BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA Vol. 39. pp. 1031-1072 December 30. 1928 AGE OF THE FOLDING OF THE OKLAHOMA MOUNTAINS— % THE OUACHITA, ARBUCKLE, AND WICHITA MOUN­ TAINS OF OKLAHOMA AND THE LLANO-BURNET AND MARATHON UPLIFTS OF TEXAS 1 BY SIDNEY POWERS 2 (Presented by title before the Society December SI, 1927) CONTENTS Tage Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1031 Stratigraphy ............................................................................................................. 1036 The, Ouachita Mountains ..................................................................................... 1037 Problems............................................................................................................. 1037 Age of the Carboniferous sediments .......................................................... 1038 Origin of the “glacial” boulders .................................................................. 1042 Date of the folding and overthrusting ...................................................... 1047 The Arbuckle Mountains ........................................................................................ 1049 The Wichita Mountains ........................................................................................ 1056 Former extent ................................................................................................. 1056 Criner Hills ..................................................................................................... 1057 “Red Bed” syneline west of the Criner Hills ....................................... 1059 Red River-Gainesville uplift ....................................................................... 1060 Geologic history and geographic extent ................................................... 1062 The Llano-Burnet uplift ....................................................................................... 1062 The Marathon uplift ............................................................................................. 1066 The Ancestral Rocky Mountains......................................................................... 1068 Summary ................................................................................................................... 1069 I ntroduction This paper discusses the folding, in Carboniferous time, which resulted in the Ouachita, Arbuckle, and Wichita Mountains and the Llano-Burnet and Marathon uplifts (see figure 2). A new name, the Oklahoma Moun- 1 Manuscript received by the Secretary of the Society December 31, 1927. 2 Published by permission of Mr. E. De Golyer, President of the Amerada Petroleum Corporation of Tulsa, Oklahoma. LXVII— B ull. Geol. Soc. Am., Vol. 39, 1927 (1031) Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/39/4/1031/3414955/BUL39_4-1031.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 on 25 September 2021 by guest Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/39/4/1031/3414955/BUL39_4-1031.pdf CORRELATION CHART MARATHON U PLIFT ARDMORE BASIN ARBUCKLE MOUNTAINS OUACHITA MOUNTAINS GLASS MOUNTAINS BETWEEN ARBUCKLES SOUTH-CENTRAL OKLA. WEST TEXAS BASIN AND CHINER HILLS WESTERN OKLAHOMA lesse y fm. E l t f f S : Quartermaster fn Quartermaster fm. Big gasin fm. 1032 Cloud Chief , s Hackberry fm. Pecos Red Beds Oav Cr. dolomite 1 f MSS Delaware Mt.fm. gci'sRh”- il Blaine Gypsum Chic kasha fm. Chickasha fm. S. P O W E R S ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AGE OP FOLDING OF OKLAHOM A M O U N T A IN S Leonard fm. Harper ss. San Ar>ylo fm Wellinqtonfm. Clear Fork fm. Ted beds" Marlon Group wichita-Albany Wichita fm. Chase Group ^ rWijtoBiQ L'rr.el Council Prove gp Council Grove qp. i Putnam fm Pontotoc Group Pontotoc Group Neva Is. Wabaunsee qp Pawhuska fm. Shawnee qp Ada fm. NeVagoney fm. Douglas qp. Va moo sa fm Lansinq qp. Ochelata fm Upper Gaptank fm Magdalena Is. Nellie Biv fm. Kansas City fm »¿fry,. Hogshocfter Is. Francis fm. Coffey ville fm Lenapah is. Nowata sh. Aitamont Is. bandera sh. Pawnee is. PENNSYLVANIAN Labette sh. “To; Wetumka sh Fört Scott Lower Gaptank fm. Canyon Group Cherokee fm. Cherokee fm. savanna ss McAiester sh. Milisap ..... Lower Glenn fm. Hartshorne ss. Raymond fm. (Lower strawn) D im p le fm . Otterville I». wapanucka is. M orrow fm. (Springer fm) (Springer fm) (Helms Group) can ey sh . , Pitkin Is. caney sh Jackferk ss. ' &V4sviiie*s*h' Stanley sh. Hot Springs si Sycamore Is. Woodford Chert 3 (Vfoodford chert) Caballos novacoUte - s ffrlsco.frn. ■jv Arkansas novaculite I Bols d Arc is. ®jHaragan sh. c. Henryhouse sh. St.Clair Is Chimneyhill Is. ? I (.Chimney hill Is Blayl ïlJpçlkCk.sh. Maravilla» fm »*V' 3 3 jBigfork chert ■Wilcox' sands) St Peter ss. f Borgen ss.i Marathon series Ellenburqer Is. B re w ste r fm H ickory ; Reagan ss. PRE-CAMBRIAN Schist, granite 6 ranite _i ---------- CONFORMITY ------- UNCONFORMITY »IMPORTANT FOLDING F ig u r e 1.— Correlation Chart of Formations in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and southeastern Neio Mexico The chart is based on charts of the U. S. Geological Survey, with revisions especially by B. H. Harlton. The age of the Stanley, Jackfork, and Caney is doubtful. INTRODUCTION 1033 tains; is introduced to designate all these ranges.3 The Ozark Mountains are not included because they are essentially a part of a broad dome that extends from southeastern Missouri far west into Oklahoma, and that has undergone, uniformly, throughout its extent, broad periodic tilting and gentle folding unlike the sharp folding of the mountain F ig u r e 2.— Outline Map of Oklahoma and Texas Map shows the principal mountain ranges exposed at the surface and those which have been found by the drill. masses on the south. Llanoris4 is discussed because of its bearing on the folding of the adjacent mountains. 3 The Ouachita Mountain system of R. T. Hill (Physical geography of the Texas region, Top. Atlas U. S., U. S. Geol. Survey Folio No. 3, 1900, p. 3) included the Massern Ranges (now called the Ouachitas), the Arbuckle Hills, and the Wichita Mountains. Hill first described these mountains in the Annual Report of the Arkansas Geological Survey for 1888, vol. 2, 1888, p. 10. 4 Charles Schuchert has introduced endings in is for former land areas, in his “A Textbook of Geology,” part 2, revised edition, 1924. Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/39/4/1031/3414955/BUL39_4-1031.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 1 0 3 4 S. POWEKS----AGE OE FOLDING OE OKLAHOMA M OUNTAINS Only the movements in Carboniferous time are considered. Earlier movements in southern Oklahoma, except, possibly, an upwarp of the western part of the Wichita Mountains, were of minor effect. In the Arbuckle Mountains the top of the Hunton limestone is in places missing and its absence indicates movement; in Texas there is a hiatus between the Silurian (Hunton?) and the Mississippian limestone (of Boone age) which indicates a movement in Llanoris, on the east. The earlier mountain systems were no doubt slightly different in posi­ tion and configuration from those now existing. The Ouachita géosyn­ clinal prism of accumulation, probably lay southeast of the present Ouachita Mountains. The beds were folded and afterward overthrust to the north. A hypothetical uplifted mountain mass, called the pre- Ouachita uplift, composed of rocks like those in the Arbuckle Mountains (or perhaps a part of the Arbuckle Mountains themselves), probably existed in Mississippian time where the present Ouachitas are. Originally the Arbuckle Mountains occupied a larger area than they do now, extending westward as far as Pauls Valley, northward beyond Seminole, and southeastward to Durant. The Wichita Mountain system extended eastward from the New Mex­ ico line to beyond Gainesville, Texas. Its north rim was a line of lime-" stone hills, most of them now buried, which ran from Gotebo past the Criner Hills. Its south rim, which was far more complex in structure and probably included several faulted anticlines, extended from Foard County, Texas, on the west, to and beyond Cooke County, on the east. A branch (the real south rim) ran northwestward past Nacona, Texas, and Waurika, Oklahoma. The Llano-Burnet, or “Central Mineral,” region is an area of gently folded and highly faulted Pennsylvanian and older rocks, which are overlapped on the south and east by Cretaceous beds and on the west and north by early and middle Pennsylvanian beds ; so that it represents only a fragment of a once extensive domal uplift, which rose like a horst and withstood fairly well the ravages of diastrophic movements, although it is now a topographic depression. The Bend Arch forms the north flank of the uplift. The Marathon region in Texas appears to show a western extension of the folding of the Oklahoma Mountains, while the Glass Mountains, but not the folds of the Marathon uplift, are related to the Ancestral Eocky Mountains. The Solitario dome is in the farthest southwest “window” of the Oklahoma Mountains. It is thought that the beds in the pre-Ouachita uplift, which are com­ posed of rocks like those of the Arbuckle Mountains and are now covered Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/39/4/1031/3414955/BUL39_4-1031.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 INTRODUCTION