CHARACTERIZATION OF THE HANEY LIMESTONE AT THE ALEXANDER CREEK SECTION, EDMONSON COUNTY, KENTUCKY

The Mississippian-aged (Chesterian) Haney Limestone Member of the Golconda Formation in south-central Kentucky possessing a series of caves is a lesser studied unit, being overshadowed by extensive study of the much thicker carbonate rocks associated with the Mammoth Cave System such as the St. Louis and Ste Genevieve limestones. The Haney Limestone is positioned stratigraphically above the Big Clifty Sandstone Member of the Golconda Formation and below the Hardinsburg Sandstone Formation. This study involves characterizing a number of slabs of the Haney Limestone that were cut and polished and several thin sections to reveal details of lithofacies, as well as basic diagenetic features. These details are of importance to discern weathering features specifically manifest in cave-passage morphologies. Samples collected at a rock quarry near the town of the Chalybeate along Alexander Creek keyed into measured stratigraphic sections is providing a foundation for better understanding morphological features of caves.

The Haney has a sharp horizontal contact with the Big Clifty but has a slightly undulose contact with the overlying Hardinsburg probably representative of a paleokarst surface. Chesterian Series rocks in general represent a time of eustatic variation evidenced by several transgressive and regressive cycles. Typical lithofacies of the Haney range from skeletal mudstone to a skeletal/oolitic grainstone, and contain primarily bryozoans, brachiopods, solitary (rugose) corals, and crinoids. Planar beds measuring 65-90 cm at the base and measuring 10-65 cm at the upper portion of the Haney are characteristic, but some wavy bedding is present in the lower to middle beds of the Haney. Stylolites occur throughout the unit and there is an increase in jointing up the stratigraphic section. Studying the Haney Limestone petrographically provides an opportunity to not only study a lesser known unit, but in the context of relating petrographic influences or controls on the morphology of Haney cave-passage development under both vadose and phreatic hydrologic regimens. Heretofore, the vast majority of cave morphological studies have only linked hydrologic regimen to formation of cave passages but such studies have not considered petrographic variance.