Fort Riley Limestone Explained

Fort Riley Limestone
Type:Member
Age: (Gearyan stage)[1] [2]
Prilithology:Limestone
Namedfor:Fort Riley, Kansas
Region:Permian Midcontinent Seaway
Country:United States
Unitof:Barneston Limestone
Underlies:Holmesville Shale member of the Doyle Shale formation[3]
Overlies:Oketo Shale member of the Barneston Limestone formation

The Fort Riley Limestone is a Kansas Permian stratigraphic unit of member rank and historic building stone, sold commercially as fine-grained Silverdale, having at one time been quarried at Silverdale, Kansas.[4] This limestone outcrops in east-central Kansas, extending into northeast-central Oklahoma and southeastern Nebraska, in the Midwestern United States. Its conspicuous "rim rock" marker horizon outcrop caps the bluffs overlooking the original buildings of Fort Riley, as well as the Marshall Army Airfield opposite the Kansas River.[5] [6] [7]

See also

Notes and References

  1. D. E. Zeller . The Stratigraphic Succession in Kansas . . 1968 . Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin . 189 . Permian System . The Gearyan Stage (O'Connor, 1963) comprises three groups, the Admire, the Council Grove, and the Chase. It contains about 790 feet of rocks, which are predominantly limestone and shale, and contains units that are remarkably continuous laterally. The Gearyan Stage is named from Geary County in northeastern Kansas. Rocks of this stage are exposed throughout east-central Kansas in a north-northeast-trending belt from Cowley County on the Oklahoma border to Marshall and Brown counties on the Nebraska border. .
  2. Web site: Geologic Unit: Fort Riley . Geolex — Significant Publications . National Geologic Database . . 2024-06-08 .
  3. Web site: Geology and Construction-Material Resources of Marion County, Kansas By F. E. BYRNE, C. P. WALTERS, J. L. HILL, and L. RISEMAN on USGS.
  4. Book: Susan Ward Aber and David A. Grisafe . Petrographic Characteristics of Kansas Building Limestones, Kansas Geological Survey, Bulletin 224 . University of Kansas Publications, State Geological Survey of Kansas . 1982 .
  5. D. E. Zeller . The Stratigraphic Succession in Kansas . . 1968 . Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin . 189 . Permian System . The Fort Riley is a light-gray to tan, massive to thin-bedded limestone with a minor amount of gray shale. In the basal part there are thin, shaly beds that are overlain by a massive "rim rock," which is a conspicuous outcrop maker. Thin shaly beds and locally clayey shale occurs in the middle part. The upper strata are massive, but less so than the "rim rock." Algae are somewhat conspicuous in the "rim rock." The thickness ranges from about 30 to 45 feet. .
  6. Sawin, R.S. . West, R.R. . 2010. Geary County . T. 11 S., R. 6 E. . https://www.kgs.ku.edu/General/Geology/County/ghj/ge/ge_6_5.html. . County Geologic Maps. 2024-06-09 . —RR— Fort Riley Ls Mbr "rim rock" marker bed . [map legend]
    Note: The earliest facilities are on the Qpt below the blue-line Pb marker bed.
  7. Sawin, R.S. . West, R.R. . 2010. Geary County . T. 11 S., R. 6 E.. https://www.kgs.ku.edu/General/Geology/County/ghj/ge/ge_6_6.html. . County Geologic Maps. 2024-06-09 . —RR— Fort Riley Ls Mbr "rim rock" marker bed . [map legend]
    Note the Marshall Army Airfield below the blue-line Pb marker bed.