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STATE OF ILLINOIS
DWICHT H. GREEN. Governor DEPARTMENT OF REGISTRATION AND EDUCATION
FRANK G. THOMPSON. Director
DIVISION OF THE STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
M. M. LEIGHTON. Chief URBANA
CIRCULAR NO. 9:
STUDIES OF THE CHESTER SERIES IN THE ILLINOIS BASIN
REPRINTED FROM THE TRANSACTIONS. ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE.
VOL. 35. NO. 2. DECEMBER 1942 < 1943)
PRINTED BY AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS
URBANA. ILLINOIS
19 4 3
CONTENTS
PAGE USE OF THE GLEN DEAN LIMESTONE AS A STRUCTURAL KEY HORIZON IN THE ILLINOIS BASIN By George V. Cohee 5
CHESTER INDEX OSTRACODES By Chalmer L. Cooper 8
SUBSURFACE STRATIGRAPHIC SECTIONS NEAR TYPE CHESTER LOCALI- TIES IN SOUTHWESTERN ILLINOIS Bji Frank E. Tippie 9
[3]
USE OF THE GLEN DEAN LIMESTONE AS A STRUCTURAL KEY HORIZON IN THE ILLINOIS BASIN 1
GEORGE V. CoHEE"
Illinois State Geological Survey, Urbana, Illinois
The Glen Dean formation is one of the dicating some structural movement dur- best known formations of the Chester ing late or post-Glen Dean time. series in Illinois. Since 1937 the basal The Glen Dean formation in the Illi- limestone has been used widely as a nois basin is predominantly limestone structural key horizon and as a subsur- with various amounts of shale. In many face '•marker" in drilling. The producing areas it consists of two limestone mem- formations in most of the new oil fields bers, separated by calcareous shale, which in Illinois lie below the Glen Dean lime- are designated as upper and lower or stone, so the formation is penetrated by a "massive" Glen Dean. The upper lime- great majority of the oil tests drilled stone is very erratic in its distribution within its boundary. but the lower member is persistent and The formation was first described by maintains a fairly uniform structural re- Butts" in 1917 as follows: "The Glen lationship with the underlying beds al- Dean limestone is named from Glen Dean though there may be some local variation in the southern part of Breckinridge in its thickness. Both the top and base County, Kentucky. This name is adopted of this lower member are used as key because of the excellent exposure of the horizons on which structure contour limestone along the railroad on both sides maps are based. The limestone is charac- of Glen Dean. It is composed of varying teristically coarse-grained, crinoidal, proportions of limestone and shale and oolitic, and brownish-gray. It contains a includes locally, at least, a little sand- variable amount of chert and some dolo- stone. The bottom segment of the forma- mite. In most areas it is the highest tion, at several widely separated points in limestone of the Chester series that con- Breckinridge County, is about 10 feet of tains well developed oolites. (Occasion- green and red shale lying upon the flaggy ally oolites occur in the higher Menard Hardinsburg sandstone." and Vienna formations.) In subsurface Figure 1 shows the subsurface and out- studies the top of the formation is placed crop boundaries of the Chester series and at the top of the calcareous shale over- the Glen Dean formation in Illinois and lying the uppermost limestone and the the thickness of the Glen Dean through- bottom of the formation is placed at the out its areal extent. Considerable varia- base of the calcareous shale below the tion in thickness is noted from north to basal limestone member. south. Around the north end of the Illi- The Glen Dean is usually overlain by nois basin it is from to 25 feet thick, the Tar Springs formation, generally a and in Jackson County in southwestern massive sandstone which varies from 30 Illinois it is more than 100 feet thick. A to 135 feet in thickness but in some areas short distance to the east in Union it is principally shale or sandy shale. County there is a pronounced thinning of The Glen Dean formation is underlain by the formation along the outcrop, but it the Hardinsburg formation, which gen- thickens again to almost 100 feet in John- son County. In the deep basin area in erally consists of shale and sandy shale White, Hamilton, and Wayne counties, it or siltstone and is usually from 20 to 60 is generally from 50-75 feet thick. Thin- feet thick. Locally a well developed ning of the formation occurs in areas of sandstone may occur within the Hardins- major structural features in the State, in- burg.
1 Reprinted from page.? 132-134 of the Transactions. 2 Xow Assistant State Geologist, Indiana Division of Geology, Indianapolis. * Butts, Charles. Description and Correlation of the Mississippian Formations of Western Kentucky: Kentucky Geol. Survey, 1917, p. 97.
[5] Illinois State Academy of Science Transactions
Fig. 1. —Thickness map of Glen Dean formation. Geology—19J/.2 Meeting
Fig. 2. —North-south electric log- cross-section of New Harmony Field.
In various areas in the Illinois basin stone occurs in the other wells of the certain thin persistent limestone beds, cross-section. The "massive" limestone is such as the basal Golconda limestone, poorly developed in well six. In the few have proved more satisfactory than the areas where production is limited to that Glen Dean for detailed structural in- part of the Chester series above the Glen formation. In the New Harmony field of Dean, the basal Menard or the lower Kin- eastern White County the thin basal kaid limestone, if present, are used for Golconda limestone is present throughout structural key horizons. the area and is a better structural key The Glen Dean formation is an im- horizon than the basal Glen Dean lime- portant subsurface "marker" because it is stone which is slightly variable in thick- usually recognized easily in electrical ness. Figure 2, a north-south electrical logs, in sample studies, and in drilling, log cross-section in the New Harmony and it is present over most of the area in field, shows the variation in thickness of southern Illinois where oil development the Glen Dean formation in that area. and exploration is most active. The wells represented in the cross-sec- tion are about one mile apart. In wells ACKNOWLEDGMENTS one, three, and five of the cross-section, The writer is grateful to Dr. A. H. Bell the upper Glen Dean limestone is pres- and other members of the Survey staff ent; however, it is best developed in well for helpful suggestions and criticism of one. Only the lower or "massive" lime- the manuscript. Illinois State Academy of Science Transactions
CHESTER INDEX OSTRACODES 1
Chalmeb L. Cooper
Illinois State Geological Survey, Urbana, Illinois
The ostracodes constitute one of the which continue into the Pennsylvanian most persistent orders of microfossils. era with little or no change in the num- Although many genera are extremely ber of species represented, are Amphis- long lived, careful study reveals many sites, Bythocypris, Ectodemites, Kirkbya, species of value as index fossils. These and Paraparchites. forms have been found in all types of However, genera alone are of little marine sediments throughout most of the value as stratigraphic indices. Only eight Paleozoic era. Freshwater forms ap- of the 67 genera known to occur in the peared with the change of the sedi- Chester series are restricted to one forma- mentary conditions that resulted in the tion, and five of these are represented by deposition of alternating marine and only one species each. More diagnostic freshwater beds in the Pennsylvanian and species are found in the New Design Permian systems. The non-marine forms (lower Chester) group than in the Horn- become important only in post-Paleozoic berg (middle Chester) and Elvira (upper formations. Chester) groups. In the New Design As shown by recent work3 the Chester group about half of the known species series has furnished one of the most are restricted to one formation, whereas diversified ostracode faunas of the approximately only a third of the species Paleozoic era. Nearly 360 species are in each of the two higher groups are so known and all but 35 are found in Illi- restricted. The greatest change in the nois. This is a very marked increase ostracode faunas occurs at the Homberg- over the number of species found in the Elvira boundary, dividing the Chester lower Mississippian formations. series into an equal number of formations A few holdover genera from the De- above and below. vonian period are present, but in greatly Some of the restricted species may not decreased numbers, namely Beyrichia and be good index fossils. Many of them are
Pi i in ilia. The Chester series is character- new and further work will no doubt in- ized by a great increase in the number crease their range. In some genera the of species of Bairdia, Cavellina, Glypto- species are so nearly alike that they are pleitra, Healdia, and P araparchites. readily confused, and for this reason they Genera restricted to the series are Bair- are of little value for correlation. These diolites, Chcstcrella, Deloia, Geffenites, include species of Bairdia, Healdia, Glyplopleuroides, Lochriella, Paracavel- Cavellina, and many species of the Am- Inui, Perprimitia, and Tetratylus. Genera phissitinae.
1 Reprinted from page 13.") of the Transactions. 2 Cooper, Chalmer L,., Chester ostracodes of Illinois: Illinois Geol. Survey, Rept. Inv. 77, KU pp.. 14 pis., 1941. )
Geology—191$ Meeting
SUBSURFACE STRATIGRAPHIC SECTIONS NEAR TYPE CHESTER LOCALITIES IN SOUTHWESTERN ILLINOIS 1
Frank E. Tippie
Illinois State Geological Survey, Urbana, Illinois
Introduction —The correlation of the formity recognized at the base of the Chester formations in southwestern Illi- Aux Vases formation. The Aux Vases nois has been greatly aided by the study becomes increasingly finer-grained up- of cuttings from wells which are located ward. It is here overlain by very fine- near the type localities of these forma- grained pink pyritic sandstone and inter- tions. Descriptions of outcrops and well bedded variegated shales of the Renault cuttings agree closely. Most outcrops do formation. not expose a complete formation and its Renault Formation — Stuart Weller (2, relationship to formations above and be- pp. 122-124) proposed the name Renault low it. Therefore, subsurface strati- for the series of limestones, sandstones, graphic sections of seven Chester forma- and variegated shales that lie above the tions having type localities in southwest- Brewerville, now the Aux Vases sand- ern Illinois are presented to enable geol- stone, and below the Yankeetown chert. ogists to observe these relations and The Renault formation is typically devel- make direct comparisons with other oped along the tributary to Dry Fork of Stratigraphic sections. Horse Creek in sec. 23, T. 4 S., R. 9 W., Aux Vases Sandstone In 1892, C. R. Monroe County, Illinois, and consists of 2 the following zones in Keyes (1, p. 298 proposed the name Aux ascending order Vases for the "ferruginous sandstone" (5): described by Shumard, typically exposed (4) 5 feet of limestone with some at the mouth of Aux Vases Creek, Ste. shale partings. Genevieve County, Missouri. The Aux (3) 15 feet of calcareous fossiliferous Vases sandstone is now recognized as shale with numerous thin lime- the basal formation of the Chester series. stone layers. It overlies the Ste. Genevieve limestone (2) 2 to 3 feet of arenaceous lime- unconformably and is in turn overlain by stone. the Renault formation. (1) 3 feet of massive sandstone. In the type locality the Aux Vases (4, The Renault formation as represented p. 229) formation consists of two zones, in the Ames-Nicholson No. 1 well (fig. each 18 feet thick. The lower zone is 2A), located 4 miles south of the type made up of interbedded variegated shales locality, is, in part, almost identical. and sandstones, and the upper is massive Zone 1 of the outcrop is represented in the fine-grained sandstone. It is overlain by well by 23 feet of yellow and greenish the Renault formation, consisting of 2 to partly spotted reddish-brown, very fine- 4 feet of sandstone and sandy green clay grained compact sandstone with a few overlain by purple shales. thin stringers of sandy limestone and The Anderson-Cassoutt No. 1 well (fig. greenish-gray and purple shales; Zone 2 IB) is located 7 miles east of the type by 5 feet of sandy limestone; Zone 3 by locality of the Aux Vases sandstone. In 24 feet of red, purple, and gray calcareous this well the Aux Vases is represented by shale, interbedded with very calcareous 56 feet of fine-grained to coarse-grained siltstone; and Zone 4 by 7 feet of cherty angular sandstone. The base is a sand- coarsely crystalline green limestone and stone conglomerate containing pink and white lithographic limestone. white chert and a few limestone frag- Yankeetown Chert —The Yankeetown ments. This is indicative of the uncon- formation (2, pp. 124-125) is a hard per-
1 Reprinted from pages 141-144 of the Transactions. Numbers in parentheses refer to references at end of article. 10 Illinois State Academy of Science Transactions
10 9 s 7 R 6 W \ WELL NO 1 \ - \ ANDERSON ET AL CASSOUTT NO 1 ST CLAIR LOT 2, SURVEY 4, KASKASKIA COMMONS. RANDOLPH CO
1 \ ZEr-EZ
M N ROE
V RENAULT FORMATION ': -:': ;•
R 3 'V'.- ..--e^o —*—_ —__ RAND OL PH
LEGEND ""N
\~ * h Type Locality i/> Sandstone, white, fine to medium, anqular, Ac J °« incoh«/ent C Clore %( o, Jj? P Palestine \ s '/^S v M Menard - / ^ X 3 Y Vankeetown \ R Renault V < AV Aux Vases ^ 19S
Sondstone, calcareous, white, mediueii to LOCATIONS OF WELLS coarse, sandstone conqlomerate, coarse, chertu, limestone fragments, areen shale AND JIO
1 » 1 TYPE LOCALITIES 1 o STE GENEVIEVE LIMESTONE I 1 f 5 f o r
sistent siliceous stratum, typically de- with a few limestone nodules; the upper veloped as an arenaceous chert near zone is more calcareous and shaly below, Yankeetown School in southeastern Mon- grades upward into more massive lime- roe County, Illinois. stone beds, and totals 30 to 40 feet in Only a few subsurface records show thickness. In 1920, Weller (3, p. 298) the Yankeetown chert in its typical out- extended the Paint Creek to include the crop form. In the Ames-Nicholson No. 1 variegated shales in the lower part of well, 5 miles southeast of the type lo- the Ruma formation and suggested that cality, the Yankeetown formation is rep- the name Ruma be discontinued as a resented by a sandy chert in the lower formation name. This would establish a 16 feet and by a slightly calcareous chert third zone in the Paint Creek. in the upper 7 feet. A few miles to the In the composite log of the Ames- east of the outcrop belt, the Yankeetown Nicholson No. 1 and the Haverstick- formation becomes a very fine-grained Dashner wells, respectively one mile sandstone that continues into the Illinois southeast and two miles northeast of the basin. type locality, all three zones are present. Paint Creek Formation The name The lower red shale zone with limestone Paint Creek (2, pp. 125-126) was proposed nodules is 28 feet thick. The middle by Stuart Weller for the red shale and limestone zone consists of a lowermost limestone above the Yankeetown chert sub-lithographic limestone 15 feet thick, and below the variegated shales and a middle sandy limestone 15 feet thick, sandstone of the Ruma formation. The and an uppermost light brown and pink, Paint Creek formation is typically de- partly oolitic and partly coarsely crystal- veloped along the tributary to Paint line limestone 12 feet thick. The third is Creek in sec. 2, T. 5 S., R. 9 W., Randolph zone 12 feet of variegated shale. County, Illinois. Weller recognized two An additional zone, not noted in out- zones of the Paint Creek: The lower zone crops but generally recorded in wells, is consists of 20 to 25 feet of deep red clay a thin very fine-grained sandstone or silt- Geology—1942 Meeting 11
WELL NO. 2* WELL NO. 4 - - AMES OIL CO. NICHOLSON NO. I L. LACHTRUP SCHULZE NO. 3
SEC. 12, T. 3S.R.9W., RANDOLPH CO. 5EC. 2. T. 7S. R. 6W, RANDOLPH CO.
OEGONIA SILTSTONE CYPRESS SILTSTONE
Limestone, argillaceous, dark Cjray, mettled,
very fine, partly cry staJhne. . crmcidaf
Sirrrtone, calcareous, argillaceous, dark grreniii ZZ Shale, yellow, o/eenish-gray, red, dark gray, gray Oaks, Limestone, very argillaceous, greenish- gray, little red, dtnit
Limestone, partly ©olit.'e, light fan Limestone, partly do'omitic, brown, gray, yellow, coarse, crmcidal very fin*, Crystalline;
>C Limestone, becoming *ery sandy a* base,
partly oolitic, buff, y€tn, little pink fine to coarse, rnnoidol
Limestone, argillaceous, dork brownish gray, dense, interbedded with shaJe, calcareous, 2 Lime«ton«, buff, green, light gray, Sub- dark gray, shaJe more prominent in lower lithographic, cn'noidaJ ^ part
Limestone, brownish-gray, vtry line. Crystalline
Shale, calcareous, dark red; lew red and greenish limestone nodules Sandstone, calcareous, fight greenish- gray, very tine, compact, carbonaceous
> Chert, slightly calcareous, whire, opaque, bo O little green, silty shale at top _j Sandstone, light Q'ay, tine, carbonaceous, < incoherent Chert, sandy, white, opacju
Limestone, partly cherty, greenish, coo crinoidal; limestone, white, lithographii me stone, argillaceous, brownish -qray, very
fine, partly crystalline; shale, calcareous, gray
me stone, Shale, calcareous, aro-y, purple, red; Siltstene, argillaceous , dark brownish -gray, very tine "to coarse, fossififrrous.; shcJe
!7< Limestone, buff to brown, very fine, partly moiled gray light buff, fir S2 LU Limes+ons, Sandy,
q Limestone, ch*rty, buff to brown, very -fin*. slightly light gray, 5andstone, calcareous, Or Some coarse, part'y mottled ©/ay green, yellow at base, very -fin*, compact — < little limestone, sandy, brown; I.Hlf IS Limestone, fight buff to brown, lithographic
shale,, green.arecn.th-ith-qray, purple Dolomite. S.H y, o/
Limestone, more or less argillaceous,
partly dolorpific, brownish -gray, very -hnt partly motfled, onno.doJ
AUX VASES SANDSTONE ?fo Limestone, oolitic, liflrrt buff, fine to medium
Limestone, argillaceous, oray, brownish, areenish, dens*; interbedded gray shale
Shale, slightly calcareous, gray, flaky H Loa above /03 ft. interpreted from nearby well*"3, Haverst.ck- Dashncr, in See. 3», WALTERSBURG SILTSTONE T.*3, ft. 6 W., Randolph County 1-.' Illinois State Academy of Science Transactions stone that occurs directly above the red carbonaceous sandstone 32 feet thick, and nodular shale. However, this sandstone an upper light greenish-gray very fine- is not present in the Ames-Nicholson No. grained calcareous carbonaceous and com- 1 well. pact sandstone 12 feet thick. Arenaceous Menard Formation —The name Menard shales are not shown in sample cuttings (2, p. 128) was proposed for ihe mod- from this well. erately thick-bedded limestone with num- Clore Formation —The name Clore (2, erous shale partings, typically exposed in p. 129) was applied to a series of inter- the Mississippi River bluffs at Menard in bedded limestones and shales that overlie Randolph County, Illinois. In the out- the Palestine sandstone and crop out near crop the limestones are generally bluish- Clore School in Randolph County, Illi- gray, close-textured, and fine-grained and nois. In many places the Clore includes often have a small amount of chert. much more shale than limestone. The Coarsely crystalline limestones may be shales are generally calcareous and dark common locally, but they are usually rela- in color. The limestones are variable, tively thin and occur in the upper part grading from dense argillaceous lime- of the formation. The lower part of the stone to crystalline limestone. Menard is usually marked by a dark gray In well No. 3, located about four miles shale with thin limestone streaks. northeast of the type locality, the Clore The Lachtrup-Schulze No. 1 well (fig. formation is represented by 5 feet of a 2B), 7 miles northeast of the type locality, very finely crystalline limestone at the exhibits a fairly typical Menard succes- base, overlain by 38 feet of dark gray sion. At the base is 16 feet of shale and calcareous shale interbedded with dark argillaceous limestone. Above this is a gray shaly limestone, the shale content 3-foot oolitic limestone followed by 17 feet decreasing upward. Above this shaly of more or less argillaceous limestone. zone is 10 feet of brown very finely The next lithologic unit is 35 feet of crystalline limestone overlain by 5 feet of light brown, very fine-grained partly very argillaceous greenish-gray limestone. crystalline limestone. The lower five feet A few fragments of this limestone in the of this unit is a silty green dolomite cuttings are red. The next unit consists whose lateral extent is not known, and of a dark greenish-gray calcareous and for this reason the dolomite is not con- argillaceous siltstone, 8 feet thick. The sidered a separate unit. Chert is present top of the Clore is 7 feet of mottled gray, at depths between 210 and 220 feet. The crinoidal limestone. top of the Menard is 18 feet of fossilifer- ous shaly limestone and dark gray shale. REFERENCES
The limestone is generally very fine- 1. Keyes, C. R., The principal Mississippian grained but some is coarsely crystalline. section : Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., vol. 3, pp. 283-300 1892 Palestine Sandstone The Palestine — 2. Weller, ' Stuart, Stratigraphy of the Ches- sandstone (2, pp. 128-129) was so named ter group in southwestern Illinois : Trans. 111. State Acad. Sci., vol. VI, pp. 118-129, because its type exposures are in Pales- 1913. tine Township, Randolph County, Illinois. 3. Weller, Stuart, The Chester series in Illi- nois : Jour. Geol., vol. XXVIII, pp. 281- It consists in part of heavy beds of sand- 303, 395-416, 1920. stone and in part of thinly bedded sand- 4. Weller, Stuart, Geology of the Ste. Gene- vieve County, Missouri : Mo. Bur. of stones or arenaceous shales. Geology and Mines, vol. XXII, 2nd ser., In well No. 4, located about six miles 1928. 5. Weller, Stuart, A report on the geology east of the type locality, the Palestine of parts of Monroe, St. Clair, and Ran- formation consists of two zones: a lower dolph counties, Illinois : Unpublished manuscript in the files of 111. State Geol. light gray fine-grained incoherent and Survey.
ILLINOIS STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
CIRCULAR 91
1943
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