345 million to 310
million years BP : Mississippian
Mississippian Fossil Pictures
The Mississippian Period began around 345 million years ago. The
Kaskaskian Sea in
this area was then shallow and
detrital, and still building the Chattanooga shale formation.
Not counting the Chattanooga shale,
which is primarily a Devonian deposition, the
Mississippian formations in this area
are about 350-400 feet thick, begin from 0 to about
200 feet below the surface, and possess
a regional dip of around 15-20 feet per mile toward
the northwest. All Mississippian
formations have been dated or placed using conodonts,
among other means. The Mississippian
Period is represented in this area by the Chattanooga
Formation, the lower Mississippian
Kinderhook and Osagean Series, the middle Mississippian
Meramecian Series, and the late
Mississippian Chesterian Series of formations.
Mississippian formations here relate to
the Early Carboniferous Tournaisian-Visean
formations of Europe. This area was
probably just south of the equator and experiencing
an arid to warm temperate climate.
The Kinderhook Series begins the all Mississippian formations in this
area, and they
most commonly rest on either the
Ordovician Cotter or the Devonian-Mississippian
Chattanooga formations. The earliest is
the Bushberg Formation - a yellow sandstone, left
over parts of southwest Missouri. A bit
later, the Bachelor Formation was formed which is
about 6 ft. thick in parts of southwest
Missouri and northeast Oklahoma. It is a gray-green
calcareous sandstone with a 1-3 inch
thick gray shale section. Much more commonly, the
base of the Mississippian Period
formations appear as the Chouteau Group of the Kinderhook
Series and begin with the Compton
Formation. Formed in a deeper sea, it is a 6-12 foot thick
green-gray layer of limestone appearing
in northwest Arkansas, northeast Oklahoma, and
southwest Missouri. It thickens toward
the east near Springfield, Mo., and is entirely absent
in some places as near Joplin, Mo. It
is usually thinly bedded with the beds separated by
thin layers of green shale, but in
spots it can be massively dolomitic or sparsely chertified.
It contains crinoids, blastoids,
conodonts, foraminifers, and the bryozoan Evactiopora. It is
easily differentiated in McDonald Co.,
Missouri, roadcuts, lying on top of the Chattanooga
Shale.
On the far eastern edge of this section, the Sedalia Formation may
overlie the Compton,
but the rest is overlain by the
Northview Formation, including the Sedalia. The Northview
has been described as a blue-gray
shaly-dolomitic siltstone. It is 2-5 ft. thick, sometimes
contains the Baird Mountain limestone
member, can be found in roadcuts in McDonald County,
Mo., and contains worm borings and
'rooster tail' impressions made by Taonurus caudagalli.
Like the Compton, it also thickens
toward the north and east near Springfield, Mo., and is
entirely absent in some parts of this
area. It is the uppermost formation of the lower
Mississippian Kinderhook Series.
The lower Mississippian Osagean Series appear next in time and are
extremely important
in this area because between 1907 and
1958, over 9.5 million tons of zinc metal and over
2 million tons of lead metal recovered
from about 550 million tons of mined material were
extracted from it in the Tri-State
area. Part of a mineralized belt up to 30 miles wide and
nearly 100 miles long on the northwest
flank of the Ozark uplift, the principal ore producing
areas were around Picher, Ok.,
Joplin-Webb City, Mo., and Granby, Mo. In Ottawa Co., Ok., at
least the main concentration of
near-surface ore has been found in Townships 28 and 29 N.,
and Ranges 22, 23, and 24 E. The
Diamond, Mo., area also had over 13 working mines with
one, the Smith Mine, 2 miles south and
one-half mile west of Diamond, reporting rich ore
at 60 feet below the surface. The
Granby, Mo., area was mined from 2'-275' deep, with most
ore found from 35'-100' deep. Besides
the sphalerite and galena common to the rest of the
area, the Granby area also produced
large amounts of the zinc silicate - calamine, the zinc
carbonate - smithsonite, and the lead
carbonate - cerussite. Other concentrations pertaining
to certain strata will be discussed
below.
The Osagean Series with the middle Mississippian Meramecian Series have
been
generally referred to as the Boone
Chert. Their similar characteristics derive from having
underwent an incomprehensibly massive
scale of torturing prior to the deposition of the
late Mississippian Chesterian Series.
Possibly because of the imminent uprising of the
Ozark Dome, flexing and shearing
occurred within hundreds of feet of earth creating
synclines and anticlines and cracks and
fissures in the predominantly limestone beds. Pipe
slumps also occurred which downdropped
100' diameter pipes 25-40 feet, and whose tops
were filled with lower Chesterian
deposits while the Chesterian surface was left relatively
level. Also, the flexing and shearing
features of the Osagean series are not seen in the
Chesterian series aside from the Miami
Shear Trough, another prominent feature of this
tortured landscape. It is a miles long,
300-500 foot wide, parcel of earth that has
downdropped 100-150 feet, and which
happened apparently after the close of the Mississippi
Period because Pennsylvanian Cherokee
shale has filled in above the downdropped Chesterian
deposits there.
These motions created millions of cracks and voids, some of which were
emptied
further by water or steam producing
some voids hundreds of feet across, and all of which
needed to be filled by something.
Apparently chert first filled most of the voids and the
ores came later because besides having
ore zones filling flexes, shears, and cracks, they
also encircle and doughnut chert
masses. This chertification appears to have been
accomplished before the late
Mississippian Chesterian deposits were formed, and the ore
deposition occurred later, probably
during the Pennsylvanian Period. Mineralized areas
exhibit a particular habit in that they
exist as dolomite zones surrounded by jasperoid
zones, with a contact zone between the
two. The dolomite zone is composed of massive and
crystalline dolomite (Ca, MgCO3), chert
(SiO2), and some jasperoid (SiO2) and calcite (CaCO3).
The jasperoid zone consists of
jasperoid, chert, and calcite. The contact zone is associated
with the major shearing and fracturing
and contains the ore minerals, sphalerite (ZnS),
and/or galena (PbS). Some leaching of
the minerals into the other two zones may exist,
sometimes making the dolomite zone
worth mining. The outer edge of the jasperoid zone
leads to either a repeat in the
sequence or to unaltered beds. Three major theories have
been called on to explain the
occurrence of the mineral deposits, each of which leaves
questions unanswered. They are the
meteoric-artesian hypothesis, the hydrothermal
hypothesis, and the magma gas
hypothesis.
The Osagean Series of formations begins with the Pierson Formation,
typically lying
atop the Northview formation or the
Chattanooga shale. For many years, this formation was
called the Fern Glen because of its
similarity to the Fern Glen Formation of east-central and
southeastern Missouri. It is also
similar to the St. Joe Formation of northern Arkansas which
has been described as basal Fern Glen.
Lastly, it was considered the basal Boone layers. This
is a 35-60 ft. thick limestone
containing frequent crinoids. It also contains much chert in
the Tri-State area, and zinc ore was
mined from it at a depth of 155-165 feet southwest of
Joplin about two miles east of the
state line. It is known to contain mineralized beds near
Picher, Ok., also, but being at a depth
of near 500 feet, it was seldom, if ever, mined. In
Barry and McDonald counties, Mo., the
Wolfpen Gap shale separates it from the overlying Reed's
Spring Formation.
The Reed's Spring Formation is found in southwest Missouri, Arkansas,
and Oklahoma.
In the 1930's, the mineralized horizon
of the Picher, Ok., area was divided into beds which
were lettered A-R, excluding I, which
resembles the number 1. This entire formation was
assigned the letter R. Thickness varies
from 10 to over 150 feet, typically between 50 and
100 feet. It is a limestone formation,
but in the TriState area, the chert content is very
high. Mineralization is most commonly
found in the top 10-20 feet, if present. Its
surface was deeply eroded, with higher
points reaching through Q to the top of P bed. The
uppermost portion of it is seen in the
Shoal Creek valley and in a Joplin quarry, while it's
lower portions can be observed at the
top of McDonald Co. roadcuts. Crinoids and the
bryozoan Evactiopora are common.
Above the Reed's Spring lies the Elsey Formation. It is a 15-30 ft.
thick limestone
layer similar to the Reed's Spring in
that it is highly chertified in the Tri-State area. It
used to be considered as the lower part
of the Keokuk formation, but is now seen as a
separate entity. It is represented as
Q, P, and O beds in the older literature. O bed, the
uppermost, is noteworthy in possessing
mineralization which spread blanket fashion over
a few to several hundred acres in
various places. It is entirely exposed at the Kirshmann-
Jeffries quarry southwest of Joplin.
The Grand Falls Formation is an 8-35 foot thick layer of tabular chert
which replaced
the original upper Reed's Spring,
Elsey, and lower Keokuk formations. It contains the
Orthotetes, Tetracamera, Delthyris, and
Spiriferina fossil species. It is a localized
formation with its' type section at
Grand Falls on Shoal Creek SW of Joplin, Mo.
The Keokuk Formation finishes out this series. It includes the N-K beds.
It ranges from
60-240 feet in thickness. The Southwest
Lime Company has dug out over 30 acres of it from
a hill north of Neosho, Mo., and
converted it into office and warehouse space. Keokuk
limestone has been used as road metal,
building stone, and agstone.It can be seen
in its entirety at the
Kirshmann-Jeffries quarry where it is about 100 ft. thick. It is also
exposed in southwest Barry Co. N bed,
the lowest Keokuk, is 20-30 feet thick and provides
surface rock southwest of Joplin,
including the Grand Falls chert in Shoal Creek at
McClelland Park.
M bed is probably the richest ore producing bed, and is about 250-300
feet below the
surface near Picher, Ok. Near Joplin,
ore was found 60-100 feet deep in the lower portion
of M bed. Strongly mineralized portions
of it are often one-third the thickness of unaltered
portions. In some mines, the thick
residual oil or tar of the Pennsylvanian shales has
migrated down into the M bed through
shearing and drill holes. M bed solution thinning
appears to be responsible for
depressions on the surface of the Pennsylvanian deposits
which led early miners to lodes of
mineralization. M bed may correlate with the Burlington
Formation east of here. Its limestone
is commonly crinoidal and fossiliferous. The Short
Creek Oolite Member lies at or near the
top of M bed, and is typically 5-6 feet thick. The
uniformity in size and shape of the
ooliths of this member separates it from other oolitic
limestone so it is commonly used as a
marker. This is particularly useful as it marks the
top of the mineral rich M bed. It can
contain crinoid pieces and brachiopods of the
Orthotetes and Rhipidomella species. It
is an obvious rock type and can be seen in outcrops
in southwest Barry County and along
I-44 from Joplin to Springfield, Mo.
Depending upon erosion, the uppermost bed of the Keokuk Formation and
consequently,
the Osagean Series, can be the M, the
L, or the K bed. L bed can be anywhere from 0-30 feet
thick, and contains a white chert
called by miners the 'butcher knife chert' or 'musical
flint' because of its glasslike
conchoidal fracture and the tinkling sound produced when
walked upon. K bed can be from 0-40
feet thick, always shows an unconformity on top, and
is an important ore zone. Seneca
Tripoli, a colloidal silicate found only within 8-10 miles
of Seneca, Mo., is mined from this bed.
From this mine at least one fossil has been sent to
the Smithsonian Institution - a
quadrangular cast of the extinct order Conularida. At the
time, this order was placed in with the
Gastropoda, but more recently it has been more
strongly fixed with the Cnidaria. The
author has also found one of these in a Newton
County streambed.
The Warsaw Formation begins the middle Mississippian Meramecian Series
in
this area. It can be seen in outcrops
along I-44 above the Short Creek oolite. Its' thickness
increases to the north and east of us
and produces the 'Carthage Marble' at Carthage, Mo.,
where its' thickness reaches 150 ft.
About 10 feet of it is exposed at the bottom of the
cut on the southwest side of Oakleigh
Mountain in Barry County, Mo. In northeast Oklahoma,
it is typically 110-130 feet thick,
begins about 150 feet below the surface, and includes
beds J-B. It has produced Archimedes
bryozoa and Spirifer brachiopods, and is quarried for
agstone and road metal.
Erosion prior to the Warsaw deposition produced basins into the Keokuk
as deep as the
Short Creek member which later filled
with J bed deposits. In southeast Kansas, these
deposits are referred to as the Cowley
Formation. J bed can be anywhere from 0-50 feet
thick, mostly dependent upon the
unconformity on which it lays. It is most commonly only
3-5 feet thick, and can contain
mineralized areas. H and G beds are similar in that both are
thinly bedded cherts and limestones,
may be anywhere from 0-20 feet thick, usually are
2-5 feet thick, and together constitute
an important ore horizon. F-B beds are spotty, though
some can reach a thickness of up to 32
feet, and are less commonly mineralized.
The Meramecian Salem Formation may exist above the Warsaw in the far
northeast part
of this section, as may the St. Louis
Formation above that and which has produced echinoids,
melonechinus, Lithostrotionella coral
colonies, and the Eublastoid species Cidaroblastus
parvus. Most of the Meramecian Series
has been eroded from this area.
The next period of sedimentation left us in this area is the Chesterian
Series from
late Mississippian times. In northeast
Oklahoma, this has been referred to as the Chester
Limestone, with the Hindsville
Formation comprising the lower portions, and the Mayes
Formation comprising the upper. There,
it is from 0-100 feet thick, about 100 feet below
the surface, and resting very
irregularly on the upper Warsaw. The Chester is not chertified
and is much less deformed than the
older rock, and at its base is found a conglomerate of
Boone chert and limestone pebbles. Mineralization does occur in it, though not
as frequently
as in the more tortured beds below. In
the northern part of this area, the Carterville
formation has been used to describe the
Chesterian remnants found in sinkholes and
depressions in the older rock. Some of
these sinks have been reported as over 200 feet
thick. Corals, trilobites, and fish
teeth have been found in Carterville deposits. It is a
highly heterogenous deposit composed of
clay, conglomerate, oolitic limestone, shale,
and sandstone. The Carterville
correlates to the Hindsville, Batesville, and Fayetteville
formations of the Chesterian Series
where they are more fully developed as in Barry and
McDonald Co.'s of Missouri.
The Hindsville Formation is the most common basal Chesterian deposit. It
typically
lies upon Warsaw deposits and in northwest
Arkansas, it is recognized as a basal member
of the Batesville Formation. It varies
from 0-60 feet in thickness in this area, and all 60
feet of it is exposed on Oakleigh
Mountain in Barry Co. It is usually a limestone with a thin
Boone chert conglomerate at its base,
and may be capped with a gray siltstone. It contains
brachiopods, ammonoids, the conodont
Spathognathodus, and frequently fish teeth in the
basal conglomerate.
Above the Hindsville lies the Batesville Formation. It is found in southwest
Missouri
and northwest Arkansas, and about 44
feet of it are exposed on Oakleigh Mountain. It is
normally a 35-50 ft. thick sandstone
with discontinuous beds of limestone, and produces
brachiopods and pelecypods. Some
buildings in Barry Co. are built of this sandstone.
Finishing out the Mississippian Period remains is the Fayetteville
Formation. This is
a black shale on limestone deposit up
to 350 ft. thick in Arkansas, and 20-40 feet thick in
southwest Missouri. 23 feet of it is
exposed on Oakleigh Mountain. It has given up some
brachiopods and ostracodes. Part of it
is called the Wedington Sandstone Member from its
type section on Wedington Mountain in
northern Washington Co., Arkansas. In Arkansas it is
50-150 ft. thick, and capping hills in
southwest Missouri it is about 15 ft. thick.
Lepidodendron has been found in it. The
Chesterian Series of Washington Co., Ark., has also
produced eublastoids of the Pentremites
angustus, Pentremites rusticus, Pentremites
florealis, and Pentremites sulcatus
species. Monosaccate, trilete spores have also been
found in Chesterian deposits.
The Mississippian Period remnants in this area primarily represent
fluctuations
of the Kaskaskian Sea. The Ozark Dome
rose from late Mississippian to early Pennsylvanian
times and the Kaskaskian Sea retreated
for good. The Appalachian mountains also began
to form during this period. Early in
the Mississippian, vertebrates established themselves
on land and by the end, reptiles were
evolving. Belemnites and nematodes appeared and
edrioasters became extinct.
________________
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