The outcrops

I will be posting pictures of these cave-fill deposits soon. All of these outcrops are within a mile of each other near Stockton Lake, MO, and are all within the same stratigraphic unit -- Osagean Stage.

However, one of the cave-fills is much different than the others. Three are filled with sandstone whereas this other contains a black silt stone -- it actually looks a lot like a paleosol and is as black as the Heebner Shale. I have been thinking about a possible provenance for this cave-fill and so far have considered Morrowan aged silts deposited from fluvial processes, that it is actually a paleosol, or that these are the insoluable residues left over from the subaerial erosion of the Osagean limestones (a long shot that I will keep in the back of my mind). Another interesting thing about these rocks is that it is intercalated with a bright yellow clay, possibly Carnotite -- which would be a rare find in Missouri! I have collected a sample of this but am waiting to collect other samples before analysing it with our new XRD.

Determining why this cave-fill is so completly different than the others which are of the same age and close in proximity to is another question I will look to answer if a provenance for all of the rocks are found.