ABSTRACT

The Saratoga Chalk, Gulfian Series (Upper Cretaceous, Navarro Group), crops out in a narrow band trending northeast-southwest through Howard, Hempstead, Pike, and Clark counties, southwest Arkansas. The Saratoga Chalk is a fossiliferous, hard, sandy chalk, somewhat glauconitic in composition, with thin beds of marly chalks and chalky sands scattered throughout the formation. Resting disconformably on the Marlbrook Marl, the basal contact is quite distinctive due to a persistent break in lithology and faunal types. The overlying Nacatoch Sandstone rests disconformably on the Saratoga Chalk.

The outcrop, located in Sec. 32, T11S, R27W, approximately one-half mile west of the Saratoga townsite, provides a complete, easily accessible exposure of the Saratoga Chalk, here 24 ft (7.315 m) in thickness and within one mile of the type locality. This new reference locality will complement the poor exposure of the formation at the type locality at Saratoga, Arkansas.