The origin of bedded silicates with particular reference to the Caballos and Arkansas novaculite formations

Abstract

The massive, white, dense siliceous rocks forming the prominent relief of the Ouachita Mountains and the Marathon Basin have been the subject of recurrent speculation for 100 years. Although this thin siliceous sequence is exposed in only two areas, it nevertheless has received international attention as a classical example of siliceous sedimentation. The white rocks were named novaculites in 1819 (Croneis, 1930) from their exposures in the core of the Ouachita Mountains; however, the name has since become a stratigraphic term to include the entire siliceous sequence which is underlain and overlain by varicolored sandstones, shales and limestones