A Carbonate Bank (Pennsylvanian) in Southeastern Kansas

Abstract

A carbonate bank of Pennsylvanian age (Missourian) is exposed in the bed of the Verdigris River, Montgomery County, Kansas. The carbonate bank is equivalent in age to either the Winterset Limestone or the overlying Cherryvale Shale. This feature, unlike most carbonate banks in southeastern Kansas, contains no phylloid algae but instead contains a variety of organisms, mainly Tubiphytes (which may be either an alga, foraminifer, or hydrozoan). Other important organisms include crinoids, colonial and solitary corals, and a variety of other faunal types. The carbonate bank is interpreted as a biogenic accumulation which formed in an environment of low turbulence prior to deposition of at least part of the adjacent and overlying Cherryvale Shale. Organisms contributing to formation of the carbonate bank are principally Tubiphytes and crinoids. Crinoids may have served as baffles and Tubiphytes as a binder. There are no obvious frame-building organisms. This type carbonate bank may be analogous to some of the Recent carbonate banks characteristic of Florida Bay.