regionally metamorphosed Precambrian, Cambrian, and Ordovician rocks. 

Stifel (1964) mapped much of the Terrace and 

Hogup Mountains (fig. 1, locs. 9, 10) as Oquirrh, but 

the sequence is better interpreted as Leonardian 

Pequop Formation, Wolfcampian Ferguson Mountain Formation, and unnamed Virgilian rocks. R. C. 

Douglass (unpub. data, 1972) reported Pseudofusulinella and Triticites from collections of R. R. Compton (1975) in the Raft River Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 

2). Compton has used the term "Oquirrh" in the 

Raft River Mountains on the basis of paleontological 

rather than lithological correlation. Doelling's 

(1964) section (fig. 10, sec. 2) in the Lakeside and 

Grassy Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 7) and Maurer's 

(1970) section (fig. 1.0, sec. 3) in the Cedar Mountains document that at least this far west, the lithofacies of the Pennsylvanian type Oquirrh are still 

present. The proportion o.f clastic material to limestone has, however, dropped drastically, further 

supporting the thesis that the fine arkosic sandstone 

of the type Oquirrh was derived from the Uncompahgre uplift. Outcrops in the Cedar (fig. 10, sec. 3) 

and Lakeside (fig. 10, sec. 2) Mountains are definitely the farthest west for ·which the term 
UTAH Y25 

"Oquirrh" should be used for Pennsylvanian rocks. 

Maurer (1970) and Doelling (1964) reported fusulinids representing all the Pennsylvanian series, but 

they were unsuccessful in attempting to correlate 

the sections in the Cedar and Lakeside Mountains 

lithologically with the type Oquirrh Formation in 

the Oquirrh Mountains (fig. 10, sec. 4) or even between their two adjacent ranges. 

Olson's dissertation ( 1960) on the Promontory 

Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 12) reported Morrowan, 

Atokan, and DesMoinesian fusulinids, but his lithostratigraphic data are grossly generalized as 2,150 m 

of sandstone and limestone bearing Morrowan fossils near the base and Wolfcampian fossils above. 

About 50 km north in the Tremonton-PortageClarkston Mountains area, Bissell reports that the 

Morrowan West Canyon Limestone is 400 m thick 

and that the remaining Pennsylvanian and Permian 

sequence below the Phosphoria Formation is approximately 1,400 m thick. Bissell (in Peace, 1956) 

reported Atokan and Morrowan fusulinids from the 

subsurface at Rozel Point and Curlew Valley (fig. 1, 

locs. 11, 3). The documented widespread distribution of Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian rocks in 

northwestern Utah further indicates that the hypothetical northwest Utah paleohigh interpreted 

from Paddock's (1956) observation of Leonardian 

rocks resting upon Devonian rocks in the Newfoundland Mountains (fig. 1, loc. 6) probably did 

not exist. 

The use of the name Wells Formation for Pennsylvanian rocks in the Logan area of northern Utah 

is another problem of terminology that has yet to be 

resolved. Richards and Mansfield (1912) named the 

formation in Wells Canyon in Bailnock, Idaho, for 

740 m of limestone. and sandstone below the Phos- · 

phoria Formation. Williams (1948) reported Morrowan, Des Moinesian, Missourian, and Virgilian 

fusulinids in 1,800 m of "Wells" (Oquirrh) Formation at Wellsville Mountain. Nygreen (1958) was 

the first to show that the West Canyon Limestone 

was present at the Dry Lake section at Wellsville 

Mountain. Bissell states that recent fusulinid studies 

at Wellsville Mountain (fig. 10, sec. 5) indicate that 

the Oquirrh Formation has approximately 270 m of 

Morrowan and Atokan, 340 m of Des Moinesian, 

135 m of Missourian, and 290 m of Virgilian. The 

Wells Formation is now .best restricted to the Bear 

River Range (fig. 1, loc. 17) and Crawford Mountains (fig. 10, sec. 8), where 150-300 m of sandstone, limestone, and dolomite crop out. The correlation with the type area in Wells Canyon, Idaho, is 

not documented. 

CARBONIFEROUS BIOSTRATIGRAPHY 

The Carboniferous formations of Utah contain 

faunas from the earliest Kinderhookian to the 

youngest Virgilian and essentially all the paleontological zones are represented in carbonate bank, 

euxinic, deltaic, estuarine, or basin facies. All invertebrate groups and a variety of floras are well represented within the various environments. Taxonomy of the invertebrates is incomplete, but index 

fossils identified to genera and some species are 

listed on the biostratigraphic chart (fig. 2). · 

The earliest Kinderhookian age assignments are 

based on conodonts in the Fitchville Limestone and 

the Pilot and Leatham Formations. In the siltstone 

facies of the Pilot and Leatham, Kinderhookian 

conodonts overlie the Syringothyris zone of Late 

Famennian age.' Late Kinderhookian and early 

Osagean brachiopod and coral faunas are abundant 

in limestones of the Whitmore Wash and Thunder 

Springs Members of the Redwall Limestone and in 

the Fitch ville, Gardison, Joana, and Lodgepole Limestones. Conodonts and endothyrids have also proven 

useful for zonation in these limestones. The "Curley" bed at the top of the Fitchville Limestone is a 

widespread stromatolite horizon (Proctor and Clark, 

1956). Algal limestones having birdseye . textures 

are also common in the Redwall carbonate bank. 

Waulsortian crinoidal banks are present in the 

Thunder Springs Member of the Redwall Limestone 

in the Paradox basin, and some are also present in 

the Joana Limestone in eastern Nevada. The bedded 

cherts of the Thunder Springs and Gardison were 

derived from abundant siliceous sponges that flourished during times of slightly deeper water than 

was· present during most other times of carbonate 

deposition. 

Beginning in late Osagean time, subsidence produced a starved basin across northwestern Utah. 

The southern margin of this basin trended northeast from lat 37°45'N. to 40°15'N. (fig. 5), and the 

Redwall carbonate bank was to the southeast. This 

separation into two distinct environments produced 

a marked change in the faunal realms. Sandberg 

and Gutschick (1977) have shown by conodont zonation that the environmental differentiation began in 

central Utah at the top· of coral zone C1 in the earbonate bank, and Sadlick (1965) showed that it 

continued to the top of cephalopod zone P 1, or the 

top of coral zone F in western Utah. The pre-E zone 

brachiopods of the starved basin are Quadratia 

hirustiformis, Leiorhyncoidea, and O'rbiculoidea. 

Trace fossils are common. Goniatites crenistriae and 
Y26 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

G. multiliratus are the indices of the waning stage 

of the starved basin in western Utah during the late 

Meramecian. 

Dorlodotia inconstans formed widespread coral 

biostromes during the early Meramecian on the Redwall carbonate bank. These zone D corals are the 

youngest found in the Redwall bank in southern 

Utah because the bank was subsequently subaerially 

exposed until the Morrowan time. The Ekvasophyllum corals of zone E are the youngest fauna in the 

prograded Deseret carbonate bank in central Utah. 

In western Utah, a flysch facies of submarine fans 

gradually filled the starved basin and by Chesterian 

time, the basin contained a prolific molluscan fauna 

of goniatites, belemnites, pelecypods, and gastropods. Goniatites granosus is the index fossil for the 

earliest Chesterian; Cravenoceras and Eumorphoceras are present higher in the sequence. 

Corals and brachiopods dominated the megafauna 

of the Great Blue carbonate bank (fig. 6) which extended almost to the western boundary of Utah. 

Cravenoceras cephalopods are mixed with the coral 

and brachiopod faunas in calcarenite outcrops at 

Burbank Hills and the Confusion Range in western 

Utah (fig. 1, loc·s. 36, 30). ,Faberophyllum and Straitifera brazeriana are common in the lower part of 

the Great Blue Limestone overlying the nearly 

barren Humbug Sandstone of the Doughnut trough. 

The upper Great Blue Limestones have Caninia excentrica and Spirifer brazerianus as index fossils. 

Periodically, the interior carbonate bank became 

emergent, and prodeltaic shales such as the Long 

Trail Shale of the Oquirrh Mountains and the Herat 

Shale at Gold Hill were deposited. These shales have 

Lepidodendron plant imprints associated with hematitic regoliths (Cha.mberlain, 1978). The reestablishment of the carbonate bank in the Late Mississippian continued intermittently until finally the 

bank was buried by deltaic clastic deposits of the 

Manning Canyon Formation. 

The Manning Canyon Formation and the Jensen 

Member of the Chainman Formation completely 

buried the Great Blue carbonate bank with late 

Chesterian deltaic and estuarine deposits containing 

a mixed molluscan, bryozoan, and brachiopod fauna 

in limestone interbedded with carbonaceous shale 

and siltstone. Diaphragmus, Archimedes, and spiriferoids are common. Eumorphoce1·as and Rayenoceras are present. Sigillaria roots and Lepidodendron and Stigmaria imprints as well as a diversified 

Lycopodophyta flora are present in many localities. 

Tidwell and others (1974) stated that floras in sandstone of the upper p~rt of the Manning Canyon Formation and in sandstone of the upper part of the 

Diamond Peak Formation are generally Pennsylvanian (Namurian B) in age. Stratigraphically lower 

floras in the Doughnut and Indian Springs Formations are Chesterian in age. 

A return to open-marine circulation at the end of 

Mississippian time produced a widespread coarse 

detrital limestone containing the Rhipidomella 

nevadenis zone throughout the miogeosyncline area 

and into the Doughnut trough. Rocks of this zone 

overlie the highest rocks from which Eumorphoceras bisulcatum and the Pennsylvanian (Namurian 

B) floras were collected. Because the R. nevadensis 

zone is generally referred to as Chesterian, a discrepancy exists between the age indicated by the 

flora and that indicated by the invertebrates at the 

Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary. 

The Morrowan seas reworked the regolith on the 

Redwall bank and expanded southeastward. The 

Doughnut trough was no longer recognizable. Algal 

limestones accumulated on the very shallow Callville 

platform (fig. 7). On the Morgan Shelf (fig. 9) in 

northern Utah and on the Hermosa Shelf in southeasternmost Utah, thin clastic limestones containing 

a 1 brachiopod-bryozoan-Crinoid - biofacies were . de· 

posited. The Ely shelf was a slightly deeper environment in western Utah where several hundred meters 

of fossiliferous cyclical limestone accumulated. 

More rapid subsidence in the Oquirrh basin caused 

a prolific brachiopod-bryozoan-sponge biocoenose to 

accumulate below wave base. The Hermosa biofacies, 

a more diversified invertebrate fauna reflecting shallow nearshore environments, contrasts with the 

Callville biofacies, which is a sparse population reflecting a Bahamian-type platform. 

By Atokan time, Utah was essentially submerged, 

except perhaps local areas near the -Colorado border 

adjacent to the Uncompahgre uplift. Chaetetes, 

Caninia, Multithecopora, and Barbouria corals constructed extensive biostromes across the shelf 

environments. Fusulinid coquinas of Profusulinella 

and Fusulinella are common in beds within the carbonate cycles. Only in the Oquirrh basin where the 

water was deeper are the Chaetetes biostromes small 

and discontinuous. In the early Des Moinesian 

(Cherokee), the .Paradox sabka formed adjacent to 

the Uncompahgre uplift (fig. 8). Salt layers in the 

Paradox alternate with euxinic black dolomitic 

shales that contain carbonized wood fragments, 

conodonts, phosphatic brachiopods, agglutinated 

Foraminifera, and fish remains (Stone, 1968). Algal 

limestones formed the stratigraphic reef barrier to 

the salt basin in the Four Corners region. The Call-
UTAH Y27 

ville platform west of the sabka was a supratidal 

flat. A few small algal patch reefs of Cherokee age 

are found in the Hermosa Group; the best exposures 

are in the gorge near the Goosenecks of the San 

Juan River (fig. 1, loc. 45). 

The most widespread of all the Pennsylvanian 

open-marine environments existed in the middle Des 

Moinesian. The Desert Creek and Ismay Limestones 

of the Hermosa Group (fig. 3) were deposited in an 

open-marine environment that followed the restricted sabka environment. Equivalent limestones 

containing abundant Fusulina and W edekindellina 

were deposited over the entire State and even 

covered the arkosic alluvial fans adjacent to the 

Uncompahgre. Chaetetes biostromes containing 

abundant brachiopod-coral-bryozoan assemblages 

flourished and extended from shelves into the 

deeper waters of the Oquirrh basin. Small syringoporid patch reefs tens of meters long have been· 

observed in the Des Moinesian limestones of the 

Oquirrh Mountains. After this maximum Des 

Moinesian transgression, the seas gradually became 

restricted, and a regional hiatus marks the end of 

the series. 

The earliest Missourian fauna containing Wedekindellina ultimata was found by Welsh (Welsh and 

James, 1961) in the Jordan Limestone of the 

Oquirrh Mountains associated with a biocoenose of 

productids, bryozoans, gastropods, and sponges. 

Missourian fusulinid-bryozoan faunas are found in 

both the Honaker Trail Formation of the Paradox 

basin and the Bingham Mine Formation of the 

Oquirrh basin. Virgilian fusulinids are found in the 

limestones of the northern Ely shelf, the Oquirrh 

basin, the southwestern Callville platform, and the 

Moab trough (fig. 9). Upper Pennsylvanian sandstones of the Oquirrh basin have abundant trace 

fossils on bedding planes indicative of water depths 

below wave base. Syringoporid biostromes are 

common in the Virgilian limestones in all basins. 

Large Pseudozaphrentoides corals and siliceous 

sponges are indigenous in Missourian limestones of 

the Oquirrh facies. Productids, bryozoans, corals, 

fusulinids, and sponges are abundant in most limestones of the Bingham Mine Formation. The Virgilian limestones of the Callville platform and Ely 

shelf are oolitic, pelletal, free of silt-size quartz, and 

have birdseye texture that suggests an important 

algal contribution. The Ely shelf was not receiving 

detritus from the Antler Highlands nor was the 

Oquirrh basin. The Honaker Trail Formation of the 

Hermosa Group has a mixed invertebrate fauna of 

brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, and mollusks reflecting the shallow estuarine facies southwest of the 

Uncompahgre uplift. 

The youngest Virgilian fauna containing Dunbarinella has not been collected by the writers in 

Utah, although this zone is present in southeastern 

Nevada in the Bird Spring basin. In the Oquirrh 

basin, where a thick Virgilian sequence is present, 

the rocks are mostly submarine deltaic sandstone 

and thin silty limestone. Pre-Wolfcampian erosion 

has removed most of the Upper Pennsylvanian rocks 

on the Emery high (fig. 9) and in southwestern 

Utah so that the Late Pennsylvanian paleogeographic' record is incomplete. 

Except for the euxinic facies of the Paradox 

basin, the Pennsylvanian faunas are generally open 

marine in carbonate banks, shelves, or basins. Preservation of trace fossils and articulate invertebrates in the Oquirrh sedimentary rocks is a reflection of low-energy deeper water. Crinoid columnals 

are present in most Pennsylvanian limestones, but 

branches are common in the sedimentary rocks of 

the Oquirrh that were deposited in quiet water. 

Mollusks are present as part of the basin and carbonate bank fauna but are nowhere common. Partly 

restricted environments like those in the Mississippian containing exclusive molluscan assemblages did 

not form in the Pennsylvanian. 

COLLECTING LOCALITIES 

Fifteen localities have been selected as representative of the lithostratigraphy of the Carboniferous 

deposits in Utah (fig. 11). These localities have 

fossils that are characteristic of the lithofacies and 

time-stratigraphic units. The following list gives 

the locality number used in figure 11, the township 

and range, and the local name. A section designation 

is not given because several areas along strike are 

suitable for collecting. 

(1) T.ll N., R. 2 E. 

(2) T. 10 N., R. 1 W. 

(3) T. 1 S., R. 3 W. 

Left Fork, a tributary of Blacksmith Fork south of Logan, has 

excellent exposures of the Lodgepole Limestone. Kinderhookian 

and Osagean invertebrates a.re 

easily collected in the talus. 

The Dry Lake section along the 

abandoned road in the Great 

Blue Limestone has brachiopod 

and coral faunas of Meramecian 

and Chesterian age. 

Rogers Canyon at the northwest 

corner of the Oquirrh Mountains 

has one of the best exposed sections for studying the biostratigraphy of the Morrowan, Atokan, 

and Des Moinesian series. Silica 
Y28 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

I 

1 Conger 

jMountain 

1 ~.skunk Spring 

I 

0 Logan I 

1• Blacksmith\ 

•

0 L k Fork 1 

ry ae 1 

I 

1

1 a

9

.Mile and One-~lf \ 

Canyon ~ 1 

39• Sevier;.f___;'-:t---------+-1-----~-1------~-+-------;:::?;~ I ~~\ I ~~ 

1

11. ('/ ~ ~ Burbank Hill1

s ' \ 

12 

•Needles 

Range 13. Elephant CanyonStar Range 

I 

~-? 14 J ~i,. \

1 

. ~~ 

Goosenecks15 e oSt. George 

Utall Hill Summit --------r-------

0 

l 

0 

I 

50 

50 

I 

Honaker Trail L 

------------ ------

100 MILES 

I 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 11.-Collecting loc·alities for Carboniferous fossils in Utah. 
(4) T. 4 S., R. 4 W. 

(5) T. 4 S., R. 5 W. 

(6) T. 7 S., R. 1 W. 

(7) T. 7 S., R. 3 W. 

(8) T. 18 S., Rs. 

16-17 w. 

(9) T. 19 S., R. 16 W. 

(10) T. 18 S., R. 16 W. 

(11) T. 23 S., R.19 W. 

(12) T. 25 S., R. 19 W. 

UTAH Y29 

sponges, crinoids, brachiopods, 

and corals are part of the 

biocoenosis. 

Soldiers Canyon east of Stockton, 

U tab, has a diversified section 

of nonmarine and marine deposits containing Chesterian and 

Morrowan fauna. 

South Mountain in Tooele valley is 

the type area of the Missourian 

and Virgilian Bingham Mine 

Formation of the Oquirrh Group. 

This is the most accessible locality for collecting trace fossils, 

corals, and brachiopods of the 

Late Pennsylvanian. 

Clay quarriP-s in the Manning Canyon Formation yield a well-preserved flora of Pennsylvanian 

( N am uri an B) age in the Lake 

Mountains. 

The Thorpe Hills, 8 km west of 

Fairfield, display a diversified 

brachiopod, coral, and bryozoan 

fauna of Morrowan age in the 

West Canyon Limestone of the 

Oquirrh Group. 

Conger Mountain in the Confusion 

Range has horizontal ledges of 

Ely Limestone that have an 

abundant brachiopod, bryozoan, 

coral, and fusulinid fauna of 

Morrowan, Atokan, and Des 

Moinesian age. Chaetetes biostromes are thick and continuous. 

The early Kinderhookian brachiopods and conodonts are most 

easily collected from the upper 

part of the Pilot Formation just 

below the Joana Limestone hogback at Mile and One-Half 

Canyon in the Confusion Range. 

Late Kinderhookian and Osagean 

corals and brachiopods may be 

collected from the Joana Limestone h9gback. 

The Confusion Range, Burbank 

Hills, and Needles Range have 

long strike valleys of the Chainman Formation. These are the 

best collecting localities for 

goniatites and other mollusks. 

The Skunk Springs section (fig. 

11, loc. 10) south of Cowboy 

Pass has abundant Chesterian 

brachiopods and corals of the 

Great · Blue carbonate bank. 

These sections represent the 

transition from the carbonate 

bank to the flysch basin and provide fossils of different environments. 

(13) T. 28 S., R. 12 W. The Redwall (Monte Cristo) Limestone of Kinderhookian and 

Osagean age is exposed in canyons in the Star Range, 16 km 

southwest of Milford, Utah. 

Elephant Canyon has well-exposed ledges for collecting corals, 

brachiopods, and bryozoans. 

(14) T. 41--42 S., R. 18 E. The ledges of the Hermosa Group 

at the Goosenecks of the San 

Juan River have excellent collecting for Des Moinesian and 

Missourian brachiopods a n d 

corals. Algal patch reefs in the 

Paradox Fonnation are well exposed, and the black shales contain conodonts and fish teeth and 

bones, as well as phosphatic 

brachiopods. Honaker Trail is 

one of the easier accesses to the 

canyon walls. 

(15) T. 42 S., R. 18 W. The Morrowan-Atokan, Des Moinesian, and Virgilian limestones of 

the Callville Limestone are accessible for collecting just east 

of the Utah Hill summit on U.S. 

Highway 91 in the Beaver Dam 

Mountains. Brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, and fusulinids are 

common. The Virgin Canyon 

tributaries off Interstate Highway 15 in Arizona are also 

favorable localities for collecting 

these faunas. 

IGNEOUS AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS 

Utah does not contain any igneous rocks known to 

be of Carboniferous age. Carboniferous rocks are 

regionally metamorphosed near Jurassic gneiss 

domes in western Utah, and contact metamorphism 

is common adjacent to Cretaceous and Tertiary 

stocks. 

ECONOMIC PRODUCTS 

Coal.-The Carboniferous rocks of Utah do not 

contain any economic coal deposits. Thin coal beds 

are present in the deltaic facies of the Manning 

Canyon and Doughnut Formations in central Utah. 

Plant fossils and carbonaceous fragments are locally 

present in the Great Blue Limestone and Chainman, 

Paradox, and Indian Springs Formations. 

Petroleum.-Most of the oil production from tlie 

Carboniferous units has been from east of the 

Wasatch Hinge Line in the Paradox basin. The 

Anderson Junction field (fig. 12, loc. 28) near St. ~ 

George produced from the Pennsylvani~n Callville 

Limestone and is the only field near ~he hinge line. 
Y30 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

114" 

42r------ EXPLANATION I 0 Logan . -¢- Key stratigraphic well 

I •• Oil Field 

I 

/ 0 Potash mine 

I X Quarry 

I I ~ Replacement ore body 

I · 110• 

411Lti--------+--4-l-+---+-.l.+-+--------'-t--------- --------, 

I 2 : 

X \ 

1 

~ 

SALT LAKE 

3X CITY 

~9 

40"~-------~----

39° 

I 

.I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

oSt. George 

0 

I 

0 

1

1 1

1 

I 'I 

50 

50 

I 

14-<>-

I 

17 

19-¢-

I 

0 Price 

15 ~ 16 

100 MILES 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

I 
UTAH Y31 

Thirty-one Pennsylvanian fields have produced 

320 million barrels of oil; Greater Aneth (fig. 12, 

loc. 29), which has produced 280 million barrels, 

is the only giant field. Other fields in southeastern 

Utah that have produced more than 1 million barrels 

are: Ismay-Flodine Park, 9.5 million; Boundary 

Butte, 4 million; McElmo Mesa, 2.1 million; Tohonadla, 1.7 million; Bluff, 1.3 million; and Gothic 

Mesa, 1 million. All these fields are in stratigraphic 

reefs near the entrance into the Paradox basin. The 

Ashley Valley field (fig. 12, loc. 11) in the Uinta 

Basin has minor Pennsylvanian production from the 

upper part of the Weber Sandstone which is probably Permian; a deep test in the Red Wash field 

yielded a legitimate show from the middle of the 

Weber Sandstone. 

Mississippian production has been 41 million barrels; Lisbon (fig. 1.2, loc. 22) has produced 40 million 

barrels, and Salt Wash (fig. 12, loc. 20) 1.2 million 

barrels. Upper Valley (fig. 12, loc. 24) and Big Flat 

(fig. 12, loc. 21) have minor production. Dolomitized 

crinoidal banks are the main reservoirs, and the oil 

is probably derived from the Paradox source rocks. 

The dolomitic shales of the Paradox Formation are 

the primary source rocks for most of the Carboniferous production. 

Potential source rocks for oil in undiscovered Carboniferous reservoirs are shales of the Devonian 

Pinyon Peak and Pilot Formations, the phosphatic 

shales of the Mississippian Little Flat Formation, 

Chainman Group, and Deseret Limestone, and the 

organic-rich shales of the Great Blue Limestone 

and Doughnut and Manning Canyon Formations. 

M etals,___:Mississippian and Pennsylvanian limestones are the host rocks for vein, manto, and skarn 

deposits in the mining districts of Utah (fig. 12). 

Pennsylvanian limestones of the Oquirrh Group 

are hosts for extensive skarn mineralization. For 50 

years, the U.S. and Lark mines in the Bingham district (fig. 12, loc. 4) produced copper, lead, zinc, 

and silver from replacement deposits in Des Moinesian and lower Missourian limestones. The Anaconda Company is presently developing a large ·copper skarn ore body in the Missourian Jordan and 

Commercial Limestones at its Carr Fork underground mine northwest of the Bingham pit. 

Some horizons in the Mississippian Humbug Sandstone are hosts for silver, lead, and zinc bedded-ore 

replacement deposits in the Ontario mine, Park City 

district (fig. 12, loc. 9). The Chief, Godiva, Iron 

Blossom, and Plutus veins, the main ore zones in the 

Tintic district (fig. 12, loc. 8), have bedded replacement deposits in the Fitchville, Gardison, and Deseret Limestones. These manto ores are primarily 

copper, silver, and gold. 

Ochre Mountain Limestone is host of arsenic-gold 

replacement bodies in the Gold Hill district (fig. 12, 

loc. 1) . Copper-lead-silver replacements are also reported in the Ely Limestone at Gold Hill. Many other 

districts in Utah have smaller replacement deposits 

in Carboniferous beds. 

Beds of the Mississippian Great Blue Limestone 

that are rich in organic matter are hosts for disseminated gold deposits of the Carlin type in the 

Mercur district (fig. 12, loc. 6) . 

FIGURE 12.-Localities at which economic products have been obtained from Carboniferous rocks in Utah. Also shown 

are locations of key wildcat wells and oil fields where subsurface stratigraphic data on the Carboniferous are available. 

Ore Deposits: 

1. Gold Hill (Au, As) 

4. Bingham (Cu, Pb, Zn, Ag, Au) 

5. Ophir (Ph, Zn Ag) 

6. Mercur (Au) 

8. Tintic (Ag, Zn) 

9. Park City (Ph, Zn, Ag) 

Quarries: 

2. Lakeside L~me 

3. Flux Lime 

7. Lake Mountains Clay 

Potash mine: 

10. Cane Creek 

Stratigraphic wells: 

11. Ashley Valley 

12. Red Wash 

13. Scipio Lake 

14. Hiawatha 

15. North Spring 

16. Miller Creek 

17. Ferron 

18. Meadow 

19. Last Chance 

Oil fields: 

20. Salt Wash 

21. Big Flat 

22. Lisbon 

23. Anderson Junction 

24. Upper Valley 

25. Tohonadla 

26. Boundary Butte 

27. Gothic Mesa 

28. Bluff 

29. Greater Aneth 

30. Ismay-Flodine Park 

31. McElmo Mesa 
Y32 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Non metallic products.-Solution mining at Texas 

Gulf's Cane Creek mine (fig. 12, loc. 10) yields 

200,000 to 300,000 tons of potash _yearly from the 

Paradox Formation near Moab, Utah; the mine has 

a minimum estimated life of 20 years. The Manning 

Canyon Formation (fig. 12, loc. 7) is a source of 

clay for the brick industry. Limestone quarried by 

Flintkote Corporation from the Great Blue Limestone in the Stansbury Range (fig. 12, loc. 3) is a 

major source of high-calcium lime which is used for 

smelter flux and other industrial purposes. Southern Pacific quarries large quantities of the Great 

Blue Limestone in the Lakeside Mountains (fig. 12, 

loc. 2) for riprap. Increasing quantities of these 

limestones are being used as a dust retardant in the 

coal mines near Price. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

Anderson, W. L., 1957, Geology of the northern Silver Island 

Mountains, Box Elder and Tooele Counties, Utah: Salt 

Lake City, Univ. Utah, unpub. M.S. thesis, 131 p. 

--- 1960, Stratigraphic- section of the northern Silver 

Island Mountains, in Schaeffer, F. E., ed., Geology of the 

Silver Island Mountains, Box Elder and Tooele Counties, 

Utah, and Elko County, Nevada: Utah Geol. Soc. Guidebook to the Geology of Utah, no. 15, p. 114-116. 

Arnold, C. A., and Sadlick, Walter, 1962, A Mississippian 

flora from northeastern Utah and its faunal and stratigraphic relations: Michigan Univ. Mus. Paleontology 

Contr., v. 17, no. 11, p. 241-263, 2 pls., 5 figs. 

Baars, D. L., and Knight, R. L., 1957, Pre-Pennsylvanian 

stratigraphy of the San Juan Mountains and Four 

Corners area, in New Mexico Geological Society, Guidebook of southwestern San Juan Mountains, Colorado8th field conf., Sept. 5-7, 1957: p; 108-131. 

Baars, D. L., Parker, J. W., and Chronic, John, 1967, Revised 

stratigraphic nomenclature of Pennsylvanian system, 

Paradox Basin: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., 

v. 51, no. 3, p. 393-403, 4 figs. 

Baker, A. A., 1947, Stratigraphy of the Wasatch Mountains 

in the vicinity of Provo, Utah: U.S. Geol. Survey Oil 

and Gas Inv. Prelim. Chart 30. 

--- 1972, Geologic map of the Bridal Veil Falls quadrangle, Utah: U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Quad. Map GQ998, scale 1 :24,000. 

--- 1973, Geologic map of the Springville quadrangle, 

Utah County, Utah: U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Quad. Map 

GQ-1103, scale 1:24,000, 5-p. text. 

--- 1976, Geologic map of the west half of the Strawberry 

Valley quadrangle, Utah: U.S. Geol. Survey Misc. Inv. 

Map I-931, scale 1 :63,360, 11-p. text. 

Beus, S. S., 1963, Geology of the central Blue Spring Hills, 

Idaho-Utah: Los Angeles, Univ. California, Los Angeles, 

unpub. Ph.D. thesis, 233 p. 

Bissell, H. J., [1937?], Pennsylvanian stratigraphy in the 

southern Wasatch Mountains, Utah: Iowa Acad. Sci. 

Proc. (1936), v. 43, p. 239-243. 

--- 1959, [Stratigraphy of the southern Oquirrh ·Mountains-] Pennsylvanian System, in Bissell, H. J., ed., 

Geology of the southern Oquirrh Mountains and Fivemile Pass-northern Boulter Mountain area, Tooele and 

Utah Counties, Utah: Utah Geol. Soc. Guidebook to the 

Geology of Utah, no. 14, p. 93-127. 

--- 1962, Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks of Cordilleran area, in Branson, C. C., ed., Pennsylvanian System 

in the United States-A symposium: Tulsa, Okla., Am. 

Assoc. Petroleum GeologiSits, p. 188-263, 31 figs. 

--- 1974, Tectonic control of Late Paleozoic and Early 

Mesozoic sedimentation near the hinge line of the Cordilleran miogeosynclinal belt, in Dickinson, W. R., ed., 

Tectonics and sedimentation: Soc·. Econ. Paleontologists 

and Mineralogists Spec. Pub. 22, p. 83-97, 6 figs. 

Bissell, H. J., and Childs, 0. E., 1958, The Weber Formation of Utah and Colorado, in Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, Symposium on Pennsylvanian rocks 

of Colorado and adjace-nt areas: Denver, Colo., p. 26-30. 

Blackwelder, Eliot, 1910, New light on the geology of the 

Wasatch Mountains, Utah: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 

21, no. 4, p. 517-542, pls. 36-40. 

Brill, K. G., Jr., 1963, Permo-Pennsylvanian stratigraphy of 

western Colorado Plateau and eastern Great Basin regions: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 74, no. 3, p. 307-

330. 

Butkus, T. A., 1975, Sedimentology and depositional environments of the Gr·eat Blue Limestone (Late Mississippian), 

north-central Utah: Salt Lake City, Univ. Utah, unpub. 

-M.S. thesis, 143 p. 

Chamberlain, A. K., 1978, Biostratigraphy of the Great Blue 

Formation: Provo, Utah, Brigham Young Univ., unpub. 

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UTAH Y33 

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Y34 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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--- 1965, Biostratigraphy of the Chainman Formation 

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430-465, 8 pls., 2 figs. 

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--- 1963, Paradox Basin salt disconformities (and their 

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Utah Geol. Assoc. Pub. 2, p. 13-20. 
UTAH Y35 

Welsh, J. E., and James, A. H., 1961, Pennsylvanian and 

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11, p. 1121-1164, 6 pls., 2 figs. 

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figs. 

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31, no. 4, p. 679-704, 8 pls., 11 figs. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesArizona 

By H. WESLEY PEIRCE 

.GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-Z 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Arizona Bureau of Geology and 

Mineral Technology 

Historical review and summary of areal, 

stratigraphic, structural, and economic 

geology of Mississippian and 

Pennsylvanian rocks in Arizona 

.... 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

FIGURE 1. 

2. 

3. 

CONTENTS 

Page 

Albstract ----------------------------------------------------------------- Z1 

Introduction ------·-----------------------------------------------------·---- 1 

Distribution and general characteristics ·-------------------------------- i 

Historical review and use of "Carboniferous" ----------~----------------- 3 

Geologic setting ----------------------~----------------------------------- 4 

Contacts ------------------------------------------------------------- 4 

Structural framework ------------------------------~----------------- 6 

General stratigraphy an4 lithology ----------------------------------------- 6 

]dississippian -------------------------------------------------------- 6 

Pennsylvanian --------------------... ---------------------------------- 9 

~orthern region -------------------------------------------------- 10 

Central region --------------------------------------------------- 10 

Southeastern region ---------------------------------------------- 13 

General paleontology ----------------------------------------------------- 14 

]dississippian -,------------------------------------------------------- 14 

Pennsylvanian -------------------------------------------------------- 15 

Utilization of Carboniferous rocks ------------------------------------~---- 18 

Refer~nces cited ---------------------------------------------------------- 18 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Carboniferous outcrops, distribution of Paleozoic rocks, and sources of Carboniferous products --------

Thickness of ]dississippian rocks ---------------~------------------------------------------------­

Thickness of Pennsylvanian rocks -~--------------------------------------------------------------

TABLE 

Page 

Z2 

5 

7 

Page 

TABLE 1. Principal uses of Carboniferous rocks and products in 1977 --------------------------------------- Z17 

m 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) 

SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES-ARIZONA 

By H. WESLEY PEIRCE 1 

ABSTRACT 

Carboniferous rocks in Arizona are re.presented by marine 

and continental deposits ranging in thickness from 0 to 1,100 

m. Mississippian marine strata, consisting largely of cliff. 

forming high.purity limestone, are overlain disconformably 

by thicker Pennsylvanian strata containing, besides carbonate 

rocks, varying proportions of siliceous clastic deposits. 

The two contrasting outcrop regions are: (1) a northeast 

or Plateau half, where exposures are limited largely to deep 

canyons and escarpments; and (2) a southwest or Basin and 

Range half, where exposures are found only in certain discontinuous range blocks. 

Shallow Mississippian seas first transgressed the Arizona 

region from the northwest and southeast in Kinderhookian 

time. Strata as young as Chesterian are preserved only 

locally, an unknown thickness of Upper Mississippian rocks 

having been removed before the onset of Pennsylvanian 

sedimentation. 

During Pennsylvanian time, northern Arizona was flanked 

by marine basins to the west, northeast, and southeast, the 

central part receiving a relatively thin zone of clastic deposits. Precambrian· granitic source rocks ·were exposed on 

the Defiance positive area in east-central Arizona and were 

partly onlapped ·by Pennsylvanian deposits, at least during 

Missourian and Virgilian time. Faulting during the Pennsylvanian probably gave magnified expression. to the southwest 

margin of this feature. 

Carboniferous rocks, chiefly limestone, contributed to 

products valued at more than $50 million during 1977! Principal commodities were portland cement and quicklime. The 

welfare of almost every Arizona resident is enhanced by the 

State's Carboniferous rocks. 

INTRODUCTION 

DISTRIBUTION AND GENERAL 'CHARACTERISTICS 

Known Carboniferous rocks in Arizona consist 

only of sedimentary materials. In the Plateau region 

of northern Arizona, most of these rocks, except for 

two linear belts· of exposures represented by (1) 

the Grand Canyon and (2) the southern cliffs 

margin of the Plateau, are buried beneath either 

Paleozoic or Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata. In the 

southern half of the State, the Basin and Range 

1 Principal Geologist, Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology, 

Tucson, Arizona 85719. 

part, outcrops are limited to relatively short linear 

strips within certain mountain or range bloc~s, especially those in southeastern Arizona. Very little is 

known of the subsurface nature and distribution of 

these rocks within the valley,, or basin, blocks. Overall, only a very small percent~ge of the Arizona sur~ 

face environment is covered with rocks of Carboniferous age. This small percentage is, in turn, unequally distributed (fig. 1). 

The most continuous outcrop belt of Carboniferous rocks· in Arizona is· in the Grand Oanyon, 

a product of late Cenozoic erosion by the Oolorado 

River. Here, because the strata are nearly flatlying and relatively undeformed, each layer imparts its own set of strengths and weaknesses to 

form the topographic profile. In particular, the Mississippian strata form one of the more prominent 

cliffs throughout Grand Canyon, whereas the overlying Pennsylvanian strata support both ledges and 

slopes. Along the southern edge of the Plateau 

province, various erosional events have exposed 

Carboniferous strata. Because of a slight northeast 

dip, probably imposed initially in Mesozoic time, 

older strata were truncated southward, and Carboniferous and other rocks were exposed in Mesozoic 

time. Although several subsequent tectonic-erosional 

episodes took place, the principal deep canyons that 

now are being cut into the Plateau edge were initiated during the late Cenozoic (Peirce and others, 

1976), probably as a response to drainage integration in contrast to concurrent so-called Plateau UPlift, as hypothesized by McKee and McKee (1972). 

South of the Plateau, in the Basin and Range 

region, Carboniferous rocks were subjected to severe 

tectonic disturbances during MeSJOzoic and Cenozoic 

times. Several episodes of plutonism are known, and, 

locally, Carboniferous strata have been metamorphosed and mineralized. Flat-lying strata are rare, 

steep dips being the general rule. The present 

Zl 
Z2 

0 

I I 1 

I I 

1 

0 

THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

.................... .. ' ...... 

.................... 

' 

50 100 MILES 

I I 

I 

I 

I 

50 100 KILOMETERS 

LIMIT OF 

PENNSYLVAfjJAN 

I 

\ 

/ 

/// 

/ ... / D E F 

----- .,........- .,......,.,.,..... / 

// 

ROCKS/ 

/ 

/ / 

A/N C E 

I 

I 

I 

POSITIVE 

\ '---, 

h3 \· ~ ' \I ' ' 

FIGURE !.-Carboniferous outcrops, distribution of Paleozoic and other rocks, and primary sources of Carboniferous 

products ('numbered and listed in table 1). Areas of broad geologic similarity shown as solid lines; long dashes 

where inferred. Zero isopach for Mississippian and for Pennsylvanian rocks in northeast part of State shown by 

short dashed line. 
ARIZONA Z3 

physiographic pattern of disconnected ranges and 

basins is largely the result of late Cenozoic extensional tectonics. Where present in this province, as 

in the Plateau province, the Mississippian strata 

form prominent cliffs, and the Pennsylvanian strata 

form ledges and slopes. 

HISTORICAL REVIEW AND USE OF 

"CARBONIFEROUS" 

The term "Carboniferous" is no longer widely 

used in Arizona because: (1) the Mississippian and 

Pennsylvanian parts generally are separable and 

mappable; (2) their respective histories are notably 

different; and (3) the top of the Pennsylvanian is, 

in most places (more so in the subsurface), imprecisely defined. 

Arizona Carboniferous rocks initially were included in studies undertaken in two widely separated 

regions: ( 1) in northern Arizona a;t Grand Canyon 

because of cons,picuous exposures, and (2) in southern Arizona mining· camps where many of these 

rocks are associated with ore development. 

In 1875, Gilbert gave the name "Red Wall Limestone" to more than 610 m (2,000 ft) of Grand 

Canyon strata. Apparently, this interval included 

rocks ranging in age from Devonian to, and perhaps 

including, Permian. Subsequent refinement by Darton (1910) and Noble (1922) led to the presently 

prevailing restriction of this name (now Redwall) 

to strata of Mississippian age. 0Yerlying Pennsylvanian-Permian ( ?) strata were, in turn, designated 

"Supai Formation." 

In extreme southern Arizona, in the Bisbee quadrangle, Ransome (1904) defined a Carboniferous 

section as consisting of about 1,128 m (3,700 ft) of 

combined Mississippian "Escabrosa limestone" 

(61 m) and Pennsylvanian "Naco limestone" (900 m 

or more). Subsequently, upon recognition of Permian strata, the "Naco limestone" of Ransome has 

been altered and restricted. 

In 1905, Lindgren, in discussing the mineralized 

Clifton quadrangle in east-central Arizona, recognized ·carboniferous strata. Although outcrops are 

limited, he defined two outcrop sequences: (1) one 

to the south exposing about 52 m of MiS1Siss1ippian 

strata (beneath Mesozoic rocks) to which, apparently, he assigned the name "Modoc limestone" 

although, in his discussion, he uses "formation" and 

"limestone" interchangeably, and (2) one to the 

north exposing about 152 m (500 ft) of strata 

underlying Tertiary rocks. To this sequence he applied the name "Tule Spring limestone," recognizing 

that the lower 61 m is Mississippian in age, and the 

upper 91 m, Pennsylvanian. Whereas this terminology has been applied only locally, the Grand Canyon 

and southern Arizona terminologies, in contrast, 

have been applied over much of the Plateau and 

Basin and Range provinces. 

Ransome (1916) attempted to tie together Arizona Paleozoic stratigraphy by correlating sections 

from Grand Canyon on the north to Bisbee in extreme southern Arizona. He defined a Carboniferous 

"Tornado limestone" in the Globe-Ray region of 

central Arizona. He recognized a Mississippian lower 

massive part and a Pennsylvanian upper part but 

did not draw a contact in between. He further noted 

an analogy between the "Tornado limestone" and 

the Escabros'a-Naco lim,estones of the Bisbee 

region. Subsequently, the use of "Tornado limestone" has been replaced by Ransome's original Bisbee area terminology. 

Darton (1925) gave one of the more comprehensive coverages of the general geology of Arizona. It 

includes a summary of the "Carboniferous System" 

as well as an extensive documentation of the distribution of outcrops of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian strata. Much of the data presented was an 

outgrowth of fieldwork done cooperatively by the 

U.S. Geological Survey and the Arizona Bureau of 

Mines in connection with the first (Darton, 1924) 

State geologic map of Arizona. 

While a professor at the University of Arizona; 

Stoyanow (1926; 1936), assisted by students seeking advanced degrees (as well as those who worked 

during summer field seasons with the Arizona Bureau of Mines' geologic program), undertook to 

establish regional relationships of Paleozoic rocks in 

Arizona. Although much of the early paleontological 

work should be credited to G. H. Girty of· the U.S. 

Geological Survey, Stoyanow, also a paleontologist, 

examined and interpreted the significance of the 

paleontological highlights of the Carboniferous 

strata of the State. 

McKee (1951) made further paleogeographic interpretations over the entire State, including those 

relating to Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks. 

Havenor (1958) gave special emphasis to a review 

of the Pennsylvanian sedimentation framework in 

Arizona. Most recently, Purves (1976) has initiated 

a study. and review of the Mississippian System of 

Arizona. In addition to a comprehensive review of 

past studies, he has presented a list of 33 Basin and 

Range mountain blocks and other localities in which 

work on Mississippian strata has been done. Purves 

is attempting to refine statewide time-facies boun-
Z4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

daries by rigorous conodont zonation and petrographic studies. 

Many important later contributions have been 

made by studies of regions of lesser size than the 

State. Most such studies focus on either the Mississippian or Pennsylvanian systems and not on a 

"Carboniferous System." Soine of these include: 

Jackson (1951) ; McNair (1951) ; Huddle and 

Dobrovolny (1952) ; Hughes (1952) ; Sabins (1957) ; 

Thomas (1959) ; Fetzner (1960) ; Kottlowski 

(1960) ; Armstrong (1962) ; Hammer and Webster 

(1962); Lokke (1962); Kottlowski and Havenor 

(1962); Yochelson (1962); Sabins and Ross (1963); 

Winters (1963) ; Brew (1965) ; Finnell (1966a, 

1966b) ; McKee and Gutschick (1969); Lessentine 

(1969) ; Peirce and others (1970) ; Norby (1971) ; 

Blazey (1971) ; Ross (1973); Racey (1974); Smith 

(1974); Conyers (1975); McKee (1975a, 1975b); 

Kent (1975) ; Peirce and others (1977) ; and many 

others. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage 

of the Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral 

Technology. 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

CONTACTS 

Mississippian rocks almost everywhere overlie 

strata of Devonian age. In outcrop, this contact most 

commonly is described as showing conformity. In 

very few places, an erosional surface is evident a.nd 

relatively thin discontinuous conglomerates are 

present. In turn, Pennsylvanian rocks prevailingly· 

overlie Mississippian strata unconformably except 

in the subsurface near the Defiance positive area in 

east-central Arizona, where they overlap both Devonian strata and Precambrian granitic rocks (Peirce, 

1976, p. 40). 

In general, the cliffs formed by Mississippian 

rocks contrast markedly with· the ledge-slope terrain 

supported by a relatively thin sequence (usually less 

than 200 m) of Devonian strata. In detail, the appearance of lithologic gradation often hinders identifying a precise contact. liowever, faunal evidence 

suggests that a hiatus involving at least the lowermost Mississippian generally exists. Perhaps the-contact between ·nevonian and Mississippian rocks is 

most conveniently described as ·being a paraconformity. 

The Carboniferous of Arizona generally may be 

divided into both Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

formational components because an identifiable internal contact is present. That the contact may at 

times be subtle is suggested by the earlier tendency 

to lump these components together under one formational entity, such as Tornado limestone and Tule 

Spring limestone. Nevertheless, on more recent 

geologic maps, including the State geologic map 

(Wilson and others, 1969) at a scale of 1:500,000, 

Mississippian and Pennsylvanian strata are everywhere depicted as separate map_ units. Again, in outcrop, conformity is the prevailing appearance even 

though there generally is a hiatus involving late 

Mississippian and early Pennsylvanian time. In a 

regional sense, it seems essential that some minor 

angular discordance exists, at least locally. In central 

Arizona, a well-recognized thinning of Mississippian 

strata (fig~ 2) is associated, at least in part, with an 

upper subaerially generated Paleozoic erosion surface. This surface is readily identified in most of the 

petroleum test holes drilled in northeastern Arizona 

(Peirce and Scurlock, 1972). Here, Pennsylvanian 

strata appear to truncate Mississippian strata along 

the southern part of the Defiance positive area (fig. 

1). In outcrop, the Mississippian-aged cliff-forming 

limestones almost everywhere contrast with the 

!.edge and slope topography of overlying· Pennsylvanian strruta. 

Defining the top of Carboniferous, or Pennsylvanian, rocks in Arizona is a classic problem. The 

major stumbling block has been a paucity of critical chronological data preserved in either the highest Pennsylvanian or the lowest Permian rocks. Only 

one generally successful local effort has been made 

to define an acceptable and mappable PennsylvanianPermian systemic boundary, arid this was by Winters (1963) in east-central Arizona. Even this 

boundary, though convenient, is somewhat arbitrary 

because of the apparent .absence of diagnostic Early 

Permian fossil forms. More recently, McKee (1975a) 

redefined certain Pennsylvanian-Permian strata of a 

part of Grand Canyon. In so doing, he suggested 

that a Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary can be defined by a conglomerate that constitutes the base of 

Permian rocks in some sections. Elsewhere, thin 

conglomerate zones exist in many sections along the 

southern edge of the Plateau province (Peirce and 

others, 1977). Some are closely associated with a 

rather prolific record of plant fossils that ap-pear to 

occupy a position close to the. Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary (Bla.zey, 1971). Additional'investig~ 

tive effort may shed light on this time boundary. In 
0 I I I 

116± 

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AR.IZONA 

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FIGURE 2.-Thickness (in meters) of Mississippian rocks as inferred from present distribution. Dashed where uncertain. 

Z5 
Z6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS· IN THE UNITED STATES 

southern Arizona, the Pennsylvanian-Permian 

boundary is in a sequence of marine limestones that 

in places can be bracketed but not defined precisely. 

South of the Plateau is a broad region in which 

Pennsylvanian strata are overlain by Tertiary rocks. 

Overall, the upper contact between Carboniferous 

and Permian .rocks remains vague and generally 

within conformable stratal sequences. 

. STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORK 

During the ·Carboniferous, Arizona prohably occupied a shelf position relative to two geosynclines, 

the Cordilleran to the west and the Sonoran to the 

south. Strata of both systems thin to extinction in 

part of east-central ·Arizona. A stratal comparison 

clearly shows that this shelf position was much more 

stable during the Mississippian Period than during 

the Pennsylvanian. 

Mississippian strata consist of relatively quartz 

free limestones: that accumulated in a shallow openmarine environment. Overall thickness variations 

appear to be systematic (fig. 2). McKee (1969) 

noted that exposures in the Grand Canyon region 

reflect three transgression-regression episodes ranging in age from late Kinderhookian to Chesterian, 

the latter record being incomplete because of later 

exposure and erosion. The slight earth movements 

that affected the deposition and subsequent regional 

erosion of Mississippian strata might properly be 

classed as epeirogenic. The thinning and absence of 

these strata in parts of east-central Arizona seems 

to be related to both nondeposition. and erosion prior 

to the deposition of Pennsylvanian strata. 

In general, Pennsylvanian rocks are thicker, more 

varied, more siliceous, thinner bedded, and more 

cyclic than Mississippian rocks. The influence of 

tectonism, both regional and local, on the Pennsylvanian System in Arizona contrasts markedly with 

the Mississippian. Thinning over a short distance 

onto Precambrian granitic rocks in east-central Arizona may signify faulting during the early Pennsylvanian (fig. 3). This region seems to be a southwest 

edge of the so-called ancestral Rockies (Eardley, 

1962) that evolved during Pennsylvanian time. The 

principal post-Carboniferous structural events took 

place in Mesozoic and Cenozoic times. In Mesozoic 

time, a northwest-trending uplift centered southwest of the present Plateau edge, imparted a shallow 

northeast dip to the Plateau Paleozoic rocks. PreUpper Cretaceous erosion (probably Triassic and 

Jurassic) beveled Paleozoic strata and Precambrian 

rocks southward, thus exposing Carboniferous 

strata for the first time since original burial by 

Permian deposits. South of the structural high point, 

structural lowness may have prevailed as indicated 

by the preservation of much of the Paleozoic sequence in certain localities. However, local zones are 

present in this (once structurally l:ow) terrain 

where Cretaceous deposits rest depositionally upon 

Precambrian crystalline rocks (Empire mountains), 

thus demonstrating· the existence of at least local 

pre-Laramide·deformation and erosion . 

In a Late Cretaceous-early Cenozoic time, the entire State was affected by the so-called Laramide 

orogeny, at which time the present Rocky Mountains evolved. Plateau strata locally were folded and 

faulted along north- to northwest-trending fold axes 

of considerable length. In the south, igneous activity 

was widespread, ore deposits associated with much 

. fracturing were emplaced, and, according to some, 

thrusting was widespread (Drewes, 1977). Carboniferous rocks were important hosts for base-metal 

deposits in the south, whereas, to the north, some 

petroleum accumulations in Carboniferous rocks 

were controlled by structures derived at this time. 

Post-Laramide Cenozoic structural history is still 

being unraveled. Allochthonous blocks of Carboniferous rocks are well known in the Basin and Range 

province. To the extent that these blocks are associated with allochthonous Cenozoic rocks, the latest 

causal event must be Cenozoic in age. Preliminary 

evidence suggests: (1) a dislocative event during 

the lower Miocene between 13 and 20 m.y. ago followed by (2) the classic Basin and Range rifting 

event during late Miocene-Pliocene less than about 

15 m.y. ago (Peirce, 1976). This latter event defined, 

for the most part, the structural setting that controls the broader characteristics of the contemporary 

lands,cape south of the Plateau. 

GENERAL STRATIGRAPHY AND 

LITHOLOGY 

MISSISSIPPIAN 

Mississippian strata range in thickness from 0 to 

380m (1,250 ft). The greater thicknesses are in the 

northwest and southeast corners of Arizona; thinning to wedge-out beneath Pennsylvanian rocks 

(fig. 2) is found in east-central Arizona on the Defiance positive area of McKee (1951; Peirce and 

others, 1977, fig. 6). 

In the Plateau section of Arizona, the Mississippian strata are known by the name Redwall Limestone. A formal fourfold division into members is in 

general use. From the base upward, these units are 
.0 

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ARIZONA 

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:..-;00--;: = = ~ ~ ----- .... ----"' 

Z7 

-200 __ ..... ----..... , ~ 150 ..... -~ . · .. -~~ ~'{' .. 

. . /"' ·I 

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POSITIVE AREAl 

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FIGURE 3.-Thickness (in meters) of Pennsylvanian rocks as inferred from present distribution. 
zs THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

known as: (1) Whitmore Wash, (2) Thunder 

Springs, (3) Mooney Falls, and ( 4) Horseshoe Mesa. 

Generally, these members are recognizable in subsurface drill tests as well as in outcrop. 

The Redwall Limestone consists almost wholly of 

carbonate varieties and is generally free from ins·oluble residues, except chert. Granular carbonate 

rocks, ,especially crinoidal beds, predominate. Aphanitic limestone, dolomite, and chert are found in 

certain beds. 

According to McKee (1969), the first transgression began in western Grand Canyon in late Kinderhookian time ; the second, in Osagean time, was fol..: 

lowed by regression in Meramecian time. Evidence of 

a third transgression is indicated by isolated remnants of Chesterian-age rocks preserved locally at 

the top of the Redwall Limestone. An unknown 

thickness of this formation was removed before 

initial deposition of the overlying Supai Group in 

Grand Canyon, the Naco Formation in central Arizona, and the Black Prince,..Horquilla limestones of 

southern Arizona. 

The Mississippian rocks of southern Arizona have 

not been studied regionally in any detail by any one 

worker. Effort has been concentrated largely in 

southeastern Arizona where the rocks of this system 

are thickest (fig. 2). 

Thomas (1959) gave a brief summary of southeastern Mississippian highlights as then understood. 

Armstrong (I91>2) further defined lithologic and 

paleontological character found in extreme southeastern Arizona. He raised "Escabrosa" to group 

status and named two new formations: the Keating 

Formation below and the Hachita Formation above. 

Thus far, this terminology has not generally been 

used in southern Arizona because it does not appear 

to have regional application, especially to the west. 

Norby (1971) examined the conodont characteristics 

of eight widely distributed sections and provided 

additional lithologic detail. 

All workers emphasize the granular crinoidal 

fragments of the Escabrosa Limestone. Some lithographic limestone, dolomite, chert, and oolitic units 

are also present. More acid-insoluble material seems 

to be near the base. of the unit than is generally reported in the Grand Canyon country. This may be 

from the reworking of siliceous components of 

underlying Devonian strata. 

The youngest representative of Mississippian 

strata in Arizona is found in extreme southeastern 

Arizona in. the Chiricahua Mountains. It is known 

as the Paradise Formation and was first recognized 

by Stoyanow (1926, 1936). He described a 40-mthick sequence assigned to the Paradise Formation 

as being both distinctive from, and above, the Escabro~sa Limestone. This unit is thinner bedded and 

contains more siliceous components than does the 

Escabrosa Limestone, and is distinctly yellow where 

viewed from a distance. He considered it to be late 

Meramecian and early Chesterian in age. Nor by 

(1971), on the basis of conodonts, considered the 

Paradise Formation to be late early Chesterian and 

the upper beds of the Escabrosa Limestone to be 

early late Meramecian in age. Armstrong (1962) 

noted that during Chesterian time the crustal instability, so well reflected in Pennsylvanian strata, was 

initiated. He referred to a paleogeographic feature in 

northern New Mexico and east-central Arizona as 

the Penasco dome. This same feature had earlier 

been referred to as the Defiance positive area 

(McKee, 1951), a name that seems firmly entrenched in contemporary literature dealing with 

the Arizona geologic framework. The evidence contained in the Paradise Formation, as pointed out by 

Armstrong, probably reflects instability of this more 

positive area and southerly withdrawal of Mississippian seas. 

Norby (1971) assigned a late Kinderhookian age 

for the basal Escabrosa Limestone. Earlier, 

G. H. Girty (in Ransome, 1904) also had suggested 

that the lower Escabrosa Limestone is Kinderhookian in age. 

The following comments about the depositional 

environments reflected in Mississippian strata of 

southern Arizona are taken from Norby (1971, p. 

24), unless otherwise noted. 

Mississippian strata, for the most part, were deposited in a warm shallow sea of normal salinit.y. 

Micritic limestone may represent isolation from 

currents, whereas oolitic and pelletoid limestones 

suggest intermittent currents related to wave and 

(or) tidal action. The crinoidal calcarenites that are 

very characteristic of the upper half of the formation suggest widespread stability of conditions 

suitable for the growth of crinoids. Also, this debris 

is well sorted, which suggests significant current 

activity, perhaps near or at wave base. The Paradise 

Formation, containing a variety of shale, sandstone, 

and carbonate, indicates fluctuations of sea level and 

near-shore environments. Armstrong (1962) noted 

that plant fossils in some of the shales are indicative 

of the proximity to land. 

Norby suggested a rapid northwestward transgression in Kinderhookian time as well as a rapid 

regression in the late Meramecian. Seas reappeared 

in early Chesterian time,. as indicated in the Para-
AR,IZONA Z9 

·· dise Formation. Apparently a second transgression 

during Osagean time, analogous to that recognized 

by McKee in the Grand Canyon region, has not been 

defined. 

The relationship between Mississippian strata of 

the northern and the southern regions is not clear. 

In outcrop, near the geographical center of Arizona, 

a natural geographic basis is found for dividing 

these two domains. Stoyanow (1936), noting the 

thinning of Mississippian strata toward this region 

(fig. 2), as well as facies changes and local onlap of 

older Paleozoic strata, referred to the paleogeographic feature as Mazatzal land. Its original extent 

to the southwest is not known because of the general 

removal of Paleozoic rocks in that direction. However, on the basis of paleontological evidence, faunal 

intermingling may have been restricted; this restriction would indicate that a southwest-extending barrier may have existed. Figure 2 suggests that the 

thinning in central Arizona is related to activity on 

the Defiance positive area. 

PENNSYLVANIAN 

Pennsylvanian strata are thicker and more variable than Mississippian strata (fig. 3). They range 

in thickness from 0 to more than 725 m (2,370 ft) 

and include both continental and basinal deposits. 

McKee (1975b) gave an excellent discussion of 

statewide Pennsylvanian rocks. Ross (1973) provided a thorough discussion of Pennsylvanian depositional environments that prevailed in southern 

Arizona. 

Although the early workers lumped Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian strata together, it is now generally recognized that these two systems: are s:eparated by a hiatus that includes. the ~extremes of 

each period. Evidence of exposure and solutioning 

of Mississippian carbonate rocks to produce a 

karstic surf'ace is widespread. An insoluble chert 

rubble is present in many outcrop localities, and 

much of it has been reworked into basal Pennsylvanian beds. Red coloration of thi1s zone is characteristic where not s~wept clean by erosion. The 

contrast between red beds at the base of Pennsylvanian strata and the clean light-colored carbonate 

rocks of the Mississippian strata. makes· an important marker horizon in wells drilled in northe·astern 

Arizona. 

The Pennsylvanian system contains more marine 

carbonate rocks in each corner of the State than in 

the center, except in the ·southwest, where there is 

no known record. In central-northern Arizona 

(much of the Plateau), the ·amount of carbonate 

rocks decreas.es and the amount of red-bed clastic 

r.ocks deficient in fossils increaseS:; therefore, the 

upper limit of Pennsylvanian strata, for the most 

part, has not been effectively defined, especially in 

the subsurface. The clastirc red beds of much of 

the Plateau region are lumped into the Supai Formation, which consists largely of Permian strata in 

east-central Arizona near the Plateau margin. 

McKee (1975a) suggested a PennsylvanianPermian boundary in a part of the Grand Canyon, 

and Winters (1963) suggested a boundary in eastcentral Arizona. McKee recommended that the Supai 

be raised to group status and that new formations 

he recognized. Perhap1s, as a result of further study, 

a method for establishing regionally correlatable 

units within the Supai Formation will be found. 

However, stratigraphic keys· of regional extent will 

not be easily defined or accepted. 

In each of the corners where Pennsylvanian 

marine carbonate rocks exist, a Permian boundary 

-usually is described as occurring somewhere within 

a conformable stratal sequence. In central Arizona, 

along the Plateau edge escarpment, channel-fill and 

related deposits contain plant fossils that have yet 

to be studied. Regional stratigraphic considerations 

suggest that these plants are near the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary, but on which side i~:J not yet 

certain. Blazey (1971) did the initial work on plant 

forms from one fossiliferous locality. 

The approximate thickness extremes of Pennsylvanian strata in the three corners, as recorded by 

McKee (1975b), are: northwest, 335 m (1,100 ft) ; 

northeast, 550 m (1,800 ft); and southeast, 730 m 

(2,400 ft). Pennsylvanian strata are absent beneath 

Permian rocks on the Defiance positive area, and, in 

the center of the State where clastic rocks prevail, 

they are 90-180 m (300-600 ft) thick (fig. 3). 

The northwestern area probably contains the eastern marine edge of the Cordilleran geosyncline. The 

northeastern region is the edge of the Pennsylvanian 

Paradox basin of southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado. The marine rocks of the southeastern 

region, the thickest of Pennsylvanian age in Arizona, are considered a part of the Sonoran geosyncline. This relatively thick sequence in southeastern 

Arizona and New Mexico originally accumulated in 

what frequently is called the Pedregosa basin 

(Kottlowski, 1960). Kottlowski provided an excellent summary of the Pennsylvanian stratigraphy of 

the southern Arizona region. 

The recognition of three different marine sections, 

separated by a red-bed clastic section in the north-
Z10 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

ern region, has led to four different sets of nomenclature. Neither the eastern Nevada nor the 

southern Utah sections is reviewed here. 

NORTHERN REGION 

The marine section of eastern Nevada thins into 

northwestern Arizona, where red beds assigned to 

the Supai Formation dominate. McKee (1969, p. 88) 

suggested that the top of the Pennsylvanian System 

is marked by a distinctive limestone-siltstone pebble 

conglomerate "throughout Grand Canyon." Using 

this reference surface, McKee (1975a) elevated the 

Supai to group status and defined three new formations. He also raised the Permian Esplanade Sandstone from member to formational rank. The newly 

delineated Pennsylvanian units, from oldest to 

youngest, are: (1) Watahomigi Formation, (2) 

Manakacha Formation, and (3) Wescogame Formation. The last is overlain by the conglomerate 

thought to be Wolfcampian in age. The type sections 

for these units are in Havasu Canyon. 

The Watahomigi Formation unconformably overlies the Mississippian Redwall Limestone, is 65 m 

thick, contains largely limestone and mudstone in 

about equal parts, and is thought by McKee to be 

Morrowan and Atokan in age. The overlying Manakacha Formation is 77 m thick, consists of sandstone and minor mudstone, and is either Atokan or 

Desmoinesian in age. The Wescogame Formation is 

61 m thick, consists largely of massive crossbedded 

sandstone or sandy limestone, is probably of Virgilian age, and contains a basal conglomerate. Overlying the Wescogame Formation is the basal conglomerate of the Permian Esplande Sandstone, a 

prominent cliff-forming sandstone in Grand Canyon. 

Noble (1922) had divided the Supai Formation into 

three members lettered A, B, C from top to bottom. 

His measured section at Bass Canyon includes a conglomerate high in member B that probably is the 

conglomerate marker of McKee. 

East of Grand Canyon, Carboniferous rocks do not 

again crop out in Arizona. In the subsurface, these 

rocks are the prime objective ·in petroleum exploration in the Four Corners region. The nomenclature 

for Pennsylvanian strata in this region seems to be 

in a state of flux. In Utah (see chapter on Utah), 

Pennsylvanian rocks are thickest in the subsurface. 

They change facies and thin to the southwest in 

northeastern Arizona. The change southwestward 

is to undifferentiated red beds of the Supai 

Formation. 

CENTR!AL REGION 

Pennsylvanian rocks are exposed in canyons and 

cliffs associated with the southern edge of the 

Plateau-the Mogollon Rim escarpment (fig. 1). The 

exposure of Mississippian-Pennsylvanian ( ?) rocks 

to the south is in the walls of Oak Creek Canyon 

about 161 km (100 mi) from. Grand Canyon. Stratigraphic difference~s betwe·en the Grand Canyon to 

the north and the main Mogollon. Rim. s.egmenrt 

farther south and east emphasize the stratigraphic 

importance of the Oak Creek Canyon locality. No 

recognized diagnostic fossils are abo·ve Mississippian 

expo•sures; ·correlations must be based on lithology. 

Whereas McKee's Supai Group in Grand Canyon 

(Havasu Canyon) is about 335 m (1,100 ft) thi·ck, 

204 m of which is Penns.ylvanian, the Supai Formation in Oak Cre•ek Canyon is nearly 780 m (1,600 

ft) thick (Twenrter and Metzger, 1963). It is readily 

divisible into three principal lithologic units·: upper, 

middle, and lower, or A, B, and C, respectively. Although fossils are absent, the Supai Formation 

generally has been considered Pennsylvanian-Permian in age. Lim.e•stone-~siltsttone pebble conglomerates in the middle (B) slope-forming unit (84 m 

thick) might possibly bear a sjgnificant relationship to the Pennsylvanian conglome•rates of McKee 

at Grand Canyon. If so, then the lower 122-183 m 

( 400-600 ft) of the Supai Formation could be 

Pennsylvanian in age; thickness of the Pennsylvanian rocks in the Supai Group at Grand Canyon is 

similar. This lowest part contrasts with the remaining Supai in that it forms .cliffs and, in addition, 

certain beds contain vertically and horizontally 

oriented tubular chert phenomena. 

Forty-eight km (30 mi) farther south is Fossil 

Creek Canyon, an important stratigraphic reference 

point at the west-northwest end of the main Mogollon Rim of central Arizona. Along or beneath the 

rim, Carboniferous rocks are variably exposed for 

160 km (100 mi). At Fossil Creek, the stratigraphic 

section above the Mississippian limestone contains 

some fossiliferous limestone in the lowest 76 m 

(250 ft) ; the fossils are probably of Demoinesian 

age (Huddle and Dobrovolny, 1945). These rocks, 

combined with the Supai Formation, total about 

550 m (1,800 ft) in thickness. Again, there is no 

fully accepted Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary. 

However, beneath a conglomerate about 244m (800 

ft) above the top of the Mississippian, is a coaly 

zone from which spore-pollen has been recovered 

and examined. Several years ago I submitted a 

samp·le from this zone to Norman 0. Frederiksen, 
ARIZONA Zll 

then of the Socony Mobil Oil Co. He reported that 

the materials were probably lower Wolfcampian 

(Hueco) but that they could be as old as Upper 

Cisco (Virgilian). This coaly zone (this and the overlying conglomerate were first reported by Ransome 

in l916; Noble, in 1922, while discussing a Supai 

conglomerate in Grand Canyon, referred to Ransome's Supai conglomerate at Fossil Creek) and its 

stratigraphic setting, have been discussed by Peirce 

and others (1977). The zone is within a stratigraphic interval about 152 m (500 ft) thick that 

contains interbedded limestone-siltstone pebble conglomerates, the lowest of which is about 76 m 

(250 ft) below the coaly bed. This lowest conglomerate, in turn, is about 135 m ( 450 ft) above the 

limestone that contains Desmoinesian fossils. It 

seems possible, therefore, that the 213-m (700-ft) 

interval between the Desmoinesian limestone and 

the possible lower Wolfcampian coaly zone includes 

all Missourian and either all or part of Virgilian 

time. 

Lithologic correlations can probably be made between Oak Creek Canyon and Fossil Creek Canyon 

even though the latter section is thicker. Except for 

the fossiliferous limestone near the base of the Fossil Creek section, the sections appear analogous 

although not identical. A threefold division seems 

reasonable at both localities, the conglomerates falling into the middle or B unit. Most likely the B unit 

contains the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary in 

both locations. Brew (1965) suggested that the 

Pennsylvanian strata of central Arizona are no older 

than Desmoinesian. If Brew is correct in his age 

assignment, then the Watahomigi (Morrowan) of 

McKee in Grand Canyon is not represented in central 

Arizona sections. Because of the Atokan and (or) 

Desmoinesian age range assigned to the Manakacha, 

it may or may not be represented in central Arizona. 

However, the Wescogame of "probable" Virgilian 

age, which has a basal conglomerate, could have 

representation in the middle, or B, unit. A time and 

lithostratigraphic correlation with the Permian 

Esplanade Sandstone, and its Wolfcampian basal 

conglomerate, theoretically could fall within the A 

unit (largely sandstone) of Oak Creek Canyon. 

McKee's data indicate that Missourian time in the 

Grand Canyon region- is represented by an hiatus. 

Brew suggested that the conglomerate-bearing unit 

(middle, or B) in central Arizona is Missourian in 

age. This is a projection from 80 km to the east and 

is not supported by actual paleontological data in or 

near Fossil Creek. I suggest .that the data from the 

coaly bed limit the amount of section, if any, that 

should be assigned to the Missourian. The conglomerates represent erosional hiatuses in which unknown quantities of section were removed. At 

present, it seems more appropriate to consider them 

a part of a section that is probably Virgilian-Wolfcampian rather than Missourian. On this basis, the 

Missourian hiatus postulated by McK·ee in Grand 

Canyon may extend, at least in part, to the Oak 

Creek and Fossil Creek localities. 

If correlation with the Grand Canyon section of 

McKee is attempted, the following possibilities 

should be considered: W atahomigi-not represented; Manakacha-lower, or C; W escogamemiddle, or B; Esplanade Sandstone-upper, or A 

and, possibly, part of middle, or B. 

The Pennsylvanian strata of central Arizona, including the subsurface, are referred to the Pennsylvanian-Permian Supai Formation, the Naco Formation of Pennsylvanian age, or both. The Naco Formation was defined in southern Arizona and originally 

included Permian rocks. Whereas the southern Arizona section now includes a Naco Group, a Naco 

Formation is still used in central Arizona in both the 

northern part of the Basin and Range province and 

the southern Plateau province. 

Eastward and southward from Fossil Creek, the 

thickness of sections containing non-red Pennsylvanian age strata increases. The thickness of the 

non-red section, dominated by limestone and gray 

shale, increases from a few meters at Fossil Creek 

to more than 370 m in the Carrizo Creek-Salt River 

Canyon area 130 km distant. Although this change 

usually is described as gradual throughout this distance, a significant ·change occurs across a zone 

near Canyon Creek, only 48 km from the Carrizo 

Creek-Salt River region (Peirce and others, 1977). 

The contrast in sections at the extremes, that is, 

Oak Creek to the north and the Salt River Canyon 

region to the south, traditionally has been explained 

as a northwesterly gradation to Supai Formation 

as if there were meter-by-meter replacement. Using 

the top of the Mississippian limestone (Redwall) 

and the bottom of the Permian Fort Apache Member of the Supai Formation as marker horizons, we 

find that this Pennsylvanian-Permian interval in the 

Carrizo-Salt River. area is 610 m (2,000 ft) thick. 

At Fossil Creek, the thickness is 503 m (1650 ft) and 

at Oak Creek Canyon, about 380m (1,250 ft). Most 

of this thinning appears to be in rocks of Pennsylvanian age. In addition to the simple thinning, a 

lateral facies change is represented by loss of limestone west of Canyon Creek. These changes are 

found beneath the lowest bed in which conglomer-
Z12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

ates appear all across the region. The presence of 

Desmoinesian fauna in a thin marine limestone near 

the base of the Pennsylvanian section at Fossil 

Creek, coupled with a Desmoinesian through Virgilian marine fauna at Garrizo-Salt River, suggests an 

offlap relationship. This helps to explain the contrasts in both thickness and facies that are seen 

mostly within Pennsylvanian rocks. In central Arizona, these changes might be explained more naturally by a waning Naco Formation history than by 

the onset of a contrasting complex Supai depositional history. 

Brew (1965) studied the stratigraphy of the 

Naco Formation in outcrop along the Mogollon Rim 

southeastward to the point where Paleozoic rocks 

pass beneath the volcanic rocks of the White Mountain· region. He divided this formation into Alpha, 

Beta, and Gamma members from the base upward. 

The Alpha Member, representing the red clastic zone 

related to the karstic surface that is extensive above 

the Redwall Limestone in this region (Huddle and 

Dobrovolny, 1952), ranges from 12 to 27m in thickness. The Beta Member makes up most of the Naco 

Formation in the rim region. The thickest complete 

section of Beta Member measured by Brew is 210m. 

The member may be about 256 m thick in the southeast where complete continuous sections are not 

known. Brew ( 1965, p. 50) wrote: --"the member 

is a richly fossiliferous succession of ledge-forming 

gray, brownish-gray, and olive gray limestone with 

interspersed intervals of slope-forming calcareous 

shale, shaly mudstone, mudstone, and less common 

siltstone * * * * ." 

According to Brew, the most complete depositional 

record preserved in the Beta Member is to the southeast. He suggested that a cliff-making section 55 m 

thick near Black River but not present to the northwest, probably represents the northernmost extension of the typical Pennsylvanian Horquilla Limestone, the oldest formation of the Naco Group (Gilluly and others, 1954) of southeast Arizona. At 

Black River, this Horquilla-like part of the Naco 

section is indicated by Brew to be middle and upper 

Desmoinesian in age. 

Brew (1965, p. 57) made the following observation of the higher Missourian part of the Beta Member at Black River: "-one horizon contains a lenticular bed of conglomerate with red quartzite 

pebbles and quartz sand in the matrix. The source 

area of the quartzite is as yet undetermined, but 

the presence of this bed clearly indicates a departure 

from the prevailing marine conditions." 

The highest member of the Naco Formation of 

Brew in this central Arizona region is the Gamma 

Member. It is, in parts of the region, readily distinguished from the underlying Beta Member because 

of the presence of more red and brown clastic rocks 

and less limestone, which leads to longer slopes. Brew 

suggested that this unit is a transition between the 

marine conditions of the Naco Formation and the 

nonmarine conditions of the lower Supai Formation 

and that it ranges in thickness from 21 m at Fossil 

Creek Canyon, the northwesternmost locality, to 

about 91 m toward the southeast. Brew stated that 

this member is difficult to define objectively in the 

northwestern sections because fossiliferous limestone is absent, red beds of the Naco Formation are 

present below the member, and red beds of the 

Supai Formation are above. Brew noted, but did not 

emphasize, conglomerates to the southeast in the 

Gamma Member. It seems surprising that at Fossil 

Creek Canyon he drew an upper boundary of the 

Gamma-therefore, the top of the Naco Formationbelow the entire section that contains conglomerates, the best exposed set of conglomerates along the 

rim. He also suggested that the lower contact of the 

Gamma Member is time-transgressive, being older 

to the west and younger to the east. More specifically, he visualized this contact to the east to be 

very latest Pennsylvanian in age (possibly even lowest Permian) and Desmoinesian at Fossil Creek to 

the west. I think that the conglomerate and floral 

data previously mentioned may have significant correlative value. At Fossil Creek, the coaly unit (not 

recognized by Brew), probably either latest Virgilian or earliest Wolfcampian in age, is estimated 

to be approximately 76 m above Brew's Gamma 

Member top in what he calls Supai Formation of' 

Missourian age. Brew's age designations and definitions of a Gamma Member at Fossil Creek, as he 

himself hints, are probably subject to revision. 

As pointed out, Brew's attention was attracted to 

a conglomerate in his Missourian (Beta) section to 

the southeast because it contained quartzite clasts 

and quartz sand. He described "intraformational" 

conglomerates in several sections of the Gamma 

Member. In a later study, Peirce and others (1977) 

recognized Gamma Member conglomerates that contain large feldspar and quartz grits, as·well as quartzite, chert, and calcarenite clasts. These are not 

"intraformational" conglomerates. They are evidence of tectonic activity along the. Defiance positive 

area that was to the east and northeast. They are 

not directly related to a Supai Formation delta prograding towards the southeast, Brew's explanation 
ARIZONA Z13 

for the seeming younging of the Gamma Member to 

the southeast. More likely, transgressive-regressive 

cycles, responsive to regional tectonic or climatic 

activity, are the major cause for the shallow-water 

to subaerial environments that alternate vertically. 

That land areas supporting lush vegetation existed 

from time to time is suggested by plant fossils and 

carbonaceous zones that are closely related to conglomerates. In the transition phase (Gamma Member) of Brew, little evidence is seen of deposition in 

a classic deltaic environment, which is frequently 

invoked to explain Supai Formation-Naco Formation 

relationships. The hiatuses are probably longer than 

usually is recognized. Havenor (in Kottlowski and 

Havenor, 1962, .p. 79) is credited with suggesting: 

"-that deltaic beds are only a minor part of the 

Supai sequence, believing that the lower Supai red 

beds and ·carbonate rocks (Gamma Member of 

Brew) are predominately shallow-water marine deposits laid down in a shallow ephemeral sea,...-where 

a lowering of sea level by only a few feet may have 

ex.posed several hundred square miles of the sea 

bottom." 

The entire Naco Formation in the Mogollon Rim 

outcrop region is as much as 360 m (1,180 ft) thick 

in the eastern region. To the west, both in outcrop 

and in the subsurface, it thins and changes to strata 

referred to the Supai Formation. To the east in the 

subsurface, it may thicken before it rather abruptly 

wedges against the Precambrian rocks of the Defiance positive area paleogeographic feature. The 

environments that prevailed along the interface of" 

the Naco seaway and the positive area in which 

sand-producing granite was exposed are not known 

and have not been tested by drilling. The subsurface 

onlap and pinchout of Pennsylvanian strata to the 

northeast has been discussed by Lokke (1962) and 

Peirce (1970; 1976; 1977). 

To the south, but still in central Arizona, isolated 

exposures of Pennsylvanian strata are found in 

various mountain ranges where they are everywhere truncated beneath Cretaceous (CliftonMorenci, Deer Creek, Christmas) or Tertiary (Superior, Mescal Mountains, and so forth) rocks. 

Although the name Naco Formation is used in the 

Mogollon Rim region, the Naco Limestone of Stoyanow (1936) is in use farther south to describe 

Pennsylvanian rocks. However, still farther south, 

where Permian marine. strata overlie Pennsylvanian 

strata, the nomenclature is again changed, and the 

names Black Prince Limestone, Horquilla Limestone, 

and Earp Formation are used to describe the Pennsylvanian and Pennsylvanian-Permian section. 

Occasionally, attempts are made to carry or extend the southern terminology northward. Recall 

that Brew noted a possible representative of the 

Horquilla Limestone at Black River. Also, the transitional aspect of the Gamma Member is analogous 

in some ways. to the Earp Formation farther south 

(Ross, 1973). The thickest of the partial Pennsylvanian sections approximates 427 m (1,400 ft) at 

Coolidge Dam to the east and at Superior to the 

west. Kottlowski and Havenor (1962) noted that, 

although limestone and siliciclastic rocks are present 

in about equal amounts at Superior, the limestone at 

the Coolidge Dam locality is more abundant. This 

west-to-east increase in limestone may bear a direct 

relationship to the west-to-east increase in limestone 

along the rim 100 km to the north. This im-plies a 

lithologic variance trend that would lie in the northeast-southwest quadrants. Evidence, which is 

pointed out later, suggests that such a trend might 

well have extended into southwestern Arizona. 

SOUTHEASTERN REGION 

In southeastern Arizona, Pennsylvanian as well as 

Permian strata are contained within the Naco 

Group. Units now considered to be Pennsylvanian in 

age are the basal Black Prince. Limestone and overlying Horquilla Limestone. The Earp Formation 

overlies the latter and is believed to contain an undefined Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary. 

The Black Prince Limestone was named by GilJuly and others (1954) and originally was considered Mississippian in age, but a Pennsylvanian age 

is not totally discounted. Although thinner, the base 

of the Black Prince in several sections appears 

analogous to the Alpha Member of the Naco Formation of Brew to the north. The similarity is derived 

from the erosion (solution) of the underlying cherty 

carbonate rocks of the Mississippian Escabrosa 

Limestone and the production of red beds and associated, often reworked, residual chert. The unit, 

ranging in thickness from 36 to 85 m, contains limestones not unlike the Escabrosa and Horquilla Limestones. Later, Nations (1963) concluded that this 

formation is lowermost Pennsylvanian (Morrowan) 

in age, and that the Mississippian fossils were reworked from below. The Black Prince Limestone is 

not everywhere recognized in southeastern Arizona; 

where it is absent, the Horquilla Limestone (Naco 

limestone as restricted by Stoyanow) overlies the 

Mississippian Escabrosa Limestone or, in extreme 

southeastern ·Arizona, the Paradise Formation. 

The Horquilla Limestone ranges from 305 to 

400 m (1,000 to 1,600 ft) in thickness and contains 
Zl4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN .THE UNITED STATES 

some beds of red and green mudstone that impart a 

topographic character of steep slopes containing 

many ledges. The Horquilla Limestone is more 

abundantly fossiliferous than the underlying Mississippian strata and contains fusulinids, which the latter does not (Bryant, 1968). Most of the Pennsylvanian strata in southern Arizona are contained in 

the Horquilla Limestone, and most of the Pennsylvanian section of Brew is contained in the Beta 

Member of the Naco Formation. 

Ross (1973) did a detailed study of the Pennsyl-. 

vanian and early Permian depositional history of 

southeastern Arizona. He included the Mogollon Rim 

region as far west as Fossil Creek Canyon. Although 

this work is much too detailed to be included here, 

the regional integration accomplished is commendable. Among his conclusions are: (1) the Black 

Prince Limestone is recognizable as far northwest 

as the Superior section, (2) the conglomerate-bearing section at Fossil Creek contains the Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary, (3) the Naco Formation of 

Brew in central Arizona can be treated as the Horquilla Limestone and Earp Formation, and ( 4) 

depositional history is complex and involves concurrent faulting as well as many hiatuses. 

The westernmost exposure of Pennsylvanian 

strata of the southeastern type occurs in the Vekol 

Mountains in the southwestern corner of Pinal 

County. Ross (1973) suggested that the remaining 

183 m (600 ft) of limestone represents the lower 

part of the Horquilla Limestone and that the section 

consists of about 80 percent carbonate rocks, a percentage known elsewhere only in extreme southeastern Arizona. About 161 km (100 mi) to the 

northwest, in the Harquahala Mountains, Varga 

(1977, p. 6) reported that Supai Formation was 

found above Redwall Limestone. He described the 

Supai Formation as consisting dominantly of 

"quartzite interbedded with minor limestone and 

phyllite layers," the section, though folded and metamorphosed, approximating 365 m (1,200 ft) in 

thickness. 

The contrast between the Vekol and Harquahala 

sections demands explanation, ·whether forthcoming 

or not. These sections might not now have the same 

geographic relationships, one to the other, as when 

originally deposited. However, a northeast-trending 

line between the Supai and Naco formations in central Arizona can be projected between these sections. 

Perhaps a regional major northeast depositional 

strike is involved that could bear some relationship 

to .Stoyanow's "Mazatzal land" trend. 

GENERAL PALEONTOLOGY 

The following remarks are directed more toward 

the contributions to stratigraphic understanding 

made through paleontological study than to a listing 

of fossils. 

The paleontology of Arizona Carboniferous rocks 

has not been exhaustively treated in any single published work. Whereas the Grand Canyon and Mogollon Rim of northern Arizona offer outcrop continuity, the Basin and Range province of southern Arizona presents a disconcerting discontinuity, and a 

plethora of local studies is the result. Only some 

very general highlights are offered here. 

Most of the fossils attributed to the Arizona Carboniferous lived in marine environments. Although 

plant remains are relatively scarce, they may offer 

hope for making progress on the PennsylvanianPermian boundary question in central Arizona. The 

recognition of an extensive plant-fossil community 

in that region is such a new development that opportunities for original research still remain. Peirce 

and others (1977, p. 49) noted an unidentifiable 

bone fragment in a conglomerate from the Gamma 

Member of the Naco Formation of Brew (1965), 

thus hinting at another potential source of historical 

information. 

The volume of paleontological literature seems to 

be weighted in favor of Pennsylvanian rocks, where 

Fusulinacea offer a special attraction. However, this 

and the study of microfossils is a late development 

because the earlier workers focused attention on the 

megafossil groups. Today, research effort seems to 

be directed to the study of conodonts as a possible 

means for refined zonation. 

The earliest reference to Carboniferous strata in 

northern Arizona is attributed to Marcou (1856). 

Gilbert (1875) suspected that certain fossils in 

Grand Canyon represented "Lower Carboniferous" 

and other fossils, a "Coal Measures" fauna. Darton 

(1925) presented the first general summary of Arizona geology and included a section on the "Carboniferous System," where Carboniferous fossils are 

listed. Early studies clearly show that the general 

zonation of Mississippian strata was well outlined 

in the early 1900's. 

MISSISSIPPIAN 

Much of the pioneer paleontological work was 

done by scientists of the U.S. Geological Survey. 

G. H. Girty, in particular, studied many of the collections made by the eminent early field geologists 

such as N. H. Darton and F. L. Ransome. It was 
ARIZONA Z15 

Girty, as reported in Ransome (1904), who recognized Mississippian and Pennsylvanian fossils in the 

Bisbee quadrangle. In Girty's opinion, both Kinderhookian and Osagean time were represented, but 

Chesterian time was not. Furthermore, he thought 

that certain forms represented a slightly younger 

age than Osagean. These conclusions· have not been 

seriously changed by subsequent research. 

The absence of Chesterian strata in southern Arizona, except in the Chiricah ua Mountains (Paradise 

Formation), now is recognized throughout the Basin 

and Range province wherever Mississippian rocks 

have been studied. Girty's deductions appear to have 

stemmed largely from his knowledge of brachiopods. 

Stoyanow (1926, 1936) briefly reviewed Paleozoic 

correlations in Arizona by using paleontology as a 

major tool. He emphasized the paleontological separation of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian limestones where they had been lumped together as a 

map unit. He recognized that Carboniferous geologic history could not properly be unraveled until 

the two systems were mapped separately. He extended to central Arizona the region in which upper 

Mississippian .strata are absent. At the same time, 

he defined the upper Mississippian Paradise Formation in the Chiricahua Mountains of extreme southeastern Arizona, recognizing these strata as being 

late Meramecian and early Chesterian in age. 

Stoyanow apparently used crinoids, brachiopods, and 

bryozoans to advantage. 

At the time of Stoyanow's writing (1936), the 

fossils of the Grand Canyon Redwall Limestone had 

not been studied in any detail. However, a section of 

Redwall Limestone at Jerome, on the Grand Canyon 

side of Stoyanow's Mazatzal land, had been studied 

by C. E. Wooddell (1927), a Stoyanow student. From 

this work, Stoyanow noted forms in the Redwall 

Limestone not present in the Escabrosa Limestone 

and vice versa (at a much later date, Sando (1964) 

was to study corals of the Redwall Limestone and 

draw a similar conclusion). Stoyanow (1936) also 

said that the Redwall Limestone section at Jerome 

was late Kinderhoo·ldan and Osagean in age, a ·conclusion that apparently remains valid. 

McKee and Gutschick (1969) collected extensively 

from the Redwall Limestone of the Plateau region. 

Their collections contain 17 animal groups and 1 

plant group. Many of these groups were studied extensively by specialists, and the results were reported by McKee and Gutschick (1969). 

Elsewhere, McKee (1969) wrote that the larger 

Redwall fossil groups are in distinctive associations, 

the most important being the coral-brachiopodcrinoid, foraminifer-brachiopod, and brachiopodbryozoan. Many of the Redwall fossils are either 

local or long ranging, and thus of little stratigraphic 

value. However, the foraminifers, brachiopods, and 

corals ar.e useful zone indicators. 

According to Betty Skipp (in McKee and Gutschick, 1969~ p. 173-256), the foraminiferal succession in the Redwall Limestone ranges from late 

Kinderhookian to middle Meramecian in age. McKee 

and Gutschick, referring to brachiopod studies then 

in progress by J. T. Dutro, Jr., said that these forms 

range in age from late Kinderhookian into Mera ... 

mecian, and that Chesterian is represented in one 

section at Bright Angel Trail. In summarizing 

paleontological studies, these workers concluded that 

all other fossil groups represent lesser parts of the 

stratigraphic section and are of ages between the 

extremes indicated. 

W. J. Sando (also in McKee and Gutschick, 1969, 

p. 257-343) provided an interesting-. discussion of 

corals. Among other things, he suggested that the 

Redwall Limestone is linked more closely to the 

Madison Group of the northern Cordilleran region 

than to the Escabrosa Limestone of the southern 

region. 

Some prel.iminary conodont studies by students· at 

Arizona State University (Norby, 1971; Racey, 

1974; Walter, 1976) suggest that detailed CJonodont 

work might assist in determining close zonation of 

Mississipian rocks. Nor by recorded a more complete 

conodont zonation for the Escabrosa Limestone of 

southern Arizona than did Racey in central Arizona, 

or Walter to the northwest in Redwall country. Cur~ 

rently, W. J. Purves, a University of Arizona doctoral candidate, is making a comprehensive· study of 

the Mississippian of Arizona ·with emphasis on conodont zonation and deta.iled carbonate petrology. 

PENNSYLVANIAN 

The recognition of Pennsylvanian fossns., quite 

naturally, was contemporaneous with the studies 

that led to the recognition of juxtaposed Mississippian forms. Noble (1922) pointed out that it was 

F. B. Meek who identified Pennsylvanian forms for 

Gilbert (1875) in western Grand Canyon in beds 

that Noble later correlated with the lowest unit of 

Noble's redefined Supai Formation (C) and that 

McKee (1975a) called the Watahomigi Formation. 

Although McKee stated that Pennsylvanian fossils 

bear direct relationships to conglom·erate beds, his 

type section descriptions do not reflect the presence 

of fossils. McKee (1975b, p. 297) later said: "The 

discovery * * * of invertebrate fossils, including 
Z16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

fusulinids .and brachiopods, extensively distributed 

in the Grand Canyon region throughout the rocks 

called Supai has greatly clarified the age relations. of 

various rock units in that formation * * *" We hope 

that future clarification of this statement will shed 

additional light on the specific fossil localities that 

for so long have escaped the attention of many 

geologists. 

Darton (1925) ci,ted many lists of fossils· collected 

from various localities within the Basin and Range 

province that were identified, largely by G. H. Girty, 

as Pennsylvanian. Girty's studies also led to the recognition that strata lumped into Ransome's (1904) 

original Naco lim,estone contained Permian (Hueco) 

forms. 

Gilluly, Cooper, and Williams (1954) raised the 

Naco to group status 3!nd differentiated six formations in central Cochise County. Their Pennsylvanian representatives were the Horquilla Limestone 

(Atokan to mid-Virgilian ?) and Earp. Formation 

(Virgilian and basal Wolfcampian). Nations (1963) 

determined that the Black Prince Limestone beneath 

the Horquilla Lim,estone also is Pennsylvanian in 

age (Morrowan). Bryant (1955) gave considerable 

attention to the Earp Formation, and Rea and Bryant (1968) discussed an important marker conglomerate within the Earp Formation~ 

Both Winters (1963) and Brew (1965) provided 

essential pal,eontological data relevant to Pennsylvanian stratigraphy in the Mogollon Rim region. 

Lo}{ke (1962) provided a surface to subsurface correlation of Pennsylvanian strata along the southern 

edge of the plateau. He said that fossiliferous. surface rocks tend to change to an unfossiliferous redbed sequence northward, and this change complicates dating and correlation of strata northward. He 

emphasized this point by noting that whereas 32 

fusulinid-bearing intervals were recognized in the 

surface section (Salt River-Carrizo area), only one 

interval was observed in the subsurface about 70 

km to the north. Fortunately, this one interval afforded a time horizon that enabled him to conclude 

that, northward (p. 85) : "* * * significant thinning 

of Pennsylvanian sediments must be recognized in 

addition to the previously described (by other 

workers) interfingering of red clastics with .Naco 

subsurface equivalents." 

Bla~ey (1971) investigated a plant fossil locality 

in a newly opened uranium prospect (Peirce and 

others, 1977) under Promontory Butte along the 

rim, and studied both macrofossils and microfossils. 

He identified 21 spe¢ies in 18 genera of macrofossils, 

and 41 species in 29- genera of microfossils. This is 

a significant locality because it is within a sequence 

of "Supai Formation" clastic rocks that otherwise 

are not fossiliferous. According to Blazey (.p. 30) : 

The floral composition, although not unusual, has two 

rather striking features in contrast to other floras of 

late Paleozoic age. These are: ( 1) the complete lack of 

lycopsids, which are almost always associated with form 

genera of 1sphenopsids and pteridophylls, and (2) the 

association of younger typically Permian types with 

older typically P~ennsylvanian types. Together these features present a transitional character to the floral 

composition. 

Blazey concluded that the plant zone is near the 

P;ennsylva.nian-Permi.an boundary, and he seemed 

to thin that it was prob3!bly Permian (Wolfcampian). This zone probably correlates with the 

coaly bed at Fossil Creek 40 km to the west. 

Brew (1965) described his Gamma Member of the 

Naco Formation at Carrizo Creek as "Post-Virgilian," but not Wolfcampian, in age. One wonders 

if both these workers saw transitional floras and 

faunas. Peirce and others (1977), on the basis of 

conglomerates, correlated these two zones. The Promontory Butte locality does not contain the limestone that is p·resent at sections to the east, but this 

difference is attributed to lateral changes influenced 

by mild tectonic activity west of Canyon Creek. 

Ross ( 1973) reported the results of the most detailed stratigraphic zonation of Pennsylvanian 

strata ever undertaken in the Arizona Basin and 

Range province, including the Mogollon Rim as far 

w~est as Fossil Creek Canyon. This work is an excellent example of the kind of stratigraphic detail that 

is made pos.sible by meticulous paleontological zonation. In this study, stratigraphic refinement evolved, 

in large part, from the study of fusulinids. However, 

in the absence of fossil data, especially westward 

along the Mogollon Rim, geologi~sts must make subjective decisions, and I think that Ross' correlations 

at Fossil Creek should seriously be questioned. 

Whereas Pennsylvanian seas made few inroads 

into the northwestern and northeastern corners of 

Arizona, they transgressed extensively in the southeastern corner. Ross depicts northwesterly transgression and divides the depositional framework into 

basinal and flanking-shelf facies. Pennsylvanian 

marine strata of Desmoinesi.an age extended as far 

north as Fossil Creek in central Arizona. However, 

the seas here were ephemeral and regressed south 

and east for the remainder of Pennsylvanian time. 

True basinal facies formed only in the Pedregosa 

basin of extreme southeastern Arizona wlfere, according to Ross, the combined Pennsylvanian-lower 

Permian sequence 'attains a maxim·lim thickness of 
ARIZONA Z17 

TABLE !.-Principal users of Carboniferous rocks and products in 1977 

Location 

(Number shown 

in fig. 1) 

Field (oil and minor gas) 

Producer 

(Jan. 1, 1978) 

Apache County 

1. Teec Nos Pos, Navajo Indian Energy Reserves Group ------------

Reservation. 

2. East Boundary Butte, Navajo Merrion and Bayless ---------------

. Indian Reserva.tion. 

3. Dry Mesa, Navajo Indian Monsanto Co ---------------------

Reservation. 

4. Dineh-bi-Keyah, Navajo Indian Kerr-McGee Corp ------------------

Reservation. 

Total oil production 1954-77 __________ 16.2 million barrels 

Cave (commercial) 

5. Highway 66, Grand Canyon 

Caverns. 

Limestone products 

6. Nelson siding, Santa Fe 

Railroad. 

7. Clarkdale ---------------------

8. Near Miami -------------------

9. Morenci ----------------------

10. Hayden ----------------------

11. 6 miles southeast of San ManueL 

12. Rillito ------------------------

13. North e·nd Santa Rita Mountains 

Yavapai County 

U.S. Lime Division, The Flintkote Co. 

Amcord, Inc., Phoenix Cement Co. __ 

Gila County 

Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co. _ 

Greenlee County 

Phelps Dodge Corp ----------------

Pinal County 

(1) McFarland-Hullinger for 

ASARCO; (2) Kennecott Copper 

Corp. 

Magma Copper Corp 

Pima County 

Arizona Portland Cement Co., Div. 

Calif. Portland Cement Co. 

Andrada Marble Co. ---------------

Total Carboniferous quarried (1976): estimated 2.5 million short tons. Quicklime and cement produced (1976) : estimated 1.2 million short tons. Value of quicklime and cement produced (1976): estimated $42 million. 

Formation source, products, and 

facilities 

Pennsylvanian Paradox Formation; 

3 wells. 

Pennsylvanian Paradox Formation; 

4 wells. 

Mississippian Redwall Limestone; 

3 wells. 

Igneous sill in Pennsylvanian 

Paradox Formation; 18 wells. 

In: Mississippian Redwall Limestone. 

Mississippian Red wall Limestone; 

quarry and kilns; lime products. 

Mississippian Red wall Limestone; 

quarry and plant; cement. 

Mississippian Escabrosa Limestone; 

quarry; metallurgical flux and lime 

for copper processing. 

Mississippian Modoc Limestone; 

quarry; metallurgical flux and lime 

for copper processing. 

MissiSISippian Escabrosa Limestone; 

2 mills and smelters; 2 quarries; 

metallurgical flux and lime for 

copper processing. 

Pennsylvanian Horquilla Limestone; 

quarry; metallurgical flux and lime 

for copper processing. 

Mississippian Redwall Limestone and 

Pennsylvanian Horquilla Limestone; quarry and plant; cement. 

Mississippian Escabrosa Limestone 

(marble); roofing granules, feed 

additive, landscaping. 
Z18 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS. IN THE UNITED STATES 

about 1,800 m (6,000 ft). According to Ross, faulting during Pennsylvanian time influenced lithofacies 

distribution. 

UTILIZATION OF CARBONIFEROUS ROCKS 

Carboniferous rocks in Arizona are used both 

directly (materials quarried and processed) and 

indirectly (commercialized caverns; sources of petroleum). Table 1 presents a summary of principal exploitation sites, producers, uses, and some 

quantitative estimates of production and value. We 

estimate that the value level for all uses of Carboniferous rocks in Arizona has reached $50 million per 

year. Cement and quicklime are the two major products sold in interstate commerce, constituting about 

80 percent of this estimated total dollar value·. Much 

of the remainder is produced by internal operations 

managed by copper producers in connection with 

the processing of copper ores and concentrates, principally lime for pH control in mill flotation circuits 

and as limestone flux iin smelters. Use in acid neutralization may increase in the future. The varied 

uses of limestone and additional data about limestone in Arizona have been discussed by Keith 

(1969). 

The prime contributors to the limestone-derived 

products in Arizona are the two Mississippian carbonate units. The Red wall Limestone in and near, the 

Plateau province supports two major limestone 

products operations· (Nos. 6 and 7 in fig. 1 and table 

1), and the Escabrosa Limestone in the Basin and 

Range province supports one large cement plant 

west of Tucson (no. 12). 

Petroleum production in Arizona is miniscule, 

amounting to slightly more than 16 million barrels 

since the first discovery in 1954. Most of this has 

been produced since 1967 when the largest field, 

Dineh-bi-Keyah (Navajo for "The People's Field"), 

was discovered. Although much of the petroleum 

production in the Four Corners region is closely 

related to Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) rocks, the 

reservoir at Dineh-bi-Keyah is an igneous sill in 

Pennsylvanian strata. The sill is believed to be early 

Tertiary in age and occupies the crestal part of an 

anticlinal structure. In general, the petroleum potential in northern Arizona is limited by the large region of thin nonmarine Pennsylvanian strata (fig. 

3). Although petroleum. occurrences of significance 

are not known in southern Arizona, effort is being 

made to evaluate deep structural attributes in that 

area. 

A solution cave, such as the well-patronized Grand 

Canyon Caverns (no. 5) west of Flagstaff on busy 

: Route 66, is an example of indirect usage. This cave 

' extends downward from the present surface, which 

happens to be the exhumed Redwall LimestoneSupai Formation contact. The present cave may be 

related. to the karst surface that formed in Late Mis-

, sissippian-Early Pennsylvanian time. The cave 

seems devoid of speleothems and therefore ap·pears 

inactive. Perhaps the original dissolving action is a 

Paleozoic feature, and the more recent history has 

been devoted to washing out in-filled debris. 

Carboniferous rocks were important to southern 

Arizona's mineralization and ore-develop·ment history. Many of the larger metallic mineral districts 

began with the mining of rich replacem.ent deposits 

that formed in altered Carboniferous lim:estone. The 

close association of these limestones with mineralization explains their early study by geologists of the 

U.S. Geological Survey. Even today, the underground mining operation by the Magma Cop.per Co. 

at Superior is exploiting a copper-ore rep·lacement 

body· in the Mississippian Escabrosa Limestone. 

In many southern Arizona localities, the Escabrosa and other limestones have been metamorphosed; one product is white marble, from which 

granules are used to make a reflective roof covering 

(no. 13). 

Although there is no Arizona hjstory of actual 

uranium extraction from Pennsylvanian rocks, 

anomalous uranium content is associated with possible Pennsylvanian carbonized plant zones along the 

Mogollon Rim. Certain petroleum tests north of the 

Mogollon Rim indicate that carbonaceous debris is 

widespread in the subsurface. A potential uranium 

source is the Precambrian granitic rock against 

which Pennsylvanian strata abut. Arkosic sandstone 

could exist near this unconformity and constitute a 

possible host for petroleum and/ or uraniferous 

occurrences. 

Carboniferous rocks constitute a vital part of 

Arizona's mineral resource base. Growth of the 

Southwestern United States assures a continuing 

and expanding demand for such fundamental products as cement and lime. Almost every building in 

Arizona is partly constructed from products derived 

from the processing of Carboniferous rocks. 

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Tempe, Ariz., Arizona State Univ., Ph.D. thesis, 169 p. 
ARIZONA Z19 

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Paper 43, 395 p. 

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and natural history of the Grand Canyon region-Four 

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U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 853, pt. 1, p. 295-349. 

McKee, E. D., and Gutschick, R. C., 1969, History of the 

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Z20 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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v. 36, no. 1, p. 74-80. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United StatesIdaho 

By BETTY SKIPP, W. J. SANDO, and W. E. HALL 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-AA 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology 

Historical review and summary of 

areal, stratigraphic, structural, 

and economic geology of Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian rocks in Idaho 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Page Page 

Albstract ----------------------------------------- AlAl1 Mis1sissippian System-Continued 

Introduction -------------------------------------- 2 lJpper Mississippian complex-Continued 

History ------------------------------------------ 2 Manning Canyon Shale (part) ------------ AA23 

Postdepositional structural setting ---------------- 9 View Formation of Alrmstrong (1968) ------ 23 

Mississippian System ----------------------------- 11 Depositional history ----------...,----------- 24 

Paleotectonic setting-Alntler orogeny ---------- 11 Mississippian-Pennsylvanian contact --------------- 24 

lJnderlying rocks ----------------------------- 11 Pennsylvanian System ---------------------------- 24 

Thickness ------------------------------------ 11 Paleotectonic setting-Humboldt orogeny ------- 24 

Lower Mississippian complex ------------------ 15 lJnderlying rocks ----------------------------- 25 

Copper Basin Formation (part) ------------ 15 Overlying rocks ------------------------------ 27 

McGowan Creek Formation ---------------- 17 Thickness ----------------------------------~- 27 

Madison Group--------------------------- 17 Formations included -------------------------- 27 

Little Flat, Deep Creek, and Humbug For- Wood River Formation (part) ------------- 29 

mations (part) ------------------------ 18 Snaky Canyon Formation (part) ---------- 29 

Depositional history ---------------------- 18 Amsden (part) and. Quadrant Formations___ 30 

lJpper Mississippian complex ------------------ 18 Ranchester Limestone Member of Almsden 

Copper Basin Formation (part) ------------ 18 Formation ----------------------------- 31 

White Knob Limestone -------------------- 21 Wells Formation (part) ------------------ 31 

Middle Canyon, Scott Peak, South Creek, and Manning Canyon Shale (part) ------------- 32 

Surrett Canyon Formations ------------- 21 Oquirrh Formation (part) ---------------- 32 

Big Snowy, Alrco Hills, and Bluebird Moun- Depositional history -------------------------- 32 

tain Formations ------------------------ 22 Plate-tectonic models ----------------------------- 34 

Amsden Formation (part) ---------------- 22 Economic geology -------------------------------- 34 

Deep Creek, Little Flat, and Humbug For- Metalliferous deposits ------------------------- 34 

mations (part) ------------------------- 22 Carbonate rocks ------------------------------ 37 

Great Blue and Monroe Canyon Limestones__ 23 References cited ---------------------------------- 38 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

FIGURE 1. Index map of Idaho showing outcrops of Carboniferous rocks ------------------------------------- AA3 

2. Map showing outcrops of Carboniferous. rocks in central and southeastern Idaho -------------------- 4 

3. Photograph of basalt lapping up on Mississippian Copper Basin Formation along northern margin o.f 

Snake River Plain------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 

4. Map showing location .of sections used in the construction of the isopach and lithofacies maps,--------- 7 

6-7. Photographs showing: 

5. Crest of Pioneer Mountains -------------------------------------------------------------- 8 

6. Folded beds-Scott Peak, South Creek, Surre·tt Canyon, Bluebird Mountain, and Snake Canyon 

Formations at mouth of Alntelope Creek ----------------------------------------------- 9 

7. Arco Hills; crest of Lost River Range (King Mountain) in backg.round. Scott Peak Formation is 

cliff-fonning unit low on slopes; slope-forming South Creek Formation is above; dark cliffs 

of contorted Surrett Canyon Formation is above the slope of South Creek Formation 

and calcareous sandstone of Bluebird Mountain Formation is abo·ve ---------------------- 10 

8. Correlation chart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 12 

9. Isopach map of the Mississippian System -------------------------------------------------------- 15 

10. Map showing Lower Mississippian complex-isopach and lithofacies -------------------------------- 17 

11. Cross sections showing stratigraphic and structural relations of Mississippian rocks in Idaho north and 

south of the Snake River Plain ------------------------------------------------------- 19 

12. Map showing lJpper Mississippian complex-isopachs and lithofacies ------------------------------- 21 

13. Map showing Pennsylvanian isopachs and lithofacies ---------------------------------------------- 27 

14. Cross secti'Ons showing stratigraphic and structural relations of Pennsylvanian rocks in Idaho north of 

and south of the Snake River Plain --------------------------------------------------- 28 

III 
IV CONTENTS 

Page 

FIGURE 15. Photograph of anticline in Pennsylvanian part of Oquirrh Formation in northern Deep Creek Mountains AA33 

16. Plate-tectonic model I -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 35 

17. Plate-tectonic model II -----------------------------·-------------------------------------------- 3·6 

18. Locality map and production figures for maj·or metalliferous deposits related to Carboniferous rocks in 

Idaho------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 37 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) 

SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES-IDAHO 

By BETTY SKIPP, W. J. SANDO, and W. E. HALL 

ABSTRACT 

Pennsylvanian and Mississippian rocks of inner and outer 

cratonic-platform origins are present in south-central and 

southeastern Idaho. They are in elongate, generally northor· northwest-trending linear fault-blQCk mountains on both 

sides of the Snake River Plain, an east-northeast-trending 

upper Cenozoic volcano-tectonic depression that separates 

outcrops in south-central Idaho from those of the southeastern part of the State. 

North of the plain, in south-central Idaho, formation of 

a Lower Mississippian linear north-trending flysch trough 

east of the Antler highland is recorded in the lower part of 

the Copper Basin Formation. The Copper Basin comprises 

at least 3,500 m of conglomerate, sandstone, limestone, and 

argillite, which spread eastward across the shelf (McGowan 

Creek Formation) to the inner craton margin, the site of 

accumulation of a coeval carbonate-bank complex (Madison 

Group). South of the plain, a Lower Mississippian carbonate 

complex ·(Madison Group) also formed on the inner craton 

margin, but time-equivalent strata west of the carbonatebank margin include relatively deep water carbonate rocks 

(Lodgepole Limestone) overlain by a deep-water starvedbasin-facies complex (lower part of Little Flat Formation . 

and others). Orogenic detritus is largely absent. 

In Late Mississippian time, north of the plain, the flysch 

trough gradually shoaled. Shallow marine limestone, interbedded with bouldery mudstone, conglomerate, and minor 

coaly beds (upper pa·rt of Copper Basin Formation), is 

limited mostly to the area of the trough. A few conglomerate 

and sandstone lenses are present in the westernmost exposures (White Knob Limestone) of the thick Upper Mississippian carbonate-bank complex (Middle Canyon, Scott Peak, 

Surrett Canyon Formations)~ which occupied the outer era ... 

tonic platform from the inner cratonic margin west to the 

flysch trough. The inner cratonic platform was the site of 

deposition of thin sequences of shallow marine to restricted 

marine shale, sandstone, and limestone (Big Snowy Forma- . 

tion). In latest Mississippian time, a sheet of cratonic mudstone and sandstone (Big Snowy, Arco Hills, and Bluebird 

Mountain Formations) spread westward across the carbonate-bank complex. 

South of the plain, in Late Mississippian time. the inner 

cratonic platform was the. site of accumulation of the shallow 

and· restricted marine sediments of the Amsden Formation. 

West of the inner crato.nic margin, bank limestone interbedded with dark marine shale (Deep Creek and Monroe 

Canyon Formations, Great Blue Limestone) prograded westward,. possibly · as far as the Black Pine Range. Metamorphosed Mississippian rocks west of this, in the Albion Range 

(View Formation of Armstrong), have an orogenic aspect. 

In latest Mississippian time, mudstone and· sandstone, ·probably of inner cratonic origin, spread across the carbonatebank complex around the low broad Bannock highland, in 

much the same way as did similar deposits north of the 

plain. 

Early Pennsylvanian time, both north and south of the 

plain, records a continuation of the conditions established 

in Late Mississippian time. In Middle Pennsylvanian time, 

however, the setting changed. North of the plain, the Copper 

Basin highland emerged, separating the Wood River basin 

on the site of the former Antler highland on the west, from 

a shallow-water carbonate bank (Snaky Canyon Formation) 

to the· east. The limestone and sandstone of the carbonate 

bank give way both north and east to thick ·sandstone of 

the Quadrant Formation. South of the plain, the Bannock 

highland; which had no sediment accumulation in either Late 

Mississippian or Early Pennsylvanian time, became submerged, and thin carbonate and sandy carbonate deposits 

(Wells Formation) spread across it. To the west, a northern arm of the Oquirrh basin, the Sublett basin, subsided 

and received more than 2,300 m of sandy carbonate and calcareous sandstone (lower part of Oquirrh Formation); these 

deposits are present as far west as the Albion Range. 

Though the paleotectonic settings of Carboniferous sedimentation differ on the two sides of the Snake River Plain, 

there are enough similarities to indicate that they formed 

in response to the same continent-margin tectonics. Two 

previously proposed plate-tectonic models seem feasible. The 

first is that of a gradually closing inner-arc basin between 

the edge of the continent and an island arc above an eastdipping subduction zone. The Antler orogeny would have 

taken place in response to a period of increased plate motion 

along the subduction zone. Because the Antler orogeny 

never underwent a molasse phase but was succeeded, in Pennsylvanian time, by a return to shelf conditions,· an alternate 

model has been proposed. In this second model, the Antler 

orogeny is the product of an arc-continent collision followed 

by a period of arc withdrawal and tensional tectonics on the 

continent that produced the highlands and basins characteristic of Pennsylvanian time. 

The Carboniferous rocks of eastern Idaho have a potential for hydrocarbons, though none had been produced 

through 1977. Metalliferous deposits in Carboniferous rocks 

north of the plain have produced a mod.erate recovery of almost $20 million in lead-silver, molybdenum, copJ)er, zinc, 

barite, gold, and tungsten. The thick high-calcium limestones 

AA1 
AA2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

of the Upper Mississippian carbonate-bank complex remain 

an untapped potential resource, as do vast resources of 

less pure limestones. 

INTRODUCTION 

Carboniferous (Mississippian and Pennsylvanian) 

rocks are known to crop out only in the central, 

southern, and eastern parts of Idaho, east of the 

granitic rocks of the Upper Cretaceous Idaho batholith (fig. 1). Within this part of the State, the outcrops are separated into two distinct areas by the 

Snake River Plain, a late Cenozoic volcano-tectonic 

depression, 80 to 90 km wide, which is filled with 

basalt, related rhyolite and rhyolitic ash, and margin-derived sediments. Carboniferous rocks north 

and ·south of the Snake River. Plain have different 

names, markedly different stratigraphic successions, 

and related plate-tectonic histories. Both north and 

south of the plain, outcrops are present along the 

crests and flanks of narrow northwest-trending, 

north-trending, or arcuate, fault-bounded mountains 

(fig. 2), which rise to a maximum height of 3,859 m. 

Structural relations and several deep wells indicate 

that Carboniferous rocks are present at depth in 

many, but not all, of the intervening valleys. There 

is no information at this time on the presence, absence, or extent of Paleozoic rocks under the thick 

lavas and sediments of the eastern Snake River 

Plain, though geophysical studies and deep drilling 

programs are in progress. The nature of the bedrock/baSalt contact along the northern margin of 

the plain suggests that Carboniferous rocks, which 

dip gently under, or are foundered in, basalt, probably extend under the plain a kilometer or so (fig. 

3) 0 

No rocks of definite Carboniferous age have been 

reported from Idaho west of the Idaho batholith, 

though deepwater stratified sedimentary and vol..; 

canic rocks in northeastern Oregon contain Pennsylvanian fusulinids (D. L. Bostwick in Vallier, 1977, 

p. 7), and correlative strata may be present in Idaho 

near lat 45° on the western edge of the State (fig. 1; 

Vallier, 1974; Vallier and others, 1977). 

Several areas of scenic outcrops of Carboniferous 

rocks are present within Idaho. In almost every area 

the strata are folded, faulted, or sheared, but exposures are continuous enough to work out successions. Steeply dipping conglomerate, sandstone, 

argillite, and limestone of the Mississippian Copper 

Basin Formation . are spectacularly exposed along 

the crest of the Pioneer Mountains (figs. 4, 5). 

Massive to thin-bedded folded limestones of the 

Upper Mississippian Scott Peak, South Creek, Surrett Canyon, and Bluebird Mountain Formations are 

well exposed along Antelope Creek in the White 

Knob Mountains (fig. 6) and make up the crests 

of the Lost River Range (fig. 7), the Lemhi Range, 

and the Beaverhead Mountains in several areas. The 

same formations are particularly well exposed on 

the southwest corner of the Lemhi Range in the 

general area of several type localities (H\:lh, 1967). 

The Snaky Canyon Formation is well expose<). on the 

east sides of the southern Lost River and Lemhi 

Ranges and the southern Beaverhead Mountains 

(fig. 4) 0 

South of the plain, Mississippian rocks of the 

Madison Group and Pennsylvanian rocks of the 

Wells Formation make up the ridge crests of the 

northern Snake River Range. Farther west, Mississippian rocks are exposed low on the flanks of the 

Portneuf and Chesterfield Ranges, the Deep Creek 

Mountains, and the Sublett and Albion Ranges; 

Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks of the Oquirrh 

Formation make up the crests of the ranges where 

the strata are moderately well exposed (see fig. 15). 

Mean average rainfall within the area of outcrop 

of Carboniferous rocks (fig. 2) ranges from less 

than 20 em per year in the Snake River Plain to 

more than 100 em per year in the mountains bordering the plain (Travis and others, 1964, fig. 56). 

Frost action has affected Carboniferous rocks in all 

the mountainous areas, resulting in ·extensive colluvial cover in many outcrop areas. Large landslides 

of probable Pleistocene age are concentrated locally 

in shale and shaly limestone interbedded with thickbedded Upper Mississippian limestone in the ranges 

north of the Snake River Plain (Radbruch-Hall and 

others, 1976). 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage of 

the Idaho Bureau of Mines and. Geology. 

HISTORY 

The first scientific explorers to pass through 

Idaho probably were Lewis and Clark in 1805 (De 

Voto, 1953). Geologic mapping, which included 

study of Carboniferous rocks, was undertaken in 

1877 in southeastern Idaho by parties of the Hayden 

Survey. The work resulted in publications by A. C. 

Peale and Orestes St. John in· 1879 (Mansfield, 

1927). After these early investigations, several 

workers published significant reports in the early 

decades of the 1900's that included studies of Car-
IDAHO 

EXPLANATION 

I I I c~;i~:,~~:"'~th and 

j:\\\[\\\\\\\\\\\\l\l\\\\\\\\\:j\\\\\\1 Carboniferous outcrops 

---Contact 

--• • • Major fault-Dotted where inferred 

0 

I 

50 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

I 

I 

0 

I 

50 100 MILES 

FIGURE 1.-Index map of Idaho showing outcrops of Carboniferous rocks and the location of 

major faults, the Snake River Plain, the Cretaceous Idaho batholith, and Tertiary intrusive 

rocks. Area of figures 2, 4, 9, 10, 12, and 13 shown by hachures. Modified from King and 

Beikman (1974). 

AA3 
AA4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

115° 

45" ,------··-ro"""'_,.,.,.,.---------------_. 

I 

I 

r:~u:-:c~:[:::-~·] T ert~ry inbusive rocks 

b}U{J Cretaceous intrusive rocks 

.. Pe~~~:n;:~P~'!;des 

-Mississippian rocks 

0 

I 

0 

20 

I 

EXPLANATION 

Pennsylvanian and 

Mississippian rocks, 

undivided 

60 KILOMETERS 

I 

I 

40 MILES 

----- Contact 

----- Steep fault 

• + • • Thrust fault-Teeth on upper plate 

A A' Line of section 

FIGURE 2·.----'·(For caption see facing page.) 
IDAHO 

FIGURE 3.-0blique aerial photograph of no.rth edge of Snake River Plain showing outcrop of sandstone, conglomer&te, and argillite in lower part of Copper Basin Formation (foreground) foundered in late Quaternary basalt of the Snake River 

Group. Outcrop of Mississippian rocks (about 100 m wide at bottom edge of 

photo) is just west of Craters-of-the-Moon National Monument in sec. 32, T. 1 N., 

R. 23 E., Blaine County. Photograph by W. B. Hall. 

AA5 

FIGURE 2.-Map showing outcrops of Carboniferous (Mississippian and Pennsylvanian) rocks in central and southeastern 

Idaho, location of Cretaceous and Tertiary intrusive rocks, major faults that affect distribution of the Carboniferous 

rocks, and locations of cross sections A-A' and B-B' of figures 11 and 14. The map was compiled from the following 

sources: 

Armstrong, R. L., unpub. data 

Bond, J. G. (1978) 

Cress, L. D., unpub. data 

Dover, Hall, Hobbs, Tschanz, 

Batchelder, and Sjmons (1976) 

Hait, M. H., Jr., unpub. data 

Hall, Rye, and Doe (1978) 

Hall, W. E., and 

Batchelder, John, unpub. data 

Hays, W. H., unpub. data 

Hobbs, Hays, and Mcintyre (1975) 

King and Beikman (1974) 

Lucchitta, B. K. (1966) 

Mapel, Read, and Smith (1965) 

Mapel and Shropshire (1973) 

Mapel, W. J., unpub. data 

Platt, L. B. (1977), and unpub. data 

Prostka and Hackman (1974) 

Pruit, J.D. (1971) 

Ross, C. P. (1937) 

Ruppel, E. T. (1968) 

Skipp, Betty, unpub. data 

Skipp and Hait (1977) 

Smith, J. F., Jr., unpub. data 

Thompson, M. E. (1977) 

Trimble and Carr (1976) 

Tschanz, Kiilsgaard, and Seeland, in Tschanz 

and others (1974) 

Tschanz, C. M., unpub. data 

Witkind, I. J. (1972, 1976) 
AA6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

LOCALITIES NORTH OF THE SNAKE RIVER PLAIN 

1. Big Wood River area. T. 2 N., R. 19 E. Blaine Co. Hall, 

Batchelder and Douglass (1974); W. E. Hall, unpub. 

data. 

la. Wilson Creek Ridge. T. 5 N., R. 19 E. Blaine Co. W. E. 

Hall and J. N. Batchelder, unpub. data. 

lb. Dollarhide Summit area. T. 3 N., R. 15 E. Blaine and 

Camas Cos. W. E. Hall and J. N. Batchelder, unpub. 

data. 

2. Fish Creek Reservoir area. T. 1 N., R. 22 E. Blaine Co. 

Skipp and Hall (1975a). 

3. Fish Creek Reservoir area. T. 1 N., R. 22 E. Blaine Co. 

Skipp. and Hall (1975a). 

4. Cottonwood Creek area. T. 2 N., R. 23 E. Blaine Co. 

Larson (1974). 

5. Iron Mine Creek area. T. 2 N., R. 23 E. Blaine Co. Bollmann (1971); Betty Skipp, unpub. data. 

6. Central Pioneer Mountains. T. 4 N., R. 21 E.; T. 4 N., 

R. 22 E. Custer Co. Paull, Wolbrink, Volkman, and 

Grover (1972); Paull and Gruber (1977); Nilsen 

(1977); J. H. Dover, unpub. data. 

7. Salmon River-Clayton area. T. 11 N., R. 16 E. Custer 

Co. Hobbs, Hays, Mcintyre (1975); S. W. Hobbs, unpub. data. 

8. Iron Bog Creek area. T. 4 N., R. 23 E. Custer Oo. R. A. 

Paull and Betty Skipp, unpub. data. 

9. Cabin Creek area. T. 6 N., R. 22 E. Custer Co. Skipp 

(1961a); Skipp and Mamet (1970); R. A. Paull, unpub. data. 

10. Hurst Canyon. T. 6 N., R. 28 E. Butte Co. Sandberg, 

Mapel, and Huddle (1967). 

11. Timbered Dome area. T. 3 N., R. 25 E. Butte Co. Skipp 

(1961b); Betty Skipp, unpub. data. 

12. Antelope Creek-Wood Canyon areas composite. T. 4 N., 

R. 24 E. and T. 5 N., R. 25 E. Custer Co. Betty Skipp, 

unpub. data. 

13. Howe Peak-Arco Hills, T. 4 N., R. 28 E.; T. 5 N., R. 29 E. 

Butte Co. Shanoon (1961); Breuninger (1976); Betty 

Skipp and R. D. Hoggan, unpub. data. 

14. Arco Hills. T. 4 N., R. 26 E. Butte Co. Wornardt (1958); 

Roberts (1979); Betty Skipp, unpub. data. 

15. Doublespring area. T. 12 N., R. 21 E. and T. 12 N., R. 

22 E. Custer Co. Mapel, Read, and Smith (1965); 

Mamet, Skipp, Sando, and Mapel (1971). 

16. McGowan Creek. T. 12 N., R. 21 E. Custer Co. Mapel, 

Read, and Smith (1965); Sandberg (1975). 

17. Slate Creek. T. 10 N., R. 15 E. Custer Co. Thomasson 

(1959); Tschanz, Kiilsgaard, Seeland (in Tschanz 

and others, 1974). 

18. Upper Pahsimeroi area. T. 9 N., R. 23 E. Custer Co. 

Huh (1967); Roberts (1979). 

19. Donkey Hills. T. 10 N., R. 25 E. Custer Co. Mapel and 

Shropshire (1973; Roberts (1979). 

20. Hawley Mountain. T. 9 N., R. 26 E. Butte Co. Mamet, 

Skipp, Sando, and Mapel ( 1971) ; Mapel and Shropshire (1973). 

21. Hawley Mountain. T. 8 N., R. 26 E. Butte Co. Mamet, 

Skipp, Sando, and Mapel (1971); Mapel and Shropshire (1973). 

22. Lower Cedar Creek. T. 7 N., R. 24 E. Custer Co. Sandberg, Mapel, and Huddle (1967); Sandberg (1975). 

23. East and Box Canyons-southern Lemhi Range. T. 6 N., 

R. 30 E. Butte Co. Shannon (1961); Huh (1967); 

Sandberg (1975); Skipp, Hoggan, Schleicher, and 

Douglass (1979). 

24. Copper Mountain area. T. 10 N., R. 30 E. and T. 10 N., 

R. 31 E. Clark Co. Huh (1967); Embree, Hoggan, Williams, and Skipp ( 1975) ; Skipp, Hoggan, 

Schleicher, and Douglass ( 1979) , and unpub. data. 

25. Snaky Canyon area. T. 9 N., R. 32 E. Clark Co. Skipp, 

Hoggan, Schl<eicher, and Douglass (1979). 

26. Deadman Lake area. T. 16 S., R. 10 W. Beaverhead Co., 

Montana. Huh (1967). 

27. Leadore area. T. 16 N., R. 26 E., and T. 16 N., R. 27 E. 

Lemhi Co. Ruppel (1968); E. T. Ruppel, unpub. data. 

28. Hawley Creek area (generalized). T. 16 N., R. 27 E.; T. 

15 N., R. 28 E.; T. 16 N., R. 28 E. Lemhi Co. Lucchitta 

(1966); B. K. Lucchitta, unpub. data. 

29. Centennial Mountains. T. 14 N., R. 41 E. Fremont and 

Clark Cos. Witkind (1976). 

30. Henrys Lake Mountains. T. 16 N., R. 44 E. Fremont Co. 

Witkind (1972); E. K. Maughan, unpub. data. 

30a. Centennial Mountains. T. 14 N., R. 42 E. FI"emont Co. 

Witkind (1972). 

LOCALITIES SOUTH OF THE SNAKE RIVER PLAIN 

31. Albion Range. T. 13 S., R. 23 E.; T. 13 S., R. 24 E. 

Cassia Co. Armstrong ( 1968) . 

31a. Albion Range. T. 11 S., R. 24 E. Cassia Co. Armstrong 

(1968). 

32. Black Pine Range. T. 15 S., R. 28 E., T. 15 S., R. 29 E. 

Cassia Co. J. F. Smith, Jr., unpub data 

33. Northern Sublett Range. T. 11 S., R. 29 E., approx. Cassia 

Co. R. L. Armstrong, unpub. data. 

34. Northern Deep CI"eek Mountains, Hunter Canyon vicinity. 

T. 9 S., R. 31 E. and T. 9 S., R. 32 E. ·Power Co. 

Trimble and Carr (1976); Sando, Dutro, Sandberg, 

and Mamet (1976). 

34a. No.rthern Dee·p Creek Mountains, Bannock Peak. T. 9 S., 

R. 32 E. Power Co. Trimble and Carr ( 1976). 

34b. Hills east of Bannock Creek, T. 9 S., R. 33 E. Power Co. 

Trimble and Carr (1976). 

35. Southern Deep Creek Mountains. T. 11 S., R. 32 E. Power 

Co. L. D. Cress, unpub. data. 

36. Samaria Mountain. T. 16 S., R. 35 E. Oneida Co. Beus 

(1968), Platt (1977). 

37. Chesterfield Range. T. 7 S., R. 40 E. Caribou Co. Dutro 

and Sando ( 1963), Sando, Dutro, Sandberg, and Mamet 

(1976). 

37a. Soda Springs quadrangle, northeast corner. T. 8 S., R. 

42 E. and T. 8 S., R. 43 E. Caribou Co. Armstrong 

( 1953, 1969) 0 

38. Portneuf Range. T. 9 S., R. 39 E. Caribou Co. Oriel 

(1968), S. S. Oriel, unpub. data. 

39. Big Hole Mountains. T. 4 N., R. 43 E. Teton Co. Staatz 

and Albee (1966). 

40. Black Mountain, Snake River Range. T. 3 N., ,R. 43 E. 

Bonneville Co. Sando (1977), · Sando and Dutro in 

Roberts (1979). 

41. Sheep Creek, Snake R.iver Range. T. 1 N., R. 45 E. Bonneville Co. Jobin and Soister (1964), Sando (1977), 

Sando and Dutro in Roberts (1979). 

42. Hell Creek Canyon. T. 1 S., R. 46 E., T. 1 N., R. 46 E. 

Bonneville Co. Gardner (1944); Roberts (1979). 

43. Hot Springs mine. T. 13 S., R. 44 E., Bear Lake Co. 

Mallory (1975). 
IDAHO AA7 

1W 

20 

I I I I 

43° 

42° 

40 

I 

60 KILOMETERS 

I 

20 40 MILES 

FIGURE 4.-Map showing section localities used in construction of the isopach and lithofacies maps of figures 

9, 10, 12, and 13. Triangles indicate Mississippian rocks only; circles, Pennsylvanian rocks only; and squares, 

both Pennsylvanian and Mississippian rocks. Numbers indicate data sources. Major geographic features referred to in text are shown; also lines of sections A-A' and B-B' (figs. 11 and 14). 

44. Snake River Range. T. 2 N., R. 46 E.; T. 3 N., R. 46 E. 

Bonneville and Teton Cos. Pampeyan, Schroeder, Schell 

and Cressman (1967). 

45. Wool.ey Range, Peale Mountains. T. 6 S., R. 42 E., T. 6 

S., R. 43 E., Caribou Co. McKelvey in Cressman 

(1964), Mallory (1975). 

46. Snowdrift Mountain. T. 9 S., R. 45 E., T. 10 S., R. 45 

E. Caribou Co. Gulbrandsen, McLaughlin, Honkala, and 

Clabaugh (1956); Cressman (1964); Mallory (1975). 

47. Caribou Range. T. 1 N., R. 43 E. Bonneville Co. Jobin 

and Schroeder (1964). 

48. Bannock Range. T. 10 S., R. 34 E., T. 11 S., R. 35 E. 

Bannock Co. Murk (1968). 

49. Preuss Range, Peale Mountains. R. 8 S., R. 45 E. (gen-

•eralized). Caribou Co. Cressman and Gulbrandsen 

(1955); Montgomery and Cheney (1967). 
AA8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

FIGURE 5.-Crest of Pioneer Mountain made up of steeply dipping quartzite, conglomerate, and argillite beds of lower part 

of Copper Basin Formation. View is taken from above Brockie Lake near locality 6 looking south. 

boniferous rocks. Representative reports of this 

kind are: Schultz and Richards (1913), Umpleby 

(1913, 1917), Kirkham (1922, 1924, 1927), Mansfield (1927), Anderson (1929, 1931), Umpleby, 

Westgate, and Ross (1930), and Ross (1934, 1937). 

Several of the above reports were published by the 

Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology. In 1947, the 

Idaho Bureau, in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey, published the "Geologic Map of the 

State of Idaho" at a scale of 1 :500,000 (Ross and 

Forrester, 1947), which showed the generalized distribution of Carboniferous rocks. A new geologic 

map of Idaho recently has been published as the result of a similar cooperative effort (Bond, 1978). 

In recent years, many workers have published 

reports dealing primarily with Carboniferous rocks 

and fossils in various parts of Idaho. These include: 

Bostwick (1955) ; Scholten (1957) ; Thomasson 

(1959); Ross (1960, 1962a, b, c); Skipp (1961a, b); 

Carr and Trimble (1961); Churkin (1962); Shannon (1961); Dutro and Sando (1963); Roberts, 

Crittenden, Tooker, Morris, Hose, and Cheney 
IDAHO AA9 

FIGURE 6.-0blique aerial photograph looking north from mouth of Antelope 

Creek in White Knob Mountains at folded Upper Mississippian and Pennsylvanian beds of the Scott Peak, South Creek, Surrett Canyon, Bluebird 

Mountain, and Snaky Canyon Formations. Photograph by W. B. Hall. 

(1965); Sando (1967, 1976b); Sando, Mamet, and 

Dutro (1969); Skipp and Mamet (1970); Mamet, 

Skipp, Sando, and Mapel (1971); Paull, Wolbrink, 

Volkmann, and Grover (1972); Sandberg (1975); 

Sando, Gordon, and Dutro (1975); Breuninger 

(1976); Sando, Dutro, Sandberg, and Mamet 

(1976) ; Nilsen (1977) ; and Paull and Gruber 

(1977). Regional studies of Carboniferous rocks 

that have included Idaho have been published by 

Bissell (1962, 1974) ; Williams (1962) ; Schleh 

(1968) ; Poole (1974); Mallory (1975) ; Sando 

(1976a); Sando, Dutro, Sandberg, and Mamet 

(1976); Rose (1976); Peterson (1977); Poole and 

Sandberg (1977) ; Rich (1977) ; and Roberts (in 

press). 

POSTDEPOSITIONAL STRUCTURAL SETTING 

Some Carboniferous rocks in Idaho are thought 

to be parautochthonous, but most are allochthonous, 

having been transported east or northeast along 

complex thrust- and tear-fault systems; movements 

have dated from Pennsylvanian ( ?) to Early Tertiary, possibly extending into Late Tertiary, time 

(Richards and Mansfield, 1912; Mansfield, 1927; 

Rubey, 1955; Scholten and others, 1955; Rubey and 

Hubbert, 1959; Eardley, 1960; Armstrong and 

Cressman, 1963; Roberts and Thomasson, 1964; 

Armstrong and Oriel, 1965; Roberts and others, 

1965; Armstrong, 1968; Monley, 1971; Beutner, 

1972; Scholten, 1973; Hall and others, 1975; Royse 

and others, 1975; Skipp and Hall, 1975a, b; Ruppel, 

1978; and Skipp and Hait, 1977). This list of references dealing with thrust faults in Idaho is representative but not complete. 

The thrust faults on which Carboniferous rocks 

have moved northeast or east are deformed locally 

by granitic rocks of the Upper Cretaceous Idaho 

batholith, and are offset by upper Cenozoic basinand-range extensional structures, steep normal 

faults that trend generally north or northwest (figs. 
AA10 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

FIGURE 7.-0blique aerial photograph of Arco Hills; crest of Lost River Range 

(King Mountain) in background. In foreground, Scott Peak Formation 

forms cliffs at base of hill; South Creek Formation forms slope above; 

dark cliffs of folded and faulted Surrett Canyon Formation are above 

the South Creek slope, and, above these, the slopes of the Arco Hills 

and Bluebird Mountain Formations. Letter "B" on top of ridge is in 

sandstone ·of Bluebird Mountain Formation. Photograph by W. B. Hall. 

1 and 2). Vertical stratigraphic displacements on 

basin-and-range structures in Idaho locally are as 

much as 6,100 m (Skipp and Hait, 1977), though 

most are much less. The basin-and-range structures, 

in turn, are cut off or buried beneath the upper 

Cenozoic lava and sediments of the Snake River 

Plain (figs. 1 and 2). 

The active late Paleozoic to Holocene tectonic 

history of Idaho has complicated the distribution of 

Carboniferous rocks. Horizontal displacements on 

individual thrusts north of the plain have been 

estimated to be as much as 160 km (Ruppel, 1976) 

and south of the plain, about 25 km (Armstrong and 

Oriel, 1965). Total extension on late Cenozoic basinand-range structures north of the plain is estimated 

to be about 25 percent of that south of the plain, 

introducing an apparent right-lateral sense of displacement between outcrops on the two sides of the 

plain (Skipp, 1976). Both left- and right-slip movements since early Paleozoic time have been suggested along an inferred Snake River fault in the 

general position of the Snake River Plain (Sandberg and Mapel, 1967; Poole and others, 1977: Poole 

and Sandberg, 1977). 

The isopach maps (figs. 9, 10, 12, and 13) are 

based on the present distribution of Carboniferous 

outcrops. Because of structural complexities, however, large isopach intervals have been used, and 

structure-controlled boundaries have 'been emphasized. Three major concepts have resulted from this 

synthesis of structural and stratigraphic data: 

1. Carboniferous facies, thicknesses, and structural 

patterns on the north and south sides of the 

plain for the time-stratigraphic intervals 
IDAHO AA11 

shown in figures 10, 12, and 13 are different 

and suggest separate crustal responses to 

plate-margin tectonics. 

2. Total thrust displacements on both sides of the 

plain seem to be nearly equal, as the positions 

of the inner cratonic platform margin and the 

western edge of the Upper Mississippian carbonate-bank complex (Sando, 1976a; Rose, 

1976) do not seem to be displaced significantly. 

3. No large strike-slip displacements before late 

Cenozoic time seem necessary along the axis 

of the Snake River Plain to account for the 

present distribution of facies and thicknesses 

of Carboniferous rocks, according to our interpretation of sedimentary trends. 

MISSISSIPPIAN SYSTEM 

The Mississippian System of the United States 

correlates with the Lower Carboniferous and lowermost part of the Upper Carboniferous Series in 

Europe (fig. 8), and includes, from oldest to youngest, the Kinderhookian, Osagean, Meramecian, and 

Chesterian Provincial Series. 

PALEOTECTONIC SETTING-ANTLER OROGENY 

Mississippian rocks in Idaho, both north and 

south of the Snake River Plain, were deposited 

across a mobile former continental shelf and a cratonic platform that had been relatively stable from 

late Precambrian through Late Devonian time. In 

latest Devonian through earliest Mississippian time, 

the western edge of the North American continent 

was disrupted during the Antler orogeny, when 

Devonian and older rocks of c.ontinental-slope and 

ocean-basin origins were obducted onto the continental margin (Poole, 1974; Poole and Sandberg, 

1977). The thrust system along which the translation took place in Nevada, the Roberts Mountains 

thrust, is nowhere identified with certainty in Idaho 

(Paull, 1976). Instead, indirect evidence of the tremendous magnitude of the disturbance exists in the 

more than 4,000 m (fig. 9) o~ Mississippian turbidites and interturbidites (Copper Basin Formation) that filled a deep and narrow flysch trough 

along the eastern margin of the Antler orogenic 

highland (Poole, 1974). At present, the flysch 

trough is represented largely by an incomplete allochthonous sequence, the Copper Basin Formation, 

which itself has been folded, faulted, and thrust 

eastward (Skipp and Hall, 1975b; Skipp and Hait, 

1977; Nilsen, 1977). Undated parautochthonous 

strata, which lithologically resemble parts of the 

Copper Basin Formation, are present in two areas 

beneath the Wood River allochthon (structural elements 7 and 8 of fig. 9, and fig. 2). 

East of the flysch trough, thick orogenic, thin 

j starved-basin, and thick carbonate sediments were 

deposited without major interruption in an outer 

cratonic platform environment. (Sando prefers 

"foreland basin" usage of Poole and Sandberg 

(1977) for this feature.) Farther east, in easternmost Idaho, Mississippian rocks were laid down in 

two depositional cycles (cycles I and III of Sando, 

1976a; and Sando, Dutro, Sandberg, and Mamet, 

1976) separated by middle and late Meramecian 

emergence of the inner cratonic platform (Cycle II 

of Sando, 1976a, and Sando, Dutro, Sandberg, and 

Mamet, 1976) 1 • 

UNDERLYING ROCKS 

Lower Mississippian rocks rest unconformably on 

Upper. Devonian rocks throughout most of Idaho 

(fig. 8; Poole and others, 1977, Sandberg and Poole, 

1977), except in the White Knob and Pioneer 

Mountains, where the McGowan Creek and Copper 

Basin Formations locally unconformably overlie 

Middle Devonian rocks of the Carey Formation 

(Skipp and Sandberg, 1975; C. A. Sandberg, written commun., 1974). Elsewhere in the Pioneer 

Mountains region, the Copper Basin Formation has 

been thrust over rocks as old as Precambrian ( ?) 

(Dover, 1969; Dover and others, 1976). In the Albion Range, Mississippian rocks are thrust over 

strata as old as Cambrian (R. L. Armstrong, written commun., 1976). 

THICKNESS 

Mississippian rocks thin to the south and east 

across Idaho. The thickest recognized Mississippian 

sequences in Idaho are the flysch of the Copper 

Basin Formation north of the plain where thickness 

is greater than 3,896 m (fig. 9). This tremendous 

thickness drops to near zero at Fish Creek Reservoir 

(Skipp and Hall, 1975a), where the Copper Basin 

allochthon (Skipp and Hait, 1977) is overridden by 

the Wood River and Milligen allochthons (Hall and 

others, 1975; Skipp and Hait, 1977). In the area 

designated 7 on figure 9, however, parautochthonous 

undated metamorphosed turbidite siltite and limestone, which resemble the Drummond Mine Lime1 The terms "outer cratonic platform" and "inner cratonic platform" as used in this paper replace, respectively, "miogeosyncline" and "craton" 

of former usage. The outer cratonic platform was a mobile marginal 

cratonic area, which, by the end of Paleozoic time, largely had become a part of the stable craton of the North American continent. The outer cratonic platform was the site of flysch-trough, starved-basin, carbonatebank, and shelf-basin depositional environments in Carboniferous time. 
AA12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

stone of the Copper Basin Group of Paull, Wolbrink, 

Volkmann, and Grover (1972), may represent the 

root zone of part of the Copper Basin allochthon 

(W. E. Hall, unpub. data). The siltite and limestone 

is about 1,000 m thick. Another parautochthonous 

sequence of Mississippian ( ?) argillite turbidites 

and deep-sea fan conglomerates, more than 500 m 

thick, is present in the White Cloud Peaks area (fig. 

9, structural element 8) beneath the Wood River 

allochthon (C. M. Tschanz, written commun., 1977). 

Zero thickness occurs in the Big Wood River area 

where the Wood River Formation tectonically overlies the Devonian Milligen Formation. The combined 

thickness of the White Knob Limestone and McGowan Creek Formation is about 3,000 m in the 

White Knob Mountains (figs. 4 and 9, locality 9). 

Thicknesses decrease eastward toward the Idaho/ 

Montana border where less than 500 m is reported 

FIGURE 8.-Correlation chart. Numbered column refer to list 

of sources. 

1. Umpleby, Westgate, and Ross (1930); Bostwick (1955); 

Thomasson ( 1959) ; Hall, Batchelder, and Douglass 

(1974) ; Skipp and Hall (1975a); Sandberg, Hall, 

Batchelder, and Axelsen (1975); Hall, W. E. (unpub. 

data). 

2. Ross (1960, 1962a); Paull, Wolbrink, Volkman, and 

Grover 1972); Yokley (1974); Skipp and Hall (1975a); 

Skipp and Sandberg (1975); Nilsen (1977); Paull and 

Gruber (1977); Skipp, Betty (unpub. data). 

3. Skipp (1961a); Ross (1962a); Skipp and Mamet 

(1970); Paull, Wolbrink, Volkman, and Grover (1972); 

Skipp and Sandberg (1975); Skipp and Hait (1977); 

Nilsen (1977); Skipp, Hoggan, (Schleicher, and 

Douglass (1979). 

4. Thomasson (1959); Shannon (1961); Sandberg, Mapel, 

and Huddle (1967); Huh (1967) ; Mamet, Skipp, 

Sando, and Mapel (1971); Beutner (1972); Sandberg 

(1975); Skipp and Hait (1977); Sandberg and Poole 

(1977); Skipp, Hoggan, Schleicher, and Douglass, 

1979; Skipp, Betty ( unpub. data). 

5. Huh (1967); Scholten and Ramspott (1968); Embree, 

Hoggan, Williams, and Skipp (1975); Sando, Gordon, 

and Dutro (1975); Sandberg (1975); Skipp and Hait 

(1977); Sandberg and Poole (1977); Skipp, Hoggan, 

Schleicher, and Douglass, 1979. 

6. Thompson and Scott (1941); Witkind (1972); Sando, 

Gordon, and Dutro (1975); Maughan, E. K., (unpub. 

data). 

7. Carr and Trimble (1961); Sando (1967, 1976a); Sando, 

Mamet, and Dutro (1969); Sando, Dutro, Sandberg, 

and Mamet (1976); Trimble and Carr (1976); Cress, 

L. D. (unpub. data, 1978). 

8. Beus (1968); Platt (1977). 

9. Dutro and Sando (1963); Cressman (1964); Sando 

(1967, 1977); Sando, Mamet and Dutro (1969); Armstrong ( 1969) ; ~ando, Dutro, Sandberg, and Mainet 

(1976). 

10. Staatz and Albee (1966); Sando (1967, 1977). 

NORTH c "iii EUROPE CQ 

AMERICA Q)CI) Ill Q.Q) ~ or:: eu, rJ) '-0 ~ ';}, ::IN w -~ Q) 

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7- D 7- V1a 10 c I Tn3'2._ 9 Ill 

Q) C2 Cl c c ~ 1--- Q; Ill Ill Ill 8 Cl) "iii "iii Tn3a ~ 0 "iii "iii C1 0 '--7- E E Tn2bc 7 ...J oC 

:S.!2 :::1 :::1 8 I "Co¥ {:. {:. 1 Tn2a cO pre-7 ·- 0 ~~ Tn1b A Pre-A 

Underlying units 

1 Sando, Mamet, and Dutro (1969); Mamet and Skipp (1970) Brenckle, Lane, and 

Collinson (1974); Sando, Gordon, and Dutro (1975); Sando, Dutro, Sandberg, 

and Mamet (1976); Brenckle (1977) 2 Sando, Mamet, and Dutro (1969); Sando, Dutro, Sandberg, and Mamet (1976); 

Sando, this volume 3 Douglass (1977) 
Big Wood River area 

Wood River 

Formation 

(Permian) 

Central and eastern Idaho north of Snake River Plain 

2 3 4 5 

Pioneer 

Mountains 

unknown 

White Knob Mountains 

Phosphoria 

equivalent 

beds (Permian) 

Relations 

obscured by 

faulting 

1-7--

Snaky Canyon 

Formation 

(part) 

Southern 

Lost River Beaverhead and Mountains Lemhi Ranges 

Juniper Gulch Juniper Gulch Mbr of Snaky Mbr of Snaky 

Canyon Fm Can Fm (part) 

(Permian) (Permian) 

Juniper 

Gulch 

Member 

(part) 

Juniper 

Gulch 

Member 

(part) 

IDAHO 

6 

Henrys Lake Mountains 

Phosphoria 

Formation 

(Permian) 

Southeastern Idaho south of Snake River Plain 

7 8 9 10 

Deep Creek Mountains 

Oquirrh 

Formation (part) 

(Permian) 

Samaria 

Mountain 

Wooley and Chesterfield 

Ranges 

Sandy Mbr Wells Fm of Oquirrh Fm (Upper Mbr (part) part) 

(Permian) (Permian) 

Lower 

Member 

Snake River 

Range 

Wells Fm (Upper unit part) 

(Permian) 

Lower 

Unit 

~--7=-=-= 

-_--:__-----=----

-_-:__-_--:__-_-_ 

-_-_-_-_-_-_ 

-_--:__-_-_-_-_ 

=-~ili&de~-:::: 

-_-_-_-_-_- I 

-::::-E9ffi1itiQ:n:::: 

"'0 

Qj Little 'E 

~ CD 

Humbug .c u Flat 

Milligan 

Formation 

(Devonian) 

Picabo 

Formation 

(Devonian) 

Carey 

Dolomite 

(Devonian) 

Three Forks 

Formation 

(Devonian) 

Three Fc;>rks T~f,'f:;,~R6~s Format.lon (Mississippian 

Beirdneau 

Formation 

(Devonian) 

Beirdneau 

Formation 

(Devonian) 

Beirdneau 

Formation 

(Devonian) 

Darby Format1on 

(Devonian) and Devonian (Devonian) 

EXPLANATION 

Hiatus where rocks are absent because of nondeposition or erosion 

Mostly craton-derived sandstone and sandy carbonate rock 

-::::-:::: Mostly craton-derived shale, siltstone, and minor carbonate rock 

Carbonate rocks, inner and outer cratonic platform 

\(:::::.:·:. Starved-basin sedimentary rocks 

:::::::::: Orogenic sedimentary rocks derived from Antler, Copper Basin, and 

Humboldt(?) highlands 

Heavy lines indicate rock-stratigraphic divisions used in 

constructionoffigures9, 10, 12,and 13. 

--I Separates the rock units included on the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

isopach maps. · 

--II Separates the Lower and lowermost Upper Mississippian rock units from 

the Upper Mississippian used on figures 10 and 12 

-?-Formation or zone boundary-Queried where uncertain 

-?-Erosion surface-Queried where uncertain 

II 

AA13 
AA14 

I 

I 

43° ~--

! 

~ 

I 

! 

I 

I 

l 

THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENN~YLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

lll.4GlC 

~ ~";:t:j RF.'SERVOJH 

~ 

·-

0 20 40 60 KILOMETERS 

........ 

1~~ I ~ c 

1696~ t 

279+.1 

.~5 • I 

I' I I I 

20 

I 

I 

40 MILES 

\ ~ . \ \'~ 

' :>0~<6 " "',548 '- PA. U~l'(lES 

" '-~'SE:R"\~~ " \ '\ 

\_ \ ~I 

--+--- )" .......... \ ·-\ 

I Monroe Canyon Ls\ • 

Little Flat Fm '\ ' I Lodgepole Ls \ • Ol 

I 654. \ 'g . ....). \ ' .r'"" ~ • I • \ I I • \ \ 812 I I I \ • 1248~ Manning Canyon Sh (part) \\ / 

Great Blue Ls I /1 

Deep Creek Fml \ \ J 

Humbug Fm ~ 1 

17. I 

( 1 Manning Canyon Sh (part) 

Lodgepole Ls 1 o \ / j • \ ~ Humbug(?) Fm I 

i s~"~") ~- 1so+ I 

\ I \ I 

I \ iJi' I "'3£',· ) 

: ~/ I • 

420 L ___________ NEvA-oA+uTAI"1--L.-----_J_ _____ L__ ___ L L

\ I \ .\/I 

846 L . E 

---~-- JJ...L-----~J:J I 

I 

EXPLANATION 

lii{}}}j Tertiary and Cretaceous intrusive rocks 

Contact 

-500- Isopachs (partly restored) in 500-m and 1000-m 

intervals--Dashed where inferred; dotted across 

Snake River Plain 

-300- Isopachs (partly restored) in 100-m intervals--Dashed 

where inferred; dotted across Snake River Plain 

--"L"-- Structural· element or boundary described in caption 

.& • •247 Sample localities-Same as on figure 4. Thicknesses in 

meters 
IDAHO AA15 

(locality 28). The thinnest Mississippian sequences 

of the cratonic platform in Idaho are in the eastern 

Centennial Mountains (localities 29 and 30a) . 

South of the plain, Mississippian rocks gradually 

thicken westward from 4 70 m in the Big Hole Mountains (locality 44) to more than 1,696 m in the 

northern Deep Creek Mountains (locality 34) . West 

of this locality, incomplete and faulted outcrops of 

Mississippian shale. and siltstone are present in parautochthonous sequences beneath thrust plates of 

Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks in the Sublett, 

Black Pine, and Albion Ranges (localities 33, 32, 

and 31). 

Mississippian rocks in the western United States 

were divided into two depositional complexes by 

Rose (1976), a lower complex encompassing rocks 

ranging in age from early Kinderhookian to early 

Meramecian, and an upper complex containing 

strata of middle Meramecian through middle late 

Chesterian age. The Manning Canyon Shale and its 

equivalents were excluded from the concept of the 

upper depositional complex by Rose (1976). The 

divisions shown on figures 10 and 12 are based on 

Rose's depositional-complex concept, but rocks of 

latest Chesterian age have been included in thickness calculations of Upper Mississippian rocks. The 

Lower Mississippian complex, thus, generally corresponds to Cycle I, and the Upper Mississippian 

complex to Cycle III of Sando (1976a) and Sando, 

Dutro, Sandberg, and Mamet (1976), who divided 

the cycles into 13 phases and presented a paleogeographic map for each. 

LOWER MISSISSIPPIAN COMPLEX 

Rocks of Early Mississippian and earliest Late 

Mississippian age make up the Lower Mississippian 

complex (fig. 10). Included are those formations between line II and underlying units on the correlation 

chart (fig. 8). Flysch or foreland-basin, starvedbasin and carbonate-platform depositional environments are represented. 

North of the plain, most of the Copper Basin Formation, all of the McGowan Creek Formation, and 

the Madison Group constitute this interval. The 

Middle Canyon Formation is excluded on the isopach map even though a middle Osagean conodont 

fauna was recovered about 15 m above the base of 

the formation in the southern Beaverhead Mountains (Sandberg and Poole, 1977; Poole and Sandberg, 1977). The depositional environment of the 

Osagean part of the Middle Canyon . is considered, 

however. 

South of the plain, the phosphatic shale member 

of the Little Flat Formation, an arbitrary lower 

part of the Humbug Formation (86 m at locality 

36), the lower siltstone member of the Deep Creek 

Formation, the Mission Canyon Limestone, and the 

Lodgepole Limestone are included. 

COPPER BASIN FORMATION (PART) 

More than 3,316 m of the Copper Basin Formation, the part of the formation designated the Scorpion plate by Nilsen (1977), is included on figure 

10. The Scorpion plate of the ·copper Basin allochthon includes, in ascending order, the Little 

Copper Formation (Paull and Gruber, 1977), the 

Drummond Mine Limestone, the Scorpion Mountain 

Formation, and the lower part of the Muldoon Canyon Formation of the Copper Basin Group of Paull, 

Wolbrink, Volkmann, and Grover (1972). The 

18,000 feet (5,500 m) of section reported in 1972 

contains a duplicating thrust (Nilsen, 1977; Nilsen, 

and Skipp, unpub. data) ; thus, the real thickness is 

somewhat less, though a complete section has not 

yet been pieced together. About 4,000 m is shown 

on figure 11. The Copper Basin Formation is made 

up of boulder- to granule-conglomerate, sandstone, 

siltstone, mudstone, and limestone (Paull and others, 

1972), interpreted as foreland-basin flysch containing terrigenous turbidites derived from the Antler 

highland to the west and carbonate turbidites derived in part from cratonic carbonate banks to the 

FIGURE 9.-Isopach map of the Mississippian System showing provincial formation names. 

1. Structural eastern limit of the Pennsylvanian and 

Permian Wood River Formation. 

2. Structural eastern limit of the Mississippian Copper 

Basin Formation. 

3. Structural eastern limit of Mississippian White Knob 

Limestone. 

4. Structural boundary between the carbonate platform 

to the west and the inner cratonic platform to the 

east, and eastern limit of Mississippian McGowan 

Creek, Middle Canyon, Scott Peak, South Creek, 

Surrett Canyon, Arco Hills, and Bluebird Mountain Formations. Also boundary between Idaho 

province and Montana province of Sando (1967). 

5. Structural ( ?) western limit of Upper Mississippian 

carbonate depositional complex. 

6. Boundary between Idaho province (western) and 

Montana province (eastern) of Sando (1967), in 

general position of western margin of inner cratonic platform. 

7. Structural window of Copper Basin ( ?) Formation. 

8. Structural windows ( ? ) of Copper Basin (?) Formation (C. M. Tschanz, unpub. data). 
AA16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

20 40 

',, , 1, I I 

........ ... 0 20 ........ 

\-4 

M~NTANA \ 

60 KILOMETERS 

I 

I 

40 MILES 

EXPLANATION 

1{{{{:~1 Tertiary and Cretaceous intrusive rocks 

nu:n:HHHI Antler-derived flysch deposits-Conglomerate, 

sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone with minor limestone 

~ Mostly craton-derived deposits-Limestone, phosphatic shale, siltstone, and sandstone 

1::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::1 Cratonic-platform carbonate rocks 

ll:I:t:ltt:l:\llllllllllllllli Emergent area 

---Contact 

-500- Isopachs (partly restored) in 500-m and 1000-m intervals; dotted across Snake River Plain 

-300- lsopachs (partly restored) in 100-m intervals-Dashed 

5 where inferred; dotted across Snake River Plain 

--~--Structural element or boundary described in caption 

• • • 206 Sample localities-Same as on figure 4. Thicknesses in 

meters 
IDAHO AA17 

east (Poole, 1974; Poole and Sandberg, 1977; 1 

Nilsen, 1977). The age of the Drummond Mine 

Limestone unit of the Copper Basin Formation is 

Kinderhookian, as indicated by scattered conodont 

faunas identified by C. A. Sandberg (Skipp and 

Hall, 1975a; Paull and Gruber, 1977; Poole and 

Sandberg, 1977). Sparse ammonoids, trilobites, 

brachiopods, calcareous foraminifers, and numerous 

trace fossils also have been recovered from other 

parts of the flysch sequence considered to be correlative with the Lower Mississippian complex (Skipp 

and Hall, 1975a; Skipp, 1974; Poole, 1974; Skipp, 

unpub. data). 

McGOWAN CREEK FORMATION 

Most of the McGowan Creek Formation, which 

ranges in thickness from more than 1,220 m in the 

White Knob Mountains (locality 9) to 30 m in the 

Beaverhead Mountains (locality 28), is composed of 

orogenic detritus, recognized as such by Poole 

(1974) and designated the lower member of the 

McGowan Creek Formation by Sandberg (1975). 

This lower member consists of fine-grained, thinly 

bedded turbidites (Poole, 1974; Sandberg, 1975; 

Nilsen, 1977; Poole and Sandberg, 1977). The upper 

member of the McGowan Creek Formation, which 

ranges in thickness from 60 to 150 m, is present 

only north and west of Hawley Mountain (figs. 2, 

4), where the McGowan Creek is thickest (Sandberg, 1975). This upper member, consisting of calcareous siltstone interbedded with silty micritic 

limestone, is considered a starved-basin facies 

(Poole and Sandberg, 1977). The McGowan Creek 

Formation has been dated by conodonts (Sandberg 

and others, 1967; Sandberg, 1975). Other fossils are 

sparse, though scattered brachiopods, mollusks 

(pelecypods, gastropods, cephalopods), trilobites, 

corals, and trace fossils have been found. 

MADISON GROUP 

The Madison Group, consisting of the transgressive Lodgepole Limestone overlain by the regressive Mission Canyon Limestone, is present on both 

the north and south sides of the plain, where it appears to thicken westward to the inner cratonic 

platform margin, aggregating more than 581 m in 

easternmost Idaho (fig. 10; locality 40). The Lodgepole Limestone is divided into the Paine Member 

and overlying Woodhurst Member. The Paine Member, a sparsely fossiliferous, thin-bedded, finegrained, silty, and argillaceous limestone, is interpreted as a slope deposit laid down seaward 

from a shelf-carbonate bank (Sando, 1977). The 

W oodhurst Member consists of cyclically interbedded fine-grained and coarse-grained carbonate 

beds representing an alternation of high-energy and 

low-energy conditions intermediate between those of 

the Paine Member of the Lodgepole and the overlying Mission Canyon Limestone. The Mission Canyon contains thick beds of crinoidal limestone in the 

lower part and solution breccias, cherty fine-grained 

limestone, dolomite, and dolomitic limestone in the 

upper part. The Mission Canyon Limestone represents a westward-prograding shelf-carbonate envivironment characterized by several episodes of 

restricted circulation in highly saline lagoons in the 

upper part (Sando, 1977). Calcareous foraminifers, 

corals, brachiopods, and encrinitic debris are common in much of the Madison Group; all except the 

encrinitic debris have been valuable in age 

determinations. 

The Lodgepole Limestone in the ranges west of 

the inner cratonic platform margin (fig. 8, columns 

7, 8, and 9) is represented largely by lithologies like 

those of the Paine Member overlain by a thin Woodhurst Member. Total thickness in the Chesterfield 

Range (locality · 37) is 79 m (figs. 10 and 11). 

FIGURE 10.-Isopach map of the Lower Mississippian and lowermost Upper Mississippian rocks (lower depositional complex of Rose (1976) and cycle I of Sando (1976a), showing Osagean-early Meramecian lithofacies, provincial formation names, and position of allochthonous part of Antler highland. 

1. Western structural limit of well-dated Lower 

Mississippian part of the Copper Basin Formation. 

2. Eastern structural limit of the Copper Basin Formation. 

3. Southern boundary . of starved-basin facies of 

McGowan Creek Formation (Sandberg, 1975). 

4. Eastern structural limit of the McGowan Creek 

Formation and western limit of lower shelf 

margin of Rose (1976), and craton margin of 

·sando (1976a). 

5. Approximate western limit of lower carbonate 

shelf margin of Rose (1976), craton margin of 

Sando (1976a), and eastern limit of the starvedbasin facies (Sandberg and Gutschick, 1977; 

Poole and Sandberg, 1977). 

6. Structural window of Copper Basiri ( ?) Formation. 

7. Structural windows of Copper Basin('?) Formation. 
AA18 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Foraminifers, conodonts, and corals have been used 

to determine its age. 

LITTLE FLAT, DEEP CREEK, AND HUMBUG 

FORMATIONS (PART) 

In the Chesterfield Range, the Lodgepole is overlain by the siltstone member of the Little Flat Formation of the Chesterfield Range Group. The siltstone member consists of 38 m of phosphatic 

siltstone and dark cherty fine-grained limestone 

representing a starved-basin facies (Rose, 1976; 

Sando and others, 1976; Poole and Sandberg, 1977). 

The lower siltstone member of the Deep Creek Formation, 231 m thick at locality 34, has also been 

interpreted as a starved-basin deposit (fig. 11) 

(Sando and others, 1976). An arbitrary thickness 

of the Humbug Formation in the Samaria Mountain 

area (locality 36), consisting of dark-brown calcareous sandstone and siltstone, is assigned to the 

starved-basin facies. Conodonts, foraminifers, 

brachiopods, cephalopods, and fish fragments are 

present in the siltstone and limestone sequences. 

DEPOSITIONAL HISTORY 

The depositional histories north and south of the 

plain during the time frame of the lower depositional complex are somewhat different. The rapid 

transgression of the Cordilleran sea in late Kinderhookian and early Osagean time north of the plain 

spread orogenic detritus derived from the Antler 

highland eastward across the outer cratonic platform to the edge of the inner cratonic platform, and 

carbonate detritus from the platform spread westward to mingle with deep-water terrigenous turbidites in the flysch trough (Poole, 1974; Sandberg 

and others, 1975; Nilsen, 1977; Poole and Sandberg, 

1977). South of the plain, in the apparent absence of 

orogenic detritus, carbonate sediments, largely slope 

and forebank deposits, were laid down in front of a 

prograding carbonate bank (Sando, 1976a; Rose, 

1976; Sandberg and Poole, 1977). 

In middle Osagean through early Meramecian 

time, the sea gradually regressed, forming the carbonate-bank deposits of the Mission Canyon Limestone along the inner cratonic platform margin. 

West of this area, and south of the plain, a starved 

basin formed. Relationships between starved-basin 

and carbonate-bank facies are shown in figure 11. 

North of the plain, during the same interval, limestone of the lower part of the Middle Canyon Formation spread westward as forebank deposits in 

front of the westward-prograding bank limestone 

of the Mission Canyon Limestone (Sandberg and 

Poole, 1977; Poole and Sandberg, 1977). The eastward spread of flysch detritus had either ceased by 

this time or was restricted. Locally, siltstone and 

limestone of the upper member of the McGowan 

Creek Formation (fig. 10) grade upward into silty 

limestone of the overlying Middle Canyon and are 

interpreted as a starved-basin facies (Sandberg and 

Poole, 1977; Poole and Sandberg, 1977). 

UPPER MISSISSIPPIAN COMPLEX 

Rocks of Late Mississippian age make up the 

Upper Mississippian complex (fig. 12). Included are 

those formations between lines I and II on the correlation chart (fig. 8). Sediments of a shoaling 

flysch basin, carbonate bank, lagoon, and/or restricted marine basin are represented. 

North of the plain, a poorly defined upper part of 

the Copper Basin Formation, the White Knob Limestone, the Middle Canyon, South Creek, Scott 

Peak, Surrett Canyon, Arco Hills, Bluebird Mountain, and Big Snowy Formations, are included. 

South of the plain, the upper chert-banded limestone 

member of the Deep Creek Formation, an arbitrary 

upper part of the Humbug Formation, the cherty 

limestone, sandstone, and sandy limestone members, 

in ascending order, of the Little Flat Formation, the 

Great Blue Limestone, the lower part or all of the 

Manning Canyon Shale, and the lower part of the 

Amsden Formation, make up the interval. 

COPPER BASIN FORMATION (PART) 

An incomplete part of the Copper Basin Formation having estimated minimum thicknesses of 580 

and 2,000 m is shown on figure 12; about 1,000 m is 

estimated on figure 11. In the vicinity of locality 8, 

this part of the formation includes conglomerate, 

mudstone, pebbly mudstone, sandstone, scattered 

lenses of shallow-water fossiliferous marine limestone and sandy dolomite, and thin coal seams. deposited in a marginal-marine to shallow-marine.environment (Skipp and Hait, 1977; Nilsen, 1977). 

These shallow-water sedimentary rocks grade 

downward into turbidites that closely resemble 

those of the lower part of the formation. The upper 

part of the Copper Basin Formation is bounded by 

thrust faults (Skipp and Hait, 1977). The thickness 

at locality 8 is an estimate, as this part of the 

sequence was not included in the measured secti·:>ns 

of Paull, Wolbrink, Volkmann, and Grover (1972). 

The thickness at locality 7 is an estimate of thickness by S. W. Hobbs (oral commun., 1976) of an 

isoclinally folded sequence of relatively fine grained 
IDAHO AA19 

CRATONIC PLATFORM 

ANTLER 

OROGENIC FORELAND 

(OUTER) 

CARBONATE 

(INNER) ----~ 

BANK 

A 1 30 

HIGHLAND 1--BASIN ----+------- (UPPER) ---:!A~r!.l<c.!=!..o.J:JH!,!.!.il!.2.ls ___ -+----- (LOWER) For\ation ~ ;Bluebird ountain Fm 2 6 8 9 

I 

/) ......_ __ ..-,.., 

--- l" j_ 

11 14 ? 23 \ 24/ lig Snowy Formation 29 

~ ~tt o 

1 

f 

1 

t-::::::.~-=-~~ oooe> I Si~rr~tt·CJ.. a~~ on ·r- For.rD~~i~~:: I I r hff I -~- ~:·:,·~~j~ I~ {lr--~_.. v_ 

E;~J.~~r~M~a~d~i~so~n~G~r~o~up~_L~~~~- ~"=QJ~-= 1sZ:::2 I J.4::.-' _L _.. - ~ 

A' 

0 METERS 

~~--- 500 ooooojc><:> ooo~ 1 ~-;:;: ~,.,,' I I 1:~' - -=-=-=-.:f--= 1 J-r. .I !J/TI.2::1 I 1 ! no ~ ...... tooocoF:>:-;:::c:;-.o~ll--=- -:d-1=-:~-r-1 1 S~h Creel<=---:r=....,~cott P~aK 1 • • 'Fm· ... .. 

-

-

-

-

-

-

~~~.~-~·~ ;,·'d~ ~.I ;~o~r ationJ l j_ ~r~to~_l I I··;· ... 1 ... 

1

·

1

•• 

DEVONIAN 

~~:_:_: ~;.-;·-:-:;-:.-:.-:·-!: . .::::··~~JII~~~i~~g~~~~~~'-~~i~iilliV~ II-T-...LJ--1--,---il~~~ ~~~~-----wr_for:~a-::1~~ ~.-~-~~- ~-~-:.M.M;iil~~~~~-~~·~;~~ .. ~~ o o o o o I ~- I. ~ · ~ } OROGENIC 

·_;, ·~ ·c: ·_; ·~ .oHL--Li-_,L---~-"l•~White~McGowan Creek Form,· a-f~I~-Fi~'-'-·=-r=--, SEDIMENTS 

..• Copper. • • Knob :1',; 

- -Basin- =~~~-~-:r-:-~ Limestone DEVONIAN // ?Formation."! ·. ~· . . ~:· 

000000 

.......... 

. .. . . . ...... ····· •.~ 

McGowan 

Creek 

Formation 

oooc 00 :~:~. ?·.e:?~ EXPLANATION 

I 

II 

1- --=--=--= 

r:::.. -=--== =. 

DEVONIAN 

····· 

? 

d 

DEVONIAN 

In! Mainly thick bedded pure bank 

'limestone 

~ Thin-bedded impure limestoneInter-tidal to deep water (flysch trough) 

~Dolomite 

~ Conglomerate or conglomeratic 

[~·::~-::·-:1 Sandstone or sanay 

[t· -:-j Siltstone or silty 

F_;-~--=! Gray or black mudstone or - - argillite; argillaceous 

0 20 40 

I I I! I I I I I I 

20 

~ Red mudstone 

~ Carbonate breccia 

t -:-:I Abundant chert in nodules 

and layers 

---- Lithologic boundary-Wavy 

where unconformable 

......... Boundary between upper and lower 

depositional complexes 

--=====- Thrust fault-Showing direction of movement 

1 Part of section exposed at each 

locality 

60 KILOMETERS 

I I I 

40 60 MILES 

CRATONIC PLATFORM 

~------------(OUTER)--------------+-­

CARBONATE 

8 

FO:l~ND ?1------------

31 

BANK 

DEVONIAN 

1- 1000 

-- 2000 

1- 3000 

-- 4000 

...... 5000 

0 METERS 

500 

1000 

1500 

2000 

FIGURE 11.-Cross sections showing stratigraphic and structural relations of Mississippian rocks in Idaho north of the 

Snake Riv·e·r Plain (A-A') and south of the plain (B-B'). Locations of cross sections are shown on figures 2 and 4. Locations of stratigraphic sections are shown on figure 4. Datum is the top of the Mississippian. 
AA20 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

115° 

45oij"" --·-·t:·:·:·:~~-------------------------------------~---, 

..... 

20 

' ... ,,"A 

',' ',I 

Big Sno~\ 

Fm b 13° M NTANA I 

.// 

. 

. . . . . . . . . 

I 

. 

/ 

I 

I 

20 

40 

I 

60 KILOMETERS 

I I 

40 MILES 

· .. ::::··-... ._:, ·, 

... 

/' ,,,"'"' -· #,# \ 

-· _, ..... -

Craters-of-the Moon 

National Monument ~ 

.~0 

~" 

EXPLANATION 

I}}}}~~~ Tertiary and Cretaceous intrusive rocks 

(} \)//I Conglomerate, sandstone, argillite, pebbly mudstone, 

limestone and sandy dolomite-Much of it of 

shallow-water origin. Minor coal present. Some 

deep-water flysch sediments may be present in 

lower part · 

~ Shelf carbonate rocks locally interbedded with 

Antler-derived conglomerate and sandstone (White 

Knob Formation) 

l:::iii!i[i!i[i!i!i:::iii!i!i!i:::i[i!l Craton-derived red and black claystone, limestone, 

dolomite and sandstone 

---Contact 

-500- Isopachs (partly restored) in 500-m and lOOO~m 

intervals-Dashed where inferred; dotted across 

Snake River Plain 

-200- Isopachs (partly restored) in 100-m intervals-Dotted 

across Snake River Plain 

- .§~-- Structural element or boundary described in caption 

• • • 640 Sample localities-Same as on figure 4. Thicknesses in 

meters 
IDAHO AA21 

quartzitic turbidites exposed along the Salmon River 

(Hobbs and others, 1975a; Nilsen, 1977). Strata 

exposed in the area outlined by structural element 8 

(fig. 12) resemble the Salmon River turbidites 

(C. M. Tschanz, written commun., 1977). Locally 

abundant faunas, which include brachiopods, mollusks, bryozoans and calcareous foraminifers date 

parts of the sequences as late Meramecian to 

Chesterian. 

The variety of lithologies in the upper part of the 

Copper Basin Formation suggests deposition in a 

shoaling foreland basin, which, before the end of 

Mississippian time, became a neutral area and, 

perhaps locally, an emergent-positive area. 

WHITE KNOB LIMESTONE 

The White Knob Limestone, at least 1,675 m thick 

at the type section in the White Knob Mountains, 

gradationally overlies the McGowan Creek Formation (Skipp, 1961a). It consists of fine-grained argillaceous and laminated silty spiculitic mudstone in 

the lower part. This mudstone grades upward into 

clean wackestone, grainstone, and packstone, which 

in the upper 840 m of the type section, are interbedded with lenses of conglomerate containing 

gravel fragments as much as 10 em in diameter, 

medium- to coarse-grained sandstone, and minor 

siltstone beds (Skipp, 1961a). Fabrics of limestone, 

conglomerate, and sandstone in the upper part indicate deposition mostly in a subtidal to intertidal 

turbulent marine environment. The fine-grained 

lower beds are considered to be forebank deposits. 

The interbedded upper limestone-terrigenous clastic 

sequence of Chesterian age (Skipp and Mamet, 

1970) is the westernmost representative of the prograding Upper Mississippian carbonate bank described by Rose (1976) north of the plain. Interbedded clastic rocks were derived from the Antler 

highland, though the mechanisms that produced this 

phenomenon remain obscure. Uplift of Copper Basin 

deposits to the west or north seems necessary for 

this interpretation. Mississippian-age thrusting has 

been postulated by Nilsen (1977). Shallow-water 

carbonate rocks of late Chesterian age are interbedded locally with terrigenous clastic rocks of the 

Copper Basin Formation. 

Though much of the White Knob is recrystallized 

or altered by contact metamorphism, locally abundant faunas composed of bryozoans, mollusks, 

brachiopods, ostracodes, corals, trilobites, algae, 

foraminifers, crinoidal debris, and sparse fish plates 

are present in the upper part and were used to date 

the formation as middle Meramecian to late Chesterian (Skipp and Mamet, 1970; Yokley, 1974). 

MIDDLE CANYON, SCOTT PEAK, SOUTH CREEK, 

AND SURRETT CANYON FORMATIONS 

The carbonate-bank and forebank deposits of the 

Middle Canyon, Scott Peak, South Creek, and Surrett Canyon Formations are present from the White 

Knob Mountains east to the Idaho-Montana border 

and beyond. Thicknesses range from 1,288 m at 

localities 15 and 24, the northern Lost River Range 

and the southern Beaverhead Mountains, respectively, to 646 min the Howe Peak area (locality 13) 

and about 390 m in the central Beaverhead Mountains (locality 28). These formations constitute a 

prograding carbonate-bank complex (Huh, 1967; 

Rose, 1976), which generally thickens westward 

(figs. 11, 12). The Middle Canyon, consisting of 

sandy, silty, and cherty, thin- to medium-bedded 

carbonate mudstone, is, in part, the forebank 

deposit formed in front of the prograding bank 

(Huh, 1967; Sandberg and Poole, 1977). The sandy 

FIGURE 12.-Isopach map of Upper Mississippian rocks showing late Meramecian and Chesterian lithofacies 

and provincial formation names, and position of allochthonous part of Antler highland. 

1. Structural western limit of well-dated Mississippian Copper Basin Formation, some of which 

is known to be of Late Mississippian age, and 

structural eastern limit of Wood River Formation. 

2. Structural eastern limit of Copper Basin Formation and western limit of carbonate-bank complex. 

3. Structural and/ or depositional eastern limit of 

coarse detritus derived from Antler highland 

interbedded with shallow-water limestones 

(White Knob Limestone). 

4. Eastern limit of Upper Mississippian carbonatebank complex and structural boundary. between 

the outer cratonic platform to the west and the 

inner cratonic platform to the east (craton 

margin of Sahdo (1976a), and upper carbonateplatform margin of Rose (1976)). 

5. Structural western limit(?) of carbonate-bank 

complex:. 

6. Western limit of Bannock highland. 

7. Structural boundary between outer cratonic platform and inner cratonic platform (craton margin of Sando (1976a) and upper carbonatebank margin of Rose (1976) ). Approximate 

eastern limit of Bannock highland. 

8. Structural windows ( ?) of Copper Basin ( ?) 

Formation. 
AA22 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

and silty parts of the Middle Canyon contain inner 

cratonic-platform-derived detritus deposited on the 

outer cratonic platform after Madison deposition; 

thus, they are correlative with the Kibbey Formation of the Big Snowy Group in Montana (Sando 

and others, 1975, fig. 13, pl. 11). Thick-bedded, 

variably cherty, fossiliferous bank limestones of the 

Scott Peak and Surrett Canyon Limestones, which 

form massive cliffs in several ranges, are separated 

by thin-bedded silty and argillaceous limestone of 

the South Creek Formation, which probably represents a period of relatively deep water marine circulation that temporarily interrupted carbonatebank buildup. In the Beaverhead Mountains, the 

Scott Peak Formation contains sandy zones that are 

missing farther west. The Surrett Canyon Formation is thin or missing in the Beaverhead Mountains 

but is about 330m thick in the northern Lost River 

Range (locality 15). Fossils are varied and abundant, particularly in the Scott Peak and Surrett 

Canyon bank limestones. They include corals, 

brachiopods, mollusks, bryozoans, algae, calcareous 

foraminifers, trilobites, ostracodes, and shark teeth, 

which indicate that the formations range in age 

from middle Meramecian to late Chesterian (Mamet 

and others, 1971). A valuable field guide to diagnostic rugose and colonial corals from these formations 

is available (Sando, 1976b). 

BIG SNOWY, ARCO HILL'S, AND BLUEBIRD 

MOUNTAIN FORMATIONS 

In the Beaverhead Mountains, the South Creek 

and Surrett Canyon Formations are thin or absent 

and are replaced by black shale, siltstone, finegrained calcareous sandstone, and phosphatic carbonate conglomerate of the Big Snowy Formation 

(fig. 8). These Big Snowy sediments mark the end 

of carbonate-bank buildup, the beginning of a restricted marine environment, and the westward 

spreading of inner cratonic-platform detritus onto 

the outer cratonic platform in late Meramecian to 

middle Chesterian time. Farther west, very fine 

grained silty limestone, shale, and siltstone of the 

Arco Hills Formation indicate the same restriction 

of circulation and shoaling of the seas near the site 

of the foundered flysch trough in late Chesterian 

time. The limestone, siltstone, and shale of the Big 

Snowy and Arco Hills Formations were succeeded 

by a very late Chesterian flood of very. fine grained 

inner-craton-derived sand (the Bluebird Mountain 

Formation), which transgressed from east to west. 

The Bluebird Mountain Formation ranges in thickness from 99 m in the Beaverhead Mountains (locality 24) to about 5 m in the White Knob Mountains 

(locality 12). The Arco Hills Formation contains a 

fauna dominated by brachiopods (many phosphatic) 

and mollusks. Calcareous foraminifers, conodonts, 

and a few small rugose corals are present. The Big 

Snowy also contains numerous brachiopods, some 

mollusks, bryozoans (including Archimedes sp.), 

conodonts, algae, and calcareous foraminifers. The 

Bluebird Mountain Formation contains sparse foraminifers, conodonts, ostracodes, bryozoans, echinoderms, and brachiopods (Crawford, 1976; Skipp 

and others, 1979). 

East of the inner cratonic platform margin, the 

Big Snowy in the Centennial Mountains (localities 

29 and 30a) and Henrys Lake Mountains (locality 

30) is less than 200 m thick and consists of sandstone, siltstone, red, green, and black claystone; 

thin-bedded limestone and thick-bedded, coarsely 

crystalline dolomite. The limestone contains corals, 

brachiopods, blastoids, bryozoans, foraminifers, and 

algae of late Chesterian age. 

AMSDEN FORMATION (PART) 

South of the plain, quartzite (Pampeyan and 

others, 1967; locality 44), sandstone, variegated 

shale, limestone (Staatz and Albee, 1966; locality 

39), sandstone, siltstone, and shale (Jobin and 

Soister, 1964) have been assigned variously to the 

lower part of the Wells Formation, the Big Snowy 

Formation, or the lower part of the Amsden Formation. All these sequences, herein assigned to the 

Amsden Formation (fig. 8), are 61 m or less thick 

(fig. 12) and are of Late Mississippian (latest Meramecian and Chesterian) to Early Pennsylvanian 

age (Sando, 1976a). They compose the western extension of lagoonal and restricted marine facies of 

the cratonic platform of Wyoming (fig. 11) described: by Sando in a companion paper (this volume)! Faunas in the limestone beds consist of foraminifers, bryozoans, brachiopods, ostracodes, 

gastropods, and corals. The entire thickness of the 

Amsden Formation south of the plain is included 

on the isopach map for the Upper Mississippian 

(fig. 12), because it is not known how much of the 

interval might be Pennsylvanian. Most of the faunas 

reported are of Late Mississippian age, and it is 

concluded that only the uppermost part of the interval is of Pennsylvanian age. 

DEEP CREEK, LITTLE FLAT, AND HUMBUG 

FORMATIONS (PART) 

South of the plain and west of the inner craton 

margin, sandstone and sandy and cherty limestone 
IDAHO AA23 

of the upper member of the Deep Creek Formation, 

the upper three members of the Little Flat Formation, and an arbitrary upper part of the Humbug 

Formation were deposited on the outer cratonic platform. Included in this interval is a sequence of limestone, sandy limestone, and quartzite, more than 

180 m thick, exposed in the Black Pine Range (locality 32; J. F. Smith, Jr., written commun., 1976). The 

sequence contains conodonts of probable middle 

Meramecian age (John Repetski, written commun., 

1976) and is questionably assigned to the Humbug 

Formation. The interval is about 460 m thick in the 

Deep Creek Mountains (locality 34) and thins eastward to about 250 m in the Chesterfield Range 

(locality 37). Cratonic-platform-derived sandstone 

is dominant in the Chesterfield Range, whereas 

sandy limestone predominates in the Deep Creek 

Mountains. The sand and silt probably originated 

on the inner craton and were swept across the exposed and eroding Lower Mississippian carbonate 

complex (Sando and others, 1975; Rose, 1976) ; 

they are equivalent to the Darwin Sandstone Member of the Amsden Formation in Wyoming (Sando 

and others, 1975, fig. 13, pl. 11). A similar history 

is postulated for the sandy facies of the Middle 

Canyon Formation north of the plain. Fossils are 

sparse in these facies, but conodonts, foraminifers, 

brachiopods, and corals establish a middle Meramecian age for the sequences. 

GREAT BLUE AND MONROE CANYON LIMESTONES 

In the Deep Creek Mountains, above the Deep 

Creek Formation, about 760 m of Great Blue Limestone consists of thick- to thin-bedded carbonatebank limestone, and a medial black to gray shale 

interval, 130 m thick. The Great Blue at this locality 

marks the westernmost outcrop of the upper carbonate shelf south of the plain (localities 34 and 35). 

The upper carbonate shelf margin was depicted by 

Rose (1976, fig. 9) and Poole and Sandberg (1977, 

fig. 7) as just east of the Deep Creek Mountains, 

whereas Sando (1976a, fig. 6) showed it west of this 

locality. Recent studies show that the Great Blue in 

the Deep Creek Mountains is probably part of the 

carbonate bank (L. D. Cress, unpub. data, 1978). 

Indirect evidence suggests to the senior author that 

the limestone of the Great Blue could extend as far 

west as the Black Pine Range (locality 32), where 

normally associated strata similar to the overlying 

Manning Canyon Shale and the upper part of the 

underlying Deep Creek or Humbug Formation are 

exposed in separate structural windows (J. F. 

Smith, Jr., written commun., 1976). To the east, 

thick- to thin-bedded limestone of the Monroe Canyon Limestone, more than 280 m thick, make up 

the eastward-thinning complex of shelf-carbonate 

deposits. Brachiopods, corals, bryozoans, echinoderms, gastropods, trilobites, foraminifers, and 

algae are abundant in the Monroe Canyon and Great 

Blue Limestones (Dutro and Sando, 1963; Sando, 

and others, 1969; Trimble and Carr, 1976). 

MANNING CANYON SHALE (PART) 

The Manning Canyon Shale is present west of 

boundary 6 and east of boundary 5 and is not present in the area of the Bannock highland (fig. 12). 

The formation consists of dark-gray or black to 

varicolored shale or argillite interbedded with calcareous siltstone and sandstone or quartzite, minor 

limestone, and oolitic phosphate rock. In the Deep 

Creek Mountains, 134 m of the lower part of the 

Manning Canyon is assigned to the Upper Mississippian complex. At Samaria Mountain, the entire interval is only 80 m thick and is assigned to the Mississippian. In the Black Pine Range, more than 600 

m of black argillite containing a few lenses of quartzite and limestone has yielded a conodont that has 

an age range from latest Mississippian through 

Early Permian; the unit has been mapped as Manning Canyon Shale by J. F. Smith, Jr. (written 

commun., 1976). Part of the Black Pine sequence 

probably is Late Mississippian in age. The Manning 

Canyon Shale in southeasternmost Idaho has been 

interpreted as a wedge of fine terrigenous material 

probably derived from the margins of the inner 

cratonic platform (Rose, 1976; L. D. Cress, written 

commun., 1978), which spread westward across the 

upper depositional carbonate complex south of the 

plain, much as did the Arco Hills and Bluebird 

Mountain Formations north of the plain. Sando believes that the terrigenous material was derived 

from the Antler orogenic highland to the west. Black 

shale and phosphorite indicate a restricted marine 

environment in part. Fossils are rare, but brachiopods and conodonts of latest Chesterian age (Beus, 

1968) have been identified in the lower part of the 

Manning Canyon Shale. 

VIEW FORMATION OF ARMSTRONG (1968) 

More than 100 m of dark, graphitic, muscovitequartz-calcite schist and dolomitic quartz schist 

overlain by light-gray quartzite and scattered conglomerate lenses occurs in the Albion Range (locality 31) and is tentatively considered part of the Mississippian. Conglomerate in the sequence suggests 

correlation with the Chainman Shale or Diamond 
AA24 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Peak Formation, Antler highland-derived orogenic 

sequences present in northeastern Nevada. The 

sequence has been thrust eastward, and its original 

depositional site is unknown. The Raft River valley 

between the Albion and Sublett Ranges may contain 

the present boundary between the carbonate bank 

and the foreland basin (figs. 11, 12). 

DEPOSITIONAL HISTORY 

Regional uplift during latest early Meramecian 

time drained the inner cratonic platform and caused 

the sea to be confined to the outer cratonic platform 

and the foreland basin (Sando, 1976a). Lower Mississippian limestone banks of the Madison Group 

were exposed both north and south of the plain, and 

terrigenous detritus was carried westward into the 

foreland basin to form the sandy limestone of the 

Middle Canyon Formation north of the plain and 

the sandstone and sandy limestone of the upper parts 

of the Deep Creek, Little Flat, and Humbug Formations south of the plain. In middle Meramecian 

through late Chesterian time, thick-bedded fossiliferous bank limestones, representing several transgressive-regressive cycles, spread westward across the 

foreland basin (Huh, 1967; Rose, 1976). North of 

the plain, the bank limestone is interbedded with 

conglomeratic detritus derived from the shoaling 

distal flysch basin on the west (fig. 11). South of the 

plain, in Idaho, the location of the western edge of 

the carbonate bank is obscured by faulting, lack of 

outcrops, and metamorphism, but it may extend as 

far west as the Black Pine Range (fig. 11). In southeasternmost Idaho, the northern part of the Bannock 

highland was emergent in latest Chesterian time 

(Sando, 1976a,p. 332). 

North of the plain, the inner cratonic platform remained emergent until latest Meramecian time. 

Black shale, sandstone, and limestone conglomerate 

(Big Snowy Formation) replaced carbonate-bank 

deposition in the western part of the inner cratonic 

platform during late Meramecian into Chesterian 

time. In latest Chesterian time, a blanket of mudstone and very fine grained sandstone spread westward from the inner platform at least as far west 

as the present eastern edge of the Copper Basin 

Formation. The flysch trough in middle Chesterian 

time was receiving fine- to coarse-grained westernderived detritus in a very shallow, locally restricted 

marine environment. As there is no evidence of 

western-derived detritus in the latest Chesterian 

part of the White ~nob Limestone, we suggest that 

much of the area of the trough ceased to subside, 

became neutral, and then emergent, possibly before, 

or shortly after, the end of Mississippian time. 

lVIISSISSIPPIAN -PENNSYLVANIAN CONTACT 

The Mississippian-Pennsylvanian contact is gradational over much of the cratonic platform of 

Idaho, where Mississippian rocks are present. The 

systemic boundary lies within the Manning Canyon 

Shale south of the plain and is thought to be within 

the lowermost beds of the Snaky Canyon Formation 

near the contact with the underlying Bluebi·rd Mountain Formation north of the plain. The base of the 

Bluebird Mountain Formation is a sharp boundary 

and relatively easy to find in the field, whereas the 

top is gradational and somewhat arbitrary. As the 

unit is sparsely fossiliferous and has a sharp basal 

contact, beds correlative with the formation have 

been considered lowermost Pennsylvanian (Mamet 

and others, 1971; Sando, 1976a). Calcareous Foraminifera of Mamet zone 19 (fig. 8), however, are 

pre:sent at several horizons within the formaHon 

(Skipp and others, 1979) ; the formation is assigned 

to the Mississippian in this paper. 

Pennsylvanian rocks are absent in the outcrop 

area of the Copper Basin highland, which was a 

source area in Middle Pennsylvanian time (Skipp 

and Hall, 1975a; Skipp and Hait, 1977). The Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary is unconformable in the area of the Bannock highland in southeastern Idaho (figs. 13, 14; Williams, 1962; Sando, 

1976a) and in the area of Big Snowy deposition on 

the inner cratonic platform at the Montana-Idaho 

border. The systemic boundary appears conformable 

south of the plain near the Wyoming border, where 

it is within the Amsden Formation (Sando, 1976a). 

PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEM 

The Pennsylvanian System of the United States 

correlates with most of the Upper Carboniferous 

Series in Europe (fig. 8) and includes, from oldest 

to youngest, the Morrowan, Atokan, Des Moinesian, 

Missourian, and Virgilian Provincial Series. 

PALEOTECTONIC SETTING-HUMBOLDT OROGENY 

Pennsylvanian rocks in Idaho can best be grouped 

into two depositional frameworks. The early one, 

representing Early and early Middle Pennsylvanian 

(Morrowan and Atokan) time reflects the paleotectonic setting inherited from latest Mississippian 

time. Limestones, many sandy, silty or argillaceous, 

were deposited in shallow epeiric seas, which spread 

uniformly across the cratonic platform westward to 
IDAHO AA25 

the edge of the neutral or emergent Copper Basin 

area, the site of the former Mississippian flysch 

trough. The seas also flooded the inner cratonic platform along the eastern edge of the State, and both 

carbonate and terrigenous sediments accumulated in 

restricted marine and lagoonal environments. 

In late Middle Pennsylvanian (Des Moinesian) 

time, the tectonic setting changed. The Copper Basin 

highland (figs. 13, 14) rose and contributed minor 

coarse detritus to a newly formed Wood River basin 

on the west, to the Snaky Canyon Formation area 

on the east, and to the Oquirrh Formation on the 

south. The Bannock highland in southeastern Idaho, 

which had been emergent through Late Mississippian and Early Pennsylvanian time (Williams, 

1962; Sando, 1976a), submerged and received sediment. At the same time, floods of very fine to finegrained sand were deposited in the Wood River, Sublett, Oquirrh, and Quadrant basins. 

Ketner ( 1977) recently defined the Humboldt 

orogeny in Nevada to include the late Paleozoic 

orogenic events that affected parts of the Great 

Basin from late Middle Pennsylvanian time through 

Early Permian time. The axis of the north-trending 

Humboldt highland of western Nevada, which shed 

detritus both east and west, was west of the axis of 

the former Antler highland, according to Ketner 

(1977). Poole and Wardlaw (1978) described the 

highland as a series of Pennsylvanian flysch basins 

and emergent ridges or islands in central Nevada. 

They considered the highland to have been along 

the western side of the former Antler orogenic 

highland. 

Extension of the Humboldt highland into southern Idaho is tenuous because the Idaho batholith 

occupies the probable position of this inferred 

orogenic belt. Paleocurrent evidence of a western or 

southwestern source terrane for the bulk of Wood 

River Formation detritus (Thomasson, 1959) is 

compatible with the idea of a highland in western 

Idaho. The major problems with this interpretation 

are (1) the mineralogy of the Wood River sandstones, which suggest a cratonic basement source 

(Hall and others, 1974), and (2) the similarity between Oquirrh basin and Wood River basin sedimentary rocks, even though the Oquirrh basin formed 

earlier. The Oquirrh basin probably also was filled 

with detritus derived from cratonic sources (Bissell, 

1974). 

North of the plain, throughout Pennsylvanian 

time, the Copper Basin highland remained an effective barrier between the Wood River basin on the 

west and the depositional area of the Snaky Canyon 

Formation on the east. South of the plain, no such 

barrier existed; instead, an area of subsidence and 

basin filling, referred to as the Sublett basin 

(Cramer, 1971; this report figs. 13, 14), formed as 

a northern extension of the Oquirrh basin during 

Pennsylvanian and Permian time. Minor granule 

and pebble conglomerate in the Pennsylvanian part 

of the Oquirrh Formation of the Black Pine and 

Sublett Ranges, and the Deep Creek Mountains 

(J. F. Smith, Jr., written commun., 1976; R. L. 

Armstrong, written commun., 1976; Trimble and 

Carr, 1976), probably was derived from the Copper 

Basin highland to the north. 

The depositional framework established during 

Middle Pennsylvanian time persisted into the 

Permian. 

UNDERLYING ROCKS 

North of the plain, upper Middle Pennsylvanian 

rocks rest in thrust contact on the Devonian Milligen 

Formation in the Wood River basin (fig. 8; Sandberg and others, 1975), but the Wood River is interpreted as having been deposited unconformably 

on the Milligen. The Milligen Formation is part of 

the complex that constituted the Late DevonianEarly Mississippian Antler orogenic highland 

(Poole, 1974; Sandberg and others, 1975). East of 

the Copper Basin highland, the Pennsylvanian-Mississippian contact is gradational, and its position in 

the stratigraphic sections is defined on the basis of 

contained faunas. East of the inner cratonic platform margin, the Amsden Formation unconformably 

overlies Upper Mississippian rocks in the vicinity of 

the Centennial Mountains and Henrys Lake Mountains (localities 29, 30, and 30a). 

South of the plain, the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian contact is considered to be conformable within 

the Amsden Formation where the Amsden is present:- Elsewhere, except for the area of the Bannock 

highland, where Middle Pennsylvanian rocks rest on 

Upper Mississippian strata, the lithologic transition 

from the Mississippian to Pennsylvanian Systems is 

within the Manning Canyon Shale. Through much 

of southern Idaho, however, the transition is not 

actually observed, because uppermost Mississippian 

shale formed a zone of structural weakness along 

which Mesozoic thrusting took place (S. S. Oriel and 

L. B. Platt, unpub. data, 1978). Mississippian rocks 

are exposed only in structural windows in the .Black 

Pine and Sublett Ranges (figs. 2, 4; J. F. Smith, Jr., 

M. H. Hait, Jr., and R. L. Armstrong, unpub. data). 
AA26 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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I 

~ 

0 

"\,\ I 

I 

I 

I 

I 

0 Rejhurg 

I 

EXPLANATION 

f:}}}}~ Tertiary and Cretaceous intrusive rocks 

j)))i}!)(j Mostly cherty or sandy limestone, minor sandstone or 

quartzite 

~ M~stly calcareous or quartzitic sandstone, with sandy 

hmestone and minor granule- to cobble- sized conglomerate and shaly mudstone in places 

jjjjjjjjjijjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj Emergent area 

-500- lsopachs (partly restored) in SOO-m and 1000-m 

intervals-Dashed where inferred; dotted across 

Snake River Plain 

-700- lsopachs (partly restored) in 100-m intervals-Dashed 

where inferred; dotted across Snake River Plain 

- J~- - Structural element or boundary described in caption 

• .t. •

1 052 Sample localities-Same as on figure 4. Thicknesses in 

meters 
IDAHO AA27 

OVERLYING ROCKS 

North of the Snake River Plain and west of structural element 3 (fig. 13), rocks of Pennsylvanian age 

are overlain gradationally by Permian strata except 

in the area of the Copper Basin highland where 

neither Pennsylvanian nor Permian rocks have been 

recognized. The Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary 

lies within the Wood River and Snaky Canyon Formations. Because of the gradational nature of the 

contact, some Permian rocks are shown as combined 

with Pennsylvanian rocks in figure 2. In the central 

Beaverhead Mountains (localities 27 and 28), sandstone and limestone assigned to the Quadrant Formation correlate with the lower part of the Snaky 

Canyon Formation and are overlain gradationally by 

carbonate rocks assigned to the Grandeur Member 

of the Park City Formation (Ruppel, 1968), which 

probably correlates with the upper part of the 

Snaky Canyon Formation. The Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary may be within the lower beds of the 

Park City Formation as defined in these areas, 

though no faunal data are available at this time. 

Only beds assigned to the Quadrant Formation have 

been included on the isopach map (fig. 13). 

The Quadrant Formation, which crops out in 

Idaho east of structural element 3, is no younger 

than Middle Pennsylvanian in age on the basis of 

fusulinids obtained from the nearby type section 

(Thompson and Scott, 1941) ; it is unconformably 

overlain by the Phosphoria Formation of Permian 

age (fig. 8). 

South of the plain, the Pennsylvanian-Permian 

boundary is gradational in all areas of outcrop and 

is present within both the Oquirrh and Wells 

Formations. 

THICKNESS 

Pennsylvanian rocks generally thicken to the 

south and west across Idaho, a very different trend 

from that of thicknesses within the Mississippian 

System. The thickest sequences (Oquirrh Formation), more than 2,286 m, are present in the Sublett 

and Black Pine Ranges-a northern extension of 

the Oquirrh basin of Utah. The oldest upper Paleozoic rocks found to date in the Cassia Mountains 

(fig. 4), west of the Albion Range, are of Permian 

age (Morgan, 1977). The strata so resemble the 

upper part of the Wood River Formation north of 

the plain that Pennsylvanian rocks are assumed to 

be present in the subsurface. 

Observed thicknesses in the Wood River area 

range from 760 to 1,480 m; thinnest sequences are 

in the center of the area of outcrop (W. E. Hall, 

unpub. data; fig. 13). No Pennsylvanian rocks have 

been reported from the area of the Copp~r Basin 

highland. East of the highland, the Pennsylvanian 

part of the Snaky Canyon Formation ranges from 

600 to about 1,100 m in thickness. Strata assigned 

to the Quadrant Formation in the Beaverhead 

Mountains (localities 27 and 28) are about 400 m 

thick. East of the outer cratonic platform, Pennsylvanian rocks thin to as little as 30 m (locality 29). 

South of the plain and east of the Sublett basin, 

on the Bannock highland (fig. 13), the thickest 

sequences assigned to the Wells Formation, 388 m 

and 387 m, are in the Preuss and Wooley Ranges 

(Peale Mountains) (localities 49 and 45) of southeasternmost Idaho. In the area of Amsden Formation south of the plain, a maximum of 224 m of 

Wells Formation is reported in the Snake River 

Range (locality 42). 

FORMATIONS INCLUDED 

Rocks of Early to latest Pennsylvanian age are 

included between line I and rocks above the Pennsylvanian System at the top of the correlation chart 

(fig. 8). Cratonic-platform basin and restrictedmarine or lagoonal depositional environments are 

represented. 

North of the plain, the lower parts of the Wood 

River and Snaky Canyon Formations make up the 

interval in most areas. Rocks assigned to the . 

FIGURE 13.-Total isopach map of Pennsylvanian rocks showing Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian lithofacies, 

provincial formation names, location of Copper Basin highland, and position of Lower Pennsylvanian Bannock highland. 

1. Structural eastern limit of Wood River Formation and western edge of Copper Basin highland. 

2. Structural eastern edge of Copper Basin highland 

and western limit of Snaky Canyon Formation. 

3. Structural eastern limit of Snaky Canyon Formation and western limit of Amsden Formation. 

4. Structural western limit of Amsden Formation 

and eastern border of Bannock highland (modified from Williams, 1962, and Sando, 1976a). 

5. Western limit of Wells Formation and approximate western border of Bannock highland. 

6. Structural window of Mississippian ( ?) rocks. 

7. Structural windows ( ?) of Mississippian ( ?) rocks. 
AA28 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

CRATONIC PLATFORM 

MISSISSIPPIAN 

0 20 40 60 KILOMETERS 

DEVONIAN 

~~~,~~--~,~'L---~'~----~ 

20 40 60 MILES 

CRATONIC PLATFORM 

~-------------------------(OUTER) ---------------------------+--(INNER)~ 

SUBLETT BASIN 

33 34 

••••• ....!.,_ 

•• _L 

f- BANNOCK HIGHLAND -I 

37 41 44 8' 

Amsden 

Formation 

(part) 

MISSISSIPPIAN 

EXPLANATION 

~Mainly thin- to medium-bedded. impure m shelf limestone 

~Gray ~ or black mudstone or argillite; argillaceous 

1-:-: --~Abundant chert in nodules and layers 

~ Hydrozoan and algal buildups, dolomitic in ~part 

~~-. ·. ·§Siltstone or sil~- _ 

~ 

~ Conglomerate or conglomeratic 

~ Red mudstone 

I>.:>>>J Sandstone or sandy 

---- Lithologic boundary-Wavy where unconformable 

-==-- Thrust fault-Showing direction of movement 

1 Part of section exposed at each locality 

500 

1000 

1500 

0 METERS 

500 

1000 

1500 

2000 

FIGURE 14.-Cross sections showing stratigraphic and structural relations of Pennsylvanian rocks in Idaho north of the 

Snake River Plain (A-A') and south o.f the plain (B-B'). Locations of cross S'ec.tions are shown on figu!'les 2 and 4. Locati<ons of stratigraphic sections are shown on figure 4. Datum is the top of the Pennsylvanian. 

Quadrant Formation in the Beaverhead Mountains 

(localities 27 and 28) are correlatives of the Snaky 

Canyon Formation. The Amsden and Quadrant Formations constitute the Pennsylvanian System east 

of structural element 3 (fig. 13) on the cratonic 

platform. 
IDAHO AA29 

South of the plain, the upper part of the Amsden 

Formation and the lower part of the Wells Formation .constitute the Pennsylvanian System in the 

eastern part of the outcrop area. To the west, Pennsylvanian strata are represented in the upper part 

of the Manning Canyon Shale and the lower part of 

the Oquirrh Formation as far west as the Black 

Pine Range (locality 32). 

WOOD RIVER FORMATION (PART) 

The Pennsylvanian part of the Wood River Formation includes the Hailey Conglomerate Member 

(unit 1) at the base, overlying units 2, 3, 4, 5, and 

slightly less than half of unit 6 (Hall and others, 

1974; fig. 8). This part of the formation is 1,480 m 

thick at the type section (locality 1) and 760 m thick 

at Wilson Creek to the north (locality 1a). The base 

of the Hailey Conglomerate Member is the sole of a 

major thrust; it is strongly sheared and detached 

into boudins where it is present (fig. 14). The Wood 

River rests on the Devonian Milligen Formation 

through much of its outcrop area and overrides the 

Mississippian Copper Basin Formation and a sequence of Ordovician through Devonian rocks 

(Dover and others, 1976) along its eastern outcrop 

margin (structural element 1, fig. 13). The Wood 

River Formation may rest on the Copper Basin in 

the White Cloud Peaks area (structural element 7, 

fig. 13). The Pennsylvanian part of unit 6 appears 

to be overlain conformably by beds of Wolfcampian 

(Early Permian) age. 

The Hailey Conglomerate Member (unit 1), which 

consists of chert- and quartzite-pebble to -cobble 

conglomerate and quartzite interbedded with brown, 

partly algal, limestone, is about 120 m thick at locality 1 (fig. 4) and in its type section near the town 

of Hailey. Faulting and folding in the type locality 

has duplicated the section, which was reported by 

Thomasson (1959) to be 986 ft (300 m) thick. 

Though no studies of clast-size distribution or sedimentary structures within the sheared basal conglomerate have been made, it now seems likely that 

the chert and quartzite clasts were derived from the 

emergent eastern Copper Basin highland (fig. 13). 

The basal conglomerate is overlain by more than 

1,000 m of interbedded sandstone, quartzite, sandy 

and argillaceous limestone, and minor easterly derived turbidite conglomerate (Hall and others, 1974; 

Skipp and Hall, 1975a; Skipp, 1975). 

The bulk of the formation consists of very fine to 

fine-grained, slightly feldspathic, quartzose limy 

sandstone and sandy limestone that had a source 

different from that of the conglomerate. The craton 

(Hall and others, 1974; Skipp and Hall, 1975a) and 

the Humboldt highland (Ketner, 1977) have been 

suggested as possible source terranes. South to 

southwest and a few northwest current directions 

were measured in the Wood River Formation by 

Thomasson (1959), who also noted that sand in the 

Slate Creek section (locality 17) is coarser, fine to 

medium grained, and more abundant than in the 

type section (locality 1) to the south. 

The Pennsylvanian part of the formation ranges 

in age from Middle (Des Moinesian, possibly 

Atokan) through Late (Virgilian) (Bostwick, 1955; 

Hall and others, 1974). No Missourian faunas have 

been recovered from the Wood River Formation. 

About 61 m of strata occur between fusulinid faunas 

of Des Moinesian and Virgilian age in the type section, but no fault or unconformity has been recognized in the poorly exposed interval (Hall and 

others, 1974). Whether the Missourian stage is condensed in this interval or is missing altogether is 

not known. 

Pennsylvanian rocks south of the plain informally 

have been called Wood River Formation because of 

their lithologic resemblance to units 2 through 6. 

These rocks are assigned to the Oquirrh Formation. 

Permian rocks in the Cassia Mountains (fig. 4) bear 

a strong resemblance to the Permian part of the 

Wood River Formation (Morgan, 1977), and it 

seems obvious that Pennsylvanian and Permian 

sedimentation took place between these areas now 

separated by the Snake River Plain. 

The Wood River Formation is distinguished by 

its locally abundant fusulinid faunas (Bostwick, 

1955; Hall and others, 1974), particularly in unit 

6:, but other faunal and floral groups are present, 

including crinoidal debris, bryozoans, brachiopods, 

corals, nonfusulinid foraminifers, and algae. 

SNAKY CANYON FORMATION (PART) 

East of the Copper Basin highland and north of 

the Snake River plain the Pennsylvanian System is 

represented by the lower part of the recently defined 

Snaky Canyon Formation (Skipp and others, 

1979 which includes the basal Bloom Mem·ber overlain by the Gallagher Peak Sandstone Member and 

the lower beds of the Juniper Gulch Member. At 

the type section in the ·southern Beaverhead Mountains (localities 24 and 25), the Pennsylvanian part 

of the formation is about 900 to 1,000 m thick. 

The formation is more than 870 m thick at Timbered 

Dome (locality 11) and as little as 600 m .• thick in 

the Arco Hills-Howe Peak area (locality 13) . 
AA30 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVAN ~AN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

The Bloom Member in the Lost River and 

Lemhi Ranges and the Beaverhead Mountains consists of medium-bedded gray limestone, much of it 

sandy or silty, interbedded with thin beds of very 

fine grained, yellowish-brown-weathering sandstone 

and siltstone. Nodules of incipient chert (rims of 

brown-weathering silicified material enclosing gray 

limestone), as well as concentrically laminated 

stromatolitic mounds, are common. Impure wackestones, packstones, and lesser amounts of calcareous 

mudstone are the chief carbonate rocks. Fossils are 

fairly common and include small fusulinids and 

other foraminifers, brachiopods, corals, bryozoans, 

crinoid columnals, and abundant encrinitic debris. 

The base of the Bloom Member eas.t of the White 

Knob Mountains is probably near the Late Mississippian-Early Pennsylvanian boundary, and the top 

is probably Missourian in age (fig. 8). 

The Gallagher Peak Sandstone Member consists 

largely of very fine grained calcareous sandstone. It 

is less than 60 m thick, appears to thin westward, 

and has not been recognized with certainty in the 

White Knob Mountains. The member is of probable 

Missourian age. 

The lower part of the Juniper Gulch Member consists of interbedded sandy and cherty, generally 

light-gray-weathering, thin- to thick-bedded limestone and dolomite. The sand and chert is mainly in 

the basal100 m. The Pennsylvanian-Permian boundary is near the middle of the member in hydrozoan (?)-algal carbonate buildups, 100 to more than 

200 m thick. The buildups were described in detail 

by Breuninger (1976), who suggested that lenticular 

buildups stood topographically above the adjacent 

sea floor while they formed (fig. 14). Other fauna 

associated with. the buildups include common encrusting foraminifers and bryozoans and less common gastropods, crinoids, and brachiopods. Fusulinid foraminifers are sparse, although they have 

been found throughout the lower part of the member 

and date it as mostly of Missourian and Virgilian 

age (Shannon, 1961; Breuninger, 1976; R. C. Douglass, written commun., 1976; fig. 8). The Juniper 

Gulch Member also has not been recognized in the 

White Knob Mountains area. 

In the White Knob Mountains (localities 11 and 

12), the Snaky Canyon Formation consists of basal 

thick-bedded sandy limestone overlain by interbedded thin- to medium-bedded, fossiliferous, argillaceous and silty limestone, calcareous shale, siltstone, and very fine grained sandstone. The 

limestone is mostly impure carbonate mudstone and 

wackestone containing abundant calcareous sponge 

spicules and lesser amounts of bryozoan, molluscan, 

and brachiopo·d debris. Minor sandy limestone, together with quartz and chert sand of medium grain 

size, and granule limestone conglomerate are present 

locally. At Timbered Dome (locality 11), a chertquartzite pebble- to cobble-conglomerate bed, 14 m 

thick containing fragments as large as 10 em in 

diameter, crops out about 700 m above the base. 

The conglomerate, which was derived from the 

Copper Basin highland, is assigned to the Middle 

Pennsylvanian (fig. 8), on the basis of silicified 

brachiopods identified by J. T. Dutro, Jr. (written 

commun., 1978), from beds 15m below. 

Strata that correlate with the Snaky Canyon Formation have been called Quadrant Formation in the 

central Beaverhead Mountains (localities 27 and 

28) . These Quadrant sections contain about 50 percent (locality 28) or more (locality 27) quartzitic 

and calcareous sandstone (fig. 13) . The increase in 

percentage of sand to the north probably indicates 

a northern or northeastern source for the detritus 

(Lucchitta, 1966). The sandstone is fine to very fine 

grained, clean, and thick bedded and is interbedded 

with locally sandy limestone and dolomite and minor 

black shale and mudstone (Lucchitta, 1966; Ruppel, 

1968). The carbonate rocks contain nodules of incipient chert and stromatolitic mounds resembling 

those described in the Snaky Canyon Formation, 

and numerous fragments of brachiopods, bryozoans, 

corals, crinoids, and a few small fusulinids. The sequences are poorly dated but are thought to represent most of the Pennsylvanian System. 

AMSDEN (PART) AND QUADRANT FORMATIONS 

East of structural element 3, and north of the 

Snake River Plain, the Amsden and Quadrant Formations constitute the Pennsylvanian System. In 

the Henrys Lake Mountains (locality 30), the 

Amsden Formation is 84 m thick and consists of a 

basal limestone conglomerate overlain by red claystone, dark-gray limestone, banded red chert, dolomite breccias, sandy dolomite, and dolomitic sandstone at the top (E. K. Maughan, written commun., 

1977). The limestones contain bryozoans, echinoderms, mollusks, conodonts, hydrozoans, and calcareous foraminifers. Lithologies of the Amsden 

represent a shallow-marine environment. Terrigenous detritus in the Amsden may have been derived 

from local uplifted areas of the Big Snowy Formation within the Montana-Dakota region (Maughan, 

1975). 

The Amsden Formation is overlain by the Quadrant Formation, which is dominated by thick-
IDAHO AA31 

bedded fine-grained quartzose sandstone, locally 

quartzitic; thin lenticular sandy dolomite beds are 

interleaved in the basal and upper parts. The Quadrant is believed to overlie the Amsden Formation 

conformably in the Henrys Lake Mountains (E. K. 

Maughan, written commun., 1976). The Quadrant is 

thin, 84 m (locality 30) and 24 m (locality 29) thick 

in easternmost Idaho, but is known to be about 

800 m thick in southwestern Montana, just north of 

the Idaho border and east of structural element 3 

shown in figure 13 (Sloss and Moritz, 1951; Scholten 

and others, 1955) . Emergent land sources to the 

north-northwest and northeast have been suggested 

for the multicycle deposits of the Quadrant Formation (Mallory, 1967; Maughan, 1975). Fusulinids 

from the type section in Wyoming, just northeast of 

the northeast corner of Idaho, indicate a Des 

Moinesian and possibly Atokan, age for the formation (Thompson and Scott, 1941; fig. 8). 

RANCHESTER LIMESTONE MEMBER OF 

AMSDEN FORMATION 

The upper part of the Amsden Formation, which 

is probably of Early Pennsylvanian age, is included 

in the discussion of Upper Mississippian rocks south 

of the plain. The Amsden is recognized east of structural element 5 (fig. 13), where it is composed 

largely of the Ranchester Limestone Member 

(Sando and others, 1975; Sando, this volume), 

which probably is less than 30 m thick. The Ranchester is a sequence of interbedded cherty dolomite 

and limestone, sandstone, and shale. 

WELLS FORMATION (PART) 

South of the plain, the lower part of the Wells 

Formation makes up approximately the eastern half 

of the outcrop area of Pennsylvanian rocks in Idaho. 

The Wells Formation was named by Richards and 

Mansfield (1912) for exposures in Wells Canyon, 

which is 2 miles south of locality 46 (fig. 4). The 

Wells is divided into two members, a lower and an 

upper. Fusulinids from sections near locality 45 in 

the Wooley Range of the Peale Mountains, date the 

lower member of the Wells as Middle Pennsylvanian 

(Atokan and Des Moinesian), and the lower part of 

the upper member as Des Moinesian or younger. 

Permian fusulinids have been collected 300-400 ft 

(100-120 m) above the base of the upper member 

(Cressman, 1964). 

No faunas of Morrowan age have been recovered 

from these sequences, and, ori this basis, an Early 

Pennsylvanian high or neutral area (the Bannock 

highland) was proposed by Williams (1962) ; this 

area is outlined in modified form on figure 13 (structural element 5) . 

At present, there is no record of Late Pennsylvanian faunas from the Wells Formation, and several 

authors have suggested an hiatus at this level (Mallory, 1975; Rich, 1977). A Late Pennsylvanian 

fauna was reported in the Tensleep Sandstone in 

central westernmost Wyoming (Love, 1954; Wanless 

and others, 1955) from sandstone tentatively correlated with beds in the lower part of the upper 

member of the Wells Formation (Cressman, 1964). 

This correlation is used in this report in the absence 

of new data (fig. 8). 

The formation ranges in thickness from 1.04 m 

(locality 39) in the east to about 405 m (locality 

37 a) in western exposures. 

In the type area, the lower member of the Wells 

Formation consists of a basal very fine grained to 

fine-grained quartzose sandstone bed, 30-100 m 

thick, overlain by medium gray sandy and minor 

oolitic limestone, interbedded with relatively thin, 

fine-grained sandstone beds as much as 3 m thick. 

Chert nodules and layers occur throughout. Phosphatic rocks and a thin black shale are present locally at the top of the member (Cressman, 1964). 

The lower part of the upper member consists of 

yellowish-brown and light-gray thick-bedded, very 

fine to fine-grained calcareous quartzose sandstone 

containing thin (2-5 m) beds of gray limestone, 

calcareous sandstone, and dolomite (Cressman, 

1964; Montgomery and Cheney, 1967). 

In the Snake River Range (locality 44) and Big 

Hole Mountains (locality 39), the Wells consists of 

a lower thin to irregularly bedded brownish-gray 

cherty limestone, minor limestone breccia, and thin 

sandstone interbeds overlain by fine-grained wellsorted quartzite. 

On the basis of published descriptions, the total' 

amount of sandstone and/ or quartzite in the Pennsylvanian part of the Wells Formation is extremely 

variable-50 to 75 percent at localities 45, 46, and 

49 near the type section and less than 20 percent at 

locality 37a in the Chesterfield Range and locality 41 

in the Snake River Range. At localities 42, 44, and 

47 in the Snake River Range and Caribou Range, 

the amount is close to 50 percent. An average of 

about 50 percent is used on figure 13. 

Sparse fossils in the Wells include crinoid plates, 

brachiopods, corals, fusulinids, and other foraminifers. 
AA32 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

MANNING CANYON SHALE (PART) 

An interval of quartzite and sandstone, limestone, 

siltstone, and shaly argillite, 220 m thick, assigned 

to the upper part of the Manning Canyon Shale in 

the northern Deep Creek Mountains (locality 34), 

is included in the Pennsylvanian part of the Manning Canyon Shale. A similar thickness (186 m) is 

present in the southwestern part of the Bannock 

Range (locality 48). Elsewhere south of the plain, 

the incomplete Manning Canyon is exposed in structural windows in the southern Deep Creek Mountains (locality 35), the Black Pine Range (locality 

32), and the Sublett Range (locality 33), and 

neither thicknesses nor age determinations are 

available. 

OQUIRRH FORMATION (PART) 

Strata assigned to the lower part of the Oquirrh 

Formation occur at .Samaria Mountain (locality 

36), in the Deep Creek Mountains (locality 34), and 

into the Albion Range (locality 31). They also are 

presumed to be present in the subsurface as far west 

as the Cassia Mountains (fig. 4; see discussion of 

Wood River Formation). Thicknesses within the 

Sublett basin (fig. 13) range from about 850 m at 

Samaria Mountain to more than 2,286 m in the 

Black Pine Range (locality 32). 

At Samaria Mountain, the limestone member 

( = West Canyon Limestone Member of Be us, 1968) 

and the lower 400 m of the overlying sandy member 

are included within the Pennsylvanian part of the 

Oquirrh Formation (Platt, 1977). The limestone 

member consists of interbedded brown to gray 

quartz sandstone, gray calcareous sandstone, and 

limestone. The sandy member is made up of sandstone and minor chert-granule to cobble-conglomerate beds in the Upper Pennsylvanian part of the 

sequence. The sequence is composed of more than 

50 percent sandstone. Scattered fusulinid faunas 

indicate that Lower through Upper Pennsylvanian 

beds representing the five stages are present (Beus, 

1968; Platt, 1977). 

In the northern Deep Creek Mountains (locality 

34), a nearly complete sequence of the lower part of 

the Oquirrh Formation (1,710 m thick) is assigned 

to the Pennsylvanian (fig. 15; Trimble and Carr, 

1976). Units A, B, C, and the lower part of D consist of sandy or silty limestone and minor quartzite, 

bedded chert, and chert-granule to pebble conglomerate representing late Atokan through Virgilian 

time. The base of the sequence is faulted. Conglomerates occur in Middle and Upper Pennsylvanian 

beds. Bedded chert is restricted to the Upper Pennsylvanian part. Sandstone and quartzite make up a 

minor part of the sequence. Fusulinids, corals, 

brachiopods, gastropods, and bryozoans locally are 

abundant in the formation. 

A thick (more than 1,676 m) incomplete section 

of the Oquirrh Formation in the northern Sublett 

Range (locality 33; R. L. Armstrong, written commun., 1977) has been assigned to the Pennsylvanian 

System. The lower part of the sequence consists of 

interbedded silty, sandy, or cherty limestone and 

calcareous sandstone, overlain by quartzite and calcareous sandstone, sandy and cherty limestone, and 

thin interbeds of chert-granule conglomerate. Chertgranule conglomerate is more common in the northern part of the range than in the central part, suggesting a northern source for the detritus, such as 

the Copper Basin highland. Fusulinids are abundant 

locally. 

The thickest Pennsylvanian Oquirrh sequence 

(more than 2,220 m thick) has been reported from 

the Black Pine Range (locality 32). Limestone and 

sandy limestone, sandstone or quartzite, sandstone 

breccia, and local limestone and chert-pebble conglomerate are present in many fault slices (J. F. 

Smith, Jr., written commun., 1976). Scattered 

fusulinids, corals, and mollusks date the incomplete 

sequence. 

In the Albion Range (locality 31), an allochthonous sheet of unmetamorphosed sandy limestone 

and calcareous sandstone assigned to the Oquirrh 

Formation has been thrust over Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks (Armstrong, 1968). The limestone 

and sandstone, which are several thousand feet 

thick, resemble Oquirrh strata in the Sublett Range 

and are, in part, of Pennsylvanian age. 

DEPOSITIONAL HISTORY 

During Pennsylvanian time, sandy carbonate 

rocks together with minor conglomerates were deposited in several cratonic basins across the area of 

outcrop in southeastern Idaho. In Early and early 

Middle Pennsylvanian time, shallow-water carbonate deposits and sandstones were laid down on the 

carbonate shelf east of the site of the Mississippian 

flysch trough north of the plain and east of the inner 

cratonic platform margin. The inner cratonic platform may have been emergent part of the time and 

then was inundated slowlyby poorly circulating marine waters by the end of Morrowan time. South of 

the plain, the low-lying Bannock highland separated 

1 

the shallow offshore marine depositional site of the 

I 

Ranchester Limestone Member of the Amsden Formation on the east from the restricted-marine en-
IDAHO AA33 

FIGURE 15.-Anticline in Pennsylvanian part of Oquirrh Formation in northern 

Deep Creek Mountains near locality 34 (fig. 4). Base of unit C is at base 

of conspicuous ledge that crosses upper part of draw in central part of 

picture. From Trimble and Carr (1976, p. 31, fig. 8). 

vironment of deposition of the upper part of the 

Manning Canyon Shale. Both sequences contain 

sand derived principally from a cratonic source 

(L. D. Cress, u'npub. data, 1978). 

In late Atokan and/ or Des Moinesian time, the 

tectonic setting that had been inherited from the 

Mississippian System changed drastically. North of 

the plain, Wood River sediments began to accumulate on the former site of the Antler orogenic highland. Sediments of the Mississippian flysch trough 

became emergent, probably because of faulting, and 

provided chert- and quartz-pebble and granule detritus to areas west, east, and south (Skipp, 1975; 

Skipp and others, 1979. At the same time, large 

volumes of fine-grained quartz sand flooded the 

basins north and south of the plain. Less sand 

reached the area of accumulation of the Snaky Canyon Formation, in which intermittently emergent 

carbonate buildups, composed of hydrozoans and 

algae, formed. 

South of the plain, in late Atokan or Des Moinesian time, the Bannock highland was completely submerged, and shallow-water-marine sandy carbonate, 

calcareous sandstone, and noncalcareous sandstone 

were deposited in the rapidly subsiding Sublett 

basin, a northern extension of the Oquirrh basin, 

and in the area of the Wells Formation. Minor 

granule to pebble conglomerate reached the area of 

the Sublett basin from the Copper Basin highland 

to the north. 

Sources for the tremendous volumes of Middle 

and Upper Pennsylvanian sand in the cratonic-platform basins of Idaho, Montana, and Utah remain 

elusive. Petrography of the fine-grained sand, of 

probable second- or third-cycle origin, suggests a 

cratonic rather than a western orogenic source; 

hence, the northeasterly, easterly, and southeasterly ~ 

source areas proposed by Bissell (1974) appear to 

be the most reasonable for southern Idaho. 
AA34 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

The influence of detritus shed eastward from a 

possible western Humboldt highland (Ketner, 1977) 

is not clear. Perhaps the record of this material is 

lost in the area of the Idaho batholith. Possibly, 

more petrographic work will show that both 

cratonic and western orogenic source terranes provided material for some of the Pennsylvanian and 

Permian basins. 

PLATE-TECTONIC MODELS 

Major changes in the structural settings for deposition of Carboniferous rocks in Idaho took place 

in latest Devonian to earliest Mississippian time. 

These periods are coincident with major plateboundary tectonic events along the western margin 

of the proto-North American continent. 

A postulated plate-tectonic model for the Antler 

orogeny is that of back-arc thrusting during a period of increased plate motion in which the sediments of an inner-arc basin were obducted onto the I 

continental margin east of an offshore island arc; 

west of the island arc was an east-dipping subduction zone (fig. 16). The obducted inner-arc basin 

sediments in this model make up the Antler orogenic 

belt (Burchfiel and Davis, 1972, 1975; Poole, 1974; 

Poole and Sandberg, 1977; Dickinson, 1977). In this 

model, the inner-arc basin continued to close during 

Pennsylvanian and Permian time, and the island arc 

(Klamath-North Sierran arc of Poole and Sandberg, 

1977, p. 82, fig. 8) collided with the proto-North 

American continent in Triassic time (Silberling, 

1973) and became welded to the continent. This interpretation was used to construct model I of Paleozoic plate-tectonic events (fig. 16). 

Dickinson (1977) noted the short duration of the 

Antler orogeny and pointed out that flysch deposition was not followed by molasse accumulation but 

by a return to modified shelf conditions. Carboniferous rocks in Idaho record exactly this sequence of 

events. Dickinson suggested that, perhaps, midCarboniferous rifting broke up the Antler orogen 

and interrupted the maturing process, producing instead a fault-controlled rift topography on 

which the many basins and intervening local highlands of the Pennsylvanian and Permian Systems 

formed. In this model, the Humboldt highland in 

Nevada might be a· westward-rifted and uplifted 

remnant of the old Antler highland. A postulated 

model (model II) of this concept of plate-tectonic 

events is presented in figure 17. In this reconstruction, the Antler orogeny is the result of an arccontinent collision along a west-dipping subduction 1 

zone (Dickinson, 1977). The Antler collision was 

followed by a period of rifting during which faultbounded basins and highlands formed on the cratonic platform. In Permian time, a volcanic arc 

again approached the proto-North American continent and was welded to it in mid-Triassic time 

(Dickinson, 1977). 

ECONOMIC GEOLOGY 

Carboniferous rocks in Idaho had not produced 

any coal or petroleum to date (1977). Minor coaly 

beds like those in the upper part of the Copper 

Basin Formation are present but are neither extensive enough nor of high enough rank to be commercial deposits. 

Petroleum exploration in the overthrust belt of 

eastern Idaho is in progress, and the area is considered potentially productive (Monley, 1971; Royse 

and others, 1975; Powers, 1977). Mississippian carbonate-shelf complexes (Rose, 1976), and the sandstones and carbonate rocks of the Pennsylvanian 

cratonic-platform-basin sequences are potential reservoir rocks. The starved-basin facies of the Deep 

Creek and Little Flat Formations (Poole and Sandberg, 1977; Sandberg and Gutschick, 1977) and the 

phosphatic shales and interbedded quartzites of the 

Big Snowy Formation and the Manning Canyon 

Shale are both potential source and reservoir rocks. 

The structurally complex setting of these rocks discouraged earlier exploration, but the present need 

for more domestic hydrocarbons has opened the area 

to the search for gas and oil. 

Metalliferous deposits have a long history of exploitation in Idaho; a description by W. E. Hall of 

known deposits associated with Carboniferous rocks 

follows. 

Mississippian and Pennsylvanian carbonate rocks 

are also a valuable resource in Idaho, and a summary of their economic potential is included. 

METALLIFEROUS DEPOSITS 

Carboniferous rocks in central and south-central 

Idaho contain many metalliferous deposits that have 

been exploited sporadically since the 1880's. The 

mineral resources, listed in approximate decreasing 

order of economic significance, include deposits of 

lead, silver, molybdenum, copper, zinc, barite, gold, 

tungsten, and subeconomic tin. Although the deposits in general are small and the production mod .. 

erate (estimated at approximately $20 million, fig. 

18), several very large low-grade deposits are 

known, but they have not been developed extensively. 
OCEANIC 

CRUST 

ARC 

ARC 

1 

IDAHO 

.............. 

........... 

CONTINENTAL 

SHELF 

... :: · .. : 

......_ 

NORTH AMERICAN 

CONTINENT 

--·----------

LATE PRECAMBRIAN-DEVONIAN 

ANTLER FLYSCH CARBONATE 

HIGHLAND TROUGH PLATFORM 

LATEST DEVONIAN-EARLY PENNSYLVANIAN 

HUMBOLDT 

HIGHLAND 

WOOD COPPER 

RIVER BASIN CARBONATE 

BASIN HIGHLAND PLATFORM 

NORTH AMERICAN 

".. CONTINENT 1----r-----

MIDDLE PENNSYLVANIAN-EARLY PERMIAN 

EXPLANATION 

1\U{fJ Emergent area 

l::!!!:.!:i·!l!·j:!·!:i!!:!:,!:l!:!:jl Shelf carbonate rocks 

• Oceanic crust 

l:i·<!i:i[:!:fi:}i(·!/ Outer-arc basin sediments 

Sandstone 

f?Jkm)(/(;j Aysch sediments 

Contact 

Fault-Arrow indicates 

direction of movement 

AA35 

FIGURE 16.-Model I of plate-tectonic events along western margin of proto-North American continent showing an east-dipping subduction zone west of an island arc and a gradually closing inner-arc basin. Modified from Poole (1974) and 

Poole and Sandberg (1977). 

Most favorable sites for ore in the Carboniferous 

are in contact-metamorphosed calcareous beds 

beneath thrust faults and near leucocratic granitoid 

or porphyritic stocks, sills, or dikes of Cretaceous 

or Eocene age. The Copper Basin Formation of Mississippian age, the White Knob Limestone of Late 
AA36 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

ARC 

ARC 

ANTLER FLYSCH CARBONATE 

HIGHLAND TROUGH PLATFORM 

-.......... 

NORTH AMERICAN 

CONTINENT ........... ; __________ _ ~ ~ 

LATEST DEVONIAN-EARLY PENNSYLVANIAN 

WOOD COPPER 

HUMBOLDT RIVER BASIN CARBONATE 

HIGHLAND BASIN HIGHLAND PLATFORM 

........_ NORTH AMERICAN r "-. .._ -~ONT~ENT_ - - -

~ ; +---

MIDDLE PENNSYLVANIAN-EARLY PERMIAN 

EXPLANATION 

[///J Emergent area 

l·:,·i,':ll'j·j~i=:~j!j.:III:I!IJI:IIII Shelf carbonate rocks 

Sandstone 

[W:;/{.jJ Aysch sediments 

- Oceanic crust 

Contact 

Fault-Arrow indicates 

direction of movement 

FIGURE 17.-Model II of plate-tectonic events along the western margin of proto-N o·rth American continent showing an arccontinent collision along a west-dipping subduction zone, an event that produced the Antler orogeny. This orogeny was 

followed by mid-Carboniferous rifting (Dickinson, 1977). 

Mississippian age, and the Wood River Formation of 

Pennsylvanian-Permian age each host significant 

deposits. 

Ore occurs in the Copper Basin Formation, in 

the more calcareous sequences where cut by intrusive masses in the Little Wood River and Alta mining districts and, according to C. M. Tschanz (written commun., 1977), at the Hoodoo and Livingston 

mines at the north end of the Boulder Mountains 

and at the Twin Apex and Bruno mines in the 

Clayton area, where the deposits are controlled by a 

thrust fault at the base of the Copper Basin Formation (S. W. Hobbs, oral commun., 1977). The Little 

Wood River district contains small but high-grade 
IDAHO AA37 

lead-silver and some barite and zinc deposits (Anderson and Wagner, 1946), and the Alta district has 

small lead-silver-gold deposits (Umpleby and others, 

1930; U.S. Geol. Survey and U.S. Bur. Mines, in 

press). The Livingston and Hoodoo mines have 

produced substantial amounts of zinc as well as 

some lead, silver, and gold (Tschanz and others, 

1974), and the Twin Apex and Bruno mines have 

produced lead, zinc, and a little silver and gold. 

The White Knob Limestone is the host rock in the 

Alder Creek district near Mackay and at the Copper 

Basin mine. About 90,000 kg of copper was produced 

from replacement deposits in quartzite and limestone 

in the Copper Basin district (Umpleby, 1917; Vhay, 

1964, p. 71) . The Alder Creek district has yielded 

26 million kg of copper as well as appreciable 

amounts of lead, silver, and gold (Nelson and Ross, 

1968, p. A29-A30). The ore deposits are in irregular 

replacement bodies in granite porphyry and in tactite from contact-metamorphosed White Knob 

Limestone. 

The Wood River Formation at its type locality in 

the vicinity of the Big Wood River valley is an unfavorable host for metalliferous deposits, and nearly 

all the ore in that area has a structural control in 

the Devonian Milligen Formation beneath the Wood 

River thrust (Anderson and others, 1950, p. 10; 

Hall and Czamanske, 1972, p. 350). However, in the 

Boulder Mountains, the Wood River Formation is 

the host rock for many deposits (Tschanz and 

others, 1974). These include the small high-grade 

lead-silver deposits in the North Fork, Galena, and 

Germania districts and the large low-grade disseminated molybdenum deposit at the southeast end of 

the White Cloud stock in the Little Boulder Creek 

district. In addition, tin occurs in subeconomic 

amounts in the lead-silver deposits in an arcuate 

north-trending belt about 30 miles long and 4 miles 

wide along the crest of the Boulder Mountains 

(Tschanz and others, 1974, p. 251). Locally, the concentrations of tin are high, and the potential tin 

resource is certainly significant. 

CARBONATE ROCKS 

Idaho contains large reserves of carbonate rocks; 

many of these are present in the marine Carboniferous rocks of the south, south-central and southeastern parts of the State. Although Idaho's production 

of limestone has remained small, the widespread 

distribution of relatively pure calcium carbonate 

limestone of Pennsylvanian and Mississippian formations-suc.h as the Scott Peak and Surrett 

0 

I 

0 

I 

20 

20 

I I 

40 

Production 

Livingston mine 

North Fork and Galena districts 

Hoodoo mine 

Little Wood River district 

Germania district 

Alder Creek district 

Alta district 

Homestake mine 

I 

40 MILES I 

60 KILOMETERS 

$Million 

2.3 

1.4 

.6 

.2 

.45 

12.7 

.1 

.2 

Total 17.95 

(~$20M) 

FIGURE lB.-Locality map and production figures, in millions 

of dollars, for major metalliferous deposits related to Carboniferous rocks in Idaho. 

Canyon, the Madison Group, and parts of the 

Oquirrh and Wells Formations-provides potential resources for cement, agricultural and industrial lime, flux, and the manufacture of paper, vinyl, 

and glass (Savage, 1969). 

Small quantities of limestone and marble aTe used 

in construction as both dimension and broken stone. 
AA38 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

More carbonate rock could be used in road construction, where strategically located, but roadbuilders in 

southern Idaho have tended to rely upon basalt aggregate from the vast resources of the Snake River 

Plain rather than the local limestone. A comprehensive region-by-region review of carbonate rocks and 

their economic potential in Idaho has been prepared 

by Savage (1969). 

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IDAHO AA39 

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AA40 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systen1s in the United StatesNevada 

By E. R. LARSON and RALPH L. LANGENHEIM, JR. 

With a section on Paleontology 

By JOSEPH LINTZ, JR. 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-BB 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Nevada Bureau qf Mines and Geology 

Historical review and summary of 

areal, stratigraphic, structural, 

and economic geology of Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian rocks in Nevada 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Page Page 

Abstract ----------------------------------------- BB1 

1 

3 

3 

3 

5 

5 

8 

8 

8 

Pennsylvanian System-Continued 

Introduction -------------------------------------- Pennsylvanian foreland basin-Continued 

Intervals A, B, and C ---------------------

Intervals D and E ------------------------

Pennsylvanian eugeosyncline ------------------

Mississippian System _________________________ --- _ BB8 

11 

12 

12 

13 

13 

16 

17 

17 

Mississippian foreland basin ------------------

Lower Mississippian ----------------------

Upper Mississippian ----------------------

Diamond Peak F·ormation -----------------

Representative stratigraphic sections ---------------

Pale,ontology, by Joseph Lintz, Jr ------------------

Faunal zones --------------------------------- Mississippian eugeosyncline -------------------- Selective list of collecting localities ------------ Pennsylvanian System _______________________ ----- Notable fossil taxa ---------------------------

Pennsylvanian foreland basin ------------------ References cited ----------------------------------

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

FIGURE 1. Map of Nevada showing Carboniferous outcrops ------------------------------------------------- BB2 

TABLE 

2. Chart showing development of Carboniferous terminology ---------------------------------------- 3 

3. Paleotectonic map of Carboniferous elements ---------------------------------------------------- 4 

4. Correlation chart of representative Carboniferous assemblages from stratigraphic belts ------------- 5 

5-8. Maps showing5. Thickness of Lower Mississippian rocks --------------------------------------------------- 6 

6. Lower Mississippian lithofacies ---------------------------------------------------------- 6 

7. Thickne·ss of Upper Mi1ssissippian rocks -------------------------------------------------- 7 

8. Upper Mississippian lithofacies ___ ------------------------------------------------------- 7 

9. Paleotectonic block diagrams of Mississippian rocks __ -------------------------------------------- 9 

10. Map showing thickness of Pennsylvanian intervals A, B, C (Morrowan-Desmoinesian) -------------- 10 

1i. Map showing distribution of lithologies in Pennsylvanian intejrvals A, B, C (Morrowan-Desmoinesian) 10 

12. Block diagram showing sites of deposition of Battle Formation ------------------------------------ 11 

13. Map showing thickness of Pennsylvanian intervals D, E (Missourian-Virgilian) ------------------- 11 

14. Map showing distribution of lithologies in Pennsylvanian intervals D, E (Missourian-Virgilian) ----- 12 

15. Paleotectonic block diagram of Middle Pennsylvanian rocks ---------------------------------------- 13 

16. Fence diagram of Carboniferous stages in Nevada ----------------------------------------------- 14 

TABLE 

Page 

1. Carboniferous index fossils of Nevada -------------·-------------------------------------------- BB15 

111 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) 

SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES-NEVADA 

By E. R. LARSON 1 , and RALPH L. LANGENHEIMJ JR.:! 

ABSTRACT 

The entire Carboniferous is represented in discontinuous 

exposures of clastic and carbonate sedimentary rocks in 

eastern Nevada, but eugeosynclinal assemblages (shale, chert, 

turbidites, volcanic rocks) in thrust slices in central Nevada 

may lack parts of the system. 

Mississippian clastic rocks derived from the north-trending 

Antler orogenic highlands in central Nevada are as much as 

2,500 m thick. They are coarsest in central Nevada, but are 

fine and thin eastward through a starved basin to a carbonate-bank assemblage in central Utah and southeast Nevada. 

Mississippian eugeosynclinal rocks consist of chert, shale, 

turbidites, and lesser volcanic rocks thousands of meters 

thick in thrust slices in central Nevada. 

Pennsylvanian rocks are primarily limestone in eastern 

Nevada and coarse clastic facies near the Antler belt. Thickest accumulations are in the Bird Spring-Ely Basin, farther 

east than the Mississippian maximum. Widespread disconformities in both Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks in 

eastern Nevada reflect continued instability in the Cordilleran 

miogeosyncline throughout the Carboniferous. 

Pennsylvanian eugeosynclinal rocks deposited in a trough 

west of the Antler belt are contemporaneous deposits of shale, · 

chert, and volcanic rocks (Pumpernickel Formation) and 

turbidites together with lesser chert and some limestone 

(Havallah Formation). These beds are as much as 5,000 m 

thick in incomplete sequences in western-derived thrust slices 

in north-central Nevada. 

Carboniferous faunas in the carbonate belt have been well 

studied and allow good paleontologic control. Brachiopods are 

common throughout the Carboniferous, but mollusks are 

more abundant in the clastic sequences. Fusulines are abundant and diagnostic in the Pennsylvanian rocks in the carbonate belt but are· less common in the lenticular limestone of 

the eugeosynclines. Conodonts are widespread and distinctive. 

Their presence in both clastic- and carbonate-facies rocks has 

allowed reliable interfaci~s correlations. 

INTRODUCTION 

Carboniferous beds (figure 1) were recognized in 

the Spring Mountains in southern Nevada by the 

Wheeler Survey of 1872-1873 (Wheeler, 1875) and 

in eastern Nevada by the 40th Parallel Survey 

(King, 1878), 1870-1878. Study of the Eureka dis1 Deceased. 

II Department of Geology, University of Illinois, Urbana, DI. 68101. 

trict, begun by Hague and Emmons ( 1877) as a 

part of the 40th Parallel Survey, was continued by 

Hague (1883), whose monograph on the Eureka 

district· ( 1892) established much of the Paleozoic 

stratigraphic terminology of east-central Nevada. 

Modern stratigraphic studies have brought many 

new subdivisions, but only a few detailed regional 

studies that synthesized Carboniferous paleontology, 

sedimentology, and stratigraphic relationships have 

been made (Bissell, 1964; Dott, 1955; Smith and 

Ketner, 1975; Steele, 1960). None of these was on 

a statewide basis. Figure 2 outlines the development 

of Carboniferous stratigraphic terminology in the 

State. Apparent duplication of names is due in 

part to scattered exposures and uncertainties of 

correlation. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage 

of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology. 

The facies and the original distribution of Carboniferous strata in Nevada were determined by 

the prior depositional-tectonic history of the State .. 

Beginning in the late Precambrian and continuing 

to the middle Paleozoic, carbonate sedimentary rocks 

and lesser shale and orthoquartzite formed a thick 

wedge on the western margin of the North American craton-the Cordilleran miogeosyncline. This 

carbonate assemblage graded west into deep-water 

deposits of dark shale, bedded chert, medium clastic materials, turbidites, and volcanic rock-the Cordilleran eugeosyncline. Eugeosynclinal rocks were 

carried eastward onto the miogeosyncline by the 

Roberts Mountain thrust during the. late Devonianearly Mississippian Antler orogeny. 'This orogenic 

activity formed the north-trending Antler orogenic 

belt, an uplifted area through central Nevada that 

separated an eastern foreland basin containing 

clastic and carbonate rocks from a western shaleBBl 
BB2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVAN·IAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

120° 119° 

42°--l.... ____ ----

1 I 

I i 

: I 

I ; 

HUMBOLDT 

., 

\. " '\. 

----- -----

! Wnl 

' \. 38°~~----~------~4-~------~+---~&---~~~~-,7J+ 

EXPLANATION 

' ' 

f_.!U:i:!fi:i·!i{i!/ Pennsylvanian rocks 

Mississippian and 

Pennsylvanian rocks 

-Mississippian rocks 

0 

' ' " ' ' 

I I I I I ! I 

I I ! 

50 

50 

I 

I 

0 100 KILOMETERS 

' ' 

FIGURE !.-Carboniferous outcrops. Localities: AC, Arrow Canyon Range; Be, Beatty; BM, Battle Mountain; C, Contact; 

Eu, Eureka; Ha, Hamilton; NTS, Nevada Test Site; P, Pioche; T, Tonopah; We, Wells; Wi, Winnemucca; Wn, 

Wendover. 
NEVADA BB3 

Hague Hague 1870 

White 1892 

Eureka Pine 

District District 

Ulper oal 

Measures1 

Carbonif- Weber 

Conglo- erous Limestone "' merate2 :::> 

e 

"' ~ :::> ·c: 

~ .e Lower :t: co c u Coal 0 Measures ~ Limestone u 

Sandstone Diamond 

Peak 

Quartzite 

Black 

Argillaceous 

Shale ~ ·c: White 0 Pine c Siliceous a; .!!! Limestone 0 Shale c 

0 

Q) 

> Calcareous 0 Shale 

1Fault block of Lower Pennsylvanian 2Cretaceous 

Lawson 

1906 

Ely 

District 

"' :::> ~ 'i: e co ~ Ely > ·c: 

0 Limestone ~ c 

~ c 

Q) 

u c.. 

Q) Black a; c.r::. Shale ~ co (I) ·~ ·c m 0 c -~ 

a; a: -~ 

0,2! 

:c ~ 

~ Gray 

Limestone 

Argillaceous 

Shale 

3Autochthonous 

4AIIochthonous 

Spencer Longwell 

1917 1921 

Ely Muddy 

District Mountains 

Ely Callville 

Limestone Limestone 

Bluepoint 

Limestone 

Chainman 

Shale 

Rogers 

Spring 

Joana Limestone 

Limestone 

Pilot Muddy 

Shale Limestone 

Hewett Ferguson Dott Nolan Brew Smith and 

1931 and others 1955 and others 1971 Ketner 

Goodsprings 1952 Elko- 1956 Diamond 1975 

Elko- Quadrangle Golconda Carlin Eureka Peak Carlin Quadrangle 

Strathern Strathern 

Formation Formation 

i:;~ llnnmT II II JJ I L 

;:£ ... 

c .r::."' CIQ) .g :t::3 § c. 

Bird :::> 

0 Ely Ely Tom era Tom era Spring 0 

u.. t5 Limestone Limestone Formation Formation Formation ~ ~ 

w 

v ! 

:I: 

c 

m.9 

~~ Moleen CC'-0 Formation u.. 

,.,., 

1'---- - Tonka 

Formation Diamond Diamond 

Peak Peak 

Formation 

~ G) 

,.c ·2.g 

'-CO Chainman Chainman Monte :g_§ 

Cristo Eo "White Shale Formation - ::>U.. Pine n Limestone c.. Shale" ~ Shale 

Joana 

Limestone 

Webb 

Sultan Pilot Formation 

Limestone Shale 

FIGURE 2.-Development of Carboniferous terminology in Nevada. 

volcanic sequence. The Antler belt was an active 

source of clastic sediments during the Permo-Carboniferous. Figures 3 and 4 show the stratigraphic 

belts and representative stratigraphic columns from 

them. 

The stratigraphy of the foreland belt is well 

known but is complicated by facies differences and 

later tectonic displacements. 

The eugeosyncline (shale-volcanic belt) can only 

be interpreted fro~ strata preserved in klippen that 

lie on the foreland-basin sequence or on the Antler 

belt. 

The original distribution of Carboniferous rocks 

has been modified by major west-to-east thru-sting 

during the lower Triassic (Golconda thrust) and 

middle Cretaceous through lower Tertiary Sevier 

and Laramide orogenies. Middle Tertiary through 

Holocene block faulting (Basin and Range province) 

has segmented all older structures. Major strikeslip faults (Death Valley-Furnace Creek shear 

zone, Las Vegas shear, Wells fault ; the last two 

I features shown on fig. 5) have displaced Carboniferous sedimentary rocks tens of kilometers. 

MISSISSIPPIAN SYSTEM 

MISSISSIPPIAN FORELAND BASIN 

LOWER MISSISSIPPIAN 

Lower Mississippian (Kinderhookian, Osagean, 

lower Meramecian) beds are 1,000 m thick in a 

north-trending belt from Elko to Beatty (fig. 5). 

These deposits thin abruptly westward to zero on 

the eastern edge of the Antler belt and thin gradually to a few hundred meters in eastern Nevada, 

where they may be locally absent. The area of 

thickest sedimentary rocks first received westernderived medium- and fine-grained clastic deposits. 

In the Eureka area (fig. 4), the black Pilot Shale 

conformably overlies the Nevada Formation of 

Devonian age. Conodonts indicate that the Devonian-Mississippian boundary is within the shale. To 
BB4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

12o·oo· 

50 

11800 

' IJS'·oo·~ 

Z- ' 

50 100 

11 E>O:r 

150MILES ~~~--~~--~--~ 

50 50 100 150 KILOMETERS 

1 14'0G' 

FIGURE 3.-Paleotectonic map of Carboniferous elements in 

Nevada. Original site of deposition of allochthonous eugeosynclinal units indicated by ruled pattern. X-X', Y -Y', and 

Z-Z' are lines of restored sections (block diagrams) shown 

in figure 9. 

the east near Ely, the Pilot Shale is discontinuous, 

the result of post-Pilot warping and erosion (Langenheim, 1960, 1961) . 

Fine arenites in the Pilot Shale near Wendover 

(figs. 5, 6) have Buoma sequences in which all 

elements are present. These rocks are interpreted 

as proximal turbidites (Poole, 1974, p. 66), part of 

a· submarine fan that extended southward from 

Idaho. Graded beds are again present in the Eleana 

Formation near Beatty in southern Nevada (Barnes 

and others, 1963) (fig. 6). These Lower Mississippian turbidites are the early flysch deposits of the 

Antler orogeny. 

The Joana Limestone, which overlies the Pilot 

Shale in the Eureka-Ely area, is continuous to the 

east and southeast with the lower part of a carbonate bank that extends southwest from central 

Utah to southern Nevada (figs. 6, 9). The relationship of the Joana to contiguous beds is complex and 

is generally disconformable. Near Ely, the Joana 

lies on the Pilot Shale or directly on the Devonian 

Guilmette Formation as the result of regional warping and erosion (Langenheim, 1960, 1961). Near 

Eureka, the Joana lies disconformably (Langenheim, 1961) or conformably (Nolan and others, 

1956) on the Pilot. The pattern seems to be one of 

regional disconformity. 

The Joana Limestone thickens from 100 m at 

Ward Mountain near Ely (Langenheim, 1960) to 

300 m near Pioche and is laterally continuous with 

the Dawn Limestone of the Monte Cristo Group in 

the Arrow Canyon Range (fig. 6). The contact of 

the Joana with the overlying Chainman Formation 

is a regional disconformity according to MacKenzie 

Gordon, Jr. (in Brew, 1971, p. 35), on the basis of 

limited faunal evidence, but Rose (1976, fig. 3) has 

interpreted the Joana and Chainman as a continuous 

sequence that reflects deposition on a carbonate bank 

and adjacent basin. The Joana is locally absent east 

of Eureka (Nolan and others, 1956), and changes in 

thickness from 50 to 150 m in 5 km have been observed (Larson and Riva, 1963; Brew, 1971). Joana 

time was one of minimum influx of clastic sediments 

into the foreland basin. The post-Joana hiatus that 

represents most of the Meramecian in eastern N evada (Mackenie Gordon, Jr., in Brew, 1971, p. 34-

77) resulted from uplift in the Antler area and 

warping in the basin. The upward-coarsening flysch 

deposits of the overlying Chainman Formation indicate progressive uplift in the Antler source area. 

In the Elko-Carlin area, the Kinderhookian Webb 

Formation (Smith and Ketner, 1975, A38) is a 

laminated to thin-bedded claystone containing limestone lenses equivalent to the upper Pilot Shale and 

the Joana Limestone. The Webb lies on both autochthonous Devonian Limestone and allochthonous Ordovician eugeosynclinal deposits (Valmy Formation). The lithology of the Webb indicates that the 

formation was deposited nearer to an active source 

of fine clastic materials than were the Pilot and 

Joana, a condition that is emphasized in the succeeding Chainman and Diamond Peak Formations. 

Glauconitic black shale that overlies the Joana 

Limestone in easternmost Nevada and adjacent 

Utah was deposited in a starved basin between the 

toe of the Antler flysch wedge and the central Utah 

carbonate bank (Poole and Sandberg, 1977) (figs. 

5, 6). A carbonate buildup of the Joana Limestone 

isolated the basin from a western source of sediments, so that the black shale was largely of eastern 

origin (Poole, 1974). 
NEVADA BB5 

North American 

Stage 

Wolfcampian 

Virgilian 

Ely 

Rieptown Formation 

Siltstone,' I imestone 305 m 

Riepe Spring limestone 

76 m+ 

Arrow Canyon 

Range 

UnitE 

limestone-dolomite 

153m+ 

Unit D 

limestone-shale 

1---------- --- --- ·----- --· a. 100m ::::1 1---___;~:.:.:.....-----l 

e 

C!l 

0> 

·2 

Missourian c 

.!!! t------+---...,....-r--'-' 'jl....,.....,..._,...._,...._. ~ Desmoinesian Hogan Formation 

Elko-Carlin 

Buckskin Mountain Formation 

limestone 370 m± 

Strathearn Formation 

limestone, chert, 

conglomerate 460 m 

Eureka 

Carbon Riqge Formation 

Cherty limestone, 

chert pebble conglomerate 

975 m± 

-

Antler Peak 

Haval~h Formation 

Sandstone, quartzite, 

shale limestone, 

chert 3000 m± 

Tomera Formation 

g. Chert, conglomerate, Pumpernickel ~ 1-------1 limestone 115 m+ a. 

en 

Unit C 

Limestone- chert 

675 m e limestone 600 m _.........._......._......._,."'"'"'........_.,....._.~...,.. Shale, che~'-

"E ~ Moleen Formation - ~ gf~stone '\ 

low", r.l> ~~ostooe ;;; lod;,. Sp<;og w ,~:~~!~':!io Ely ':,'~looe ~-~ ---?-- ~±---

c Atokan ~ E Upper Ely Limestone 

~ M C!l !2 t--......:.:.13=.8-;;:;.200~m~~ orrowan >en 1-------1 w 

Formation 76 m t--=-:----.....:::368:::..:.:m.:...__-i----- ?. -----1 Allochthonous formations 

t--t------i---....L--?-----1 1---::---:---:-:-..,.,..,....,.....---l Diamond Peak Formation shown by diagonal ruled 

Springeran 

Scotty Wash Quartzite Battleship Wash Conglomerate, sandstone, Diamond Peak Quartzite pattern 0-30 Formation shale, limestone 1432 m Conglomerate, sandstone, 

~-'"''"""..ro..~~-m"'-t!"'.,...,~""""....,.........._"'"'L""'im:.:;e,st;;.o-.:.;ne~t,~5..ll1...c~.!.-·~..........l ~ shale ·1075 m at Diamond 

m Familton 1:anyon ~orm Peak ~ . 1------o.!: ~iltstonA shale B-2511l. Yellowpine limestone 1------~ 

Chesterian 

c 

"' Meramecian 

"- g. E --cllamman Shale ~ limestone-chert .~ ~ g . 200-375 m 0 30 m Chainman Shale Chainman Shale ~ M 1 Peers Spnng tormatton c!; 1---..;..._....,...,. __ ----l Shale, conglomerate Shale, conglomerate ·~ 

·~ 

·~ 

~ 

1-------f-...-..,r...;Ca,....:.:lc;.:..ic...:"'si~.~one B-10 m ~ Bullion limestone 430 m 1225 m 

8 l----1-14_m __ ---l ~~~-~~~~~~~~ 

c 

·~ 

g 

Q) 

c 

Osagian Joana limestone 

Lower and middle members 

120m 

!!! Anchor Limestone 

g 245m ~ ~------~ Dawn Limestone 

107m 

Kinderhookian ....,._..________.. ?·....,......-~~l"""'-l""""i-_"l...___l.........,..._ 

Upper Pilot Shale 

60 m± 

Conewangan 

~----~----?------1 

Cassadagan 

Crystal Pass 

Limestone 

86 m 

Webb Formation 

Mudstone, claystone, 

limestone 245 m+ 

Devils Gate 

limestone 

260m 

~na'- Umestone 0--3~-

..!!E 

~~ 

""-..,~ 

Upper Member 

Shale 54-87 m 

,g81----" CL.- !--.......j 

Lower Member 

Calcitic, siltstone 

FIGURE 4.-Correlation chart of representative Carboniferous assemblages from stratigraphic belts. 

UPPER MISSISSIPPIAN 

Upper Meramecian and Chesterian deposits in 

eastern Nevada, the flysch and molasse of the Antler 

orogeny, are thickest adjacent to the Antler belt, 

reaching a thickness of more than 1,500 m near 

Elko and Beatty (fig. ·7). The thickest deposits contain thick conglomerate .sequences (Diamond Peak 

Formation) that overlie and interfinger eastward 

with a shale-arenite formation (Chainman). The 

terminology of the upper Mississippian has been the 

source of much discussion. Because of the eastward 

transgression of· the Diamond Peak, the formation 

boundaries are not time horizons and are recognized 

differently by various workers. 

The name Illipah has been used for arenites that 

occupy the position of the Diamond Peak Formation 

in the Ely area and in exploratory oil wells drilled 

near Hamilton, but the name is not recognized by 

the U.S. Geological Survey. Humphrey (1960) applied the name Illipah to Eocene deposits in the 

White Pine mining district. 

The Chainman Shale (Formation) is approximately 100 m of generally gray to greenish-gray 

silty ·and sandy shale that disconformably overlies 

the Joana Limestone near Ely, the type area 

(Spencer, 1917) .. Westward, in the Eureka~Hamilton 

area, the Chainman overlies the Joana Limestone 

(locally on the Pilot) ; near Elko and Carlin, it overlies the Webb. 

Graded sandstone turbidites in the Chainman 

were deposited in deep water, attested to by meandering trails ( N ereites) on bedding surfaces. Pebbly mudstones near Elko (Smith and Ketner~ 1975) 

contain well-rounded chert and quartzite cobbles, 

indicating proximity to the source, but those near 

Eureka have only chert pebbles, indicating a more 

distal deposit. 

DIAMOND. PEAK FORMATION 

Maximum elevation of the Antler belt ijJ marked 

·by conglomerate of the Diamond Peak Formation, 

which is the molasse of the Antler orogeny. This 
BB6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

120''00' 118'00' 116'0] 114'00' 

50 50 100 150 MILES 

~~~--~~----~--~ 50 50 1 DO 150 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 6.-Thickness of Lower Mississippian (Kinderhookian, Osagean, lower Meramecian) rocks. Isopachs in hundred of meters. Allochthonous rocks are restored to the 

site of original deposition. Faults: LVS, Las Vegas shear; 

WF, Wells fault. X-X', Y-Y', and Z-Z' are lines of restored sections (fig. 9). Modified from Poole and Sandberg (1977). 

assemblage of coarse to fine clastic deposits and 

some limestone is more than 1,000 m thick in the 

Eureka-Elko-Carlin belt, but it thins rapidly eastward and cannot be recognized with certainty east 

of Hamilton. The proportion of conglomerate in the 

upper Mississippian decreases eastward and southeastward from near 50 percent near Elko to less 

than 2 percent near Ely (fig. 8). 

The Diamond Peak is Meramecian and Chesterian 

and contains the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian 

boundary near Elko (Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., in 

Brew, 1971, p. 34-55; fig. 11). It is entirely Meramecian and Chesterian near Eure~a, but is only 

upper Chesterian near Hamilton (Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., in Brew, 1971, p. 34-77). Upper Chesterian 

arenites near Pioche (Scotty Wash Formation) have 

been correlated with the Diamond Peak, but may 

have been derived from the east (James, 1954). 

It is reasonable that the upper limit of the Diamond Peak is younger toward the north than near 

Eureka, which is farther from the principal source 

of clastic sediments. 

Lenticular bodies of conglomerate in the upper 

Chainman-lower Diamond Peak both in the Carlin 

area and near Eureka are debris flows and distributary channels on a submarine fan that extended 

southeast from the northern extension of the Antler 

belt (Rose, 1976). These lenticular bodies-cross 

sections of channel fillings as much as 500 m wide 

and 20m thick-are well seen on the western slope 

of the Diamond Mountains near Et;~~ka. Wellwashed chert pebble conglomerates are in a series 

of overlapping channels near the base of the Dia120'00' 118"00' 116'0Cl' 114"00' 

50 50 1 DO 150 MILES 

50 50 1 DO . 50 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 6.-Lower Mississippian (Kinderhookian, Osagean, 

lower Meramecian) lithofacies. Lithologies: I, clastic 

wedge-shale, sandstone, conglomerate; I.J, starved basinshale, limestone; III, platform carbonate rocks-limestone; IV, eugeosynclinal rocks-shale, graywacke, bedded 

chert; V, volcanic rocks. X-X', Y-Y', and Z-Z' are lines 

of restored sections (fig. 9). Arrows show direction of 

restoration of eugeosynclinal rocks in klippen. KeystoneMuddy Mountain thrust indicated by sawteeth. Modified 

from Poole and Sandberg (1977). 
NEVADA BB7 

120"00' 118"00' 

50 50 100 

114'00' 

Z' ~--~b:::-----t-36'00' 

150 MILES 

50 50 100 150 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 7.-Thickness of Upper Mississippian (upper Meramecian, Chesterian) rocks. Isopachs in hundreds of meters. 

Allochthonous rocks are restored to the original site of 

deposition. X-X', Y -Y', and Z-Z' are lines of restored sections (fig. 9). Modified from Poole and Sandberg (1977). 

mond Peak Formation at Buck Mountain east of 

Eureka (Blomquist, 1971). Crossbeds that dip approximately 30° indicate southward transport. Regional studies of directional features in the Diamond Peak (fig. 8) indicate dominant southward 

transport, but some transport was from the east or 

the northeast, suggesting control of currents by a 

high area near Ely (Ely high). 

Faunas in the Chainman-Diamond Peak transition zone in the Diamond Mountains north of Eureka are productoids, pelecypods, echinoids, crinoids, 

and trilobites. This assemblage· is in muddy beds 

interlayered with pebble and cobble conglomerates. 

The depositional environment is interpreted as having been relatively shallow but below the zone of 

wave action, in contrast to the deep-water depositional site of the pebbly mudstones in the lower 

Chainman. This change indicates eastward filling of 

the foreland basin. Upper Mississippian deposits 

spread progressively eastward and cover the lower 

Mississippian starved basin, which was reduced to 

a small area on the Utah-Nevada border in Chester 

time (fig. 8). 

The contact of the Diamond Peak and the Pennsylvanian Ely Limestone is in a zone of interbedded 

limestone, conglomerate, and finer clastic materials 

(Brew, 1971). The horizon chosen in a local area 

cannot be traced widely, and different limits have 

been used by different workers in the .same area. 

The type Diamond Peak Formation has been variously interpreted as entirely Chesterian (Nolan, 

1956; Brew, 1971) or as including basal Pennsylvanian strata (Dott, 1955, fig. 13; Easton, 1953; 

Langenheim and Larson, 1973) . Arnold and Sadlick 

( 1961) defined the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian 

120''00' 118''00 116'0Cl' 114'00' 

42ooo·-r--~..,....,-r'!~7"'7".,.....---.~?-A~--~:7."""1rt- 42"00' 

50 50 100 150 MILES ~~~--~~~~~--~ 

50 50 1 DO 150 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 8.-Upper Mississippian (upper Meramecian, Chesterian) lithofacies. Allochthonous units are restored to site 

of deposition indicated by arrows. X-X', Y -Y', and Z-Z' 

are lines of restored sections (fig. 9). Lithologies: I, clastic 

wedge (isopleths indicate percent of conglomerate); II, 

starved basin, phosphatic shale, limestone; III, limestone; 

IV, eugeosynclinal sedimentary rocks; V, eugeosynclinal 

volcanic rocks. Double-shafted arrows indicate current directions from cross-lamination and bedding surfaces. Modified from Poole and Sandberg ( 1977). 
BB8 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

transitional sequence of limestone, shale, and quartz 

arenite between the Chainman and the Ely in the 

Wendover area as the Jensen member of the Chainman. The Jensen was widely recognized by Bissell 

(1964, fig. 3). 

Mississippian clastic-wedge sedimentary rocks in 

southern Nevada constitute the Eleana Formation, 

a 2,000-m thick unit of turbidites and lesser chert 

and shale, which extends from the vicinity of Goldfield and Beatty eastward toward Las Vegas. Turbidites suggest deposition in deep water (Poole and 

others, 1965; Poole and Sandberg, 1977). The age 

relations of the Eleana are not well known, but the 

formation evidently encompasses the entire Mississippian. The lithology of the beds indicates that deposition was well removed from a source of coarse 

clastic sediments, but some pebble beds have been 

observed in the vicinity of Beatty (figs. 7, 8, and 

9, Z-Z'). 

Mississippian formations in southeast Nevada 

comprise the Monte Cristo group and the lowermost 

Bird Spring group (see fig. 4). These units are a 

part of the carbonate bank that extended from central Utah southwestward through southern Nevada. 

A minor disconformity that separates the upper 

Monte Cristo (Yellowpine Limestone) from the 

uppermost Mississippian Battleship Wash Formation in the Arrow Canyon Range is within a single 

conodont zone. 

MISSISSIPPIAN EUGEOSYNCLINE 

Mississippian shale-volcanic-assemblage rocks in 

klippen of the Golconda thrust near Elko and Winnemucca are samples of the eugeosyncline that was 

to the west during the Carboniferous. North of Elko, 

the Schoonover Formation (Fagan, 1962) is 2,500 

m of radiolarian chert, turbidite, and shale that has 

volcanic rock near the base. The Schoonover is now 

dated as Late Mississippian in age (Poole and Sandberg, 1977). Fagan (1962) believed that the formation is composed of deep-water sediments derived from a sourceland toward the west within the 

eugeosyncline. 

The Gogh Canyon Formation in the Osgood 

Mountains northeast of Winnemucca is 1,500 m of 

pillow lava and volcanic breccia (Hotz and Willden, 

1964). These early Osagean or late Kinderhookian 

rocks are believed to be shallow-water volcanic 

rocks and shallow siltstone (Hotz and Willden, 

1964). The Inskip Formation in the East Range 

near Winnemucca resembles the Gogh Canyon. 

Figure 9, a palinspastic interpretation of Mississippian rocks along a series of sections in southern, 

central, and northern Nevada, indicates the original 

position of the now-displaced facies belts and the 

role of the Antler orogenic belt. 

PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEM 

PENNSYLVANIAN FORELAND BASIN 

INTERVALS A, B, AND C 

Mississippian clastic wedge sedimentary rocks 'in 

eastern Nevada are succeeded by the limestones of 

the Ely Formation in the northern part of the State 

and by the Bird Spring Group in the south. This carbonate deposition continued without significant interruption through Morrowan and Desmoinesian 

time (intervals A, B, C), the principal accumulation 

being in the southwest-plunging Ely-Bird Spring 

Basin in Clark, Lincoln, and southern White Pine 

Counties (figs. 1, 10). These rocks are thinner on the 

Ely Platform, which separates the southern basin 

from the supposed Butte Basin in the north in Elko 

County. These regional variations in the thickness 

of contemporaneous strata reflect continued warping 

of the Cordilleran miogeosyncline. 

The Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary in 

the heart of the miogeosyncline has been well documented as occurring in the lower part of unit "C" 

of the Bird Spring Group or within the lowermost 

Ely Formation, or their temporal equivalents. On 

the western margin of the foreland basin or miogeosyncline, the systemic boundary is within the Diamond Peak Formation in some areas, as near Elko 

(fig. 9, Elko-Carlin section), where conditions controlling Diamond Peak deposition prevailed from 

the middle Mississippian into the Pennsylvanian. 

Middle Pennsylvanian strata near Elko contain 

lenses of chert pebble conglomerate like those of the 

Diamond Peak. 

Morrowan through Atokan parts of the Bird 

Spring Group are characterized by cyclically alternating layers of argillaceous fine-grained limestone, 

nodular limestone, and thicker bedded, cherty, arenaceous medium-grained limestone in the southern 

part of the Ely-Bird Spring Basin (fig. 11). Desmoinesian parts of the Bird Spring Group here are 

somewhat more arenaceous. In the northern part of 

the basin and on the Ely Platform, the Morrowan, 

through Atokan Ely Limestone consists of thickbedded, more argillaceous and silty limestone and 

has been referred to as the Hogan Formation. The 

eastern part of the Butte Basin is occupied by rocks 

referred to as the Ely Limestone and Hogan Formation (Bissell, 1964) ; sandy and conglomeratic mid-
NEVADA 

X·X' 

Lower Mississippian 

Upper Mississippian 

y~y· 

Z'Z' 

Lower Mississippian 

OM 

EXPLANATION 

§Gravel 

D Sand 

~Silt 

8] Clay 

§Lime 

Chert 

Turbidite· 

Volcanic 

rock 

_4m Mountain 

Thrust 

r~~mAS 

0 20 KILOMETERS 

INDEX 

BB9 

FIGURE 9.-Paleotectonic block diagrams of Mississippian rocks. Localities: Be, Beatty; El, Elko; Eu, Eureka; Ey, Ely; 

NTS, Nevada Test Site; Wn, Wendover Formation;: BW, Battleship Wash Formation; Ch, Chainman Shale; DP, 

Diamond Peak Formation; Ea, Eleana Formation; GC, Gogh Canyon Formation; Jo, Joana Limestone; MC, ... Monte 

Cristo Formation; OM, Ochre Mountain Limestone; ·Pal, lower Paleozoic allochthon; Pi, Pilot Shale; Sch, Schoonover 

Formation; We, Webb Formation; Wo, Woodman Formation. (Diagram by E. R. Larson.) 
BBlO THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

12o·oo· 11s·oo· 116·w· 114'00' 

42ooo·-t------1-------l--_...---~rl-42"00. 

.. 

50 50 100 150 MILES 

50 50 100 150 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 10.-Thickness of Pennsylvanian intervals A, B, C 

(Morrowan-Desmoinesian). Isopachs in hundreds of 

meters. GT, Golconda thrust. Modified from McKee and 

others (1975). 

die Atokan through Desmoinesian rocks to the west 

have been separately described as the Tomera Formation of the Ely Group (Dott, 1955). The underlying Morrowan and early Atokan Moleen Formation resembles the lower part of the Ely Limestone 

to the east. 

Arenaceous and oolitic limestones, which are partially dolomitized, characterize the Callville Platform in southern Clark Co.unty and are assigned to 

the Callville Formation. Here, the Morrowan 

through Desmoinesian interval is broken by a hiatus 

representing Atokan time. 

Pennsylvanian strata in north-central Nevada 

reflect the influence of the Antler orogenic belt. 

During the Mississippian and lower Pennsylvanian, 

this belt had acted as a barrier between sedimentary 

basins in eastern and western Nevada, but during 

the Atokan, the barrier was breached. The resulting 

islands were rugged enough to act as sources of 

coarse clastic material. 

The Battle Formation, 730 m thick in the type section at Battle Mountain, has a 150-m basal conglomerate unit that reflects the composition of subjacent 

beds ; a . middle part consisting of Fusulinella- and 

Chaetetes-bearing limestone and conglomerate and 

ridge-forming sandstone ; and an upper part of 

sandstone, siltstone, and conglomerate (Roberts, 

1964, p. A29). 

Lawson (1913) described these rocks as a fanglomerate, implying continental deposition. The formation as understood today represents marine 

deposition adjacent to a rugged source terrane. 

Recent studies by Drowley (1973) have shown that 

the beds included in the Battle Formation are isolated clastic accumulations deposited quite separately where gravel, boulders, and sand were being 

carried into a marine environment (fig. 12). To the 

west, the Battle Formation is overlain by the Highway Limestone of the same age, suggesting an interfingering relationship (fig. 12). 

120"oo· 

42"00 

40 00' 

118 oo· 

EXPLANATION 

1~1 Source area 

116.()()" 

Elko 

·~tLas Veg!!.S 

114'00' 

42"oo· 

4000' 

38'00' 

36·oo· " ~ 36'00' 

U&"OO ~\ '14"00 

50 50 100 150 MILES 

50 50 1 00 150 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE H.-Distribution of lithologies in Pennsylvanian intervals A, B, C (Morrowan-Desmoinesian). GT, Golconda 

thrust. Lithologies: I, limestone; II, conglomerate fan; III, 

eugeosynclinal rocks. Modified from McKee and others 

(1975). 
NEVADA BEll 

FIGURE 12.-Sites of deposition of Battle Formation. Localities: AP, Antler Peak; BM, Bat,tJe Mountain; G, Galena; 

GS, Golconda Summit; ML, Mount Lewis; Wi, Winnemucca. Formations: -£hs, Cambrian Harmony and Scott 

Canyon formations; -Bo, Cambrian Osgood Mountain 

Quartzite; Ov, Ordovician Valmy Formation; !Pb, Pennsylvanian Battle Formation; !Pe, Pennsylvanian Etchart 

Limestone; !Ph, Pennsylvanian Highway Limestone; RMT, 

Roberts Mountain thrust; TC, Twin Canyon fault. (Diagram by E. R. Larson.) 

To the east, pebbly limestone of the Moleen Formation (Dott, 1955) contains the Chaetetes-Fusulinella zone like the Battle and is its eastward 

equivalent. 

INTERVALS D AND E 

Desmoinesian rocks are separated from later 

Pennsylvanian rocks or from Permian rocks by a 

disconformity that is well documented throughout 

most of the miogeosyncline and shelf in Nevada. 

During the Missourian and Virgilian, the Butte 

Basin was divided by a northeast-trending positive 

area that shed sediments into the remaining part of 

the basin on either side. This positive area and the 

still-extant Ely Platform outlined a trough that extends from the Oquirrh Basin of Utah near 

Wendover southwestward toward central Nevada 

(fig. 13). The Strathern Formation, occupying the 

northwestern part of the Butte Basin, consists Qf 

chert-pebble conglomerate, silty limestone, and 

sandstone of Missourian through Wolfcampian age. 

It rests disconformably on Desmoinesian rocks of 

the Tomera Formation in the central part of the 

basin. Near Carlin, the Strathern forms a spectacular angular unconformity with the Diamond Peak 

Formation (Mississippian) and with pre-Strathern 

Pennsylvanian strata. 

On the ridge between the basins, Wolfcampian 

rocks rest on formations as low in the section as 

Diamond Peak. 

South of the Butte Basin on the Ely Platform, 

Missourian and Virgilian rocks are absent in White 

Pine and northern Lincoln Counties (fig. 13). Here 

the Wolfcampian Riepe Springs Limestone rests directly on Desmoinesian rocks. In the Bird Spring 

Basin, Missourian and Virgilian rocks of the Bird 

Spring Group, lithologically much like those below, 

are succeeded by Wolfcampian rocks variously assigned to either the Bird Spring Group or the Pakoon Formation. On the Callville Platform, Missourian rocks are absent in the Callville Formation, 

but the upper part of the formation is of Virgilian 

age. Wolfcampian rocks of the Pakoon Formation, a 

thick-bedded dolomite, succeed the Callville Formation disconformably. 

Carbonate rocks also accumulated northwest of 

the Antler belt during Late Pennsylvanian and 

Early Permian time. Limestone-pebble and chert12o· oo· 11s· OC" 116· ocr 114'00' 

42ooo·-t------~----.....t,,..--------,r+- 42"00' 

,_.....,.......__ 

38"00' ~--~------=~---~-~~~rf----tt-38"00' 

50 50 100 150 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 13.-Thickness of Pennsylvanian intervals D, E (Missourian-Virgilian). Isopachs in hundreds of meters. Modified from McKee and others (1975). 
BB12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

120'00' 

40'00' 

38"00' 

EXPLANATION 

1~1 Source area 

36"00' 

50 50 1 00 150 MILES 

50 50 100 150 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 14.-Distribution of lithologies in Pennsylvanian intervals D, E (Missourian-Virgilian). Lithologies: I, limestone; II, conglomerate and limestone; III, sandstone; IV, 

eugeosynclinal rocks. Modified from McKee and others 

(1975). 

pebble conglomerate and chert pebbly limestone 

(Wildcat Peak Formation) were deposited in the 

area of the Toquima Range west of Eureka (fig. 14). 

Triticites of possible Late Pennsylvanian age have 

been found in the lowermost beds of the formation 

(Kay and Crawford, 1964, p. 443; McKee, 1976, p. 

23), but the formation has been dated as earliest 

Permian by Laule (1978) on the basis of a fusuline 

and coral fauna of Asiatic affinity. 

PENNSYLVANIAN EUGEOSYNCLINE 

Atokan through lower Permian sediments seen in 

klippen in the Battle Mountain-Winnemucca area 

(Roberts, 1964; Roberts and others, 1958; Ferguson 

and others, 1952; McMillan, 1974) and southward 

to Tonopah (Speed, 1971; Wilson, 1975) were deposited in a continuing eugeosynclinal system in western Nevada. These deposits of shale, chert, and 

volcanic rocks (Pumpernickel Formation), turbidites, and lesser limestone (Havallah Formation), 

originally thought to be sequential deposits (Ferguson and others, 1952), are now recognized as 

partly contemporaneous facies reflecting different 

source areas (figs. 4, 11, 13, 15). The poorly fossiliferous Pumpernickel Formation contains Atokan 

fusulines in limestone lenses, but the major lithology 

is bedded chert containing tubes and trails (lebenspoor) attributed to deep-water marine worms. Associated spilite is from submarine effusions or volcanic islands (fig. 15) . 

The Havallah Formation, which overlies the 

Pumpernickel in many areas, is Atokan to Leonardian. The graded arenite of the Havallah is believed 

to have been derived from the Antler belt and transported westward into an inner-arc basin (fig. 15). 

Figure 15 is a palinspastic synthesis of mid-Pennsylvanian relationships in northern Nevada. 

The Carboniferous strata in Nevada reflect the 

tectonic development of the area that controlled the 

locus of source lands, sites of deposition, and the 

facies of the system. Continuing deformation is 

responsible for the present distribution of Carboniferous strata, and mariy of the problems of interpretation and reconstruction are still unresolved. 

REPRESENTATIVE STRATIGRAPHIC SECTIONS 

1. Monte Cristo-Bird Spring exposures on Nevada 

State Route 16, from crest of Spring Mountain 

Pass east to the valley floor. (Geologic map of 

Clark County (Longwell and others, 1965) .) 

2. A similar section along State Route 9, just northwest of the irrigated area in Muddy Valley. 

3. Joana Limestone, White Pine Group, and Ely 

Limestone on U.S. Highway 50, beginning at 

Conners Pass and extending westward. 

(Connors Summit 15-minute quadrangle topographic map and White Pine County geologic 

map (Hose and Blake, 1976) .) 

4. A complete Joana-Chainman-Ely sequence on 

U.S. Highway 50 between Moorman Ranch 

and Antelope Summit. (Illipah 15-minute 

quadrangle topographic map and White Pine 

County geologic map (Hose and Blake, 

1976) .) 

5. A well-exposed angular unconformity between 

the Diamond Peak Formation (Tonka of Dott, 

1955) and the Strathern Formation at the 

west end of the tunnels on Interstate 80 east 

of Carlin. Post-Diamond Peak-pre-Strathern 

beds are exposed along old U.S. Highway 40 

north of the Humboldt River. 
NEVADA 

EXPLANATION 

1~?..,1 

: 

.. /---~ 

----=- •wn 

t-=-= l . 

BB13 

100 METERS G KILOMETERS 

0 

Limestone Pebbly limestone Turbidite Turbid flow Volcanic rock Chert 

FIGURE 15.-Paleotectonic block diagram of Middl•e Pennsylvanian rocks. Localities: BM, Battle Mountain; El, Elko; Eu, 

Eureka; Ey, Ely; Wn, Wendover; Wi, Winnemucca. Formations: Ely, Ely Limestone; Ha, Havallah Formation; Pu, 

Pump.ernickel Formation; Vi, Vinini Formation. RMT, Roberts Mountain thrust. (Diagram by E. R. Larson.) 

6. Joana Limestone, Chainman Shale, and younger 

rocks on Interstate 80 east of Wells at Pequop 

Summit. 

7. Pumpernickel and Havallah Formations at and 

near the Marigold mine. Take the Valmy turnoff approximately 15 miles (24 km) west of 

Battle Mountain (see Antler P·eak geologic 

map (Roberts, 1964)). Pumpernickel chert 

and Havallah Formation together with turbidites in W. 1/2 Sec. 12, Havallah Formation 

Sec. 13. Badly silicified Battle Formation 

forms rusty ridges at the mine. 

8. Antler Peak Limestone in good exposures in 

roadcuts on old U.S. Highway 40 west of Golconda Summit (SW, SW, Sec. 6, T. 35 N., R. 

41 E.; Golconda Summit geologic map (Erickson and Marsh, 1974) .) 

9. Pumpernickel Formation exposed in borrow pits 

on the north side of Interstate 80, 1 mile (1.6 

km) west of Golconda Summit. 

PALEONTOLOGY 

By JOSEPH LINTZ, JR.3 

During the Carboniferous, sedimentation. was 

nearly continuous in eastern Nevada, and all the 

widely recognized stages are· represented (fig. 16). 

Poorly· exposed eugeosynclinal assemblages in western Nevada are essentially nonfossiliferous, although scattered faunules have permitted a rough 

correlation of these beds with their eastern analogs. 

3 Mackay School of Mines, University of Nevada, Reno, Nev. 89557. 

Most of the paleontologic discussion here is limited to the eastern part of the State; Carboniferous 

fossils have been relatively well studied there, and 

a considerable literature has accumulated. The fossils suggest a shelf area in southern Nevada and a 

shift to miogeosynclinal conditions farther north. 

FAUNAL ZONES 

The faunal zonation is shown in table 1. A few 

comments are in order. The Foraminifera are common throughout Nevada but are abundant on the 

craton in the southern part of the State. Douglass 

(1974) has given an excellent summary of fusulinid 

occurrences in Nevada. Local fusulinid faunules 

have been described by Cassity and Langenheim 

(1966), Rich (1961), and Slade (1961). 

For the Mississippian stages, the ammonoids 

offer the best correlations for those parts of Nevada 

in deeper basins near the margins of the cratonic 

block (Gordon, 1970). Mississippian foraminifers, 

usually endothyrids (Brenckle, 1973), are also 

present and offer good control. The longer ranging 

coral•s, brachiopods, and bryozoans are frequently 

found, but their long ranges reduce their value as 

stratigraphic indicators. 

For the Pennsylvanian stages, the fusulinids are 

nearly ubiquitous and are the most treasured stratigraphic indicators. Occasional marker horizons, 

such as the Chaetetes-Rhipidomella zone, are widely 

recognizable by the unusual abundance of the named 

taxa. Common faunal elements of less ~tratigraphic 
BB14 

' ' ' 

THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

" ' ' " ., 

' 

Mississippian 

" ' ' 

) 

LAS VEGAS0 

~ I I Spnng 

'~ountain 

" ' ' Pennsylvanian 

I 

I 

I. 

:I 

r. 

1: 

r 

I 

I 

1-

I 

I 

I. 

FIGURE 16.-Carboniferous stages in Nevada. Mississippian stages: Ki, Kinderhookian; Os, Osagean; Me, Meramecian; Ch, 

Chesterian. Pennsylvanian stages: Mo, Morrowan; At, Atokan; De, Desmoinesian; Mi, Missourian; Vi, Virgilian. 
NEVADA BB15 

TABLE !.-Carboniferous index fossils of Nevada 

Period and Foraminifers Ammonoids Conodonta Other fossils Epoch 

Pennsylvanian 

Virgilian --------- Triticites cullomensis --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- T. kellyensis 

T. hobblensis 

T. plummeri 

T. ventricosus 

Dunbarellinella 

hug hesensis 

Missourian ------- Triticites provoensis --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- T. springvillensis 

Kansanella 

(Kansanella) 

grangerensis 

Desmoinesian ----- Fusulina megista --------------------- --------------------- Hystriculina spp~ 

W edekindellina Desmoinseia muricatina 

euthysepta 

Atokan ----------- Fusulinella devexa Pseudoparalegoceras --------------------- Multithecopora cannia 

F. acuminata kesslerense Chaetetes favosus 

F. fugax Komia spp. 

Profusulinella decora Chaetetes sp. 

P. apodacensis Caninia torquia 

P. copiosa 

Morrowan -------- Millerella marblensis Gastrioceras branneri Streptognathodus Caninostrotion spp. 

Staffella expansa Diaboloceras aff. D. noduliferus Hustedia miseri 

Paramillerella circuli neumeieri ldiognathoides Rhipodomella 

Syngastrioceras sp. convexa nevadensis 

Stenopronorites sp. I. parva Flexaria spp. 

Mississippian 

Chesterian -------- A tesuella meandra Cravenoceras Gnathodus bilineatus. Faberophyllum sp. 

Plectogyra sp. hesperium G. girtyi simplex Ekvasophyllum spp. 

C. merriami 

Eumorphoceras 

bisulcatum 

Mooreoceras sp. 

Meramecian ------ Endothyra --------------------- Taphrognathus --------------------- symmetrica varians 

Plectogyra spp. T. varians/ 

Granuliferella spp. Polygnathus mehli 

Endothyra spiroides Eotaphrus 

burlingtonensis 

Polygnathus communis 

communis/ 

Eotaphrus sp. 

Osagean ---------- Plectogyra tumula --------------------- Pseudopolygnathus --------------------- P. anteflexa triangulus nudus 

Endothyra spp. Gnathodus bilineatus/ 

G. cuneiformis 

G. semiglaber/ 

Pseudopolygnathus 

marginatus 

Polygnathus communis 

communis 

Kinderhookian ---- Granuliferella spp. ---- Protocanites lyoni P. communis Torynifer aff. 

communis/ T. cooperensis 

Pseudopolygnathus 

dentilineatus 
BB16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

value in the Pennsylvanian are the associations of 

corals, brachiopods, and bryozoans. 

Pennsylvanian mollusks, especially ammonoids, 

are less frequently found than are those of the Mississippian. Gastropods are present in moderate 

quantity, but pelecypods are less common. Gordon 

( 1970) has reviewed Carboniferous ammonoid zonation in the Western United States, and Gordon and 

others (1957) have established goniatite zones in 

the Chainman Shale equivalents of western Utah. 

Conodonts have been recognized in both argillaceous and carbonate rocks in eastern Nevada and in 

the generally nonfossiliferous allochthonous eugeosynclinal sequences in central Nevada. They have 

proved invaluable in regional correlation and 

classification. 

Carboniferous conodont faunas in Nevada have 

been described by Dunn (1965), Pierce and Langenheim (1974), and Rice and Langenheim (1974). 

Webster (1969) showed the relation of conodonts 

to fusuline zones. 

Brachiopods are typical of the Carboniferous. A 

representative collection will contain many of the 

major taxa, including spiriferids, productids, rhynchonellida, and strophomenida. Brachiopods are almost always the dominant forms of any collection 

from either Mississippian or Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks. 

Trilobites are poorly represented in the Carboniferous faunas of Nevada. After the abundance of 

phacopids in the Devonian, trilobites were greatly 

reduced in numbers ; a gradual diminution took 

place throughout the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian and into the Permian. Carboniferous trilobites 

from Nevada are members of the less exotic, more 

conservative stocks, such as the proetids. 

Echinodermata are abundant but almost always 

consist of the ubiquitous columnals. Calices are rarities, except in the cratonic area, where Webster 

and Lane (1970) have described several genera and 

species. Pentremites, so abundant in the Mississippian of the Mississippian River valley, is essentially 

unknown in Nevada. 

SELECTIVE LIST OF COLLECTING LOCALITIES 

The purpose of this list is to enumerate some localities where representative collections might be 

·made by interested persons. In selecting the localities, accessibility has been considered. Thus, localities within the Nevada Test Site are omitted 

because access to that rather large area of southcentral Nevada is restricted. The order of presentation is generally from south to north along the eastern part of Nevada. 

Spring Mountains (SW. Clark County) .-Spring 

Mountains, the type locality of the Bird Spring Formation, is northeast of the town of Goodsprings and 

is best reached over unpaved roads from the Blue 

Diamond-Arden Highway. A complete sequence of 

Pennsylvanian fusulinids is available, plus other 

common invertebrates that have yet to be catalogued 

in the literature. (Goodsprings 15-minute quadrangle topographic map.) 

Arrow Canyon (E. Clark County) .-Arrow Canyon has become well known through the field studies 

of R. L. Langenheim, G. D. Webster, N. G. Lane, 

and their students. Located on the Arrow Canyon 

15-minute quadrangle topographic map, the area has 

easy access from Las Vegas and contains a superior 

sequence of fossils from Kinderhookian into the 

Wolfcampian. Ample papers have described the sites 

and the fauna in detail (Langenheim and Langenheim, 1965). 

Shingle Pass (NW. Lincoln County) .-Shingle 

Pass, a less accessible site in the southern Egan 

Range between State Route 38 and U.S. Highway 

93, is near Sunnyside at Whipple Ranch. Good Pennsylvanian exposures are on the north side of the 

pass. This site has a good Pennsylvanian fauna 

(Kellogg, 1963) of fusulines and of generally undescribed larger invertebrates (Shingle Pass 7112-

minute topographic map.) 

Dutch John Mountain (N. Lincoln County in T. 8 

N., R. 65 E., projected) .-Dutch John Mountain is 

one of the best localities for Mississippian faunas, 

being accessible from U.S. Highway 93, approximately 12 miles (20 km) south of Geyser maintenance station. This site is on the geologic map of 

Lincoln County (Tschanz and Pampeyan, 1970). 

Ward Mountain (central White Pine County).-

On the outskirts of Ely, Ward Mountain has a complete Mississippian to mid-Pennsylvanian-Desmoinesian section. Lithologies are typical for 

eastern Nevada. The Mississippian black shale is 

poorly fossiliferous, but good collections can be obtained from the Joana Limestone (Mississippian) 

and Ely Limestone (Pennsylvanian). (Ely 15-minute quadrangle topographic map and White Pine 

County geologic map (Hose and Blake, 1976) .) 

Duckwater (NE. Nye County) .-Duckwater is 

mentioned because of the Cravenoceras faunule 

(Chesterian) described by Youngquist (1949). Very 

accessible black-shale exposures are east of Duckwater. (Duckwater 15-minute quadrangle topographic map.) 

Buck Mountain (W. White Pine County) .-Buck 

Mountain has fossils ranging in age from Kinder-
NEVADA BB17 

hookian to Desmoinesian. It is reached by a gravel 

road leading north from U.S. Highway 50, 3 miles 

(4.8 km) east of Pancake Summit. (Buck Mountain 

and Pancake Summit 15-minute quadrangle topographic maps and geologic map of White Pine 

County (Hose and Blake, 1976) .) 

Carbon Ridge (W. White Pine County) .-Carbon 

Ridge is one of the better exposures of the Diamond 

Peak conglomerate and its Chesterian faunule. The 

preservation is good, although fossils have a tendency to split between shell layers. Accessibility is 

excellent. Turn south off U.S. Highway 50 onto State 

Route 20, proceed about 1 mile (1.6 km), then turn 

right onto the gravel road leading up Secret Canyon. 

A little more than 2 miles (3.2 km) from the turnoff 

at the cattle guard are conspicuous hogbacks of 

chert pebble conglomerate. The fossils are in the 

softer sedimentary rocks between the conglomerates. (Pinto Summit 15-minute quadrangle topographic map and Nolan and others, 1974.) 

Carlin Canyon (SW. Elko County) .-Fossil localities in the Carlin Canyon are numerous, both Mississippian and Pennsylvanian Systems being well 

represented. The structures are somewhat complicated by extensive faulting, so that beds are seldom 

continuous over any distance. Conglomerates predominate, and one should seek the finer clastic rocks 

and limestone. The area is adjacent to Interstate 80 

and is readily reached via old U.S. Highway 40. 

Carlin Canyon extended would include Grindstone· 

Mountain. This place is one of the few in northern 

Nevada that has Missourian and Virgilian faunas. 

(Carlin and Dixie Flats 15-minute quadrangle topographic maps (Dott, 1955; Smith and Ketner, 

1975).) 

South Doby Summit (Elko County) .-The wellknown locality at South Doby Summit is 7 miles 

(11.2 km) north of Elko on State Route 51. On the 

right side of the road is a black-shale borrow pit 

containing a very good Chesterian· faunule. The 

. shale is soft and the fossils are silver hued, producing showy specimens. However, the specimens are 

as fragile as the shale, and care must be taken to 

prevent a high attrition rate. (Elko West 7.5-minute 

quadrangle topographic map and Smith and Ketner, 

1975.) 

Pequop Mountains · (central Elko County).-

Twenty-two miles (35 km) east of Wells, Interstate 

80 crosses the Pequop Mountains. At the summit are 

excellent Mississippian and Pennsylvanian faunules. 

The literature contains no report of the presence of 

the middle Mississippian, but Kinderhookian and 

Chesterian fossils and a complete Pennsylvanian 

section have been reported. (Pequop Summit 7.5-· 

minute quadrangle topographic map and Thorman, 

1970.) 

Ferguson Springs (E. Elko County) .-Some 14 

miles (22.4 km) south of Wendover on U.S. Highway 50 Alternate is a highway maintenance station. 

To the west, on the east flank of the Goshute Mountains, are Pennsylvanian and Permian limestones. 

The Pennsylvanian is complete here. Access is easy 

and the excellent fauna includes fusulinids, brachiopods, bryozoans, rugose and tabulate corals, and 

mollusks. (Ferguson Mountain 7 .5-minute quadrangle topographic map.) 

NOTABLE FOSSIL TAXA 

Like every other region, Nevada has unusual finds 

from Carboniferous sedimentary rocks. Any listing 

of such a group is inescapably arbitrary and subje~tively incomplete. 

Dimegalasma eurekensis.-Dimegalasma eurekensis, from the Chesterian Diamond Peak Forma-. 

tion and equivalents, is possibly the largest spiriferid known. G. A. Cooper, upon receipt of the 

holotype at the U.S. National Museum, said that it 

was the second largest brachiopod he had seen 

(Lintz and Lohr, 1958). 

Komia eganensis~-Komia was originally described by Korde ( 1951) as an alga. Wilson and 

others ( 1963), on the basis of their work describing Komia eganensis, using specimens from Nevada, 

concluded that the genus Komia should be assigned 

·to the Stromatoporoidea. Komia eganensis is known 

from Arrow Canyon, Sunnyside, Ward Mountain, 

and Moorman Ranch, occurring in association with 

Fusulinella acuminata about 50 m above the ProfusuPnella!Chaetetes marker horizon (Wilson and 

others, 1963). 

REFERENCES CITED 

Arnold, C. A., and Sadlick, W., 1961, A Mississippian flora 

from northeastern Utah and its faunal and stratigraphic 

relations: Michigan Univ. Mus. Paleontology Contr., v. 

17, no. ll, p. 241-263. 

Barnes, Harley, Houser, F. N., and Poole, F .. G., 1963, 

Geology of the Oak Springs quadrangle, Nye County, 

Nevada: U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Quad. Map GQ-214. 

Bissell, .H. J., 1964, Ely, Arcturus, and Park City Groups 

(Pennsylvanian-Permian) in eastern Nevada and western Utah: Am. Assoe. Petroleum Geologfsts Bull., v. 48, 

no. 5, p. 665-636. 

Blomquist, J. T., 1971, Current directions in the Diamond Peak 

Formation, an Upper Mississippian-Lower Pennsylvanian 

clastic wedge, east-central Nevada: R.eno, Univ. ~evada, 

M.S. the$is. 
BB18 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Brenkle, P. L., 1973, Smaller Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian calcareous foraminifers from Nevada: Cushman Found. Foraminiferal Research Spec. Pub. 11, 82 p. 

Brew, D. A., 1971, Mississippian stratigraphy of the Diamond 

Peak are.a, Eureka County, Nevada. With a section on 

the Biostratigraphy and age of the Carboniferous formations, by Mackenzie Gordon, Jr.: U.S. GeoL ·survey 

Prof. Paper 661, 84 p. 

Cassity, P. E., and Langen~eim, R. L., Jr., 1966, Pennsylvanian and Permian fusulinids of the Bird Spring 

Group from Arrow Canyon, Clark County, Nevada: Jour. 

~aleontology, v. 40, no. 4, p. 931-968. 

Dott, R. H., Jr., 1955, Pennsylvanian stratigraphy of Elko 

and north~rn Diamond Ranges, northeastern Nevada : 

Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 39, no. 11, p. 

2211-2305. 

Douglass, R. C., 1974, Fusulinids in the Basin and Range 

province in California, Nevada, and Utah: Jour. Paleontology, v. 48, no. 4, p. 846-853. 

Drowley, D., 1973, A detailed stratigraphic study of the 

Battle Formation (Middle Pennsylvanian), north-central 

Nevada: Reno, Univ. Nevada, M.S. thesis. 

Dunn, D. L., 1965, Late Mississippian conodonts from Bird 

Spring Formation in Nevada: Jour. Paleontology, v. 39, 

no. 6, p. 1145-1150. 

Easton, W. H., chairman, 1953, Revision of stratigraphic 

units in Great Basin: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists 

Bull., v. 37, no. 1, p. 143-151. 

Erickson, R. L., and Marsh, S. P., 1974, Geologic map of 

the Golconda quadrangle, Humboldt County, Nevada: 

U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Quad. Map GQ-1174. 

Fagan, J. J., 1962, Carboniferous cherts, turbidites, and volcanic rocks in northern Independence Range, Nevada: 

Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 73, no. 5, p. 595-612. 

Ferguson, H. G., Muller, S. W., and Roberts, R. J., 1952, 

Geology of the Golconda quadrangle, Nevada: U.S. Geol. 

Survey Geol. Quad. Map [GQ-15], scale 1:125,000. 

Gordon, Mackenzie, Jr., 1970, Carboniferous ammonoid zones 

of the south-central and western United States: Cong. 

Internat. Stratigraphie Geologie Carbonifere, 6th, Sheffield, Comptes Rendus, v. 2, p. 817-826. 

Gordon, Mackenzie, J,r., Hose, R. K., and R·epenning, C. A., 

1957, Goniatite zones in the Chainman Shale equivalents 

(Mississippian), western Utah [abs.]: Geol. Soc. 

America Bull., v. 68, no. 12, pt. 2, p. 1737. 

Hague, Arnold, 1870, Geology of the White Pine district: 

U.S. Geol. Explor. 40th Parallel (King), v. 3, p. 409-421. 

--- 1883, Geology of the, Eureka district, Nevada: U.S. 

Geol. Survey Ann. Rept. 3, p. 237-290. (See especially 

p. 268-273.) 

--- 1892, Geology of the Eureka district, Nevada: U.S. 

Geol. Survey Mon. 20, 419 p. 

Hague, Arnold, and Emmons, S. F., 1877, Descriptive geology: U.S. Goo!. Explor. 40th Parallel (King), v. 2, 890 

p. (See especially p. 688.) 

Hewett, D. F., 1931, Geology and ore deposits of the Goodsprings quadrangle, Nevada: U.S .. Geol. Survey Prof. 

Paper 162, 172 p. (See especially p. 16-28.) 

Hose, R. K., and Blake, M. C., Jr., 1976, Geology and mineral resources of White Pine County, Nevada: Nevada 

Bur. Mines and Geology Bull. 85, 105 p. (See e,specially 

p. 11-14.) 

Hotz, P. E., and Willden, R., 1964, Geology and mineral deposits of the Osgood Mountains quadrangle, Humboldt 

County, Nevada: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 431, 

128 p. 

Humphrey, F. L., 1960, Geology of the White Pine: mining 

district, White Pine County, Nevada: Nevada Bur. Mines 

Bull. 57, 119 p. 

James, J. W., 1954, Upp·er Mississippian-Lower Pennsylvanian rocks, southern Egan Range, Nevada [abs.]: 

Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 65, no. 12, pt. 2, p. 1268. 

Kay, Marshall, and Crawford, J. P., 1964, Paleozoic facies 

from the miogeosynclinal to the eugeosynclinal belt in 

thrust slices, central Nevada: Geol. Soc. America Bull., 

v. 75, no. 5, p. 425-454. 

Kellogg, H. E., 1963, Paleozoic stratigraphy of the southern 

Egan Range, Nevada: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 74, 

no. 6, p. 685-708. 

King, Clarence, 1878, Systematic geology: U.S. Geol. Explor. 

40th Parallel, v. 1, 803 p. (S·ee especially p. 670.) 

Korde, K. B., 1951, Novye rody i vidy izvestkovykh vodoroslei 

iz kamennougolnykh otlozhenii severnogo Urala: Moskovskoe Obshchestvo Ispytatelei Prirody, Trudy; Otdel 

Geol., v. 1, p. 175-182. 

Langenheim, R. L., Jr., 1960, Early and middle Mississippian 

stratigraphy of the Ely area, in Intermountain Assoc·. 

Petroleum Geologists and Eastern Nevada Geol. Soc., 

Guidebook to the· geology of east central Nevada-11th 

Ann. Field Conf., 1960: Salt Lake ·City, Utah Geol. and 

Mineralog. Survey, p. 72-80. 

--- 1961, The Pilot Shale, the West Range Limestone, 

and the Devonian-Mississippian boundary in eastern 

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Langenheim, R. L., Jr., and Larson, E. R., chairmen, 1973, 

Correlation of Great Basin stratigraphic units: Nevada 

Bur. Mines and Geology Bull. 72, 36 p. 

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County, Nevada: Illinois Acad. Sci. Trans., v. 58, no. 4, 

p. 225-240. 

Larson, E. R., and Riva, J. F., 1963, Preliminary geologic 

map of the Diamond Springs quadrangle, Nevada: Nevada 

Bur. Mines Map 20, scale 1:62,500, text. 

Laule, S. W., 1978, Wolfcampian faunule from the Wildcat 

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Lawson, A. C., 1906, The copper deposits of the Robinson 

mining district, Nevada: California Univ., Dept. Geology 

Bull., v. 4, no. 14, p. 287-357. 

--- 1913, The petrographic designation of alluvial-fan 

formations: California Univ., Dept. Geology Bull., v. 7, 

no. 15, p. 325-334. 

Lin~, Joseph, Jr., and Lohr, L. S., 1958, Two new invertebrates from the Mississippian of Navada: Jour. Paleontology, v. 32, no. 5, p. 977-980. 

Longwell, C. R., 1921, Geology of the Muddy Mountains, 

Nevada***: Am. Jour. Sci., 5th ser., v. 1,. no. 1, p. 39-62. 

Longwell, C. R., Pampeyan, E. H., Bowyer, Ben, and Roberts, 

R. J., 1965, Geology and mineral deposits of Cla·rk 

County, Nevada: Nevada Bur, Mines Bull. 62, 218 p. 
NEVADA BB19 

McKee, E. D., Crosby, E. J., and others, 1975, Paleotectonic 

investigations of the Pennsylvanian System in the United 

States: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 853, 3 v.: pt. 1, 

349 p.; pt. 2, 192 p.; pt. 3, 60 pis. 

McKee, E. H., 1976, Geology of the northern part of the 

Toquima Range, Lander, Eureka, and Nye Counties, 

Nevada: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 931, 49 p. (See 

especially p. 21-23.) I 

MacMillan, J. R., 1974, Environment of deposition of the i 

Havallah Formation, west-central Nevada [abs.]: Geol. •

1 Soc. America Abs. with Programs, v. 6, no. 3, p. 210-

211. 

Nolan, T. B., Merriam, C. W., and Blake, M. C., Jr., 1974, 

Geologic map of the Pinto Summit quadrangle, Eureka 

and White Pin-e Counties, Nevada: U.S. Geol. Survey 

Misc. Inv. Map I-793, 2 sheets, 14-p. text. 

Nolan, T. B., Merriam, C. W., and Williams, J. S., 1956, 

The stratigraphic section in the vicinity of Eureka, 

Nevada: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Pape.r 276, 77 p. (See 

especially p. 52-63.) 

Pierce, R. W., and Langenheim, R. L., Jr., 1974, Platform 

conodonts of the Monte Cristo Group, Mississippian, 

Arrow Canyon Range, Clark County, Nevada: Jour. 

Paleontology, v. 48, no. 1, p. 149-169. 

Poole, F. G., 1974, Flysch deposits of Antler foreland basin, 

western United States, in Dickinson, W. R., ed., Tectonics and sedimentation: Soc. Econ. Paleontologists and 

Mineralogists Spec. Pub. 22, p. 58-82. 

Poole, F. G., and Sandberg, C. A., 1977, Mississippian paleogeog-raphy and tectonics of the western United States, 

in Pacific Coast Paleogeography Symposium, 1st, Bakersfield, Calif., 1977, Paleozoic paleogeography of the western United States: Los Angeles, Soc. Econ. Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Pacific Sec., p. 67-85. 

Poole, F. G., and others, 1965, Age of Eleana Formation 

(Devonian and Mississippian) in Nevada Test Site, in 

Cohee, G. V., and West, W. S., Changes in stratigraphic 

nomenclature by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1964: U.S .. 

Geol. Survey Bull. 1224-A, p. A51-A53. 

Rice, W. D., and Langenheim, R. L., Jr., 1974, Conodonts of 

the Battleship Wash Format,ion, . late Mississippian, 

Arrow Canyon Range, Clark County, Nevada: Earth Sci. 

Bull., v. 7, no. 2, p. 19-36. 

Rich, Mark, 1961, Stratigraphic section and fusulinids of 

the Bird Spring Formation near Lee Canyon, Clark 

County, Nevada: Jour. Paleontology, v. 35, no. 6, p. 

1159-1180. 

Roberts, R. J., 1964, Stratigraphy and structure of the Antler 

Peak quadrangle, Humboldt and Lander Counties, 

Nevada: U.S. Geol. Surve,y Prof. Paper 459-A, 93 p. 

Roberts, R. J., Hotz, P. E., Gilluly, James, and Ferguson, 

H. G., 1958, Paleozoic rocks of north-central Nevada: 

Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 42, no. 12, p. 

2813-2857. 

Rose, P. R., 1976, Mississippian ca·rbonate shelf margins, 

western United States: U.S. Geol. Survey Jour. Research, v. 4, no. 4, p. 449-466. 

Slade, M. L., 1961, Pennsylvanian and Permian fusulinids 

of the Ferguson Mountain area, Elko County, Nevada: 

Brigham Young Univ. Geology Studies, v. 8, p. 55-92. 

Smith, J. F., J,r., and Ketner, K. B., 1975, Stratigraphy of 

Paleozoic rocks in the Carlin-Pinon Range area, Nevada: 

U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 867-A, 87 p. 

Speed, R. C., 1971, Permo-Triassic continental margin tectonics in western Nevada [abs.]: Geol. Soc. America 

Abs. with programs, v. 3, no. 2, p. 199. 

Spencer, A. C., 1917, The geology and ore deposits of Ely, 

Nevada: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Papar 96, 189 p. 

Steele, Grant, 1960, Pennsylvanian-Permian stratigraphy of 

east-central Nevada and adjacent Utah, in Intermountain Assoc. Petrole,um Geologists and Eastern Nevada 

Geol. Soc., Guidebook to the geology of east central 

Nevada-11th Ann. Field Conf., 1960: Salt Lake City, 

Utah Geol. and Mineralog. Survey, p. 91-113. 

Thorman, C. H., 1970, Metamorphosed and nonmetamorphosed Paleozoic rocks in the Wood Hills and Pequop 

Mountains, northeast Neva.da: Geol. Soc. America Bull., 

v. 81, no. 8, p. 2417-2447. 

Tschanz, C. M., and Pampeyan, E. H., 1970, Geology and 

mine·ral deposits of Lincoln County, Nevada: Nevada 

Bur. Mines and Geology Bull. 73, 187 p. 

Webster, G. D., 1969, Chester through Derry conodonts and 

stratigraphy of northern Clark and southern Lincoln 

Counties, Nevada: California Univ. Pubs. Geol. Sci., v. 

79, 121 p. 

Webster, G. D., and Lane, N. G., 1970, Carboniferous echinode~rms from the southwestern United States: Jour. 

Paleontology, v. 44, no. 2, p. 276-296. 

Wheeler, G. M., 1875, Report upon geographical and geological explorations and surveys west of the One Hundredth 

Meridian. V. 3, Geology: Washington, D.C., U.S. Govt. 

Print. Office, 681 p. (See especia.Ily, p. 179.) 

Wilson, E. C., Waines, R. H., and Coogan, A. H., 1963, A 

new species of Komia Korde and the systematic position of the genus: Palaeontology, v. 6, pt. 2, p. 246-253. 

Wilson, R. F., 1975, Nevada and southern California, in McKee, E. D., and Crosby, E. J., coordinators, Introduction 

and regional analyses of the Pennsylvanian System, Pt. 

1 of Paleotectonic investigations of the Pennsylvanian 

System in the United States: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. 

Paper 853, p. 311-328. 

Youngquist, W. L., 1949, The cephalopod fauna of the White 

Pine Shale of Nevada: Jour. Paleontology, v. 23, no. 3, 

p. 276-305; Supplement, v. 23, no. 6, p. 613-616. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systellls in the United -StatesCalifornia, Oregon, and Washington 

By RICHARD B. SAUL, OLIVER E. BOWEN, CALVIN H. STEVENS, 

GEORGE C. DUNNE, RICHARD G. RANDALL, RONALD W. KISTLER, 

WARREN J. NOKLEBERG, ]AD A. D'ALLURA, ELDRIDGE M. MOORES, 

RODNEY WATKINS, EWART M. BALDWIN, ERNEST H. GILMOUR, and 

WILBERT R. DANNER 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 1110-CC 

Prepared in cooperation with the California Division of Mines and 

Geology, Department of Conservation, Resources Agency; the State of 

Oregon, Department of Geology and Mineral Industries; and 

Washington State, Department of Natural Resources, Division of 

Geology and Earth Resources 

Historical review and summary of areal, stratigraphic, structural, and 

economic geology of Mississzppian and Pennsylvanian rocks in 

California, Oregon, and Washington 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

~bstract ----------------------------------------- Introduction, by Richard B. Saul, coordinator -------

The Cordilleran geosyncline -------------------

Early work ----------------------------------

Distribution of the rocks ----------------------

Economic importance --------------------------

Present research ------------------------------ Carboniferous and probable Carboniferous metasedimentary rocks in the southwestern Mojave 

Desert, California, by Oliver E. Bowen ------

~bstract -------------------------------------

llistory -------------------------------------- Geologic setting _________________ ;.. ___________ _ 

Lithology and lithologic sequence ---------------

~ge of the rocks ------------------------------ Rocks and minerals of economic importance ____ _ 

Carboniferous stratigraphy of part of eastern California, by Calvin II. Stevens, George C. Dunne, 

and Richard G. Randall ---------------------

~bstract -------------------------------------

Introduction ---------------------------------- General geologic relationships ------------------

Previous work -----------------------~-------­ Carboniferous paleotectonic setting -------------

Stratigraphic setting --------------------------

General stratigraphic relationships -------------

Carboniferous units ---------------------------

Tin Mountain Limestone ------------------ Perdido Formation _______________________ _ 

~rgus Limestone __ ----- _________________ _ 

Rest Spring Shale ------------------------

Keeler Canyon Formation ------------------

Interpretations and summary ------------------

Carboniferous rocks of the eastern Sierra Nevada, by 

Ronald W. Kistler and Warren J. Nokleberg __ 

~bstract -------------------------------------

Introduction ----------------------------------

Pine Creek pendant ---------------------------

Mount Morrison pendant ----------------------

Southern Ritter Range pendant ---------------- Northern Ritter Range and Gull Lake pendants __ 

Saddlebag Lake pendant ----------------------

p~ p~ 

CC1 Carboniferous rocks of the eastern Sierra Nevada-Con. 

1 Summary ------------------------------------ CC24 

1 Regional considerations ----------------------- 25 

4 Carboniferous rocks of the northern Sierra Nevada, 

4 California, by Jad ~. D'Allura and Eldridge M. 

5 Moores ------------------------------------ 26 

5 ~bstract ------------------------------------- 26 

Introduction ---------------------------------- 26 

Eastern belt ---------------------------------- 26 

5 Peale Formation ------------------------- 26 

5 Lower member ----------------------- 29 

6 Upper member ----------------------- 30 

6 Taylor and Goodhue-~rlington Formations___ 31 

6 Contacts --------------------------------- 31 

9 Biostratigraphy -------------------------- 32 

9 Environmental interpretation -------------- 32 

Western belt --------------------------------- 33 

~cknowledgments ----------------------------- 33 

10 Carboniferous rocks of the eastern Klamath Moun10 tains, California, by Rodney Watkins -------- 33 

11 ~bstract ------------------------------------- 33 

11 Introduction ---------------------------------- 33 

11 Bragdon Formation --------------------------- 33 

12 Baird Formation ----------------------------- 34 

12 . Sedimentary environments --------------------- 36 

13 Faunal affinities ------------------------------ 36 

13 Carboniferous formations in Oregon, by Ewart M. 

13 Baldwin ------------------------------------ 37 

15 ~bstract ------------------------------------- 37 

17 Introduction---------------------------------- 37 

18 Coffee Oreek Formation ----------------------- 37. 

19 Spotted Ridge Formation ---------------------- 39 

20 Elkhorn Ridge Argillite ----------------------- 40 

Carboniferous rocks in Washington, by Ernest II. Gil21 mour and Wilbert R. Danner ----------·----- 41 

21 ~bstract ------------------------------------- 41 

21 Introduction ---------------------------------- 41 

21 San Juan Islands ----------------------------- 42 

21 Northern Cascade Mountains ------------------ 43 

23 Northeastern Washington --------------------- 43 

23 Economic products --------------------------- 46 

24 References cited ---------------------------------- 46 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE 

Page 

1. Chart showing regional aspects of the Carboniferous rocks in and west of the axis of the Cordilleran geosyncline in California, Oregon, and Washington ---------------------------------- CC3 

2. Index map of southwestern Mojave Desert showing location of quadrangles in which Carboniferous 

rocks are exposed ---------------------------------------------------------------------~- 7 

m 
IV CONTENTS 

Page 

FIGURE 3. Columnar sections of Carboniferous ( ?) rocks in the southwestern Mojave Desert -------------- CC8 

4. Index map of southeastern California showing location and number of measured sections and thickness of rock units ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 

5. Diagrammatic cross section of eastern California showing stratigraphic nomenclature and correlations ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 

6. Paleotectonic map of eastern California during the Carboniferous Period ------------------------ 15 

7-11. Maps showing: 

7. Thickness of the Tin Mountain Limestone --------------------------------------------- 16 

8. Thickness and distribution of facies of the Perdido Formation -------------------------- 16 

9. Thickness of the Argus Limestone --------------------------------------------------- 16 

10. Thickness of the Rest Spring Shale -------------------------------------------------- 16 

11. Thickness of the lower member of the Keeler Canyon Formation ----------------------- 20 

12. Generalized geologic map showing distribution of Carboniferous rocks and adjacent stratified rocks 

in roof pendants in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California ------------------------------------ 22 

13. Diagram showing relation of belt of Carboniferous rocks in the eastern Sierra Nevada to adjacent 

belts of sbrndlar age --------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 

14. Generalized map of prebatholithic units, northern Sierra Nevada, California -------------------- 27 

15. Simplified description of Paleozoic :rocks of the northeastern Sierra Nevada, California ----------- 28 

16. Generalized correlation section of Carboniferous rocks from Taylorsville to Cisco Grove area, northeastern Sierra Nevada, California-------------------------------------------------------- 29 

17. Geologic map around the northern part of Shasta Lake, eastern Klamath Mountains, California --- 34 

18. Columnar sections of Carboniferous rocks in the eastern Klamath Mountains, California ---------- 35 

19. Index map of Oregon showing locality of the Elkhorn Ridge Argillite, Pennsylvanian? ( IP?); 

Spotted Ridge Formation, Pennsylvanian ( IP); and Coffee Creek Formation, Mississippian (M) 37 

20. Map showing Carboniferous formations in central Oregon -------------------------------------- 38 

21. Map showing Carboniferous rocks and rocks of questionable Carboniferous age exposed in Washington---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 41 

22. Photograph showing Lower Pennsylvanian Limestone of Red Mountain Subgroup exposed at the base 

of Washington Monument Peak, Northern Cascade Mountains, Washington ------------------- 42 

23. Photograph showing cut slab of crinoidal limestone of Early Pennsylvanian age, Red Mountain, 

Whatcom County, Wash ---------------------------------------------------------,:_______ 44 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) 

SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES-CALIFORNIA., OREGON., AND WASHINGTON 

By RICHARD B. SAUL) Coordinator/ OLIVER E. BowEN)2 CALVIN H. STEVENS)3 GEORGE C. DuNNE, 4 RICHARD G. 

RANDALL,3 RoNALD W. KISTLER, 5 WARREN J. NoKLEBERG,5 ]AD A. D'ALLURA,6 ELDRIDGE l\1. MooRES/ RoDNEY 

WATKINS, 8 EWART 1\ti. BALDWIN,9 ERNEST H. GILMOUR/ 0 and WILBERT R. DANNER11 

ABSTRACT 

Rocks of Carboniferous age in California, Oregon, and 

Washington are described in seven separate reports. These 

rocks are a part of the sedimentary record in the Cordilleran geosyncline and in what appears to have been an adjacent, tectonically active ocean basin to the west and 

northwest. 

Rocks deposited near the axis of the geosyncline are described in two reports on exposures in southeastern California. One report covers a group of economically important, 

metamorphosed, sparsely fossiliferous carbonate-rich sequences in the southwestern Mojave Desert. The other contains data on a well-prese·rved record of largely carbonate 

deposition on an eastern cratonic shelf and in a more western foreland basin, in the area east and southeast of the 

Sierra Nevada. Here, facies changes and unconformities appear to reflect tectonic events in an orogenic highland to the 

north and perhaps west of that region. 

In the eastern Sierra Nevada, metamorphosed Carboniferous sedimentary rocks are exposed discontinuously in roof 

pendants. Fossils are rare. Correlation is mainly based on 

similarity of lithology to the nearest fossiliferous rocks. 

Regional differences in strike between these rocks and rocks 

of similar character and age to the east suggest a large-scale 

tectonic dislocation or regional angular unconformity. In the 

north-central Sierra Nevada, the Carboniferous section is 

predominantly a chert-epiclastic sequence and is sparsely 

fossiliferous. 

In the eastern Klamath M{)untains of California, the Carboniferous is mainly argillite and volcaniclastic rocks containing minor amounts of chert, greenstone, limestone, and 

siltstone. The sparse faunas, which range in age from late 

Mississippian through Pennsylvanian to early Permian, are 

part of an Asiatic province and have few spe.cies in common with typical North American faunas. 

In Oregon, sedimentary rocks of Carboniferous age are 

known near the head of Crooked River in the southern Blue 

Mountains. Two formations are named. The older, composed 

mainly of liimestone, is middle and upper Meramecian and 

Chesterian. The younger, of Morrowan age, is composed of 

conglomerate, sandstone, and plant-bearing mudstone. I:rl. 

northeastern Oregon, in an argillite, a fusulinid fauna is assigned to the Desmoinesian. In Oregon, all Carboniferous 

strata are probably allochthonous, having been emplaced 

during plate movements. 

Scattered Carboniferous rocks in western and eastern 

Washington range in age from Chesterian to Desmoinesian 

and possibly Missourian. Some of the Carboniferous rocks 

in western Washington contain Tethyan faunas and may 

have been tectonically transported north and east from the 

Permian equatorial area. Fossils in the Carboniferous rocks 

of northeastern Washington appear to have eastern North 

American or Rocky Mountain affinities. 

INTRODUCTION 

By RICHARD B. SAUL 

THE CORDILLERAN GEOSYNCLINE 

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River is one 

of the most impressive natural features on the 

North American Continent. It is 1,500 to 1,800 m 

deep. In its walls the Paleozoic Era is represented 

by about 1,300 m of sedimentary rocks (fig. 1). 

About 400 km west of the Grand Canyon, in the 

Panamint Range of California, is a thicker, more 

1 California Division of Mines and Geology, Department of Conserva· 

tion, Resources Agency, Sacramento, Ca. 95814. ~Consultant, Watsonville, Ca. 95076. 3 San Jose State University, San Jose, Ca. 95192. 4 California State University, Northridge, Ca. 91330. 5 U. S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Ca. 94025. 6 Southern Oregon State College, Ashland, Or. 97520. 7 University of California, Davis, Ca. 95616. 

' Consultant, 1221 Lawncrest Road No. 12, Redding, Ca. 96001. 0 University of Oregon, Eugene, Or. 97403. 10 Eastern Washington State University, Cheney, Wa. 99004. 11 University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 

V6TlW5. 

CCl 
CC2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

METERS 

0 

200 

400 

600 

800 

1000 

E 

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS. 

A 0. E. Bowen 

B C. H. Stevens, G. C. Dunne, and R. G. Randall 

C "R. W. Kistler and W. J. Nokleberg 

D J. A. D' Altura and E. M. Moores 

E Rodney Watkins 

F E. M. Baldwin 

G E. H. Gilmour and W. R. Danner 

EXPLANATION 

Shale and 

mudstone 

l ~4} Mix~d clastic ·. ..... rocks 

{\:::·;:J Sandstone 

~ 

~ Conglomerate 

~~~ Breccia 

ltO.:!j Volcanicl~stic rocks 

~ Rowsand 

~tuff 

~Limestone 

~ Limestone 

lenses 

~ Dolomite 

~ Marble 

b.oA-;J Chert 

~ Argillite 

ltJiJ Greenstone 

Hornfels, schist, 

and quartzite 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON 

SOUTHEASTERN 

CALIFORNIA 

PANAMINT RANGE 

METERS 

STAGES 

9 Virgil ian 

8 Missourian 

' z / ARIZONA <( 

~ a: GRAND CANYON w 

a.. METERS 

0 

z 

<( 

7 Desmoinesian z PERMIAN <( 

> ...J 

Atokan 

(Derryan) 6 

>-

CJ) 

z 

z 2000 w 

a.. 

5 Morrowan - --- Chesterian 

Meramecian 

Osagean 

4 

3 

2 

-DE'&NiAN- z 

<( 

/ a: 

a.. 

(i) 1000 CJ) 

(i) 

CJ)" 

~ 

/ 4000 

1 Kinderhookian / 

/ 

z 

<( 

u 

> 0 

0 5000 2000 a: 

0 

6000 

7000 

8000 

9000 

FIGURE !.-Regional aspects of the Carboniferous rocks in and west of the axis of the Cordilleran geosyncline 

in California, Oregon, and Washington. Because of the uncertain.ties of many age assignments, the commonly altered or unfossiliferous character of the rocks, and the scale of this figure, the thicknesses are 

approximate and the lithology is generalized. The upper right-hand columns at F and G are localities, 

not described sections. 

CC3 
CC4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

complete Paleozoic section but one that is faulted 

and folded. If undisturbed, the section in the Panamint Range would require a canyon about 9,000 m 

deep for full exposure. Indeed, in California, if the 

entire conformable sedimentary sequence, including 

the late Precambrian, were to be considered, the 

section would be more than 15,000 m thick. Unfortunately such an unbroken sequence of Paleozoic 

rocks is not exposed in California, Oregon, or Washington, although the section in southeastern California can easily be pieced together. There are, 

instead, widely scattered exposures of faulted, deformed, and in places, intruded and metamorphosed 

parts of the sequence. Therein has lain some of the 

difficulty facing Paleozoic stratigraphers in general 

and students of the Carboniferous in particular in 

the Cordilleran geosyncline. 

EARLY WORK 

Careful examination of the rocks of the region 

began in the late 1800's. By the turn of the century, 

a base of useful literature had begun to accumulate. 

Because of the wide variety in the age and type of 

rocks exposed in California, Oregon, and Washington, these areas have attracted a large and diverse 

cadre of earth scientists. The literature has accrued 

exponentially. Most of the early work was done 

through the aegis of the U.S. Geological Survey. 

Descriptions of the rocks of Carboniferous age are 

minor parts of the older publications. The early 

work usually centered on problems of ground-water 

supplies and the geology of mining districts. The 

abundant carbonate rocks were good hosts to ores of 

both base and noble metals. In 1912, James M. Hill 

published index maps of topographic and geologic 

surveys of the Western States that illustrate the 

influence of the mining districts on those endeavors. 

Not until recent years have workers chosen to study 

the rocks and rock-forming events of specific Periods in the Paleozoic. 

As topographic maps became available for certain 

districts, detailed geologic studies of specific quadrangles were published. One such work, involving 

well-exposed rocks of Carboniferous age, is "Geology and ore deposits of the Goodsprings quadrangle, 

Nevada" by D. F. Hewett (1931). This effort to 

assist the development of a mining district is a 

classic of structural and stratigraphic exposition. 

Through such investigations, great progress was 

made in understanding the geologic history of the 

Cordilleran geosyncline. 

In the eastern Transverse Ranges of California 

and in the regions, to the east and south, early descriptions of Paleozoic rocks were generally part of 

academically oriented geologic mapping. However, 

such reports contributed to the search for industrial 

minerals. The work by Vaughan (1922) in which 

he described the Furnace Limestone is an example. 

Knopf and Kirk (1918) were among the earliest 

to describe the rocks and mineral resources of the 

thick Paleozoic section along the east flank of the 

Sierra Nevada. Some of the best early work in the 

Sierra Nevada and Klamath Mountains of California was conducted by Diller and is presented in 

U.S. Geological Survey Bulletins and Folios, and in 

professional journals. 

In 1902, Condon wrote a geologic history of Oregon in which Paleozoic rocks were described, but 

most of the Carboniferous rocks were located by 

E. L. Packard (1928, 1932) and his students. 

The Paleozoic section in western British Columbia 

extends southward, to a limited extent, into the 

State of Washington. Most of the earliest work was 

done by Canadians such as Clapp (1909). In 1927, 

McLellan published a report on the San Juan 

Islands, in northwestern Washington, which describes structural, stratigraphic, and economic aspects of the geology. Here, as elsewhere in the 

Western States, significant geologic research 

emerged around the turn of the century. 

DISTRffiUTION OF THE ROCKS 

In the three States covered by this report, the 

least altered, most fossiliferous, and most complete 

sections of Carboniferous rocks are exposed in the 

Basin Ranges east of the Sierra Nevada in California. Near and south of the latitude of the Transverse Ranges of California (fig. 1), rocks of probable or possible Carboniferous age are generally 

altered and difficult to date, at least in part because 

of the emplacement of Mesozoic plutonic rocks. 

Similarly, rocks of Carboniferous age are sparsely 

distributed in roof pendants in the batholithic rocks 

of the Sierra Nevada. A section of metamorphosed 

sedimentary rocks of late Paleozoic age, some of 

which may prove to be Carboniferous, forms a belt 

in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. A 

mixed sequence of sparsely fossiliferous clastic, volcaniclastic, and carbonate rocks of Carboniferous 

age is exposed in the eastern Klamath Mountains 

in northwestern California. 

Rocks ranging in age from Devonian through 

Permian have been mapped in a faulted and folded 

section in the Blue Mountains. of central Oregon. 

There the Carboniferous comprises fossiliferous, 

mixed calcareous, clastic, and argillaceous rocks and 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC5 

minor amounts of limestone overlain by conglomerate, wacke, and plant-bearing mudstone. An argillite of possible Pennsylvanian age is to the northeast, near Baker. 

In the St81te of Washington, Carboniferous rocks 

· are found in two different sections, both of whiCh 

are ·more extensively exposed to the north in British 

Columbia. One belt is in the Northern Cascade 

Range ; the other is exposed in the San Juan Islands 

and in the foothills of the Northern Cascades and 

Middle Cascades on the mainland (Danner, 1977). 

The rocks in the Cascade Range consist of argillite 

and siltstone of Mississippian ?-Pennsylvanian age 

overlain by fossiliferous Pennsylvanian limestone. 

The section in the San Juan Islands comprises volcanic flows and breccia, shale, siltstone, tuff, graywacke, lenses of fossiliferous limestone, and a few 

thin seams of low-grade coal. 

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE 

The presence of coal strata in the Eastern States 

may have caused early expectations of coal in the 

Carboniferous of the West. Although thin local 

seams are present in the Pennsylvanian of the 

San Juan Islands, in the State of Washington 

(McLellan, 1927), no commercially exploitable deposits have been found. The role of Carboniferous 

carbonate rocks as host for metallic ores has been 

noted. The growth of population on the Pacific 

Coast has increased demand for carbonate rocks for 

industrial purposes. Much of the information on 

deposits of known or potential value in Carboniferous rocks is produced or collated by State agencies: 

in California, the California Division of Mines and 

Geology, Department of Conservation, Resources 

Agency; in Oregon, the State of Oregon, Department of Geology and Mineral Industries; and in 

Washington, Washington State, Department of N atural Resources, Division of Geology and Earth 

Resources. 

PRESENT RESEARCH 

An excellent summary of current research exists 

in a symposium volume titled "Paleozoic paleogeography of the western United States" (Pacific Coast 

Paleogeography Symposium, 1977). Because that 

symposium involved or influenced most of the contributors to this work, a rough summary is presented as follows : The axis of the Cordilleran geosyncline had a north-northeasterly trend. The axis 

lay athwart what is now southeastern California, 

resulting in the thick accumulation of Paleozoic 

marine rocks in that region. The thinner, Grand 

Canyon section accumulated on the cratonic shelf 

along the southeast margin of the geosyncline. To 

the northwest, in the region of central California, an 

orogenic highland belt from which sediments were 

derived trended northeastward. A trench lay along 

the southeast margin of the highland. The boundary between the trench and the highland is described 

as a system of northwest-dipping thrust faults. To 

the northwest, through northern California, Oregon, and Washington, carbonate rocks become subordinate to clastic, volcaniclastic, and volcanic rocks. 

This may have been a region of island arcs in or 

west of an ocean basin adjacent to and west of the 

Cordilleran geosyncline. Across the western basin, 

rocks and fossil faunas from a different province 

appear to have been rafted against the continental 

plate above an east-dipping subduction zone. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic Names Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the current usage 

of the California Division of Mines and Geology, 

Department of Conservation, Resources Agency; 

the State of Oregon, Department of Geology and 

Mineral Industries; and Washington State, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and 

Earth Resources. 

CARBONIFEROUS AND PROBABLE CARBONIFEROUS METASEDIMENTARY ROCKS 

IN THE SOUTHWESTERN MOJAVE DESERT, CALIFORNIA 

By OLIVER E. BOWEN 

ABSTRACT 

This paper deals with partly metamorphosed late Paleozoic 

rocks in the southwestern Mojave Desert. In the light of 

the relatively abundant faunas in the Carboniferous rocks 

of eastern California, a review of the lithology and gross 

stratigraphy of these sparsely fossiliferous rocks seems in 

order. 

The probable Carboniferous rocks rin the southwestern 

Mojave Desert have the following things in common: 

1. The lithofacies consist predominantly of quartz-mica 

schist, limestone and quartzite. 

2. Fossils are widely scattered and the preservation is 

seldom better than fair. 
CC6 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

3. The Carboniferous rocks occur as small or large pendants 

suspended in granitic· rocks. 

4. In most pendants the stratigraphic section is incomplete. 

5. In general the rocks are well exposed. 

The most detailed studies have been done on the Oro Grande 

series which crops out in many pendants found within or 

close to the quadrilateral determined by the cities of Victorville, Kramer Junction, Barstow, and Luc,erne Valley. The 

maximum thicknes-s of the Oro Grande series is 2,952 m, 

whereas the type section of Quartzite Mountain :is only 723 

m thick. 

The Oro Grande series is beHeved to correlate with the 

Furnace Limestone and the Chicopee and Sarrogossa Quartzite formations of the San Berna~dino Mountains. These 

formations aggregate 3,409 m; the Furnace Limestone makes 

up 2,447 m of the total. 

Limestone is by far the most important industrial raw 

material quarried in the southwestern Mojave Desert, and 

the portland cement industry is the largest consumer. Quartzite is quarried extensively for use in portland cement, railroad ballast, road base, and allied construction materials. 

Other products such as magnesite, gold, silver, copper, and 

tungsten have been produced intermittently. 

HISTORY 

Before publication by the author of "Geology 

and mineral deposits of Barstow quadrangle" 

(Bowen, 1954) and "Mineral deposits in the Oro 

Grande series" (Bowen and Ver Plank, 1965), the 

only reasonably detailed description of the probable Carboniferous rocks in the southwestern Mojave Desert was by W. J. Miller in 1944. Miller 

briefly described lithologic units at the type section 

of the Oro Grande series but found no diagnostic 

fossils. Brief references to the lithology of the late 

Paleozoic rocks are to be found in Hershey (1902), 

Darton (1915), and Pack (1914). A good description of the Furnace Limestone and associated 

quartzite formations was published by F. E. 

Vaughan in 1922. Woodford and Harris supplemented Vaughan's work in 1928. Both of these 

papers discuss the probable Carboniferous sequence 

in the San Bernardino Mountains immediately adjoining the Barstow 30-minute quadrangle to the 

south. The same area was discussed in a short 

paper by Guillou in 1953 and in a more extensive 

one by Richmond in 1960. Richmond's paper contains the best description of the stratigraphy and 

fossil record of the late Paleozoic rocks of any 

dealing with the San Bernardino Mountains. Weise 

(1950) discussed probable Paleozoic rocks in the 

N eenach quadrangle. 

Between 1960 and 1965, geologic maps of four 

15-minute quadrangles were released by the U.S. 

Geological Survey covering the entire older· Barstow 

30-minute quadrangle (Dibblee 1960a, b, c, d). As 

these map sheets were preliminary, very little discussion of the map units was possible (fig. 2). 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

All the areas being discussed are underlain by 

granitic rocks; the metasedimentary rocks in general are found in pendants surrounded by granitic 

rocks. At no place is the base of the probable Carboniferous section exposed, and the basal contact 

for any one sequence is along an instrusive rock, 

or in a few places, a fault. 

In two places, at least, the probable Carboniferous rocks are overlain by metasedimentary rocks 

containing diagnostic Permian fossils. Near Sidewinder Mountain, west of the Reserve quarry of 

Southwestern Portland Cement Comp·any, the Permian Fairview Valley Formation rests nonconformably on the Oro Grande series. In the Goler Wash 

vicinity of the El Paso Mountains, fusulinid-bearing 

Permian rocks are conformable on a sequence of 

rocks that may be partly Carboniferous and partly 

Permian. 

The lithology of the probable Carboniferous rocks 

(fig. 3) reflects few diastrophic events. Limestone 

tends to be pure, clay shale has little or no coarse 

sand or pebbles, and the quartzite, except in the 

El Paso Range, is made up of clean sand. These 

rocks most probably result from intense chemical 

weathering in a warm, humid climate. 

Sea-floor dolomitization was predominant, although some dolomite may have formed by introduction of magnesium mobilized at the time of influx of the granitic rocks. 

Coarse conglomerate and sedimentary breccia, 

probably reflecting mountain-building activity, appear in the Permian and probably in the Pennsylvanian as well, as would be expected in concluding 

epochs of the Paleozoic. This characteristic is in 

keeping with events reflected in the Permian-Carboniferous sequence in eastern California. 

LITHOLOGY AND LITHOLOGIC SEQUENCE 

The only detailed, measured sections of probable 

Carboniferous age are in either the Barstow 30-

minute quadrangle or the adjacent Shadow Mountains 15-minute quadrangle (Bowen, 1954). In the 

Shadow Mountains, the Oro Grande series reaches 

a thickness of 3,414 m and is primarily a crystalline 

limestone-quartz-mica schist sequence. Thin quartzite and hornfels layers are present within the schist, 

but they do not form mappable units except at a 

large scale. The much thinner (1,285 m) type sec-
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC7 

---------------- SALTDALE RANDSBURG I ~'\.c:, 

0 I <?7>t:O 

~ Garlock• I 

., 

I 

I 

DIBBLEE HULIN 

FREMONT OPAL LANE 

I PEAK MOUNTAIN MOUNTAIN 

I 

I 

I *Lane Mtn 

I 

DIBBLEE DIBBLEE McCULLOH I 

Kramer• HAWES BARSTOW 

I I Junction I 

I Barstow• I I I 

I I 

I I 

BOWEN BOWEN I I ~ VICTORVILLE APPLE 

I ~o; I VALLEY 

I ott. I ~ Quartzite Mtn I I SHADOW IS' 

•* Sidewinder* I I MOUNTAINS Oro Grande Mtn I I 

Victorville• I TROXEL BOWEN BOWEN I 

I LUCERNE 

I • VALLEY 

Lucerne 

I Valley 

I 

I 0 10 20 30 40 50 KILOMETERS Cushenbury • - -• -• WOODFORD & HARRIS I GUI.LLOU 

RICHMOND ------------- ----------

FIGURE 2.-Location of quadrangles in which Carboniferous rocks are exposed. Names of authors re~ponsible for 

mapping appear jn southwest corner of quadrangle. 
ccs THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

ORO GRANDE SERIES ORO GRANDE SERIES 

FURNACE LIMESTONE AND 

CHICOPEE CANYON FORMATION 

Quartzite Mountain 

and vicinity 

Shadow Mountains 

north of Adelanto 

San Bernardino Mountains 

Johnston grade area 

--<tt.r:Ti·I>- - _ _....__.,... __ - ~---...Jl.---A 

A-A~4...._..... 

._-.A-....,..-b.......,........A 

6_,_,...L\.._._A...-.,-A 

-.o..--6_,.._.,..A_ 

Brown quartzite breccia, 

black to dark brown 

quartz-mica schist with 

minor lenses of 

limestone, dolomite, 

and calc-silicate 

hornfels 

Massive, blue-gray 

medium-grained 

crystalline· limestone 

Upper quartzite---glassy 

to off white, light-gray 

or pale pink quartzite. 

Massive 

Black to dark brown 

quartz-mica schist with 

minor calc-silicate 

hornfels 

Lower quartzite-glassy 

to off white, light-gray 

or pale pink quartzite. 

Massive 

Dark brown to black 

quartz-mica schist with 

minor micaceous 

quartzite and dark 

calc-silicate hornfels 

Massive, blue-gray 

medium-grained 

crystalline limestone 

Dark brown·to black 

quartz-mica schist with 

Jesser dark-green 

calc-silicate hornfels 

and brown quartz 

biotite hornfels 

Medium to 

coarse-grained· white 

dolomite 

_........,__.......____ 

-~ ~ -- -~-~----

.............. ~-

l l l l 

I I I I I I I 

I L l l l l I I 

I I l l l l l 

I l I I I I I I 

I I l l I I l 

I I I I l I l _l 

~{.::±:~:\:'."·:.'::~:~ ... ~ 

~· 4'~,~·~ ·~:::::~.~~:'!~~<·;;~: 

~f.::--:< . .-.. :~:·-~.:.~~-;~ .. :.:~:-\; !~t-.e~~\·;~ 

I I I I I I I 

I I I I I I I I 

l l l l l l I 

l I I I I I I I 

lll_l L_ll 

I I I I I I I I 

l l l l l l I 

l l I I I I I I 

I I I I I I 1 

I I I I I I I I 

I I l_l l_l_l 

-1 I I I I I I L 

I I l l L l l 

l l I I l l l _l 

1111111 

I I I I I I _l _l 

Reddish-brown 

weathering mica schist 

and brown quartz 

biotite hornfels 

Blue-gray to 

grayish-white 

limestone 

Heterogeneous 

accumulation of 

lnterlamlnated gray 

sandstone, white and 

gray limestone, buff 

dolomite, white and 

brown quartzite, 

grayish-white limy 

sUtstone, and green 

calc-sUlcate hornfels 

Dark-reddish-brown 

biotite-quartz hornfels, 

quartz-mica schist 

Blue-gray, crudely 

bedded, 

medium-grained 

sac<;haroidallimestone 

I 

llll._l_ll 

I TlllTJl 

l I I I T I \ 1 

I_ I I L I ll 

T 1 I I l ! I 

T l ( I I t 1 

T I _I L _l 

-T \ I 

rr 

T 

f:?T 

r T 

1 

l 

_l ] 

I 

_l 

\ l 

I L l l ~ 

Furnace Limestone 

Formation 

"Black member" Gray to 

dark-gray, 

weD-bedded marble 

with a few massive 

white beds . 

Metamorphic minerals 

common 

"White member" White 

to gray massive marble 

and bedded marble. 

Contains a little 

tremollte, woUastonite, 

and dlopslde 

"Gray member" Gray to 

white, fine to 

coarse-grained 

crystalline limestone 

with zones of lime 

silicate minerals 

Chicopee Canyon 

Formation 

Upper white 

member-massive 

white quartzite 

Cross-laminated 

member-gray to 

dark-gray 

cross-laminated 

quartzite 

· ~ 1 J member-white 

I ~Ripple-marked 

,fiff~il~t"g;~;~ ~LII€j;:.::. FIGURE 3.-Columnar sections of Carboniferous(?) rocks in the southwestern Mojave Desert. 

tion on Quartzite Mountain contains two quartzite 

units 65 and 90 m thick, respectively. 

Typical of the Shadow Mountains section of the 

Oro Grande ,series is a heterogeneous sandstone 

(unit 3) containing both quartz and calcite grains 

(intermingled and in discrete beds), white and gray 

crystalline limestone, buff dolomite, white and 

brown quartzite, grayish-white siltstone, and greenish calc-silicate hornfels. This sandstone is distinguishable, as it is interbedded with crystalline limestone and quartzite-both much more intensely 

metamorphosed. 

The five-unit Shadow Mountains section of the Oro 

Grande series is, top to bottom, as follows: 

Meters 

5. Reddish-brown-weathering mica-quartz schist 

and brown quartz-biotite hornfels --------- 400 

4. Blue-gray to grayish-white crystalline limestone ----------------------------------- 581 

3. Light-colored mixed unit of sandstone, limestone, dolomite, quartzite, and schist ----- 600 

2. Reddish-brown to black mica schist and darkbrown biotite-quartz hornfels ------------- 672 

1. Blue-gray, massive, medium-grained; crudely 

bedded crystalline limestone --------,------ 1161 

Total ------ 3414 

In and adjacent to the type section of the Oro 

Grande series on Quartzite Mountain in the Apple 

Valley 15-minute quadrangle, or in the Barstow 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC9 

30-minute quadrangle, 9 units of the Oro Grande 

series are mappable at scales of 2,000 feet (610.5 m) 

per inch or larger. Some of these have subunits. 

From top to bottom, the sequence is as follows: 

9. Interbedded dark quartz-mica schist; coarsegrained, blue-gray crystalline limestone; 

quartzite breccia; and blue-gray and white 

Meters 

crystalline .limestone --------------------- 400 

8. Blue-gray, medium-grained. -~rystalli~e limestone ----------------------------------- 138 

7. Massive pinkish-white quartzite with rare 

traces of bedding ------------------------ 65 

6. Black to dark-brown mica-quartz schist _ _ _ _ 82 

5. Glassy to off-white or light-gray to pale-pink quartzite ___ _ __ ___ _ ___ ____ _______ ___ _ __ _ _ 90 

4. Dark-brown to black quartz-mica schist with 

thin beds of quartzite -------------------- 28 

3. Blue-gray, massive, medium-grained crystalline limestone ------------------------- 90 

2. Dark-brown to black quartz-mica schist with 

lesser dark-green calc-silicate hornfels ____ 116 

1. Coarse-grained, massive, white crystalline dolomite with thin lenses and patches of limestone ----------------------------------- 436 

T9tal ------ 1445 

Numerous other pendants of the Oro Grande 

series rocks are scattered through the southwestern 

Mojave Desert, but the sections are less complete. 

The Oro Grande series correlates most closely with 

the Furnace Limestone and the Chicopee Formation of the San Bernardino Mountains. Its base is 

not exposed, but it is overlain unconformably by 

the Permian Fairview Valley Formation. 

The complete section of the Oro Grande series 

undoubtedly is materially thicker than the 3,414-m 

Shadow Mountains section. McCulloh (oral commun., 

1953) has described a nonfossiliferous sequence in 

the Lane Mountain area north of Barstow that is 

lithologically similar to the Oro Grande series but 

that contains more quartz-mica schist; it is 8,720 m 

thick. Vaughan (1922), Woodford and Harris 

(1928), Guillou (1953), and Richmond (1960) have 

estimated the Furnace ·Limestone to be 1,333 to 

3,633 m thick at various places in the San Bernardino Mountains; all these sections are incomplete. If we take the quartzite of the Chicopee 

Formation and the Furnac·e Limestone to be more 

or less equivalent to the Oro Grande series, the total 

Carboniferous section in the Victorville-Cushenberry Canyon area may well be 4,100 m thick. 

McCulloh's section in the Lane Mountain area may 

indicate that the thickness of the Carboniferous 

strata in the southwestern Mojave Desert may be 

more than 8,700 m. 

The Garlock series, an apparently continuous section of Paleozoic rocks, has been described by Hulin 

(1925) and Dibblee (1952) in the El Paso Mountains north of Garlock in the Randsburg and Saltdale 15-minute quadrangles. Although this sequence 

is probably isoclinally folded, it totals 12,716 m. 

Presence of one horizon of Permian fusulinids close 

to the apparent stratigraphic midpoint in the Garlock series .-suggests· that.·it is at least half Permian 

or younger. Older rocks are apparently conformable with the Permian sequence. The Garlock assemblage is unlike the probable Carboniferous and 

Permian rocks south of the Garlock fault in the 

southwestern Mojave Desert, and it differs materially from the Permo-Carboniferous rocks to the 

north. 

AGE OF THE ROCKS 

The presence of two poorly preserved brachiopods (probably Chonetes sp., C. W. Merriam, oral 

commun., 1956) about 868 m above the lowermost 

exposed beds in the Oro Grande series section in 

the Shadow Mountains suggests a probable Pennsylvanian age for much of the sequence there. Presence of round crinoid columnals and debris in 

patches of obvious calcarenite at several localities 

in the Oro Grande series in the Quartzite Mountain area suggests a Paleoooic ·rather than a Mesozoic age. Strata from the type locality on Quartzite 

Mountain I consider to be approximately equivalent 

to the two lower members of the Shadow Mountains 

section. These are also equivalent to the Furnace 

Limestone and the Chicopee Formation (quartzite) 

in the San Bernardino Mountains. The lithology and 

sparse fossils indicate correlation among these 

. formations. 

The Oro Grande series is unconformably overlain 

by the Permian Fairview Valley Formation west of 

the Reserve quarry of Southwestern Portland Cement Company so that it is unlikely that any of the 

beds of the Oro Gran de series in either the· Quartzite Mountain or Shadow Mountains areas contain 

rocks of Permian age. 

The fossil evidence thus far recovered from the 

Furnace Limestone of the San Bernardino Mountains indicates strata of both Mississippian and 

Pennsylvanian age. The Oro Grande series is also 

probably in part Pennsylvanian and in part Mississippian. 

ROCKS AND MINERALS OF ECONOMIC 

IMPORTANCE 

Limestone.-By far the most important industrial 

raw material taken from Carboniferous sequences 
CClO THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

in the southwestern Mojave Desert is limestone, 

and by far the largest consumer is the portland cement industry. The limestone deposits are medium 

to coarsely crystalline and are blue-gray to white. 

Purities as much as 98 percent CaCOa are common. 

Portland cement plants consume at least 4 million 

tons of limestone annually from probable Carboniferous deposits in the southwestern Mojave Desert. 

Amcord Inc., Riverside Division, with a plant at 

Oro Grande; the Kaiser Cement and Gypsum Corporation, with a plant at Cushenbury; and the 

Southwestern Portland Cement Company at Victorville are the principal consumers of limestone from 

the Oro Grande series and the Furnace Limestone. 

Limestone from these rocks also plays an important role in the manufacture of beet sugar, glass, 

lime, and steel. It is used as white filler, roofing 

granules, road base, railroad ballast, and for aggregate in asphalt concrete and portland cement concrete. Pfizer, Inc., at Cushenbury, is the principal 

producer of these products, although several others 

are intermittently active in marketing competitive 

products. 

M arble.-Marble dimension stone and ornamental. 

stone have been quarried intermittently from the 

Oro Grande series and Furnace Limestone. The 

sawed polished dimension stone was used principally 

for floor and wall facings in large buildings. The 

old California State Mining Bureau headquarters 

at the Ferry Building, San Francisco, Calif., had a 

large slab of white, green, and black dolomite from 

the Three Color Marble quarry on the northeast 

side of Sidewinder Mountain. Building facings were 

also cut in the Gem quarry, about 1 mile north of 

Sidewinder Mountain and from the vicinity of 

Quartzite Mountain near Victorville. The ease of 

getting low-cost ma~ble from Italy has largely eliminated quarrying of California's very beautiful 

marble. 

Quartzite.-The very pure quartzite from the Oro 

Grande series, which has a silica content generally 

more than 98 percent has been used extensively for 

manufacture of silica refractories and portland cement. Because of its hardness and durability, this 

quartzite also has been used extensively for railroad 

ballast, road base, and aggregate for asphalt concrete and portland cement concrete. Amcord, Inc. 

and California Portland Cement Company have 

been the largest consumers. 

Metallic minerals.-Gold, silver, copper, and tungsten have been produced in a small way from vein 

and replacement deposits in the Oro. Grande series. 

The Carbonate gold mine near Oro Grande is noteworthy because of pockets of coarse gold found in 

the vicinity of the main .shaft at a depth of 55.4 m. 

This mine was discovered about 1880, but most of 

the gold was produced between 1900 and 1942. Many 

other gold prospects are found in the Oro Grande 

series in the Victorville-Oro Grande and Cushenbury Canyon vicinities. All the gold deposits contain silver. 

The only copper mine of much consequence has 

been the Amazon just east of Quartzite Mountain. 

Discovered about 1880 and first worked by Mormons, the early production was probably small. 

Between 1900 and 1942, a few hundreds of tons of· 

chalcopyrite ore was shipped to smelters. The principal ore mineral was chalcopyrite, and it was commonly associated with magnetite. The wall rocks 

are limestone and quartzite cut by shear zones 

trending N. 10° W. to N. 10° E. Ore is found in the 

shear zones and in adjacent wall rocks as replacements. 

Magnesite.-A small tonnage of high-purity magnesite was mined during 1940 on the Red Ball claims 

half a mile northeast of Sidewinder Mountain, for 

use in oxychloride cement. This cement was in demand for airfields in the Pacific theater during 

World War II. The magnesite occurs as hydrothermal veins, associated with black. hornblende 

lamprophyre, cutting dolomite of the Oro Grande 

series. Most of the dikes and veins strike N. 35° E. 

and dip southeast at angles of 10° to 30°. The thickest veins are not much more than 1 m wide and can 

be as thin as about 25 em. 

CARBONIFEROUS STRATIGRAPHY OF PART OF EASTERN CALIFORNIA 

By CALVIN H4 STEVENS, GEORGE C. DUNNE, and RICHARD G. RANDALL 

ABSTRACT 

Carboniferous rocks in eastern California were deposited 

along the western margin of the North American craton. 

During Mississippian time, carbonate sediment was deposited 

on a westward-sloping shelf in the southeastern part of the 

area; mostly fine siliceous clastic sediment accumulated in a 

moderately deep water foreland basin to the northwest. During Pennsylvanian time, limestone was deposited through-
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC11 

out the region; that to the southeast was deposited on a relatively shallow water, carbonate shelf, whereas that to the 

northwest was deposited as a turbidite sequence that accumulated in relatively deep water. Widespread unconformities apparently formed during the late Mississippian (late 

Meramec,ian), and during the late Middle Pennsylvanian 

(Desmoinesian). The unconformities and changes in lithologic 

and thickness patterns p~bably reflect tectonic events associated with the Antler orogenic belt, postulated to have 

extended north and perhaps west of the area of this study. 

INTRODUCTION 

This paper summarizes the Carboniferous stratigraphy in an area of about 20,000 km2 in eastern 

California bounded by three major geologic features: the Garlock fault on the south, the Death 

Valley-Furnace Creek fault zone on the east, and 

the Sierra Nevada batholith on the west (fig. 4). 

South of the Garlock fault, ,along which as much 

as 60 km of left-lateral displacement may have taken 

place (Davis and Burchfiel, 1973), exposures of 

Carboniferous rocks are sparse and poorly dated. 

East of the Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault zone, 

Carboniferous rocks may have been displaced 

100 km in a right-lateral sense (Poole and Sandberg, 1977). In the Sierra Nevad~ to the west, few 

rocks of Carboniferous age have been identified. 

Thus, the present study area is a natural geologic 

unit for analysis of the Carboniferous rocks exposed 

here. 

We thank Forrest Poole for many helpful suggestions concerning both the study and the manuscript, and David Andersen and Rachel Gulliver 

who helped greatly in improving the manuscript. 

GENERAL GEOLOGIC RELATIONSHIPS 

Geomorphically, the area of study forms part of 

the westernmost Basin and Range province. Carboniferous rocks crop out widely in many of the 

ranges where exposures generally are excellent; 

intervening alluvia ted valleys, however, preclude 

long distance continuous tracing of units. Because 

numerous thrust faults of Mesozoic age are exposed 

or are inferred to underlie much of the study area 

(Stewart and others, 1966; Burchfiel and others, 

1970; Johnson, 1971; Stevens and Olson, 1972), uncertainty exists as· to the original location.s of various terranes. Because the amount of slip on these 

faults is not known, no palinspastic restorations 

have been made in the compilation of our facies 

and isopachous maps; however, restorations are 

desirable, and they may become feasible in the 

future when the major structural features· of the 

region are better understood. 

Three localities of known or inferred Carboniferous rocks near the margins of the study area deserve mention; they are not otherwise included in 

the compilation because they cannot be correlated 

readily with other units in the area. These are: the 

Garlock Formation of Dibblee (1967) exposed just 

north of the Garlock fault in the El Paso Mountains; a slightly metamorphosed section in the Benton Range (fig. 4, loc. 26) near the northern boundary of the area ; and metasedimentary rocks in the 

Mount Morrison pendant (loc. 25) in the eastern 

Sierra Nevada. 

The Garlock Formation evidently includes rocks 

of several ages, some older and some younger than 

Carboniferous (F. G. Poole, oral commun., 1977). 

A flysch sequence there is considered by Poole 

(1974) to be Mississippian and possibly Pennsylvanian in age. No fossils have been obtained from 

the rocks in the Benton Range (fig. 4, loc. 26), but 

an argillite and carbonate sequence in the eastcentral part of the range appears very similar to the 

Rest Spring Shale and Keeler Canyon Formation 

in the Inyo Mountains to the south. The Mount 

Baldwin Marble in the Mount Morrison pendant in 

the Sierra Nevada (loc. 25) has yielded probable 

Early Pennsylvanian fossils (Rinehart and Ross, 

1964), so it evidently is coeval with the lower part 

of the Keeler Canyon Formation. The underlying 

clastic unit may correlate with some of the siliceous 

clastic rocks in the Perdido Formation-Rest Spring 

Shale sequence in the lnyo Mountains. 

PREVIOUS WORK 

The first significant work on Carboniferous stratigraphy in eastern California was that of McAllister (1952), who named and described four Carboniferous units (Tin Mountain Limestone, Perdido 

Formation, Rest Spring Shale, and Tihvipah Limestone) exposed near Quartz Spring· (loc. 20) in the 

northern Panamint Range. The stratigraphic scheme 

devised by him has been followed by most subsequent workers in the area, although the Mississippian nomenclature has since been slightly augmented 

(Hall and MacKevett, 1958); in addition, the Keeler 

Canyon Formation, named by Merriam and Hall 

(1957) for a largely Pennsylvanian limestone unit, 

evidently includes McAllister's Tihvipah Limestone 

-a name now largely abandoned-as well as 

younger limestone. Johnson (1957) proposed the 

name Anvil Spring Formation for a sequence of 

Carboniferous and Permian rocks in the southern 

Panamint Range (loc. 1), but inasmuch as that section is composed of several readily recognized, pre-
CC12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

TinMt. Perdido Argus Rest Spring Lower Keeler 

Area and number Reference Limestone Formation Limestone Shale Canyon Fm. 

Butte Valley ( 1) ( unpub. data) ? present 235 0 present 

Tucki Mountain (2) Hunt and Mabey (1966) 300 145 75 230 760? 

Tucki Mountain (3) Randall (1975) 460 300 140+ 225 650+ 

Bendire Canyon (4) Moore (oral commun.) ? ? ? ? 120-210 

Argus Range (5) Holden (1976) 120 120 200 0 present 

Argus Range (6) Hall (1971) 115 115 200 0 30+ 

SE Darwin Hills (7) Moffitt (oral commun.) ? 405+ 95 13 0-10 

SE Darwin Hills (8) ( unpub. data) ? present 123 present present 

Panamint Butte (9) Hall (1971) 135 120 200 0 445+ 

Santa Rosa Hills (10) ( unpub. data) 130 455 25 30 present 

Santa Rosa Hills (11) Hall and MacKevitt ( 1962) 135 (d.ata not applicable) 0-15 <120 

Marble Canyon (12) Pelton (1966) 135 352? 113? 0 present 

Goldbelt Springs (13) Stadler (1968) 175 95 75 0 present 

SE Inyo Mountains (14) Elayer (1974) 105 120 0 215+ present 

SE lnyo Mountains (15) Merriam (1963) 25-105 0-25 0 >305 45-60 

SE lnyo Mountains (16) Stuart (1976) 25-105 15 0 present 60 

SE In yo Mountains ( 17) Kelley (1973) ? 60 0 335 present 

Ubehebe Mine ( 18) McAllister (1956) 145 185 0 60-305 <45 

Quartz Spring (19) Langenheim and Tischler ( 1960) 110 210 0 present present 

Quartz Spring (20) McAllister (1952) 145 185 0 >120 >60 

Dry Mountain Quad. (21) Burchfiel ( 1969) 0-130 185-215 0 230-275 present 

Mazourka Canyon (22) Stevens and Ridley (1974) 0 45-185 0 535 present 

Mazourka Canyon (23) Ross (1965) 0 90-185 0 <760 present 

Tinemaha Reservoir (24) ( unpub. data) ? present 0 present 595+ 

Mount Morrison (25) Rinehart· and Ross ( 1964) ? ? ? present? 150? 

Benton Range (26) ( unpub. data) ? ? ? present? present? 

Talc City Hills (27) Gulliver (1976) present present present present present 

FIGURE 4.-Location and number of measured sections and thickness of rock units in meters. 

viously named Carboniferous and Permian units, 

this formational name herein is abandoned. The 

nomenclatural scheme used here is shown on a diagrammatic cross section (fig. 5). 

Gross lateral changes in Mississippian rocks have 

been investigated by Pelton (1966) and Randall 

(1975), but detailed regional studies of these units 

have yet to be made. Pennsylvanian rocks are much 

more poorly known. Scattered Pennsylvanian sections have been studied, but this system has not 

been subjected to regional analyses. Therefore, many 

details of the stratigraphic relationships still are in 

doubt, and the nature of lithologic and thickness 

differences from place to place is poorly known. 

CARBONIFEROUS PALEOTECTONIC SETTING 

The paleotectonic setting of most of eastern California during the Carboniferous seems reasonably 

clear, although the significance of some sections is 

not well understood and not all the late Paleozoic 

tectonic belts recognized farther northeast in N evada can be traced readily into California (fig. 6). 

Mississippian paleogeographic belts in northeastern 

Nevada were, from east to west, a carbonate shelf, 

a foreland basin, and the Antler orogenic highland 

(Poole, 1974; Rose, 1976; Poole and Sandberg, 

1977). In eastern California, the carbonate shelf 

and foreland basin have been recognized. Part of 

the Antler orogenic highland has been identified 

tentatively in the Sierra Nevada (Speed and Kistler, 

1977) northwest of the study area. Unlike Mississippian strata, the Pennsylvanian section in eastern 

California differs considerably from that in northeastern Nevada. A carbonate shelf, however, is 

recognized on the east in both areas. 

STRATIGRAPHIC SETTING 

Carboniferous rocks are underlain throughout 

most of the region by Devonian rocks assigned to 

the Lost Burro Formation. The contact seems con-: 

formable but abrupt, and was interpreted by Langenheim and Tischler (1960) and Poole (1974) to 

represent an interruption in sedimentation. The only 

known exception to this stratigraphic interpretation 

is in the Indepen~ence quadrangle. in the extreme 

western Inyo Mountains (loc. 23) . There, the Lost 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC13 

\ 

\ 

White~\ Mountains 

El Paso Mountains 

/ 

20 30 KILOMETERS L......J-..L.--LI ---ll 

FIGURE 4.-Continued. 

Burro Formation is not present, -a:nd the position 

of the Devonian-Mississippian contact still has not 

been established. The systemic boundary may be at 

the base of the Perdido Formation, as restricted 

by Stevens and Ridley (1974), or it may be at the 

base of the Squares Tunnel beds of Stevens and 

Ridley. The contact below the Squares. Tunnel beds 

clearly is disconformable; the contact at the base 

of the Perdido Formation also may be disconformable. 

Carboniferous rocks of the region apparently are 

overlain by rocks of Permian age everywhere except 

in part of the southern Inyo Mountains (loc. 15), 

where locally the Pennsylvanian part of the Keeler 

Canyon Formation is overlain unconformably fiy 

Triassic marine strata. The boundary between Permian and Carboniferous rocks is generally within 

the Keeler Canyon Formation, and in most areas it 

is not marked by a lithologic change. 

As far as is known, no major tectonic event affected this area during the Carboniferous, but 

minor events are indicated by changing lithofacies 

and isopachous map patterns. 

GENERAL STRATIGRAPHIC RELATIONSHIPS 

Within the area of study, the Carboniferous section can be divided as shown in figure 5. Two widespread disconformities, one formed during the Late 

Mississippian (late Meramecian) and the other 

formed during the Middle Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian), are recognized. The older disconformity 

generally is marked by a sharp lithologic change 

from limestone, locally dated as middle Meramecian, 

to fine siliceous clastic rocks locally considered late 

Chesterian in age (Poole and Sandberg, 1977). 

Poole and Sandberg suggested that a middle Meramecian uplift affected much of western United 

States. 

The second widespread disconformity, separating 

lower Middle from Upper Pennsylvanian rocks, is 

recognized over much of the area. Most lower Middle Pennsylvanian (Derryan) rocks are fine grained 

and characterized by the presence of round chert 

nodules commonly the size of golfballs. In the central and western parts of the area, the Upper Pennsylvanian sequence above the unconformity is represented by interbedded fine- and coarse-grained 

carbonate units, which represent a turbidite se.:. 

quence. Beds immediately above the unconformity 

apparently range in age from Missourian in the 

southern Inyo Mountains (loc. 15) to Wolfcampian 

(Early Permian) in the Santa Rosa Hills (loc. 

10). The break between the two Pennsylvanian 

sequences often appears abrupt. 

CARBONIFEROUS UNITS 

TIN MOUNTAIN LIMESTONE 

Wherever the Tin Mountain Limestone has been 

recognized, it overlies the Devonian Lost Burro 

Formation with apparent conformity, although 

Poole (1974) and Poole and Sandberg (1977) considered the contact disconformable. At the type 

area near Quartz Spring (loc. 20), the contact is 

marked by a change from very light-gray quartzite 

of the Quartz Spring Sandstone Member of the Lost 

Burro Formation to the clayey lower Tin Mountain 

Limestone (Langenheim and Tischler, 1960). There, 

the lower part of the Tin Mountain Limestone con-
CC14 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Western lnyo Mountains Southern lnyo Mountains Argus Range 

z 

<( 

z 

<( 

> ..J 

>- (/) 

z 

z 

w 

a.. 

z 

<( 

0::: 

a.. 

(i) 

(/) 

(i) 

(/) 

:E 

PERMIAN 

Virgil ian 

Missourian 

Desmoinesian 

Derry an 

Morrowan 

Chesterian 

Upper 

Middle 

lower 

f--------'-------1 

Osagean 

Kinderhookian 

DEVONIAN 

Owens 

Perdido 

Formation 

(clastic facies) 

Valley Formation 

Perdido Formation 

(carbonate facies) 

Tin Mountain Limestone 

FIGURE 5.-Diagrammatic cross section of eastern California showing stratigraphic nomenclature and correlations. 

sists of dark-gray limestone beds 5 to 15 em thick 

separated by much thinner beds of light-bluish-gray 

to pale-red shale (McAllister, 1952). The upper part 

consists of medium-gray limestone in beds a few 

centimeters to 50 em thick. Some beds are composed largely of crinoid stems. The persistence of 

dark limestone, pale-red shale partings, very darkgray chert only in nodules, and an abundance of 

Syringopora is considered diagnostic of the Tin 

Mountain Limestone (McAllister, 1952). 

Throughout most of the region considered, the 

Tin Mountain Limestone is 105 to 145 m thick 

(fig. 7). Thinning, however, takes place northwestward in both the Inyo and Last Chance Ranges. 

This thinning has been attributed to post-Tin Mountain and pre-Perdido erosion because locally uppermost Tin Mountain Limestone beds are missing 

(Burchfiel, 1969). At Tucki Mountain (loc. 3), 

where all Carboniferous units apparently are anomalous with regard to thickness and/or lithology, the 

Tin Mountain Limestone is much thicker than elsewhere (300 m estimated by Hunt and Mabey, 1966; 

460 m computed by Randall, 1975). Stevens and 

others (1974) have suggested that the rocks composing Tucki Mountain and adjacent parts of the 

southern Panamint Range have been displaced several tens of kilometers, but resolution of this question requires further work. 

The Tin Mountain Limestone is the most fossiliferous Carboniferous formation in the region. Langenheim and Tischler (1960) listed 18 species of 

brachiopods, 13 species of corals, 6 species of gastropods, and smaller numbers of several other groups 

of fossils. In the Panamint Butte quadrangle (locs. 

6, 9), Hall (1971) listed 18 species of brachiopods, 

15 species of gastropods, 14 species of corals, and 

smaller numbers of 5 other groups. These diverse 

fossils demonstrate that the Tin Mountain Limestone is Early Mississippian in age (Langenheim 

and Tischler, 1960; Hall, 1971). 

Limited evidence suggests that the Tin Mountain 

Limestone was deposited in fairly shallow water. 

Cerioid corals, which are especially abundant on 

the east side of the central Argus Range (loc. 5) , 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC15 

_ OREGON 

--...,.- ~~~ 

ol~ ~,z 

~, 

Craton 

MONTANA 

r 

--"'"1 

I~ II 

I~ 

I 

I_-

ARIZONA 

0 100 200 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 6.-Paleotectonic map of eastern California during 

the Carboniferous Period. 

may be the best indicators of environment. In Upper 

Mississippian rocks in the Santa Rosa Hills and 

Lower Permian rocks in northeastern Nevada, 

corals with this morphology evidently lived in relatively shallow water near the shelf margin (Stevens, 1977). Evidence for strong currents or extremely shallow water is meager except in the 

Quartz Spring area, where Tischler and Langenheim (1960) noted bioclastic limestone beds more 

than 1 m thick that have well-developed crossbedding and lenses of coarse fragmental rock. Deposition of the Tin Mountain Limestone is interpreted 

here to have been on a broad shelf that had good 

circulation at water depths perhaps less than 20 

to 30m. 

PERDIDO FORMATION 

The Perdido Formation overlies the Tin Mountain Limestone with apparent conformity. except in 

the south-central to western Inyo Mountains (locs. 

15, 22) and in the Last Chance Range (loc. 21) , 

where the Tin Mountain Limestone is thin or absent. 

Two distinct facies of the Perdido Formation are 

recognized-a southeastern carbonate and a northwestern clastic facies (fig. 8). At the type locality 

in the Quartz Spring area, the clastic facies overlies the car'Qonate facies. Elsewhere, apparently only 

one facies is present in any given area, except 

locally, where the two facies may have been juxtaposed by thrust faulting, as in the Talc City Hills 

(Gulliver, 1976). 

Carbonate facies.-At the type locality (loc. 20), 

the lower cherty limestone facies of the Perdido 

Formation rests on the Tin Mountain Limestone. 

The contact is a well-defined bedding plane which 

separates thick-bedded, coarse-grained pelmatozoan 

limestone below .from relatively thin-bedded, fine, 

cherty, argillaceous limestone above (Langenheim 

and Tischler, 1960). The lower part of the Perdido 

Formation consists primarily of nodular layers of 

limestone 10 to 15 em thick, which are mostly fine 

grained and black. Minor coarse-grained and pelmatozoan limestone is present. Interbedded black 

chert weathers reddish orange or very dark gray 

and is found in almost all limestone units. Most 

chert beds are less than 15 em thick, and many are 

nodular and discontinuous layers. Bedding-plane 

partings of yellowish-gray to red shale are widespread and make up slightly more than 25 percent 

of the basal cherty sequence (Langenheim and 

Tischler, 1960). A middle, chert-free unit in the 

lower Perdido Formation is characterized by beds 

5 to 60 em thick and by the presence of more shale 

beds than below. Limestone beds in the upper unit 

of the lower Perdido Formation are thicker than 

those at the base, ranging from 15 em to more than 

1 m in thickness, but the black limestone and ch~rty 

shale is much. like that of the lower unit. 

Clastic Facies.-The upper part of the Perdido 

Formation at the type locality (loc. 20) is mainly 

red weathered and calcareous siltstone (Langenheim and Tischler, 1960). A few layers of cherty 

and shaly limestone as much as 50 em thick are 

preSent, and the uppermost 12 m consists of limestone conglomerate, limestone, and calcareous siltstone or shale. A limestone conglomerate at the base 

of the 12-m-thick upper sequence contains boulders 

of Perdido limestone, chert, and siltstone as much 

as 10 em in diameter in a richly fossiliferous limestone matrix (Langenheim and Tischler, 1960). A 

somewhat similar limestone conglomerate, interpreted by us as a submarine debris flow, is found 

in the southeasternmost Inyo Mountains. 
CC16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

EXPLANATION 

-- 0 isopach 

20 KILOMETERS I 

~ 460 

FIGURE 7.-Thickness, in meters, of the Tin Mountain 

Limestone. 

·Sierra 

EXPLANATION 

20 KILOMETERS I 

FIGURE 9.-Thickness, in meters, of the Argus Limestone. 

EXPLANATION 

1111 Clastic facies 

[] Carbonate 

-- 200-meter 

isopach 

10 20 KILOMETERS 

I 

FIGURE 8.-Thickness, in meters, and distribution of facies 

of the Perdido Formation. 

EXPLANATION 

--Isopach of the 

Rest Spring 

Shale 

10 20 KILOMETERS 

I I 

~ 225 

FIGURE 10.-Thickness, in meters, of the Rest Spring Shale. 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC17 

Perdido Formation facies interpretation.-Thickness of the Perdido Formation is quite variable (fig. 

8). The maximum thickness of 455 m is near the 

transition between the southeastern carbonate and 

northwestern clastic facies. Northwestward, into 

the clastic facies, thicknesses decrease and then generally increase. Southeastward into the carbonate 

facies, thicknesses decrease abruptly except for the 

anomalously thick section at Tucki Mountain 

(loc. 2). 

Stratigraphic relations between the carbonate and 

clastic facies of the Perdido Formation are perplexing. As yet, we have no faunal evidence that the 

carbonate rocks are replaced laterally (to the northwest) by clastic rocks of the same age, although 

this seems to be the most likely explanation. In 

both the Quartz Spring area (loc. 20) and southeasternmost Inyo Mountains (east of loc. 14), carbonate debris flows derived from a carbonate shelf 

are found in the clastic facies, indicating that during deposition of the clastic facies a carbonate shelf 

existed within or adjacent to the study area. 

Except for locally abundant pelmatozoan columnals, fossils generally are uncommon in the Perdido 

Formation. Langenheim and Tischler (1960) reported a plant, corals, brachiopods, pelecypods, gastropods, and cephalopods, which they interpreted 

as Late Mississippian in age. Conodonts have been 

recovered from several parts of the carbonate facies 

of the Perdido Formation (strata formerly mapped 

as Lee Flat Limestone) in the Santa Rosa and 

Darwin Hills (G. C. Dunne, California State University and R. H. Miller, San Diego State University, unpub. data, 1977), which indicate that it is 

Meramecian in age. Ammonoids from the clastic 

facies of the Perdido Formation in the Quartz 

Spring area (loc. 20) have been dated as Chesterian. 

This unit was placed with the Rest Spring Shale 

by Poole and Sandberg (1977), who interpreted this 

entire clastic sequence to be considerably younger 

than the Perdido carbonate facies. 

The environment of deposition of the clastic facies 

of the Perdido Formation is perhaps better understood than that of the carbonate facies. In the westcentral Inyo Mountains (loc. 22), the base of the 

Perdido Formation is marked by a debris flow containing slide blocks as much as 30 em in diameter. 

These deposits are concentrated in submarine channels that previously had been partially filled with 

bedded radiolarian chert (Stevens and Ridley, 

1974). These rocks are overlain by fine-grained 

clastic rocks and carbonate grain flows and turbidites. To the southeast, the clastic facies of the 

Perdido Formation is represented by a thin sequence of fine-grained, light-gray quartzite and dark 

siltstone. In the Inyo Mountains, shale and siltstone 

beds contain numerous trac,e fossils similar to those 

of the Nereites community illustrated by Poole 

(1974), which suggest deep-water deposition. Carbonate debris flows, interbedded with fine-grained 

clastic rocks, also suggest that the clastic facies was 

deposited in water considerably deeper than that 

inferred for the carbonate shelf. 

The depositional environment of the carbonate 

facies is more difficult to interpret. The very fine 

grained limestone contains few shallow-water indicators except in the Quartz Spring area, where 

crossbedded, coarse-grained pelmatozoan limestone 

was reported by Langenheim and Tischler· (1960). 

We believe that rocks of this facies were deposited 

on a moderately deep water shelf. As this interpretation is based partly on the relationship of the 

carbonate facies with the overlying Argus limestone, 

a more complete discussion is deferred. 

ARGUS LIMESTONE 

Argus limestone is an informal formational name 

used here for strata in the Argus and Panamint 

Ranges previously referred to as the Lee Flat Limestone. This unit rests conformably on, and is approximately coextensive with, the carbonate facies 

of the Perdido Formation. The contact between the 

two units is placed at a point where upward in the 

section, the limestone becomes distinctly coarser 

grained, more pelmatozoan-rich, lighter in color and 

more massive, and where chert becomes much less 

abundant. In contrast to the carbonate facies of the 

Perdido Formation, which thins southeastward, the 

Argus limestone (fig. 9) thickens southeastward, 

except at 'I'ucki Mountain (loc. 3). 

In most exposures, the Argus limestone contains 

no fossils other than pelmatozoan columnals, which 

commonly are so abundant that they form a major 

part of the formation. In the Santa Rosa Hills (loc. 

10), however, a variety of fossils has been recovered, including 3 species of colonial rugose corals, 

4 species of conodonts, and 12 species of Foraminifera. Several species of conodonts have also been 

recovered from the Argus limestone in the southeast Darwin Hills (loc. 8). These fossils indicate 

that the unit in these areas is mostly, if not entirely, 

middle Meramecian in age (Dunne and others, 

1977). Corals from the Argus limestone in the 

Panamint Range (Hunt and Mabey, 1966) suggest 

a similar age for the unit in that region also. 
CC18 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

The Argus limestone is believed to have been deposited in shallow water. The unit is characterized 

by abundant pelmatozoans in well-sorted and wellwashed limestone that suggest reworking by moderately strong marine currents or waves. In addition, the abundance of cerioid corals at several 

horizons in the Santa Rosa Hills (loc. 10) suggests 

relatively shallow water, perhaps a shelf edge above 

deeper water to the west, as has been proposed for 

similar occurrences of Permian cerioid corals 

(Stevens, 1977). 

Fossils show that the Argus limestone and the 

carbonate facies of the Perdido Formation are 

partly coeval; lithologic characteristics and geographic position suggest that the calcareous facies 

of the Perdido Formation is an offshore, deeper 

water facies of the Argus limestone. Farther northwest, the clastic facies of the Perdido Formation 

may have been accumulating simultaneously in 

deeper water. We speculate that the shallow-water 

Argus limestone p·rograded westward across the 

calcareous facies of the Perdido Formation, ultimately reaching the Santa Rosa Hills (loc. 10), but 

not the Quartz Spring area (loc. 20) or southern 

Inyo Mountains (loc. 14). 

REST SPRING SHALE 

According to our studies, the Rest Spring Shale 

is conformable on the clastic facies of the Perdido 

Formation in the northwestern part of the area. 

Thin clastic beds correlated with the Rest Spring 

Shale rest, perhaps disconformably, on the Argus 

limestone in the Darwin quadrangle (locs. 7, 10.). 

At the type locality near Quartz Spring (loc. 20), 

the Rest Spring Shale consists of a lower argillaceous shale, which is olive gray to dark gray when 

fresh (McAllister, 1952) ; it grades upward into 

an upper unit of siltstone to fine-grained sandstone. 

Possible intraformational conglomerate containing 

sandstone clasts as much as 5 em across was reported by McAllister (1952) ; he also described some 

beds showing channeling, crossbedding, and ripple 

marks. 

Accurate thicknesses of "the incompetent Rest 

Spring Shale are difficult to measure because this 

formation commonly is the locus of folding and 

faulting. At the mouth of Mazourka Canyon (loc. 

23), however, a complete section is 535 m thick 

(Stevens and Ridley, 1974). The formation thins 

southeastward (fig. 10), while showing an increase 

in quartz-sand content. In the Argus Range near 

the apparent limit of deposition, a clastic unit only ' 

about 2 m thick may re-present the Rest· Spring 

Shale. 

Fossils are uncommon in the Rest Spring Shale. 

Ammonoids 10ccur at several localities, and there 

are a few occurrences of brachiopods, plants, bryo-

~oans, and microfossils (McAllister, 1952). Merriam 

(1963) reported similar fossils in the southern Inyo 

Mountains. Ammonoids in the Inyo Mountains 

(Merriam, 1963; Ross, 1965) and the Quartz Spring 

area (McAllister, 1952) are considered Late Mississippian (Chesterian) in age. Chesterian fossils also 

occur in the underlying clastic facies of the Perdido 

Formation in the Quartz Spring area (McAllister, 

1952), and Derryan (Middle Pennsylvanian) fossils 

are found near the base of the overlying Keeler 

Canyon Formation (Meriam, 1963); hence, the formation is Chesterian to perhaps as young as Derryan 

in age. 

Environmental indicators in the Rest Spring Shale 

are sparse. Trace fossils in many of the western 

outcrops are similar to those. reported by Poole 

(1974) as representing the Nereites community and 

interpreted to repres•ent relatively deep water. The 

uniformly fine-grained nature, dark color, and paucity of fossils in most of the area also suggest a 

basinal environment far from shore. Channeling and 

crossbedding in the upper part of the sequence in 

the Quartz Spring area could be features associated 

with a submarine channel system in deep water, although alternativ·ely they may reflect the onset of 

shallow-water conditions. 

We propose that the basin in which the Rest 

Spring Shale accumulated was northwest of the 

edge of the carbonate shelf in the Santa Rosa Hills 

(loc. 10) and that it deepened northwestward beyond the Inyo Mountains. Thus, this area is inferred 

to be on the southeastern side of the foreland basin 

(fig. 6) that lay east of the Antler orogenic highlands (Poole, 1974; Poole and Sandberg, 1977; Speed 

and Kis·tler, 1977) . 

In much of the region, the Rest Spring Shale is 

divisible into two units here called the lower and 

upper members of the Rest Spring Shale. The two 

members generally are found together, and the <?Verall distribution suggests that they are essentially 

coextensive. 

Lower member.-The term Chainman Shale was 

used in the Inyo Mountains by several workers 

(Langenheim, 1963; Merriam, 1963; Stevens and 

Ridley, 1974) for this relatively homogeneous, very 

dark-gray shale unit. Trace fossils locally are abundant on bedding planes, but other fossils are rare. 

The section at the mouth of Mazourka Canyon (loc. 

22) is the only locality known to us where this unit 

apparently is structurally undisturbed; here, this 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC19 

member is about 100 m thick (Stevens and Ridley, 

1974). This unit, which may constitut,e the entire 

Rest Spring Shale· at the type section near Quartz 

Spring, crops out widely in the Inyo and Last Chance 

Ranges. 

Upper Member.-The upper member of the Rest 

Spring Shale, referred to as the Hamilton Canyon 

Formation by Langenheim (1962) and Stevens and 

Ridley (1974), overlies the lower member with 

apparent conformity. It is composed of dark-brown, 

blocky-weathering andalusite hornfels, generally 

containing obscure bedding. The outcrop character, 

bedding, composition, and color are different from 

that of the lower member, so the two units normally 

can be distinguished easily. This unit has been recognized from Tinemaha Reservoir (loc. 24) on the 

northwest to the Darwin Hills (northwest of loc. 8) 

on the southeast. It is present throughout the Inyo 

Mountains and probably is represented in the Last 

Chance Range in an allochthonous block described 

by Burchfiel (1969) as andalusite hornfels. Near 

the mouth of Mazourka Canyon (loc. 22), in an apparently undisturbed section, this unit is about 430 

m thick (Stevens and Ridley, 1974). 

KEELER CANYON FORMATION 

The Keeler Canyon Formation overlies the Argus 

limestone or Rest Spring Shale everywhere in the 

area of study. Rich (1977) indicated an absence of 

earliest Pennsylvanian rocks in this area and Gordon and Poole (1968) reported their absence to the 

east. If an unconformity is present at the base of 

the Keeler Canyon Formation, however, it is not 

cons·picuous. Two distinct, predominantly limestone 

units that differ in lithology and age were combined by Merriam and Hall (1957) to form the 

Keeler Canyon Formation. Here, the two units are 

referred to as the lower and upper members of the 

Keeler Canyon Formation and are described separately. 

Lower member.-The lower member of the Keeler 

Canyon Formation at most locations consists of finegrained, silty, dark-gray limestone with rounded,. 

very dark-gray chert nodules and some calcareous 

shale. In the Santa Rosa Hills, Hall and MacKevett 

(1962) also reported thin limestone conglomerate 

beds. ~ossils are not diverse, but fusulinids' and 

pelmatozoan stems often are abundant, and horn 

corals and brachiopods occur sporadically. Fusulinella, ·which indicate a Derryan (early Middle 

Pennsylvanian) age, are reported from the southern 

Inyo Mountains and Santa Rosa Hills (Merriam, 

1963), the Argus Range (Hall, 1971), Tucki Mountain (R. G. Randall, San Jose State University, 

unpub. data, 1975), and Tinemaha Reservoir (C. H. 

Stevens, San Jose State University, unpub. data, 

1976). 

The lower member of the Keeler Canyon Form·ation crops out throughout the region. Where the 

Keeler Canyon Formation overlies the Rest Spring 

Shale, the base is placed at the bottom of the lowest 

limestone in the predominantly limestone sequence, 

even though som.e shale similar to the Rest Spring 

is found higher in the section along Owens Valley. 

Where the Rest Spring Shale has not been mapped 

separately, the dark-gray silty limestone of the 

Keeler Ganyon Formation is easily distinguished 

from the light-gray Argus limestone below. 

The lower member ranges in thickness from a 

few meters, in parts of the Darwin Hills (loc. 8) 

and Santa Rosa Hills (loc. 10) , to 100 to 120 m in 

most other areas (fig. 11). Much greater thicknesses 

are present at Tucki Mountain (loc. 3), where Derryan fusulinids have been collected near the top of a 

650-m-thick section, and near Tinemaha Reservoir 

(loc. 24) , where similar fusulinids are found near 

the top of a 600-m-thick section. In the Santa Rosa 

Hills, this member is overlain by conglomerate of 

probable earliest Permian age. Elsewhere, an unconformity above the lower member of the Keeler 

Canyon Formation ap-parently separates lower Middle from Upper Pennsylvanian strata; Desmoinesian 

strata may he missing in most of the area. The 

overall distribution of thicknesses of the lower 

Keeler Canyon Formation ·suggests that uplift and 

erosion, especially in the S"anta Rosa and Darwin 

Hills area (locs. 10, 7) gave rise to some of these 

differences. The significance of the very thick sequences on the east at Tucki Mountain (loc. 3) and 

on the northwest at Tinemaha Reservoir (loc. 24), 

however, is not understood. 

The environment of deposition also is difficult to 

evaluate. The fine-grained nature of the sedimentary 

rock, the paucity of fossils, and the stratigraphic 

position above the Rest Spring Shale or its thin 

equivalent, however, suggest a relatively deep-water 

shelf or basinal environment. 

Upper member.-The upper mem'her generally is 

represented in the northwestern part of the area by 

a calc,areous turbidite sequence that presumably was 

deposited in deep water. Measurements of many 

flute casts and Gther directional features in the 

southern Inyo Mountains (loc. 15) show transport 

in a S. 55o W. direction, whereas approximately 

equivalent strata in the Ubehebe mine . area· (loc. 

18) indicate transport southward (Tim Parker, oral 
CC20 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

EXPLANATION 

--400-meter 

isopach 

10 20 KILOMETERS ·I I 

FIGURE 11.-Thickness, in meters, of the lower member of the 

Keeler Canyon Formation. 

commun., 1976). Farther southeast in the Santa 

Rosa and Darwin Hills (locs. 10, 7), equivalent 

strata are very thin and conglomeratic. Thes·e areas 

may have furnished much of the debris for the turbidite sequence farther northwest. Still farther 

southeast, in the southern Panamint Range (loc. 1) , 

coeval rocks are fine grained and contain brachiopods and bryozoans. These beds are interpreted as 

representing shallow-shelf deposition. 

Thickness of the upper member ranges from a 

few meters to perhaps 1,000 m. Fusulinids are very 

abundant in the region between Panamint Valley 

and central lriyo Mountains (loc. 17), and these 

fossils show that the upper member of the Keeler 

Canyon Formation is Late Pennsylvanian and earliest Permian in age. 

Generally, the upper Keeler Canyon Formation 

rests unconformably on the lower member, and in 

one locality in the southeastern Darwin Hills (loc. 

8), it rests directly on the Rest Spring Shale. 

INTERPRETATIONS AND SUMMARY 

Carboniferous rocks in the region between the 

Sierra Nevada batholith and the Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault zone were deposited west of the 

western margin of the North American craton 

(Poole, 1974; Poole and Sandberg, 1977; Rich, 

1977). All Carboniferous units of the southeastern 

part of the area of study were deposited in shallow-

. marine water, whereas all units in the northwestern 

part may have been deposited in deep water. In the 

intervening area (between the south-central lnyo 

Mountains and the Santa Rosa Hills), depositional 

environm·ents may have fluctuated from relatively 

shallow to deep water as influenced by varying combinations of transgression, regression, deformation, 

and shelf progradation. 

Carboniferous deposition began with formation 

of the dominantly shallow-water Tin Mountain 

Limestone on a shelf that extended as far northwest as the south-central lnyo Mountains. Tin 

Mountain deposition may have been terminated by 

rapid subsidence of the shelf because of eastward 

growth of the Antler foreland basin. Concurrently, 

submarine erosion of the Tin Mountain Limestone, 

localized near the original depositional margin of 

this unit in the southern lnyo Mountains and Last 

Chance Range, may have taken place at a relatively 

deep, hingeline position. 

Deposition of the carbonate facies of the Perdido 

Formation began in moderately deep water on a 

depressed shelf in the southeastern part of the area ; 

the clastic facies accumulated in deeper water to 

the west. The carbonate facies. of the Perdido Formation may have accumulated relatively slowly, but 

the rate of deposition was greater than that of 

subsidence, so that later the shallow-water clastic 

Argus limestone began to prograde westward across 

the Perdido carbonate shelf. Progradation of the 

Argus limestone, however, was terminated before 

these clastic limestones reached the edge of the shelf. 

To the northwest, over all of the area where the 

clastic facies of the Perdido Formation had been 

deposited previously, fine siliceous sediment of the 

Rest Spring Shale accumulated in relatively deep 

water. Subsidence of the shelf resulted in deposition 

of a thinner and possibly younger wedge of Rest 

Spring Shale on the margin of the, carbonate shelf 

in the Santa Rosa Hills a:nd Darwin Hills, a pattern 

similar to the eastward-spreading flysch sediment 

reported elsewhere along the eastern margin of the 

Antler flysch trough (Poole, 1974; Poole and Sandberg, 1977). 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC21 

Events causing an increase in carbonate production and a decrease in the availability of fine, siliceous, clastic sediment during Early Pennsylvanian 

time resulted in the change in deposition to limestone in the lower Keeler Canyon Formation in a 

rather deep-water, carbonate-shelf or basinal environment. During Desmoinesian (Middle Pennsylvanian) time, nondeposition and/or erosion was 

· widespread, •. but .in.the.Late .Pennsylvani.an, .. deposi-. 

tion began again. In the eastern Darwin Hills and 

Santa Rosa Hills, little, if any, sediment accumulated 

initially, burt to the west, thick sequences of limestone turbidites formed. Deposition in this turbidite 

basin continued into the Permian without a break. 

To the southeast, in the southern Panamint Range, 

deposition of relatively shallow-water shelf carbonates continued. 

CARBONIFEROUS ROCKS OF THE EASTERN SIERRA NEVADA 

By RONALD W. KISTLER and WARREN J. NOKLEBERG 

ABSTRACT 

Metamorphosed Carboniferous sedimentary rocks are exposed discontinuously in roof pendants in the eastern Sierra 

Nevada for about 110 km in a northwest-trending belt that 

averages about 3 km in width. The original Carboniferous 

strata were predominantly siliceous and calcareous mudstone 

and minor limestone, quartz-sandstone, and chert. Identifiable 

fossils are rare in these rocks, and age assignments in most 

roof pendants are made on the basis of lithologic correlations 

with the nearest fossiliferous rocks. The Carboniferous rocks 

are strongly deformed, and N. 20°-30° W. -trending folds are 

the dominant structures in all pendants along the belt. The 

Carboniferous rocks are west of and apparently unconformably overlay adjacent metamorphosed sedimentary rocks 

of Ordovician and Silurian (?) age. Farther west, the Carboniferous rocks are unconformably overlain by metamorphosed Mesozoic volcanic flows and sedimentary rocks. The 

regional strike of Carboniferous rocks in the eastern Sierra 

Nevada transects, at a large angle, regional trends of similar 

lithologies of the same age that crop out to the east. The 

transection of these regi·onal trends is probably due either to 

severe, large-scale tectonic dislocations, or a regional angular 

unconformity. 

INTRODUCTION 

Metamorphosed Carboniferous sedimentary rocks 

are exposed discontinuously for about 110 km. in a 

northwest-trending belt of roof pendants in the eastcentral part of the Sierra Nevada ba.tholith (fig. 

12). This paper summarizes lithologies, fossils, and 

structures in this belt, and discusses relations of 

Carboniferous rocks in this and adjacent belts. 

PINE CREEK PENDANT 

The Pine Greek pendant (fig. 12, loc. 1), mapped 

and described by Bateman (1965), contains three 

seemingly conformable units that were correlated 

with fossiliferous Pennsylvanian and Permian ( ?) 

strata in the Mount Morrison pendant exposed about 

15 km to the northwest. The basal unit, which consists of about 350 m of pelitic hornfels, micaceous 

quartzite, and vitreous quartzite, is overlain by 

about 250 m of marble. The marble unit is overlain 

by an upper unit consisting of about 1,000 m of 

micac-eous quartzite. The basal unit is intruded by 

granitic rock, and the upper unit is faulted against 

metavolcanic rock of Triassic or Jurassic age. The 

Carboniferous strata are tightly folded, fold axes 

plunging subhorizontally in vertical axial surfaces 

that strike about N. 20° W. 

MOUNT MORRISON PENDANT 

The Mount Morrison pendant (fig. 12, loc. 2), 

mapped and described by Rinehart and Ross (1964), 

contains more abundant and better preserved fossils 

than any other pendant in the eastern Sierra Nevada 

(Rinehart and others, 1959). The basal Carboniferous unit, the Bright Dot Formation (about 700 m 

thick) of Pennsylvanian ( ?) age, is composed of a 

lower unit of pyritic muscovite, siliceous hornfels, 

and metachert and an upper unit of ·calc-silicate 

hornfels alternating with siliceous hornfels. The 

Bright Dot Formation shows a gradational to sharp 

contact with the overlying Mount Baldwin Marble 

of Pennsylvanian age. This unit is composed of a 

165-m·thick, medium-gray or bluish-gray finegrained marble. Nodular chert is locally abundant 

and commonly contains impressions of brachiopod 

and crinoid molds. The Mount Baldwin Marble is 

conformably overlain by the 165- to 300-m-thick 

Mildred Lake Hornfels of Pennsylvanian and (or) 

Permian age. The Mildred Lake Hornfels is predominantly light- to dark-gray, massive siliceous 

hornfels that weathers red-brown but locally includes abundant greenish-gray calc-silicate hornfels 

layers. The Mildred Lake Hornfels is conformably 

overlain by the 300-m-thick Lake Dorothy Hornfels 

also of Pennsylvanian and (or) Permian ( ?) age. 

The Lake Dorothy Hornfels is composed of thinbedded, microgranular plagioclase-pyroxene-quartz 
CC22 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

5 

Northern 

Ritter Range 

pendant 

6 

0 

® log Cabin Mine 

~pendant 

u <D 

~ 

4 

119"00' 

EXPLANATION 

Tertiary volcanic rocks 

Mesozoic metavolcanic (volcanic flows) 

and sedimentary rocks 

Permian(?) rocks 

Pennsylvanian, Mississippian(?), and 

Pennsylvanian(?) rocks 

Ordovician and Silurian(?) rocks 

'\, Contact 

10 KILOMETERS 

Mount Morrison 

pendant 

"\_ Fault 

6 Locality described in text 

Pine Creek~ pendant \ 

FIGURE 12.-Generalized geol·ogic map showing distribution of Carboniferous rocks and adjacent stratified rocks in roof pendants in the eastern Sierra Nevada, California. ' 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC23 

hornfels and alternating grayish-black and yellowish-gray layers that give the rock a striped appearance. The Lake Dorothy Hornfels is conformably 

overlain by the 1,000-m-thick Bloody Mountain 

Formation of Permian ( ?) age. The Bloody Mountain Formation is composed of medium- to darkgray massive calc-silicate hornfels and siliceous 

hornfels that weather dark red-brown. Layers of 

marble are common in some intervals of this formation, and conglomerate lenses are s~parse. 

The basal Carboniferous unit, the Bright Dot 

Formation, is faulted against Ordovician and Silurian ( ? ) metasedimentary rock on the east side. The 

upper unit, the Permian ( ?) Bloody Mountain Formation, is faulted against Triassic or Jurassic metavolcanic rock on the west side. Rinehart and Ross 

(1964) mapped tight northwest-trending folds in 

the Carboniferous rocks, and Russell and Nokleberg 

(1977), in their structural analysis, desc.rihed two 

deformations in the Carboniferous rocks. The first 

and dominant deformation resulted in upright folds 

whose axes plunge subhorizontally in vertical axial 

surfaces striking about N. 20° W. The second deformation resulted in minor upright folds. whose axes 

plunge moderately northwest or southeast in axial 

surfaces striking about· N. 60° W. Rinehart and 

Ross (1964) and Russell and Nokleberg (1977) 

noted that the northwest-striking structures in the 

Carboniferous rocks diverge from the predominantly 

north-striking structures in the Ordovician and 

Silurian ( ?) rocks to the east. Both pairs of authors 

proposed that the Laurel-Convict fault, which separates the lower and upper Paleozoic rocks, occurred 

along an angular unconformity. 

SOUTHERN RITTER RANGE PENDANT 

The south end of the Ritter Range roof pendant 

(fig. 12, loc.· 3), ma.pped and described by Huber 

and Rinehart (1965), contains Carboniferous rocks 

along its east margin. Hornfels and marble in this 

area were correlated with Pennsylvanian and Permian ( ?) rocks in the Mount Morrison pendant 

about 20 km to the southeast. Lithologies in the 

southern Ritter Range pendant are predominantly 

moderately well-bedded, dark-gray siliceous hornfels 

and lesser amounts of interbedded pelitic hornfels, 

slate, quartzite, chert, and small outcrops of crinoidal marble, similar to. the Mount Baldwin Marble. 

Because of extreme deformation and poo·r exposure, 

the stratig·raphic sequence is poorly understood. 

Beds strike about N. 30° W. in the Pennsylvanian 

and Permian ( ?) rocks, but strike north in isolated 

outcrops of Ordovician ( ?) and Silurian ( ?) metasedimentary rocks east of the roof pendant. Tertiary 

volcanic rocks and alluvium conceal the contact 

between lower and upper Paleozoic rocks. The Carboniferous rocks may be unconformably overlain 

by Triassic ( ?) metavolcanic rocks to the west. 

Fragments and cobbles of the underlying metasedimentary rocks are found in the basal conglo-merate 

o.f the metavolcanic section (Huber and Rinehart, 

1965). 

NORTHERN RITTER RANGE AND GULL 

LAKE PENDANTS 

The northern extension of the Ritter Range pendant (fig. 12, loc. 4), mapped and described by Kistler 

( 1966a, b), contains a sequence of bedded quartzofeldspathic hornfels, calc-silicate hornfels, carbonaceous-cherty marble, and chert. These rocks are 

correlated with the Pennsylvanian and Permian ( ?) 

strata of the Mount Morrison pendant. In the central 

part of the northern Ritter Range pendant, four 

varieties of crinoids, two brachiopod genera, and one 

pelecypod genus that were recently found in an encrinal chert, establish a late Paleozoic, possibly Mississippian age (Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., written 

commun., 1977). In the Gull Lake pendant, Kistler 

( 1966a, b) correlated a carbonaceous marble, a calcsilicate hornfels, quartzite, and quartzofeldspathic 

hornfels unit, and a marble and calc-silicate hornfels unit with the Pennsylvanian and Permian ( ?) 

strata exposed in the Mount Morrison pendant. In 

contrast, Rinehart and Ross (1964) had correlated 

these strata with Ordovician and Silurian ( ?) strata 

in the Mount Morrison pendant. The original correlation of Rinehart and Ross (1964) is followed 

here. The contact between the lower and upper 

Paleozoic rocks is exposed only in the GuH Lake 

pendant, where the upper Paleozoic (Carboniferous) 

rocks are now interpreted as resting depositionally 

on Ordovician and Silurian ( ?) strata. The Carboniferous rocks are in turn unconformably overlain by 

Triassic metavolcanic rocks. The basal unit of the 

metavolcanic rocks is, in some places, a conglomerate 

containing cobbles similar to lithologies -in the underlying Carboniferous sequence. In the eastern Sierra 

Nevada, the contact between the Mesozoic metavolcanic rocks and the Paleozoic metasedimentary 

rocks is an. angular unconformity that is sheared 

and locally faulted. Morgan and Rankin (1972) suggested thaJt the contact between these two groups 

of rocks is everywhere a fault, whereas }3rook, 

Nokleberg, and Kistler (1974) interpreted the contact as an .-unconformity that is locally faulted. 
CC24 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Carboniferous rocks within the northern extension of the Ritter Range pendant are tightly folded, 

and the geometry of bedding is dominated by a 

statistical fold axis plunging gently northwest in a 

vertical axial surface that strikes N. 30° W. These 

folds diverge from the folded north-striking strata 

in the Ordovician and Silurian ( ?) rocks below. 

SADDLEBAG LAKE PENDANT 

The Saddlebag Lake pendant (fig. 12, loc. 5), 

mapped and described by Brook (1977), contains 

Carboniferous strata consisting of pelitic, quartzofeldspathic, siliceous, and minor calc-silicate hornfels. At the north end of Saddlebag Lake, crinoid 

fragments and corals recently found in an encrinal 

limestone were identified by J. W. Durham as possibly Mississippian in age (C. A. Brook, oral 

commun., 1977). The Carboniferous rocks are 

tightly folded, the dominant, older folds plunging 

gently northwest in :a vertical axial surface that 

strikes N. 20° W. The Carboniferous rocks are intruded by Upper Triassic granitic rocks to the east 

and are unconformably overlain by Permian and 

Triassic metavolcanic rocks to the west. Fragments 

and cobbles of the underlying metasedim.entary rocks 

are found in the basal conglomerate of the metavolcanic rock section. 

The north end of the Saddlebag Lake pendant 

(fig. 12, loc. 6), mapped and described by Chesterman (1975) and Chesterman and Gray (1975), was 

separated into three units: ( 1) qua.rtzofeldspathic 

hornfels, calc-silicate hornfels, biotite schist, and 

minor marble; (2) quartzite, qua.rtzofeldspathic 

hornfels, metaconglomerate, and minor calc-silicate 

hornfels ; and ( 3) mineralized encrinal limestone 

containing crinoid stems of probable Carboniferous 

age. These three lithologic units unconformably 

overlie Ordovician and Silurian ( ?) metasedimentary 

rocks and are unconformably overlain by Triassic 

metavolcanic rocks. The contacts with older and 

younger wallrock units, however, are obliterated by 

granitic intrusions. 

SUMMARY 

In the eastern Sierra Nevada, Carboniferous rocks 

of Mississippian ( ?) and Pennsylvanian age crop 

out in a northwest-trending belt approximately 110 

km long, but averaging only 2 to 3· km in width. 

Everywhere to the east, the adjacent stratified rocks 

are older and include either Ordovician, or Ordovician ( ?) and Silurian ( ?) metasedimentary rocks. 

Everywhere to the west, the adjacent stratified rocks 

are Triassic and (or) Jurassic metavolcanic rocks. 

In the Mount Morrison pendant, the Permian ( ?) 

metasedimentary rocks are found between Carbonife~ous rocks and Mesozoic metavolcanic rocks to 

the west. Permian metasedimentary rocks may be 

found in all the pendants. Fossils useful in dating 

the rocks are absent. 

Lithologies in the Carboniferous belt are predominantly quartzofelds·pathic, siliceous, and calc-silicate 

hornfels. Marble, quartzite, conglomerate and chert 

are sparse. Weathering of disseminated pyrite, comm:on in quartzo.feldspathic hornfels, imparts a redbrown oolor to these otherwise dark-gray rocks. Volcanic rocks are not recognized in this. Carboniferous 

sequence. A minor facies change may be manifested 

by more abundant quartz sandstone in the southern 

p·art of the belt. Sparse diagnostic fossils indicate 

that the northern part of the belt may include Mississippian rocks not recognized to the south. 

Carboniferous strata in the eastern Sierra Nevada 

are tightly folded, and detailed structural studies in 

several of the pendants indicate at least two episodes of deformation (Brook, 1977; Kistler, 1966a; 

Russell and Nokleberg, 1977). The more prominent 

and older deformation is defined by trends of lithologic units, structural geometry of bedding, major 

folds, faults, and related minor structures. The most 

pronounced structures of the older deformation are 

tightly appressed folds having subvertical axial surfaces that strike N. 20°-30° W. and fold axes that 

. plunge subhorizontally or gently northwest. This 

deformation, whkh also folded the unconformably 

overlying Triassic metavolcanic rocks, took place 

during the Middle Triassic. This timing is defined 

in the Pine Creek pendant where N. 20°-30° W.-

trending major folds were intruded and warped 

by forceful emplacement of Upper Triassic plutons 

(Bateman, 1965; Evernden and Kistler, 1970). Folds 

of similar style and orientation in the Saddl~bag 

Lake and northern Ritter Range pendants are intruded by Upper Triassic plutons. in the Mono 

Craters quadrangle (Kistler, 1966a; Evernden and 

Kistler, 1970). 

The abrupt eastern boundary of outcrops of Carboniferous rocks in some places is parallel to the 

dominant N. 20° W. trend of folds and faults in 

the belt. In the Mount Morrison pendant, the eastern limit of Carboniferous rocks is a major fault. 

Rinehart and Ross (1964) suggested that this contact of Carboniferous rocks with adjacent Ordovician and Silurian ( ?) rocks is a faulted unconformity 

because north-striking bedding and folds in the 

lower Paleo~oic rocks sharply diverge from north-
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC25 

west-striking bedding and folds in the upper Paleozoic rocks. This structural divergence between lower 

and upper Paleozoic rocks is found along the entire 

belt. 

REGIONAL CONSIDERATIONS 

The regional strike of Carboniferous rocks in the 

eastern Sierra Nevada transects, at a large angle, 

regional trends of similar rocks of the same age 

(Poole, 1974; Stevens, 1977; Speed, 1977), the western limit of ensialic continental crust (Kistler and 

Peterman, 1978), the trace of the Golconda allochthon (Speed, 1977), and the Permian volcanic-arc 

terrane of Speed (1977) (fig. 13). The transection 

of these regional trends is probably due to severe, 

large-scale tectonic dislocations. Considerable tectonic transport is indicated by observations made 

in the southeast in the Inyo Mountains, where the 

pre-Middle Jurassic allochthon of the Inyo thrust 

includes Pennsylvanian and Permian strata (Stevens and Olson, 1972). Triassic emplacement of the 

Inyo allochthon and deformation of the Carboniferous rocks in the eastern Sierra Nevada are possibly 

contemporaneous. If the folding and thrusting were 

contemporaneous, the northwest-trending contact 

of the Carboniferous rocks with the lower Paleozoic 

rocks in the eastern Sierra Nevada may be tectonic. 

If so, the Carboniferous strata were transported 

from the west to their present position. Similarities 

of Carboniferous fossils in the eastern Sierra N evada with Carboniferous fossils of the platform 

facies in the Great Basin to the east, however, suggest that any thrust displacement-need not have been 

great. 

An alternative explanation for the northwesttrending contact between the Carboniferous and 

Ordovician and Silurian ( ? ) metasedimentary rocks 

in the eastern Sierra Nevada is a locally faulted 

regional angular unconformity. A similar regional 

angular unconformity was described by Speed 

(1977) for a continental borderland terrane (fig. 

13) in northwestern Nevada, west of the Mississippian Antler foreland basin of Poole (1974) and 

Poole and Sandberg (1977). In this terrane, Pennsylvanian and Permian terrigenous clastic and carbonate rocks were deposited unconformably on deformed lower Paleozoic rocks of the ancestral Antler 

orogenic belt. The Carboniferous belt in the eastern 

Sierra Nevada has a similar unconformable relation 

to the underlying lower Paleozoic rocks. If the Carboniferous strata in the eastern Sierra Nevada are 

correlative with the continental borderland terrane 

WASHINGTON 

100 200 300 

I I I 

EXPLANATION 

,' I ; 

X 

: i ; I . X 

X 

: I ; 

~ i : 

I . X 

I I : 

I . X 

I I : 

I . X 

I ) >r / -\-

·-·X~ 

' ' 

+ 

\ 

' ' 

x x x x Axis of Pennian foreland basin of Stevens ( 1977) 

- ·- Axis of Mississippian foreland basin of Poole (1974) 

- - - Eastern limit of continental borderland terrane of Speed 

(1977) 

-- Edge of ensialic continental crust (Kistler and Petennan,.1978) 

~ Eastern limit of Golconda allochton (Speed, 1977) 

· · · · · · Eastern and southern limit of Pennian volcanic-arc terrane of 

Speed (1977) 

' Belt of Carboniferous rocks .in eastern Sierra Nevada 

c;::O Calaveras Fonnation (Clark, 1976) 

FIGURE 13.-Diagram showing relation of belt of Carboniferous rocks in the eastern Sierra Nevada to adjacent belts 

of similar age. 

of Speed (1977), they need not have been thrust 

from the west to their present position. 

The Calaveras Form·ation of Carboniferous age 

is found to the west in a northwest-trending belt 
CC26 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

in the foothills of the central and northern Sierra 

Nevada (Clark, 1976) (fig. 13). The main mass of 

the Sierra Nevada. batholith separates the two belts. 

The lithologies and .deformational histories of the 

two belts differ grea.tly. Further studies are required 

to explain these strong differences in parallel-trending belts of Carboniferous rocks. 

CARBONIFEROUS ROCKS OF THE NORTHERN SIERRA NEVADA, CALIFORNIA 

By JAD A. D'ALLURA and ELDRIDGE M. MOORES 

ABSTRACT 

Paleozoic rocks of the northern Sierra Nevada are present 

in two belts, an eastern and a western, separated by a peridotite belt, the last possibly partly of late Paleozoic age. In the 

eastern belt, Carboniferous rocks are represented mainly by a 

chert-epiclastic sequence intercalated between thick upper 

Devonian (?)-Mississippian and Permo-Triassic andesitic 

volcanic sequences. This stratigraphic sequence may reflect 

island-arc volcanism in Devonian time, formation and subsidence of a remnant a·rc in <:arboniferous time, and renewal 

of arc volcanism in Permian time. 

Known Carboniferous rocks in the western belt are limited 

to isolated exposures of carbonate rocks, which generally 

represent exotic blocks in a chaotic deposit. 

INTRODUCTION 

In the northern Sierra Nevada, Paleozoic rocks 

are present in two main terranes, the eastern and 

the western belts (see fig. 14). The eastern belt 

(figs. 15 and 16) is best known north of lat 38° 30' 

N., where it consists generally of a stratigraphic 

sequence, from bottom to top as follows (fig. 15) : 

a pre-Devonian sequence consisting of quartzose 

sandstone, lithic sandstone, phyllite, chert, limestone, 

and minor volcanic mafic and ultramafic rocks generally assigned to the Shoo Fly Formation and its 

equivalents, overlain by Devonian-Carboniferous, 

Permo-Triassic, and Jurassic volcanic-sedimentary 

sequences. The eastern belt is bordered on the west 

by the Feather River peridotite belt, a 15 X 150-km 

belt of metamorphosed ultramafic and associated 

mafic rock. The only published radiometric age date 

on igneous rocks in this belt is a single Pb-U date 

of 300 m.y. on an albitite (Weisenburg and Ave 

Lallemant, 1977). West of this peridotite belt and 

its possible southeast extension (see fig. 14), rocks 

of Carboniferous age are present in a generally 

chaotic unit, referred to as the Calaveras co-mplex 

(Schweickert and others, 1977). These terranes as 

herein defined differ significantly from the original 

usage of Diller (1908) and Turner (1897) and follow more closely that of Heitanen (1974, 1976) and 

Moores (in press) . 

EASTERN BELT 

In the northeastern Sierra Nevada, ,pre-Late Jurassic rocks consist of a 120-km-long exposure of 

thick volcanic-sedimentary sequence (figs. 14, 15, 

and 16), which was isoclinally folded and thrust 

eastward during the Late Jurassic "Nevadan" deformation. All rocks generally show greenschistfacies metamorphic assemblages, as well as relict 

mineralogy of the original rocks. Primary textures 

are largely preserved and facilitate paleoenvironmental reconstruction. North of the Lakes Basin 

area (fig. 14), the rocks crop out in two structural 

blocks separated by the Grizzly Mountain fault. 

Near and south of the Lakes Basin, the rocks form 

a single belt that dips steeply to the east. 

Carboniferous rocks in this part of the Sierra 

Nevada belong primarily to the Peale Formation 

(Diller, 1908; McMath, 1966), though part of the 

over- and underlying rocks may also be of Carboniferous age (see fig. 15). Peale rocks grade into the 

over- and underlying volcanic sequences (see fig. 

15). They include deposits of both submarine and 

possibly subaerial volcanic rocks and nonvolcanic 

chert, slate, lithic wacke, breccia, and conglomerate. 

The thickness of the unit is variable but ranges 

from a minimum of less than 480 m to a maximum 

of more than 1,100 m (Diller, 1908; Turner, 1894, 

1896, 1897; Lingren, 1900; Durrell and Proctor, 

1948; McMath, 1966; Durrell and D'Allura, 1977; 

and D'Allura, Moores, and Robinson, 1977). 

PEALE FORMATION 

The Peale Formation has been divided into two 

members : the lower one is composed primarily of 

feldspar-phyric trachyte or (quartz) latite flows, 

tuff, and breccia; the upper unit is composed of 

manganiferous chert and epiclastic sedimentary 

rocks as well as local pyroclastic rocks (McMath, 

1966; D'Allura, 1977). Nei,ther memiber is equally 

thick or represented in all areas. 
10 

CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC27 

TAYLORSVILLE FAULT 

EXPLANATION 

Eastern Belt 

Jv Jurassic volcanic rocks 

Pv Permian-Triassic volcanic rocks 

Carboniferous Peale Formation 

Dv Devonian(?) volcanic rocks 

Sf Pre-late Devonian(?) Shoo Ay rocks 

F Feather River peridotite and correlatives 

Western Belt 

C Calaveras complex-undifferentiated 

Cv Volcanic unit 

Ca Argillaceous unit 

Cc Chert unit ~ 

~Granitic intrusives 

FIGURE 14.-Generalized ·map of prebatholithic units, northern Sierra Nevada, California. 
CC28 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

FIGURE 15.-Simplified description of Paleozoic rocks of the northeastern Sierra Nevada, California. 

Formation 

Robinson 

Reeve 

Goodhue 

Peale 

upper member 

lower member 

Taylor 

Elwell 

Sierra Buttes 

Shoo Fly 

Description 

Gray or black, green andesitic wacke, conglomerate, or breccia; some calcareous 

horizons. Permian fossils found in Taylorsville area. 

Gray to dark green andesitic flows, pillows, and volcaniclastic rocks; characterized by 

large platey plagioclase phenocrysts. Middle Permian fossils found in Taylorsville 

and Quincy areas as well as northeast of the Lakes Basin area. 

Dark green to nearly black andesitic basalt pillows, br;e,ccia and tuff; augite, plagioclase, and pseudomorphed olivine phenocrysts. Late Pennsylvanian to Early Permian 

fossil found in boulder, Lakes Basin area. 

Upper calcareous horizon, conglomerate or breccia, lithic wacke and purple siltstone 

overlying red, gray, white, or black chert; some volcanic admixture; composition 

variable. Early Mississippian fossil found at base of unit in Taylorsville area; Early 

Permian fauna in probable upper member rocks, Bowman Lake area. 

Dark gray to black or green trachyte to (quartz) latite flows, pillows, and volcaniclastic rocks; l.ocally contains pink alkalli feldspar phenocrysts. 

Green andesite pillows, flows and volcaniclastic rocks; augite, diopsidic augite and 

plagioclase phenocrysts. 

Black chert containing phosphate nodules; silicic and andesitic volcaniclastic rocks. 

Late Devonian fossils, Lakes Basin area. 

Light green dacite and rhyolite volcanic rocks. 

Quartz wacke, pelitic rocks, and chert. Locally contains ultramafic rocks and serpentinite. 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC29 

NORTH 

Lakes 

Basin 

Sierra 

City 

Milton 

Reservoir 

Bowman 

Lake 

SCALE: 1 mm= 7 m 

SOUTH 

Cisco 

Grove 

EX PLA NAT I 0 N 

rn Chert 

1:.:)/(/J Bedded lithic wacke 

~ Andesitic pyroclastic rocks 

• Impure limestone 

Eta Silty or sandy mudstone 

~ Silicic pyroclastic rocks 

§Flows 

~ Shale or mudstone 

~ Pillows 

~ Conglomerates or breccias 

FIGURE 16.-Generalized correlation section of Carboniferous rocks from Taylorsville to Cisco Grove area, northeastern 

Sierra Nevada, California. Rock types are highly variable in most areas and are only schematically shown. Thickness 

of the calcareous unit is highly exaggerated. 

LOWER MEMBER 

Silicic volcanic rocks of the lower member of the 

Peale Formation intrude and overlie Taylor andesite. The thickness of this unit ranges from zero 

to more than 1,000 m. Purple-black and dull-gray to 

pale-green trachyte or (quartz) latite dikes, flows, 

and pyroclastic rocks are most common, though the 

character of the rocks changes from area to area. 

Most rocks are characterized by small phenocrysts 

of equant to lath-shaped white to pink alkali feldspars in an aphanitic groundmass. 

Exposures of the lower member are restricted 

from the Lakes Basin north; the unit is best exposed in three areas : in the Lakes Basin, east and 

northeast of Quincy, and south of Lake Alman or. 

On both sides of the Grizzly Mountain fault, north 

of lat. 40° N., the lower member consists of flows 

and comagmatic breccias. East of the fault, pink 
CC30 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

feldspar-bearing, light- to moderately green tuff and 

breccia dominate to the north, whereas purple-black, 

fine-grained shallow intrusive and extrusive rocks 

containing minor amounts of pyroclastic rock are 

most common to the south. In the Lakes Basin, lower 

Peale rocks are composed of reddish-purple to black 

pillow lava overlain by graded silicic tuff and volcanic breccia (Durrell and D' Allura, 1977). Except 

for some thin beds of ash and volcanic breccia east 

of Sierra City, lower member rocks do not crop out 

south of the Lakes Basin. 

Three probable vent or near-vent facies have been 

recognized-one 11 km north-northeast of Quincy, 

another 16 km east of Quincy, and a pillowed locality in the Lakes Basin area. The former two areas 

are characterized by fine-grained shallow sills and 

dikes, flows, and comagmatic pyroclastic rocks. 

In thin section, most feldspar is pink, perthitic, or 

anti-perthitic, although small white albitized plagioclase laths also are common in some areas. The pink 

or red color results from minute hematite inclusions. The groundmass may show aphanitic or 

trachytic textures but is invariably largely recrystallized to mosaics of quartz and albite with muscovite, 

magnetite, and hematite. Calcite and ferrostHpnomelane are common accessory minerals. Micropoikilitic quartz and albite which has probable perlitic or 

orb texture is preserved by dusty halos of ferrostilpnomelane; these features suggest that at least a few 

of the rocks were originally glassy. The dark-gray 

to black or green color in the rocks results from 

abundant magnetite or ferrostilpnomelane or green 

biotite, respectively. Chemically the rocks are quartz 

normative, although modal quartz is rare. Quartz 

veins or accumulations are common locally and suggest silicification, the finer grained pyroclastic rocks 

having been most affected. 

UPPER MEMBER 

The upper member of the Peale Formation consists of a distinctive assemblage from bottom to top 

of chert, clastic rocks, and calcareous deposits. Each 

of these rock types provides the basis for a separate 

unit, as described below. The proportion of rock 

types, as well as the clast type in the clastic unit, 

varies from place to place. 

Chert unit.-In the lowest of the three units of 

the Peale upper member, chert is the most common 

and laterally continuous rock type, ranging in thickness from 20 to 350 m. The chert may be red, purple, 

green, gray, black, or white. In places, for example, 

east of the Grizzly Mountain fault east of Quincy, 

this unit constitutes a minor part ( Yt 6 to Ys ) of the 

member, whereas elsewhere, for example, south of 

Bowman Lake, it dominates the section. 

The chert beds generally range in thickness from 

10 to 30 em and are commonly interbedded with thin 

shale or silty shale. In places, the chert is associated 

with syngenetic manganese deposits. In some areas, 

for example, south of Bowman Lake, silty mudstone 

beds are abundant towards the top··of the member. 

Penecontemporaneous deformation structures are 

relatively common in both the chert and interbedded fine-grained clastic rocks. 

Poorly preserved relict Radiolaria exist in thin 

section as clear mosaics of quartz. The rocks carry 

variable amounts of biotite or ferrostilpnomelane. 

Clastic unit.-Clastic rocks as much as 350 m 

thick overlie the chert unit in all areas. They consist 

of slate, phyllite, lithic and volcanic wacke, and conglomerate and breccia. 

Though variable in extent and thickness, the 

clastic rocks increase in importance toward the 

south and are especially important near Bowman 

Lake (where fossils have been discovered in rocks 

tentatively assigned to this unit). North of the Lakes 

Basin, olive-drab to black or maroon slate and subordinate volcanic or lithic wacke and tuff make up 

this unit, which is slightly thinner than the underlying chert unit. In the Lakes Basin area, the unit is 

represented by 350 m of dark, partly calcareous 

chloritic slate overlying a thin chert unit. South of 

the Lakes Basin, silty mudstone, purple muddy siltstone, and lithic wacke with lenses of pebble conglomerate or breccia dominate the Peale exposures. 

Most clasts are intraformational, composed of 

white or gray chert and purple to dark-green siltstone or mudstone. However a small percentage 

(generally 5 percent or less) of coarser grained nonintraformational clasts are present in all areas. 

Though seldom abundant, clasts derived from underlying volcanic units are locally present. Purple 

volcanic clasts typical of the lower member of the 

Peale are found in and north of the Lakes Basin 

area. Clasts of typical bipyramidal quartz-bearing 

Sierra Buttes dacite and augite-rich green Taylor 

andesite are sparsely present everywhere and are 

abundant south of Taylorsville and southeast of 

Bowman Lake. Clasts of quartz wacke and veined 

gray to black chert, probably derived from the Shoo 

Fly Formation, are ubiquitous but are most common 

near and south of Bowman Lake. 

Other clasts not derived from any exposed or recognized units are scattered through the section. 

These clasts include, in order of decreasing abundance, volcanic rock fragments, fine- to medium-
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC31 

grained diorite, gabbro, and pink granite. Volcanic 

rock fragments in this group are dominantly silicic 

in composition, although andesitic or basaltic clasts 

are common. Amygdaloidal structure in andesites 

and rare perlitic structure in silicic rocks are 

preserved. 

The volcanic and plutonic clasts dominate at the 

fossil locality northeast of Bowman Lake. There, 

amygdaloidal andesitic volcanic rocks, porphyritic 

green and purple silicic volcanic rocks, purple siltstone, abundant green or red chert typical of the 

underlying Peale chert, medium-grained plutonic 

rocks, and minor but significant carbonate organic 

debris constitute the bulk of the clasts. Although, 

except in the uppermost beds, clastic hornblende is a 

rare or subordinate phase in the matrix of most of 

the conglomerate or breccia beds, it is common in 

the area south of Milton Reservoir. This hornblendebearing breccia or conglomerate probably interdigitates with hornblende tuff of the overlying Goodhue 

Formation. These rocks are probably part of the 

Peale, not the Goodhue, though their stratigraphic 

position is by no means certain. 

Calcareous unit.-In most areas south of the 40th 

parallel, a calcareous unit forms the top of the upper 

member of the Peale Formation. N owliere more than 

35 m thick, this unit consists of gray silty limestone 

(marble and calc-silicate rock near plutons) containing scattered clasts of angular to .subrounded 

rock fragments, the latter including chert. East of 

Quincy, the unit is represented by a discontinuously 

exposed skarn in a roof pendant of a quartz diorite 

pluton, or by a sparsely calcareous zone east of the 

Grizzly Mountain fault. East-southeast of Sierra 

City, the unit is 4-10 m wide and consists of calcareous rocks interbedded with basaltic wacke ·and 

chert. At the fossil locality near Bowman Lake, the 

unit is represented by fossiliferous limestone lenses 

intercalated with the upper conglomeratic beds of 

the clastic unit. The unit is not present 2.5 km southeast of Bowman Lake, but it reappears near Cisco 

Grove. 

TAYLOR AND GOODHUE-ARLINGTON FORMATIONS 

As parts of the underlying Taylor Formation or 

the overlying Goodhue-Arlington Formations may 

have been deposited in Carboniferous time, a brief 

discussion of them is in order. 

The Taylor is composed of pyroxene-bearing basaltic andesite and andesite tuff, volcanic wacke, and 

breccia. Its composition varies from base to top and 

from place to _place. However, it is generally more 

mafic in its lower part and more silicic toward the 

top. A greater volume of silicic andesite in the Lakes 

Basin area and a more mafic composition than usual 

in the Bowman Lake area are exceptions to the 

above trend. Local vents marked by accumulations 

of pillows and coarse breccia are present southwest 

of Taylorsville, in the Lakes Basin area, and east 

and south-southeast of Bowman Lake. The volcanic 

deposits decrease in grain size west of the Grizzly 

Mountain fault from Taylorsville north, and south 

of Cisco Grove. 

The basal part of the Goodhue Formation in the 

Lakes Basin area is composed of green hornblende 

andesite tuff and fine· volcanic breccia. The thickness 

of this basal unit varies. The unit is present in significant amounts mainly east of Quincy, in the Lakes 

Ba·sin area, and locally as fine- to medium-grained 

tuff near Milton Reservoir. 

The rocks above the basal hornblende-bearing unit 

are dark-green olivine pyroxene basalt and andesitic 

basalt tuff, volcanic wacke, breccia, and flows. The 

olivine, which commonly shows a good crystal habit, 

has been totally altered to various metamorphic mineral assemblages including serpentine, epidote, hornblende, ferrostilpnomelane, biotite, and chlorite. 

The Goodhue formation generally is present east 

·of the Grizzly Mountain fault from Taylorsville 

south, and from Quincy south to Milton Reservoir. 

West of the fault and north of Quincy, the Peale is 

overlain by rocks assigned to the Arlington 

Formation. 

Arlington rocks consist chiefly of graded volcanic 

wacke deposits, which in some places show abundant bottom markings. They generally become finer 

grained and bedded from around Mt. Hough northwestward towards Lake Almanor. 

In the exposures south of Milton Reservoir, no 

rocks are assigned to the Goodhue Formation. However, in this area, thin beds of green fine-grained 

tuff crop out below easily recognized younger Reeve 

rocks (see fig. 15) and correlate with andesitic tuff 

and volcanic wacke that overlie gradationally the 

upper calcareous unit of the Peale in the Bowman 

Lake and Cisco Grove areas. Possibly much of this 

andesitic material may be upper Paleozoic and may 

be correlative with the Robinson (or Arlington) 

Formation. 

CONTACTS 

The contacts between the Peale and the overlying 

and underlying units appear generally conformable 

and gradational. The basal contact .with the Taylor 

is intrusive in places but is mostly depositional, 

marked by a change in volcanic-rock composition. 
CC32 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

From the relations described above, clearly the 

upper contact of the Peale with the overlying volcanic deposits is gradational and complex. Where 

the contact with the Goodhue is exposed, chert or 

clastic (or calcareous) rocks are interbedded with 

crystal-vitric or hornblende basaltic or andesitic tuff, 

the latter of which grades in turn into dark-green 

olivine basalt typical of the Goodhue Formation. 

Where overlain by Arlington rocks, the contact is 

again gradational, and placing the contact between 

clastic rocks of the Peale and those of the overlying 

Arlington is difficult. 

Southeast of Bowman Lake, the upper calcareous 

conglomerate-breccias or breccia-conglomerates are 

interbedded with green silicified tuff and crystallithic tuff of probable Arlington (or Robinson) 

equivalent volcaniclastic rocks. However, to the 

south, the Peale rocks are eroded. Here the Arlington ( ? ) volcaniclastic rocks lie directly over the fine-

. grained purple lithic wacke and silty mudstone with 

a moderate angular unconformity. The basal volcaniclastic rocks contain rounded pebbles of chert, 

quartzite, and some aphanitic volcanic rock fragments derived from preexisting rocks. 

BIOSTRATIGRAPHY 

Fossils in the volcanic-sedimentary complex of 

the northeastern Sierra Nevada are scarce, and 

precise age assignments are not possible. However, 

rock units apparently transgress the boundaries of 

the Carboniferous System. The volcanic rocks of the 

Peale lower member and of the Taylor Formation 

are undated and may be partly or wholly Late Devonian or Early Mississippian in age. The rocks of the 

Peale upper member contain undated radiolaria; 

however, these rocks may range in age from Early 

Mississippian to possibly Early Permian, on the 

basis of two fossil localities, separated by 70 km. 

Near Taylorsville, McMath (1966) discovered an 

Early Mississippian brachiopod fauna close to the 

base of the upper member of the Peale Formation. 

An undescribed trilobite from the same locality also 

suggests a similar age (McMath, written commun., 

1973). East of Bowman Lake, fusulinids, including 

a single specimen of Triticites, several specimens of 

Schwagerina generally similar to S. diversiformis, 

and a specimen that is probably Thompsonella ( ?) 

(C. A. Ross, written commun., 1975) were found in 

the matrix of a chert and volcanic. breccia-conglomerate near the top of the upper member (D' Allura 

and others, 1977). The fauna, which suggests an 

Early Permian age, may have been reworked from 

older sediments, but the possibility seems remote as 

the fossils are discrete entities, have not been silicified, and are associated with individual bryozoan, 

crinoid, and coral ( ?) fragments. 

The rocks of the basal Goodhue Formation have 

been dated tentatively as Late Pennsylvanian to 

Early Permian on the basis of the transported fossil 

Helicoprion sierrensis (Durrell and D'Allura, 1977). 

Hence Goodhue and Peale rocks may be partly time 

equivalent. 

ENVIRONMENTAL INTERPRETATION 

The volcanic-sedimentary rock sequence of which 

the Taylor, Peale and overlying rocks are part, probably reflects the existence of two volcanic island-arc 

sequences, one of probable Devonian-Mississippian 

age (Taylor, lower Peale) and one of probable 

Permo-Triassic age (Goodhue, Reeve, ArlingtOn) 

(D'Allura and others, 1977). Hence, earliest Carboniferous. time probably was marked in this region 

by arc-type volcanism. 

The gradation from the volcanic lower Peale to 

the upper Peale, which contains radiolarian chert 

·and some manganese deposits, suggests that in Carboniferous time, arc-type volcanism gradually 

yielded to a period of pelagic sedimentation marked 

by only sporadic volcanism (represented by scattered volcanic beds in the chert unit). 

The succeeding gradation in the upper Peale from 

chert to clastic rocks with intercalations of coarse, 

mostly locally derived, debris suggests increasing 

crustal instability or a shifting locus of crustal 

instability. The lenticular nature of individual units, 

the changes over short distances of thi·ckness and 

lithology of the clastic unit, and the presence of 

turbidite or grain flow deposits, suggest local relief 

possibly within an area of fault-bounded highs and 

basins. That this relief was not constructional in 

origin is suggested by the relatively minor volcanic 

activity. The source of plutonic and some volcanicrock clasts remains unknown, although it conceivably may have been partly the Feather River peridotite belt to the west. 

The gradation in turn from epiclastic deposits to 

tuffaceous rocks of the overlying Goodhue-Arlington 

Formations, suggests the gradual onset of volcanism 

of the Permo-Triassic arc complex after these structural disturbances. · 

In an earlier article (D' Allura af\d others, 1977), 

we proposed a plate-tectonic model whereby the 

cessation of arc volcanism, followed by pelagic sedimentation, then renewed arc volcanism, represented 

the formation and subsidence of a remnant arc 

(Karig, 1974). The range in fossil dates for this 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC33 

cessation in volcanism includes the time of the Antler 

orogenic episode in central Nevada (Silber ling and 

Roberts, 1962). 

WESTERN BELT 

Recent work on the western or Calaveras terrane 

indicates that much of it is made up of a partly 

chaotic sequence of rocks. Schweickert and others 

(1977) have separated the Calaveras into a series 

of units, from west to east, as follows: a volcanic 

unit composed of mafic pillow lava, pillow breccia, 

tuff breccia, and bedded tuff, which interfingers locally with so-called "slaty mudstone and diamictite"; an argillite unit, dominantly clastic, composed 

of meter- to kilometer-sized fragments of quartzite, 

chert, calcareous rocks, rund argillaceous sedimentary rocks; a chert unit, characterized by thick sequences of well-bedded, rhythmic chert containing 

black argillaceous partings which interfingers with 

"diamictite"; a quartzite unit, composed of wellbedded quartzite and quartz-rich sandstone, interfingering with chaotic units. 

Regional correlations and reconnaissance suggest, 

however, that the eastern quartzite unit in the southern and central Sierra Nevada may be a southern 

extension of the Shoo Fly rocks of the eastern belt 

(Moores, in press) ; the contact between the western 

and eastern belts possibly is a suture represented 

in part by a mylonite zone (Schweickert, 1977) 

and in part by the Feather River ultramafic belt. 

This suggested ·correlation is illustrated on figure 

14. One complication with this suggested picture is 

the possible correlation of the Feather River peridotite with the Carboniferous Kings-Kaweah ultramafic complex to the south (Saleeby, 1977) which 

is west of the main Calaveras terrane, rather than 

east of it, as is the Feather River peridotite. 

Most fossiliferous limestone inclusions and masses 

reflect shallow-water deposition. They yield Carboniferous or Permian fossils, but no systematic 

distribution of ages within these blocks has been 

recognized. These lim.estone blocks and the chaotic 

units that include them. represent either submarine 

landslide deposits derived from carbonate-bearing 

volcanic islands or (Schweickert and others, 1977) 

the juxtaposition of diverse rocks in an accretionary 

prism. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

C. Durrell and G. C. Bond reviewed the manuscript and made many helpful suggestions. This 

work was supported by NSF Grant EAR 76-14270. 

CARBONIFEROUS ROCKS OF THE EASTERN KLAMATH MOUNTAINS, CALIFORNIA 

By RODNEY WATKINS 

ABSTRACT 

The Carboniferous System is represented in the eastern 

Klamath Mountains of California by the Bragdon Formation 

and the conformably superjacent Baird Formation. Both 

formations are sparsely fossiliferous. The Bragdon Formation conformably overlies the Middle Devonian Kennett Formation and, whe're the Kennett is missing, the pre ... Kennett 

Balaklala Rhyolite. The Bragdon Formation consists primarily 

of argillite, locally prominent volcaniclastic facies, and minor 

shelly siltstone. The fossil faunas are Late Mississippian in 

age. The Baird Formation is conformably overlain by the 

Lower Permian McCloud Limestone. The Baird Formation 

consists mainly of volcaniclastic rocks and minor amounts 

of argillite, shelly siltstone, chert, greenstone, and limestone 

facies. The fossil faunas range in age from Late Mississippian through Pennsylvanian to Early Permian. 

The Bragdon and Baird Formations record a shoaling 

throughout Carboniferous time. Upward increase in wacke 

beds in the argillite indicates change from distal to proximal 

turbidite deposition. The distribution of volcaniclastic facies 

suggests episodic deposition from local shifting source areas, 

such as volcanic islands, during a transition from basin and 

slope to shelf conditions. 

The fauna of the two formations-mainly brachiopods, 

crinoids, bryozoans, mollusks, and corals-is part of an 

Asiatic province and has few species in common with typical 

Carboniferous faunas of North America. 

INTRODUCTION 

The Carboniferous System is represented in the 

eastern Klamath Mountains of California by the 

Bragdon Formation and the overlying Baird Formation. These units were nam.ed and mapped by Fairbanks (1894), Hershey (1902), and Diller (1905, 

1906). Subsequent stratigraphic studies have been 

made by Kinkel, and others, (1956), Albers and 

Robertson (1961), Lydon and Klein (1969), and 

Watkins (1973). 

BRAGDON FORMATION 

The Bragdon Formation covers extensive parts 

of Shasta and Trinity Counties, but its base is ex-
CC34 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

0 

MESOZOIC 

PERMIAN 

CARBONIFEROUS 

DEVONIAN 

10 KILOMETERS 

EXPLANATION 

ffi Ultrabasic intrusive rocks 

lSI Pitt !-ormation 

Bully Hill Formation 

Dekkas Formation 

Nosoni Formation 

! McCloud Limestone 

Baird Formation 

Bragdon Formation 

{ Kennett Formation 

Balaklala Rhyolite 

Copley Greenstone 

6 Location. of stratigraphic sections shown in figure 18 

FIGURE 17.-Geologic map around ·the .northern ·part of 

Shasta Lake,.eastern Klamath Mountains, California. 

posed in only a few areas near the Sacramento Canyon (fig. 17). Here it conformably overlies the Kennett Formation, which contains conodonts of Middle 

Devonian age (Savage, 1976). In places, the Kennett is missing, and the Bragdon conformably overlies the Balaklala Rhyolite of pre-Kennett age. The 

Bragdon Formation is barren of fossils for most 

of its geographic and stratigraphic extent. Locally, 

however, brachiopods of Late Mississippian age 

occur in the uppermost part of the Bragdon on the 

east slopes of Hanland Peak (Watkins, 1973, 1974). 

The upper contact of the Bragdon is mapped at the 

highest stratigraphic appearance of distinctive, 

pebble-bearing wacke beds which conformably 

underlie the Baird Formation. This contact probably is not everywhere the same age. 

The Bragdon Formation consists mainly of rocks 

designated as the argillite facies in figure 18. Several small sections totaling 87 m in thickness were 

measured in the upper drainage of Middle Salt 

Creek. Sediment types in these sections are: 33.1 

percent argillite that has flat parallel lamination; 

8.4 percent silty and tuffaceous argillite that has flat 

parallel lamination; 0.8 percent silty and tuffaceous 

argillite containing plant debris; 3.1 percent lithic 

wacke that has flat parallel lamination and/or lowangle planar cross lamination; 18.2 percent lithic 

wacke, massive, or in beds graded from coarse 

sand at base to fine sand at top; 36.4 percent lithic 

wacke including clasts from pebble to boulder size 

and a variety of sedimentary structures. Wackes 

form tabular beds that have sharp flat contacts and 

basal, flute, and load casts. The thickness and stratigraphic frequency of wacke beds increase up section in the Bragdon Formation, culminating in conglomeratic units 16 to 20 m thick. Bioturbation is 

notably absent in the argillite facies, except for 

minor intervals in the upper few hundred meters 

of the Bragdon. Bioturbated fossiliferous siltstones 

associated with this facies near Kabyai Creek were 

described by Watkins ( 1973) . The Bragdon Formation also contains volcaniclastic facies around the 

summit of Hanland Peak. These sedimentary rocks 

are identical in character with the volcaniclastic 

facies of the Baird Formation, which is described 

below. 

BAIRD FORMATION 

The Baird Formation (fig. 17) consists of a variety of sedimentary and volcanic rock types. Several 

hundred meters of the argillite facies is present on 

Hirz Mountain, distinguished from the argillite fa-
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC35 

NORTH SOUTH 

3 4 

1* 2* 

Sec. 31, Sec. 7, 5* 

Sec's. 1, 2, 3, 

T34 N, R 4 W 

6 T 36 N, R 3 W T35 N, R 3 W 

Sec's. 2, 3, 

T33 N, R 4W 

Sec. 17, 

T37 N, R 3 W 

Sec's. 13, 14, 23, 24, 

T36 N, R 3 W 

Sec's. 35, 36, Sec. 12, 

T36 N, R 4W T35 N, R 4 W 

u 

M 

c: 

0 

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IQ 

E 

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a:l 

c: 

0 

·;: 

IQ 

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~ c: 

0 

"C 

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~ 

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0 1 2 KILOMETERS 

100 

200 

300 

400 

500 METERS 

* Section based on map measurements 

"C • 

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c: 

0 

·;: 

IQ 

E 

0 

LL 

c: 

0 

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Cl 

IQ 

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c: 

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EXPLANATION 

§ Argillite facies 

~ Chert facies 

g Shelly siltstone facies 

D Volcaniclastic facies 

~ Greenstone 

= Hirz Mountain Limestone Member 

of Baird Formation 

c:::v' Base of formation not exposed 

Pn Fossils of Late Pennsylvanian or 

Early Permian age 

P Fossils of Pennsylvanian age 

M Fossils of Late Mississippian age 

u Fossils of undetermined age 

FIGURE 18.-Columnar sections of Carboniferous rocks in the eastern Klamath Mountains, California (see text for description of facies). 1, Tow Dow Cre,ek; 2, High Mountains and headwaters of Middle Salt Creek; 3, east slopes of Hanland Peak and Kabyai Creek; 4, Hirz Mountains; 5, Y cotti Creek and Greens Creek; 6·, south of Pitt River Bridge. Age 

assignments also represent all observed occurrences of shelly fossils. Thickness of section 5 is based on estimates by 

Albers and Robertson ( 1961). 

cies of the Bragdon by the lack of conglomeratic 

wacke beds. The Baird Formation also contains a 

chert facies in the Greyrock section south of Pitt 

River Bridge. This facies consists of thin tabular 

beds of chert and cherty argillite, minor bioclastic 

limestone, and no app,arent bioturbation. The shelly 

siltstone facies has several disjunct occurrences 

within the Baird, as shown in figure 18, and is the 

only part of the formation that has bioturbation 

and common shelly fossils. Fifteen meters of the 

facies was examined in detail near Greens Creek. 

It consists of: 50.0 percent very tuffaceous siltstone 

and fine sandstone that has flat parallel lamination, 

rare low-angle cross lamination, and rare mollusk 

shells; 49.9 percent siltstone and silty mudstone 

that has intense bioturbation and scattered mudsupported shells of many phyla; 0.1 percent closely 

packed shell debris in thin tabular beds. The shelly 

siltstone facies also contains limestone units near 

Kabyai Creek, which have been described by Watkins (1973). 'rhe major exposure of the shelly siltstone facies·· is along the· McCloud River between 

Campbell Creek and Potter Creek. In most years, 

this area is covered by Shasta Lake. 

The volcaniclastic facies is the only unit in the 

Baird Formation that is continuous along strike 

(fig. 18). Twenty-five meters of strata was measured 

in this facies on the southwest side of High Mountain; it consists of: 85.4 percent purple mudstone 

and silty mudstone, massive, containing floating volcanic lithoclasts; 9.7 percent arenite, in beds graded 

from coarse sand at base to fine sand at top, sometimes having low-angle cross lamination in upper 

part; 4.8 percent arenite containing pebbles at base 

of beds. The arenite beds are tabular, laterally continuous, and have sharp flat contacts. They are composed mainly of volcanic-rock fragments. The finegrained purple sedimentary rocks are probably a 

volcanic mudflow, as some of their lithoclasts are 

intruded by the muddy groundmass of the rock. Tuff 

and minor fossiliferous limestone are also present 

in this facies, as described by Watkins (1973). A 

unit of greenstone forms the upper part of the" Baird 

Formation in the southern part of its outcrop· area 
CC36 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

(Albers and Robertson, 1961) and is laterally equivalent to the volcaniclastic facies (fig. 18). 

Age relations of the Baird Formation are shown 

in figure 18. The lower part of the Baird includes the 

brachiopods Dorsoscyphus, Semicostella, and Striatifera, which indicate a Late Mississippian age (Watkins, 1973, 1974). The higher part of the Baird Formation is usually barren of fossils, but on the east 

slopes of Hanland Peak· it contains fusulinids and 

brachiopods of Pennsylvanian age (Skinner and 

Wilde, 1965; Watkins, 1973). Stratigraphic sections 

are not fossiliferous enough to locate a Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary precisely, and sedimentation appears to have been continuous across 

this interval. The youngest fauna in the Baird Formation is in the Hirz Mountain Limestone Member 

of Watkins (1973). This limestone crops out for less 

than 2 km along strike. It contains Diplanus and 

other brachiopods, which suggest a latest Pennsylvanian or Early Permian age. Where contacts have 

not b€en faulted or intruded by diorite, the Baird is 

conformably overlain by the Lower Permian McCloud Limestone. Watkins (1973) summarized evidence for the partial lateral equivalency of the upper part of the Baird and the lower part of the 

McCloud. 

SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENTS 

The Bragdon and Baird Formation record a general shoaling in the eastern Klamath area throughout Carboniferous time. The argillite facies of the 

Bragdon is a basin-and-slope deposit. Laminated 

argillite facies represent slow clay deposition under 

abiotic conditions, and wacke beds represent turbidite deposition. Upward increase in thickness and 

complexity of wacke beds in this facies indicates a 

change from distal to proximal turbidite deposition, 

and many of the thick conglomeratic wackes in the 

upper part of the Bragdon probably represent deposits of submarine channels near the top of a slope 

system. The beginnings of bioturbation and rare 

transported shelly fossils at the top of the argillite 

facies also suggest shoaling from basin towards shelf 

conditions. 

The volcaniclastic facies and shelly siltstone facies 

are shelf deposits, which are found at the top of the 

Bragdon and throughout the Baird Formation. The 

volcaniclastic facies represents submarine tuff deposits, volcanic mudflows, and sheif-type turbidite 

deposits derived ·from volcanic source areas. Its 

variations in age, thickness, and stratigraphic relations (fig. 18) suggest episodic deposition from local 

changing source areas such as volcanic islands. The 

shelly siltstone facies is a typical bioturbated offshore shelf deposit containing a rich fauna of invertebrates. Environmental variation within the 

facies is indicated by the presence of several types 

of benthic invertebrate communities (Watkins, 1973, 

1974). 

Shoaling in the eastern Klamaths culminated in 

Early Permian times with the .spread of shallow shelf 

carbonate deposits across the area. This environmental transition is best preserved in sections along 

the middle part of Nawtawaket Creek. Here, the 

upper part of the volcaniclastic facies. of the Baird 

Formation is interbedded with graded beds of redeposited limestone, and the entire sequence is overlain by thick massive carbonate rocks of the McCloud 

Limestone. These relations suggest that the McCloud was deposited at shallower depths than the 

vokaniclastic facies of the Baird and that downslope 

transport of carbonate sediment into terrigenous and 

volcanic deposits took place. The petrography of the 

McCloud also indicates very shallow shelf conditions 

(Demirmen and Harbaugh, 1965). 

FAUNAL AFFINITIES 

The occurrence of invertebrate faunas in the 

Bragdon and Baird Formations is shown in figure 18. 

Horizons containing fossils are relatively few and 

are separated by hundreds of meters of barren sedimentary rocks. The faunas are dominated by brachiopods, crinoids, bryozoans, mollusks, and corals; 

extensive species lists are contained in Smith (1894) 

and Watkins (1973). Taxonomic treatment of this 

fauna is limited, however, to descriptions of a few 

brachiopod, bivalve, and trilobite species by MuirWood and Cooper (1960), Dutro (1955), Wheeler 

(1935), and Watkins (1974, 1975). 

Biogeographically, the fauna of the Bragdon and 

Baird Formations is part of an Asiatic province and 

has few species in common with typical Carboniferous faunas of North America (Smith, 1894; Watkins, 1974). Watkins (1973, 1974) described eight 

invertebrate communities from the Bragdon and 

Baird that are characterized by differences in species 

composition, species diversity, trophic relations, and 

sedimentary occurrence. Additional undescribed 

communities in the Baird Formation are found 

southwest of Tater Hill and along Tom Dow Creek. 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC37 

CARBONIFEROUS FORMATIONS IN OREGON 

By EwART M .. BALDWIN 

ABSTRACT 

Carboniferous strata are known in Oregon only in the 

Suplee area near the head of Crooked River, about 25 km 

southeast of Paulina. Two formations have been named. The 

older is the middle and upper Meramecian and Chesterian 

Coffee Creek Formation, composed mainly of limestone, and 

the younger is the Morrowan Spotted Ridge Formation, composed of conglomerate, sandstone, and plant-bearing mudstone. 

Beds within the Elkhorn Ridge Argillite in the Durkee 

quadrangle contain a fusulinid fauna assigned to the 

Desmoinesian stage of the Pennsylvanian. All Carboniferous 

strata are probably allochthonous and were emplaced during plate movements. 

INTRODUCTION 

Carboniferous strata are known only from central 

Oregon, with a possible occurrence in northeastern 

Oregon. Early discoveries of Carboniferous strata 

are usually credited to Thomas Condon (1902). E. L. 

Packard (1928, 1932) and his students found and 

described many other localities. The beds crop out 

at the head of Crooked River near Suplee (fig. 19). 

The type sections of the Carboniferous formations 

are approximately 25 km southeast of Paulina in 

areas only partly covered by detailed topographic 

maps. 

r I ~~ ~~ I \ I f , lr MILES 

0 50 100 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 19.-Index map of Oregon showing locality of the 

Elkhorn Ridge Argillite, Pennsylvanian? ( 1P ?) ; Spotted 

Ridge Formation, Pennsylvanian ( IP); and Coffee Creek 

Formation, Mississippian (M). . 

Merriam and Berthiaume (1943) mapped and described the Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, and Permian rocks along upper Grindstone Creek, a tributary of Crooked River. They gave the name Coffee 

Creek Formation to the Mississippian limestone beds 

containing the large brachiopods noted by Packard. 

The Pennsylvanian plant-bearing beds associated 

with the conglomerate and sandstone were named 

the Spotted Ridge Formation, and the overlying Permian limestone was called the Coyote Butte Formation. Middle Devonian beds nearby were reported 

later by Kle_weno and Jeffords (1962), but they have 

not been formally named. 

. The most detailed mapping of the Paleozoic units 

has been by H. J. Buddenhagen, whose map is on 

open file at the State of Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries in Portland. Figure 20 

is a part of that map·. Buddenhagen (1967) published a summary of his work. The Suplee area was 

mapped by Dickinson and Vigrass (1965) who dealt 

mainly with the Mesozoic strata. Paleozoic formations are shown on the geologic map of eastern 

Oregon east of the 121st meridian (Walker, 1977). 

Structural relationships are difficult to determine 

because of intense deformation and because the 

rolling grass-covered terrain presents an. outcrop 

area of only about 10-15 percent. Thus, relationships between units must be inferred. A recent summary of the Paleozoic units of central and northeastern Oregon by Vallier, Brooks, and Thayer (1977) 

discusses lithology, stratigraphic units, and their 

ages. They conclude that contacts are commonly 

thrust planes and that faunas of Tethyan and North 

American affinities are intermixed because of plate 

movements. 

COFFEE CREEK FORMATION 

The Coffee Creek Formation was named by Merriam and Berthiaume (1943) for a small tributary 

of Grindstone Creek, southeast .. of Wade Butte (fig. 

20). The type-section is in sec. 30, T.18 S., R. 25 E. 

The area had been covered in reconnaissance by 

Packard (1928, 1932), but the most detailed mapping is by Buddenhagen (fig. 20). 

The Coffee Creek Formation is in'- fault .contact 

with the Spotted Ridge, Coyote Butte, and Triassic 

formations. No depositional contacts are.known, but 
CC38 

II 

14 

2 

II 

THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

··········· ·· ·· 

-.o~"' Jsn / _ 

---- _3.--- ~to··· 

EXPLANATION 

0 

Spotted Ridge 

Formation 

Coffee Creek 

Formation 

1 KILOMETER 

Vt MILE 

FIGURE 20.o-Carboniferous formations in central Oregon. Areas of Carboniferous rocks are shaded. Geology by H. J. 

Buddenhagen. 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC39 

the Triassic beds in Wade Butte appear to rest on 

the Mississip.pian limestone on the west. No underlying strata are known in juxtaposition. 

Merriam and Berthiaume described the type section as follows: 

A conspicuous linear outcrop at the type section shows about 

75 feet of strata dipping about 53° NW. Within the upper 

40 feet very dark gray to black argillaceous and carbonaceous 

limestones are in places rather thin-bedded. These deposits 

are locally packed with the brachiopod Striatifera. Forty-five 

feet from the top of the limestone section is a bed of very 

sandy limestone with Striatijera immediately below which 

lies the main Gigantella horizon. The usually large productid 

Gigantella is very profuse here in a fine-grained and rather 

pure limestone of deep neutral gray; the large brachiopod is 

apparently :restricted at this point to a bed varying in thickness from one to two feet. Within and below the Gigantella 

bed solitar$' and compound rugose corals are abundant; these 

are embe·tfded in gray limestone or immediately below in 

argi,llaceous limestones weathering to a light grayish· brown. 

In the lower 30 feet of this section these argillaceous layers 

are interbedded with purer gray limestones, while toward 

the base sandy limestones and calcareous sandstone 

predominate. 

The Formation is traceable along the strike for 

approximately 2 km, and Merriam and Berthiaume 

(1943, p. 151) estimated a thickness of 275-300 m. 

The Coffee Creek Formation was assigned a middle and upper Meramecian and Chesterian age by 

Poole and Sandberg (1977) who suggested that it 

was deposited in an inner-arc basin between the 

Antlers orogenic highland to the east and the 

Klamath-North Sierran island arc to the west. Poole 

and Sandberg (1977, P·· 82) stated: 

Our Mississippian mod·el involves continued Benioff-type 

subduction of Pacific oceanic crust beneath an island-arc complex above an east-dipping subduction zone separated from 

the continental slope and shelf by an inner-arc basin. 

SPOTTED RIDGE FORMATION 

The Spotted Ridge Formation is in juxtaposition 

with the Coffee Creek Formation and is separated 

from it and from nearby Permian and Triassic formations by faults. Cenozoic erosion has produced a 

rolling grass- and sagebrush-covered terrain containing shallow ravines. Outcrops vary according to 

the type of sedimentary rocks; the conglomerate 

and sandstone are more in evidence than the 

mudstone. 

The Spotted Ridge Formation was named by Merriam and Berthiaume (1943). They included in it 

approximately 300-500 m of beds ranging from 

coarse conglomerate and· cross bedded -sandstone to 

compact mudstone and noted that the formation was 

variable both vertically and laterally. Minor amounts 

of chert and magnetite sandstone are present. 

The conglomerate has been examined by Taubeneck (1969), who found that most granitic clasts 

are quartz diorite. Some clasts are granodiorite; one 

is quartz monzonite. The only clast having a gneissoid texture is quartz monzonite. The source of the 

conglomerate is unknown. . . 

A medium-grained sandstone was examined by 

Sam Boggs, Jr., of the University of Oregon. This 

rock contained 48 percent volcanic rock fragments, 

8 percent quartz, 4 percent polycrystalline quartz, 

1 percent chert, 15 percent plagioclase feldspar and 

no evidence of potassium feldspar, 8 percent authigenic chlorite, ( ?) 3 percent authigenic hematite and 

more than 10 percent matrix consisting mainly of 

chlorite. He stated: 

Some· of the softer rock fragments have been squee·zed and 

flattened by compaction and many of the fragments are partially to completely altered to chlorite. Most of the plagioclase grains show some degree of alteration to sericite. Using Gilbert's classification, this sandstone is a lithic (volcanic) wacke. 

The inconsistent .character of clastic sedimentary 

deposits and the intermixture of continental and marine beds indicate that the formation was deposited 

near the shoreline in a rapidly filling basin during a 

time of active tectonism. 

Carbonaceous sandstone and siltstone are present 

throughout the formation, but the upper part of the 

formation includes mudstone containing an abundant flora. Merriam and Berthiaume (1943, p. 152) 

described the location (locality 115) as follows: 

The lenticular mudstones and siltstones are of an unusual 

shade of medium-grayish olive green. Lamination is usually not well defined, and fissili.ty is undeveloped. The sediment 

is very compact and brittle. In general, the plants lie more 

or less parallel to bedding though occasional leaves and stems 

are decidedly oblique in position. The plants occur as coaly 

films; stems are much flattened but retain evidence of 

vascular structur:e. * * * WhiJ.e c·ertain tongues or lenses 

within the plant-bearing beds are marine or brackish it is 

believed that most of the sediments in this facies are landlaid, though an estuarine origin is not unlikely. The plants 

do not appear to have suffered transportation; in fact some 

calamite stalks with whorls of twigs appear to be essentially 

in position of growth. 

Read and Merriam (1940) examined the flora, but 

a more detailed study was made by Mamay and Read 

(1956), who found additional materfal. They considered the flora to be Early Pennsylvanian, somewhat equivalent to the Pottsville of Pennsylvania. 

A marine fauna is found in a ravine just north of 

the road that leads eastward from Coffee Creek over 

a low ridge and descends into Grindstone Creek. The 
CC40 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PEN~SYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

fauna, exposed just north of the south line of sec. 

30, T. 18 S., R. 25 E., is in gritty sandstone and 

fine conglomerate, that has clasts commonly as much 

as a centimeter in diameter. The writer visited the 

locality twice, accompanied by Gregory Miles, Jack 

Messe, Thomas Sharp·, and William Gandera. Daniel 

E. Penttila contributed fossils from the same 

outcrops. 

The fauna was identified by MacKenzie Gordon, 

Jr., of the U.S. Geological Survey in consultation 

with G. A. Cooper, National Museum of Natural 

History; and John Pojeta, Jr., and E. L. Yochelson, 

U.S. Geological Survey. The fauna is assigned by 

them to the Morrowan stage of the Pennsylvanian, 

with suggested correlations with other units. The 

following genera were identified : 

Corals: 

Lophophyllidium sp. -----------------

Bryozoans: 

Fenestella sp. -----------------------

Brachiopods: 

Schizophoria? sp. indet. --------------

Derbyia? sp. indet. ------------------

Rugoclostus? sp. indet. ---------------

Rhynchonelloid, gen. and sp. indet. ___ _ 

}Veospirifer sp. ----------------------

Pelecypods: 

1 

1 

fragment 

fragment 

fragment 

fragment 

3 

}Vuculopsis sp. -----------------------

Phestia sp. -------------------------- 14 

Permophorus sp. --------------------- 3 

~dmondia sp. -----------------------

Solemya sp. -------------------------

1 

1 

1 

Rostroconchs: 

Bransonia sp. ----------------------- 1 

Gastropods: 

Sinuatina sp. ------------------------ 3 

~uphemites sp. ---------------------- 2 

Bellerophon (Bellerophon) sp. ________ 9 

Retispira sp. indet. ------------------ 9 

Glabrocingulum (Ananias) sp. -------- 8 

Pleurotomariacean?, gen. and sp. indet. 2 

Shansiella? sp. ---------------------- 2 

Girtyspira sp. ----------------------- 1 

Meekospira? sp. indet. --------------- 2 

Ammonoids: 

Syngastrioceras? sp. indet. ----------- fragment 

Cancelloceras cf. C. cancellatum 

(Bisat) --------------------------- 20 (mostly 

fragments) 

Vermes?: 

Worm tube ot scaphopod ------------- 1 

Echinoderms: 

Crinoid columnals --:-----------------

MacKenzie Gordon, Jr. (written commun., 1977), 

notes: 

The preservation of the ammonoids permits identification of 

the genus Cancelloceras, a reticulate form of Gastrioceras, 

known in northwest Europe at the base of the Lower Gastrioceras (G.) Zone and recently recognized in the Hale Formation of Arkansas. This permits an Early Pennsylvanian 

age to be assigned to the Spotted Ridge Formation, from 

which these fossils were collected. 

Whether or not beds of later than Morrowan Pennsylvanian age are present in the Spotted Ridge Formation is 

not presently clear. A single well-preserved specimen from 

float in Crook County, Oregon, was described in 1940 as 

Eoasianites merriami Miller and Furnish. Now known as 

Somoholites merriami (Miller and Furnish), it has been 

recognized in the Barnett Hill Member of the Atoka Formation in Oklahoma and the Hare Fiord reef deposits of 

Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada, by Saunders (1971, p. 109). 

To this I can add the well known Smithwick Shale locality, 

of Atokan age, in McCulloch County, Texas. Whether this 

Atokan Somoholites from central Oregon came from some 

part of the Spotted Ridge Formation or whether it is from 

an as yet unrecognized stratigraphic unit in that vicinity is 

a matter yet to be determined. 

ELKHORN RIDGE ARGILLITE 

The Elkhorn Ridge Argillite was named by Gilluly 

(1937) for exposures in Elkhorn Ridge a short distance west of Baker. The formation consists of approximately 1,750 m of silicified highly contorted 

argillite, tuff, chert, and some limestone and greenstone. The argillite, which makes up the greater part 

of the formation, is fine grained, thinly laminated, 

and consists of quartz, andesine, muscovite, chlorite, 

and black carbonaceous material. 

The age and position of the Elkhorn Ridge Argillite has been discussed by Vallier, Brooks, and 

Thayer (1977). Fusulinids within the unit have 

been assigned to the Leonardian and the unit considered essentially equivalent to the Goyote Butte 

Formation of central Oregon, which overlies the 

Spotted Ridge Formation. Fusulinids from the 

Virtue Hills east of Baker were found by Bostwick 

and Koch (1962) and identified as Yabeina and 

Schwagerina. They were large, well advanced, and 

probably Ochoan. Thus, the preponderant evidence 

points to Middle and Late Permian age, with a possibility of some Triassic beds. 

However, D. A. Bostwick (written com.mun., 

1977) reported fusulinids of Middle Pennsylvanian 

(Desmoinesian) age in beds assigned to the Elkhorn 

Ridge Argillite in the lower half of sec. 2, T. lOS., 

R. 43 E., in the Durkee quadrangle. Apparently the 

Elkhorn Ridge Argillite ranges into the Middle 

Pennsylvanian as well unless rafted blocks of this 

age resembling the Elkhorn Ridge have been 

brought into juxtaposition during plate movements. 

Vallier, Brooks, and Thayer (1977, p. 461) discussed the age and setting for the emplacement of 

the Paleozoic units of northeastern Oregon. They 

stated: 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC41 

The rocks have undergone severe deformation, which placed 

supracrustal and basement rocks in structural contact to 

fonn a melange-like chaotic assemblage. Tectonic shuffling 

may have taken place on a major scale. For example, limestone bodies containing Tethyan fusulinid faunas are relatively close to those with non-Tethyan affinities (Bostwick, 

personal commun., 1977) * * * Known ag.es of the rocks in 

this terrane range from Pennsylvanian to Mesozoic, indicating that the chaotic mixture formed throughout a long time 

period, perhaps with last major movement in the Late Triassic or Early Jurassic. 

CARBONIFEROUS ROCKS IN WASHINGTON 

By ERNEST H. GILMOUR and WILBERT R. DANNER 

ABSTRACT 

Scattered Carboniferous rocks in both western and eastern Washington range in age from Chesterian to Desmoinesian and possibly Missourian. Some of the Carboniferous 

rocks in western Washington contain Tethyan faunas and 

are believed to have been tectonically transported north and 

east from the Permian equatorial area. Fossils in the Carboniferous rocks of northeastern Washington are thought to 

have eastern North American or Rocky Mountain affinities. 

48 

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0 

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50 

INTRODUCTION 

Carboniferous rocks are found in three areas of 

Washington: the San Juan Islands in northwest 

coastal Washington; the Northern Cascade Mountains; and scattered localities in northeast Washington (fig. 21). In western Washington, most fossils 

are found in limestone lenses that are interbedded 

50 

I 

I 

119° 118° 

---- lp-tjT ---i 

100 MILES 

I 

100 KILOMETERS 

ur 

FIGURE 21.-Carboniferous rocks and rocks of questionable Carboniferous age exposed in Washington. Locality numbers are 

referred to in text. Solid areas are known Carboniferous rocks and shaded areas are upper Paleozoic undifferentiated. 
CC42 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

with thick detrital sedimentary sequences and associated volcanic rocks. In eastern Washington, both 

Mississippian and Pennsylvanian fossiliferous limestone bodies have been described as biohermal buildups deposited in relatively shallow water in the eastern part of the "Cordilleran eugeosyncline." The 

western Washington occurrences are well exposed 

in beach cliffs on the San Juan Islands and in the 

alpine regions (fig. 22) of the Northern Cascade 

Mountains but are otherwise mantled by a thick 

sequence of Pleistocene and recent sediments and by 

dense vegetation. They have been folded and faulted 

and subjected to low-temperature-high-pressure 

metamorphism of the prehnite-pumpelleyite facies. 

Volcanism, plutonism, folding, and block faulting 

(Yates, 1970) have disturbed and metamorphosed 

much of the Carboniferous strata in eastern Washington. Also in eastern Washington, glaciofluvial, 

lacustrine, and alluvial deposits cover much of the 

bedrock. 

SAN JUAN ISLANDS 

Rocks of Early and Middle Pennsylvanian age in 

the San Juan Islands make up the middle part of the 

Trafton Group. On Orcas Island (fig. 21, loc. 1), 

they are estimated to be 150 to 300m thick (Danner, 

1966) . Small limestone pods and lenses containing 

Pennsylvanian fossils are interbedded with thinbedded shale, siltstone, graywacke, and volcanic 

flows and breccia. At least one thin seam of poor 

quality coal is found on the northeast coast of Orcas 

Island. 

The age of the Trafton Group ranges from Devonian to at least Late Permian, but until recently, no 

Mississippian strata have been conclusively identified, although brachiopods assigned to that age are 

found on Orcas Knob on Orcas Island associated 

with other faunas thought to be of Early Pennsylvanian age. Eostajfella, Nankinella, Millerella?, Tetrataxis, endothyrid Foraminifera, Komia, corals, 

FIGURE 22.-Lower Pennsylvanian Limestone of Red Mountain Subgroup exposed at the base of Washington Monument 

Peak, Skagit County, Washington, Northern Cascade Mountains. View looking northwest. Limestone is underlain by 

argillaceous rocks and overlain by coarse clastic rocks of Pennsylvanian or Early Permian age. 
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC43 

bryozoans, brachiopods, and one species of trilobite 

have been collected from the Carboniferous strata 

(Danner, 1966; Sada and Danner, 1973). 

The Trafton Group rocks are considered to be an 

exotic belt of Paleozoic rocks differing lithologically 

from other Paleozoic rocks in western Washington 

and containing a Tethyan fauna (Danner, 1977). 

This western Cordilleran Tethyan belt must have 

been tectonically transported north and east from 

the Permian equatorial area to its present location. 

The Trafton Group extends southeastward into 

the foothills and mountains of the southern part of 

the Northern Cascades, but until recently, only Permian faunas had been found in this area. One outcrop of radiolarian chert of this group (fig. 21, loc. 

1a) , previously assigned a Permian age, is now reported to contain conodonts and radiolarians of 

Mississippian age (J. Whetten and D. Jones, oral 

commun., 1977). 

NORTHERN CASCADE MOUNTAINS 

The Chilliwack Group (Daly, 1912; Moen, 1962; 

Smith, 1962; Monger, 1966; Danner, 1957, 1966, 

1970, 1977) contains rocks of Pennsylvanian age exposed in a northwest-southeast band (fig. 21, loc. 2) 

extending from near Harrison Lake in southwestern 

British Columbia south across the border into Washington State through Whatcom, Skagit, and Snohomish Counties in the Northern Cascade Mountains. 

The Chilliwack Group is composed of thin-bedded 

argillite, siltstone, and graywacke together with interbedded massive to well-bedded argillaceous limestone, conglomerate, minor radiolarian chert, and 

andesitic and dacitic volcanic rocks. The Pennsylvanian part of the group, (Red Mountain Subgroup) is 

composed largely of thin-bedded argillite and cherty 

argillite, siltstone, graywacke, and argillaceous limestone. The limestone is near the top of the subgroup 

and is overlain by sand~tone and conglomerate of 

either Pennsylvanian or Permian age which contain 

plant debris. Lepidodendron and Cal!Lmites (identified by G. E. Rouse) occur in this sandstone on Red 

Mountain. 

Thickness of the Pennsylvanian rocks is estimated 

to be 300 to 600 m. Lenticular beds of limestone at 

least 120 m thick crop out on Red Mountain at the 

type area of the subgroup (fig. 21, loc. 3). Much of 

the limestone is organoclastic and oolitic. 

The age of the Chilliwack Group ranges from at 

least Devonian to middle Permian. Some of the limestone contains brachiopods similar to Gigantoproductus and may be of Mississippian age, but the 

same limestones contain a microfauna identified as 

being of Early Pennsylvanian age and corals thought 

to be of Permian age. Other limestones containing 

abundant Endothyra may be of Mississippian age. 

Large crinoid columnals (fig. 23) 40 mm or more 

in diameter are characteristic of many of the Pennsylvanian limestones and are considered to be good 

index fossils for field identification of these Lower 

Pennsylvanian rocks. 

The faunas of the Chilliwack Group are nonTethyan but of a distinctive non-American aspect; 

the Chilliwack Group is believed to have formed as 

an island arc in a subtropical climate in the Paleozoic Pacific Ocean and to have been rafted in against 

North America during mid-Mesozoic tim·e. The Red 

Mountain Subgroup correlates with the Harper 

Ranch Group near Kamloops to the north in British 

Oolumbia and with the upper part of the Baird Formation in northern California. 

NORTHEASTERN WASHINGTON 

Rocks of known Carboniferous age and rocks of 

questionable Carboniferous age are· found in northeastern Washington. Some rocks mapped as Permian 

may include Carboniferous strata. Outcrops are usually limited in extent, tectonically disturbed and 

metamorphosed (Yates, 1970; Mills, 1977) ; consequently, it is difficult to correlate stratigraphic units 

any distance with much confidence. 

Documented Carboniferous rocks have been reported by various workers in several places. Enbysk 

(1956) reported both Mississippian and Pennsylvanian fossils near Kulzer (fig. 21, loc. 4) in southeastern Stevens County. The Upper Mississipp-ian 

(Chester) rocks include the ostracodes Graphiodactylus tenuis, Jonesina carterigera, and Cavellina 

aff. C. coryelli; coral Triplophyllum sp.; brachiopods 

Spirifer cf. S. pellaensis and Chonetes sp. Pennsylvanian fossils were identified (Enbysk, 1956) from 

a limestone near Springdale in southeastern Stevens 

County. These fossils include Spirifer aff. S. rockymontanus, Rhombopora nitidula, and LophophylZ:-

dium cf. L. proliferum. Six genera of Foraminifera 

were also identified, including Rhabdammina, Ammobaculites, Endothyra, Millerella, Globivalvulina, 

and Trochammina. Enbysk reports these species as 

having eastern North American or Rocky Mountain 

affinities. Recently, Bruce Wardlaw (oral commun., 

1977) has reported Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian or 

younger) fossils from ~the Kettle Falls quadrangle 

(fig. 21, loc. 1) in Stevens County. The fauna consists of brachiopods, pelecypods, trilobites .. and dendroid and fenestrate bryozoans. Some of the fossils 

described are Cyrtorostra s-p., CostaC.honetes sp., 
CC44 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

FIGURE 23.-Cut slab of crinoidal limestone of Early Pennsylvanian age, Red Mountain, Whatcom County, Washington. 

N eospirifer cf. N. triplactus? (Hall), Rhynchopora 

sp., Waagenoconcha sp., and Kutorginella sp. Miller 

(1969) reported at least 180-210 m ·of limestone containing abundant chert north of Valley (fig. 21, loc. 

6) that contains Mississippian fossils. McLaughlin 

and Simons (1951) described Late Mississippian 

(Chester) ostracodes from a limestone 2.4 km east 

of Valley (fig. 21, loc. 7), and other workers have 

identified Mississippian brachiopods, c·orals, and 

conodonts. 

An extensive area of sedimentary rocks including 

strata of Carboniferous ( ?) age has been referred to 

as upper Paleozoic undifferentiated or upper Paleozoic and Triassic (Mills, 1962) in northeastern 

Washingt-on (fig. 21, loc. 8). This area extends 

southward from the Canadian border and parallels 

the Columbia River to the confluence of the Columbia and Spokane Rivers. Some of these rocks are 

probably Pennsylvanian in age. 

Yates (oral commun., cited by Irwin, 1975) believes that the limestone lenses and associated graywacke and argillite in northern Stevens County (fig. 

21, loc. 9) are a southward continuation of fossiliferous rocks of the Mt. Roberts Formation of southern British Columbia. Little (1960) listed several 

fossils of "probable Pennsylvanian age" in the Mt. 

Roberts Formation of southern British Columbia. 

The Mt. Roberts Formation consists of fine clastic 

rocks intercalated with pyroclastic debris and mafic 

flow rocks and fossiliferous limestone lenses. Yates 

(1970) considered these rocks to have been deposited in the Cordilleran eugeosyncline. 

Some of the rocks previously mapped as Permian 

in northeastern Washington have recently been identified as Pennsylvanian ( ?) . West ( 1976) reported 

Pseudoendothyra sp. from a biohermal bank 5 km 

northeast of Kettle Falls (fig. 21, loc. 10). This limestone is in close proximity to similar limestones con-
CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC45 

taining Permian fusulinids. As additional detailed 

studies are conducted, more of the area identified as 

upper Paleozoic undifferentiated will probably be 

found to be of Carboniferous age. 

ECONOMIC PRODUCTS 

Limestone has been the principal economic product from Carboniferous r.1cks 1-:- Washington. Before 

1900, Carboniferous l.i· ·:1estonb was quarried and 

used for building stm .e and the production of burned 

lime. Since 1900, large quantities of limestone have 

been used for portland cement, in the paper pulp industry, and for agricultural purposes. Two excellent 

reports on the limestone resources of Washington 

have been published by Mills (1962) and Danner 

(1966). 

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----1897, Description of the Downieville quadrangle [Cali-' 

fornia]: U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas Folio 37, 8 p. 

Vallier, T. L., Brooks, H. C., and Thayer, T. P., 1977, Paleozoic rocks of eastern Oregon and western Idaho, in Pacific 

Coast Paleogeography Symposium, 1st, Bakersfield, Calif., 

1977, Paleozoic Pale<>geography of the western United 

States: Los Angeles, Soc. Econ. Paleontologists and Mineralogists, p. 455-466. 

Vaughan, F. E., 1922, Geology of San Bernardino Mountains 

north of San Gorgonio Pass: California, Univ. Pub., Dept. 

Geol. Sci., Bull., v. 13, no. 9, p. 319-411. 

Walker, George, 1977, Geologic map of Oregon east of the 

121st Meridian: U.S. Geol. Survey Misc. Geol. Inv. Map 

I-902. 

Watkins, R., 1973, Carboniferous faunal associations and stratigraphy, Shasta County, northern California: Am. Assoc. 

Petroleum Geologists Bull. 57, no. 9, p. 1743-1764. 

---1974, Carboniferous brachiopods from northern California: Jour. Paleontology, v. 48, no. 2, p. 304-325. 

---1975, Paleoe,cology of some Carboniferous Pectinacea: 

Lethaia, v. 8, no. 2, p. 125-131. 

Weisenburg, C. W., and Ave Lallemant, Hans, 1977, PermoTriassic emplacement of the Feather River ultramafic 

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[abs.]: Geol. Soc. America Abs. with Programs, v. 9, no. 

4, p. 525. 

West, B. J., 1976, Carbonate petrology apd paleoenvironmental analysis of Pennsylvanian ( ?) and Permian limestone 

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CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND WASHINGTON CC49 

Wiese, J. H., 1950, Geology and mineral resource·s of Neenach 

quadrangle, California: California Div. Mines Bull. 153, 

53 p. 

Woodford, A. C. and Harris, T. F., 1928, Geology of Blackhawk Canyon, San Bernardino Mountains, California: 

California Univ., Dept. Geol. Sci. Bull. vol. 17, p. 265-304. 

Yate:s, G. Y., 1970, Geologic background of the Metaline and 

North port mining districts, Washington; in Weissenborn, 

A. E., Armstrong, F. G., and Fyles, J. T., eds., Lead-zinc 

deposits in the Kootenay Arc, northeastern Washington 

and adjacent British Columbia: Washington Div. Mines 

and Geology Bull. 61, p. 17-39. 
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian 

(Carboniferous) Systems in the United States~ 

Alaska 

By J. THOMAS DUTRO, JR. 

G E 0 L 0 G I C A L S U R V E Y P R 0 F E S S I 0 N A L P A P E R .1 1 1 0 - DD 

Prepared in cooperation with the 

State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources, 

Division of Geological and Geophysical Survf(Ys 

Historical review and summo:ry of 

areal, stratigraphic, structural, 

and economic geology of Mississippian 

and Pennsylvanian rocks in Alaska 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1979 

CONTENTS 

Page 

Abstract ----------------------------------------------------------------- DDl 

Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------ 1 

Acknovvldegtnents -------------------------------------------------------- 2 

llistory ------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 

Geologic setting ____ -------- ___________________ ----------------- ___ _______ 4 

Lithostratigraphy --------------------------------------------------------- 5 

Environments of deposition ___________________________ --- _-- _-------------- 8 

Biostratigraphy ---------------------------------------------------------- 8 

Igneous and metamorphic rocks ------------------------------------------- 9 

Economic products ------- _ ---------- ______ ------------------------------- 9 

R·eferences cited _ ------- _________ -------- _________ ----------- _ ___ ___ __ _ __ 15 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page Page 

FIGURE 1. Map showing distribution of Carboniferous 4. Chart showing biostratigraphic zonations in 

rocks in Alaska ---------------------- DD2 the Carboniferous of Alaska ___________ 12 

2. Regional stratigraphic correlation chart of 5. Isopach map of Lisburne Group in the subthe Lisburne Group, northern Alaska ___ 6 surface of the eastern Arctic Slope, 

3. Index map of Arctic Alaska and adjacent Alaska ------------------------------ 13 

Canada shovving locations of outcrops of 6. Reservoir data summary for the Lisburne 

Carboniferous rocks in Alaska and loca- Group in the subsurface of the eastern 

tions of sections including sections that Arctic Slope, Alaska ------------------ 14 

contain the Lisburne Group ----------- 10 

III 
THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN (CARBONIFEROUS) SYSTEMS 

IN THE UNITED STATES-ALASKA 

By J. THOMAS DuTRO, JR. 

ABSTRACT 

The Carboniferous rocks of Alaska are more widely distributed than those of any other Paleozoic system. The Lisburne Group of northern Alaska contains a great variety of 

carbonate facies, predominantly shallow-water deposits, but 

including some outer shelf and slope deposits. In east-central 

Alaska, the deep-water Ford Lake Shale is succeeded by the 

Calico Bluff Formation, which was probably deposited in a 

slope environment. Scattered throughout central and southwestern Alaska are remnants of deep-water laminated chert 

and argillite deposits containing a f.ew carbonate members 

that may be of shelf-margin or upper slope or.igin. In southeastern Alaska, Carboniferous deposition began with deepwater chert and volcaniclastic rocks, but most of the sequence 

reflects upward-shoaling shallow-water carbonate deposition, 

perhaps in an island archipelago. 

Correlations among the various sequences in Alaska and adjacent are:as are based mainly on the foraminiferal zonation 

of B. L. Mamet and on other fossils, among which the cephalopods are most significant. Corals, brachiopods, echinoderms, 

and mollusks are regionally important guides in certain parts 

of the section, and fusulinids are quite useful in the upp~-r 

Carbolliiferous deposits. Fossil plants, although minor elements 

of the total biota, are important in the Lower Mississippian 

clastic sequences and have provided a spectacular breakthrough in the recognition of terrestrial Upper Pennsylvanian 

strata in the western Alaska Range. 

The most important economic factor .in the Carboniferous 

deposits of the State is the oi.l and gas potential of the Lisburne Group in the subsurface of northern Alaska. The 

abundance of carbonate rocks for potential industrial uses is 

an untapped resource for posSJible future development. 

INTRODUCTION 

Rocks of Carboniferous age are widely distributed 

in Alaska (fig. 1), representing more outcrop area 

than those of· any other Paleozoic system. Carbonate 

rocks of the Lisburne Group compose most of the 

thrust sheets and folded structures in the central 

and northern Brooks Range. This sequ.ence in northern Alaska was deposited by the sea onlapping older 

terranes, the first rocks in the sequence are shore 

and nearshore clastic rocks. The succeeding Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian carbonate strata 

were deposited in a complex of predominantly shallow-water marine environments. Similar carbonate 

sections are also present at the western tip of the 

Seward Peninsula and on St. Lawrence Island in the 

B€rring Sea. The Carboniferous of east-central 

Alaska begins with deep-water dark cherlt and shale 

of the Ford Lake Shale; the Ford Lake is overlain by 

slope deposits of limestone and shale, the Calico 

Bluff Formation, part of which is. as young as Early 

Pennsylvanian. Although the Carboniferous is 

spars·ely rep1resented in central, southern, and south.:. 

western Alaska, deep-water clastic and volcaniclastic 

rocks are present in the Alaska Range,' and bedded 

chert and argillite are present in the Medfra quadrangle. Recently discovered terrestrial plant-bearing 

conglomerates of Pennsylvanian ag~ crop out on Mt. 

Dall in the Talkeetna quadrangle, southwest of Mt. 

McKinley. This is the first positive evidence of nonmarine late Carboniferous deposits "in Alas.ka. In 

southeastern Alaska, an essentially carbonate se~­

quence of Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian 

rocks is represented by the Iyoukeen Formation at 

Freshwater Bay and by the Peratrovich and Klawak 

Formations and the Ladrones Limestone in the 

Prince of Wales Island. area. In addition, the Saginaw Bay Formation, which contains a.lowe1r volcanic 

member, a black chert memiber, a chert and limestone mem·ber, and an upper silty J.imesrbone member, 

is p•res.ent in the northern part of Kuiu Island. and 

on the· Keku Islets. The Saginaw Bay Formation 

appears to include correlatives of the Peratrovich, 

Ladrones, and Klawak. 

Most of the exposures in northern Alaska are 

north of the tree line and, consequently, are magnificent. Except where covered by deposits of mountain glaciers and recent talus cones and colluvium; 

ca~rboniferous strata are totally exposed, and opportunities for unravelling the stratigraphy, structure, 

and geologic history of the region are unexcelled. 

Much of the lowland region of central and southern 

Alaska is tree covered, and exposures are limited to 

DDl 
DD2 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

68" 

Yukon--.... '? Christiar;' quadrangle _---

____ _.....-- ........ __,- _., _., 

ARC Koyukuk~ ---I!£--...§.e_!!_ ~!_B.£ !::E 

(Patton and others,_j977)--

~--y-- , 

62" ......._ 

60"......._ 

58"......._ 

56" 

0 100 206 300 400 500MILES 

I r I I I 11 I I I I 

0 1 00 200 300 400 500 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 1.-Map showing distribution of Carboniferous rocks (shaded areas) in Alaska. Modified from Armstrong (1975). 

river bluffs and isolated hilltop outc.rops. Some Carboniferous strata crop out above the timberline in 

the Alaska Range, and exposures in southeastern 

Alaska are superb along the island coastlines where 

the great tidal range provides hectares of fine outcrop from low tide to midtide. 

The stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper 

has not been reviewed by the Geologic N ame1s. Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey. The nomenclature used here conforms with the· current usage 

of the State of Alaska Department of Nat ural Resources, Division of Geological and Geophysical 

Surveys. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

I am indebted to many people who by their instruction, guidance, assistance, and forbearance have 

made this paper possible. My first work on the Lisburne Group in 1949 was with A. L. Bowsher, who 

furnished a never-t1o-be-forgotten introduction to 

the subtleties of Carboniferous strata and fossils. 

Through the years, I have had the good fortune to 

be associated in Alaskan field p~rojects with W. P. 

Brosge, H. N. Reiser, R. L. Detterman, W. W. Patton, Jr., I. L. Tailleur, M. Churkin, Jr., E. G. Sable, 

M.D. Mangus, D. H. Richter, R. M. Chapman, B. L. 

Reed, C. L. Sainsbury, R. A. Loney, W. H. C:ondon, 
ALASKA DD3 

M. ·C. Lachenbruch, A. H. Lachenbruch, and many 

others. All these men, through stimulating discussi,ons about the geologic interpretation of innumerable puzzling field relationships, provided the continuing incentive to pursue my studies. of the 

Paleo.zo.ic of Alaska. 

G. Al'lthur Cooper, Carl 0. Dunbar, James Steele 

Williams, Helen M. Duncan, and Edwin M. Kirk, 

through their dedica,ted pursuit of taxonomic and 

biostratigraphic problems, S·eta high standard which 

has guided my own paleontologic work. 

I am especially indebted to A. K. Armstrong, 

Bernard L. Mamet, Mackenzie Gordon, Jr., Raymond C. Douglass, I. G. Sohn, S. H. Mamay, and 

E. L. Yochelson for their expertise, freely shared, 

on the groups of fossils that are their specialbies. 

In addition, the work iOf K. J. Bird and C. F. Jo·rdan has been relied on, in large part, for the analysis of the oil and gas potential of the Lisburne Group 

in northern Alaska. 

Finally, I am grateful to· a group of supervisors 

who had the vision and faith in our work to support 

projects, at times rather esoteric, which permitted 

all of us to explore together the fascinating Carboniferous geology of Alaska. These farsighted 

chiefs include George Gryc, Preston E. Cloud, Jr., 

Wilm•ot H. Bradley, George L. Gates, Ralph L. Miller, Charles L. Anderson, and Thomas G. Ovenshine. 

HISTORY 

The first report of Carboniferous rocks from 

Alaska is probably that of Ca.pt. F. W. Beechey 

(1831) who, along with other early coastal explorers, was awed by the spectacular cliff exposures 

near Cape Lisburne. The first mention of Carboniferous· fossils is by W. Buckland (1839, p. 171) who 

reported that fossils collected from Cape Lisburne 

by the Beechey party are indistinguishable from 

those of the Derbyshire Limestone and listed "producta Martini, other productae, Iithostrotion, flustrae 

and trilobites." In the latter half of the 19th century, 

several other writers referred to the occurrence of 

Carboniferous fossils in Alaska, most of the·m relying on Buckland's earlier statement. By the end of 

the century, ~cattered information on Paleozoic fossils, including those of the Carboniferous, was summarized by Charles Schuchert, W. H. Dall, and F. H. 

Knowlton (in Dall, 1896, p. 864-865, 876-906) in the 

17th Annual Report of the U.S. Geological S uryey. 

During the first decade of thi.s century, geologic 

exploration related to the s.earch for gold and other 

mineral deposits added substantial kn~)Wledge concerning the distribution of Carboniferous rocks in 

Alaska. The Lisburne formation was named by F. C. 

Schrader (1902), who provisionally assigned it to 

the Devonian. By 1906, however, G. H. Girty and 

David White (in Collier, 1906) had correctly assigned the Lisburne fossils to the early 

Carboniferous. 

Carboniferous rocks were found during the geological reconna-issance conducted in conjunction with 

the work of the International Boundary Survey in 

1911 and 1912. The part of the boundary betw·een 

the Yukon and Porcupine Rivers was studied by the 

Geological Survey of Canada (Cairnes, 1914). The 

part from the Porcupine River northward to the 

Arctic Coast was examined by the U.S. Geological 

Survey (Maddren, 1912). Cairnes recognized three 

major rock units-a shale group, a limestone-chert 

group, and the Nation River Formation. Subsequent 

work has shown that the Nation River is Upper 

Devonian and that much of the shale group is lower 

Paleo·zoic, but the limestone-chert group is probably 

what is now recognized as the Calico Bluff Formation. G. H. Girty of the U.S. Geological Survey 

identified many fossil collections and showed that 

these rocks are, indeed, of Carboniferous. age, although many subsequent refine·ments in the ages and 

correlations have been made. North of the Porcupine 

River, Maddren (1912) found large areas of Carboniferous limestone when he crossed the Brooks 

Range. He repor,ted that these rocks stretch for 

nearly 64 km north of Ammerman Mountain and 

that they contain Carboniferous fossils. Unfortunately, Maddren's maps and com.plete report were 

never published, but much of the information has 

been incorporated into later U.S. Geological Survey 

maps and papers. 

A flurry of activity in the 1920's related to the 

exploration of Naval Petroleum Reserve (NPR) No. 

4 greatly increased the understanding of the geologic 

history of northern Alaska. Specific details of Carboniferous geology and an excellent summary of all 

earlier exploration were given by Smith and Mertie 

(1930). During the sam.e decade, detailed exploration in southeastern Alaska resulted in the first regional geologic synthesis of the panhandle by Buddington and Chapin (1929). The Yukon-Ta-nana 

region, a third maj o·r area of Carboniferous rocks, 

was examined primarily by J. B. Mertie, Jr., in the 

1920's and early 1930's. Mertie's, conclusions regarding the stratigraphy, structure, and general geology 

o.f this vast region were presented in two· major 

papers (1930 and 1937). The general state of geologic knowledge of Alaska befo·re World War II was 
DD4 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

summarized by P. S. Smith (1939), who discussed 

the Carboniferous deposits in each region and presented a very generalized correlation chart. 

Until World War II, practically all the paleontologic and biostratigraphic information on the Carboniferous of Alaska was the result of the work of 

G. H. Girty, who provided the extensive faunal lists, 

age designations, and corre·lations that appeared in 

the reports of the U.S. Geological Survey during the 

first four decades of the century. 

Work in NPR No.4 was renewed during the latter 

years of World War II. From 1944 to 1953, more 

than 300 man-months of geol·ogic fieldwork greatly 

increased the knowledge of the geology of Carboniferous deposits in about 54,390 km2 in northern 

Alaska and culminated in a series of regional papers 

and maps (Reed, 1958). 

Modern stratigraphic and paleontologic studies 

began with the work related to the exploration of 

NPR No. 4. New form&tional units were named, and 

a preliminary biostratigraphic zonation was established (Bowsher and Dutro, 1957). Several groups 

of :£ossils were described in some detail (Gordon, 

1957; Yochelson and Dutro, 1960; Sohn, 1971). 

In the early 1960's, major oil companies instituted 

massive regional studies and examined the possibility that the widespread Carboniferous carbonate 

rocks in northern Alaska would becom·e oil and gas 

p~oducers. Detailed regional, stratigraphic, facies, 

petrographic, and depositional analyses were made. 

A. K. Armstrong, now with the U.S. Geological Survey, contributed significant pap~ers on coral biostratigraphy, carbonate petrography, and environmental reconstructions of the Lisburne rocks (1970a, 

b,c;1972a,b; 1975). 

Major advances in understanding the Carbonifer .. 

ous of southeastern Alaska resulted from detailed 

mapping and stratigraphic work of U.S. Geological 

Survey parties during the past 20 years. The Peratrovich and Klawak Formations and the Ladrones 

Limestone on Prince of Wales Island were described 

by Eberlein and Churkin (1970) ; and the Iyoukeen 

Formation of Freshwater Bay was named by Loney, 

Condon and Dutro (1963). Fusulinids from the Ladroues and Klawak indicate that they are early Middle 

Pennsylvanian (Douglass, 1971), Mississippian 

corals and biostratigraphy of the Peratrovich were 

described by Armstrong (1970c). Muffler (1967) 

described the Saginaw Bay Formation in the Keku 

Islets and nearby northern Kuiu Island; the Saginaw 

Bay Formation contains fossils o.f Mississippian and 

Pennsylvanian ages. 

A recent summary of the Carboniferous of most 

of Alaska, except the southeastern panhandle, was 

prepared by Brosge and Dutro (1973). Biostratigraphic studies emphasizing the calcareous microfossils have been an important part of all recent 

work in the Carboniferous. Microfauna! zonations 

established by B. L. Man1et are used for general correlations in Alaska as well as in most other parts of 

North America (fig. 2). Papers documenting this 

zonation include those by Armstrong, Mamet, and 

Dutro (1970, 1971), Mamet and Armstrong (1972), 

and Armstrong and Mamet (1975, 1977). 

GEOLOGIC SETTING 

Although in several areas no break in deposition 

is apparent between Lower Mississippian rocks and 

uppermost Devonian strata, at most places the Carboniferous rocks lie unconformably on older rocks 

(Churkin, 1973). In parts of the western and central 

Brooks Range, no structural break separates rocks 

as old as Mamet's Foraminifera Zone 6 from the 

underlying marine Devonian beds of Famennian age. 

In the central Brooks Range, where the highest Devonian unit is nonmarine, a basal Mississippian littoral sandstone lies disconformably on the upper 

Kanayut clastic sequence. In the eastern Brooks 

Range, Mississippian strata are regionally unconformable on rocks as old as Precambrian. Broad 

anticlinoria characterize the eastern Brooks Range 

and extend as far west as the Doonerak anticlinorium in the northeastern Wiseman quadrangle, 

where the Carboniferous rests with ·angular unconformity on rocks as old as Ordovician ( Grybeck and 

others, 1977). In the extreme northeastern part of 

the State, Mississippian beds were deposited across 

a varied older terrane that ranges in age from Precambrian through early Middle Devonian (Reiser, 

1970). 

In east-central Alaska, where all the Upper Devonian and Carboniferous strata were deposited in relatively deep water, no depositional break is apparent 

at the boundary. In southeastern Alaska, the Mississippian marine shale and carbonate rocks are disconformable on Upper Devonian marine volcanic 

sequences, but the precise amount of time that is not 

represented by ro·cks is unknown. 

The geology of pre-Carboniferous rocks is best 

shown in northern Alaska where Pr~ambrian 

through lower Middle Devonian strata· show the 

effects of at least three orogenic ep,isodes. The older 

Precambrian is a sequence of quartz-mica schist 

and rela·ted metamorphic rocks that is succeeded by 
ALASKA DD5 

weakly metamorphosed marine deposits of late 

Precambrian, Cambrian, and Ordovician age. Middle 

Devonian clastic rocks lie with angular unconform~ 

ity on the Ordovician in the southwestern part of the 

Demarcation Point quadrangle. The onlapping Car~ 

boniferous deposits cover all older ·Sitructures. Gra~ 

nitic intrusive bodies in the Mt. Michelson-Jago 

River area are of two ages, 430 m.y. (million years) 

and 360 m.y., and volcanic rocks of sim:ilar ages have 

been dated from the core of the Doonerak anticlinorium (430 m.y. and 370 m.y.-380 m.y.). Equivalents 

of both the Taconic and Acadian mountain-building 

episodes of eastern N ort'h America clearly are a part 

of the early history of northern Alaska. 

In most regions, Carbonife~ous rocks are overlain 

unconformably by Permian or younger sequences. 

An exception is the east-central Alaska Range where 

volcaniclastic rocks of the Pennsylvanian Slana Spur 

Formation grade upward into limesto~e and sandy 

volcaniclastic limestone of the Wolfcampian Eagle 

Creek Formation. 

Carboniferous and early Meso·zoic strata were subsequently folded and faulted beginning in Late 

Jurassic time. In northern Alaska, deformation is 

most intense in the core of the Brooks Range where 

long-distance thrust faulting and imbricate thrust 

patte·rns are ubiquitous. Further north, as· seen in 

the northeastern part of the range, tectonic style 

tends to more open folds and high-angle reverse 

faulting. Broadly folded Neogene strata at the Arctic 

Coast near Barter Island indicate that tectonism 

continued until relatively recent times. 

LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY 

Most of :the major stratigraphic units in the 

Alaskan Carboniferous rocks have been examined in 

at least a broad reconnaissance way, and most units 

examined have been given formal names. 

In northern Alaska, the Lisburne Group is composed of predominantly carbonate rocks of Mississippian and Early Pennsylvanian age. Vadous formation and informal memher names are applied to 

major mapped units, most of which reflect regional 

facies variations (Bowsher and Dutro, 1957; Sable 

and Dutro, 1961). Figure 2 shows the correlation of 

the Lisburne Group in sections whose l;ocations are 

shown on figure 3. 

Lower Mississippian clastic rocks, including the 

Kayak Shale, Kekiktuk Conglomerate, and Itkilyariak Formation (Mull and Mangus, 1972) ,have been 

mapped on small-scale regional maps, together with 

Devonian clas·tic units, as the Endicott Group. This 

is a convenient expedient because of the onlapping 

nature of the deposi·tion from the Late Devonian into 

the Middle Mississippian. 

In east-central Alaska, the Upper Devonian and 

Lower Mississippian Ford Lake Shale apparently 

grades upward into the Calico Bluff Formation of 

Late Mississippian and Early Pennsylvanian age. 

Throughout a broad belt in central and Slouthwes·tern Alaska, fragments of a deep-water argillitechert-volcanic rock terrane have recently yielded 

radiolarians and conodonts of Ca·rboniferous age. In 

the past, some of these outcrops. have been mapped 

as Circle Volcanics, Rampart Group, or Livengood 

Chert. Although the type Livengood Chert has subsequently been shown to be of Ordovician and, 

perhaps, Silurian age, some exposures in the Medfra, 

Ruby, and Kantishna quadrangles have yielded Carboniferous fossils (Patton and others, 1977). 

In the western Alaska Range (Talkeetna quadrangle) , pods· of limestone in deep-water graywackeargillite sequences have yielded both Chesterian and 

Atokan Foraminifera (Reed and others, 1978). In 

the east-central Alaska Range, the Rainbow Mountain sequence is known to be of Middle or Late Pennsylvanian age (Rowett, 1969). Further to the east, 

Atokan and younger volcaniclastic strata ·containing 

thin limestone beds are included in the Slana Spur 

Formation. This formation is underlain by the 

Tetelna Volcanics, a thick pile of marine flows and 

associated volcanic rocks that may be of Early Pennsylvanian or Mississippian age (Richter and Dutro, 

1975; Richter, 1976). 

Although Carboniferous rocks. are found in only a 

few plac·es in southeastern Alaska, they are very 

fossilifel'fous and are predominantly shallow-water 

carbonates. The Peratrovich Formation, whic:h is 

more than 300 m thick, includes relatively deep 

water slope deposits of shale, chert, and volcanic 

rocks at its base and grades upward through shelf 

limestones to shoal-water carbonates near its top 

(Armstrong, 1970c). The Per31tl'fovich is d:isconformably overlain by two formations, both probably 

of Early or early Middle Pennsylvanian age. The 

Klawak Formation is composed of 150-300 m of 

calcareous sandstone and siltstone and minor beds of 

limestone and chert-pebble conglomerate. The Ladrones Limestone, on the other hand, is' nearly pure 

massive-bedded lime mudstone containing some 

dolomitic beds and is as much as 300 m. thick. No 

great time gap existed between deposition of the 

Peratrovich and deposition of the· overlying Pennsylvanian strata as all Mamet's Foraminifera Zones 
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THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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FIGURE 2.-Regional stratigraphic correlation chart of the Lisburne Group, northern Alaska and adjacent Canada. 
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TOURNAISIAN I 

-i -:::;,-

Limestone I» ... 

~~ 

Alapah Limestone Wahoo Limestone 

Alapah LimestonE: Wahoo Limestone 

Alapah Limestone Wahoo Limestone 

Alapah Limestone Wahoo Limestone 

Alapah Limestone Wahoo Limestone 

Wahoo 

Alapah Limestone Limestone 

~~~a~ 

o~!!. Wahoo '0-.C Limestone ~ ~'f 

Alapah Limestone 

Cll 

-111tD 

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~g-~ Alapah Limestone (1)~0 

Q. -· ...... Cll 

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;- !!!.g (') 0 (1) 

(1) ~ ~ 

(1) 

VISEAN 1 NAMURIAN 1 WESTPHALIAN 

Itkillik Lake 

60C-1 to 72 

Echooka River 

60E-601 to 690 

lkiakpuk Creek 

68A-1 

Western Sadlerochit 

Mountains 

69A-1 

Sadlerochit Mountains 

68A-3 

Sunset Pass 

68A-4A,48 

Old Man Creek 

69A-4 

Egaksrak River 

68A-5 

West Trout Lake 

CANADA 

Trout Lake 

CANADA 

Joe Mountain 

CANADA 

STAGE 

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DDS THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

are present, including Zone 19, which is the highest 

Mississippian zone in the Mamet classification. 

ENVIRONMENTS OF DEPOSITION 

The Carboniferous of northern Alaska was a time 

of northward and eastward onlap across an older 

complex geological terrane. Initial deposits are now 

littoral sandstone and shallow-water shale and shaly 

carbonate rock. Although many fluctuations are represented in the thick carbonate sequence, the general 

picture is one of regional shallow-water deposition 

th~oughout the Mississippian. In Meramecian time, 

platform carbonates graded southward into deeper 

water dark limestone and chert in some areas. In 

the northeast, nearly continuous deposition across 

the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary extended 

the regionally shallowing pattern into the early 

Middle Pennsylvanian rocks of At,okan age (Wood 

and Armstrong, 1975). 

Throughout most of the rest of the State, the Mississippian deposits were laid down on the outer shelf 

or upper slope. In a few places, limestones probably 

of shelf-edge origin contain shallow-water fossils 

that can be correlated with shallow-shelf deposits 

elsewhere. 

Several of the deeper water Carboniferous deposits have been interpreted recently as parts of an 

extensive ophiolite terrane in the central and southwestern parts of the State (Patton and others, 

1977). Although the mafic belts are thought to have 

been emplaced in the Jurassic, associated laminated 

cherts and volcaniclastic rocks have yielded Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, and Permian fossils in at 

least five places. 

The upward-shoaling sequence in southeastern 

Alaska, because of its regional setting and local distribution, may well represent carbonate deposition 

in a volcanic archipelago (Churkin and Eberlein, 

1977). 

BIOSTRATIGRAPHY 

All correlations of the Carboniferous of Alaska 

are integrated by using the scheme of foraminiferal 

zones proposed by B. L. Mamet (Mamet and Skipp, 

1970; Sando and others, 1969). In this numbered 

sequence of zones, 6 through 9 are Tournaisian, 10 

through 16 are Visean, 17 through 20 are Namurian, 

and 21 is early Westphalian. The MississippianPennsylvanian boundary is about ~t the boundary 

between Zones 19 and 20. In terms of midCJontinent 

stratigraphy, the Chesterian-Meramecian boundary 

lies at about the boundary between Zones 16int and 15, 

and the Meramecian-Osagean boundary is approximately at the boundary between Zones 10 and 9. 

Beds of Zone 6 and pre-7 ages are equivalent to the 

Kinderhookian, but the Kinderhookian-Osagean 

boundary has not been precisely set. 

The first generalized sequence of megafossil zones 

was discussed by Bowsher and Dutro (1957, p. 5-6) 

and was later slightly modified by Y ochelson and 

Dutro (1960, p. 114-115). These assemblage zones 

are most useful for identifying informal subdivisions 

of the Wachsmuth and Alapah Limestones in the 

central Brooks Range. 

Cephalopods from the Carboniferous of Alaska 

were described by Gordon (1957), who placed the 

several occurrences of nautiloids and goniatites in 

the general zonal scheme that he had devised for 

North America. Correlations with the worldwide 

zones were also shown. 

Gastropods were described by Yochelson and 

Dutro (1960), and their rel3!tionship to the megafaunal zonation was indicated. The systematic descriptions of corals that have been published during 

the last decade by Armstrong (1970c; 1972a, b) 

were related by that author (1975) to the biostratigraphic scheme for the Lisburne Group, and a coral 

zonation was established. New ostracodes. were deseribed by Sohn (1971), and, although they appear 

to be of limited biostratigraphic use, they provide 

valuable paleontologic documentation for the Mississippian fossil assemblages in Alaska. 

Few Pennsylvanian megafossils have been described, but calcareous Foraminifera were described 

by Armstrong and Mamet (1977), and Pennsylvanian fusulinids of southeastern Alaska were described by Douglass ( 1971). 

Mississippian biostratigraphic zonations and occurrences of the several invertebrate gl'loups that 

have been studied in more detail are shown on figure 4. As a result of discussion with Mackenzie 

Gordon, Jr., and A. K. Armstrong (oral communs., 

1978) , positions of some of the cephalopod and coral 

zones are adjusted slightly from those originally 

published. 

Fossil plants are not abundant in the Carboniferous of Alaska, and no coal beds. of any significance 

are known. Nevertheless, plant fragments are present in the dark shales near the base of the Mississippian sequence throughout ~the Brooks Range. Many 

of these collections have been studied by S. H. 

Mamay during the past two decades. A combined list 

of this Mississippian floral assemblage includes 

Lepidodendropsis sp., Calamites sp., Stigmaria .. cf. S. 

ficoides Sternberg, Lepidodendron cf. L. veltheimii 
ALASKA DD9 

Sternberg, Lepidophyllum sp., Lepidost1·obus sp., 

Rhodea vespertina Read, and Triphyllopteris sp. According to Mamay (written commun., 1970), this 

assemblage represents Floral Zone 2 of Read and 

Mamay (1964). 

Plants were collected years ago from carbonaceous 

shale in the exposures along the sea coast south of 

Cape Lisburne (David White, in Collier, 1906, p. 

22). In a review of these floras, Mamay (written 

commun., 1964) identified several forms among new 

collections that permitted him to recognize both 

Zones 2 and 3 of Read and Mamay ( 1964) . The 

oldest marine fossils from beds lying above the 

plant-bearing strata are now known to be assignable 

to Mamet's Microfauna! Assemblage Zone 13 (middle Meramecian) ; thus, the Early Mississippian age 

traditionally assigned to Floral Zones 1 and 2 of 

Read and Mamay (1964) seems to be justified, and 

Floral Zone 3 must begin as early as Meram·ecian. 

Until very recently, no known fossils of Pennsylvanian plants had been reported from Alaska or, 

for that matter, from any part of the western Cordillera north of Washington. In 1976, however, 

Bruce Reed of the U.S. Geological Survey collected 

an assemblage ·of plants that S. H. Mamay (written 

commun., 1977) reported to be "Middle Pennsylvanian, probably no lower than Alleghenian * * * possibly Floral Zone 10 of Read and Mamay, 1964." The 

assemblage includes Cor·daites sp., ?Calamites sp., 

Neur-opteris scheuchzeri Hoffman, Pecopteris cf. P. 

arborescens Schlotheim, and Pecopteris un:.ta Brongniart. These plants come from the upper half of the 

Mt. Dall Conglomerate in the Talkeetna C-5 quadrangle, about 5.23 km N. 76°E. from Mt. Dall (Reed 

and others, 1978). 

IGNEOUS AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS 

Igneous and metamorphic rocks of Carboniferous 

age are found in only a few places in Alaska. In 

northern Alaska, mafic dikes and sills are found 

within the Lisburne Group in the northeastern part 

of the Philip Smith M·ountains quadrangle. J us.t to 

the north, in the southeastern Sagavanirktok quadrangle, volcaniclastic rocks and associated andesitic 

flows are present in about the same stratigraphic 

position. Fossils in the enclosing rocks suggest that 

these volcanic rocks are Late Mississippian in age. 

In the east.:.central Alaska Range, the Mankomen 

Group is underlain by a predominantly mafic marine 

volcanic sequence, the Tetelna Volcanics of probable 

Carboniferous age. As the oldest fossils in the overlying dominantly volcaniclastic Slana Spur Formation are of Atokan age, the Tetelna must be Early 

Pennsylvanian or older. 

In southeastern Alaska, both intrusive igneous 

rocks and volcanic rocks are known. In the KuiuKupreanof Islands area, Muffler (1967) reported 

basaltic to andesitic pyroclastic rocks and pillow 

lavas, apparently of Early Mississippian age, in the 

lower part of the Saginaw Bay Formation. On 

Prince of Wales Island, granitic rocks about 280 

m.y. 'Old intrude the Klawak Formation of Early and 

Middle Pennsylvanian age (Eberlein and Churkin, 

1970). In the Nabesna quadrangle, the Ahtel pluton 

is als·o of latest Pennsylvanian age. Richter ( 1976) 

reported its age to be about 280 m.y. With the exception of these very late Pennsylvanian intrusive 

rocks, no plutonic rocks of Carboniferous age are 

known in Alaska. 

Metamorphic rocks of Carboniferous age are very 

poorly known; the only possible candidate is the 

Totatlanika Schist of the central Brooks Range. 

Wahrhaftig (1968) reported· that fossils of probable 

Mississippian age are found in this terrane which 

occupies a northeast-trending belt in which Permian 

rocks lie unconformably on early Paleozoic or older 

rocks. Significantly, this belt also includes the 

only known nonmarine Carboniferous plant-bearing 

strata in the State. 

ECONOl\'IIC PRODUCTS 

The major commodities in the Carboniferous of 

Alaska are oil and gas. The carbonate rocks of the 

Lisburne G~oup in the subsurface of northern 

Alaska provide one of the main reservoir zones for 

storage of hydrocarbons. In the Prudhoe Bay field, 

porosity zones in the upper Lisburne are primary 

targets for drilling. Facies trends indicate that 

Chesterian (upper Alapah Formation) strata contain good to excellent dolomite porosities in a broad 

band that extends generally west from the Prudhoe 

area to the northwestern Arctic Coast in the vicinity 

of Wainwright (Armstrong and Mamet, 1970). Unfortunately, most of the part of this band that is 

west of the Colville River is probably too deep for 

exploration. However, in the region east of the Colville, from the foothills north to the coast, good possibilities exist for reaching the Lisburne in a number 

of structural settings. 

An analysis of the discovery well in the Prudhoe 

field, Prudhoe Bay State 1, by Armstrong and Mamet 

(1974) indicates that the Lisburne Group is 540 m 

thick and ranges in age from Mamet's Foraminifera 

Zone 16sup to Zone 21. The Alapah Limestone· is 
DDlO THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

1 7o• 166" 162° 158° 154° 

~0• 

68· 

-----------------~~~!~~----

0 50 100 150 MILES 

-L~·~·~--LI -,,-----~~~---.----~!· ...- 1 1 I I I 0 50 100 150 200 KILOMETERS 

FIGURE 3.-Index map of arctic Alaska and adjacent Canada showing locations of outcrops of Carboniferous rock in Alaska 

320 m thick and is composed of a,renaceous packs~tone and wackestone, lime mudstone, and gypsiferous microdolomite. The Alapah is entirely Chesterian in age, ranging from Zone 16,up through Zone 

18. The overlying Wahoo Limestone, 219 m thick, is 

a series of cycles composed of packstone and 

wackestone capped by lime mudstone and arenaceous 

microdolomite. These deposits were interpreted by 

ArmS'trong and Mamet ( 197 4) to represent tidalflat lime muds direCJtly above ooid tidal bars. The 
ALASKA DD11 

150° 146° 142° 

\ 

' c\ 

1J8o 

~· ..-1\C') ----

t_Sj~ -------- 0 --------

--------------~,~ ------------ ~ ''>- S\ ____ 9L~~~~--------------------------------------

EXPLANATION Ull 

0 U.S. Geological Surv.ey section 0 ' Union Oil Company section 

134" 

® Shell Oil Company section 

6 Chevron Standard Limited section 

® Outcrop of carboniferous rock 

-<r Exploration oil well section. 

\ 

' ' 

and locations of sections, some of which contain the Lisburne Group (fig. 2). From Armstrong and Mamet (1977, fig. 1). 

Wahoo Limestone is entirely Pennsylvanian (Foraminifera Zones 20 and 21). The Alapah Lime:stone is 

more arenaceous and dolomitic in the Prudhoe Bay 

State 1 well than are its outcrop equivalents in the 

Franklin and Sadlerochit Mountains. On the other 

hand, the Wahoo Limestone is very similar to outcrop se·ctions in the Sadlerochits and represents a 

similar depositional environment. 

The oil and gas potential of the Lisburne Limestone in the subsurface of northern Alaska. was re·-
DD12 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

(/) 

5 

0:: 

~ 

u. 

z 

0 

Ill 

0:: 

< (.) 

Q) 

C) 

_!!! . ..Q+-' 

EQ) 

Q) E IIIlO 

:g~ 

(ijO 

C!ll 

:::JCil 

tO c -o eN 

u 

~ 

Goniatites 

(modified from 

Gordon, 1957; 

Rowett, 1969) 

I ;5 ~ .....J z ~ .§ 21 Pseudoparalegoceras 

~<""' .... z =z= 1-.._-+--::::~-+----;--+-.---r--r-r? 

z< Q) e ~> ~ 5 20 

...J ~ 

I I ~ 19 

Kinkaid 

Limestone 18 

Cravenoceras 

Clore r-- ~ Limestone 

tl 

Q) 17 Glen Dean 

Megafossils 

(revised from 

Yochelson and 

Dutro, 1960) 

.s::. 

(.) Limestone !---+---------+----? ----1 Golconda 

z 

< 

a: 

16sup Formation 

Paint Creek 

Formation !--

Renault 

!

;Formation 16inf Aux Vases 

~ 15 0.. 

Goniatites 

granosus 

Goniatites 

americanus 

Gigantoproductus 

Goniatites 

1----H~Sa;:,;;ndstone 1-

::) Genevi:ve .,_--+--=s:-e-yr:"""'ic:-h:-o-c-e-ra-s--;---s"'c-..,io'""p-h'y~l~1u-m---t Limestone 14 micronotum- · Eumetria costata 

Colonial corals 

(from Armstrong 

and Mamet, 1977) 

Fusulinids Plants 

(from Douglass, 1971) (S. H. Mamay, oral 

and ostracodes 

(from Sohn, 1971) commun., 1978) 

Fusulinella Corwenia jagoensis 1----------1 

{Zone 10 orr' 

Mt. Dall, 

Alaska Range] 

Lithostrotion (S.) 

ignekensis 

Lithostrotionella 

aff. L. mC!areni 

Lithostrotion (S.) 

lisburnensis 

Sciophyllum 

lambarti 

~---· ?------4 

paraparchitids Q.. 

en 

(/) 

~~~-~~~B~~~~~n~d~i~~~s~~~L~ft~h~-~~~-~L~-~a~s~~~t~~~u~mq~L7ft7h-~-t-ro-t~fu-n-e~U~a~~-------~·~~:~m~ 

en Naticopsis howi mclareni 1964) (/) 

~ 

13 

12 "Brachythyris" 

subcardiiformis 

Lithostrotion 

reiseri 

r--+-~~~?~~L-L+-------~r------~ Salem 

Limestone 11 

1--- Ammonellipsites 

['\. 10 

Spirifer 

tenuicostatus 

Lithostrotion (S.) 

dutroi 

t-_I "'-'----+------+---? ·------4---l----"--1.--L.---L..--1....--l---1--1 

9 Muensteroceras "Zaphrentis" 

konincki 

r--~r-r~--,?~~~-4-------~ Cryptoblastus pisum 

8 

1--

Leptagonia 7 

~ ?-+----1-----i 

~ 0 

i 

~ 

Pre7 

Scalarituba 

FIGURE 4.-Biostratigraphic zonations in the Carboniferous deposits of Alaska. 

J--.,--,,.......,.- ?'-r.....,..---.--1 

Zone 2 (Read and 

Mamay, 1964) 

cently analyzed by Bird and Jordan (1977) whoreviewed the regional setting and reservoir potential 

of the Lisburne Group. According to Bird and 

Jordan, although the Lisburne had been 0onsidered 

a probable petroleum reservoir for many years, 

these carbonate rocks. were not penetrated by drilling until1966. In that year, both the Union Kookpuk 

No. 1 and the Sinclair Colville No. 1 reached the 
ALASKA DD13 

Lisburne; both wells had porosity and oil shows. 

The Arco-Humble Prudhoe Bay No.1, discovery well 

for the Prudhoe field in 1968, also penetrated the 

entire Carboniferous section. Records and samples 

from 46 wells reaching the Lisburne are now available to the public and were used in the Bird and 

Jordan study. 

An isopach map of the Lisburne in the eastern 

part of the Arctic Coastal Plain (fig. 5) shows that 

the thickest section is near the front of the Brooks 

Range where more than 1,200 m ( 4,000 ft) of strata 

are present. These carbonate deposits thin northwestward to less than 150 m ( 500 ft) over a broad 

northwest-trending arch thart is a major subsurface 

structural feature. To the northeast, near the mouth 

of the Canning River, the top of the Lisburne has 

been truncated below the ground surface, and the 

Carboniferous carbonate deposits are completely 

absent near the Arctic Coast. 

Porosity in the Lisburne strata is of three kinds. 

Mic:r.odolomite has porosity values as high as 23 

percent from laboratory measurements and 27 percent as calculated from well logs. This is mostly 

N. P. R.-4 

0 20 40KIV 

intergranular porosity, but, in addition, the presence 

of vugs and small vertical fractures enhances primary porosity. The fractures, more importantly, also 

provide increased permeability. Bird and Jordan 

(1977) suggested that an average po:r.osity of at 

least 10 percent may be expected in the subsurface. 

Oolitic grainstones are common in the Lisburne, 

and, although the open-framework packing has 

nearly always been found filled with secondary 

calcite, this facies must be considered for its potential contribution to the overall porosity of the carbonate deposits. 

Although the extent of these strata is unknown, 

sandstone porosity may he important in offshore 

wells in the Beaufort Sea. The dolomite thicknesses 

and the possible distribution of sandstone in the 

Lisburne Group are shown in figure 6. 

Hydrocarbons have been reported from the Lisburne in three wells of the Prudhoe Bay field and 

from another well southeast of the field. Other wells 

have yielded saltwater from the Lisburne part of 

the column. Oil and gas flow rates from the Lisburne 

have not been disclosed as yet; the saltwater flow 

1~ 

EXPLANATION 

• Control point 

- 5~00:=- ~::~:;::~~oup Group 

Endicott 

Group 

LISBURNE 

ARCTIC 

WILDLIFE 

RANGE 

...... ~~.<?~:': .... ··~·· 

• 

6~------~----------------~--------------------~------~----~----~------~~ 

FIGURE 5.-Isopach map of Lisburne Group in the subsurface of the eastern Arctic Slope, Alaska. Modified from Bird 

and Jordan (1977). 
DD14 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

152° 15()0 14fr 146° 

7~ 

PETROLEUM 

RESERVE 

N0.4 

0 20 40KM 

EXPLANATION 

• Control point 

-2oo.__., Dolomite isopach 

LISBURNE TEST RESULTS 

...------,1 Above dolomite zone "==-" Within d~lomite zone 

API=Amer'ican Petroleum lnstitut 

< BPD= Barrels/day 

".s-01 BOPD=Barrels oil/day 

'\

01

c..11 CF/D=Cubic feet/day 

"\1-<"MMCF/D=Million cubic feet/day 

0 & W=Oil and Water 

SW=Saltwater 

ARCTIC 

WILDLIFE 

RANGE • 

""' =-:. 

Fl'!l.~~ ........ ··1< ... t:~-~~---····· \ 

*"J_.·" •· " o~·· 

~- \ 6~L_--~-----------------L----------------~------~--------~~------~ 

FIGURE 6.-Reservoir data summary for the Lisburne Group in the subsurface of the eastern Arctic Slope, Alaska. 

Modified from Bird and Jordan (1977). 

rate from the dolomite in MobiJ Mikkelson Bay No. 1 

is 2,057 BPD (barrels per day) and from sandstone 

in the same well is 1,470 BPD. 

Bird and Jordan ( 1977) suggested that, although 

the most likely source beds are Jurassic and Cretaceous shale, shale within the Lisburne Group and 

the Kayak Shale are possible contributors as well. 

They also indicated that coal in the basal Kekiktuk 

Conglomerate may be a source for dry gas in the 

Lisburne. Various estimates indicate that, although 

this coal in the Prudhoe Bay area has not been 

buried deep enough or for a long enough period to 

generate gas, downdip correlatives to the south may 

have generated gas. 

Several formations provide adequate sealing beds 

at the top of the Lisburne Group throughout the subsurface area. Stratigraphic and S;tructural traps and 

combinations of both are present in northern Alaska. 

Along the Barrow arch, traps of the Prudhoe Bay 

type may be expected. In the Prudhoe Bay field, the 

Sadlerochit pool was shown by Rickwood (1970) 

and Morgridge and Smith (1972) to be on a westplunging anticlinal nose, faulted on both the north 

and south, and truncated and sealed by an unconformity to the east. The Lisburne pool, presumably, 

is similarly trapped. 

Although nowhere commercially developed, the 

Carboniferous carbonate rocks of Alaska provide an 

immense p·otential resource for various industrial 

uses of limestone. In northern Alaska alone, thousands of cubic kilometers of limestone are exposed 

in the Brooks Range, either at the surface or within 

a hundred meters of the surface. No detailed chemical analyses have been made on these limestones, but 

the various carb-onate facies that have been examined 

during field mapping and stratigraphic studies indicate a full range of shelf-carbonate types, ranging 

from pure chemical-grade lime mudstone through 

argillaceous and dolomitic limestone to pure dolomite. If industrial limestone is needed and if economic factors are favorable, the Carboniferous 

limestones of Alaska may become an invaluable 

.asset. 
ALASKA DD15 

REFERENCES CITED 

Armstrong, A. K., 1970a, Carbonate facies and the lithostrotionid corals of the Mississippian Kogruk Formation, DeLong Mountains, northwestern Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey 

Prof. Paper 664, 38 p., 14 pls., 37 figs. 

---1970b, Mississippian dolomites from Lisburne Group, 

Killik River, Mount Bupto region, Brooks Range, Alaska: 

Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 54, no. 2, p. 

251-264, 10 figs. 

---1970c, Mississippian rugose corals, Peratrovich Formation, west coast, Prince of Wales Island, southeastern 

Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 534, 44 p., 13 pls., 

30 figs. 

---1972a, Biostratigraphy of Mississippian lithostrotionoid corals, Lisburne Group, Arctic Alaska: U.S. Geol. 

Survey Prof. Paper 743-A, 28 p., 9 pls., 25 figs. 

---1972b, Pennsylvanian carbonates, paleoecology, and 

rugose colonial corals, north flank, eastern Brooks Range·, 

A1·ctic Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 747, 21 p., 

8 pls., 16 figs. 

---1975, Stratigraphy and paleoe·cology of Carboniferous 

corals, Lisburne Group, Brooks Range, Arctic Alaska: 

Bulls. Am. Paleontology, v. 67, no. 287, p. 17-31, 5 figs. 

Armstrong, A. K., and Mamet, B. L., 1970, Biostratigraphy 

and dolomite porosity trends of the Lisburne Group, in 

Adkison, W. L., and Brosge, M. M., eds., Proceedings of 

the geological seminar on the North Slope of Alaska: 

Los Angeles, Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists, Pacific, 

Sec., p. N1-N16, 12 figs. 

---1974, Carboniferous biostratigraphy, Prudhoe Bay 

State 1, to northeastern Brooks Range, Arctic Alaska: 

Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 58, no. 4, p. 

646-660, 9 figs. 

---1975, Carboniferous biostratigraphy, northeastern 

Brooks Range, Arctic Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. 

Paper 884, 29 p., 16 figs. 

---1977 [1978], Carboniferous microfacies, microfossils, 

and corals, Lisburne Group, Arctic Alaska: U.S. Geol. 

Survey Prof. Paper 849, 144 p., 47 pls., 19 figs. 

Armstrong, A. K., Mamet, B. L., and Dutro, J. T., Jr., 1970, 

Foraminiferal zonation and carbonate facies of Carboniferous (Mississippian arid Pennsylvanian) Lisburne 

Group, central and eastern Brooks Range, Arctic Alaska: 

Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 54, no. 5, p. 

687-698, 4 figs. 

---1971, Lisburne Group, Cape Lewis-Niak Creek, northwestern Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 750-B, 

p. B23-B34, 9 figs. 

Beechey, F. W., 1831, Narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and 

Beering's Strait ::: * * 1825, 26, 27, 28: London, Henry 

Colburn and Richard Bentley, 2 v. 

Bird, K. J., and Jordan, C. F., 1977, Lisburne Group (Mississippian and Pennsylvanian), potential major hydrocarbon objective of Arctic Slope, Alaska: Am. Assoc. 

Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 61, no. 9, p. 1493-1512, 

11 figs. 

Bowsher, A. L., and Dutro, J. T., Jr., 1957, The Paleozoic section in the Shainin Lake area, central Brooks Range, 

Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey rrof. Paper 303-A, 39 p., 

6 pls., 4 figs. 

Brabb, E. E., 1969, Six new Paleozoic and Me·sozoic formations in east-central Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 

1274-I, 26 p., 10 figs. 

Brosge, W. P., and Dutro, J. T., Jr., 1973, Paleozoic rocks of 

northern and central Alaska, in Pitcher, M. G., ed., Arctic 

geology: Am. Assoc. Petroleum GeoL Mem. 19, p. 361-375, 

15 figs. 

Buckland, William, 1839, Geology, ·in Beechey, F. W., and 

others, The zoology of Captain Beechey's voyage •:: ::: * 

1825, 26, 27, 28: London, H. G. Bohn, p. 157-180. 

Buddington, A. F., and Chapin, Theodore, 1929, Geology and 

mineral deposits of southeastern Alaska: U.S. Geol. 

Survey Bull. 800, 398 p., 22 pls. 3 figs. 

Cairnes, D. D., 1914, The Yukon-Alaska International Boundary, between Porcupine and Yukon Rivers: Canada Geol. 

Survey Mem. 67, 161 p., 16 pls., 2 figs., 2 maps. 

Churkin, Michael, Jr., 1973, Paleozoic and Precambrian rocks 

of Alaska and their role in its structural evolution: U.S. 

Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 740, 64 p., 24 figs. 

Churkin, Michae1, Jr., and Eberlein, G. D., 1977, Ancient 

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Correlation and microplate tectonics: Geol. Soc. America 

Bull., v. 88, no. 6, p. 769-786, 6 figs. 

CoUier, A. J., 1906, Geology and coal resources of the Cape 

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p., 9 pls., 8 figs. 

Dall, W. H., 1896, Report on coal and lignite of Alaska: U.S. 

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(See especially p. 864-865; Knowlton, F. H., Appendix 

I-Report on the fossil plants collected in Alaska in 

1895':' * *, p. 876-897; and Schuchert, Charles, Appendix 

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Douglass, R. C., 1971, Pennsylvanian fusulinids from southeastern Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 706, 21 

p., 7 pls., 9 figs. 

Eberlein, G. D., and Churkin, Michael, Jr., 1970, Paleozoic 

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Bull. 1284, 67 p., 2 pls., 31 figs. 

Gordon, Mackenzie, Jr., 1957, Mississippian cephalopods of 

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Paper 283, 61 p., 6 pls., 26 figs. 

Grybeck, Donald, Beikman, H. M., Brosge, W. P., Tailleur, 

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166-B, 2 sheets, scale 1: 1,000,000. 

Loney, R. A., Condon, W. H., and Dutro, J. T., Jr., 1963, 

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Mamet, B. L., and Armstrong, A. K., 1972, Lisburne Group, 

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U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 800-C, p. Cl27-C144, 10 

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Mamet, B. L., and Skipp, Betty, 1970, Lower Carboniferous 

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Mertie, J. B., Jr., 1930, Geology of the Eagle-Circle district, 

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---1937, The Yukon-Tanana region, Alaska: U.S. Geol. 

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DD16 THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES 

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Muffler, L. J. P., 1967, Stratigraphy of the Keku Islets and 

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Mull, C. G., an9. Mangus, M. D., 1972, Itkilyariak Formation; 

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Patton, W. W., Jr., and Dutro, J. T., Jr., 1969, Preliminary 

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Paper 650-D, p. Dl38-D143, 5 figs. 

Patton, W. W., Jr., Tailleur, I. L., Brosge, W. P., and 

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Oregon Dept. Geology and Mineral Industries Bull. 95, 

p. 51-57. 

Read, C. B., and Mamay, S. H., 1964, Upper Paleozoic floral 

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Reed, J. C., 1958, Exploration of Naval Petroleum Reserve 

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301, 192 p., 3 pis., 101 figs. 

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Richter, D. H., 1976, Geologic map of the Nabesna quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey Misc. Inv. Map I-932, 

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Richter, D. H., and Dutro, J. T., Jr., 19·75, Revision of the 

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· Rowett, C. L., 1969, Upper Palaeozoic stratigraphy and corals 

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Sable, E. G., and Dutro, J. T., Jr., 1961, New Devonian and 

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5, p. 585-593, 4 figs. 

Sando, W. J., Mamet, B. L., and Dutro, J. T., Jr., 1969, Carboniferous megafauna! and microfauna! zonation in the 

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Schrader, F. C., 1902, Geological section of the Rocky Mountains in northern Alaska: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 13, 

p. 233-2'52, pls. 40-43. 

Smith, P. S., 1939, Areal geology of Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey 

Prof. Paper 192, 100 p., 18 pls. 

Smith, P. S., and Mertie, J. B., Jr., 1930, Geology and mineral resources of northwestern Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey 

Bull. 815, 351 p., 34 pis., 22 figs. 

Sohn, I. G., 1971, New Late Mississippian ostracode genera 

and species from northern Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey 

Prof. Paper 711-A, 24 p., 9 pis., 3 figs. 

Steidtmann, Edward, and Cathcart, S. H., 1922, Geology of 

the York tin deposits, Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 

733, 130 p., 12 pis., 23 figs. 

Wahrhaftig, Clyde, 1968, Schists of the central Alaska Range: 

U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1254-E, 22 p., 5 figs. 

Wood, G. V., and Armstrong, A. K., 1975, Diagenesis and 

stratigraphy of the Lisburne Group limestones of the 

Sadl€TOchit Mountains and adjacent areas, northeastern 

Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 857, 47 p., 12 

pls., 25 figs. 

Yochelson, E. L., and Dutro, J. T., Jr., 1960, Late Paleozoic 

Gastropoda from northern Alaska: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. 

Paper 334-D, p. Dlll-Dl47, 3 pls., 7 figs. 

* U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1980 0-311-344188