A new online handbook of Illinois stratigraphy

A new Online Handbook of Illinois Stratigraphy (ILSTRAT) is being prepared at the ISGS to provide web access to data on the entire stratigraphic column and to enable future updating of the record. All relevant data will be in one location, and changes will be carried forward in other online and printed media. In the Wiki format of ILSTRAT, as units are updated or new information is added, changes can be tracked over time, allowing for better citation of these changes as they occur. The Wiki format also allows an expanding array of complimentary materials to be uploaded, such as outcrop and core photos, cross sections and maps. All units are fitted into a 14-point template patterned after that of the Norwegian Geological Survey's online stratigraphic guide (NORLEX). Headings include: name, type section, reference sections, stratigraphic relationships, thickness and distribution, lithology, contacts, fossils, age and correlation, and environments of deposition. This project supplants and modernizes the last comprehensive stratigraphic publication, ISGS Bulletin 95, Handbook of Illinois Stratigraphy, which was published 41 years ago and is out of date. The Pennsylvanian System is the first System to undergo comprehensive revision under ILSTRAT. Unrestrained by page limits, rock unit descriptions are greatly expanded from Bulletin 95 and include many new illustrations. Our goal is to have the new handbook peer-reviewed and published in a series of "hard copy" volumes, formalizing the changes.