DIFFERENT PROVINCES OF NORTH AMERICA IN LATE PALEOZOIC TIME 81 



"A short distance below the Merom sandstone is commonly found a limestone 

 which is thought to correlate with what has been called the Somerville limestone 

 of southern Illinois and southwestern Kentucky, though that correlation is rather 

 conjectural than demonstrated." (Ashley's report, p. 61.) 



The character and position of the Merom sandstone in Indiana has been 

 described in Publication 207 of the Carnegie Institution, pages 78 to 80. 

 The equivalents in Kentucky as taken from Miller 1 are shown in the correla- 

 tion table. 



The red and purple shale and sandstone mentioned by Miller is not 

 described in any of the reports of the Kentucky Geological Survey dealing 

 with the western field. The only red deposits in western coal field of Ken- 

 tucky occur in connection with the Madisonville limestone in the Earlington 

 quadrangle, which lies in western Hopkins and southern Webster Counties. 

 The Madisonville limestone here lies about 185 feet above the Nebo coal, 

 which is generally considered to be the equivalent of coal 14. 



"The Madisonville limestone 2 contains two to four divisions, ranging through 

 a maximum interval of 40 feet. * * * It is hard, brittle, very resistant to weather- 

 ing agents, weathers to a gray color, and carries an abundance of marine fossils. 

 Between the beds of limestone are intervals of red clay and shale * * *." 



This horizon is well above the red beds of the eastern coal field of Ken- 

 tucky which are of Conemaugh age. 



(c) CONDITIONS IN IOWA. 



West from Illinois there is a second break in the outcrop of the upper 

 Paleozoic caused by the uplift and disturbance of Ozarkia in southern 

 Missouri. The connection, if any existed between the upper Pennsyl- 

 vanian beds on either side of this break, was probably through Iowa. 



The Missourian, upper Paleozoic of Iowa, is a direct continuation of the 

 same formation in Missouri and Kansas and does not differ materially from 

 them. There is no indication of red beds or red-bed conditions in this 

 part of the formation. 



In Webster County a small area of red sandstone and shale accompanied 

 by gypsum lies unconformably upon the Des Moines formation and the 

 St. Louis limestone where the Des Moines has been eroded away. "An 

 erosion interval of considerable length thus separates the period of their 

 deposition from the Des Moines epoch." 3 



The red rocks and gypsum of this limited area have been tentatively 

 referred to the Permian upon stratigraphic grounds by Wilder, 4 but as the 



1 Miller, Arthur M., Table of Geological Formations for Kentucky, Department of Geology 

 University of Kentucky, 1917. 



* Kentucky Geological Survey, series iv, vol. n, pt. I, p. 132, 1914. 



* Norton, \V. H., and others, Underground Water Resources of Iowa, Water Supply 



Paper No. 293, U. S. Geological Survey, p. 86, 1912. 



4 Wilder, F. A., Geology of Webster County, Geological Survey of Iowa, vol. 12, p. 63, 1902. 

 7 



