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Concretions And Nodules In The Hell Creek Formation, Southwestern North Dakota, Gerald H. Groenwold

Theses and Dissertations

The Hell Creek Formation (Upper Cretaceous) in southwestern North Dakota consists of lagoonal and floodplain deposits and contains abundant concretions and nodules. Representative specimens of the concretions and nodules and their corresponding enclosing sediments were analyzed by thin section and by quantitative and qualitative x-ray diffraction methods.

Fourteen types of concretions and three types of nodules, classified according to shape and composition, have thus been defined. Concretionary types include calcareous sandstone lenses, “logs”, and irregular masses; sideritic sandstone lenses and irregular masses; calcareous and sideritic lignitic sandstone lenses; bone-cored rounded masses; coprolite-cored masses; jarosite bodies; pyrite spheres; baritic sandstone lenses; …