Gasperian Stage

Lithostratigraphy: Pope Megagroup
Chronostratigraphy: Paleozoic Erathem >>Mississippian Subsystem >>Chesterian Series >>Gasperian 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

Gasperian Stage (Swann, 1963, p. 21-22, 67).

Derivation

The Gasperian Stage is derived from the Gasper Limestone of Kentucky (Butts, 1917), which is named for the Gasper River, northwest of Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Other names

History/background

Type section

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Type author(s)

Type status

Reference section

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Stratigraphic relationships

The Gasperian Stage is the oldest stage of the Chesterian Series. The Gasperian includes rocks from the base of the Sketlerville Member of the Renault Limestone to the top of the Beech Creek Limestone (fig. M-25). The upper part of the Cedar Bluff Group is included in the Gasperian, but the lower part is Valmeyeran and the group was described under Valmeyeran.

Fig. M-25 -- Columnar section of the Chesterian Series (after Swan, 1963), showing biozones (after Collinson et al., 1971). In the columnar section, the blank areas are shale.

Extent and thickness

In the Anna district of southwestern Illinois, sandstone of the Cypress alone constitutes about half of the Gasperian Stage. In the fluorspar district, where the Gasperian Stage is about 300 feet thick, about 200 feet is sandstone.

Lithology

Sandstone predominates in the Gasperian Stage.

Core(s)

Photograph(s)

Contacts

Well log characteristics

Fossils

Marine fossils occur in limestones and shales of the Paint Creek Group and the Renault Limestone. The bryozoan Cystodictya labiosa Zone and the crinoid Talarocrinus Range Zone are the most definitive faunal zones of the Gasperian Stage, although the Talarocrinus Zone does not include the Beech Creek Limestone.

Age and correlation

Environments of deposition

Economic importance

Remarks

References

BUTTS, CHARLES, 1917, Descriptions and correlations of the Mississippian formations of western Kentucky, Part I of Mississippian formations of western Kentucky: Kentucky Geological Survey, v. 1, 119 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.

ISGS Codes

Stratigraphic Code	Geo Unit Designation
4340	--