Carboniferous Geology of the Eastern United States

168 Pages·1966·7.13 MB·English

Carboniferous Geology of
the Eastent United States
St. Louis, Missouri to Washington, D.C.
June 28-July 8, 1989
Field Trip Guidebook T143
Editors:
C. Blaine Cecil and Cortland Eble
Leaders:
C. Blaine Cecil, James C. Cobb, Donald R. Chestnut, Jr.,
Heinz Damberger, and KennethJ. Englund
American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1989 American Geophysical Union
2000 Florida Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20009
ISBN: 0-87590-647-8
Printed in the United States of America
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ~ ••••••••••••••••••ix
Overview the Mississippian in the Illinois basin••••••••••••••••••••• 1
Stop 1 - Warsaw Shale, Ullin Limestone and Salem Limestone
of the Va1meyeran Series••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••9
Stop 2 - Salem Limestone of the Va1meyeran Series•••••••••••••••• 11
Stop 3 - Ste Genevieve Limestone and Aux Vases Sandstone••••••••• 13
Stop 4 - Haney, Hardinsburg and Glen Dean Formations of the
Chester Series•••••••••••••••••••••.•••••••••••.••••••••14
Stop 5 - Glen Dean Limestone, Tar Springs Sandstone and
Vienna Limestone of Middle Chesterian•••••••••••••••••••14
The Pennsylvanian of the southern Illinois basin•••••••••••••••••••••17
The Nature of the sub-Pennsylvanian unconformity•••••••.•••••••••••••17
Overview of the Pennsylvanian in the Illinois basin••••••••••••••••••20
Stop 6 - Amarine sandstone within the Abbott Formation of
Atokan age•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 26
Stop 7 - Mississippian - Pennsylvanian unconformity•••••••••••••• 28
Stop 8 - Walshville channel deposits and Herrin Illinois
No.6 coal bed•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 30
Stop 9 - Tidally-influenced deposits of Early Pennsylvanian
age•••••••••••••••••••••••.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••30
Stop 10 - Deltaic deposits of Early Pennsylvanian age,
Caseyville Formation••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••33
Pennsylvanian age, Caseyville Formation••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••33
Carboniferous rocks of Kentucky••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••38
Stop 11 - Alternating Upper Mississippian terrestrial and
marine sequences••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••39
Stop 12 - Economically important Springfield (Kentucky
No.9) coal bed and distributary sandstone•••••.••••••.•43
Stop 13 - Pa1eos1ump along the upland unconformity surface••••••••44
Stop 14 - Channel-fill at regional unconformity surface••••••.••••47
Mammoth Cave•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••50
Stop 15 - Bioclastic biostrome in starved basin•••••••••••••••••••51
Stop 16 - Borden Delta and platform carbonate transition••••••••.•52
Stop 17 - Platform carbonate environments•••••••••••••••••••••••.•54
Pennsylvanian rocks of the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field•••••••••••••••57
Stop 18 - Unconformity and Lower Pennsylvanian depositional
features••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••60
Resource perspectives of coal in Eastern Kentucky••••••.•••••••••••••64
Stop 19 - Magoffin Member and channel facies••••••••••••••••••••••66
Stop 20 - Pennsylvanian fluvial environments••••••••••••••••••••••68
Stop 21 - erevasse splay••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••'71
Stop 22 - Distributary mouth bar••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••73
Stop 23 - Compaction ratios, tonstein and channel erosion•••••••••75
Stop 24 - IIModel Cityll river diversion cut••••••••••••••••••••••••78
Stop 25 - Lee Formation and Pine Mountain thrust fault••••••••••••so
Origin of coal deposits and associated rocks in the
Carboniferous of the Appalachian basin•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••84
Stop 26 - Mississippian - Pennsylvanian transitional strata•••••••89
Stop 27 - Pocahontas exhibition mine•••••••••••••••••.••••••••••••89
Stop 28 - Stony Gap Sandstone Member••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••90
Stop 29 - Little Stone Gap Member•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••90
Stop 30 - Upper Mississippian Princetone Sandstone, Pride
Shale Member and Glady Fork Sandstone•••..••••••••••••••91
Stop 31 - Change in Mississippian - Pennsylvanian strata;
change in paleoclimate across the boundary•.••••••••••••93
Stop 32 - Middle Pennsylvanian Kanawha Formation••••••••••••••••••95
Stop 33 - Back-barrier facies of the Lower Pennsylvanian••••••••••97
Stop 34 - New River gorge bridge overlook.......•...•.....•.....••97
v
Contents (continued)
Stop 35 - Lower Pennsylvanian New River Formation•••••••••••••••••97
Stop 36 - Middle Pennsylvanian Charleston Sandstone and
Kanawha Formations•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 100
Stop 37 - Upper Pennsylvanian Monongahela Group strata•••••••••••• 101
Stop 38 - Upper Pennsylvanian Conemaugh Group strata•••••••••••••• 103
Stop 39 - Monongahela Group strata; Redstone coal bed
shale/coal transition••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 105
Stop 40 - Conemaugh Group strata; fossiliferous Ames
Limestone/shale, Harlem and Elk Lick coal beds•••••••••• 107
Stop 41A- Allegheny Formation - Conemaugh Group boundary,
Upper Freeport and Mahoning coal beds••••••••••••••••••• 108
Stop 418- Unnamed marine zone/coal bed in Middle
Pennsylvanian Pottsville Group•••••••••••••••••••••••••• 109
Stop 41C- Mississippian - Pennsylvanian boundary•••••••••••••••••• 110
Stratigraphic variation in bulk sample mineralogy of
Pennsylvanian underclays from the central Appalachian basin•••••••• 112
Plants, coal and climate in the Pennsylvanian of the central
Appalachians•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••118
Apetrographic evaluation of environments of accumulation of
the Pocahontas No.3 coal bed in southern West Virginia••••••••••••127
Palynology, petrography and paleoecology of the Hernshaw-Fire Clay
coal bed in the central Appalachian basin•••••••••••••••••••••••••• 133
References••••••••••••• ~ ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 142
vii
PREFACE wish to thank the authors affiliated
with the Illinois State Geological
This guidebook was prepared for a Survey, Champaign-Urbana, and the
field trip to be conducted prior to the Indiana Geological Survey, Bloomington
commencement of the 28th International and Southern Illinois University,
Geological Congress, convened in Carbondale, who provided the overview
Washington, DC, July 1989. The purpose articles and stop descriptions for the
of this field trip is to examine the Illinois portion of the trip. They are,
geologic factors that controlled the in alphabetical order: Allen Archer,
deposition of Carboniferous rocks in the James Baxter, Heinz Damberger, Joseph
Illinois and Appalachian basins, with Devera, George Fraunfelter, Richard
emphasis being placed on basinal Howard, Russel Jacobson, Erik Kvale,
tectonic evolution, sedimentation, and John Nelson, Rodney Norbey, Beverly
paleoclimate. Throughout the trip, Seyler, and John Utgaard.
lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic From the Kentucky Geological Survey,
correlations between the Illinois and Lexington, we wish to recognize the
Appalachian basins will be stressed in efforts of the following people who
order to provide continuity between the contributed to the Kentucky portion of
two areas. In addition to this, the trip. They are: Donald Chesnut,
geochemical conditions of sedimentation Jr., James Cobb, Garland Dever, Jr., and
and peat formation will be illustrated Stephen Greb.
and discussed on the basis of the For arranging stops 32 and 36 through
stratigraphic and regional distribution 41 for the West Virginia portion of this
of chemical sediments, including coal trip, we would like to thank Bascombe
beds. The important Mississippian/ (Mitch) Blake, William Grady, and Alan
Pennsylvanian (mid-Carboniferous) Keiser of the West Virginia Geological
boundary, and the sedimentological, and Economic Survey, Morgantown, and
paleobotanical and paleoclimatic changes Alan Donaldson and William Gillespie,
associated with it, will also be West Virginia University, Morgantown.
emphasized. In addition, Richard Winston of the
Part 1 of the trip will visit Alabama Geological Survey is to be
outcrops in the Illinois basin (Illinois thanked for a contributing article.
and western Kentucky). Part 2 will From the United States Geological
focus on the evolution of the Survey, Reston, Virginia, we wish to
Appalachian basin in eastern Kentucky. thank Frank Dulong, Cortland Eble, and
The economically important eastern Ronald Stanton, who contributed articles
Kentucky coal field, a major producer of and stop discussions.
low-ash, low-sulfur, high-rank coal,
will be on display during this part of
the trip. Part 3 will extend into C.B. Cecil
southwestern Virginia and southern West J.C. Cobb
Virginia to examine the most complete D.R. Chesnut, Jr.
section of Carboniferous strata in the H. Damberger
eastern United States, an area which has K.J. Englund
facilitated the establishment of a
IIPennsylvanian System stratotypell
section. Stratigraphic and
sedimentological patterns in the
stratotype area will be shown and
compared with the areas previously
visited. Part 3 will also extend into
northern West Virginia, where
sedimentological, paleobotanical,
paleoclimatic and stratigraphic
interrelationships between the Dunkard
(northern West Virginia) and central
Appalachian (southern West Virginia and
eastern Kentucky) sub-basins will be
examined.
This trip is the result of, and was
made possible through the efforts of
many organizations and individuals. We
ix
28th INTERNATIONAL GEOLOGICAL CONGRESS FIELD TRIP T143
JUNE 28-JULY 8, 1989
CARBONIFEROUS GEOLOGY OF THE EASTERN UNITED STATES
Edited by:
C. Blaine Cecil and Cortland Eble
U.S. Geological Survey
Reston, Virginia
Field Trip Leaders:
C. Blaine ceC~ll
2
James C. Cobb jnd Donald R. Chesnut, Jr.
Heinz Damberger
Kenneth J. Englundl
IU.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia
2Kentucky Geological Survey, Lexington, Kentucky
3Illinois State Geological Survey, Champaign, Illinois
OVERVIEW OF THE MISSISSIPPIAN IN THE ILLINOIS BASIN
J. Treworgy and R. Norby
Illinois State Geological Survey, Champaign, Illinois
At the end of the Middle Devonian, an northward to 180 m(600 ft) or less
increase in orogenic activity to the before being truncated by erosion in
east of the Illinois basin resulted in northern Illinois. Originally, it may
deposition of siliciclastic mud (New have covered all of northern Illinois,
Albany Group) from Late Devonian (Upper as 60 m(200 ft) of Valmeyeran strata
Devonian Series) into Early are preserved in fault blocks in the Des
Mississippian time (Kinderhookian Plaines Disturbance near Chicago.
Series). Overlying the Kinderhookian By early Valmeyeran time the
Series are the Valmeyeran and Chesterian south-central part of the Illinois Basin
Series, representive parts of which will area was relatively deep (300 m [1000
be shown at our stops. ftl) and sediment-starved (Lineback,
The Mississippian System (fig. 1) 1969, 1981), while a prograding
includes carbonate and siliciclastic carbonate bank developed on the western
rocks that were deposited over an period and northwestern shallow shelf (fig.
of about 35 million years. These rocks 3). The carbonate bank is thought to
underlie most of central and southern have been 60 to 90 m(200 to 300 ft)
Illinois and the western portions of above the basin floor. During
Indiana and Kentucky. These strata are Burlington Limestone and Keokuk
thickest, over 975 m(3200 ft), in Limestone deposition, a major river
southernmost Illinois (fig. 2). Uplift system, which built the Borden delta
further south of the east-west trending (Ausich and others, 1979; Shaver and
Pascola arch during Mesozoic time others, 1986), spread sediment south in
(Marcher and Stearns, 1962) closed the Indiana and southwest along the foot of
basin, giving it its present the carbonate bank in Illinois. Some
configuration. Prior to this event, the sediment spread west across the shallow
basin was a broad cratonic embayment water shelf in western Illinois forming
with open ocean to the south. the Warsaw Shale (STOP 1), effectively
Mississippian strata thin northward to ending carbonate deposition there (fig.
less than 425 m(1400 ft) before being 3b, c). The Borden delta consists of
truncated by erosion that preceded the predominantly and clay-rich siltstone;
deposition of Pennsylvanian and younger it reaches a maximum thickness of 210 m
strata. ' (700 ft) towards the northeastern source
The Mississippian is by far the area in Indiana.
greatest hydrocarbon-producing system in Deposition of the Borden delta
the Illinois basin. Most of the expanded the area of shallow-water
production is from sandstones in the shelf, but did not fill the entire basin
Upper Mississippian Chesterian Series. (fig. 3b) (Cluff and Lineback, 1981).
The major source rock is shale of the Fine-grained carbonate sediment and,
Devonian-Mississippian New Albany later, coarser-grained carbonate
Group. No coal beds of economic sediment, was carried from the shelf
importance are known. into the deeper portions of the basin in
southeast Illinois and westernmost
Kentucky (Fort Payne Formation and Ullin
Valmeyeran Series Limestone) (fig. 3b, c).
As carbonate production and
The Valmeyeran Series (Swann, 1963) downslope transport proceeded, the shelf
is named after the town of Valmeyer, area continued to expand until a
Monroe County, southwest Illinois, an shallow-water carbonate environment was
area where much of the series is exposed reestablished across the southern part
(fig. 1). It is the middle series of of the Illinois basin toward the end of
the Mississippian System (fig. 2) and Ullin Limestone deposition (fig. 3b,
underlies most of central and southern c). This environment prevailed during
Illinois. The Valmeyeran series is deposition of a few hundred meters of
thickest, over 540 m(1800 ft), in the overlying Salem, St. Louis, and Ste.
southeastern Illinois, and thins Genevieve Limestones (STOPS 1 and 2).
T143: 1
The Salem and St. Louis Limestones lateral extent. Facies range from
are more persistent across the basin coarse-grained oolitic-skeletal
than are underlying units, and facies grainstone and packstone to dense
indicate varying water depths. The skeletal wackestone and carbonate
Salem varies from grainstone-packstone mudstone. Depositional environments
and wackestone-mudstone in the southern include shallow, high-energy carbonate
part of the basin to predominantly sand shoals with low-energy lagoonal and
grainstone-packstone in a shoreward open marine areas of lime mud deposition
direction. It eventually grades and are similar to those found in the
laterally shoreward, and upward into Salem Limestone. The oolitic grainstone
fine-grained evaporite-bearing in the Ste. Genevieve is a major oil pay
carbonates (mudstone and wackestone) of zone in the basin; coarser facies in the
the St. Louis Limestone (Linehack, Salem also produce in some areas. The
1972). The upper contact of the St. fine-grained limestone and dolomite beds
Louis with the overlying Ste. Genevieve of the St. Louis have been interpreted
Limestone is stepped up and down in to represent deposition in shallow
response to local lithologic changes. subtidal to supratidal, highly
The Ste. Genevieve is characterized by restricted environments (Cluff and
diverse carbonate facies with limited Lineback, 1981).
T143: 2
The macrofaunas of the Va1meyeran extent to the southern half of Illinois
series are distinctive. Large (fig. 2), southwestern Indiana, and.
spiriferids and productids are western Kentucky. They reach amaXlmum
characteristic. Syringothyris is common thickness of about 430 m (1400 ft) in
along with the Spirifer rimesi southernmost Illinois, near the
(Bur1ington)-Spirifer 10gani Keokuk) erosional margin of the sequence. The
lineage. Marginirugus magnus marks the series thins northward because of
highest part of the Keokuk and the lower depositional slope and pre- to Early
parts of the Warsaw Shale. Several Pennsylvanian erosion. Excellent
bryozoans are characteristic of the descriptions of the Chesterian
Warsaw; Lioc1ema punctatum and stratigraphy are presented in Swann
Archimedes wortheni are common index (1963) and Willman and others (1975).
fossils. Spirifer bifurcatus, ~. Marine conditions that prevailed in
washingtonensis, and ~ 1ittoni are the Illinois basin during Valmeyeran
characteristic of the Salem Limestone.
time were interrupted periodically by
The St. Louis faunas are somewhat
deltaic progradations from the Canadian
restricted. The corals, Acrocyathus
B. Shield, located to the northeast during
pro1iferum and f1oriformis
Chesterian time. Afew of these
f1oriformis, are common in some
transgressive-regressive cycles have
facies. The main brachiopods are
been correlated with eustatic sea-level
Spirifer 1ittoni and Dictyoclostus
changes on the basis of fossils
tenuicostatus. Linoproductus ovatus is
collected in the Mississippi River
common in some uppermost beds.
Valley area (Ross and Ross, 1985). The
The Ste. Genevieve Limestone has two
Chesterian Series consists of cyclically
main index species, the crinoid
alternating shallow marine carbonate and
Platycrinites penicillus and the
siliciclastic rocks, and deltaic
distinctive brachiopod Pugnoides
siliciclastic rocks (fig. 1).
ottumwa. In addition, Orthotetes
Lithofacies change vertically and
kaskaskiensis, which is common, first
laterally; yet certain lithosomes, such
appears in the formation and continues
as the interbedded shale and carbonates
into the Chesterian. Diaphragmus
typical of the Haney Formation in the
cestriensis appears in the upper part.
eastern part of the basin (STOP 4),
Spirifer pellaensis is relatively
commonly persist laterally across the
common. Additional macrofauna are
basin with only gradual changes in
listed in Collinson and others (1981).
thickness (fig. 4). Sandstones of the
Six conodont zones have been
Chesterian generally occur as lenticular
proposed for the middle Mississippian
tidal bars, fluvial-deltaic bodies or
(Valmeyeran) rocks in the upper
submarine channel-fill bodies, all
Mississippi River Valley (Collinson and
commonly reworked, even though in
others, 1971). Although some
regional cross sections they may appear
differences exist between these zones
to be blanket sandstones (fig. 4). No
and zones proposed for other parts of
major unconformities are known within
the world, they are very useful for
the Chesterian.
inter- continental correlation of
strata. The Illinois basin was within 50
Aprovisional foraminifera zonation latitude south of the paleoequator
for the Illinois basin (Baxter and during Chesterian time (Raymond,
others, 1979), consists of six zones for 1985). The basin was occuppied by a
the middle Mississippian. Four of these shallow epeiric sea with a low-angle
0
zones occur in the upper Warsaw through paleos10pe « 1 ) and low-relief sea
St. Louis Formations. These zones are floor. It is further interpreted to
very useful for age determination and have been a ramp during mid-Chesterian
correlation because these formations time and probably throughout the
have abrupt facies shifts. The Chesterian (Treworgy, 1985, 1988).
foraminifers show direct correlation Regional thickness, facies distribution,
with Visean rocks in western Europe. and crossbedding data (Swann and
Atherton, 1948; Swann and Bell, 1958;
Chesterian Series (fig. 1) Potter and others, 1958) indicate that
the Illinois basin had a regional slope
Chesterian Series rocks (fig. 1) in to the southwest and a northwest
the Illinois basin are limited in their trending shoreline (Swann, 1963,
T143: 3