West Franklin Limestone Member
Lithostratigraphy: McLeansboro Group >>Modesto Formation >>West Franklin Limestone Member
Chronostratigraphy: Paleozoic Erathem >>Pennsylvanian Subsystem >>Desmoinesian Series
Allostratigraphy: Absaroka 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)
M. E. Hopkins and J. A. Simon
Name
Original description
The West Franklin Limestone Member of the Modesto Formation (Collett, 1884, p. 61-62).
Derivation
Named for West Franklin, Posey County, Indiana.
Other names
History/background
Type section
Type location
The type section consists of outcrops near the town (24, 7S-12W) (Wanless, 1956, p. 11).
Type author(s)
Type status
Reference section
Reference location
Reference author(s)
Reference status
Stratigraphic relationships
In the eastern part of its area the West Franklin is closely overlain by the Chapel (No. 8) Coal.
Extent and thickness
The member is recognized largely in southeastern Illinois. It is a fine-grained limestone generally less than 15 feet thick and occurs in one to three benches, each generally less than 10 feet thick and separated by a few feet of greenish gray to variegated claystone. The number of limestone benches decreases to the west as the underlying shale, probably the Farmington Shale, thins from east to west.
Lithology
Core(s)
Photograph(s)
Contacts
Well log characteristics
Fossils
Age and correlation
It is likely that the West Franklin Limestone is equivalent to the entire interval from the Piasa Limestone upward through the Lake Creek Coal in southern Illinois and through the Scottville Limestone in southwestern Illinois. The Piasa Limestone also may be equivalent to the lower bench of the West Franklin (Andresen, 1956). The West Franklin is probably also equivalent to the interval including the Lonsdale and Exline Limestones of western Illinois and to the Madisonville Limestone of western Kentucky.
Environments of deposition
Economic importance
Remarks
References
ANDRESEN, M. J., 1956, Subsurface stratigraphy and sedimentation of the West Franklin-Cutler limestone zones of southern Illinois: University of Illinois M.S. thesis.
COLLETT, JOHN, 1884, Geology of Posey County, Indiana: Indiana Department of Geology and Natural History, 13th Annual Report, p. 45-70.
WANLESS, H. R., 1956, Classification of the Pennsylvanian rocks of Illinois as of 1956: Illinois State Geological Survey Circular 217, 14 p.
ISGS Codes
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