ABSTRACT: Dolomitization of the Lower Ordovician Prairie du Chien Group in Southern Wisconsin and Southeastern Minnesota: A Case for Confined and Unconfined Aquifer Systems

George L. Smith

The Lower Ordovician Prairie du Chien Group overlies the Cambrian-Ordovician Jordan Formation and underlies the Middle Ordovician St. Peter Formation. The Prairie du Chien Group contains the Oneota Formation and the New Richmond and Willow River Members of the Shakopee Formation. The Prairie du Chien Group and associated formations form a repetitive sequence of alternating dolomites and sandstones: Jordan (sand), Oneota (dolomite), New Richmond (sand/dolomite), Willow River (dolomite), St. Peter (sand), and Platteville/Galena (dolomite/limestone). Prairie du Chien and Platteville/Galena carbonates thin over the Wisconsin arch and thicken eastward and westward.

Petrography, cathodoluminescence, and electron microprobe analysis were used to identify and differentiate dolomite zones. The Oneota contains dolomite zones 1 to 3; the Shakopee contains zones 2 and 3; the Platteville/Galena only contains zone 3. Electron microprobe analysis of zone 3 reveals systematic decreases in dolomite stoichiometry and increases in iron and manganese trace-element composition along a transect from the Wisconsin arch to southeastern Minnesota. Zone 3 probably precipitated within a confined aquifer with recharge on the Wisconsin arch and flow toward southeastern Minnesota. In analogous modern systems, pore waters become progressively more reducing downflow, favoring trace-element enrichment. Zone 2 dolomites have low, uniform iron and manganese contents and unif rm stoichiometries. Zone 2 compositions are consistent with precipition in an unconfined and/or well-mixed aquifer associated with a continent-wide pre-St. Peter sea level drawdown and paleokarsting. Trace-element distributions within zone 1 dolomites are intermediate, suggesting precipitation within a semiconfined aquifer during pre-New Richmond exposure.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91003©1990 AAPG Annual Convention, San Francisco, California, June 3-6, 1990