ABSTRACT

The Verden sandstone is an elongate formation that outcrops in a series of buttes and ridges from about 10 miles east of Marlow, Oklahoma, northwest for about 70 miles. It has a thickness of 10 feet and an average width of 1,000 feet. Its beds, which vary from a few inches to two feet in thickness, are extensively and persistently cross-bedded toward the northwest. These beds are separated in many places by thin, horizontally laminated sandy shale, that contains both wave· formed and giant ripple marks having their longitudinal axes approximately parallel with the trend of the formation. The sediments become progressively finer to the northwest and marine fossils, that show only a small amount of wear from transportation, are common.

Of the several theories that have been suggested to explain the Verden, the one advocated by Bass (1939), that it was laid down as a series of spits and bars, has been most widely accepted. However, in the light of our present knowledge of the nature and internal structure of elongated physiographic formations, it seems that the peculiarities of the Verden sandstone are better explained as caused by salinity or tidal currents flowing through a strait or pass.