Specimen: 2014-044

This is a fossiliferous limestone. The limestone is not grain supported and has a predominantly micrite cement matrix but substantial sparite is also present. This range in crystal size and its patchy distribution may suggest substantial neomorphism. Allochems constitute about 5 to 10 percent of slide area. These criteria define the limestone as a mudstone. Allochem composition is near 100 percent bioclast. This estimate along with the degree of sorting identifies this limestone as a fossiliferous micrite. Mottling of the cementing matrix indicates that peloids and possibly even intraclasts contributed to the cement matrix that are no longer distinguishable. Identifiable bioclast maximum dimensions are as follows: foraminifera .7 mm, bivalve 2 mm, bryozoan 1 mm, echinoderm 1.5 mm, and brachiopod 1.8 mm. No one fossil type clearly predominates. Other inclusions include rare collophane with a maximum dimension of 2.4 mm, authigenic quartz with a modal size around .04 mm and secondary cryptocrystalline quartz with a maximum dimension around 1 mm. All types of quartz are very rare and occupy far less than 1 percent of slide area. Rare patches of iron hydroxide staining are also present at far less than 1 percent of slide area. Extant voids are essentially absent. Compaction is difficult to estimate but was potentially appreciable given the inferred lack of peloid structure.
MP 7/21/2015

See also Susan Ward Aber and David A. Grisafe, "Petrographic Characteristics of Kansas Building Limestones," Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin 224 ([Lawrence, KS], 1982), available online at http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/Bulletins/224/