ABSTRACT

The study includes rocks from the Checkerboard Limestone to the Brown Limestone (Des Moines Series of Middle Pennsylvanian System). The thickness of the section ranges from 2,500 feet in the southeastern portion of the study area to 750 feet in the northwestern portion. Thickening of the section to the east-southeast is uniform and continuous. Minor fluctuations are a result of local structual elements. The cross-sections and the isopach maps of the section suggest that the section was deposited on the west-northwest flank of the McAlester Basin and the basin was actively subsiding during the deposition of the section.

The study reveals that the sands occurring within the section derived sediments from southern, western, northern and northeastern sources. The Hunton Arch and the Wichita-Arbuckle system provide the southern source of the sands. The Nemaha Ridge, which was a structural and topographic positive feature until the Verdigris time, was a major western source of the sands occurring below the Verdigris Limestone. The Kansas Uplift, the Nemaha Ridge, the Mid Continent Craton, and the Ozark Mountains appear to be possible northern and northeastern sources of the sands.

The sands occurring within the section are generally lenticular and discontinuous, grading into shales within a short distance. They are erratic in thickness and sand content.

The Cherokee Group was deposited in a series of transgressions and regressions with an overall transgression dominant. During each transgression, marked by thin limestones, the sea invaded farther west-northwestward. Most of the sands of the Cherokee Group were deposited during the regressive or static stage of the sea.