The Burlington Limestone is a

geologic formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

and the Midwest region. It preserves

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

dating back to the Mississippian subperiod.

Physical properties

Burlington Limestone is unusually course-grained, crystalline, crinoidal

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

. Its texture is sufficiently distinctive and persistent to permit recognition of the formation commonly on this basis alone. The Burlington Limestone is made of almost entirely on the remains of various

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s, by far the most important of which are crinoids. Some portions of the Burlington, however, are not so evidently crinoidal, as for example, the so-called "white ledge" quarried in the northeastern part of

Natural occurrence

Burlington Limestone is present in nearly all major Mississippian outcrop regions in

. It is known from

to northwestern

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

and from western

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

to western

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

. It is present throughout Missouri, except in the Ozark uplift, where it has been removed by

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

. Differentiation of the Burlington with the overlaying, lithologically similar

Keokuk Limestone The Keokuk Limestone is a geologic formation in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): ...

is often difficult or impossible, so the sequence of

Osagean The Mississippian ( , also known as Lower Carboniferous or Early Carboniferous) is a subperiod in the geologic timescale or a subsystem of the geologic record. It is the earlier of two subperiods of the Carboniferous period lasting from roughly ...

limestones is sometimes identified as "Burlington-Keokuk Limestone".

References

External links

* Carboniferous Missouri Carboniferous Iowa Carboniferous southern paleotropical deposits {{Carboniferous-stub

Physical properties

Natural occurrence

See also

References

External links