Microfacies sedimentology of the lower-middle Kindblade Formation, Slick Hills, southwestern Oklahoma

In the late Cambrian (Franconian), a marine transgression took place on the Laurentian craton throughout a range of Cambrian rhyolite hills, and is now exposed in the Slick Hills of Southwestern Oklahoma. Evidence of the Cambro-Ordovician marine transgression is recorded in the Timbered Hills and the overlying Arbuckle Group. The Arbuckle Group is a 7, 000 ft. thick carbonate platform comprised of six formations: the Fort Sill, Signal Mountain, Mackenzie Hill, Cool Creek, Kindblade, and West Spring Creek at the top. Each formation displays diverse cyclic relationships persevered in the facies sequences and fauna.;The present study examines an exposed portion of the Kindblade Formation. The exposure displays an extensive variety of microbial carbonates (stromatolites and thrombolites) as well as deep-water micritic fabrics and diagenetic features. Sediment analysis revealed the paleoenvironment as being a shallow subtidal open-marine environment with subtle cycles from storms and oscillating waves. These were differentiated by varying lithofacies associations found within thin sections and outcrop observations.