Wilcox Formation
Lithostratigraphy: Embayment Megagroup >>Wilcox Formation
Chronostratigraphy: Cenozoic Erathem >>Tertiary System >>Eocene 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
Wilcox Formation (Crider and Johnson, 1906, p. 5, 9).
Derivation
Named for Wilcox County, Alabama.
Other names
It was formerly called Lagrange in Illinois (Lamar and Sutton, 1930).
History/background
Type section
Type location
Type author(s)
Type status
Reference section
Reference location
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Stratigraphic relationships
Extent and thickness
The Wilcox Formation is exposed in Illinois only in Pulaski County (Pryor and Ross, 1962), along the east side of the Cache River south of Unity, particularly in a pit where 20 feet of sand of the Wilcox Formation overlies the Porters Creek Formation and is overlain by the Mounds Gravel (SE SW SW 7, 16S-1W) (Pryor and Ross, 1962). It is only 20-30 feet thick in the outcrop area, but it thickens southward and is as much as 250 feet thick in subsurface near Cairo, Alexander County.
Lithology
The Wilcox Formation varies from white, fine to medium, slightly micaceous sand to gray, nearly white, silty or sandy clay.
Core(s)
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Contacts
Well log characteristics
Fossils
Age and correlation
The Wilcox Formation probably is equivalent to only part of the Wilcox farther south in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Environments of deposition
The Wilcox Formation was deposited in a delta at the head of the embayment.
Economic importance
Remarks
References
CRIDER, A. F., and L. C. JOHNSON, 1906, Summary of the underground water resources of Mississippi: USGS Water Supply Paper 159, 86 p.
LAMAR, J. E., and A. H. SUTTON, 1930, Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments of Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 14, p. 845-866.
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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