This report provides geologic information on the 3 principal geographic subdivisions of the Paleozoic region of Arkansas -- the Ozark Plateaus, the Arkansas Valley, and the Ouachita Mountains. The field-trip route was designed to cover most of the geologic units in these regions by viewing 23 sites and takes 2 days to drive. The trip starts in the Ozarks and Arkansas Valley, and on the second day extends from the Arkansas Valley at Russellville through the center of the Ouachita Mountains, ending at the Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro, Pike County.

The guidebook includes:

• Two road maps of field-trip stops
• A driving roadlog of the field-trip routes each day
• A correlation chart of Paleozoic rocks across the region
• Two general lithologic charts depicting the formations traversed each day
• Sketch showing the relationship between adjacent formations as a result of unconformities in the Paleozoic rocks of northwestern Arkansas
• Inset maps of all the locations of the trip stops
• Two sample coal analysis reports of the U. S. Bureau of Mines
• Generalized depositional environment of the middle and lower part of the Atoka Formation, northwestern Arkansass
• Geologic map of the Ouachita Mountains showing area of occurrence of vein quartz
• Foldout cross-sections of each day's road log, in back
• Thirty black and white photographs of outcrops

*Includes: 79 pages, 20 plates, 37 figures, 2 cross-sections

Guidebook 77-1 (184 MB)