PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Weaver, Melony Ritter
(501) 760.6410 office
press@np.edu
November 8, 2016
GEOLOGY CLASS UNEARTHS FOSSIL AT LAKE OUACHITA
Hot Springs, Arkansas – Students in Dr. George Maxey’s Geology class participated in a field trip in October. The class discovered graptolite fossils in the Womble formation west of Checkerboard Point on Lake Ouachita.
Photo 1 – National Park College, geology students on fall field trip. From Left to
right: Sarah Wilkinson, Austin Johnson, Melissa Brown, Brad Sexton, Karoline Beaver,
Emmanuel Rodriguez, Bryan Massey (in back wearing hat), Daniela Rodriguez, Grant Carter,
Alex Falconburg, Tylor Clark, Katlen Lawson, Emily Barajas and Aladdin Hamdan.
Maxey explained that the graptolites were preserved as a carbon imprint at the bottom
of the Tethys Sea, which no longer exists. “Plate tectonics closed the ancient sea
and scraped the sediments off the bottom of the sea floor and folded the sediments
up and onto what is present day Arkansas - forming the Ouachita Mountains. The upper
folds eroded away leaving the roots of the mountains that are exposed at present,”
said Maxey.
He added, “In 1953 Blakely dam was finished and Lake Ouachita began to fill, creating
over 975 miles of shoreline and approximately 200 islands. On one of the islands,
Checkerboard Point, can be found a contact between the Blakely Sandstone and the Womble
Shale. The Checkerboard is comprised of the stress fractured Blakely Sandstone. Just
to the west of the Checkerboard is a contact with the Womble Shale and in the shale
are found graptolites.” Student research article includes additional details.
Photo 2 – Graptolites found on an Island in Lake Ouachita, 10/15/2016. Photo by Sarah Wilkinson, and used with permission.
