MINEOLA LIMESTONE. 21 



gations have shown the absence, or extreme patchiness, of the 

 formation in the outcrops nearest the river on the north. These 

 outcrops are as near the river as 5 miles in only a few places. 

 There are few outcrops of rocks as young as the Mineola south 

 of the river west of Franklin County and east of Moniteau 

 County. Mineola may have been present south of the river, 

 originally, but the distribution of the rocks north of the river 

 renders this improbable. At the place where the outcrops of 

 Devonian and younger rocks cross the river no Devonian occurs 

 in the section and Devonian does not come in again for about 

 eighty miles. 



The small amount of clastic material at the base of the 

 Mineola indicates weathering so complete as to reduce all residue 

 to such fine particles that the advancing seas removed them to 

 the deeper waters. The limestones and dolomites exposed to 

 weathering contained few impurities and there were no shales 

 and little sandstone exposed in central Missouri. The surface. 

 on which the limestone was deposited contained no deep valleys 

 and no caves, indicating that it had been eroded to near sea 

 level. The yellow sandy basal phase contains large numbers 

 of crinoids and few corals indicating water of considerable 

 depth. 



Conditions under which the Mineola and Cooper were 

 deposited seem to have been almost identical and the barrier 

 between the two seas must have been a low divide between wide 

 shallow bays. The Cooper bay must have extended to the west, 

 north or northwest and the Mineola to the northeast, as other- 

 wise the latter would have merged with the former and some of 

 the fossils in the two formations would have been of the same 

 species. 



The withdrawal of the Cooper and Mineola seas may have 

 been due either to lowering of the sea level or uplift of the land. 

 It was probably the latter as the seas came together farther 

 north very shortly after the close of Mineola time. Though the 

 formations were widely eroded and completely removed over 

 wide areas no deep valleys were produced by the post-Mineola — 

 pre-Callaway erosion and the lands must have remained very 

 low. 



Paleontology. — The Mineola u irregular in the amount of 

 fossil contents. Some of the members are practically made up 

 of fossils while others are barren. The crinoidal phase mentioned 

 in the description is the most fossiliferous. 



