The Dakota Formation (also Dakota Sandstone and Cockrum Sandstone, more formally the Dakota Group)is a geologic formation composed of sedimentary rocks deposited on the western side of the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway. F.B. Meek and F.V. Hayden named it for exposures along the Missouri River near Dakota City, Nebraska. The strata lie unconformably atop Paleozoic and Precambrian rocks, and are the oldest Cretaceous rocks in the northern Great Plains, including Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. It consists of sandy, shallow-marine deposits with intermittent mud flat sediments, and occasional stream deposits. It is an important aquifer in some areas of the Great Plains.
Read more about Dakota Sandstone: Geological History, Two Sides of The Seaway, Vertebrate Paleofauna
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