Joliet Formation

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Lithostratigraphy: Hunton Limestone Megagroup >>Joliet Formation
Chronostratigraphy: Paleozoic Erathem >>Silurian System >>Niagaran Series
Allostratigraphy: Tippecanoe Sequence

Primary source

Willman, H. B., Elwood Atherton, T. C. Buschbach, Charles Collinson, John C. Frye, M. E. Hopkins, Jerry A. Lineback, and Jack A. Simon, 1975, Handbook of Illinois Stratigraphy: Illinois State Geological Survey Bulletin 95, 261 p.

Contributing author(s)

H. B. Willman and Elwood Atherton

Name

Original description

Joliet Formation (Savage, 1926, p. 522).

Derivation

Named for Joliet, Will County.

Other names

History/background

Type section

Type location

The type section for the Joliet Formation is in the National Stone Company quarry on the south side of Joliet (NE SE 21, 35N-10E), where the formation is 68 feet thick.

Type author(s)

Type status

Reference section

Reference location

Reference author(s)

Reference status

Stratigraphic relationships

The Joliet Formation is differentiated as the basal formation of the Niagaran Series in an area extending from Chicago to Calhoun County in western Illinois (fig. S-1, S-3, S-5).

Extent and thickness

The Joliet Formation is 70-80 feet thick in exposures along the Des Plaines River Valley, but only about 40 feet thick along the Kankakee River. It is 35-40 feet thick along the Mississippi River at Grafton in Jersey County, but farther west the top is truncated by Middle Devonian strata, and in southern Calhoun County the formation is entirely eroded.

Lithology

In exposures in northeastern Illinois along the Des Plaines, Kankakee, Du Page, and Rock Rivers, the Joliet Formation is differentiated into a basal shaly, red, green, and gray member (the Brandon Bridge Member), overlain by nearly white, generally cherty dolomite that is silty at the base, grades to slightly silty at the top (the Markgraf Member), and is, in turn, overlain by nearly white, locally red-mottled, pure dolomite (the Romeo Member). In western Illinois, much of the Joliet is similar to the Romeo Member, although there is a weakly shaly zone at the base. The Romeo Member is prominent on electric logs and has been traced widely in subsurface.

Core(s)

Photograph(s)

Contacts

Well log characteristics

Fossils

The basal shaly zone of the Joliet Formation is characterized by an abundance of arenaceous Foraminifera, among which Ammodiscidae are prominent (Dunn, 1942). This zone is also present at the base of the Joliet in Jersey County (Collinson et al., 1954) and at the base of the St. Clair Limestone in southern Illinois. It has not been found in northwestern Illinois or in Wisconsin north of Milwaukee, but eastward it is well represented in the Osgood Formation of Indiana.

Age and correlation

Outside the area where the Joliet is differentiated, the position of its top is not well established, but in northwestern Illinois the Marcus Formation may in part be equivalent to the Joliet, and in southern Illinois the top of the Joliet correlates to a horizon within the St. Clair Limestone.

Environments of deposition

Economic importance

Remarks

References

COLLINSON, CHARLES, D. H. SWANN, and H. B. WILLMAN, 1954, Guide to the structure and Paleozoic stratigraphy along the Lincoln Fold in western Illinois: Illinois State Geological Survey Guidebook Series 3, 75 p.
DUNN, P. H., 1942, Silurian Foraminifera of the Mississippi Basin: Journal of Paleontology, v. 16, p. 317-342.
SAVAGE, T. E., 1926, Silurian rocks of Illinois: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 37, p. 513-533.

ISGS Codes

Stratigraphic Code Geo Unit Designation
6860
Sj