Howard rocks for sale on ebay.

[Marcia Moore]

Somebody from Massachussetts is selling rocks from Howard on ebay. 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250125016015&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:us

[Carl Harrod]

Now those aren't just any plain rocks that you can pick up on the side of the road. They are Pennsylvanian Howard Limestone.

[Teresa]

What... Pray tell.... is Pennsylvanian Howard Limestone.
Do you mean to tell me that we are all setting on a gold mine of limestone pennsel ..whatever it is...
and we don't know it?

[Janet Harrington]

How do we know that these are actual authentic rocks from Howard Limestone?  Where is Howard Limestone?

[Teresa]

TA TA!! He has to answer MY question first..


I want to know WHAT it is...
Then he can tell you WHERE it is.

[kfclark]

It is only valuable if you can find a Brachiopod in it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachiopod

From http://www.kgs.ku.edu/General/Geology/Osage/02_strat3.html

Howard Limestone

Measured sections of the Howard limestone range from about 20 to 35 feet, the average thickness being about 25 feet. It supplies small amounts of ground water to a few shallow wells.

Utopia limestone member--The Utopia member consists of several limestones separated by thin shales. The upper bed, ranging from about 1 to 5 feet in thickness, is a light-to medium-gray "oatmeal"-textured limestone having abundant fusulinids and probably some algae in the upper part, grading downward into a limestone containing chiefly clams and snails. A thin gray calcareous shale ranging from a featheredge to 1.5 feet in thickness is underlain by 1.5 to 3 feet of thin unfossiliferous silty to fine sandy gray flaggy limestone.

According to Walter H. Schoewe (personal communication) these flaggy beds are the ones which contain abundant amphibian footprints, first noted by Mudge in 1873.

Below the flaggy beds 2 to 4 feet of thin-bedded fissile gray to dark-gray shale is present. Ostracods are abundant in parts of this shale. One or two thin impure limestones are present locally. The basal part of this member comprises 1.5 to 2.5 feet of blue-gray, light brown-gray weathering limestone containing abundant mollusks, especially Nuculana, Myalina, and several species of cephalopods.

Winzeler shale member--The Winzeler shale member averages about 3 feet in thickness. Locally, however, less than a foot of shale separates the Utopia and Church limestones. It comprises gray to tan shale locally with one or two thin limy stringers.

Church limestone member--The Church member averages 2 feet in thickness and occurs as a single massive bed of blue-gray, brown-weathering hard limestone. Crinoids, Cryptozoon algae, and brachiopods are the most common fossils but bryozoans and mollusks are abundant locally.

Aarde shale member--The average thickness of the Aarde shale member is 12 to 14 feet (area where Bachelor Creek member is identifiable). The upper part, above the Nodaway coal, is typically gray or blue-gray silty to calcareous shale underlain by dark-gray to nearly black fissile shale. Below the black fissile shale and above the Nodaway coal are 2 to 9 feet of gray clayey shale locally with a thin limestone similar in fauna and character to the Church limestone.

The Nodaway coal is a bituminous coal ranging in thickness from a featheredge to about 18 inches as observed in outcrops. Mine operators report as much as 36 inches of coal locally in mines (Schoewe, 1946, p. 24). Below the coal a thin sticky, structureless, gray underclay is present underlain by 1 to 4 feet of gray clayey and sandy shale. From the vicinity of Scranton northward the base of the Aarde is considered to be the base of the Nodaway coal as the Bachelor Creek limestone is not recognizable.

Bachelor Creek limestone member--The basal member of the Howard limestone is a hard very sandy, gray to blue-gray, gray-brown weathering limestone. It ranges from about 2 to 8 feet and averages about 5 or 6 feet in thickness. Fossils are not abundant but include mollusks, bryozoans, crinoids, and brachiopod remains. In outcrops in northern Osage County, it becomes unrecognizable, grading into sandy shale or sandstone.

Severy Shale

Gray and olive clayey to sandy shale and gray fine- to very fine-grained micaceous sandstone averaging about 70 feet in thickness comprise the Severy shale. Carbonized plant remains occur in abundance locally and sparse brachiopods and bryozoans may occur near the top. As much as 40 feet of sandstone is present in the northern part. Thin platy calcareous siltstones are present locally in the basal part.

The Severy is an important source of ground water and supplies numerous stock and domestic wells with small quantities of water.

[Teresa]

I read it all.................... every little word........

and I am still confused!

So?? is it worth lots of money?
I understood about the part that said they had little frogs footprints in them..
but to be honest, I didn't really quite understand the rest or why anyone would want to buy them.

[Janet Harrington]

"You a bidding on a lot of 8 small specimens of the Pennsylvanian productid brachiopod Hystriculina armata from the Howard Limestone of Elk Co., Kansas. The specimens depicted are the ones you will receive."

But what I am wanting to know is where in Elk Co., Kansas, did these rocks come from?  This persons is advertising that the specimens came for the Howard Limestone of Elk Co., Kansas.  So, again, where in Elk Co., Kansas, did these rocks come from?

I will just e-mail this question to this person.  How about that? 

[Janet Harrington]

I tried to e-mail the seller a question, but I had to register and I didn't want to give eBay my credit card info.  If someone has an account with eBay, it would be swell to know where in Elk Co, Kansas, these rocks came from.

It's possible, I think, that these rocks just came from a part of Elk County where the construction companies cut through the land to build us our wonderful highways.  Yeah, that's what I think.  Of course, I was told once that I had an opinion on everything whether it was right or not.  ha ha

[Wilma]

I have one question.  What language is kfclark using?