Color:  Blanding Chert ranges from white to gray with faint bands of pale yellow, brown, and orange

Texture:  Medium to fine grain

Luster: dull and chalky to opaque

Silica Fabrics / Fossils: Fossil fragments including sponge spicules, brachiopods, and crinoid columunals which are darker and give contrast to the base color.

Patina:

Heat Treatment: Heat treatment produces red hues, increases the luster, and flaking quality.

Knapping: 

Notes:  Kankakee Chert was associated with the Kanakakee Formation of the Silurian Group.  The Kanakakee Formation was renamed to the Blanding Formation changing the name of the associated chert.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Distribution Comments:

Blanding Chert is associated with the Blanding Formation and has primary outcroppings in Jo Davies county in northwestern Illinois, along the Silurian Escarpment including Clayton, Delaware, Dubuque, and Jackson counties, Iowa.