Edwardsville Formation

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Edwardsville Formation
Stratigraphic range: Mississippian
Type Formation
Unit of Borden Group
Underlies Muldraugh Formation and Ramp Creek Formation
Overlies Spickert Knob Formation
Location
Region Indiana
Country United States

The Edwardsville Formation is a geological structure in the Borden Group, of the Lower Mississippian sub system, [1] (Osagean, late Tournaisian). Crinoids fossils can be found in the formation. [2]

The Tournaisian is in the ICS geologic timescale the lowest stage or oldest age of the Mississippian, the oldest subsystem of the Carboniferous. The Tournaisian age lasted from 358.9 Ma to 346.7 Ma. It is preceded by the Famennian and is followed by the Viséan.

Crinoid class of echinoderms

Crinoids are marine animals that make up the class Crinoidea of the echinoderms. The name comes from the Greek word krinon, "a lily", and eidos, "form". They live in both shallow water and in depths as great as 9,000 meters (30,000 ft). Those crinoids which in their adult form are attached to the sea bottom by a stalk are commonly called sea lilies. The unstalked forms are called feather stars or comatulids.

Related Research Articles

The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period 358.9 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, 298.9 Mya. The name Carboniferous means "coal-bearing" and derives from the Latin words carbō ("coal") and ferō, and was coined by geologists William Conybeare and William Phillips in 1822.

Edwardsville, Indiana Unincorporated community in Indiana, United States

Edwardsville is an unincorporated community in Georgetown Township, Floyd County, Indiana. The Duncan Tunnel is located at Edwardsville.

Rundle Group

The Rundle Group is a stratigraphical unit of Mississippian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.

The New Albany Shale is an organic-rich geologic formation of Devonian and Mississippian age in the Illinois Basin of the United States. It is a major source of hydrocarbons.

Borden Formation

The Mississippian Borden Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia, and Tennessee. It has many members, which has led some geologists to consider it a group rather than a formation.

Logan Formation

The Logan Formation is the name given to a Lower Carboniferous siltstone, sandstone and conglomeratic unit exposed in east-central Ohio and parts of western West Virginia, USA.

Fayetteville Shale

The Fayetteville Shale is a geologic formation of Mississippian age composed of tight shale within the Arkoma Basin of Arkansas and Oklahoma. It is named for the city of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and requires hydraulic fracturing to release the natural gas contained within.

Brassfield Formation

The Brassfield Formation, named by A.F. Foerste in 1906, is a limestone and dolomite formation exposed in Arkansas, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee and West Virginia in the United States. It is Early Silurian in age and well known for its abundant echinoderms, corals and stromatoporoids. In Ohio, where the unit has escaped dolomitization, the Brassfield is an encrinite biosparite with numerous crinoid species.

Paleontology in Indiana

Paleontology in Indiana refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Indiana. Indiana's fossil record stretches all the way back to the Precambrian, when the state was inhabited by microbes. More complex organisms came to inhabit the state during the early Paleozoic era. At that time the state was covered by a warm shallow sea that would come to be inhabited by creatures like brachiopods, bryozoans, cephalopods, crinoids, and trilobites. During the Silurian period the state was home to significant reef systems. Indiana became a more terrestrial environment during the Carboniferous, as an expansive river system formed richly vegetated deltas where amphibians lived. There is a gap in the local rock record from the Permian through the Mesozoic. Likewise, little is known about the early to middle Cenozoic era. During the Ice Age however, the state was subject to glacial activity, and home to creatures like short-faced bears, camels, mammoths, and mastodons. After humans came to inhabit the state, Native Americans interpreted the fossil proboscidean remains preserved near Devil's Lake as the bones of water monsters. After the advent of formal scientific investigation one paleontological survey determined that the state was home to nearly 150 different kinds of prehistoric plants.

Paleontology in Missouri

Paleontology in Missouri refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Missouri. The geologic column of Missouri spans all of geologic history from the Precambrian to present with the exception of the Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic. Brachiopods are probably the most common fossils in Missouri.

<i>Agaricocrinus americanus</i> species of echinoderm

Agaricocrinus americanus, the mushroom crinoid, is a species of extinct crinoids, known only from its fossils, which are found in the U.S. states of Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky. They date back to the Lower Mississippian, about 345 million years ago.

Hale Formation

The Hale Formation is a geologic formation in northern Arkansas that dates to the Morrowan Series of the early Pennsylvanian. The Hale Formation has two named members: the Cane Hill and the Prairie Grove Members. The lower member is the Cane Hill, a primarily sandstone and shale interval that unconformably overlies the Mississippian-age Pitkin Formation. The upper member, the Prairie Grove Member, is predominately limestone and conformably underlies the Bloyd Formation.

The Hindsville Formation, or Hindsville Limestone Member of the Batesville Formation, is a geologic unit in northern Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma that dates to the Chesterian Series of the late Mississippian. Named for the town of Hindsville in Madison County, Arkansas, this unit is recognized as a member of the Batesville Formation in Arkansas and a geologic formation in Oklahoma. Although, some workers have proposed raising the rank of this interval in Arkansas to formation status. Both the Batesville and Hindsville Formations overlie the Moorefield Formation and underlie the Fayetteville Shale.

The Bloyd Formation, or Bloyd Shale, is a geologic formation in Arkansas. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period.

The Pitkin Formation, or Pitkin Limestone, is a fossiliferous geologic formation in northern Arkansas that dates to the Chesterian Series of the late Mississippian. This formation was first named the "Archimedes Limestone" by David Dale Owen in 1858, but was replaced in 1904. The Pitkin conformably overlies the Fayetteville Shale and unconformably underlies the Pennsylvanian-age Hale Formation. Some workers have considered the top of the Pitkin Formation to be a separate formation called the Imo Formation. However more recently, others have considered it as an informal member of the Pitkin Formation.

The St. Joe Formation or St. Joe Limestone Member is a geologic formation or member in northern Arkansas, southern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma. It preserves fossils of the Mississippian subperiod including crinoids, brachiopods, bryozoa, conodonts, blastoids, ostracods and rugose coral.

The Burlington Limestone is a geologic formation in Missouri, Iowa and the Midwest region. It preserves fossils dating back to the Mississippian subperiod.

The Fern Glen Formation is a geologic formation in eastern and southeastern Missouri. It preserves fossils dating back to the Osagean Series of the Mississippian subperiod.

Onychocrinus genus of echinoderms

Onychocrinus is an extinct genus of crinoids.

References

  1. Edwardsville Formation at the Indiana Geological Survey
  2. Crinoids from the Edwardsville Formation (Lower Mississippian) of Southern Indiana. William I. Ausich and N. Gary Lane, Journal of Paleontology, November 1982, Volume 56, Number 6, pages 1343-1361 (abstract)