The waters of Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas — Their nature and origin

Abstract

The 47 hot springs of Hot Springs National Park, Ark., issue from the plunging crestline of a large overturned anticline, along the southern margin of the Ouachita anticlinorium, in the Zigzag Mountains. Rocks in the vicinity of the hot springs range in age from Ordovician to Mississippian. The rocks-cherts, novaculites, sandstones, and shales-are well indurated, folded, faulted, and jointed. The springsemerge from the Hot Springs Sandstone Member of the Stanley Shale near the anticlinal axis, between the traces of two thrust faults that are parallel to the axis of the anticline.