Owl Creek Formation
Lithostratigraphy: Embayment Megagroup >>Owl Creek Formation
Chronostratigraphy: Mesozoic Erathem >>Cretaceous System >>Gulfian Series
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 John C. Frye
Name
Original description
The Owl Creek Formation (Hilgard, 1860).
Derivation
Named for exposures along Owl Creek, 3 miles northeast of Ripley, Tippah County, Mississippi.
Other names
History/background
Type section
Type location
Type author(s)
Type status
Reference section
Reference location
Reference author(s)
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Stratigraphic relationships
The Owl Creek is the uppermost Cretaceous Formation in southern Illinois. The Owl Creek overlies the McNairy Formation Formation conformably. A weathered zone at its top, marked by concentrations of hematitic nodules and a sharp upper contact, indicates an unconformity that separates the Owl Creek from the overlying Tertiary Clayton Formation.
Extent and thickness
The Owl Creek Formation is exposed in Illinois only in Pulaski County along the Ohio River near U.S. Dam 53 (SE NW NE 13, 15S-1E) and along the Cache River near Unity (NE 7, S 1/2 6, 16S-1W) (Pryor and Ross, 1962). It is 0-10 feet thick.
Lithology
It consists of glauconitic, very micaceous, sandy, silty clay and silt.
Core(s)
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Contacts
Well log characteristics
Fossils
Age and correlation
Environments of deposition
The Owl Creek indicates a brief advance of the sea over the McNairy delta.
Economic importance
Remarks
References
HILGARD, E. W., 1860, Report on the geology and agriculture of the State of Mississippi: Jackson, Mississippi, p.79. 84-91, 102.
PRYOR, W. A., and C. A. ROSS, 1962, Geology of the Illinois parts of the Cairo, La Center, and Thebes Quadrangles: Illinois State Geological Survey Circular 332, 39 p.
ISGS Codes
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