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Missourian Stratigraphy

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Stratigraphy, continued

Kansas City Group (lower boundary revised)

The Kansas City Group overlies the Pleasanton Group and underlies the Lansing Group. It comprises the Bronson, Linn, and Zarah Subgroups in ascending order. The boundary between the Linn and Zarah Subgroups is moved from the top to the base of the Iola Limestone (fig. 1). The base of the Kansas City Group (and the Bronson Subgroup) is moved from the base of the Critzer Limestone (now part of the Pleasanton Group) up to the base of the Mound City Shale as revised to coincide with the base of its widespread black phosphatic shale facies.

Bronson Subgroup (lower boundary revised)

The Bronson Subgroup of the Kansas City Group consists of the following formations in northeastern and eastern Kansas, in ascending order: Hertha Limestone (as revised by removal of the Critzer Limestone Member and the lower part of the Mound City Shale Member below the black phosphatic shale facies), Elm Branch Shale (new), Swope Limestone, Galesburg Shale, and Dennis Limestone. In southern Kansas, the Ladore Shale and Mound Valley Limestone (reinstated) occur between the Swope Limestone and the Galesburg Shale (figs. 1, 2), but as the shale units thicken southward, usage of the Coffeyville Group for strata below the Dennis Limestone becomes more practical.

Hertha Limestone (revised, restricted)

The Hertha Limestone overlies the Shale Hill Formation of the Pleasanton Group and underlies the Elm Branch Shale (fig. 1). Originally named by Adams (1903) from exposures around the former town of Hertha situated at center south line, sec. 29, T. 29 S., R. 20 E., in Neosho County, the type locality of the Hertha Limestone as stabilized by Moore (1936) was incorrectly correlated (fig. 2). The conspicuous limestone at this locality is actually the Bethany Falls Limestone Member of the younger Swope Limestone. The Sniabar Limestone and the underlying black Mound City Shale, both currently recognized as the constituents of the Hertha Limestone north of central Neosho County and in states to the north, were discovered by A. P. Bennison along a western tributary to Bachelor Creek just to the southeast (fig. 15) in SE-NW-NE sec. 32, T. 29 S., R. 20 E. This nearby exposure provides a new principal reference section or neostratotype (fig. 16; fig. 2, sec. 25) for the Hertha Limestone and maintains the stability of nomenclature at the base of the Bronson Subgroup and Kansas City Group, which is preferable to renaming the Hertha Limestone northward. The Hertha Limestone also is revised to include only the Sniabar Limestone Member and Mound City Shale Member (with its lower boundary revised upward to the base of its widespread black phosphatic shale facies). The former base of the Mound City Shale Member (now Guthrie Mountain Shale Member) and the former basal Critzer Limestone Member of the Hertha are reclassified as members of the underlying Shale Hill Formation in the Pleasanton Group, based on greater similarity of lithic content with that group as discussed previously. Good reference sections of the Hertha Limestone include the K-3 roadcut 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Uniontown (fig. 2, sec. 17; Heckel et al., 1999, p. 32, Stop B1) in Bourbon County, where both members are thick, totaling about 60 ft (18 m), and the second US-69 roadcut north of LaCygne Junction (NW-NW-SE sec. 31, T. 19 S., R. 25 E.; fig. 2, sec. 8) in Linn County where both members are thin, totaling about 7 ft (2.1 m).

Figure 11--Map of part of 1966 Xenia, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle, showing location of type section of Guthrie Mountain Shale Member of Shale Hill Formation in roadcut southwest of Guthrie Mountain. Base is marked by Critzer Limestone Member (Bourbon flags facies) in road ditch by abandoned house, and top is marked by black phosphatic shale bed at base of Mound City Shale Member of Hertha Limestone. which also caps small knob north of road.

Map of part of 1966 Xenia, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle.

Figure 12--Measured section of Guthrie Mountain Shale Member stratotype in roadcut 1.5 mi (2.5 km) southwest of Guthrie Mountain and 0.3 mi (0.5 km) southeast of new bridge over Little Osage River along north line of south half of NW sec. 8, T. 24 S., R. 23 E. (fig. 11), south of Mapleton, Bourbon County, Kansas.

Measured section of Guthrie Mountain Shale Member.

Mound City Shale Member (lower boundary revised)

The Mound City Shale Member of the Hertha Limestone overlies the Guthrie Mountain Shale Member of the Shale Hill Formation (Pleasanton Group) and underlies the Sniabar Limestone Member (figs. 1, 2). It was named by Jewett (1932) from Mound City in Linn County as the thin shale between the Critzer and Sniabar Limestone Members in that area. The Guthrie Mountain Shale Member is now removed from the lower part of the original Mound City Shale Member because of its immense southward thickening and closer resemblance to typical Pleasanton shale (see previous sections). The lower boundary of the Mound City Shale Member is revised to be the contact of the base of the distinctive black to dark-gray phosphatic shale bed (and included underlying thin lenticular limestones) above gray, essentially unfossiliferous Guthrie Mountain shale facies (or mudstone northward). This black shale bed is a regional marker unit that is traceable across eastern Kansas from Iowa to Oklahoma.

The Mound City Shale Member now comprises three lithic units, in ascending order: 1) thin 0.3-2-ft (0.1-0.6-m) widespread black phosphatic shale bed, which becomes lighter in color (dark-gray to green-gray) across some of the area where the entire member is thinnest above thin Guthrie Mountain Shale Member, typical Critzer Limestone Member, and thick Mantey Shale Member (from central to southwestern Linn County into northwesternmost Bourbon County). This is overlain by 2) a thin 0.3-ft (0.1-m) crinoidallimestone across most of Linn County, which thickens slightly and becomes argillaceous and separated by gray shale from the black shale southward in most of Bourbon County. This is overlain by 3) gray shale, which is thin (2 ft / 0.6 m) where the entire unit is thinnest from northeast to southwest across central Linn County, but thickens both southeastward to 28 ft (8.4 m) where it becomes sandy in southeastern Linn County (fig. 8; fig. 2, sec. 11) and southward to similar thicknesses in central to western Bourbon County (e. g., the Uniontown roadcut: fig. 2, sec. 17), where it contains local flaggy and nodular limestone beds but no sandstone (Heckel et al., 1999, p. 32, Stop B1); it then thins southward in Neosho County (fig. 2).

Exposures of the Mound City Shale Member around Mound City are currently badly slumped, obscuring the internal subdivision and precluding designation of a stratotype in that region. Good reference sections of the Mound City Shale Member where it is thin include the second US-69 roadcut north of LaCygne Junction (NW-NW-SE sec. 31, T.19 S., R.25 E.) in Linn County (fig. 2, sec. 8) and a roadcut northwest of Xenia in northwestern Bourbon County, Kansas (SW-SE-SE sec. 20, T. 23 S., R. 22 E.). Good reference sections where it is thick include the second US-69 roadcut 5 mi (8 km) south of Pleasanton (center of west line of NW sec. 30, T. 22 S., R. 25 E.) part of the principal reference section for the Shale Hill Formation (fig. 8; fig. 2, sec. 11), and the K-3 roadcut 1 mi (1.6 km) south of Uniontown (NE-SE-NW sec. 34, T. 25 S., R. 22 E.), where it is 40 ft (12 m) thick (fig. 2, sec. 17; Heckel et al., 1999, p. 32, Stop B 1). Stratal content of the Mound City also is shown in figs. 4,6, 10, 12, and 16. The basal black shale bed of the Mound City Shale Member is laterally continuous with the black shale in the Lower Shale member of the Tacket Formation in southern Kansas (figs. 2, 14).

Sniabar Limestone Member (unchanged)

The Sniabar Limestone Member overlies the Mound City Shale Member and underlies the Elm Branch Shale (fig. 1). It was named by Jewett (1932) from Sni-A-Bar Creek in Jackson County, Missouri. In Kansas, it is commonly a massive ledge of skeletal calcilutite ranging in thickness from 2 to 20 ft (0.6-6 m). Well-exposed reference sections include the second US-69 roadcut north of LaCygne Junction (fig. 2, sec. 1:1) where it is 4 ft 0.2 m) thick, the top of the second US-69 roadcut south of Pleasanton (SW corner of sec. 19. T. 22 S., R 25 E.: fig. 2, sec. 11) where it is conspicuously fossiliferous, and the Uniontown roadcut (fig. 2, sec. 17; Heckel et al., 1999, p. 32, Stop B1) where it is about 20 ft (6 m) of algal mound facies. From there it thins southward to several feet of cherty skeletal calcilutite exposed at NE corner of sec. 17, T. 27 S., R 22 E. (fig. 2, sec. 19) in southwestern Bourbon County, in the streambank east of Kimball (SW-SW-NE-NW sec. 27, T. 27 S., R. 21 E.; fig. 2, sec. 21), and in the roadbed 1.3 mi (2 km) to the west (NW corner sec. 33, T. 27 S., R 21 E.), in northeastern Neosho County. It is about 1 ft (0.3 m) of argillaceous skeletal calcilutite at the Hertha neostratotype (fig. 16; fig. 2, sec. 25).

Figure 13--Map of part of 1973 Parsons West, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle, showing location of neostratotype of Tacket Formation in gully down northeast side of Tackett (sic) Mound and in adjacent creek bank, discovered by A. P. Bennison. This section is located on the property of Bill Chapman, who lives just to the northeast and should be. contacted for permission before visiting the exposure. This replaces original type section of Jewett et al. (1965) along west side of sec. 17 just to the southeast, which is very poorly exposed today and which may have included only the upper part of the unit as now recognized, based on comparison of the original description with the better exposure at Tackett Mound.

Map of part of 1973 Parsons West, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle.

Figure 14--Measured section of Tacket Formation neostratotype in gully down northeast side of Tackett (sic) Mound near NE corner of SW sec. 7 and into SW-SW-NE sec. 7, T. 32 S., R. 19 E. (fig. 13), Labette County, Kansas, based on section measured by Pavlicek (1986). Informal member names were first used by Bennison (1984).

Measured section of Tacket Formation neostratotype.

Elm Branch Shale (new name)

The Elm Branch Shale overlies the Hertha Limestone (Sniabar Limestone Member) and underlies the Swope Limestone (Middle Creek Limestone Member). The name Elm Branch is proposed (informally reinstated) for the unit previously called Ladore Shale in east-central and northeastern Kansas (fig. 1). Replacement of the name Ladore from Bourbon County northward is required now that the northward miscorrelations of the type sections of the Hertha Limestone, Ladore Shale, and Mound Valley Limestone in Neosho and Labette counties have been corrected (fig. 2, dashed lines marked with X). The name Elm Branch Shale was originally planned to be proposed by N. D. Newell (as mentioned by Jewett, 1932) for this unit, but was never formally adopted, apparently because it was correlated southward (incorrectly) with the type Ladore Shale of southern Neosho County when the Bethany Falls Limestone was incorrectly correlated southward with the type Mound Valley Limestone. Now that the Bethany Falls Limestone Member of the Swope Limestone has been traced southward below the type Ladore Shale (fig. 2), the shale unit below the Swope and above the Hertha Limestone in east-central Kansas and northward requires a new name. The name Elm Branch initially considered by Newell is appropriate because it has never been used for any other unit. The measured section reported by Newell (1935, p. 26, 144-145) for this unit near Elm Branch, a creek that empties into the Marais des Cygnes River 4 mi (7 km) north of Fontana, is now covered, and a nearby section is only partly exposed. Therefore, a roadcut mentioned by Newell (1935, p. 26) 1 mi 0.6 km) southwest of Fontana in Miami County (fig. 17) is selected as the stratotype (E line SE-SE-NW sec. 10, T. 19 S., R. 23 E.).

The type Elm Branch Shale comprises 9 ft (2.7 m) of gray shale to mudstone with 0.5 ft 05 cm) of light-gray, barren earthy limestone above the middle (fig. 18). The lower 6 ft (1.8 m) is unfossiliferous gray mudstone with small irregular limestone nodules, and the upper 2.5 ft (0.75 m) is fossiliferous gray shale with brachiopods (particularly derbyiids), bryozoans, crinoid debris, and ostracodes. The intervening earthy limestone is only locally present, but the vertical succession of unfossiliferous mudstone overlain by fossiliferous shale is characteristic of good exposures of the Elm Branch Shale throughout eastern Kansas (see Heckel et al., 1999, p. 18, Stop A2). Both lower and upper boundaries of the Elm Branch Shale are abrupt contacts of mudstone or shale with fossiliferous limestones of the underlying and overlying limestone members of the adjacent formations. Southward, thin sparsely fossiliferous limestones appear in the upper shale unit of the Elm Branch, and one collected from the K-52 roadcut 3 mi (5 km) southwest of Mound City (near center SW sec. 23, T. 22 S., R. 23 E.) in Linn County yielded a clump of linoproductid brachiopods with a remarkable fauna of small crinoids described by Strimple and Heckel (1978). Farther southward, thin limestones in the upper Elm Branch are dominated by phylloid algae, as seen at the K-3 roadcut south of Uniontown (where they were classified with the overlying Middle Creek Limestone Member by Heckel et al., 1999, p. 32). The entire Elm Branch Shale ranges from 1 to 12 ft (0.3-3.6 m) thick in east-central Kansas and northward, but southward from the Uniontown roadcut, it thickens to 40 ft (12 m) with local sandstone (along the road at center of W line SW sec. 6, T. 28 S., R. 21 E.) near Page's pasture south of Kimball in northeastern Neosho County (fig. 2, sec. 22) before merging into the thin dark-gray shale in the base of the Upper Shale member of the Tacker Formation.

Swope Limestone (unchanged)

The Swope Limestone overlies the Elm Branch Shale. It underlies the Galesburg Shale in northeastern to east-central Kansas and underlies the Ladore Shale in southeastern Kansas (figs. 1,2). The term Swope Limestone from Swope Park in Kansas City, Missouri, was first used by Moore (1932) and defined by Newell (1935). The Swope comprises three members, in ascending order: Middle Creek Limestone, Hushpuckney Shale, and Bethany Falls Limestone. The principal reference section for the Swope Limestone in Kansas is the roadcut 2 mi (3 km) northwest of Xenia (center S line SE sec. 20, T. 23 S., R. 22 E.) in northwestern Bourbon County (fig. 2, sec. 12), where all three members are well exposed.

Middle Creek Limestone Member (unchanged)

The Middle Creek Limestone Member overlies the gray Elm Branch Shale and underlies the black Hushpuckney Shale Member. It was named by Jewett (1932) and defined by Newell (1935, p. 26, 148) from exposures east of Middle Creek with a type section on the highway 3 mi (5 km) east of LaCygne (W of SE corner sec. 36, T. 19 S., R. 24 E.) in Linn County, Kansas. It is a dense skeletal calcilutite about 2 ft (0.6 m) thick in eastern Kansas, and it thickens southward to 4 or 5 ft (1.2-1.5 m) in western Bourbon County before it pinches out in Neosho County (fig. 2).

Figure 15-Map of part of 1973 South Mound, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle, showing location of old and new type sections of Hertha Limestone near Hertha townsite, where the most conspicuous limestone is now known to be the Bethany Falls Limestone Member in its characteristic position above the black Hushpuckney Shale Member (Hpky). Interval of the unit long considered to be Hertha Limestone elsewhere in Kansas and Missouri was discovered by A. P. Bennison downsection in creek bed to east and now serves as the neostratotype of the Hertha Limestone interval, in order to minimize nomenclatural change along the Midcontinent outcrop belt. ss = sandstone in Hepler Formation.

Map of part of 1973 South Mound, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle.

Figure 16-Measured section of Hertha Limestone interval neostratotype and associated units in bed of western tributary of Bachelor Creek in NE sec. 32, T. 29 S., R 20 E. (fig. 15), 4 mi (7 km) north of South Mound, Neosho County, Kansas. Sniabar Limestone Member forms small waterfall in creek bed. Hertha Limestone in this section also could be classified as Middle Limestone and part of Lower Shale members of Tacket Formation (see fig. 14).

Measured section of Hertha Limestone interval neostratotype and associated units.

Hushpuckney Shale Member (unchanged)

The Hushpuckney Shale Member overlies the Middle Creek Limestone Member and underlies the Bethany Falls Limestone Member. The name was introduced by Jewett (1932) and defined by Newell (1935, p. 27) from Hushpuckney Creek in south-central Miami County (fig. 17). The principal reference section is selected several miles southward in the roadcut along the west line SW-NE sec. 27, T. 19 S., R. 23 E., and the shale also is exposed high in the roadcut 1.5 mi (2.4 km) farther southward along center east line SW sec. 34, T. 19 S., R. 23 E., 5 mi (8 km) west of La Cygne. Another good section is on US-169 south of Pleasanton (fig. 8, fig. 2, sec. 11) at the road intersection (NE corner sec. 25, T. 22 S., R. 24 E.). The Hushpuckney Shale Member ranges throughout Kansas from 1.5 to 5 ft (0.5-1.5 m) of dominantly black phosphatic shale with overlying gray shale, which are continuous southward with the black and thicker gray shale beds in the Upper Shale member of the Tacket Formation in southern Kansas (figs. 2, 14).

Bethany Falls Limestone Member (unchanged, but recorrelated southward)

The Bethany Falls Limestone Member overlies the Hushpuckney Shale Member and underlies the Galesburg Shale in northern Kansas and the Ladore Shale in southern Kansas. The Bethany Falls Limestone was named by Broadhead (1868) from exposures at the falls in Big Creek near Bethany in northwestern Missouri. The principal reference section in Kansas is in the roadcut 2 mi (3 km) northwest of Xenia (center S line SE sec. 20, T. 23 S., R. 22 E.) in northwestern Bourbon County (fig. 2, sec. 12). The Bethany Falls Limestone Member averages 15 to 35 ft (4.5-10.6 m) thick from central Kansas northward and comprises a lower, typically conspicuously mottled, skeletal calcilutite facies commonly overlain by various thicknesses of typically oomoldic oolite facies at the top. This oolite is 16 ft (5 m) thick in the quarry west of Schubert Creek (NW-NE sec. 24, T. 25 S., R. 21 E.; fig. 2, sec. 15). The Bethany Falls Limestone Member thins southwestward in northeastern Neosho County through about 8 ft (2.4 m) of mottled calcilutite in a roadbed (S line at SE corner of sec. 20, T. 27 S., R. 21 E) about 1 mi (1.6 km) southeast of Stark. From there, it is traced through exposures along N line NW-NE-NW sec. 32 (fig. 2, sec. 21) and E half SW-NW sec. 32 and center of Eline SE sec. 31, into the Page's pasture section (fig. 2, sec. 22) in center of N half of NW sec. 6, T. 28 S., R. 21 E. There it lies 25 ft (7.5 m) below the Mound Valley Limestone, with which it had been erroneously correlated for many years. Farther southward, the Bethany Falls becomes about 4 ft (1.2 m) of pale-orange-weathering skeletal calcilutite in the Hertha Limestone type area in southeastern Neosho County and Labette County, where it becomes the upper member of the Tacket Formation (figs. 1, 2, 14).

Ladore Shale (restricted because of recorrelation)

The Ladore Shale overlies the Swope Limestone (Bethany Falls Limestone Member) and underlies the Mound Valley Limestone (reinstated, see below) in southern Kansas. It was named by Adams (1896) from the former town of Ladore in sec. 27, T. 30 S., R. 19 E. in southern Neosho County. Because the original type locality indicated by Moore (1936) is only an interval between the bounding limestones, the principal reference section is designated at the exposure of the upper two-thirds of the unit in the spillway of Lake Parsons (NW-NW-NE sec. 33, T. 30 S., R. 19 E.; fig. 2, sec. 27), about 1 mi (1.6 km) southwest of the type locality. Early miscorrelation of the underlying and overlying limestones with the Hertha and Bethany Falls Limestones, respectively, in northeastern Kansas caused the Ladore to have long been mistakenly correlated northward with the older shale unit now termed Elm Branch Shale (fig. 2). The Ladore Shale consists of up to about 60 ft (18 m) of gray shale with thin sandstone beds, occasional marine fossiliferous zones, common plant debris and thin local coal beds throughout its type area in southern Kansas. including a nearly complete exposure on the western slope of Tackett Mound (S half of NW-SW sec. 7, T. 32 S., R. 19 E.; fig. 2, sec. 29) in west-central Labette County. It thins northward to about 25 ft (7.5 m) at the Page's pasture locality in northeastern Neosho County (fig. 2, sec. 22), and eventually pinches out as the Bethany Falls and Mound Valley Limestones converge in western Bourbon County as seen at the quarry west of Schubert Creek (fig. 2, sec. 15).

Mound Valley Limestone (reinstated)

The name Mound Valley Limestone is reinstated for the limestone that overlies the Ladore Shale and underlies the Galesburg Shale in southern Kansas (figs. 1, 2). Adams (1896) first applied the name Mound Valley to the limestone capping the hills northwest of Mound Valley in Labette County. It was later discarded by Moore (1936, p. 86), who believed that limestone to be equivalent to the Bethany Falls Limestone Member. Careful tracing of beds in northeastern Neosho County, supplemented by subsurface data, shows that the Mound Valley Limestone is a separate unit occurring in southern Kansas well above the Bethany Falls Limestone Member (fig. 2), a relationship suggested early by Haworth and Bennett (1908). The stratotype is designated in an exposure at the top of Dixon Mound (fig. 19A) along the road near center of the south line of SE sec. 27, T. 32 S., R. 18 E., about 1 mi (1.6 km) northwest of Mound Valley. Here it consists of 6 ft (1.8 m) of medium-bedded skeletal calcilutite, but without the top exposed (fig. 20A; fig. 2, sec. 30). The principal reference section of the Mound Valley Limestone is chosen 26 mi (42 km) northward along US-59, 2 mi (3 km) north of Erie (W line NW-NW sec. 20, T. 28 S., R 20 E) (fig. 19B) in Neosho County where both lower and upper contacts of the limestone with adjacent shales are exposed (fig. 20B; fig. 2, sec. 23). Here it is 8 ft (2.4 m) of mainly skeletal calcilutite, with brachiopods conspicuous in the base, phylloid algae in the middle, and a mottled zone at the top, which undoubtedly had given credence to its previous miscorrelation with the Bethany Falls Limestone Member. Between these two reference localities, the Mound Valley Limestone reaches 30 ft (9 m) of dominantly phylloid algal mound facies above the type Ladore Shale in the roadcut (SW-NW-NE sec. 33, T. 30 S., R. 19 E.; fig. 2, sec. 27) south of the Lake Parsons spillway.

The Mound Valley Limestone thins northeastward from Erie to a few feet of skeletal calcilutite with local phylloid algal facies and generally well-preserved oolite, which can be traced through NE-NW-NW sec. 6, T. 28 S., R. 21 E. in Page's pasture (fig. 2, sec. 22), 1 mi 0.6 km) south of Kimball and an exposure on the south side of the road nearly 1 mi (1.6 km) east of Kimball (north line of NE-NW-NE-NE sec. 3 I, T. 27 S., R. 21 E.; fig 2, sec. 21) above the thinning Ladore Shale and thickening Bethany Falls Limestone Member in northeastern Neosho County. Locally the Mound Valley oolite rests upon the often oolitic (but consistently oomoldic) top of the Bethany Falls Limestone Member where the Ladore Shale has pinched out, as in the Schubert Creek quarry in western Bourbon County (fig. 2, sec. 15). The Mound Valley Limestone thins southwestward from Mound Valley to about 3 ft (0.9 m) on the west side of US-169 north of the railroad crossing (N half of SE sec. 7, T. 33 S., R. 17 E.) northeast of Liberty in Montgomery County. It is 3 ft (0.9 m) of shaly limestone in northernmost Oklahoma, as shown in the South Coffeyville core (fig. 2, sec. 33).

Figure 17--Map of part of 1958 (photorevised 1978) Fontana, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle showing location of stratotype of Elm Branch Shale in roadcut 5 mi (8 km) south-southwest of mouth of Elm Branch into Marais des Cygnes River and 1 mi (1.6 km) southwest of Fontana, Miami County, Kansas.

Map of part of 1958 (photorevised 1978) Fontana, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle.

Figure 18--Measured section of Elm Branch Shale stratotype in roadcut along west side of county road on E line of SE-SE-NW sec. 10, T. 19 S., R. 23 E. (fig. 17), 1 mi (1.6 km) southwest of Fontana, Miami County, Kansas. Thin earthy limestone in upper middle of Elm Branch Shale is normally exposed in ditch, and shale portions can easily be dug out in bank.

Measured section of Elm Branch Shale stratotype.

Galesburg Shale (unchanged)

The Galesburg Shale overlies the Mound Valley Limestone in southern Kansas and the Bethany Falls Limestone Member from central Bourbon County northward (figs. 1, 2); it underlies the Dennis Limestone everywhere. It was named by Adams (1903) from Galesburg in Neosho County, where it forms the slope south of town (Moore, 1936). The principal reference section is designated about 18 mi (30 km) to the northeast in the bank of Canville Creek, south of the US-59 bridge (NE corner sec. 22, T. 27 S., R. 20 E.; fig. 2, sec. 20). Here it is 16 ft (4.8 m) thick consisting of sandy shale with sandstone and two thin coal beds (Heckel et al., 1979, p. 26), and it rests upon the Mound Valley Limestone. The Galesburg Shale is mainly 2-12 ft (0.6-3.6 m) of gray mudstone from Bourbon County northward, but is quite variable southward where sandstone locally becomes dominant. It attains perhaps 130 ft (39 m) in the Verdigris River bluffs north of Coffeyville, where it is the upper formation of the Coffeyville Group. The prominent Cedar Bluff coal bed near the middle of the Galesburg Shale southward was named by Jewett (1932) from a river bluff north of Coffeyville. Another coal bed occurs near the top of the Galesburg, as seen in a roadcut (center of east line ofNE sec. 21, T. 31 S, R. 18 E.; fig. 2, sec. 28) south of US-160 southwest of Dennis, and in the South Coffeyville core (fig. 2, sec. 33). The Dodds Creek sandstone also was named by Jewett (1932), but from an unspecified locality near a creek in western Labette County that has not been found named on recent topographic maps. This name is dropped from use because of the lack of a type section in combination with confusion as to whether it applies to sandstone above the Cedar Bluff coal (as originally indicated by Jewett) or to sandstone below the Cedar Bluff coal (as indicated by Zeller, ed., 1968). These beds often are referred to as the Layton sandstones in the subsurface.

Dennis Limestone (unchanged)

The Dennis Limestone overlies the Galesburg Shale and underlies the Cherryvale Formation. It was named by Adams (1903) from exposures near Dennis in northwestern Labette County. The formation comprises three members in ascending order: Can ville Limestone, Stark Shale, and Winterset Limestone. Because the typical outcrops listed by Moore (1936) are now poorly exposed, the principal reference section (Heckel, 1988, p. 54) is designated in a roadcut 1 mi (1.6 km) southwest of Dennis (center Eline NE sec. 21, T. 31 S, R. 18 E.; fig. 2, sec. 28), and an excellent reference section for east-central Kansas is exposed along the west and south lines of SE sec. 31, T. 18 S, R 25 E. along US-69, north-northeast of Jingo in Miami County (Heckel, 1988, p. 51).

Canville Limestone Member (unchanged)

The Canville Limestone Member overlies the Galesburg Shale and underlies the Stark Shale Member. It was named from Canville Creek in northern Neosho County by Jewett (1932). Because original type exposures are now poorly exposed, the principal reference section is designated in a roadcut along US-59, 1.3 mi (2 km) east of Canville Creek, and 1.7 mi (3 km) west of Stark (S line SW-SE-SW sec. 13, T. 27 S., R. 20 E.; fig. 2, east of sec. 20). The Can ville Limestone Member typically consists of 2-3 ft (0.6-0.9 m) of dense skeletal calcilutite in Neosho and Bourbon counties, but ranges up to 6 ft (1.8 m) at the principal reference section where phylloid algae appear in the top. It thins gradually northward to disappearance in southern Miami County, and it becomes lenticular but locally thicker southward in Montgomery County, as in the quarry east of Drum Creek, 3.5 mi (6 km) north of Cherryvale (south of center of N line of NE sec. 29, T. 31 S., R. 17 E.), where it attains at least 18 ft (5.4 m) of phylloid algal facies. The Can ville also appears as 5 ft (1.5 m) of skeletal calcarenite in the nose of the Verdigris River bluff (SE-SW-SW sec. 14, T. 34 S., R. 16 E.), 2.5 mi (4 km) north of Coffeyville. The Canville Limestone Member is equivalent to the Lost City Limestone of the Tulsa region of Oklahoma, which also underlies the Stark Shale (Niemann, 1986).

Figure 19--A) Map of part of 1974 Mound Valley, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle showing location of type section of Mound Valley Limestone in roadcut up Dixon Mound northwest of Mound Valley; because Mound Valley Limestone caps Dixon Mound and nearby hills, overlying Galesburg Shale is not exposed in this vicinity. B) Map of part of 1973 Shaw, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle showing location of principal reference section of Mound Valley Limestone in roadcuts along US-59, 2 miles north of Erie, where both upper and lower contacts are exposed.

Maps of part of 1974 Mound Valley, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle and part of 1973 Shaw, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle.

Stark Shale Member (unchanged)

The Stark Shale Member overlies the Canville Limestone Member and underlies the Winterset Limestone Member. It was named from the town of Stark in northeastern Neosho County by Jewett (1932). Because the original type exposures are now poorly exposed, the principal reference section is established along US-59, 1.7 mi (3 km) west of Stark, in the same roadcut as that of the Canville Limestone (S line SW-SE-SW sec. 13, T. 27 S., R. 20 E.; fig. 2, east of sec. 20). The Stark Shale in its type region and generally throughout Kansas ranges from 1 to 6 ft (0.3-1.8 m) of black fissile phosphatic shale, overlain by gray fossiliferous shale in the thicker sections.

Figure 20--A) Measured section of Mound Valley Limestone type section in roadcut up Dixon Mound, along center of S line of SE sec. 27, T. 32 S., R. 18 E. (fig. 19A), 1 mi (1.6 km) northwest of Mound Valley, Labette County, Kansas. B) Measured section of principal reference section of Mound Valley Limestone in roadcuts along both sides of US-59, along W line of NW-NW sec. 20, and E line of NE-NE sec. 19, T. 28 S., R. 20 E. (fig. 19B), 2 mi (3 km) north of Erie, Neosho County, Kansas.

Measured sections of Mound Valley Limestone type section and principal reference section of Mound Valley Limestone.

Winterset Limestone Member (unchanged)

The Winterset Limestone Member overlies the Stark Shale Member and underlies the Cherryvale Formation (Fontana Shale Member). It was named by Tilton and Bain (1897) from Winterset in Madison County, Iowa. The principal reference section of the Winterset Limestone in Kansas is a complete exposure in a roadcut along US-69 north-northeast of Jingo (along W line SW-SW-SE sec. 31, T. 18 S., R. 25 E.) in southern Miami County (Heckel, 1988, p. 51). Here the member is 34 ft (10.2 m) thick, mostly bedded skeletal calcilutite, and divisible into two separate depositional units. The lower unit (about twothirds of the member) comprises three shallowing-upward minor cycles, the lower capped with thin oolite, the middle capped with peritidal calcilutite, and the upper capped by a mottled subaerial exposure surface (Heckel and Watney, 1985). The upper one-third of the Winterset Limestone Member, above the exposure surface, is a separate cycle of deposition consisting here mainly of medium-bedded skeletal calcilutite, which northward becomes dark and cherty in the Kansas City area. Both units become dominated by phylloid algal mound facies and oolite southward. The exposure surface separating the upper and lower units of the Winterset Limestone Member can be distinguished across the Kansas outcrop region and seems to become erosional southward (see fig. 21B). The upper Winterset unit appears to be lithologically equivalent to most of the Hogshooter Limestone, named by Ohern (1910) from a locality east of Bartlesville in Washington County, Oklahoma.

Linn Subgroup (revised)

The Linn Subgroup of the Kansas City Group is revised to include the following formations in ascending order (figs. 1, 21B): Cherryvale Formation, Nellie Bly Formation (newly extended into Kansas from Oklahoma), Dewey Limestone (as now reclassified in Kansas to include what has been incorrectly termed Drum Limestone in northeastern Kansas), and Chanute Shale. The Iola Limestone is removed from the Linn Subgroup and now is included in the overlying Zarah Subgroup because of its closer stratigraphic association with those strata (see later section).

Cherryvale Formation (revised)

The Cherryvale Formation overlies the Dennis Limestone (Winterset Limestone Member) and underlies the newly recognized Nellie Bly Formation throughout Kansas (fig. 1). Named by Haworth (1898) from bluffs around Cherryvale in Montgomery County, usage and subdivision of the Cherryvale was stabilized by Moore (1948, 1949). Previously containing five members (figs. 1, 21A), the Cherryvale Formation in northeastern Kansas now comprises four members, in ascending order: Fontana Shale, Block Limestone, Wea Shale, and Westerville Limestone (figs. 1, 21B). The Quivira Shale, once included above the Westerville (fig. 21A), is now recognized as a member of the overlying Dewey Limestone (as reclassified; see later section). All members were named from northeastern Kansas except for the Westerville Limestone, which was named from Iowa. In parts of southern Kansas the formerly undivided Cherryvale Formation now comprises, in ascending order: Lower Shale member, Middle Flaggy Limestone member, and Drum Limestone Member. The Drum Limestone Member, once thought to correlate with the higher Dewey Limestone of Oklahoma (fig. 21A), is now included as a member of the Cherryvale Formation in southern Kansas because it is now known to lie below the Dewey Limestone and to occupy the same stratigraphic position as the Westerville Limestone Member of the Cherryvale Formation in northeastern Kansas (fig.21B). The Lower Shale and Middle Flaggy Limestone members are recognized only in those parts of Montgomery County in southern Kansas where the Block Limestone Member is not identified.

Figure 21--Comparison of previous correlation, nomenclature, and classification (A) of middle Missourian (mainly Linn Subgroup) strata with revised correlation, nomenclature, and classification (B) mandated by correction of long-standing rniscorrelation of Dewey Limestone of Oklahoma and Cement City Limestone of Missouri with Drum Limestone of southern Kansas. Neither vertical nor lateral dimensions are to exact scale, but locations of measured sections in figs. 23, 25, and 27 are shown in (B) to provide evidence for stratigraphic control. Tailed diamond symbols indicate correlations based on conodont faunas. Section for Cherryvale Formation in northeastern Kansas is based on reference section along Inland Drive (south of center of N line NW-NE sec. 27, T. 11 S., R. 24 E.; see text). Section for Hogshooter Limestone. in northeastern Oklahoma is based on its type section in quarry 3.5 mi northeast of Hogshooter and east of Bartlesville in SW sec. 9, T. 26 N., R. 14 E. (for upper part) and in roadcut 1 mi south of Hogshooter along north line of NE-NW-NE sec. 6, T. 25 N., R. 14 E. (for lower part), Washington County, Oklahoma.

Comparison of previous correlation of middle Missourian strata with revised correlation.

The type section of the Cherryvale Formation is designated in the exposure on the hillside and road ditch just south of the road intersection along the E line of SE-SE-SE sec. 32, T. 31 S., R. 17 E., and down to the top of the Winterset Limestone Member in the bed of Cherry Creek, 2 mi (3 km) north of Cherryvale (fig. 22A). This exposure includes in ascending order, the upper 60 ft (18 m) of the Lower Shale member, 4 ft (1.2 m) of Middle Flaggy Limestone member, and about 4 ft (1.2 m) or more of the Drum Limestone Member, mostly in the dip slope (fig 23A). The total thickness of the Cherryvale interval in this area is at least 104 ft (31+ m). A good reference section nearby for the Cherryvale Formation where it comprises the Fontana Shale, Block Limestone, Wea Shale, and Drum Limestone Members (fig. 23B) is at a new roadcut east of the US-160-169 junction, about 3 mi (5 km) south of Cherryvale along N line NE sec. 31, T. 32 S., R. 17 E. (fig. 22B). In southern Montgomery County, the Cherryvale Formation thins and becomes more dominated by the Middle Flaggy Limestone member as the Block Limestone Member disappears, the Lower Shale member thins, and the Drum Limestone Member pinches out and/or grades into the top of the Middle Flaggy Limestone member (fig. 21B). In northeastern Kansas, the Cherryvale Formation ranges generally from about 30 to 50 ft (9-15 m) thick in the Kansas City area. Here, a reference section that exposes all four members is accessible (but with some difficulty) in a rill above the main quarry wall behind the transformer station at the north end of the cold storage plant quarries along Inland Drive (south of center of N line of NW-NE sec. 27, T. 11 S., R 24 E.). The lower boundary of the Cherryvale Formation is the basal contact of gray shale or mudstone with the top of the Winterset Limestone Member. The upper boundary of the Cherryvale Formation is the contact between limestone of the Drum or Westerville Limestone Members (where they are present) with shale, mudstone, or sandstone of the overlying Nellie Bly Formation. Where the capping limestone members are absent (as across most of eastern Kansas), this boundary is rarely exposed and difficult to place (see later section on Wea Shale Member).

Fontana Shale Member (unchanged)

The Fontana Shale Member overlies the Winterset Limestone Member of the Dennis Limestone and underlies the Block Limestone Member (figs. 1, 21B). It was named by Moore (1932) and defined by Newell (1935) from exposures near Fontana in Miami County. Because neither of the two original type exposures are well exposed today, the principal reference section is designated on the east side of the US-69 roadcut along W line SW-NE sec. 6, T. 19 S., R. 25 E., 8 mi (13 km) east of Fontana, just south of the Winterset Limestone Member reference section north-northeast of Jingo. The Fontana Shale Member in its type area ranges from 12 to 18 ft (3.6-5.4 m) of gray shale to mudstone with small carbonate nodules and, in the upper part, scattered marine fossils. It thins northward to 5 ft (1.5 m) in the Kansas City area, where it consists of blocky mudstone overlain by fossiliferous shale with a local thin sandstone. Southward, it thickens to form the main mass of gray shale that dominates the Cherryvale Formation in its type area (fig. 23B), and is equivalent to most of the Lower Shale member in that area (fig. 21B).

Figure 22--A) Map of part of 1962 (photoinspected 1977) Cherryvale, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle, showing location of type section of Cherryvale Formation in hillslope and road ditch north of Cherryvale in Montgomery County. B) Map of part of 1962 (photoinspected 1977) Liberty, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle, showing location of reference section of named members of Cherryvale Formation in southern Kansas and principal reference section of Drum Limestone Member in roadcuts along new east-west road (not shown on map) south of Cherryvale in Montgomery County.

Maps of part of 1962 (photoinspected 1977) Cherryvale, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle and part of 1962 (photoinspected 1977) Liberty, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle.

Lower Shale member (new)

The informal Lower Shale member is recognized in those parts of Montgomery County, Kansas, where the Block Limestone is not identified. It overlies the Winterset Limestone Member, and thus is partly equivalent to the Fontana Shale Member (figs. 1, 21B).lts upper contact is gradational with the informal Middle Flaggy Limestone member and is placed at the base of the lowest flaggy limestone bed. The Lower Shale member consists of about 95 ft (28 m) of essentially unfossiliferous gray shale with scattered limestone concretions at its principal reference section, the Cherryvale type section north of Cherryvale (fig. 23A). It thins southward to 15 ft (4.5 m) in the west bank of the Verdigris River near center of sec. 28, T. 33 S., R. 16 E., north of the mouth of Clear Creek, where its lower part contains a very thin shaly fossiliferous limestone bed that may be the southern featheredge of the Block Limestone Member. Farther southward, the Lower Shale member thins nearly to disappearance between the top of the Winterset Limestone Member and the base of the overlying Middle Flaggy Limestone member in an outcrop along the north side of US-166 west of Coffeyville (N line west of NE corner of sec. 6, T. 35 S., R.16 E.).

Figure 23--A) Measured section of Cherryvale Formation type section in hillslope south of road intersection and in road ditch along Eline SE-SE-SE sec. 32, T. 31 S., R 17 E. (fig. 22A), 2 mi (3 km) north of Cherryvale, Kansas. This is also the principal reference section for the two informal members of the Cherryvale Formation (Lower Shale and Middle Flaggy Limestone), which are recognized where the Block Limestone Member cannot be identified. B) Measured section of upper part of Cherryvale Formation in roadcuts east of the US-160-169 junction along N line of NE sec. 31, T. 32 S., R 17 E. (fig. 22B), 3 mi (S km) south of Cherryvale, Kansas. This is a reference section in southern Kansas for the more northerly named members (Fontana Shale, Block Limestone, Wea Shale) of the Cherryvale Formation, and the principal reference section for the Drum Limestone Member of the Cherryvale Formation, which is developed only in southern Kansas. Block Limestone Member lenses out toward north in this exposure.

Measured sections of Cherryvale Formation.

Block Limestone Member (unchanged)

The Block Limestone Member overlies the Fontana Shale Member and underlies the Wea Shale Member (figs. 1, 21B). Named by Moore (1932) and defined by Newell (1935), its type locality is still fairly well exposed in the road ditch at center N line NW sec. 7, T. 18 S., R. 24 E., just east of the village of Block in Miami County (fig. 24). The Block Limestone Member averages 3 to 5 ft (0.9-1.5 m) of dense gray skeletal calcilutite in its type area (fig. 25) and thins northward to 1 ft (0.3 m) in the Kansas City area. In southern Kansas the Block Limestone Member occurs at the Cherryvale reference section south of Cherryvale where it is 1 ft (0.3 m) of dense conodont-rich skeletal calcarenite (fig. 23B). It may be present locally southward as a very thin, conodont-rich, shaly fossiliferous limestone bed within the Lower Shale member, as in the west bank of the Verdigris River near the center of sec. 28, T. 33 S., R. 16 E. (see previous section).

Figure 24--Map of part of 1956 (photorevised 1973) Paola East, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle, showing location of neostratotype for interval of Wea Shale Member of Cherryvale Formation above type section of Block Limestone Member along road east of Block in Miami County. Brown sandstone bed is presumed to be at or near base of Nellie Bly Formation.

Map of part of 1956 (photorevised 1973) Paola East, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle.

Wea Shale Member (revised)

The Wea Shale Member overlies the Block Limestone Member everywhere, and underlies the Westerville Limestone Member in northeastern Kansas, the Nellie Bly Formation in east-central Kansas, and the Drum Limestone Member in southeastern Kansas (figs. 1, 21B). It was named by Moore (1932) and defined by Newell (1935) from exposures near Wea Creek in northeastern Miami County, and its usage was stabilized by Moore (1948, 1949) to apply to the shale between the Block and Westerville Limestone Members in the Kansas City area. The Westerville Limestone Member is absent in the Wea type area, and the original type sections of Newell (1935) expose only strata now known to belong to the Nellie Bly Formation above the position of the Westerville Limestone Member (see later sections on Drum Limestone Member and Nellie Bly Formation). Therefore, a neostratotype for the Wea Shale Member is designated in the road ditch above the type exposure of the Block Limestone along N line NE-NW sec. 7, T. 18 S., R. 24 E. (fig. 24). Here the Wea Shale Member interval is 27 ft (8.2 m) thick, with about 1 ft (0.3 m) of conodont-rich gray clay shale at the base, and it is overlain by brown sandstone (best seen on the north side of the road) assigned to the Nellie Bly Formation (fig. 25). The Wea Shale Member is generally very poorly exposed across most of eastern Kansas, but where seen, it is typically gray sparsely fossiliferous shale with thin limestone beds ranging from moderately to sparsely fossiliferous. The lower boundary of the Wea Shale Member is the contact of gray shale upon the Block Limestone Member. The upper boundary is the contact of gray shale below limestone of the Westerville or Drum Limestone Members where they are present. Where these overlying limestone members are absent (as across most of eastern Kansas), the upper contact is rarely exposed, but would be chosen where gray fossiliferous shale is overlain by coarser detrital beds (as at the neostratotype), or by plant-bearing shale or unfossiliferous mudstone, all of which are more typical of the overlying Nellie Bly Formation. Northward, the Wea Shale Member ranges from 30 ft (9 m) of gray shale along Tomahawk Creek (N line at NE corner sec. 21, T. 13 S., R. 25 E.) in Johnson County, to 7 ft (2.1 m) of gray shale with two thin limestone beds (one in the middle with conspicuous brachiopods and one in the lower part with dark burrow mottling) at the Cherryvale reference section above Inland Drive in Wyandotte County. In southern Kansas at the Cherryvale reference section south of Cherryvale (fig. 23B) in central Montgomery County, the Wea Shale Member is 3 ft (0.9 m) of gray shale containing flaggy limestone beds with brachiopods appearing toward the top. It thickens westward in 2 mi (3 km) to at least 10 ft (3 m) above the Block Limestone Member in the roadcut along US-160 (S line SW-SW-SW sec. 25, T. 32 S., R. 16 E.). Elsewhere in this region where the Block Limestone Member is not identified, the Wea Shale Member is equivalent to the Middle Flaggy Limestone member and probably to the upper part of the Lower Shale member of the Cherryvale Formation as well.

Figure 25--Measured section of neostratotype for Wea Shale Member interval, Block Limestone Member type section, and associated units along road along N line of NW sec. 7. T. 18 S., R. 24 E (fig. 24), 0.1-0.6 mi (0.2-1 km) east of Block, Miami County, Kansas, based partly on measurements by Newell (1935, p. 143-144, section ISO).

Measured section of neostratotype for Wea Shale Member interval, Block Limestone Member type section, and associated units.

Middle Flaggy Limestone member (new)

The informal Middle Flaggy Limestone member overlies the Lower Shale member and underlies the Drum Limestone Member where the Block Limestone Member is not identified and the Wea Shale Member is not differentiated, in parts of Montgomery County in southern Kansas (figs. 1, 21B). This unit ranges in thickness from about 4 ft (1.2 m) of gray shale with scattered flaggy limestone beds at its principal reference section at the type section of the Cherryvale Formation (fig. 23A) to about 20-30 ft (6-9 m) of interbedded flaggy limestone and shale southward in scattered outcrops along Clear Creek in SW sec. 28, T. 33 S., R. 16 E. and in roadcuts in sections 3, 10, 15, 22, and 27, in T. 34 S., R. 16 E., north of Coffeyville. In this area, it contains sparse fossils, mainly snails and brachiopods. Its lower boundary is the basal contact of the lowest f1aggy limestone bed above the Lower Shale member, and its upper boundary is the top of the highest gray shale bed below the Drum Limestone Member. It is considered to be largely equivalent to the Wea Shale Member, which contains similar Flaggy limestone beds where it can be differentiated in this area. The Middle Flaggy Limestone member thins and loses shale beds toward the southern border of Kansas, where it becomes a 3-ft (0.9-m)-thick ledge of dense, laminated calcilutite, which may include the southern equivalent of the Drum Limestone Member as well (see later section). This ledge forms nearly all of the Cherryvale Formation above the Winterset Limestone Member in a roadcut along the north side of US-166 west of Coffeyville (NE corner sec. 6, T. 35 S., R. 16 E.), and it can be traced southward to the Oklahoma border in the SE corner of sec. 16, T. 35 S., R. 16 E.

Westerville Limestone Member (unchanged)

The Westerville Limestone Member overlies the Wea Shale Member and underlies the recently recognized Nellie Bly Formation in northeastern Kansas (figs. 1, 21 B). It now forms the top of the Cherryvale Formation in northeastern Kansas and is now considered to be equivalent to the Drum Limestone Member of southern Kansas. The Westerville Limestone Member was named from Westerville in northwestern Decatur County, Iowa (Bain, 1898), and was grouped by Moore (1948, 1949) in the Cherryvale Formation (fig. 21A). The principal reference section in Kansas is along the north side of I-70, 0.7 mi (1.1 km) west of 18th Street (NW-SE-NW sec. 17, T. 11 S., R. 25 E.) in Wyandotte County. In this area, the lower part of the Westerville Limestone Member averages about 8 ft (2.4 m) of skeletal calcilutite, the middle is an oolite that ranges generally from a few inches (cm) to about 6 ft (1.8 m) thick, and the upper part of the Westerville is up to 10 ft (3 m) of locally shaly, barren laminated calcilutite. The Westerville Limestone Member thins southward to about 8 ft (2.4 m) along 119th St. at Mission Road (N line at NE corner sec. 21, T. 13 S, R. 25 E.) in Johnson County as the lower unit thins, the middle oolitic unit pinches out, and the upper unit thins and becomes shalier. The Westerville Limestone Member is not known to be exposed in Miami County or southward.

Drum Limestone Member (recorrelated and reclassified)

The Drum Limestone Member overlies the Wea Shale Member and the Middle Flaggy Limestone member and underlies the Nellie Bly Formation in southern Kansas (figs. 1, 21B). It was named by Adams (1903) from Drum Creek east of Independence in Montgomery County. Its principal reference section (fig. 23B) is at the Cherryvale Formation reference section south of Cherryvale (N line NE sec. 31, T. 32 S., R. 17 E. and just east of Drum Creek), where it consists of 2 ft (0.6 m) of skeletal calcilutite overlain by 4 ft (1.2 m) of oolite. Moore (1936, 1949) had correlated the Drum Limestone with both the Cement City Limestone of Missouri and the Dewey Limestone of Oklahoma (fig. 21A). He also subdivided it into two members: Dewey (or Cement City) Limestone Member below, overlain by Corbin City Limestone Member, the oolite facies. This correlation stood until A. P. Bennison found the true Cement City Limestone and the underlying Quivira Shale Member in a position 20 ft (6 m) above the Drum Limestone in its type region in a ravine on the west bluff of the Verdigris River on the northeastern outskirts of Independence (figs. 26, 27). Thus the Drum Limestone is not equivalent to the Cement City Limestone, but rather occupies the same stratigraphic position as the Westerville Limestone Member of the Cherryvale Formation in northeastern Kansas (fig. 21B). Therefore the Drum Limestone is now reduced in rank and classified in a similar fashion as the top member of the Cherryvale Formation in southern Kansas. The Quivira Shale Member has subsequently been found at the base of the Dewey Limestone in Oklahoma, and accordingly, the Cement City Limestone and Quivira Shale are reclassified as members of the Dewey Limestone (see later section).

The Drum Limestone Member is about 60 ft (18 m) of mainly oolite just east of Independence along the Verdigris River south of the US-160 bridge and in the cement plant quarries just to the south (north half of sec. 5, T. 33 S., R. 16 E.). It thins northeastward to just 1 ft (0.3 m) of skeletal calcarenite and calcilutite in a creek valley 2 mi (3 km) east of Morehead (NW-NW-SW sec. 32, T. 30 S., R. 18 E.) in southern Neosho County, currently the northernmost good exposure known. The Drum Limestone Member also thins southward from Independence to about 14 ft (4.2 m) at the bridge over Clear Creek (west line of NW-SW-SW sec. 28, T. 33 S., R. 16 E.). Here it is oolite that grades downward into thin wavy-bedded ledges of peloidal calcarenite, which overlie even-bedded shale-parted flags of the Middle Flaggy Limestone member. Although the basal contact of the Drum is placed at the base of the wavy-bedded limestone above a prominent shale parting here, a section about 1 mi (1.6 km) to the southeast (west line of NW-SW-NW sec. 34) shows a more gradational contact from thinner and more fine-grained oolite through peloidal calcarenite to typical middle Cherryvale flags. Southward toward Coffeyville, all the limestone in this interval is flaggy with shale partings, and some of the upper flags contain zones of peloidal calcarenite, suggesting that the southward-thinning Drum Limestone Member has graded into the top of the Middle Flaggy Limestone member north of Coffeyville (fig. 21B). This provides another reason to classify the Drum similarly as a member of the Cherryvale Formation. Reduction in rank of the Drum Limestone to a member reduces its previously named members to beds. Both names for the previous lower member (Dewey, Cement City) are now known to correctly apply only to an overlying limestone unit (see later section). Because the previous upper oolite member is even more local than the Drum Limestone Member and is adequately designated by its lithology alone, the name Corbin City Limestone is abandoned.

Nellie Bly Formation (newly recognized in Kansas)

As now recognized, the Nellie Bly Formation overlies the Cherryvale Formation (including both the Drum and Westerville Limestone Members and the Wea Shale Member) and underlies the Dewey Limestone (Quivira Shale Member) in Kansas (figs. 1, 21B). The name was applied by Gould (1925, from an unpublished 1914 manuscript by Ohern) to shale and sandstone above the Hogshooter (Dennis) Limestone and below the Dewey Limestone in northern Oklahoma. The type area was designated by Oakes (1940) as exposures along Nellie Bly Creek in secs. 28, 29, 3l. 32, T. 24 N., R. 13 E. southwest of Ramona, Washington County, Oklahoma. In this area the Nellie Bly ranges from 115 to 180 ft (35-54 m) of sandy shale to sandstone. The Nellie Bly Formation had been considered by Moore (1948, p. 2.031) to be the southern equivalent of the Cherryvale Formation of Kansas. It is now known, however, to overlie the Drum Limestone and Middle Flaggy Limestone members of the Cherryvale, both of which thin southward near the Kansas-Oklahoma border just above the Winterset Limestone Member (as on US-166 west of Coffeyville along N line at NW corner of sec. 5 and NE corner of sec. 6, T. 35 S., R. 16 E.). The southward shaly limestone equivalents of the Cherryvale have apparently been included in the top of the Hogshooter Limestone in Oklahoma (fig. 21B).

The principal reference section for the Nellie B1y Formation in Kansas is in a ravine on the west bluff of the Verdigris River (north of center S line, NE sec. 19, T. 32 S., R. 16 E.) on the north side of Independence (fig. 26), where A. P. Bennison discovered it separating the Drum and Dewey limestones. Here the Nellie Bly consists of 21 ft (6.3 m) of shale-parted sandstone above the Drum Limestone Member grading upward into sandy shale below the black Quivira Shale Member of the Dewey Limestone (fig. 27). The lower boundary of the Nellie Bly Formation is the basal contact of sandstone or sandy shale above the Drum Limestone Member in southern Kansas, but thin lenticular limestones are included in the lower Nellie Bly in places (fig. 23B). The upper boundary is the contact between sandstone, sandy shale, or mudstone of the Nellie Bly and the base of the overlying fissile black shale to fossiliferous gray shale (and locally to the north, a thin lenticular limestone bed) of the Quivira Shale Member of the Dewey Limestone. In places between Independence and the Oklahoma border. however, the Dewey Limestone had been eroded and the channels filled with sandstone from the overlying Chanute Shale. Because the type Dewey Limestone of Oklahoma was miscorrelated with the Drum Limestone Member of Kansas, the Nellie Bly of southern Kansas was readily (but erroneously) considered part of the Chanute. In these places, the upper contact of the Nellie Bly Formation is the base of the rubbly limestone beds containing eroded fragments of Dewey Limestone in the base of the Chanute, which erroneously had been considered to be the Corbin City Limestone Member (now abandoned) of the Drum Limestone, then ranked as a formation.

Figure 26--Map of part of 1959 (photorevised 1979) Independence, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle, showing location of principal reference sections of Nellie Bly Formation and Dewey Limestone in Kansas, in ravine in bluff of Verdigris River on northeastern outskirts of Independence in Montgomery County, discovered by A. P. Bennison in 1986.

Map of part of 1959 (photorevised 1979) Independence, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle.

The Nellie Bly Formation is generally poorly exposed northward across eastern Kansas, where it was again easily confused with the younger Chanute Shale because the intervening Dewey Limestone is thin and rarely exposed. The Nellie Bly Formation includes the sandstones, sandy plant-bearing beds, thin coals, and gray to maroon mudstone observed below the Quivira Shale Member and originally included in the Wea Shale Member. The lower boundary of the Nellie Bly in this region is rarely exposed, but where seen (as at the neostratotype for the Wea Shale Member of the Cherryvale Formation east of Block in Miami County: fig. 25), it is the basal contact of sandstone, sandy shale, or mudstone above sparsely fossiliferous gray shale of the Wea. In the Kansas City area, the Nellie Bly Formation ranges from a few feet of gray blocky mudstone, typically with calcareous nodules and locally a thin coal at the top (all of which previously were included in the Quivira Shale Member), to absent in places where the fossiliferous Quivira Shale Member lies directly upon the Westerville Limestone Member. The Nellie Bly is 1.5 ft (0.45 m) of gray blocky mudstone with calcareous nodules and fractured limestone masses at a reference section at the entrance to the I-435 southbound onramp from K-32 (near center of SW sec. 30, T. 11 S., R. 24 E.) east of Edwardsville in Wyandotte County.

Dewey Limestone (recorrelated, reclassified, and raised in rank in Kansas)

The Dewey Limestone is now recognized in Kansas to comprise, in ascending order, the Quivira Shale Member and the Cement City Limestone Member (figs. 1, 21B). It overlies the Nellie Bly Formation and underlies the Chanute Shale. The Dewey Limestone was named by Ohern (1910) from exposures in the old cement plant quarry in sec. 26, T. 27 N., R. 13 E., east of Dewey in Washington County, Oklahoma. Both the Dewey Limestone and Cement City Limestone (named from Missouri) had been incorrectly correlated with the Drum Limestone of southern Kansas, and both names had been applied to its lower member, the latter case causing the name Drum to be incorrectly applied to the next limestone above the Westerville Limestone Member in the Kansas City area (fig. 21A). When the miscorrelation was rectified by discovery of the Cement City Limestone Member and underlying Quivira Shale Member (which was regarded as the upper member of the Cherryvale Formation in the Kansas City area) above the Drum Limestone in its type area, the problem arose of how to reclassify the unit formerly called Drum in the Kansas City area. This was resolved after discovery of the Quivira Shale Member in the base of the type Dewey Limestone (which had always been considered a formation in Oklahoma), by inclusion of the Quivira as a member of the Dewey and by using the name Cement City (the next member above the Quivira in the Kansas City area) for the upper, limestone member of the Dewey. Thus the Dewey Limestone is a typical limestone formation of the Missourian succession of Kansas, lacking only a thin limestone member below the Quivira Shale Member (except for the local limestone bed in the Kansas City area), much like the older Dennis Limestone north of the pinchout of the basal Canville Limestone Member.

The principal reference section for the Dewey Limestone and its two members (fig. 27) in southeastern Kansas is just above that for the Nellie Bly Formation in the ravine along the west bluff of the Verdigris River, north of center S line NE sec. 19, T. 32 S., R. 16 E., on the northern edge of Independence in Montgomery County (fig. 26). Here, the formation is only 5 ft (1.5 m) thick, and it is generally poorly exposed northward as it thickens only gradually. Representative exposures are in the creek bed at US-59 (near NE corner of sec. 2, T. 24 S., R. 20 E.) west of Bayard in northern Allen County, in the roadcut 1 mi (1.6 km) east of Osawatomie (S line SW-SE-NE sec. 12, T. 18 S., R. 22 E.) in Miami County, and in the excellent long exposure along the north side of I-70 between 18th St. and Park/Kaw Drive exits (N half of sec. 17, T. 11 S., R 25 E.) in Wyandotte County, where it is 12 ft (3.6 m) thick. South of Independence, the Dewey Limestone had been removed by pre-Chanute erosion across much of southern Montgomery County (which contributed to its miscorrelation with the older Drum Limestone). Here conglomeratic limestones composed of Dewey Limestone rubble, which had been erroneously assigned to the Corbin City Limestone Member (now abandoned) of the Drum, more properly belong to the base of the overlying Chanute Shale and mark its contact with the underlying Nellie Bly Formation. Nevertheless, outliers of Dewey Limestone have been discovered in this area by A. P. Bennison, including a roadcut east of Montgomery County State Park (along S line of SE-SE-SW sec. 17, T. 33 S., R. 16 E.) where both members are exposed.

Figure 27--Measured section of principal reference sections of Nellie Bly Formation and Dewey Limestone in Kansas, in ravine in Verdigris River bluff just north of center of S line NE sec. 19, T. 32 S., R. 16 E. (fig. 26) on northeastern outskirts of Independence in Montgomery County. Thickness of Drum Limestone Member and underlying unit exposed in riverbank at low water is based on measurements by A. P. Bennison.

Measured section of principal reference sections of Nellie Bly Formation and Dewey Limestone.

Quivira Shale Member (reclassified and redefined)

The Quivira Shale Member overlies the Nellie Bly Formation (and locally the Westerville Limestone Member of the Cherryvale Formation in the Kansas City area) and underlies the Cement City Limestone Member (figs. 1, 21B, 27). It was named by Moore (1932) and defined by Newell (1935) from exposures near Quivira Lake in Wyandotte County, and was considered to be the top member of the Cherryvale Formation by Moore (1948, 1949). Now that the Drum Limestone is considered equivalent to the Westerville Limestone Member, and the Nellie Bly Formation is known to separate both those limestones from the Quivira Shale Member, the Quivira Shale Member is removed from the Cherryvale Formation and placed with the Cement City Limestone Member in the Dewey Limestone. The Quivira Shale Member throughout Kansas is generally 2-5 ft (0.6-1.5 m) of moderately fossiliferous, gray to dark-gray to black shale with 10caJ phosphorite nodules and abundant conodonts, and it locally includes a thin limestone bed at the base. The underlying Nellie Bly Formation contains plant-bearing beds and unfossiliferous mudstones in addition to the sandstones and sandy shales. Therefore, it is the more appropriate unit to contain the gray to tan blocky mudstone and local capping thin coaly bed that overlie the Westerville Limestone Member in much of the Kansas City area and which had been included in the base of the Quivira Shale Member. Therefore, the Quivira Shale Member is redefined to exclude these beds, which are transferred to the Nellie Bly Formation. Thus the lower boundary of the Quivira Shale Member is the contact of gray fossiliferous to black fissile shale or thin limestone, above gray to tan to maroon mudstone to sandy shale or sandstone of the Nellie Bly Formation. The principal reference section for the Quivira Shale Member lies on top of 0.1 ft (3 em) of gray unfossiliferous Nellie Bly mudstone above the Westerville Limestone Member along Kaw Drive 0.6 mi (1 km) west of the I-635 overpass in Wyandotte County (center W half SE-SE sec. 12, T. 11 S., R. 24 E.). This locality is about 6 mi (10 km) northeast of Quivira Lake and is illustrated as Stop A4 by Heckel et al. (1999, p. 24).

Cement City Limestone Member (reclassified)

The Cement City Limestone Member overlies the Quivira Shale Member and underlies the Chanute Shale everywhere in Kansas (figs. 1, 21B, 27). It was named by Hinds and Greene (1915) from Cement City, northeast of Kansas City in Jackson County, Missouri. Previously classified as a member of the Drum Limestone, the Cement City Limestone Member is now recognized as the upper member of the Dewey Limestone, now that the miscorrelation of both units with the type Drum Limestone Member has been rectified. Good reference sections of the Cement City are located along Ka w Drive 0.6 mi (1 km) west of the I-635 overpass above the principal reference section for the Quivira Shale Member, and along the north side of I-70 (N half sec. 17, T. 11 S., R. 25 E.), 1 to 2 mi (1.6-3 km) to the east. The principal reference section in Kansas is designated along the westbound exit ramp from I-70 to Park Drive/Kaw Drive (E half of NE-NE sec. 18, T. 11 S., R. 25 E.), all in Wyandotte County. The Cement City Limestone Member ranges from 6 to 8 ft (1.8-2.4 m) of mainly wavy-bedded skeletal calcilutite in the Kansas City area, and locally has a bed of skeletal calcarenite up to 1 ft (0.3 m) thick at the top. The Cement City thins gradually southward across eastern Kansas to 2-4 ft (0.6-1.2 m) of brownish-weathering skeletal calcilutite with conspicuous white crinoid columnals. The best reference section in southern Kansas is in the ravine on the west side of the Verdigris River north of Independence at the principal reference section for the entire Dewey Limestone (figs. 26, 27).

Chanute Shale (redefined)

The Chanute Shale is redefined as the unit that overlies the Dewey Limestone (Cement City Limestone Member) and underlies the Iola Limestone (Paola Limestone Member) (fig. 1). Named by Haworth and Kirk (1894) from exposures around Chanute in northwestern Neosho County, the name was stabilized by Moore (1936) to apply to the interval between the Drum Limestone and the Iola Limestone. The only precisely listed typical exposure given by Moore (1936, p. 109) "in SE sec. 33, T. 26 S., R. 18 E." has been rediscovered 1 mi to the east along the center S line SE-SE sec. 34, T. 26 S., R. 18 E., where the Chanute is about 20 ft (6 m) of shale and sandstone (now poorly exposed), but lying on what is now known to be the Cement City Limestone Member of the Dewey Limestone. Therefore, from here northward, where the true Drum Limestone Member is absent and the Cement City was misidentified as Drum, the name Chanute applies to the same interval as previously. In this region, the Chanute Shale averages about 40-50 ft (12-15 m) of dominantly sandstone and sandy shale, thinning northward to 6-15 ft (1.8-4.5 m) of sandy shale with sandstone toward the top in the Kansas City region. Southward from Chanute, the Chanute Shale thickens locally to over 200 ft (60 m) in southern Kansas, where it is dominated by sandstone. In this region, where the true Drum Limestone Member is thick and well exposed and the Dewey Limestone is thin and was generally overlooked, shale and sandstone of the underlying Nellie Bly Formation were included in the Chanute.

South of Independence where the Dewey Limestone was locally removed by pre-Chanute erosion, the basal contact of the Chanute with the underlying Nellie Bly is marked in places by sandy, rubbly calcarenite, a lithic unit that had been misidentified as the Corbin City Limestone Member (now abandoned) of the Drum Limestone, but is now included in the basal Chanute. Representative exposures of this unit are along W line at SW corner SE sec. 5, T. 33 S., R. 16 E., southeast of Independence; near center ofW line of SW-NW sec. 31, T. 34 S., R. 16 E., and near center of S line of SW-SW sec. 6, T. 35 S., R. 16 E., south of Dearing. In other places in this region, the base of the Chanute Shale is marked by a limestone conglomerate (e.g., near center of W line of SW-SW sec. 6, along the old highway at S line SW-NE-NE sec. 6, and along new US-166, near center of N line of NE-NE sec. 6, T. 35 S., R. 16 E., west of Coffeyville, and along the west side of an old quarry between Coffeyville and Independence in NE-NE-NW sec. 33, T. 33 S., R. 16 E.). Clasts in this conglomerate include fragments of marine fossils, skeletal calcilutite, oolite, dense barren calcilutite, shale, and occasional phosphate nodules and pieces of wood. These represent material derived from the Cement City Limestone and Quivira Shale Members of the Dewey Limestone, the Drum oolite, and possibly the middle Cherryvale flags, as well as debris from the old land surface.

Across most of eastern and southern Kansas, the Chanute Shale contains the Thayer coal bed (named from Thayer in southern Neosho County) in the middle. This coal bed is locally overlain by a thin dark limestone with scattered unidentified fossils in southern Miami County (US-169 roadcut north of bridge northeast of Osawatomie in SE-SW sec. 1, T. 18 S., R. 22 E.) and in northern Linn County (road ditch 2 mi [3 km] south of Beagle on W line at NW corner, sec. 23, T. 19 S., R. 22 E.). Below the Thayer coal bed, sandstones in the lower Chanute have been referred to the Noxie Sandstone Member (named from the settlement of Noxie in northern Nowata County, Oklahoma). This unit is reduced in rank to Noxie sandstone bed because of its lenticularity in most places and lack of lateral delineation of the type Noxie in southern Montgomery County and northern Oklahoma. Sandstones above the Thayer coal bed have been referred to the Cottage Grove Sandstone Member (named from Cottage Grove Township in southern Allen County), which is also reduced in rank to Cottage Grove sandstone bed because of lenticularity and lack of lateral delineation of the sandstone body in its type area.

Zarah Subgroup (revised)

The Zarah Subgroup is revised to include the following formations in ascending order (fig. 1): Iola Limestone, Liberty Memorial Shale (reinstated and extended into Kansas from Missouri), Wyandotte Limestone (revised), and Lane Shale (revised). The Iola Limestone is now included in the Zarah Subgroup because the Wyandotte Limestone, which forms the majority of the lower Zarah in northeastern Kansas, rests with little lithic differentiation on top of the Iola Limestone where the intervening Liberty Memorial Shale has pinched out in east-central to southern Kansas. Correction of the long-standing miscorrelation between what is now termed Liberty Memorial Shale in the Kansas City area and the type Lane Shale of east-central Kansas also has necessitated the shifting of the two former upper members of the Wyandotte Limestone into the Lane Shale (figs. 1, 28).

Iola Limestone (upper boundary redefined)

The Iola Limestone overlies the Chanute Shale everywhere, and it underlies the Liberty Memorial Shale in northeastern Kansas and the Wyandotte Limestone in southeastern Kansas (fig. 1). The Iola had previously been considered to underlie the Lane Shale everywhere (fig. 28A), but it is now recognized that the Argentine Limestone Member of the Wyandotte Limestone descends over the southward pinchout of the shale previously called Lane at Kansas City to directly overlie the Iola below the type Lane Shale of western Miami County (fig. 28B). The shale between the Iola and Wyandotte limestones in the Kansas City area is now termed Liberty Memorial, a reinstated Missouri name (see below). The Iola Limestone was named by Haworth and Kirk (1894) for the prominent limestone underlying the town of Iola in Allen County. The type section listed by Moore (1936) is at the now-abandoned and partly water-filled cement plant quarry in Iola (NE sec. 2, T. 25 S., R. 18 E.), but it is now recognized that the interbedded shale and limestone beds above the main thick bed of quarried limestone belong to the overlying Liberty Memorial Shale and Wyandotte Limestone (fig. 28B, section 10). The Iola Limestone comprises three members in ascending order: Paola Limestone, Muncie Creek Shale, and Raytown Limestone.

Paola Limestone Member (unchanged)

The Paola Limestone Member overlies the Chanute Shale and underlies the Muncie Creek Shale Member (figs. 1, 28). It was named by Moore (1932) and defined by Newell (1935) from a composite section along the north edge of Paola in Miami County. The principal reference section is designated in a new roadcut east of the bridge over US-169 on the southeast side of Paola in NE-NW-NW sec. 22, T. 17 S., R. 23 E. (see Heckel et al., 1999, p. 66, Stop D4). Ranging from 1.5 to 2 ft (0.4-0.6 m) of skeletal calcilutite in its type area, the Paola thins northward to 1 ft (0.3 m) in the Kansas City area, thickens southward to 4 ft (1.2 m) in Anderson County, and then thins southward again to 1 ft (0.3 m) or less in southern Kansas.

Figure 28--A) Previous correlation, nomenclature, and classification of upper middle Missourian (upper Kansas City Group, Zarah Subgroup) strata across Miami County, Kansas, between Kansas City area (where most units were named) and east-central to southeastern Kansas (where fewer units were recognized). B) Revised nomenclature and classification mandated by correction of miscorrelation of Farley Limestone Member in western Miami County with entire Frisbie-Argentine-Farley succession in northeastern Miami County (and northward), and concomitant miscorrelation of type Lane Shale of western Miami County with type Liberty Memorial Shale of Kansas City area. Where range numbers are shown across top, cross section extends along Route K-68 in southern part of T. 16 S., north of Paola in Miami County, Kansas. Datum is top of Raytown Limestone Member. Measured sections indicated by black circled numbers are located in Appendix.

Previous and revised correlation, nomenclature, and classification of upper middle Missourian across Miami County.

Muncie Creek Shale Member (unchanged)

The Muncie Creek Shale Member overlies the Paola Limestone Member and underlies the Raytown Limestone Member (figs. 1, 28). It was named by Moore (1932) and defined by Newell (1935) from exposures near Muncie Creek in Wyandotte County. The principal reference section of the Muncie Creek Shale Member is designated a short distance east of Muncie Creek along Kaw Drive 0.9 mile (IA km) west of the J-635 overpass, and 0.3 mile (0.5 km) west of the principal reference section for the Quivira Shale, in NE-SE-SW sec. 12, T. 11 S., R. 24 E. (illustrated by Heckel et al., 1999, p. 24, Stop A4). The Muncie Creek Shale is 2 to 3 ft (0.6-0.9 m) thick and consists of black phosphatic shale overlain and underlain by thinner beds of dark-gray shale in its type area. It thins southward to 0.2 to 0.5 ft (6-15 em) of gray shale with abundant phosphorite nodules between southern Johnson County and northern Neosho County (as seen at the principal reference section for the Paola Limestone Member in Miami County). Farther southward, the Muncie Creek Shale Member thickens again to 1-3 ft (0.3-0.9 m) of gray and black phosphatic shale in southern Kansas.

Raytown Limestone Member (upper boundary redefined)

The Raytown Limestone Member overlies the Muncie Creek Shale Member, and it underlies the Liberty Memorial Shale in northeastern Kansas and the Wyandotte Limestone in parts of southern Kansas (figs. 1, 28B). Named by Hinds and Greene (1915) from Raytown in Jackson County, Missouri, the principal reference section for the Raytown Limestone Member in Kansas is designated in the roadcut on the southbound 1- 435 offramp to Holliday Road (NW-NE-NW sec. 6, T. 12 S., R. 24 E.) in northern Johnson County (figs. 29, 30). Another good reference section is above the principal reference section for the Muncie Creek Shale Member along Kaw Drive west of the I-635 overpass. The Raytown Limestone in the Kansas City area averages 7 ft (2.1 m) of mainly skeletal calcilutite. It contains a thin (up to 0.5 ft/15 cm) bed of crinoidal calcarenite at the base, separated by up to 0.5 ft (15 cm) of gray shale from the main mass of limestone and included previously by some in the Muncie Creek Shale Member. The Raytown thickens southward to about 40 ft (12 m) in Allen and northwestern Neosho counties where it forms a phylloid algal mound complex (Heckel and Cocke, 1969), south of which it thins to 5 ft (1.5 m) or less of non-algal sponge-rich calcilutite. Higher beds of limestone above shale now known to be the thinned southwestern extent of the Liberty Memorial Shale were once included in the Raytown Limestone Member in western Miami, Anderson, Allen, and Neosho counties (fig. 28A, sections 6, 9), but are now recognized as the southern facies of the Wyandotte Limestone (fig. 28B, sections 6, 10; see below).

Liberty Memorial Shale (reinstated)

The Liberty Memorial Shale overlies the Iola Limestone (Raytown Limestone Member) and underlies the Wyandotte Limestone (Frisbie Limestone Member and locally the Quindaro Shale Member) in northeastern Kansas (figs. 1, 28B). The name Liberty Memorial was originally applied by Clair (1943) to the shale above the Raytown Limestone and below the Frisbie Limestone Member in Jackson County, Missouri. This name was abandoned after Moore (1948) correlated this unit with the previously named Lane Shale of eastern Kansas. The name Liberty Memorial is now reinstated for exactly the same strata to which it was originally applied because recorrelation (fig. 28) shows that the type Lane Shale in Franklin County, Kansas, actually correlates with the shale interval above the Argentine Limestone Member of the Wyandotte Limestone in Kansas City. The type locality of the Liberty Memorial Shale proposed by Clair (1943) is in Kansas City, Missouri, presumably near a monument of that name in Penn Valley Park (SW sec. 8, T. 49 N., R. 33 W.). The principal reference section for the Liberty Memorial Shale in Kansas is designated along the I-435 southbound offramp to Holliday Road (W half of NE-NW sec. 6, T. 12 S., R. 24 E.) in northern Johnson County (fig. 29). The Liberty Memorial Shale here consists of 40 ft (12 m) of gray shale (fig. 30) with sparse fossils (mainly in the base), zones of ironstone nodules scattered throughout, and thin sandstone beds, particularly toward the top. Both lower and upper boundaries are abrupt contacts of gray, often sandy shale with the underlying and overlying limestone units. The Liberty Memorial Shale thins westward in 4 mi (7 km) to 25 ft (7.5 m) at the intersection of K-7 and K-32 on the east side of Bonner Springs (NW-SW sec. 28, T. 11 S., R. 23 E.). It also thins southward in northern Miami County to 28 ft (8A m) in the US-169/K-7 roadcut northeast of Paola (fig. 28B, section 4) just east of Lake Miola (from NE-SE-SW to W line of NW-SE sec. 11, T. 17 S., R. 23 E.). Here the overlying Frisbie Limestone Member has pinched out and the top of the silty, essentially unfossiliferous Liberty Memorial Shale lies in contact with the abundantly fossiliferous and darker Quindaro Shale Member of the Wyandotte Limestone. Westward, the Liberty Memorial thins further to a few feet (1-2 m) in quarries west of Paola (fig. 28B, section 6), where it was included in the upper Raytown Limestone Member (fig. 28A) by previous workers. It is absent in places nearby (K-68 roadcut west of Bull Creek: fig. 28B, section 5) and to the south, where the Wyandotte Limestone rests directly upon the Iola Limestone.

Wyandotte Limestone (revised)

The Wyandotte Limestone, as revised, overlies the Liberty Memorial Shale in northeastern Kansas and the Iola Limestone (Raytown Limestone Member) where the Liberty Memorial Shale is absent in parts of Miami County and southward. It underlies the Lane Shale (Island Creek Shale Member as reclassified) everywhere (figs. 1, 28B). The Wyandotte Limestone was named by Moore (1932) and defined by Newell (1935) from exposures in Wyandotte County, where it forms prominent bluffs along the Kansas River. Because of uncertain access to the typical exposures listed by Moore (1936) in cement plant quarries at the east edge of Bonner Springs (sec. 28, T. II S, R. 23 E.), the principal reference section for the Wyandotte Limestone and all its currently recognized members is designated 4 mi (6.4 km) eastward along the southbound offramp from I-435 to Holliday Road (NE-NW sec. 6, T. 12 S., R. 24 E.) in northernmost Johnson County (fig. 29). The Wyandotte Limestone is now revised to comprise only its former three lower members, in ascending order: Frisbie Limestone, Quindaro Shale, and Argentine Limestone Members (figs. 1, 28B, 30). This is because the previously included Island Creek Shale Member (fig. 28A), above the Argentine Limestone, is now known to correlate with the thick type Lane Shale in Miami County (fig. 28B). This recorrelation resulted from discovery that the Argentine Limestone Member thins dramatically in Miami County as it descends over the southwestward-thinning underlying Liberty Memorial Shale to overlie the Iola Limestone, with only the thin Quindaro Shale Member intervening, in the Lane Shale type area. The Island Creek Shale Member and the overlying Farley Limestone Member (formerly at the top of the Wyandotte and previously thought to constitute the entire formation in the Lane type area) are now included with the overlying Bonner Springs Shale Member as members of the revised Lane Shale (figs. 1, 28B, 30). The Wyandotte Limestone, as revised, averages 30-40 ft (9-12 m) thick in northeastern Kansas, thinning southward to an average of 5 ft (1.5 m) in southeastern Kansas.

Frisbie Limestone Member (unchanged)

The Frisbie Limestone Member is the basal member of the Wyandotte Limestone, lying above the Liberty Memorial Shale and below the Quindaro Shale Member (fig. 1). It was named by Moore (1932) and defined by Newell (1935) from a now poorly exposed outcrop east of the old railroad station of Frisbie in north-central Johnson County (center of N line sec. 17, T. 12 S., R. 23 E.). The principal reference section is designated 5 mi (8 km) to the east at the principal reference section for the entire Wyandotte Limestone along the southbound I-435 offramp to Holliday Road (figs. 29, 30). The Frisbie Limestone Member is generally a thin 1-5 ft (0.3-1.5 mj-thick dense skeletal calcilutite, which pinches out southwestward above the southwestward-thinning Liberty Memorial Shale in central Miami County.

Figure 29--Map of part of 1991 Edwardsville, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle, showing location of principal reference sections of Liberty Memorial Shale in Kansas, Wyandotte Limestone and its three members, and Island Creek Shale and Farley Limestone Members of Lane Shale, along ramps from I-435 to Holliday Road, east of Holliday in Johnson County. Lower formations are best exposed on east side of southbound offramp; higher units (upper part of Argentine Limestone Member and above) are easily accessible only above southbound onramp on southwest side. Farley Limestone Member (F.Ls.M.) of Lane Shale caps isolated hill on northeast side of offramp.

Map of part of 1991 Edwardsville, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle.

Quindaro Shale Member (unchanged)

The Quindaro Shale Member overlies the Frisbie Limestone Member (or the Liberty Memorial Shale or Raytown Limestone Member southward) and underlies the Argentine Limestone Member of the Wyandotte Limestone (fig. 1). It was named by Moore (1932) and defined by Newell (1935) from exposures at Boyne's quarry (NW sec. 30, T. 10 S., R. 25 E.) in Quindaro Township in northeastern Wyandotte County. Because of uncertain access to this area, the principal reference section for the Quindaro Shale is designated 10 mi (16 km) to the southwest at the principal reference section for the entire revised Wyandotte Limestone at the entrance to the southbound offramp from I-435 to Holliday Road in northern Johnson County (figs. 29, 30). The Quindaro Shale Member is 0.4 ft (12 em) of fossiliferous dark-gray shale at the reference section and ranges up to 1-3 ft (0.3-0.9 m) locally in northeastern Kansas as seen along US-69 just north of the K-68 overpass (SE corner sec. 25, T. 16 S., R. 24 E.) west of Louisburg (fig. 28B, section 1). Southwestward, the Quindaro averages about 1 ft (0.3 m) of conspicuously fossiliferous shale, lying upon the essentially unfossiliferous Liberty Memorial Shale in the US-169/K-7 roadcut east of Lake Miola (E line at NE corner of SW sec. 11, T. 17 S., R. 23 E.; fig. 28B, section 4) and upon the Raytown Limestone Member of the Iola Limestone in the K-68 roadcut west of Bull Creek (center of S line of SE sec. 29, T. 16 S., R. 23 E.) in Miami County (fig. 28B, section 5). The Quindaro Shale Member is often not differentiated from the argillaceous Argentine Limestone Member in southern Kansas, but can be identified in the quarry at Iola (fig. 28B, section 10).

Argentine Limestone Member (unchanged, but recorrelated southward)

The Argentine Limestone Member overlies the Quindaro Shale Member and underlies the Island Creek Shale Member of the Lane Shale as revised (figs. 1, 28B; see below). It was named by Moore (1932) and defined by Newell (1935) from an exposure (south of center N line sec. 29, T. 11 S., R. 25 E.) near Argentine Station on the south side of Kansas City in Wyandotte County. Because of current poor exposure there, the principal reference section is designated 7 mi (11 km) to the west at the principal reference section for the entire revised Wyandotte Limestone along the southbound offramp from I-435 to Holliday Road in northern Johnson County (figs. 29, 30). The Argentine ranges from 25 to 35 ft (7.5-10.5 m) of algal-rich skeletal calcilutite locally capped by abraded skeletal calcarenite from the Kansas City area to northern Miami County. It thins southward in central Miami County to 11 ft (3.3 m) of nonalgal skeletal calcilutite above the southward-thinning Liberty Memorial Shale at the US-l 69/K-7 roadcut east of Lake Miola (E line NE-SW sec. 11, T. 17 S., R. 23 E.; fig. 28B, section 4), It thins westward to 4 ft (1.2 m) of similar rock in the K-68 roadcut (center S line SE sec. 29, T. 16 S., R. 23 E.) west of Bull Creek where it is separated from the top of the Iola Limestone by only the thin Quindaro Shale Member (fig. 28B, section 5). Farther southward, the Argentine Limestone Member averages about 5 ft (1.5 m) of argillaceous limestone with conspicuous crinoid and other skeletal debris resting on top of the Raytown Member of the Iola Limestone, as exposed along the US-169 roadcut at Chanute in Neosho County (E line NW sec. 19, T. 27 S., R. 18 E.).

Lane Shale (revised)

The Lane Shale now is recognized to overlie the Wyandotte Limestone (Argentine Limestone Member) and underlie the Plattsburg Limestone (Merriam Limestone Member) throughout Kansas (fig. 1). First used by Haworth and Kirk (1894) and stabilized by Moore (1936), the term Lane Shale (from the village of Lane in southeastern Franklin County) is revised to comprise in ascending order: Island Creek Shale Member, Farley Limestone Member, and Bonner Springs Shale Member. It has been determined that the type Lane Shale (fig. 28A) as recognized by Moore (1936) correlates with the Island Creek Shale Member between the Argentine and Farley Limestone Members (fig. 28B), all previously included in the Wyandotte Limestone. It also has been determined that the Farley Limestone Member is lenticular (extending only from northeastern Anderson County, Kansas, to the Missouri-Iowa border) within a much larger body of shale that extends along the entire outcrop belt. Therefore, it seems most appropriate to recognize the larger body of shale as a formation with more laterally continuous boundaries and to maintain the coherence of the Wyandotte Limestone as a dominantly limestone formation below, than to employ any other scheme of subdividing this part of the Zarah Subgroup. Therefore, the Island Creek Shale Member and Farley Limestone Member are removed from the Wyandotte Limestone and combined with the Bonner Springs Shale (which is reduced in rank to member) to constitute an expanded Lane Shale (fig. 28B). The lower boundary is the basal contact between gray shale and the underlying Argentine Limestone Member, and the upper boundary is the upper contact between shale, mudstone, or sandstone with the overlying Merriam Limestone Member.

Because complete exposures of the entire Lane Shale as revised are not available in the immediate type area, a neostratotype that encompasses the entire Lane interval is established in Miami County, 5 mi (8 km) northeast of Lane, along the west line of sec. 28, T. 18 S., R. 22 E. (fig. 31). It extends from the top of the Wyandotte Limestone (center W line NW sec. 28, which rests on the Iola Limestone in a quarry in NW-SE sec. 20, T. 18 S., R. 22 E.) up to the base of the Plattsburg Limestone (N of SW corner sec. 28, T. 18 S., R. 22 E.). Here, the Lane interval is 135 ft (40.5 m) thick, and all three members are at least partially exposed (fig. 32). Southward the Farley Limestone Member disappears in northeastern Anderson County, and undivided Lane Shale (formerly termed Lane-Bonner Springs) extends through east-central and southeastern Kansas as 50 to 160 ft (15-48 m) of sandy shale in prominent bluffs held up by the overlying Plattsburg Limestone. It merges southward with the lower part of the Wann Formation in northern Oklahoma.

Figure 30--Measured section of principal reference sections of Liberty Memorial Shale, Wyandotte Limestone and its three members, and Island Creek Shale and Farley Limestone Members of Lane Shale and also of Raytown Limestone Member of Iola Limestone in Kansas, along southbound I-435 ramps to and from Holliday Road in NE-NW sec. 6, T. 12 S., R. 24 E. (fig. 29), 1 mi (1.6 km) east of Holliday, Johnson County, Kansas, slightly modified from Heckel (1988, p. 49). See also Heckel et at. (1999, p. 26, Stop A5) and cover photograph of this bulletin.

Measured section--Liberty Memorial Shale, Wyandotte Limestone, Lane Shale, Iola Limestone.

Island Creek Shale Member (recorrelated and reclassified)

The Island Creek Shale Member overlies the Argentine Limestone Member of the Wyandotte Limestone and underlies the Farley Limestone Member (figs. 1, 28B), as originally named by Moore (1932) and defined by Newell (1935) from an old quarry near Island Creek in northwestern Wyandotte County (at NW corner sec. 11, T. 10 S., R. 23 E.). Because the type locality now is poorly exposed, the principal reference section is selected 11 mi (18 km) southward, along the southbound onramp from Holliday Road to I-435 (NW sec. 6, T. 12 S., R. 24 E.) in northernmost Johnson County, where the Island Creek is 5 ft (1.5 m) of sandy shale (fig. 30). The Island Creek Shale Member thickens northward to a reported 40 ft (12 m) in its type area. It remains thin south of its principal reference section into northern Miami County, where it is 2 ft (0.6 m) thick in the quarry 2 mi (3 km) south of Wagstaff (SE-NW sec. 30, T. 16 S., R. 24 E.; fig. 28B, section 3). It then thickens abruptly southwestward to an interval about 45 ft (13.5 m) thick (fig. 28B, section 4) between the Farley Limestone exposed along K-68 (N line NW-NW-NE sec. 35, T. 16 S., R. 23 E.) and the descending top of the Argentine Limestone exposed just to the southwest along the northbound offramp of US-169/K-7 to K-68 (W line SW-NW-NE sec. 35). It thickens southwestward further to 70 to 110 ft (21-33 m) as the main part of the Lane Shale in its type area of western Miami and eastern Franklin County (figs. 28B, 32). There it consists mainly of gray micaceous silty shale with marine fossils toward the base and locally plant-bearing sandstone toward the top.

Figure 31-Map of part of 1963 Osawatomie, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle, showing location of neostratotype of Lane Shale along road 5 mi (8 km) northeast of Lane in Miami County. Vertical section of underlying Wyandotte and Iola Limestones is exposed in quarry to northwest, just off map in NW-SE sec. 20, T. 18 S., R. 22 E.

Map of part of 1963 Osawatomie, Kansas, 7 1/2-minute quadrangle.

Farley Limestone Member (reclassified)

The Farley Limestone Member overlies the Island Creek Shale Member and underlies the Bonner Springs Shale Member in northeastern Kansas (fig. 1). It was named by Hinds and Greene (1915) from Farley in Platte County, Missouri, north of Kansas City, as the middle part of the Lane Shale as then understood in Missouri, but it was included as the top of the Wyandotte Limestone by Newell (1935). With the recent recorrelation of the Island Creek Shale Member (formerly in the Wyandotte Limestone) with the type Lane Shale in western Miami County, Kansas (see previous section), the Farley Limestone Member is removed from the top of the Wyandotte and placed back into the Lane Shale (fig. 28B). The principal reference section of the Farley Limestone Member in Kansas is along the southbound onramp from Holliday Road to I-435 (NW sec. 6, T. 12 S., R. 24 E.; fig. 29), where it comprises three units: lower Farley limestone, 8 ft (2.4 m) thick; middle Farley shale, 6 ft (1.8 m) thick; and upper Farley limestone, 9 ft (2.7 m) thick (fig. 30); these three units are differentiated with varying thicknesses northward into the type area. Southward, the middle shale disappears, and the undivided Farley Limestone Member is 16 ft (4.8 m) thick along K-68 west of Paola, where it was once thought to represent the entire Wyandotte Limestone (fig. 28A, sections 7, 8). It attains 40 ft (12 m) as an algal mound complex in northwestern Linn County (NW-SW sec. 23, T. 19 S., R. 21 E.) before thinning and pinching out into the undivided Lane Shale near Greeley in Anderson County.

Figure 32--Measured section of Lane Shale neostratotype along N-S road north of US-169 between Lane and Osawatomie, along west line of sec. 28, T. 18 S., R. 22 E. (fig. 31), Miami County, Kansas, with Iola-Wyandotte succession projected in from quarry about 0.6 mi (1 km) to northwest, in NW-SE sec. 20 of this township.

Measured section of Lane Shale neostratotype.

Bonner Springes Shale Member (reduced in rank and reclassified)

The Bonner Springs Shale Member overlies the Farley Limestone Member and underlies the Plattsburg Limestone in northeastern Kansas, and is now recognized as the upper member of the revised Lane Shale (figs. 1, 28B). It was named by Moore (1932) and defined as a formation by Newell (1935) from exposures northeast of Bonner Springs in western Wyandotte County. Because the Bonner Springs Shale Member can be differentiated from the shale beneath the Farley Limestone Member only where the Farley is present in northeastern Kansas, the Bonner Springs is reduced in rank to a member and included in the revised Lane Shale, which extends southward undivided far beyond the extent of the lenticular Farley Limestone Member. The principal reference section of the Bonner Springs Shale Member is in a roadcut on K-7 in SW-SE-NE sec. 29, T. 11 S., R. 23 E. on the northeast side of Bonner Springs, where it is 21 ft (6.3 m) of gray shale with shaly sandstone to sandy conglomeratic limestone in the top. The Bonner Springs Shale Member ranges from a few feet up to 25 ft (7.5 m) in thickness and includes lenticular reddish mudstones and fractured limestone masses as well as sandstone and conglomerate toward the top.


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Kansas Geological Survey, Geology
Placed on web Oct. 20, 2014; originally published 2002.
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