Mississippian System

Type locality and use of name: The name Levias Limestone Member was given by Sutton and Weller (1932, p. 430, 439) to the part of the Ste. Genevieve Limestone that is above what was then considered the Rosiclare Sandstone Member in the area just east of Levias, Crittenden County, Ky. When it was determined that the sandstone below the Levias was a tongue of the Aux Vases Formation (Swann, 1963, p. 31), the Levias was reassigned to the Renault Limestone.

In Indiana usage the Levias Member is still assigned to the Ste. Genevieve Limestone, but according to current opinion (fig. 2) it includes not only rocks that are equivalent to the type Levias but also rocks equivalent to the Joppa Member and the Karnak Limestone Member of the Ste. Genevieve Limestone (Swann, 1963, p. 28-29). The Levias overlies the Spar Mountain (formerly Rosiclare) Member of the Ste. Genevieve Limestone and underlies the Paoli Limestone. It includes the Bryantsville Breccia Bed at its top.

Description: ln Indiana the Levias Member consists generally of gray to light-gray thin- to medium-bedded limestone that is 22 to 60 feet (7 to 18 m) thick along its outcrop and as much as 75 feet (23 m) thick in the subsurface. Much of the Levias is dense and calcarenitic and is bound by microcrystalline calcite the grains consist of fossil debris, oolites, and pellets. Thin beds of lithographic limestone are commonly separated by very dark thin shale beds, and macrocrystalline calcite and argillaceous dolomitic limestone constitute some beds. The uppermost part of the member commonly consists of a limestone breccia, the Bryantsville Breccia Bed, and other (lower) breccias are found in some places (Perry and Smith, 1958, p. 35). In places a depositional discontinuity marks the upper boundary of the Levias Member. The Levias overlies the Spar Mountain Member of the Ste. Genevieve Limestone and underlies the Paoli Limestone.

The Levias Member is recognized on the outcrop from Harrison and Crawford Counties on the Ohio River to central Putnam County, north of which it is disconformably overlapped by the Mansfield Formation (basal Pennsylvanian). It is distinguishable (though it is not commonly picked) in the subsurface.

Correlation: The Levias Member contains the crinoid Platycrinites penicillus (Malott, 1952, p. 9), notably in its upper part, and so belongs to the Valmeyeran Series. Its upper part, therefore, is considered to be equivalent to the Levias Limestone Member of the Renault Formation of Illinois, which also contains this key fossil.