oölite

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A granular limestone each grain of which is more or less completely spherical, and made up of concentric coats of carbonate of lime formed around a minute nucleus, which is usually a grain of sand: so called from the resemblance of the rock to the roe of a fish. The term oölite gave the name to an important series of fossiliferous rocks — the Oölite of English and the Jurassic of Continental and American geologists. Oölitic as thus employed is, however, obsolescent in England. The series was called oölitic from the fact that it is largely made up of limestone having that peculiar structure. The following are the generally recognized subdivisions of the Oölitic or Jurassic system in England: the Upper or Portland Oölite, comprising the Purbeckian, Portlandian, and Kimmeridgian; the Middle or Oxford Oölite, comprising the Corallian and Oxfordian; and the Lower or Bath Oölite, comprising the Great Oölite group, the Fuller's Earth, and the Inferior Oölite. Beneath this comes the Lias. See Jurassic.
2. Same as oölitic.

Wiktionary

1. n. Alternative form of oolite.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Geol.) A variety of limestone, consisting of small round grains, resembling the roe of a fish. It sometimes constitutes extensive beds, as in the European Jurassic. See the Chart of geology.