Arbuckle Mountains
| Arbuckle Mountains | |
|---|---|
Turner Falls, nestled in the Arbuckle Mountains of South Central Oklahoma.
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 430 m (1,410 ft) |
| Coordinates | 34°27′24″N 97°15′14″W / 34.45667°N 97.25389°W |
| Dimensions | |
| Area | 1,000 sq mi (2,600 km2) |
| Geography | |
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| Country | United States of America |
| State | Oklahoma |
| Settlement | Cedar Village |
| Range coordinates | 34°26′N 97°11′W / 34.43°N 97.19°WCoordinates: 34°26′N 97°11′W / 34.43°N 97.19°W |
| Geology | |
| Orogeny | Ouachita Orogeny |
| Age of rock | Precambrian, Cambrian, Proterozoic, Pennsylvanian, Permian |
| Type of rock | granite, gneiss, limestone, dolomite, sandstone, shale |
The Arbuckle Mountains are an ancient mountain range in south-central Oklahoma in the United States. They lie in Murray, Carter, , and Johnston counties. The granite rocks of the Arbuckles date back to the Precambrian 'Era' some 1.4 billion years ago which were overlain by rhyolites during the Cambrian Period. The range reaches a height of 1,412 feet above sea level. According to the U.S. Geological Service (USGS):
The Arbuckles contain the most diverse suite of mineral resources in Oklahoma: limestone, dolomite, glass sand, granite, sand and gravel, shale, cement, iron ore, lead, zinc, tar sands, and oil and gas; all these minerals are, or have been, produced commercially.
The Arbuckle Mountains are the oldest known formations in the United States between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains. They contain a core of granite and gneiss that date back at least 1.4 billion years. The core is overlain by a 1,500 feet (460 m) layer of Cambrian-era rhyolite that is about 525 million years old. Atop the rhyolite is about 15,000 feet (4,600 m) of folded and faulted limestones, dolomites, sandstones, and shales deposited in shallow seas from Late Cambrian through Pennsylvanian time (515 - 290 million years ago).
They were named indirectly for Gen. Matthew Arbuckle (1778–1851), a career soldier from Virginia who was active in the Indian Territory for the last thirty years of his life. Shortly before his death at Fort Smith, Arkansas, from cholera, several detachments of troops under his command had established an outpost to protect the California road, on Wildhorse Creek in present-day Garvin County, Oklahoma. The post was then named Fort Arbuckle in his honor. Though the post was abandoned in 1870, the name had already transferred in common usage to the nearby hills.
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Wikipedia