Stratigraphy of the Marmaton Group, Pennsylvanian, in Kansas

Abstract

The Marmaton group comprises four limestones and four shale formations which lie in the upper part of rocks of Desmoinesian age in Kansas. Rocks of this group are underlain by the Cherokee shale; they lie below a regional unconformity that is regarded as separating rocks of Desmoinesian age from those of Missourian age. The outcrop belt of these rocks in Kansas ranges in width from about 10 to 25 miles, and extends from Linn and Bourbon counties on the Kansas-Missouri boundary to Montgomery and Labette counties on the Kansas-Oklahoma boundary.

The rock units are described in detail and 179 stratigraphic sections measured in Kansas are given. A few sections measured in neighboring parts of Missouri and Oklahoma are also included. The rock descriptions are based on studies of these and many other less complete exposures.

Exposures of Marmaton rocks in Kansas offer excellent opportunities for studying cyclic deposits. Both cyclothems and megacyclothems are more or less readily identified in these sediments.