The Marmaton group consists of about 250 feet of limestone, shale, sandstone, and coal which, together with the underlying Cherokee shale, comprise the Des Moines series of Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) age in the northern Mid-continent area. The outcrop area of Marmaton rocks extends from southern Iowa across Missouri and southeastern Kansas into northeastern Oklahoma. Marmaton rocks seem to rest conformably on the Cherokee shale, but are separated from the overlying rocks of the Missouri series by a regional disconformity.
Marmaton rocks have long been subdivided into limestone formations and shale formations, and these have been given formal names. A few of the members of the limestone formations have been named, but the classification thus far has been decidedly incomplete. This paper introduces names for several limestone and shale units within the limestone formations and hence offers a more nearly complete classification applicable to the group in Kansas and at least in part in other states. Names are given to members of the Fort Scott, Pawnee, Altamont, and Lenapah limestone formations, and names are suggested for sandstones (probably better termed sandy facies) in the Bandera and Nowata shales.
Although the lithology of Marmaton rocks is not described here in detail, some descriptions of lateral and vertical changes are nevertheless included. The fact that there is plain evidence of cyclic sedimentation is noted. It is explained that the rocks of the Marmaton group are readily divisible into megacyclothems and cyclothems
