Fayetteville Shale

Named by Frederick Willard Simonds in 1891, Simonds recognized what is now the Fayetteville Shale as three separate formations overlying the now abandoned Wyman Sandstone: the Fayetteville Shale, the Batesville Sandstone, and the Marshall Shale. == Natural gas ==

The formation holds natural gas in a fine-grained rock matrix which requires hydraulic fracturing to release the gas. This process became cost-effective in some shales such as the Fayetteville after years of experimentation in the Barnett Shale in North Texas, especially when combined with horizontal drilling. The Fayetteville Shale play began in July 2004 when Southwestern Energy drilled the Thomas #1-9 vertical well in Conway County, Arkansas. In February 2005, Southwestern Energy drilled the first horizontal well, the Seeco-Vaughan #4-22H, also in Conway County. The US Energy Information Administration estimated that the shale play held 13,240 billion cubic ft (375 billion cubic meters) of unproved, technically recoverable gas. As of 2018, new drilling in the Fayetteville Shale had ceased and almost 1/5 of wells were abandoned. ==Paleontology==

Flora Because the Fayetteville Formation is a marine unit, most of the plants found in the black shales must have been washed into the Carboniferous sea from a landmass. However one unit within the formation, the Weddington Sandstone Member, is a series of river deposited sand beds. Fossil plants from this unit were probably deposited closer to their source. • Adiantites :A. minima • Ankyropteris • Lyginopteris :L. royalii • Medullosa • Sphenopteris :S. (Palmatopteris) erectiloba Fauna Vertebrates • Carcharopsis wortheni • "Cobelodus" (remains now attributed to Ozarcus) • Cosmoselachus mehlingi • Ozarcus mapesae Echinoderms • Acrocrinus constrictus • Agassizocrinus conicus • Onychocrinus pulaskiensis ::*P. pulchellus ::*P. alexanderi • Cluthoceras glicki • Goniatites granosus • Tumulites varians • Michelinia meekana • Palaecris carinata • Sphenotus branneri • Inflatia gracilis :*Orthotetes subglobosus • Trepospira discus • Paladin murconatus • Paraparchites Ostracods • Amphissites • Geisina • Orthobairdia :*Archimedes compactus • Eosigmoilina rugosa • Planolites • Teichichnus ==References==