Upper part of varicolored claystone to base of Worland Limestone
This view near the north end of the road cut shows the
entire sequence
from the varicolored claystone to the Worland Limestone. The red clay
layer is well developed. Impure lignitic coal in the Mulberry Member
rests on the red clay. The coal is overlain, in turn, by mottled gray to
black claystone (note the greenish gray patch just below and to the left
of the hammer head) with slickensides (especially conspicuous near the
top of the hammer handle). The dark claystone is fossiliferous in the
lower part, containing microinvertebrates, molluscs, and brachiopods.
Phosphate nodules are partially embedded in the basal carbonaceous
material (see close-up). Approximately the upper foot of shaly material
directly beneath the Worland Limestone is the Lake Neosho Shale.
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