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File:Chalk badlands (Niobrara Formation, Upper Cretaceous; chalk bluffs south of Castle Rock, Gove County, Kansas, USA) 7 (38417957134).jpg

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Description

Chalk in the Cretaceous of Kansas, USA.

These are chalk outcrops near Castle Rock, a famous cluster of chalk pillars south of Quinter, Kansas. Chalk is a biogenic, calcitic, marine sedimentary rock composed of numerous coccolith microfossils (see: <a href="http://www.soes.soton.ac.uk/staff/tt/eh/pics/lith2.gif" rel="nofollow">www.soes.soton.ac.uk/staff/tt/eh/pics/lith2.gif</a>). Coccoliths are individual calcareous plates that covered a single-celled, photosynthesizing marine organism called a coccolithophorid (a.k.a. coccolithophore; "coccolithophorid" is not an adjective, contra Wikipedia) (see: <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Emiliania_huxleyi_coccolithophore_(PLoS).png" rel="nofollow">upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Emiliania_hux...</a>).

Most chalks are Cretaceous in age ("creta" means "chalk"). The most famous example is the White Cliffs of Dover, along the southern shore of Britain.

Weathered chalks in western Kansas range in color from white to pale yellowish to pale grayish.

The rhythmic layering seen here is likely the result of Milankovitch cyclicity (see: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles" rel="nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles</a> and <a href="https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Historical_Geology/Milankovitch_cycles" rel="nofollow">en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Historical_Geology/Milankovitch_cycles</a>).

Stratigraphy: Smoky Hill Chalk Member (a.k.a. Smoky Hills Member), Niobrara Formation, Upper Cretaceous

Locality: bluffs adjacent to Castle Rock, north of Gove County Road K & east of Castle Rock Road, 23 kilometers south-southeast of the town of Quinter, eastern Gove County, western Kansas, USA
Date
Source Chalk badlands (Niobrara Formation, Upper Cretaceous; chalk bluffs south of Castle Rock, Gove County, Kansas, USA) 7
Author James St. John

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by James St. John at https://flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/38417957134 (archive). It was reviewed on 12 October 2019 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

12 October 2019

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current06:34, 12 October 2019Thumbnail for version as of 06:34, 12 October 20194,278 × 2,451 (4.57 MB)Ser Amantio di NicolaoTransferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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