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Environmental Relations

In the quarry wall at Lime Kiln Park you can see several different facies including Silurian reefs, skeletal mudstones, oncolite packstones, grainstones and post reef deposits. As indicated by fracture patterns (cracks in the rock), movement of material was downslope from right to left. Contact of reef (in shadow) and underlying pre-reef deposits (sunlit) at measured section C.
In the quarry wall at Lime Kiln Park you can see several different facies including Silurian reefs, skeletal mudstones, oncolite packstones, grainstones and post reef deposits. As indicated by fracture patterns (cracks in the rock), movement of material was downslope from right to left. Contact of reef (in shadow) and underlying pre-reef deposits (sunlit) at measured section C.

A combination of biologic and physical environmental factors determine the size, shape and location of reefs. Reefs may also change in character as they grow, and their growth can modify the surrounding environment.

Photo Gallery

Photograph of fossil impressions of reef organisms
© The Field Museum - CC BY-NC
Reef core with flank beds dipping off of it to the right and left at Hanson Material Service Quarry (Thornton Quarry). (Note pick-up truck for scale.) The tunnel just visible over the top of the reef core leads to another quarry pit.
© The Field Museum - CC BY-NC
An area of massive reef core bordered by inclined flank beds. Typical example of reef flank beds, which dip downwards from right to left in this outcrop at Racine County Quarry Lake Park. (Silurian reef Racine Dolomite.)
© The Field Museum - CC BY-NC
Close up of small Silurian reefs on the Wenlock Edge with draping thin bedded limestone overlaying them. Near Much Wenlock, England.
© The Field Museum - CC BY-NC
In the quarry wall at Lime Kiln Park you can see several different facies including Silurian reefs, skeletal mudstones, oncolite packstones, grainstones and post reef deposits. As indicated by fracture patterns (cracks in the rock), movement of material was downslope from right to left. Contact of reef (in shadow) and underlying pre-reef deposits (sunlit) at measured section C.
© The Field Museum - CC BY-NC