Bigfork Chert | |
---|---|
Stratigraphic range: Ordovician | |
Type | Formation |
Unit of | none |
Sub-units | none |
Underlies | Polk Creek Shale [1] |
Overlies | Womble Shale |
Thickness | 450 to 750 feet [2] |
Lithology | |
Primary | Chert |
Location | |
Region | Arkansas, Oklahoma |
Country | United States |
Type section | |
Named for | Big Fork, Montgomery County, Arkansas |
Named by | Albert Homer Purdue [3] |
The Bigfork Chert is a Middle to Late Ordovician geologic formation in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma. First described in 1892, [4] this unit was not named until 1909 by Albert Homer Purdue in his study of the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. [3] Purdue assigned the town of Big Fork in Montgomery County, Arkansas as the type locality, but did not designate a stratotype. As of 2017, a reference section for this unit has yet to be designated. The Bigfork Chert is known to produce planerite, turquoise, variscite, and wavellite minerals. [5]