The Waltersburg sandstone produces oil from isolated sand bodies and has produced nearly eight million barrels of oil from those of the Rochester, Mounts, and Fleener Fields. From the overlying "little Menard" Limestone to the Vienna Limestone below, the Waltersburg interval is most commonly 70 feet thick, but ranges from 14 feet in the north to 116 feet in the south. Increasing interval thickness is strongly correlated with increasing sand percentage. The maximum sand accumulation occurs in elongate sand bodies up to 100 feet thick,one-fourth to one mile wide, and two to five miles long. Elongate sand bodies are commonly oriented northeast-southwest, nearly perpendicular to strike. Sheet sand bodies are less than half as thick and usually produce only from small structural highs.Structure contour maps of the Vienna and "little Msnard" Limestones show that a 16 square mile plunging anticline bearing N30E exists along with other minor folds on a regional slope dipping about 40 feet per mile into the Illinois Basin. The structure of the "little Menard" may be associated with structural features of the Vienna, with isolated thick sand bodies or both where they occur together. Structural features of the "little Menard" that are not seen on the Vienna are usually attributed to differential compaction over sand bodies. The overall similarity in folding of both limestones suggests that deformation occurred after Waltersburg deposition as a result of differential compaction over older sediments combined with regional tilting as sediments subsided into the Illinois Basin.Oil production occurs in sands 10 to 60 feet thick that are structurally high. Structural elevation is therefore more important to production than sand thickness. Since most structural traps have been exploited, the most favorable locations for potential production are where thick elongate sands thin up-dip to form stratigraphic traps. Although a few locations for possible stratigraphic traps exist within the study area, extending exploration in recommended places may lead to more promising production outside the study area.On the basis of petrography, subsurface geometry, and log signatures of the Waltersburg sandstone, the depositional environment is suggested as being a fluvial dominated delta plain facies. The various types of thick elongate sand bodies are attributed to fluvial distributary channels. The interdistributary area is represented by mostly shale and silt, with crevasse-splay sands and possible minor mouth bar/crevasse-splay couplets.

The Wheatonvilie Consolidated Oil Field lies in Onion and Barton Townships of Gibson County, Indiana. Oil is produced from a sandstone reservoir commonly referred to the "Jackson Sand". The Jackson Sandstone is here informally adopted as member rank of Big Clifty Formation. The Stephen sport Group includes the Big Clifty and is Late Mississippian (Chesterian) in age.Within the area of the field, the Big Clifty Formation has been mapped between the underlying Beech Creek Limestone and the overlying Harvey Limestone. The lower contact of the Big Clifty appears to be sharp. The upper contact of the Big Clifty intergrades with at least one thin limestone tongue of Haney which pinches out laterally into the uppermost shales of the Big Clifty.The Big Clifty Formation includes sandstone, siltstone, shale, and mudstone with minor amounts of sandy limestone. A typical sequence from top to bottom includes:dark gray shale; thin red mudstone; gray shale; limey siltstone; very fine-grained white sandstone interbedded with gray shale; well sorted, fine-grained, white sandstone; and thin black shale. The percentage of sandstone within the Big Clifty Formation varies laterally significantly.The thickness of the Big Clifty Formation ranges from 64 feet to 97 feet. The formation dips to the southwest at a rate of approximately 29 feet per mile and lies 940 feet below the surface within the northeast portion of the study area.The areas containing high concentrations of sandstone form two elongated trends. The sandstone trends strike N35°E. The axes of the trends lie approximately 1 mile apart. The sandstone bodies are approximately 3/4 of a mile across and 5 miles long. These sand bodies range in thickness from 20 feet to 64 feet.The sandstone bodies may represent tidally influenced shallow marine offshore bars. Cross laminations and very fine grained clastics indicate a low velocity aqueous environment. The elongate shape of the sands indicate bar deposits and the sandy limestones indicate a marine environment.