Color:  Argentine Chert ranges in color from a light tan to a pale or medium gray or dark reddish gray.  Light mottling or streaking may be present.  The cortex ranges from a light yellowish brown to a light gray or very pale brown.

Texture: Medium fine to fine grain

Luster: Dull to satin

Silica Fabrics / Fossils: Fossil fragments present including fusulinids, brachiopods, and silicified crinoids

Patina:

Heat Treatment:  Ranges from no change to a strongly mottled pale red or reddish gray.  Fossil inclusions changing to a pale brown or pale red.

Knapping: 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Distribution Comments:

Argentine Chert is associated withe the Argentine Member of the Wyandotte Limestone Formation of Missouri and Kansas.  Primary outcroppings occur in Platte, Clay, and Ray counties, Nebraska, north of the Missouri River.  Outcroppings reported in Madison and Pottawattamie County in Iowa, Cass and Jackson counties, Missouri.  Outcroppings reported in eastern Kansas.