Rocher Member

From ILSTRAT
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Lithostratigraphy: Mammoth Cave Limestone Megagroup >>Salem Limestone >>Rocher Member
Chronostratigraphy: Paleozoic Erathem >>Mississippian Subsystem >>Valmeyeran Series
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

The Rocher Member of the Salem Limestone (Baxter, 1960a, p. 27-29).

Derivation

Named for Prairie du Rocher, Randolph County.

Other names

History/background

Type section

Type location

The type section of the Rocher Member is in the Mississippi River bluffs above a large spring 1 mile northwest of the town of Prairie du Rocher, where the member is 69.3 feet thick.

Type author(s)

Type status

Reference section

Reference location

Reference author(s)

Reference status

Stratigraphic relationships

The Rocher Member is the uppermost member of the Salem Limestone.

Extent and thickness

The Rocher thins northward to 10-15 feet at Valmeyer, Monroe County.

Lithology

The Rocher is mined for high-calcium limestone just north of the type section. The limestone varies from slightly oolitic to oolite. It occurs in thick, cliff-forming beds, broken by an occasional thin bed.

Core(s)

Photograph(s)

Contacts

Well log characteristics

Fossils

It is composed largely of marine fossils, predominantly Foraminifera, but it also includes crinoid and bryozoan fragments, brachiopods, corals, and echinoids. Endothyrids and calcareous spheres with calcite centers, questionable fossils classified as Calcisphaera, are abundant (Baxter, 1960b). The microfauna is similar to that of the Chalfin and the lower part of the St. Louis.

Age and correlation

Environments of deposition

Economic importance

Remarks

References

BAXTER, J. W., 1960a, Salem Limestone in southwestern Illinois: Illinois State Geological Survey Circular 284, 32p.
BAXTER, J. W., 1960b, Calcisphaera from the Salem (Mississippian) Limestone in southwestern Illinois: Journal of Paleontology, v. 34, p. 1153-1157; Illinois State Geological Survey Reprint 1961-B.

ISGS Codes

Stratigraphic Code Geo Unit Designation
5190
--