The Womble Shale Formation

Abstract
This research is done to bring together data found by other parties concerning the Womble Shale Formation. The Womble Shale Formation is located in Arkansas, the Ouachita Mountains, and Southern Oklahoma; it was named however for its outcrop seen in Norman, Arkansas (Used to be known as Womble, Arkansas). The age of the Womble Shale Formation has been correlated to Middle Ordovician in age due to fossils found within its shale and limestone layers. The two fossils found in these layers were the graptolites and conodonts. The lithology of this formation from outcrops that have been examined shows evidence that the top layers of this formation are chert, followed by a rather large middle section of fissile shale, with thin beds of limestone
For many millions of years, from the end of the Precambrian to the Early Mississippian, the Ouachita-Ozark Highlands region lay submerged beneath the sea. Along this tectonically inactive margin, shaped by the prior breakup of a supercontinent, sediment eroded from the land and was gradually carried to the sea floor. Thousands of feet of carbonate, sand, and finer grained material loaded onto the submerged continental margin. During the Mississippian the inactive tectonics became active convergent boundaries. The southeast coast of America was now on a collision course with a smaller plate once connected to Africa and South America, known as the Caribbean plate. For years and years to come following the convergent plate’s activities; thrust faults and folds piled up marine sediments and rocks, which resulted in an orogenic process which lead to the building up of the Ouachita-Appalachian mountain system. This was one of the final events in the formation of Pangaea. Once the collision of the plates stopped, exposure and uplift occurred with this mountain system, which means this mountain system was now being exposed to weathering and erosion. Finally when the range was complete Pangea started to break apart during the Jurassic, which lead to the mountain system breaking apart. During this period South America started to head southward and the Gulf of Mexico was formed from the seafloor opening up, as well as the coastal plains started to get some density to them. (USGS,