Geological and Dispositional History of the Starved Rocks, Illinois
Describe the clastic and carbonate facies you have discovered.
Starved Rock State covers about 200 miles and some 470 million years, from Ordovician sandstones to Pleistocene glacial till. The Ordovician St. Peter Formation sandstone was deposited across the midcontinent during the second major marine transgression of the Paleozoic Era. The first transgression deposited Upper Cambrian to Lower Ordovician clastics and carbonates. The clastic to carbonate rock transition is consistent with gradual sea level rise over the North American craton. Sea level dropped late in the early Ordovician, exposing the carbonate strata to processes of cave development.
The St. Peter sandstone lies in an unconformity. It is 250 feet thick, it can be up to 500 feet thick and it fills erosional channels in the underlying strata. Buffalo Rock is an erosional remnant of Ordovician St. Peter Sandstone and overlying Pennsylvanian clastics. Sign for swift, turbulent, and deep water includes gravel bars and erosional features that are 180 feet above the current level of the river and massive cross bedded sand and gravel deposits along the river course.
The shelf-edge includes carbonate-to-clastic facies transition and tectonic uplift and erosion of the carbonates followed by deposition of the clastics. The Saint Peter Sandstone is a well-sorted, almost pure quartz arenite deposited during a major mid-Ordovician low stand. Clastics spread across an exposed carbonate platform by transportation. This is shown by the well-rounded, frosted texture of the quartz grains.
The Starved Rock Member of the Saint Peter Sandstone is preserved as a northeast-southwest trending belt of strata that is ...
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...i.htm http://www.clays.org/annual%20meeting/50th_annual_meeting_website/docs/CMS13-Fieldtrip-Guide-StarvedRock.pdf http://www2.wheaton.edu/ACG/ASA%20Geology%20Field%20Trip.pdf http://books.google.com/books?id=m35IAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA221&lpg=PA221&dq=facies+at+starved+rock&source=bl&ots=CrHoOg8IHt&sig=9INjch71XPZltMLYoESWy-04lpY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nk9kU6_DONOQyATNvYCoCw&ved=0CF0Q6AEwBzgU#v=onepage&q=facies%20at%20starved%20rock&f=false http://www2.wheaton.edu/ACG/ASA%20Geology%20Field%20Trip.pdf http://archive.org/stream/starvedrockstate00saue/starvedrockstate00saue_djvu.txt Illinois State Geological Survey, 2005, Time Talks – The Geology of Starved Rock and Matthiessen State Parks
Mikculic, D. G., Sargent, M. L., Norby, R. D., and Kolata, D. R., 1985, Silurian Geology of the Des Plaines River Valley, Northeastern Illinois, Illinois State Geological Survey Guidebook 17, 56p.
The area composed of the Gander, Nashoba, Avalon, and Meguma Terranes has been extensively studied for many years. However, it was only recently that the terranes were recognized as distinct geologic entities with unique tectonic histories thus there is still much debate regarding the tectonic model which brought these terranes together (Hon et al., 2007). This paper will address the geology of the peri-Gondwanan terranes and propose a potential tectonic model for the accretional orogenic events. It will also primarily focus on the juxtaposition between the Nashoba and Avalon Terranes.
Lithologically the Kimmeridge Clay Formation can be subdivided into four units (Figure 2), despite of beds at the base of the succession are poorly exposed. However, in contrast, the units from mid-eudoxus Zone to the top of the formation that are well seen in the Formation. At the base of the formation until the eudoxus Zone, the strata are made up almost entirely of bioturbated shelly clays and in between beds, horizons of oil and bituminous are present. The upper part of the Eudoxus Zone until the upper Pectinatus Zone the composition is kerogen-rich mudstones and coccolith limestone.
The settlements in the complex show a multimodal distribution which means that there is an extensive use of shaped and faced stone walling. Out of the three sites there are, only one has produced stone walling and that is Lago de Handel. Obsidian flows were identified in the Amontillado region and their products ca...
...ts were labelled with the upper case letters which represented the material types and a numeric letter. The artifacts were placed in different boxes. The artifact analysis was then conducted and the characteristics such as tool type and material type of each artifact were recorded on the artifact catalog forms. The material samples of lithic tools, faunal remains, and ceramics remains were compare with existing artifacts to identify their material type. The Vernier scale was used for the measurements of each lithic tools.
Gabrysch, R. K. and C.W. Bonnett. "Land Surface subsidence at Seabrook, Texas US." Geological Survey 1977: 21-74. 48 pp.
This sedimentary rock has hardened over the many years with sand shells, small pebbles, grains of sand and rocks of various sizes. In comparison to our 4.5 billion year old Earth, these sand shells might as well be brand new, when in reality they could be up to 1,000 years old. If the sandstone were to be replaced with calcite it would completely change the subclass of rock, it would then be chemical & organic limestone. The variation in sand stone is due to different rates of deposition and change in patterns of the sediment movement (Mc Knight, p. 384). These tightly compacted varying stones and shells will be weathered away by wind and waves over time and could eventually be reduced to a rock the size of your hand.
Glaciers are an integral part of the world’s climate. In fact, as Richard Armstrong of the University of Colorado says, “Glaciers are key indicators in monitoring and detecting climate change” (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, 2003, p. 1). Not only are they an important part of monitoring current climate, they can hold many keys to the past. Glaciers are in fact, “a source of paleoclimate data…” (Meier and Dyurgerov, 1980, p. 37). This paleoclimate data can give geologists information on the conditions that were present at the time of the glaciers birth, as well as the approximate age. This has an important role in the geologic time scale of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. These Glaciers played a role in the carving of the present day Rocky Mountains in Colorado, which will be the primary focus of this paper. In addition, glacial formations will be discussed to give the reader background information and the future of the Glaciers in Colorado will close this paper.
The Little Missouri River eroding the mountain range is the reason that the park is as it looks today. The park is believed to be <60 million years old. Over 60 million years ago volcanos all over the west were erupting and spitting out amounts of ash. The rivers near the volcanos were gathering. The rivers began to dry out, leveeing the ash behind. The ash was being dried in layers and turned into sandstone, siltstone and mudstone while the ash layers became bentonite clay. This Bentonite clay is dangerous because it gets people stuck, like quick sand it is located throughout the park. It can pull the car tires un...
Since Walcott’s discovery in 1901, due to extraordinary preservation, these restricted yet still widespread assemblages still remain slightly confusing; biologists, geologists, and me included research and wonder how these amazing specimens have been kept so well for millions of years (Gaines 2012). Academic Journal ‘Mechanism for Burgess Shale-type Preservation’ Robert Gaines along with many other infamous authors explain exactly that – they demonstrate in great detail just what the title says, the mechanisms of Burgess Shale-type preservation using many possibilities such as geochemical and sediment data from six different principal Burgess shale-type deposits and compare the different areas and the things and sediment found there (Gaines 2012).
Krinitzsky, E. L., and Willard Jay Turnbull. Loess Deposits of Mississippi. New York: Geological Society of America, 1967. Print.
National Park Services, U.S. Department of Interior. Nps.gov, 27 Dec. 2004. Web. The Web. The Web.
The Precambrian Shield Rocks found in the Brickworks was formed in an ancient sea more than 1.4 billion years ago. Over many years, the heat and pressure from plate tectonics slowly pushed the land into a mountain chain. During the Ordovician period (around 470- 448 million years ago), the mountain chains This layer of shale and limestone is called the Georgian Bay
Krajick, Kevin. "Tracking Myth to Geological Reality." American Association for the Advancement of Science. 310.5749 (2005): 762. Print. .
The geological arrangement was largely influenced by the Western Interior Seaway, which swept through the continent millions of years ago. It was during this time when frequent alterations in climate caused the waters to surface and withdraw. The Dakota Sandstone deposited within the sedimentary profile of Mesa Verde is in large part due to these events.
Stephen .G,Malcolm.W, Guy H,(2014), GEOL20001 The Geology of Southeast Australia, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, pg. 23-25