Correlation of the Eocene Formations in Mississippi and Alabama
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CORRELATION OF THE EOCENE FORMATIONS IN MISSISSIPPI AND ALABAMA By WYTHE CooKE INTRODUCTION clay and carbonaceous mate,rial were laid down in During Eocene time the site of the boundary be Mississippi, while shell marl, laminated sand, and tween the States of Mississippi and Alabama fell limestone were being formed in Alabama. The pur within the transition zone between the ¥ississippi pose of this paper is to point out the equivalences of embayment and the open Gulf of Mexico. That dif formations of different facies in the two States. The ferent types of deposition proceeded simultaneously correlation adopted is shown in the following table, within these two regions may be inferred from the all the formation names in which have been previ different facies which deposits of the same age exhibit ously used, except Kosciusko sandstone, a new name on opposite sides of the State line. In general, much proposed for a member of the Lisbon formation. Correlation of Eocene formations in Mississippi and Alabama Mississippi Alabama I Yazoo clay member Jackson Jackson ····························-······················---------·---·--·-········------------·····------- ---- --- Ocala limestone formation forma- east of Tombigbee River Moodys marl member tion I· Yegua formation Gosport sand i P. ;::! I 0 ························-····················------ ----- ------- -- --· ·······- -- -------------················ bh Lisbon ~ ~ forma- Kosciusko sandstone member Lisbon formation 1-o 0 tion :9 --··········-·····--------- -- -- --- ----- ---- ----- ------ -----·--------- -- -- -- ---· - --· ···········-- --- -- -- -- - • ~ 0 Winona sand member I Tallahatta formation Over- Grenada formation lapped Hatchetigbee formation area 0.. ;::! 0 Absent Bashi formation 6h M 0 0 Holly Springs sand Tuscahoma formation ~ I Over- lapped near Over- Tennessee Ackerman formation lapped Nanafalia formation boundary area Unex- I 0.. Tippah sandstone member plored Naheola formation ;::! Porters area 0 Creek to clay .................... .. ..................... .. .. ............................. ~ a= Sucarnochee clay Overlapped area '"t:l I I ~ ' Clayton formation 133 I I 134 SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1925 The Eocene of the Gulf region is commonly divided names on opposite sides of the State line to several into four parts-the Midway, Wilcox, and Claiborne divisions of the Wilcox group. groups and the.Jackson formation. The types of the The classic work of E. A. Smith and others, cul Midway, Wilcox, and Claiborne groups are based on minating in 1894 in their reporton the geology of the the superb sections of Eocene strata exposed along ·Alabama Coastal Plain,t separated the Wilcox group Alabama and Tombigbee rivers. These sections, as of Alabama into four formations-the Nanafalia interpreted by Prof. Eugene A. Smith and his associ (lowest), Tuscahoma, Bashi, and Hatchetigbee. The ates, have long been the standard for comparison with first separation of the Wilcox group of Mississippi into sections in other parts of the Gulf Coastal Plain. formations was made in 1913, by E. N. Lowe, 2 who The type of the youngest division of the Eocene, the named the Ackerman (lowest), Holly Springs, and Jackson formation, is in Mississippi. Grenada formations. Two years later 3 he added the "Woods Bluff formation," an alternate name for the MIDWAY GROUP Bashi formation, basing his recognition upon fossils The Midway group is divisible into three forma identified by me. Berry 4 in 1917 pointed out the tions-the Clayton formation (at the base), the Por presence of the Hatchetigbee formation near Meridian. ters Creek or Sucarnochee clay, 'and the Naheola for The Nanafalia formation, which forms the base of mation. These three seem to constitute a conformable the Wilcox group in Alabama, extends from Chat- series but at plaqes may be separated from one another . tahoochee River at Fort Gaines, Ga., as far west by local unconformities. The group is set off from as the junction of Y antley and Tickabum creeks in · the underlying Cretaceous rocks by a profound uncon Choctaw County but has not been recognized in formity and from the overlying Wilcox group by a less Mississippi. It contains a considerable proportion of conspicuous break. hard rock resembling the buhrstone of the Tallahatta The Clayton is thickest in the neighborhood of formation (of the Claiborne), which distinguishes it Chattahoochee River, the eastern boundary of Ala from the other parts of the Wilcox group, and it is bama, and thins toward the west. In western Ala further distinguished by carrying a great profusion of bama and in Mississippi it is reduced to a thin bed of Ostrea thirsae. limestone, and over a considerable area in both States In Mississippi the position at the base of the Wilcox it is completely overlapped by the Porters Creek or group is occupied by the Ackerman formation, which Sucarnochee clay. The Porters Creek, . on the other is most extensively developed· in the middle part of hand, is thickest in Tennessee . or Mississippi and its belt ·of outcrop and pinches out near the Tennessee pinches out entirely or is completely overlapped about line on the north and near the Alabama line on the midway across Alabama. It is probable that the two east. It consists of gray, rather massive clays, some formations are partly contemporaneous, but the base of which are lignitic, and contains a peculiar flora. of the Clayton is doubtless older than any part of the No marine fossils have been found in it. The Acker Porters Creek. The N aheola formation, consisting man formation is tentatively correlated with the prevailingly of highly micaceous yellow to red sand, Nanafalia formation on the basis of its apparent extends across Alabama into Mississippi at least as far stratigraphic position, but it may be equivalent to the north as De Kalb. The Tippah sandstone member lower part of the Tuscahoma formation of Alabama. at the top of the Porters Creek clay in northern' Mis-' The Tuscahoma formation extends entirely across sissippi, is probably of the same age as the N aheola Alabama and abuts against the Holly Springs s·and formation, and it is not unlikely that the two could be at the Mississippi line. Its most characteristic united on the map by more detailed field work. It is lithologic facies are very fine laminated gray sand and perhaps significant that deposits of bauxite occur in clay and. yellow sand containing angular tilted blocks clays tentatively correlated with the N aheola forma of laminated clay. Both of these facies are found tion in Henry County, Ala., and also above the char also in the Holly Springs sand in eastern Mississippi. acteristic Porters Creek clay and beneath lignitiferous It is obvious that the Holly Springs is equivalent to beds of the Ackerman formation (Wilcox group) at at least part of the Tuscahoma, but whether or not several places in Mississippi. both formations occupy the sam~ stratigraphic interval would be difficult to prove. No marine WILCOX GROUP fossils have been found in the Holly Springs to com The formations of the Wilcox group in Mississippi pare with a rather characteristic fauna in the type differ much more markedly from those of the typical 1 E. A. Smith, Johnson, L. C., and Langdon, D. W., jr., Report on the geology of Wilcox of Alabama than the Midway formations in the Coastal Plain of Alabama, Alabama Geol. Survey, 1894. Mississippi differ from the Midway of Alabama. The 2 Preliminary report on iron oreS of Mississippi: Mississippi Geol. Survey Bull. 10, pp. 23-25, 1913. State line lies not far from a natural boundary or 1 Mississippi Geol. Survey Bull. 12, p. 71, 1915. transition zone which separates areas differing in type • Berry, E. W ., Geologic history indicated by the fossiliferous deposits or the Wil· cox group (Eocene) at Meridian, Miss.: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 108,p. 62, of deposists. It has been necessary to assign different 1917. CORRELATION OF EOCE.NE. FORMATIONS·, MISSISSIPPI AND ALABAMA 135 area of the Tuscahoma, and too few plant remains of loose sand. Crider 7 and Lowe 8 included in the are known from the Tuscahoma to furnish an adequate Tallahatta certain beds of quartzitic to granular sand basis for comparison with the large flora of the Holly stone I which are most extensively developed in At tala Springs. and adjoining counties of Mississippi but are here The Bashi formation crops out along a narrow band regarded as a local facies of the Lisbon formation. extending nearly across Alabama but apparently is Lowe divided the Tallahatta formation into two covered by an overlap of Hatchetigbee clays in parts-a lower, called the Winona sand, and an upper, western Choctaw County, near the Mississippi line. called the "Basic claystone." He regarded the sand In Mississippi it has been recognized" at only two stone of Attala County as equivalent to the "Basic localities near Meridian, but shells reporte.d by Hil elaystone," which is typical Tallahatta formation, but gard 5 from sec. 33, southwest of Marion and 2 or 3 the buhrstone of the Tallahatta can be traced be miles north of Meridian, although referred by him to neath the typical Winona, whieh underlies the sand the Claiborne, probably came from the Bashi for stone. The Winona is here treated as the basal mation. The characteristic feature of the Bashi is a member of the Lisbon formation. marl bed which has become locally indurated into gray In Alabama the Lisbon formation consists of two pillow-like nodules of speekled madstone or impure parts to which individual names have not been applied. limestone. The marl at most places contains a large The lower part consists chiefly of fine yellow or reddish and varied fauna of mollusks. sand and pale-green flaky clay. The upper part is Overlying the Bashi formation at Meridian and made up of calcareous clay, impure limestone, or apparently overlapping for several miles beyond the shell marl. Bashi is the Hatchetigbee formation, which is made up Lowe 9 has divided the Lisbon of Mississippi into .of brown or chocolate-colored, more or less carbo four members- the "Enterprise green marl" (lowest), naceous clay and gray sand.