Senior University Geology Field Trip November 5, 2012 8:45 am – 4:30 pm

1. Senior University Geology Field Trip November 5, 2012 8:45 am – 4:30 pm

2. Georgetown’s Amazing Geology with Don, Rocky, & Sandi Explore, Photograph, & Sample . . . . . world famous rocks modern perched water table modern aquifers supplying our drinking water 10, 000 years old black waxy glacial clays 135 million year old Rudist reefs 45 million year old Balcones Fault

3. Our Travel Schedule 8:45 to 9:00 am Briefing at The Oaks 9:10 to 9: 30 STOP 1 - Perched water table Berry Creek Pond 9: 40 to 10:00 STOP 2 - Black Waxy clays Walgreens, Williams Dr 10:15 to 10:30 STOP 3 - Rudist reefs Lake Georgetown spillway 10:35 to 10:40 STOP 4 - Reef in D.B. Woods road cut 10:50 to 11:15 STOP 5 - Rudists and grasses Wolf Ranch Mall 11:30 to 12:15 STOP 6 - Buda limestone cliff & faults Celebration Church 12:30 to 1:30 LUNCH – French Quarter Grill 2:00 to 4:00 STOP 7 - nner Space Cavern 4:30 Return to Sun City

4. Definitions Mineral: natural occurring constituent of all rocks Limestone: sedimentary rock composed of the mineral Calcite Shale: sedimentary rock composed of one or more Clay minerals Sandstone: sedimentary rock composed of the mineral quartz Ground water: rain water filling rock voids Water table: top of the ground water Aquifer: rock containing fresh water that can be recovered in a well Normal fault: fracture in bed rock with measurable displacement Stromatolites: Shallow water blue-green algae deposits

5. Briefing at The Oaks, Sun City

6. Age of the Rocks that we saw Cretaceous Period

7. Eagleford Shale 120 feet Buda Reef 60 feet Del Rio Shale 60 feet Georgetown Limestone 100 feet Upper Dense limestone 30 feet Rocks at the surface in Sun City Reef & Reef debris aquifer limestone 100 feet Comanche Peak limestone 50 feet Edwards Limestone 380 feet Upper Walnut limestone 100 feet Lower Walnut limestone 100 feet Glen Rose Limestone 400 feet Trinity sandstone aquifer 0 to 100 feet Trinity sandstone 0 to 100feet Ouachita Mountain complex folds and thrust faults

8. Geography when our limestones were formed about 115 million years ago

9. Rocks Exposedat Sun City missing by erosion Berry Creek not eroded this deep

10. Geological Cross Section Williamson County, Texas Sun City outcrop Edwards reef recharge Comanche Peak Cliff Buda Limestone cliff Flint Springs

11. Fossils you may have stumbled over Bryozoa (sea moss) Stromatolites (Algae) Brachiopods (symmetrical shells) Gastropods (snails) Pelecypods (clams) (asymmetrical shells) Cephalopods & Ammonites Corals

12. On the road . . .

13. Stop 1 - Perched Water Table at Berry Creek Pond Why is the water here?

14. Stop 1 - Perched Water Table Pavilion at Berry Creek Pond Williams Dr. Gate Village Center Berry Creek Pond (stock tank) Reef Reef water filled=a perched water table

15. Stop 2: Holding pond at Walgreens on Williams Dr Why is the water here? . . .the base of the pond is on impervious limestone!

16. Stop 2: Waxy Clay on weathered Georgetown Limestone Walgreens on Williams Dr What’s the black surface dirt?

17. Stop 2: Waxy Clay on weathered Georgetown Limestone Walgreens on Williams Dr black waxy clay weathered Georgetown limestone un-weathered Georgetown limestone

18. Stop 2: Waxy Clay on weathered Georgetown Limestone 10,000 year old black waxy clays weathered & eroded from Rocky Mountains in New Mexico

19. Stop 3: layered limestone with rudist reefs What rocks are these? Lake Georgetown Spillway

20. Stop 3: layered limestone with rudist reefs Lake Georgetown Spillway

21. Lake Georgetown Spillway North Rock Wall Stromatolites cap layer Stromatolite layer Eoradiolites Rudist Debris Bank

22. Rudist Reef-forming Sea Shells

23. Lake Georgetown Rudists

24. Rudists: the exotic mound-building Rudist Clams that became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Length: 6 inches to 3 feet!

25. WHAT IS A RUDIST REEF? A clam-like colonial (successive generations build on top of each other giving the reef vertical strength that minimizes compaction of the reef when buried). The rudist sea shell is shaped and sized like an inverted old fashioned glass Coke bottle. They occur in the Cretaceous Period 145 to 65 million years ago and are the equivalent of corals of today and other geological Periods. The rudist fossil is the “limestone” shell of the marine organism and it is very delicate so it often weathers-out leaving a round hole.

26. Stromatolites: blue green algae Stromatolites grow in shallow water Modern Stromatolites Stromatolites preserved as rocks

27. Stop 3: layered limestone with rudist reefs

28. Stop 3: layered limestone with rudist reefs

29. Stop 3: layered limestone with rudist reefs Lake Georgetown Spillway

30. Stop 4: Limestone Reef Outcrop Road Cut, D.B. Woods Road Why are these layers curved? D. B. Woods Road - reef outcrop . . . the reef ‘matrix’ resists compression from the rock layers above, maintaining its shape

31. Stop 5: rudist fossils in country rock, Texas grasses Wolf Ranch Shaded Walk

32. Stop 6: Eagle Ford gas source rock, Buda cliff, Texas Crushed Stone Quarry, Balcones Faults Celebration Church Overlook Where’s the Balcones Fault?

33. Balcones Faults Inner Space Cavern Celebration overlook Up Down Up Down

34. Balcones Faults Inner Space Cavern Note: Black Waxy Celebration overlook

35. Lunch: French Quarter Grill: Round Rock

36. Stop 7: Inner Space Cavern Tour

37. Stop 7: Inner Space Cavern Tour Balcones Fault Flint Dolomite Limestone

38. ROCKS OF THE INNER SPACE CAVERNS • Limestone is the original rock type which when buried can have the Ca partially replaced by Mg due to the movement of fluids being expelled by compaction of the whole rock column creating dolomite. • Dolomite does not “fizz” in acid until you scratch it into a powder, then if “fizzes”. Otherwise, it look just like limestone. • - Flint is silicon dioxide and is thought to be the silicon dioxide of sponge quills called spicules sort of like the quills of a porcupine, but a marine animal that shared the reef with the Rudists and other reef organisms. The thin, discontinuous flint layers are thought to be formed when a storm swept a number of individual sponges off the reef and deposited their dead bodies in a “quiet” place out of the way of the waves and tides. Since the spicules become plastic as the organic sponge bodies decay, the plastic layers of flint during burial and compaction are often squeezed into“lumpy” and discontinuous “blobs”..

41. The end of a perfect day!!!

42. Self-drive Field Stop The next 4 slides describe a self-drive field stop that you could do with family or friends. The destination is Blue Hole City Park in Georgetown. On the drive from Wolf Ranch Shopping Center to the park, you will cross the Balcones Fault just east of Interstate 35. At Blue Hole Park, rudist fossils in the Edwards Limestone are visible on the rock outcrop (rock face). Enjoy!!

43. Self-drive Field Stop: Blue Hole City Park Balcones Faults & Edwards Limestone Rudist Reef Blue Hole Park Austin Ave University Blvd Wolf Ranch

44. Self-drive Field Stop @ Blue Hole Park: Balcones Fault Blue Hole Park Down Up Austin Ave University Blvd

45. Self-drive Field Stop @ Blue Hole Park: Balcones Fault Blue Hole Park Down Up

46. Self-drive Field Stop @ Park: Edwards Rudist Reef