Age:

Silurian

Type designation:

Type section: The Liston Creek Limestone Member, originally having formation rank, was named by Cumings and Shrock (1927, p. 75) for exposures on Liston Creek in southwestern Wabash County, Indiana (NE¼SW¼ sec. 24, T. 26 N., R. 5 E.) (Shaver, 1970; Droste and Shaver, 1986).

Reference section: Pinsak and Shaver (1964, p. 38-39 and 80) designated an 83-ft (25-m) section of rocks cored in the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. Gale M. and Glada Skinner No. 1 well (Indiana Geological Survey Petroleum Database Management System No. 134550) near Royal Center, Cass County (NW¼NW¼ sec. 10, T. 28 N., R. 1 W.) as a reference section (Droste and Shaver, 1986).

History of usage:

Change in rank: Pinsak and Shaver (1964) reduced the rank of the Liston Creek to that of a member of the Wabash Formation (upper part).

Extension: Usage of the term "Liston Creek" was extended to the subsurface of southwestern Indiana, where this unit has, wherever recognizable, a vertical cutoff against rocks in the upper part of the Bainbridge Group (Droste and Shaver, 1986).

Description:

At the type section, which is now under water in the Mississinewa Reservoir, the member consists of about 30 ft (9 m) of cherty limestone and dolomitic limestone that is light gray and tan, fine to medium grained, fossil fragmental, and slabby bedded and that rests with sharp, but probably conformable, contact on the Mississinewa Shale Member (Wabash Formation) (Shaver, 1970; Droste and Shaver, 1986). (See photograph in Shaver and others, 1961, fig. 6.)

Droste and Shaver (1986) note that the type lithology is predictably present in the few-county area surrounding the type locality, but Mississinewa-like rocks are intimately intercalated in places. Like the Mississinewa, the Liston Creek has a reef facies (Huntington Lithofacies) that continues stratigraphically upward without break from the Mississinewa into the Liston Creek (Droste and Shaver, 1986). These three lithologies (Mississinewa, Liston Creek, and reef facies) are so intimately mixed in many areas that the Wabash members are not separable in their type relations (Droste and Shaver, 1986). In its typical area of distribution in north-central Indiana, the basal Liston Creek is made up of the 1- to 3-foot (0.3- to 0.9-m) glauconitic Red Bridge Limestone Bed (Droste and Shaver, 1986).

Distribution: Liston Creek distribution as a distinctly separate member is poorly known in southern Indiana, but there, for example, Becker (1974, p. 21) referred to a 65-foot (20-m) section, and in far western Indiana sections nearly 200 ft (61 m) thick are known (Pinsak and Shaver, 1964, p. 86). Characteristic sections in northern Indiana are about 100 ft (30 m) thick, but here both thickness and areal distribution are greatly complicated because of complex facies within the Wabash (Droste and Shaver, 1986). The Liston Creek, therefore, has complementary relationships with the Mississinewa (lower Wabash) and the Kokomo and Kenneth Limestone Members (upper Wabash) (Droste and Shaver, 1986). Northward the Liston Creek as an objectively defined unit terminates in the reef facies of the Fort Wayne Bank, north of which cherty lithologies are scarcely present. (See Droste and Shaver, 1982, p. 23.)

In the far southwest corner of the state the Liston Creek is absent (Becker, 1974, p. 21, and Becker and Droste, 1978). It is also absent from the Silurian outcrop area of southeastern Indiana because of erosional cutout in the subsurface below the Muscatatuck Group (Middle Devonian) (Droste and Shaver, 1986).

Boundaries:

The Liston Creek is underlain conformably by the Mississinewa Shale Member, and it underlies Middle Devonian rocks unconformably (except in the outcrop area); in some places in the area of Kokomo distribution, however, a thin Liston Creek member underlies the Kokomo member (Droste and Shaver, 1986).

Correlations:

The Liston Creek is a near equivalent of the Bailey Limestone in the Illinois Basin parts of Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois (Droste and Shaver, 1986). It also corresponds to upper Racine rocks in northern Illinois and eastern Wisconsin, to upper Salina rocks (above the C unit) in the Michigan and Appalachian Basins, and to Salina rocks above the Vernon Shale in New York (Droste and Shaver, 1986). Considering the intimate intra-Wabash relations as described, parts of the Liston Creek variably correlate with Mississinewa, Kokomo, and Kenneth rocks in Indiana (Droste and Shaver, 1986). Probably only in the Illinois Basin does the relatively uneroded Liston Creek and Liston Creek-equivalent rocks have an age as young as that of the Bass Islands Group of the Michigan Basin and as that of the New York Silurian section ranging upward from the Bertie Dolomite (Droste and Shaver, 1986).

The Liston Creek interval of upper Wabash rocks is characterized, although sparsely, by the conodonts Polygnathoides siluricus, Spathognathodus primus, and S. eosteinhornensis. (See Pollock and Rexroad, 1973, p. 80; and Yoder, 1982, p. 22.) In the pentamerid brachiopod lineage, Kirkidium cf. K. laqueatum is characteristic, along with rarer occurrences of similar taxa known only in Late Silurian rocks. (See Shaver and others, 1971, p. 56-57, and Indiana University Paleontology Seminar, 1980, p. 119-120). These fossil indicators are compatible with a late Ludlovian to Pridolian age in European terms or Cayugan in North American terms (Droste and Shaver, 1986).

Economic Importance:

Industrial Minerals: Crushed stone products from the Liston Creek Member (Silurian) include the following: crushed stone, dolomite, and limestone from quarries in Hamilton and Howard Counties (Shaffer, 2016).

Regional Indiana usage:

Illinois Basin (COSUNA 11)
Supergroup: none
Group: Salina Group
Formation: Wabash Formation
Member: Liston Creek Limestone Member
Illinois Basin Margin (COSUNA 12)
Supergroup: none
Group: Salina Group
Formation: Wabash Formation
Member: Liston Creek Limestone Member
Kankakee Arch (COSUNA 14)
Supergroup: none
Group: Salina Group
Formation: Wabash Formation
Member: Liston Creek Limestone Member
Michigan Basin (COSUNA 15)
Supergroup: none
Group: Salina Group
Formation: Wabash Formation
Member: Liston Creek Limestone Member

Misc/Abandoned Names:

None

Geologic Map Unit Designation:

Swlc

Note: Hansen (1991, p. 52) in Suggestions to authors of the reports of the United States Geological Survey noted that letter symbols for map units are considered to be unique to each geologic map and that adjacent maps do not necessarily need to use the same symbols for the same map unit. Therefore, map unit abbreviations in the Indiana Geologic Names Information System should be regarded simply as recommendations.

COSUNA areas and regional terminology

Names for geologic units vary across Indiana. The Midwestern Basin and Arches Region COSUNA chart (Shaver, 1984) was developed to strategically document such variations in terminology. The geologic map (below left) is derived from this chart and provides an index to the five defined COSUNA regions in Indiana. The regions are generally based on regional bedrock outcrop patterns and major structural features in Indiana. (Click the maps below to view more detailed maps of COSUNA regions and major structural features in Indiana.)

COSUNA areas and numbers that approximate regional bedrock outcrop patterns and major structural features in Indiana.

Major tectonic features that affect bedrock geology in Indiana.

See also:

Bailey Limestone

References:

Becker, L. E., 1974, Silurian and Devonian rocks in Indiana southwest of the Cincinnati Arch: Indiana Geological Survey Bulletin 50, 83 p.

Becker, L. E., and Droste, J. B., 1978, Late Silurian and Early Devonian sedimentologic history of southwestern Indiana: Indiana Geological Survey Occasional Paper 24, 14 p.

Cumings, E. R., and Shrock, R. R., 1927, The Silurian coral reefs of northern Indiana and their associated strata: Indiana Academy of Science Proceedings, v. 36, p. 71–85.

Droste, J. B., and Shaver, R. H., 1982, The Salina Group (Middle and Upper Silurian) of Indiana: Indiana Geological Survey Special Report 24, 41 p.

Droste, J. B., and Shaver, R. H., 1986, Liston Creek Limestone Member, in Shaver, R. H., Ault, C. H., Burger, A. M., Carr, D. D., Droste, J. B., Eggert, D. L., Gray, H. H., Harper, Denver, Hasenmueller, N. R., Hasenmueller, W. A., Horowitz, A. S., Hutchison, H. C., Keith, B. D., Keller, S. J., Patton, J. B., Rexroad, C. B., and Wier, C. E., Compendium of Paleozoic rock-unit stratigraphy in Indiana–a revision: Indiana Geological Survey Bulletin 59, p. 81–82.

Hansen, W. R., 1991, Suggestions to authors of the reports of the United States Geological Survey (7^th ed.): Washington, D.C., U.S. Geological Survey, 289 p.

Indiana University Paleontology Seminar, 1980, Stratigraphy, structure, and zonation of large Silurian reef at Delphi, Indiana: American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, v. 64, p. 115–131.

Pinsak, A. P., and Shaver, R. H., 1964, The Silurian formations of northern Indiana: Indiana Geological Survey Bulletin 32, 87 p.

Pollock, C. A., and Rexroad, C. B., 1973, Conodonts from the Salina Formation and the upper part of the Wabash Formation (Silurian) in north-central Indiana: Geologica et Palaeontologica, v. 7, p. 77–92.

Shaffer, K. R., compiler, 2016, Directory of industrial mineral producers in Indiana: Indiana Geological Survey Directory 11-2016, 287 p.

Shaver, R. H., 1970, Liston Creek Limestone Member, in Shaver, R. H., Burger, A. M., Gates, G. R., Gray, H. H., Hutchison, H. C., Keller, S. J., Patton, J. B., Rexroad, C. B., Smith, N. M., Wayne, W. J., and Wier, C. E., Compendium of rock-unit stratigraphy in Indiana: Indiana Geological Survey Bulletin 43, p. 93–94.

Shaver, R. H., coordinator, 1984, Midwestern basin and arches region–correlation of stratigraphic units in North America (COSUNA): American Association of Petroleum Geologists Correlation Chart Series.

Shaver, R. H., Doheny, E. J., Droste, J. B., Lazor, J. D., Orr, R. W., Pollock, C. A., and Rexroad, C. B., 1971, Silurian and Middle Devonian stratigraphy of the Michigan Basin–a view from the southwest flank, in Forsyth, J. L., Geology of the Lake Erie islands and adjacent shores: Michigan Basin Geological Society Guidebook, p. 37–59.

Shaver, R. H., with contributions by Gray, H. H., Pinsak, A. P., Sunderman, J. A., Thornbury, W. D., and Wayne, W. J., 1961, Stratigraphy of the Silurian rocks of northern Indiana: Indiana Geological Survey Field Conference Guidebook 10, 62 p.

Yoder, G. E., 1982, Stratigraphy, structure, and paleoecology of a Silurian reef at Francesville, Indiana: Bloomington, Indiana University, masters thesis, 113 p.