Palestine Sandstone
Lithostratigraphy: Pope Megagroup >>Palestine Sandstone
Chronostratigraphy: Paleozoic Erathem >>Mississippian Subsystem >>Chesterian Series >>Elviran Stage
Allostratigraphy: Kaskaskia 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)
Elwood Atherton, Charles Collinson, and Jerry A. Lineback
Name
Original description
Palestine Sandstone (S. Weller, 1913, p. 120).
Derivation
Named for Palestine Township, Randolph County.
Other names
History/background
Type section
Type location
The type section of the Palestine Sandstone occurs in Palestine Township, along tributaries of Tyndall Creek (29, 30, 6S-6W).
Type author(s)
Type status
Reference section
Reference location
Reference author(s)
Reference status
Stratigraphic relationships
Extent and thickness
The Palestine tends to thicken southward (fig. M-47) but not as markedly as other Chesterian formations. It is commonly 50-60 feet thick, but it ranges from 25 to over 100 feet. It is thickest where massive (channel-phase) sandstone bodies are present.
|
Lithology
The Palestine Sandstone is a clastic unit that includes sandstone, shale, and siltstone. Much of the sandstone is gray, very fine grained, and more or less shaly. The thicker sandstone bodies are lighter colored and coarser grained, and grade to white, medium-grained sandstone. The shale is dark gray and generally silty or sandy. The siltstone is mainly dark gray with a little dark green. Much of the Palestine Sandstone is slightly carbonaceous. An underclay and coal bed mark the top of the Palestine at several localities in western Illinois (Swann, 1963). The Palestine does not have persistent traceable beds, such as characterize the younger Chesterian formations. The sandstone bodies lens rapidly in and out, but in most places the sandstone is in the upper and/or lower parts of the formation, rarely in the middle. Well developed channel sands in the lower part of the formation generally cut into the Menard Limestone. The sandstone bodies in the Palestine have the pattern of a deltaic distributary system (Potter, 1963).
Core(s)
Photograph(s)
Contacts
Well log characteristics
Fossils
Fossil tree trunks of Lepidodendron are perhaps more common in the Palestine than in any of the other Chesterian sandstones.
Age and correlation
Environments of deposition
Economic importance
Remarks
References
POTTER, P. E., 1963, Late Paleozoic sandstones of the Illinois Basin: Illinois State Geological Survey Report of Investigations 217, 92 p.
SWANN, D. H., 1963, Classification of Genevievian and Chesterian (Late Mississippian) rocks of Illinois: Illinois State Geological Survey Report of Investigations 216, 91 p.
WELLER, STUART, 1913, Stratigraphy of the Chester Group in southwestern Illinois: Illinois Academy of Science Transactions, v. 6, p. 118-129.
ISGS Codes
| Stratigraphic Code | Geo Unit Designation |
|---|---|