THE SHORT CREEK OOLITE MEMBER, BOONE FORMATION: A TRANSPORTED MISSISSIPPIAN-OSAGEAN RAMP DEPOSIT, SOUTHERN OZARK DOME, NORTHERN ARKANSAS

The Boone Formation (Mississippian – Osagean) forms the Springfield Plateau, Ozark Dome, southern mid-continent, North America. The Boone comprises a thick sequence of mud- and grain-supported carbonates with abundant chert. The Short Creek Oolite Member occurs sporadically at or near the top of the Boone across the region. Regionally, this interval has been accorded a Meramecan age, although it appears restricted to the Osagean in northern Arkansas.

At maximum flooding and highstand, the Boone Formation and its equivalents in central Missouri reflect the Burlington Platform, where carbonate sediment was generated. Near the platform margin, that sediment was transported down adjacent ramps to be deposited in deeper water. The Short Creek reflects regression with periodic and discontinuous shoal formation in favorable settings on the outer platform that also experienced transportation down ramp as sea level fell. The Short Creek in Arkansas typically exhibits 65% or less ooids, and a high bioclastic and mud content, compared to unquestioned shoals, e.g. the Bahamas, with 90% or greater ooids and little contribution by mud or bioclasts. The Short Creek in northern Arkansas generally comprises a single bed, lacking sedimentary structures, e.g. tabular cross bedding, typical of most unquestioned shoals. Finally, ooids in Missouri platform settings are frequently nucleated on quartz grains, and may become doubly-terminated by quartz overgrowths. No quartz nuclei have been observed in Arkansas occurrences, which must have formed in a different location without a quartz source. The Short Creek Oolite is not a coeval, homotaxial marker across the southern midcontinent.