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Mississippian Series, continued
Rocks of Chester Age
Strata of Chester age of considerable thickness and diversity occur in Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and adjoining states. Limestone of Batesville age probably referable to the Hindsville limestone member of the Batesville sandstone of Arkansas forms the upper part. of the Mayes formation in Mayes county, northeastern Oklahoma (unpublished manuscript by G. H. Girty). In the zinc-lead district in Oklahoma, this limestone in some places rests un conformably upon limestone referred to the Warsaw. These rocks extend northward into the extreme southeastern part of Kansas. where they were identified above the Warsaw in cuttings from the Ballard mine well, by Mary Hundhausen of the Missouri Geological Survey (see [earlier in this report], St. Louis Smelting and Refining Company, Ballard mine well, well No. 23 of cross section F-F', pl. 7).
Robert Roth (see page 85), who examined the paleontologie evidence, has stated that Chester fossils were found in the upper 400 feet of Mississippian rocks in the Watchorn No. 2 Morrison well (sec. 20, T. 32 S., R. 21 W., well No. 7a, cross section F-F', pl. 7) of Clark county. This interval is that from which the writer was unable to procure cores or fossils. Cuttings from this part of the well obtained from the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company in Bartlesville yielded no diagnostic fossils. Dille (1932) reported the presence of Chester fossils from the cuttings of several wells in southwestern Kansas. The rocks from which the fossils were obtained in Oklahoma were reported to be soft fossiliferous gray shales and light-colored limestones that are not found in other parts of that state. The wells in which Chester rocks were identified and the depths below the surface in the various wells were given. The wells listed from Kansas are the Watchorn No. 1 Morrison well (probably No. 2), sec. 20, T. 32 S., R. 21 W., at 5,395 feet, and Wood Oil Company (McCrary) No. 1 Ranson well, sec. 5, T. 25 S., R. 41 W. (no depth reported). The area in which rocks of Chester age were identified by Dille includes parts of northwestern Oklahoma, southeastern Colorado, and southwestern Kansas, It is therefore probable that Chester rocks will be found in other wells in southwestern Kansas in the deep structural basin southwest of the central Kansas uplift.
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Kansas Geological Survey, Geology
Placed on web Jan. 27, 2013; originally published Sept. 1, 1940.
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