Physical Characteristics of Bartlesville and Burbank Sands in Northeastern Oklahoma and Southeastern Kansas

Abstract

The Bartlesville and Burbank sands, which occur in the Cherokee shale of the Pennsylvanian series, are composed of quartz grains loosely cemented with a mixture of magnesium, iron, and calcium carbonate, and locally by silica, dolomite, or calcite. The sand commonly contains new quartz growth. Aside from quartz the sand contains ½-2 per cent, commonly 1 per cent mica, traces of feldspars, zircon, chlorite, glauconite, hornblende, rutile, magnetite, pyrite, and epidote, 10-20 per cent detrital rock fragments (chert, shale, and schist), and a trace to 10 per cent of carbonaceous material. Locally, as much as 50 per cent of the sand grains are composed of altered magnetite. Marine fossils were found in the sands and also in thin limestone and shale beds within and immed ately above and below the sands. The sands in most localities are predominantly fine-grained, but locally have a large content of medium and coarse grains and a trace of very coarse grains. The sand in most localities contains 10 per cent silt and clay, but locally the fraction ranges from 5 to 40 per cent. Most of the medium-grained sand and essentially all the finer grains are angular to sub-angular; locally, one-third of the medium grains and, in all localities where present, most of the coarse and very coarse grains are sub-rounded to rounded. The Bartlesville and Burbank sands are so similar in composition and physical characteristics that they can not be differentiated with certainty although certain differences can be distinguished in sands from two or more specific localities.