Chert and Chert Gravel
Deposits of chert, chert gravel, and ganister also are among the variety of mineral materials found in extreme southern Illinois. Chert consists principally of minutely crystalline particles of quartz. Some chert is popularly called flint. In southern Illinois chert occurs in two principal kinds of deposits, those composed of solid ledges and those consisting of gravel. The term novaculite is used in southern Illinois for those solid deposits that are white, comparatively thick, and free of other interlayered materials. No novaculite is mined at present, but it is said to have been sold in past years for making sodium silicate and silica brick.
The chert gravels of southern Illinois are of three kinds—novaculite gravel, Elco gravel, and “Lafayette” Gravel. The novaculite and Elco gravels consist of fragments of chert plus lesser amounts of fine silica particles and clay. The chert fragments of the novaculite gravel are angular, but the Elco gravel includes both angular and rounded fragments. These gravels are white, yellow, brown, or reddish brown, the novaculite gravel usually being the more highly colored. Deposits in Union and Alexander Counties have been used for road surfacing and other purposes. Deposits of chert gravel also occur in Hardin and Saline Counties, and some stream valleys in southern and western Illinois also contain such gravel.
“Lafayette” Gravel consists principally of brown chert pebbles. Most of the pebbles are rounded and have a smooth, semi-polished surface. The sand and clay occurring with the gravel are brown or dark red. In some places there are deposits of coarse, red quartz sand. The gravel is most abundant in the four southernmost counties of the state, and deposits may be as much as 65 feet thick. It is used principally as a road-surfacing material.