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To: muawiyah

Sorry, but I worked in the OKC area as a hydrogeologist for over 10 years (and a bit as a petroleum geologist in the western portion of the state). I know the area. The limestone that you reference is at or near the surface in the NE portion of the state (where I now live), and exposed in the mountains in the SE (Ouachitas) and S (Arbuckles and Wichitas).

Look up the Anadarko Basin. OKC is on the eastern perimeter of this basin, with Permian shales and sandstone exposed at the surface, and at depth. The limestone that you referenced are more than 25,000 feet deep in the deeper portions of the basin. Above is shale, sandstone and some thin, discontinuous limestone, mostly shale.

Underneath the OKC area are the Garber and Wellington Formations, mostly sandstone and interbedded shale, up to a depth of several thousand feet. This is the main aquifer of the area.

Try this link for the state geologic map: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2003/ofr-03-247/OK_map.pdf.


349 posted on 05/20/2013 7:53:00 PM PDT by LaRueLaDue
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To: LaRueLaDue
Before addressing your concerns I referred to the soil maps and the geologic reports, and maps, showing not just mineable limestone BUT ALSO the vast fields of limestone that underlie virtually every part of the state.

What you are doing is defining a type of sedimentary rock as 'sandstone' even where the grains of sand/silica are glued together with calcium carbonate.

Sandstone glued together with silica is a tad different ~ if you've ever been to Wausau Wisconsin you'd see a ginormous outcropping of the stuff ~ a glacial movement during the last peak period transported much of that mountain to Northern Indiana and Ohio ~ we had a bunch of it in the backyard of the home where i grew up. That was not glued together with calcium carbonate. BTW, disturbingly, I've found some of the same rock here in Northern Virginia so that'd be a glacial period BEFORE the Appalachians rose ~ probably the Snowball Earth period ~ just thinking of the size of an 800 mile long glacial flow.

Back to OK, the three areas you identified as having limestone are simply areas where there is currently active mining, mostly for crushed rock. Over in Indiana that quality of stone is usually turned into portland cement. However, in commercial grades of building limestone, you are going to find that some fine grained early ~ pre-life ~ limestones look to have sand in them.

Looking over the OK soils maps ~ of interest to agriculturalists if not geologists ~ there doesn't seem to be a lot of wind blown loess like you find further North, but there are 'sand hills' ~ in places.

When I look at this map ~ http://tapestry.usgs.gov/ages/carboniferous.html - I see Pennsylvanian limestone, and then coal, in NAWTHAN OKLAHOMA! There are other limestones to the Souf!

363 posted on 05/20/2013 8:21:53 PM PDT by muawiyah
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