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i57 IL6b io.99 v,^iX)GY OF THE BLOOMFIELD QUADRANGLE Johnson County, Illinois W. John Nelson DepartmentofEnergyand Natural Resources ILLINOIS STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN99 1993 W.UHCKS Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/geologyofbloomfi99nels GEOLOGY OF THE BLOOMFIELD QUADRANGLE Johnson County, Illinois W. John Nelson BULLETIN99 1993 ILLINOIS STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Morris W. Leighton, Chief Natural Resources Building 615 East Peabody Drive Champaign, Illinois 61820-6964 Coverphoto LowerpartoftheHardinsburgSandstoneshowscoarseningupwardinterval ofsiltyshaleandthinbeddedsandstone. CaveCreek,NESESW,Section 14,T13S,R3E. — GraphicArtis—t M. Knapp Typographer D.Harding — Editor E. Wolf PrintedbyauthorityoftheStateofIllinoisI1993/1200 "rq5Prin,edonrecycledpaper CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv ABSTRACT 1 INTRODUCTION 2 LocationandAccessibility 2 Climate,Topographyand Land Use 3 GeologicSetting 3 Method ofStudy 3 PreviousStudies 4 STRATIGRAPHY 5 DevonianSystem 5 MississippianSystem 5 PopeGroup 5 LowerpartofPopeGroup 5 Golconda Formation 5 HardinsburgSandstone 6 Glen DeanLimestone 6 TarSpringsSandstone 7 ViennaLimestone 8 Waltersburg Formation 9 Menard Limestone 11 PalestineSandstone 12 CloreFormation 13 Cora Member 13 TygettSandstoneMember 15 Ford StationMember 16 Degonia Formation 16 Kinkaid Limestone 17 Negli CreekLimestoneMember 17 CaveHillMember 17 GorevilleLimestoneMember 18 Mississippian-PennsylvanianContact 18 PennsylvanianSystem 18 Caseyville Formation 18 Wayside Member 18 BatteryRockSandstoneMember 19 "Drury" Member 19 PoundsSandstoneMember 20 TradewaterFormation 21 STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY 22 McCormickAnticlineand Related Faults 22 Interpretation 23 LittleCache FaultZone 24 WartraceFaultZone 24 MiniatureAnticlines 25 MINERALRESOURCES 28 REFERENCES 29 Figures 1 GeologicsettingofBloomfield Quadrangle 2 2 Majorhighways and structuralfeatures ofthe Bloomfield 3 Quadrangle 3 LowerpartofHardinsburg Sandstone (photo) 7 4 TarSprings-Vienna contact (photo) 8 5 ViennaLimestone (photo) 9 6 CrossbeddedWaltersburg Sandstone (photo) 10 7 GraphicsectionsofPalestineSandstone and Menard Limestone 12 8 Mud cracksin Menard Limestone (photo) 13 9 Graphiclogs oftwowaterwells 14 10 Measured sectionsofClore Formation 15 11 SandstoneinDruryMemberofCaseyville Formation (photo) 20 12 CrosssectionsofMcCormickAnticline 22 13 Reversefault (sketch) 23 14 Miniature anticline (sketch) 24 15 Miniature, faulted anticline (photo and field sketch) 25 Table 1 Characteristicsofminiature anticlines 26 Plate 1 Stratigraphiccolumn ofrocksexposed atsurface ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks areowed tonumerous landownerswhogranted mepermissionto map on theirpropertyintheBloomfield Quadrangle. Special appreciationis owed toWardenLarryMizell andLt. CarlosKerley,who accompanied me whileIwasmapping on the grounds oftheVienna CorrectionalCenter. ISGS reviewers IstvanBarany,HeinzH. Damberger,JosephA. Devera, and C. Pius Weibel, and USGSreviewerCharlesL. Rice offered helpful comments on the manuscript and map ofthe quadrangle. Thisprojectwas supported, inpart, bytheU.S. GeologicalSurveythroughtheCooperativeGeologic Mapping Program. ABSTRACT The Bloomfield Quadrangleinex- Majorstructuresinthe quadran- Tensharp-crested,outcrop-scale anti- tremesouthernIllinoisisunderlain gle aretheMcCormickAnticline clinesinthesouthernpartofthequad- bybedrockofChesterian (lateMis- and associated faults, and theLittle ranglemayberecentpop-upfeatures. sissippian) and Morrowan (early CacheandWartraceFaultZones. Morelikely,theydeveloped during Pennsylvanian) age. Chesterian Theanticline isa thrust-fold struc- theepisodeofcompressionresponsi- strata areassigned to the Pope turedetached withinthePaleozoic blefortheMcCormickAnticline. Group, anintervaloflimestone and sedimentarysection.Thrusting and Nooil, gas,coal, orotherminer- shalealternatingwithsandstone foldingwereinducedbycompres- alshavebeenproducedinthestudy and shale formations. Pennsylva- siveblockupliftalongtheLusk area. Prospects forfuturedevelop- nianstratabelongtotheCaseyville CreekFaultZonesoutheastofthe mentappearslight. Limestonefrom and TradewaterFormations and con- studyarea. Alaterepisodeofexten- theKinkaid,Menard,GlenDean, sistmainlyofsandstone and lesser sioninduced normalfaulting along andGolconda Formationsmaybe amounts ofsiltstone,shale,and thin theMcCormickAnticlineand Little suitableforaggregate, agricultural coalbeds. Cache andWartraceFaultZones. lime,road rock,and otheruses. INTRODUCTION Location and Accessibility west; and Evansville, Indiana, 80 route 147extendsnortheast-south- TheBloomfield Quadrangleis miles tothenortheast. westthrough the centralportion. located insouthernmostIllinois, Paved highwaysprovide ready TheGanntown road southofWar- approximately 20milessouth of access tothestudy area. Interstate trace (a villagenamed for anIndian Marion and 110milessoutheastof highway24 (1-24) crossesthesouth- warpath [Sneed 1977]), and theTun- St. Louis, Missouri (fig. 1). Other westquarterofthequadrangleand nelHillroad westofSimpsonalso nearbycitiesare Paducah,Kentucky, U.S. highway45 (US45) crosses the havehard surfaces. Otherroadsin 25miles tothesoutheast;CapeGi- northwestquarter(fig. 2). Illinois thequadranglehave gravelsur- rardeau,Missouri, 40miles to the route 146 runseast-westacrossthe faces. Fewpointsin thestudy area southern partofthe area and Illinois are fartherthan 1 mile from anall- GALLATIN £? strike-slip fault D Devonian System Figure1 GeologicsettingoftheBloomfieldQuadrangle.Surrounding7.5-minutequadranglesand mostrecentgeo- logicmaps areasfollows:Goreville Qacobson 1991),CrealSprings (TraskandJacobson1989),Stonefort(Nelsonand Lumm 1990;reportbyNelsonetal. 1991),Vienna (Dial1963),Glendale(Devera 1991),Karnak(WellerandKrey 1939), Mermet(WellerandKrey1939),Reevesville(Gause1966).GeologywasgeneralizedandmodifiedfromWillmanand others (1967). weatherroad. Therelatively remote northernportion ofthe area, located intheShawneeNationalForest,is servedbywellmaintained foottrails. Most land inthe Bloomfield Quadrangleisprivately owned. Sev- eraltractsinthenorthernpartofthe areabelongto theU.S. ForestServ- ice,whichpublishesmapsshowing itslandholdings and trails. Aprison farm operated bytheIllinois Depart- ment ofCorrections occupiesseveral squaremiles intheeast-centralpart ofthequadrangle. Theboundaries oftheprison farm areindicated on the topographicmap. Thesebounda- ries areneitherfenced norroutinely patrolled; however,permission shouldbe obtained from thewarden beforeenteringprisongrounds. Climate, Topography, and Land Use The climate ofsouthernIllinoisis warm and temperate. Averagetem- peratures atNewBurnside,Johnson County, are 35°FinJanuary to79°F inJuly. Averagerainfallis45inches peryear. Thedriesttime oftheyear is late summertoearlyfall, and the wettestperiod is spring. Snowfall averages 14inchesperyear(Fehren- backerand Walker 1964). Themap area lieswithinthe ShawneeHillssection oftheInterior LowPlateausphysiographicprov- o 2 mi ince (Horberg 1950). Bedrockstruc- tureis theprimarydeterminant of 3 km landforms. Thenorthernone-quar- terofthe quadrangleis underlainby Figure2 Majorhighwaysandstructuralfeatures oftheBloomfieldQuadrangle. rockofPennsylvanian age (Nelson 1992), whichincludes thickand well beencleared for agriculture, thus upliftcentered southwestofthe indurated sandstones thatproduce onlythehillsidesand ravines re- study area. rugged topography. Localreliefis mainwooded. Eastofthequadranglelies the more than250feetinseveralplaces. TheBloomfieldQuadrangleisen- complexlyfaulted Illinois-Kentucky The BatteryRockSandstone, near tirelyrural. Cattle raisingis thepri- fluorspardistrictwith its domi- thebase ofthePennsylvanian, forms maryagricultural activity; some nantlyhigh angle, normal, reverse, verticalcliffs ashigh as 70 or80feet corn and othercrops aregrown. and oblique-slip faults thatstrike atTaylorBluffand along Max Creek. Oak,hickory, and otherhardwoods northeast. Northwestofthe fluor- The area ofPennsylvanianbedrock arelogged extensively. Thevillages spardistrict, the McCormick and is largelywooded, although gently ofBloomfield,Simpson,Grantsburg, NewBurnside Anticlnesalsostrike sloping uplands havebeencleared Wartrace, and Pond all contain northeast(figs. 1 and 2). Thesouth- forpasture. South oftheBattery fewerthan 100people. TheJohnson westernpartoftheMcCormickAnti- Rockescarpmentis a gently tomod- countyseatis atVienna (population cline crosses the Bloomfield erately rollingregionunderlainby 1,420) about 1 milewestofthestudy Quadrangle. less resistantshale, shaleysand- area. Weaklylithified Cretaceous and stone, and limestone ofMississip- earlyTertiarysedimentaryrocks Geologic Setting pianage. Elevationshere are lower overlapPaleozoicstrataintheMis- and local reliefis generally 100to TheBloomfield Quadrangle lies on sissippi Embaymentsouth ofthe 150feet. Thelargerstreamshave ag- thesouthernmargin oftheIllinois study area. graded and formbroad,commonly Basin, eastoftheOzarkDome swampy alluvial flats. Mississippian (fig. 1). Bedrockstrata in the quad- Method ofStudy sandstonescap subtleplateaus and rangle dip regionallynorthward at a TheBloomfield Quadranglewas cuestas. Mostupland surfaces and littlemore than 1°. Theregionaldip mapped from October 1986through large areas ofthebottomlandshave reflectspost-Pennsylvanian tectonic March 1988. The area northwestof US45was mappedbyC. Pius thesummertostudy agricultural identified plant fossils at two locali- Weibel, and theeasternedge ofthe patterns, and theyreveallittleinfor- ties. studyarea wasmapped incompany mation aboutbedrock. withJosephA. Devera, whoconcur- Mappingconsisted ofexploring Previous Studies rently mapped the adjacentGlen- alllikely areasofoutcrops and plot- S.Wellerand Krey (1939) madea dale Quadrangle (Devera 1991). ting informationon USGStopo- "preliminary" geologic map ofapor- We mapped the Bloomfield primar- graphicbasemaps. Field notes are tion ofsouthern Illinois including ilyto tracethe continuationofthe available forexamination in the theBloomfield Quadrangle.Their McCormickAnticline fromadjacent ISGSlibrary. Thenotes arekeyed to map waspublished on aplanimetric quadrangles mapped underthe locations on a topographicbasemap (ratherthan a topographic)base ata CooperativeGeologicMapping Pro- also availableforexamination. scale of 1:62,500.Wellerand Krey gram (COGEOMAP) oftheIllinois Allwelllogs fromthepublic distinguished Mississippian forma- StateGeologicalSurvey (ISGS) and records ofthe ISGS for the area tionsbutdid notsubdividePennsyl- theU.S. GeologicalSurvey (USGS). were also examined. Wells in the vanianstrata. Weller(1940) made J. Bedrockexposuresinsouthern Bloomfield Quadrangle are largely a structure-contourmap (scale Illinois arelargelyconfined to water wells and shallow engineer- 1:125,000) ofextremesouthernIlli- streambeds, ravines, and artificial ing borings, and theirlogs are nois. Bothreportsdescribestratigra- exposuressuch as roadcuts. Sand- poor in quality. Better qualitywell phy and structuralfeaturesofthe stones, and in someplaces, lime- records, including geophysical region. stones formledges and cliffs on logs and sample studiesper- Amaster'sthesisby Knight steep slopes.Vegetationcanbea seri- formed by geologists, existfor (1968)includes ageologicmap of oushindrance to mapping; some ra- wells in neighboring quadrangles. theBloomfield Quadrangleat a vines aresodenselyovergrown About 30 rockspecimenswere col- scale of 1:24,000 on topographic withbrambles and vines astobe lected during mapping, and 30 base. Theaccompanying textde- nearly impassable.Thisisparticu- thin sectionswere prepared forpet- scribesstratigraphy, paleontology, larly true forthe recently logged rographic study. Palynological andstructure. Knightpresented ex- areas thatwere frequentlyencoun- study ofcoal samples forcorrela- haustive faunallists, including all tered in theBloomfield Quadrangle. tion was conducted by Russel A. species identified byhimselfand Mapping tookplaceduring latefall, Peppers (unpublished ISGS data, previousworkers. winter, and earlyspring tominimize 1988). Some invertebrate fossils Maps and reports thatpertainto interferencefromvegetation.Aerial from the Bloomfield Quadrangle quadranglessurrounding theBloom- photoshaveproven tobe oflittle were identified by Devera. Wil- field Quadrangle aredesignatedin usein geologicmapping ofthisre- liamA. DiMicheleoftheU.S.Na- figure 1. gion. Photosweremainly takenin tionalMuseumcollectedand