| Emporia Formation Emporia Limestone | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: [1] (Virgilian stage) [2] | |
| Type | Formation |
| Unit of | Wabaunsee Group Oklahoma: Vamoosa Group |
| Sub-units |
|
| Underlies | Willard Shale |
| Overlies | Auburn Shale |
| Lithology | |
| Primary | Limestone, shale |
| Other | Sandstone |
| Location | |
| Region | Kansas |
| Country | United States |
| Type section | |
| Named for | Emporia, Kansas |
| Named by | R.C. Moore and M.R. Mudge [2] |
| Year defined | 1956 |
The Emporia Formation, also referred to as Emporia Limestone, is a Late-Carboniferous geologic formation in Kansas, extending into Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Oklahoma. [2] [1]
This formation's members are, top to bottom,
While the Elmont Limestone member is generally less than 3 feet thick (1 meter), it can be as thick as 15 feet (5 meters) [3] and as thin as 12 inches. As thin as that, it is particularly resistant and forms multiple waterfalls in southern Riley County, including Pillsbury Crossing. [6] [7]
Pillsbury Crossing is a natural limestone slab that was used by pioneers to cross Deep Creek. The ledge terminates in a waterfall in Riley County, Kansas, USA. The waterfall is about 40 feet (12 m) wide and has a drop of around 5 feet (1.5 m). Below Pillsbury Crossing, Deep Creek flows into the Kansas River.
The Ogallala Formation is a Miocene to early Pliocene geologic formation in the central High Plains of the western United States and the location of the Ogallala Aquifer. In Nebraska and South Dakota it is also classified as the Ogallala Group. Notably, it records the North American Land Mammal Ages (NALMAs) Hemphillian, Clarendonian, and Barstovian. It also includes an excellent record of grass seeds and other plant seeds, which can be used for biostratigraphic dating within the formation. The Ogallala Formation outcrops of Lake Meredith National Recreation Area preserve fish fossils. Similar specimens from the same unit are found at Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument in Texas.
The Oread Limestone is a geologic unit of formation rank within the Shawnee Group throughout much of its extent. It is exposed in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Iowa. The type locality is Mount Oread within Lawrence, Kansas. It preserves fossils of the Carboniferous period. Although it has significant shale members, its limestone members are resistant and form escarpments and ridges. Limestone from the unit is a historic building material in Kansas, particularly in the early buildings of the University of Kansas; standing examples include Spooner Hall and Dyche Hall.
The Graneros Shale is a geologic formation in the United States identified in the Great Plains as well as New Mexico that dates to the Cenomanian Age of the Cretaceous Period. It is defined as the finely sandy argillaceous or clayey near-shore/marginal-marine shale that lies above the older, non-marine Dakota sand and mud, but below the younger, chalky open-marine shale of the Greenhorn. This definition was made in Colorado by G. K. Gilbert and has been adopted in other states that use Gilbert's division of the Benton's shales into Carlile, Greenhorn, and Graneros. These states include Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and New Mexico as well as corners of Minnesota and Iowa. North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana have somewhat different usages — in particular, north and west of the Black Hills, the same rock and fossil layer is named Belle Fourche Shale.
The Greenhorn Limestone or Greenhorn Formation is a geologic formation in the Great Plains Region of the United States, dating to the Cenomanian and Turonian ages of the Late Cretaceous period. The formation gives its name to the Greenhorn cycle of the Western Interior Seaway.
The Wabaunsee Group is a Late-Carboniferous geologic group in Kansas, extending into Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Oklahoma. The unit is recognized in the subsurface by drillers in Colorado as Wabaunsee Formation.
The Americus Limestone is a member of the Foraker Limestone Formation in eastern Kansas, where it is quarried as a distinctive ornamental stone. In outcrop, it is typically recognized as two relatively thin but persistent beds of hard limestone separated by shale that forms the lowest prominent bench of the many benches of the Flint Hills. The recognizable facie of the member in excavated or eroded exposures is two thin limestone beds separated a bed of shale and adjacent shales above and below having a particular gray or bluish color darker than higher limestones. A third, lower, highly variable algal limestone is often present and included as the base of the member. The unit is not particularly massive, the limestone pair totaling 3 to 4 feet in places, more in other locations but less to the North, and up to nearly to 9 feet at the type location of Americus, Kansas. The addition of the lower algal limestone as a base for the unit increases the thickness to over 18 feet. Initially thought to be the lowest of the Permian rock of Kansas and as such classified as the lowest unit of the Council Grove Group, the unit is now dated within the uppermost Late Carboniferous.
The Tarkio Limestone, is a Late-Carboniferous member of the Zeandale Formation in Kansas, extending into Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri. The unit was named for outcrops in the Tarkio Valley in northwestern Missouri, however, R.C. Moore designated a typical exposure of this unit on Mill Creek, southwest of Maple Hill, Kansas. Owing to its unusual coloration, an early name for this rock was chocolate limestone. This rock can be recognized by its coloration and abundant fusulinids, Triticites ventricosus, protruding from the surfaces, giving a "raspy" texture.
The Wellington Formation is an Early Permian geologic formation in Kansas and Oklahoma. The formation's Hutchinson Salt Member is more recognized by the community than the formation itself, and the salt is still mined in central Kansas. The Wellington provides a rich record of Permian insects and its beddings provide evidence for reconstruction of tropical paleoclimates of the Icehouse Permian with the ability in cases to measure the passage of seasons. Tens of thousands of insect fossil recovered from the Wellington shales are kept in major collections at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
The Funston Limestone is a Permian geologic formation in Kansas having various significant beds of limestone with some shale. This formation was named for Camp Funston, Riley County, Kansas, in 1931 by Condra, G.E., and Upp, J.E.. Adjoining the old camp, some of the oldest buildings in Ogden, Kansas, are built with near-white Funston Limestone.
The Foraker Formation is a geologic formation in Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. It preserves fossils dating to the Carboniferous period.
The Red Eagle Formation is a geologic formation ranging from Oklahoma, through Kansas, into southeast Nebraska of the United States. Its members define the Carboniferous-Permian boundary in Kansas.
The Grenola Formation is an early Permian geologic formation (Wolfcampian) with its exposure running north and south through Kansas and extending into Nebraska and Oklahoma, notably having the Neva Limestone member, which is a terrace-forming aquifer and historic Flint Hills building stone source secondary to the Cottonwood Limestone.
The Blanco Formation, originally named the Blanco Canyon Beds, is an early Pleistocene geologic formation of clay, sand, and gravel whitened by calcium carbonate cementation and is recognized in Texas and Kansas.
Cottonwood Limestone, or simply the Cottonwood, is a stratigraphic unit and a historic stone resource in east-central Kansas, northeast-central Oklahoma, and southeastern Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. It is the lowest member of the Beattie Limestone formation and commonly outcrops within the deep valleys and on top of the scenic residual ridges of the Flint Hills.
The Fort Riley Limestone is a Kansas Permian stratigraphic unit of member rank and historic building stone, sold commercially as fine-grained Silverdale, having at one time been quarried at Silverdale, Kansas. This limestone outcrops in east-central Kansas, extending into northeast-central Oklahoma and southeastern Nebraska, in the Midwestern United States. Its conspicuous "rim rock" marker horizon outcrop caps the bluffs overlooking the original buildings of Fort Riley, as well as the Marshall Army Airfield opposite the Kansas River.
The Roca Formation is an early Permian geologic formation (Wolfcampian) with its exposure running north and south through Kansas and extending into Nebraska and Oklahoma, notably comprising varicolored black, brown, gray, green, red, and blue shales, mudstones, and limestone, some of which representing Permian paleosols.
The Lawrence Formation, also referred to as Lawrence Shale, is a Late-Carboniferous geologic formation in Kansas, extending into Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Oklahoma. This unit was named by Erasmus Haworth in 1894, the year that Haworth founded the Kansas Geological Survey in Lawrence, Kansas, having personally surveyed the formation the year before.
Haskell Limestone is a geological unit name originating in Kansas and used in adjoining states. The Pennsylvanian period unit was named by R.C. Moore for the Haskell Institute in the southeast of Lawrence, Kansas in 1931. The name has been applied to various beds within this range, and assigned as a member variously to the Lawrence Formation, Cass Formation, and Stranger Formation, and significant legacy literature exists for each classification. These three formations now comprise the Douglas Group.
The Willard Formation, also referred to as Willard Shale, is a Late-Carboniferous geologic formation in Kansas, extending into Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Oklahoma.
... It breaks with wavy, irregular fracture and commonly occurs in beds about 7 inches but locally it is as little as 12 inches. ... Distribution--The Elmont limestone is exposed in Deep Creek valley south and east of Zeandale in Riley County, in secs 27,28,32, and 33,10 S., R. 9 E., and in secs. 5 and 6, T. 11S., R. 9 E. In several places in the last two sections enumerated, the limestone gives origin to small waterfalls in Deep Creek. Along the creek it is either faulted or slightly folded. It forms the natural ford at Pillsbury Crossing in sec. 5, T. 11 S., R. 9 E.
A cliff on the northwest side of the river by the waterfall is the six- to nine-inch-thick Elmont Limestone Member of the Emporia Limestone formation. The crossing, waterfall ledge, and boulders at the bottom of the fall are also Elmont limestone, ...
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