Chapter 4

STRATIGRAPHY OF THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH METROPLEX

By
Robert J. Stern and Ignacio Pujana,
University Texas at Dallas, Geoscience Department

INTRODUCTION
The stratigraphy (study of layered rock sequences) of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex reveals an
interesting record of geologic events that happened here and nearby. These rocks are also richly
fossiliferous. In order to appreciate the significance of fossils, it is essential to understand the
stratigraphy and the succession of sedimentary beds in which the fossils are found. This brief essay
summarizes our understanding of the stratigraphy of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex by focusing on
three time periods when the rocks exposed in our region were formed: the Pennsylvanian, Cretaceous,
and Quaternary periods. The rocks of these three periods contain very different fossil assemblages.

Figure 1: The 15 counties of the Metroplex, divided into three tiers: N. Tier: Jack, Wise, Denton, Collin; Central Tier: Palo
Pinto, Parker, Tarrant, Dallas, Rockwall and Kauffman; S. Tier: Erath, Hood, Somervell, Johnson, and Ellis. D = Dallas, FW = Ft.
Worth.

DEFINITION OF THE DALLAS-FORT WORTH METROPLEX

As of this writing in 2015, over 6.5 million people live in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan
area. We live in a large area of N. Central Texas, and the area of concentrated population is constantly
expanding as people move in. Consequently, there is no single definition of the DFW Metroplex, and
any definition that is useful today may not be useful in the future. The term itself was coined in 1970

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in recognition of the fact that the new airport would serve a much larger community than just the
people living in Dallas or Fort Worth. One definition of the DFW Metroplex is the membership of the
North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), a voluntary association of local governments
(including 16 counties) established to assist those governments in planning for common needs,
cooperating for mutual benefit, and coordinating for sound regional development.
http://www.nctcog.org/ . For geologic purposes, it is more useful to define the DFW Metroplex as the
NCTCOG plus Jack County in the NW and without Hunt and Navarro counties in the east. The geologic
Metroplex thus defined includes 15 Texas counties out of a total 254 Texas counties as shown in Figure
1.

Many – but not all - of the fossil locales mentioned in this book occur in this 15 county region. Figure 2
shows the surficial geology of the Metroplex. These rocks are hard to see when whizzing around the
freeways. If you dig around your house you might dig up nothing but soil, but if you go down into a
creek bed you are likely to see exposures of Austin Chalk or Fort Worth Limestone or Woodbine
Sandstone or some other stratigraphic unit that underlies our region.

The geology changes across the Metroplex, mostly from west to east. Great north-south trending belts
of different kinds and ages of sediment traverse the Metroplex. The oldest outcropping sediments are
west-dipping Pennsylvanian sediments in the west, a great swath of Cretaceous sediments making up
most of the Metroplex substrate, and a narrow strip of Cenozoic (Paleocene) sediments in the east (Fig.
2). As a result of these N-S belts, similar sedimentary rocks are found to the north (for example in the
Sulfur River) and to the south (for example around Waco). In contrast, the rocks to the west are
different than those in the Metroplex.

Figure 2: Outline of the DFW Metroplex and age of underlying sediments. Note that sediments from the Pennsylvanian
(grey; 383 to 299 million years ago, or Ma), Cretaceous (green; 145 to 66 Ma) and Paleocene epoch (yellow; 66 to 56 Ma).

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A FEW GEOLOGY BASICS
The fundamental stratigraphic unit used by geologists is the Formation, defined as a distinctive unit
that can be mapped in the field. A distinctive thin layer in a Formation is called a Member. There may
be several Members in a Formation or none at all. Several Formations that were deposited during a
protracted interval make up a Group. There are several Formations, Members, and Groups in the DFW
Metroplex.

The geologic time intervals that these sediments represent worldwide are shown in Figure 3, which
summarizes the Phanerozoic (Greek for “Visible Life”) timescale. Many generations of geology
students have struggled to memorize the geologic periods in order, from Cambrian to Quaternary; it is
useful to come up with a mnemonic device to help memorizing the sequence.

Figure 3: The Phanerozoic time scale, vertical axis is in millions of years before present (Ma). Sediments exposed in the DFW
Metroplex include Pennsylvanian units in the far west, Paleocene units in the far SE, and a vast expanse of Cretaceous
sediments in between. A time gap of about 150 million years between the Pennsylvanian and the Cretaceous is when our
region was a mountainous uplift, subject to erosion.

Most of Earth history, which goes back to about 4650 million years ago (Mega-annum, or Ma) is much
older than the Phanerozoic Eon, which began 542 Ma. Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks often contain
visible fossils (macrofossils), and only Phanerozoic sediments are found in the DFW Metroplex. If you
drill down through surface rocks through older buried units, like the Barnett Shale of the Mississippian
Period, you have to go down a mile or two to reach the Precambrian igneous crust of Texas. It’s much
easier to drive to the west of Austin and visit the Hill Country, where Precambrian granites and

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metamorphic rocks of ~1000-1300 Ma age are exposed - for example the Town Mountain granite of
Enchanted Rock and the older metamorphic rocks (Pack Saddle Schist and Valley Springs Gneiss) that
the granites intrude. Less spectacular exposures of ~1370 Ma Precambrian crust are found in the
Eastern Arbuckle Mountains of southern Oklahoma, west of Tishomingo.

The Phanerozoic Eon is divided into three great Eras: Paleozoic (Greek for ancient life), Mesozoic
(middle life), and Cenozoic (young life). These three Eras are separated by two great “mass
extinctions” – times when many different types of life were almost wiped out. The mass extinction that
occurred at the end of the Cretaceous is well-known because it is associated with the end of the
dinosaurs, along with many other types of plants and animals. The mass extinction at the end of
Permian time was even more severe than the end-Cretaceous extinction in terms of the different types
of life that vanished. Less profound extinction events often mark the end of other geologic periods.

It was relatively straightforward for late 18th and 19th Century geologists to determine the sequence
of geologic time preserved in Phanerozoic sediments. All they had to do was map the formations in
their field area and study the fossils in them. The distinctive fossil assemblages – representing a
snapshot of life at that time - allowed sedimentary rocks around the world to be correlated and
geological time was subdivided on this basis. The strange names of the geologic time scale reflect local
names where the geologic periods were first defined. English geologists started the process of naming
the time intervals that the distinctive fossil assemblages represented, beginning with the oldest fossil-
bearing deposits of the Paleozoic, named “Cambrian” after Cambria, the Latin name for Wales,
followed by the Ordovician and Silurian Periods named for ancient Celtic tribes that once roamed the
same area. The rich Paleozoic coal-bearing sediments that made the Industrial Revolution possible
were used to define the Carboniferous Period in Europe (no coal formed until plant life colonized land
in the latter half of the Paleozoic). In the United States, geologists had a different idea and subdivided
the Carboniferous into the older Mississippian Period and the younger Pennsylvanian Period because
of the abundance of coal in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. More recently, the Mississippian has risen in
economic importance because of the gas-rich Barnett Shale.

Sedimentary rocks of four geologic periods are found in the DFW Metroplex as defined above:
Pennsylvanian rocks of the Paleozoic Era, Cretaceous rocks of the Mesozoic Era, Paleogene rocks of the
Early Cenozoic Era, and Quaternary sediments of the Late Cenozoic Era. The first three of these make
up the bedrock of the Metroplex, and a thin layer of Quaternary deposits lies on top of these,
especially near rivers. About 15% of the Metroplex area, in the far west, exposes Pennsylvanian
sediments; perhaps 5% of the Metroplex, in the far SE, exposes Paleocene rocks. Most of the
Metroplex by far is underlain by rocks of the Cretaceous Period.

The Cretaceous was named after the Latin word for chalk, a distinctive marine deposit of this time
period. The Cretaceous lasted for almost 80 million years, from 145 to 66 Ma. Because the Cretaceous
Period lasted so long, it is useful to subdivide this into Early and Late Cretaceous time and Upper and
Lower Cretaceous rock sequences (Geologists distinguish between geologic time and the sediments
that were deposited during this time. When referring to stratigraphic units themselves, geologists use
“Upper” and “Lower” to distinguish the relative position of units in a Formation. When referring to the
times during which these units were deposited, geologists use “Late” and “Early”). Because sediments

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deposited during the end-Cretaceous extinction are found in the easternmost Metroplex, it might be
possible to find evidence of what killed the dinosaurs. However, no one has made a serious effort to
see if that information is preserved in the sediments at the boundary between the youngest
Cretaceous sediments and the oldest Paleocene sediments in the SE Metroplex.

The Quaternary Period is subdivided into Pleistocene (2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago) and the
Holocene (less than 11,700 years ago) Epochs. The Pleistocene was when continental glaciers advanced
southwards to cover much of North America, reaching as far south as Kansas. Texas was never covered
by ice, but this glacial episode affected the Metroplex region by higher rainfall, bigger rivers, and
windblown silt (loess) blown in from northern glacial outwash plains. This is when mammoths and
other large mammals lived, such as those recently excavated from the Waco Mammoth Site <
http://www.waco-texas.com/cms-waco-mammoth/>.

The ages reported above, and shown on Figure 3, come from the work of geochronologists,
geoscientists who specialize in determining the radiometric ages of rocks and minerals. Various
techniques involving different radioactive isotopes – for example, 40K, 87Rb, 147Nd, 176Lu, 235U, and
238U – have been used to construct the geologic time scale. Of particular importance to
geochronology is our understanding of how rapidly the two isotopes of Uranium (235U and 238U)
decay to isotopes of Pb (Lead). This formula was worked out in great detail by nuclear physicists in the
successful effort to build the atomic bombs that ended World War II. A side benefit of their probing of
the atomic nucleus is the Uranium-Lead age-determination method. The “gold standard” of
geochronology is the U-Pb age determined for the mineral zircon (ZrSiO4). Zircon forms as a minor
mineral in some igneous rocks. Because of their similarly small ionic radii and charge, U+4 readily
substitutes for Zr+4 in zircon, but larger Pb+2 is excluded when the mineral forms. Newly-formed
zircons have 207Pb/235U and 206Pb/238U = 0, but these ratios increase with age as 235U and 238U
decays and radiogenic Pb accumulates in the mineral at rates that were carefully determined by
nuclear physicists. The age of the zircon (and the rock that contains it) is determined from its Pb/U. It
is now quite easy to measure 207Pb/235U and 206Pb/238U in zircons to precisely determine the ages
of igneous rocks like granite, because zircon forms (and U is locked in) as magma cools. It is much
more difficult to use this technique on rocks that were never melted, as in sediments of the DFW
Metroplex. We can get around this problem if we can find volcanic ash beds interbedded with the
sediments we want to date. Ash beds form when an explosive volcanic eruption spews fine volcanic
ash into the sky, which is distributed over a wide area downwind from the volcano. The ash contains
small zircons, which can be dated using U/Pb zircon techniques to precisely date the ash beds and thus
the sediments within which they are interbedded. The U-Pb zircon ages of tuffs – determined at
different locales around the world – are correlated to our area using the distinctive fossil assemblages
that are found for each of the geologic time periods. This discussion is a very simplified explanation of
a precise and powerful science, but the point is simple: A logical person can only reject the science
behind the geologic time scale if he or she is also willing to reject the science developed by nuclear
physicists in order to build atomic bombs.

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PENNSYLVANNIAN OF THE DFW METROPLEX
In many ways, the Pennsylvanian was the most interesting Phanerozoic time in the DFW Metroplex.
This period is when two very large continents–supercontinents called Laurentia (in the north) and
Gondwana (in the south) – collided to make a much larger supercontinent “Pangea”. This collision also
formed the Allegheny-Ouachita-Marathon mountain belt where the two supercontinents were sutured
together. In the Metroplex, this mountain range and the sediments that were shed as it was eroded
are mostly buried beneath younger Cretaceous sediments; some Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks are
exposed in the Metroplex. Pennsylvanian structures associated with this collision buried beneath the
Metroplex include the Ft. Worth Basin that underlies Cretaceous sediments; the only exposed
Pennsylvanian collisional highlands in Texas are in the Marathon Uplift of far west Texas (Fig. 4).

Figure 4: Principal Pennsylvanian tectonic elements of Texas and adjacent regions. The Ouachita- Marathon structure
marks the boundary between supercontinents Laurussia and Gondwana. This boundary is mostly buried beneath younger
sediments (including beneath the DFW Metroplex) but is exposed in the Ouachita Mountains of SE Oklahoma and SW
Arkansas and in the Marathon Mountains of far West Texas.

The Pennsylvanian mountains of the Metroplex itself are buried under Cretaceous sediments. Beneath
the Cretaceous cover, two great Pennsylvanian mountain ranges meet in Dallas, the NW-SE trending
Muenster Uplift and the N-S trending Ouachita fold belt. These highlands shed vast quantities of
sediments to the west, filling the Ft. Worth Basin. The closest places to the Metroplex where one can
see the Pennsylvanian mountains are in the Ouachita Mountains of SE Oklahoma and SW Arkansas and
the Arbuckle uplift of southern Oklahoma.

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Figure 5: Pennsylvanian stratigraphy of the DFW Metroplex. Sediments of Mineral Wells Fossil Park are Pennsylvanian in
age.

Figure 6: Examples of the diverse Pennsylvanian sediments exposed in the western DFW Metroplex: A) Cross-bedded
sandstones and conglomerates in Mineral Wells State Park, indicating deposition from a strongly-flowing Pennsylvanian
stream. UTD professor Barbara Curry for scale. Climbers like the vertical cliffs for training. B) Limestone quarry near
Bridgeport. The dense, hard limestone is mined and crushed for concrete.

There are four groups of Pennsylvanian sediments exposed in the Metroplex. From oldest to youngest,
these are the Bend, Strawn, Canyon, and Cisco Groups (Fig. 5). These sediments consist of shale,
sandstone, coal, and limestone, and were deposited over the last 30 million years of Pennsylvanian
time. The remarkable variety of these sediments reflect the coexisting marine, deltaic, and alluvial
environments present in the Metroplex in Late Pennsylvanian time. These sediments testify to a rapidly
changing coastal environment, with clastic sediments (Fig. 6A) shed from the highlands to the east and
north interfingering with marine deposits at the margin of the shallow sea to the west. Great reefs,
now hard limestones, were deposited near what is now Bridgeport (Fig. 6B); and these hard limestones
provide good aggregate for Metroplex concrete production. Maybe you have encountered one of the
big trucks hauling limestone aggregate from Bridgeport quarries along Highway 380 to one of the many
construction sites in the Metroplex?

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Figure 7: Outcropping Pennsylvanian in the western Metroplex and depth (in thousands of feet) to the top of Pennsylvanian
the beneath rest of the Metroplex. Green oval marks the location of UT Dallas. Note that the contours in the NE part of this
figure do not consider the Muenster Uplift and thus are incorrect for this area.

As a result of these diverse sedimentary environments, there are a wide variety of fossils to be found in
the Pennsylvanian-aged sediments exposed in the western most Metroplex. Certainly the crinoids and
other marine invertebrates of Mineral Wells Fossil Park are good examples of Pennsylvanian marine
fauna, but there are also leaf fossils and coal deposits to be found in the vicinity - clear evidence of
Pennsylvanian life on land!

150 MILLION YEARS OF EROSION, THEN SUBSIDENCE

Following the great continental collision, there was a long period of erosion. Figure 3 shows that there
is about a 150 million year interval when no sediments were deposited in what is now the Metroplex.
Why did this happen? This interval represents a time of erosion of the great Pennsylvanian mountain
range. Part of this ancient mountain belt passed through the DFW Metroplex, which produced a
rugged highland region that was slowly worn down during Permian through Early Cretaceous time.
Early uplift was due to the Pennsylvanian orogeny, but later (Triassic and Jurassic) uplift was due to
opening of the Gulf of Mexico. During this time, the ocean lay to the west, along the Permian Basin of
W. Texas; in Triassic and Jurassic time, the shoreline was farther west, in Nevada and California.
Erosion beveled the land, and the region subsided further due to cooling of the Gulf of Mexico rift
flanks. Some of the sediments that were removed from the region were carried west by Late Triassic
rivers; and these sediments make up the Dockum Formation of Texas, exposed in the lower part of
Palo Duro Canyon and in the Chinle Formation of New Mexico. In Jurassic time, sea level began to rise
(Fig. 8A), reaching the current DFW Metroplex ~120 Ma, in the latter part of Early Cretaceous time. It

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thus took 150 million years before the rising waters of the Gulf of Mexico encroached and sediments
were deposited again in Early Cretaceous time (145-100.5 Ma).

CRETACEOUS OF THE METROPLEX

Most of the DFW Metroplex is covered by Cretaceous sediments. There are many Cretaceous
formations in our region, which reflect the combined effects of three major processes: 1) erosion; 2)
regional subsidence and 3) rising sea level, (Fig. 8). In Late Cretaceous time, sea level rose high enough
that a great seaway separated mountainous highlands in western North America from gentle uplands
in the east. This large body of water is called the Western Interior Seaway, and it was uninterrupted
from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic.

Figure 8: A. Sea level rose throughout Cretaceous time, eventually reaching the region now occupied by the DFW Metroplex
towards the end of Early Cretaceous time, about 110 Ma. Sea level continued to rise, depositing the Early Cretaceous
sediments of the Comanche Series in the western Metroplex and Late Cretaceous sediments of the Gulf Series in the
eastern Metroplex. B. Artistic depiction of what the DFW Metroplex looked like during Late Cretaceous sea level highstand
~80 Ma. © Denver Museum of Science and Nature.

The Cretaceous sediments of north-central Texas were subdivided in the late 19th century by R. T. Hill
into the older sediments of the Comanche Series and the younger sediments of the Gulf Series. The
Comanche Series was named after the sediments of Hill’s adopted hometown of Comanche, just SW of
the DFW Metroplex; whereas the Gulf Series was named after younger units to the east, closer to the
Gulf of Mexico. The two series are lithologically distinct, with the carbonate-rich Comanche Series
overlain by the shale-rich Gulf Series, separated by sediments of the Woodbine Delta.

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The Comanche Series is composed of the Trinity, Fredericksburg, and Washita Groups (Hill, 1887; Fig. 9,
10), which were mostly deposited in Early Cretaceous time (the Buda Formation of the uppermost
Washita Group is Late Cretaceous, Fig.10).

Figure 9: Simplified and exaggerated section across the DFW Metroplex. CS = Early Cretaceous Comanche Series; GS =
mostly Late Cretaceous Gulf Series. In fact the Cretaceous sediments dip ~1° to the east.

The Trinity Group in north-central Texas consists of the older Twin Mountain Formation and the
younger Glen Rose Formation (Fig. 10). The Twin Mountains Formation is clean, white, poorly lithified
sand, good for growing peanuts and peaches. This N-S sandy belt is well-drained and good for trees;
consequently it was known in the 19th century as the Western Cross Timbers. The Twin Mountains
sands contain petrified wood (Fig.11) and limy muds of the Glen Rose Formation contain the world-
famous dinosaur tracks near Glen Rose < http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/dinosaur-valley> (Fig.
11B). The basal Trinity sand was called the “Dinosaur Sand” by Hill (1887); it is also called the Antlers
Sand farther north in Oklahoma. Seawater continued to slowly rise, at a rate estimated to be about 1
cm (0.4 inches) per thousand years (Scott et al., 2002). The slowly rising sea next deposited the shallow
marine limestones of the Fredericksburg Group, including the Walnut and Goodland Formations (Fig.
10). The Walnut Formation is about 25 feet (8m) thick in Tarrant County (Fig. 12C) and contains
abundant oysters. Modern oysters need brackish water, characteristic of estuaries, and this ecosystem
was likely the depositional environment of the Walnut Formation.

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Figure 10: Stratigraphy of Cretaceous sediments of the DFW Metroplex, from Mancini et al. (2000), Scott et al., (2003), and
Jacobs et al. (2013). These layers dip gently eastward so Tarrant County is built on rocks of the Comanche Series whereas
Dallas County is built on rocks of the Gulf Series. Ages for stage boundaries are from Walker et al. 2012. See text for
further discussion.

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Figure 11: Comanche Series, Trinity Group. A: Early Cretaceous petrified wood as part of a wall of a Prohibition era speak-
easy and gas station called "Sycamore Grove." Glen Rose was promoted as the "Petrified City" after a 1920s boom in
petrified wood construction. B: Track in Early Cretaceous Glen Rose Formation limestone made by bipedal, meat-eating
dinosaur, Acrocanthosaurus, track in the Dinosaur Valley State Park.

Figure 12: Photos of Comanche Series sediments. A. UTD student Josh Doubek holding large ammonite from Duck Creek
Formation (Washita Group) near Denison TX. B: UTD student Maria Petersen examining typical exposures of Upper Duck
Creek Formation (from which ammonite in A was found) near Denison TX. C : Small waterfalls over resistant exposures of
the Walnut Formation (Fredericksburg Group) along the West Fork of the Trinity River just downstream of Lake Worth dam.

The Goodland Formation consists of shallow marine limestone and marl and is about 120 ft. (35m)
thick in Tarrant County. The Washita Group in the Metroplex consists of nine thin formations of
alternating limestone, marl and shale, from bottom to top: Kiamichi, Duck Creek, Denton, Weno,
Pawpaw, Main Street, Grayson, and Buda (Fig. 10, 12, 13). There are lots of marine invertebrate fossils
to be found in sediments of the Comanche Series in the DFW Metroplex (Fig. 12A, 13B).

The base of the Late Cretaceous Gulf Series in the DFW Metroplex is composed of the sandy sediments
of the ~100 m thick, ~100 Ma Woodbine Group (Fig. 10, 14A). The Woodbine Group outcrop belt in
the Metroplex extends from north of Denton to south of Arlington, thinning and disappearing
southward. The sandy soil of this belt favors growth of oak trees and marked the Eastern Cross
Timbers of 19th century fame. Deposition of shallow marine sediments was interrupted as a result of
uplift in the region to the north and east, especially in what is today Arkansas.

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Figure 13: Comanche Series, Washita Group: A. Buda Formation limestone rubble and outcrop at Bolo Point, Lake
Grapevine, Texas. This is a popular place to visit when the bluebonnets are blooming in the spring. Exposure is up to 0.8 m
thick, overlying the Grayson Formation and beneath the Woodbine Formation. B: Pelecypods of the Buda limestone.

Figure 14: The Woodbine Group. A: Typical Woodbine outcrop of interbedded sand and shale, near Lake Grapevine. B:
Paleogeographic reconstruction of the northwest Gulf Coast Basin during Woodbine deposition (Ambrose et al., 2009). C:
Artistic depiction of Woodbine deltaic environments, from the Denver Museum of Natural History in Denver, CO <
http://www.dmns.org/main/minisites/ancientDenvers/dakota.html > (©Denver Museum of Nature & Science). D:
Vertebrate tracks (bird, theropod and hadrosaur) in the Woodbine Formation at Lake Grapevine. (Lee 1997).

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The warm, wet Cretaceous climate quickly eroded this highland, and a major river draining this
highland flowed into the DFW Metroplex region, where it made a great delta (Fig. 14B). Shallow seas
were replaced by swamps, as the great Woodbine River emptied into the sea (Fig. 14C). Woodbine
sandstones can be easily distinguished from the clean white sands of the Trinity Group because they
are immature and iron-stained red. There are also plant fossils in the Woodbine, but these are
charcoal-like carbonized fragments, not petrified (woody tissue replaced by silica) like wood in the
Trinity sand. Fossils of swamp-dwellers are common - for example crocodiles and turtles found at the
Arlington Archosaur Site <http://www.arlingtonarchosaursite.com/>. Dinosaur tracks and fossils are
found in Woodbine sediments, especially around Lake Grapevine. The first dinosaur tracks were
discovered by a local resident, Julie Tyler, below the spillway of the dam in March 1981. There were
twelve large hadrosaur footprints. In 1989, other dinosaur tracks were discovered at Murrell Park on
the north side of Lake Grapevine.

The Eagle Ford Shale is the next youngest unit in the Gulf Series. The Eagle Ford Group is named after
exposures along the Elm Fork of the Trinity River and is 70-90m thick in the Metroplex. The Eagle Ford
changes character from shale in the north (near the DFW Metroplex) to limestone-rich in the oilfields
south of San Antonio. This variation in sedimentary facies reflects proximity of the depositional
environment to the dying Woodbine delta. Because the Arkansas uplift was subsiding, less sediment
was carried to the sea and the Woodbine delta waned; still alot of clay was carried to the sea from the
north, so the Eagle Ford is shale here. In contrast, in the south there was far less clay influx - and
carbonate sediments dominate. Another difference was abundant small volcanoes in the south, which
are absent from the Metroplex region. Sea level continued to rise throughout Cretaceous time (Fig.
8A). Eventually, a broad seaway reached from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, with shorelines
in Missouri separated by a thousand kilometers or more from those in Colorado. This was the
Cretaceous Interior Seaway.

The Eagle Ford is everywhere rich in organic carbon (C). Geochemists distinguish two forms of C in
sediment: organic carbon, which is C bonded with H (e.g., CH4, methane) and carbonate (e.g., CaCO3,
calcite). Organic carbon, when gently cooked in the subsurface, makes oil and natural gas. Shales with
high organic C content are black when fresh and un-weathered and are targets of drilling for oil and gas
- for example, the Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth Basin, the Bakken Shale of N. Dakota, and the Eagle
Ford in S and E. Texas. The high organic C content of the Eagle Ford reflects the fact that it was
deposited when the ocean was stagnant and depleted in oxygen. Such conditions are called anoxic, in
contrast to the well-oxygenated (oxic) conditions of the modern ocean. Today, the deep ocean is
oxygenated and scavenging animals are able to live on the seafloor and eat any dead creature that falls
there; but this was not true when the Eagle Ford was deposited. The deep ocean was anoxic and
nothing could live there. This interval is known as Oceanic Anoxia Event 2 (Meyer and Kump, 2008).
Some remarkably well-preserved fossils can be found in Eagle Ford sediments, sometimes with original
nacre preserved. As a result of the anoxic conditions of deposition, the Eagle Ford makes poor soil -
only Mesquite trees thrive on the Eagle Ford.

The Austin Chalk is next youngest Gulf Series unit. Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sediment composed
of the mineral calcite (CaCO3) from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite shells produced by
micro-organisms grouped in a category known as nannofossils, mostly coccolithophores, or coccoliths

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(Fig. 15A). This unit formed as ooze on the seafloor (Fig. 15B), well away from the shoreline, when the
Cretaceous Interior Seaway was deepest and widest (Fig. 8A). This seaway was 200-300m deep,
consistent with the abundance of fossils of great swimming reptiles such as mosasaurs and plesiosaurs.
Similar chalk is found north all the way to Canada, such as the Niobrara Chalk of Kansas. Distinctive,
interbedded grey horizons are bentonite layers, formed when ash from volcanic eruptions in California
and western Mexico settled on the seafloor. The Austin Chalk also contains concentrations of
sedimentary pyrite that has altered to marcasite (occasionally one can find some good examples for
sale on Ebay that were found in the TXI cement quarries in Midlothian).

Figure 15: Austin Chalk. A) Coccosphaera showing arrangement of calcite (CaCO3) plates coccoliths in life position. This
organism was 50-100) µm in diameter. B: Loose coccolith plates deposited on seafloor. Compression and diagenesis turns
this into chalk. C, D: Outcrops of Austin Chalk exposed by erosion on an outside bend of White Rock Creek, at Anderson-
Bonner Park in North Dallas.

The Austin Chalk is 100-150 m thick, and makes the strong bedrock that Dallas is built on, from east of
75 (Central Expressway) to west of the North Dallas Tollway (Fig. 15 C, D). Austin Chalk outcrops
generally stand a little above the more easily eroded Eagle Ford Shale to the west and the Taylor and
Navarro shales to the east (Fig. 9), which tend to form river valleys (e.g. Elm Fork and East Fork of the
Trinity River). The N-S trending Austin Chalk outcrop belt makes a well-drained, high-standing ridge
that can be followed from San Antonio though Austin to Dallas, and provides a natural N-S route that
was followed by buffalo, Native Americans, railroads, and Interstate 35.

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The Taylor Group, with the oldest Ozan Formation, overlies the Austin Chalk and forms the substrate of
Garland and Mesquite. The clay-rich nature of the Taylor is due to increased erosion of sediments from
the growing Rocky Mountains in the west. The Taylor is around 180 m thick. An interbedded sandy unit
known as the Wolfe City Sandstone was remobilized by earthquakes to intrude overlying sediments to
form vertical sandstone dikes that give Rockwall its name.

The youngest Cretaceous beds were deposited on top of the Taylor Group and are found east of Dallas;
these are sediments of the Navarro Group. Navarro beds reflect anoxic waters at the time due to the
shale present, and are a result of increased volcanic activity in the southwestern part of the United
States.

QUATERNARY OF THE METROPLEX

Sea level fell after the Cretaceous Period and the Interior Seaway disappeared. The return of the
Metroplex region to dry land - and a prolonged (~60 Ma interval) episode of erosion were accelerated
by uplift to form the Rocky Mountains. The shoreline retreated to the south and east, where the great
coal deposits of East Texas formed in Early Cenozoic swamps. Meanwhile, the DFW Metroplex was
slowly eroded and would have to wait about 60 Ma for the last sediments to be deposited during the
Quaternary Period. The most striking Pleistocene geologic features are associated with the Trinity
River valley, because rainfall was greater and more water flowed in the Trinity and its tributaries,
cutting broad river terraces and depositing a veneer of alluvial sediments on them. Sea level dropped
as much as ~110m (360 feet) when the glaciers grew, causing the rivers to carve canyons in easily-
eroded Cretaceous sediments. These canyons were filled with sediments when the continental ice
sheets melted and sea level rose. There is likely to be a deep, filled Pleistocene canyon buried
beneath the Trinity floodplain near Dallas, carved when sea level was at its lowest, 18,000 years ago.
These are alluvial (river) deposits of clay, sand, and gravel around the Trinity floodplains. They are the
youngest deposits in the area. Gravel bars are a good place to look for fossils. Fossils of mammoth
(Mammuthus columbi), bison (Bison bison and Bison antiquus), camel, horse and other mammal bones
can be found in these Quaternary deposits. Terrace deposits outcrop adjacent to and outside of the
immediate channels the Trinity River and its tributaries. Their composition is that of alluvium. Terraces
were formed when the river changed course, abandoning the previous floodplain, and the new channel
cut deeper into the earth.

Thicker soil and denser vegetation in the eastern Metroplex (compared to the semi-arid western
Metroplex) reflects the strong gradient in rainfall, more in the east and less in the west, as well as the
clay-rich nature of Gulf Series sediments compared to the Comanche Series.

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