Brassfield Formation

Brassfield Formation
Stratigraphic range: Rhuddanian - Telychian[1]Early Silurian
Brassfield Formation exposed in Oakes Quarry near Fairborn, Ohio.
TypeSedimentary
UnderliesCrab Orchard Formation, Dayton Formation, Osgood Formation, Salamonie Dolomite, and St. Clair Limestone
OverliesBrainard Shale, Cason Shale, Drakes Formation, and Whitewater Formation
Lithology
PrimaryLimestone
Otherdolomite
Location
RegionEast-central USA
CountryUnited States
ExtentArkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee
Type section
Named forBrassfield, Kentucky
Named byAugust Frederick Foerste (1906, p. 18, 27)[2]

The Brassfield Formation, named by A.F. Foerste in 1906, is a limestone and dolomite formation exposed in Arkansas,[3] Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee and West Virginia in the United States.[2] It is Early Silurian (Aeronian, Llandoverian) in age and well known for its abundant echinoderms, corals and stromatoporoids.[4] In Ohio, where the unit has escaped dolomitization, the Brassfield is an encrinite biosparite with numerous crinoid species.[5][6]

  1. ^ The Silurian of central Kentucky, U.S.A.: Stratigraphy, palaeoenvironments and palaeoecology
  2. ^ a b Foerste, A.F. 1906. The Silurian, Devonian, and Irvine formations of east-central Kentucky, with an account of their clays and limestones. Geological Survey of Kentucky, Bulletin 7, 369 p.
  3. ^ McFarland, John David (2004) [1998]. "Stratigraphic summary of Arkansas" (PDF). Arkansas Geological Commission Information Circular. 36: 7–8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-12-21. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  4. ^ Schneider, K.A. and Ausich, W.I. 2002. Paleoecology of framebuilders in Early Silurian reefs (Brassfield Formation, southwestern Ohio). Palaios 17: 237-248.
  5. ^ Ausich, W.I. 1984. Calceocrinids from the Early Silurian (Llandoverian) Brassfield Formation of southwestern Ohio. Journal of Paleontology 58: 1167-1185.
  6. ^ Coogan, A.H. 1996. Ohio's surface rocks and sediments, in Feldmann, R.M., and Hackathorn, M., eds., Fossils of Ohio: Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geological Survey Bulletin 70: 31–50.