Guide to the Geology of Cave-In-Rock Area, Hardin County, Illinois
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State of Illinois Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor Illinois Department of Natural Resources Illinois State Geological Survey Guide to the Geology of Cave-In-Rock Area, Hardin County, Illinois Wayne T. Frankie and Russell J. Jacobson Field Trip Guidebook 2006B September 23, 2006 October 21, 2006 Equal opportunity to participate in programs of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) and those funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies is available to all individuals regard- less of race, sex, national origin, disability, age, religion, or other non-merit factors. If you believe you have been discriminated against, contact the funding source’s civil rights office and/or the Equal Employment Opportunity Officer, IDNR, One Natural Resources Way, Springfield, Illinois 62702-1271; 217-785-0067; TTY 217-782-9175. This information may be provided in an alternative format if required. Contact the IDNR Clearinghouse at 217-782-7498 for assistance. Cover photo: Cave-In-Rock, Cave-In-Rock State Park, Hardin County, view from the Ohio River. (Photo- graph by W. T. Frankie.) Geological Science Field Trips The Geoscience Education and Outreach Unit of the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) conducts four free tours each year to acquaint the public with the rocks, mineral resources, and landscapes of various regions of the state and the geological processes that have led to their origin. Each trip is an all-day excursion through one or more Illinois counties. Frequent stops are made to explore interesting phenomena, explain the processes that shape our environment, discuss principles of earth science, and collect rocks and fossils. People of all ages and interests are welcome. The trips are especially helpful to teachers who prepare earth science units. Grade school students are welcome, but each must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. High school science classes should be supervised by at least one adult for every ten students. The inside back cover shows a list of guidebooks of earlier field trips. Guidebooks may be obtained by contacting the Geoscience Education and Outreach Section, Illinois State Geological Survey, Natural Resources Building, 615 East Peabody Drive, Champaign, IL 61820-6964. Telephone: 217- 244-2427 or 333-4747. This information is on the ISGS home page: http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu. Five USGS 7.5-Minute Quadrangle maps (Cave-In-Rock, Dekoven, Karbers Ridge, Rosiclare, and Saline Mines) provide coverage for this field trip area. v Printed with soybean ink on recycled paper Released by the authority of the State of Illinois 0.2M - 9/06 Guide to the Geology of Cave-In-Rock Area, Hardin County, Illinois Wayne T. Frankie and Russell J. Jacobson Illinois Department of Natural Resources ILLINOIS STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY William W. Shilts, Chief Natural Resources Building 615 E. Peabody Drive Champaign, IL 61820-6964 217-333-4747 Home page: http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu CONTENTS CAVE-IN-ROCK AREA 1 Geologic Framework 1 Precambrian Era 1 Paleozoic Era 1 Depositional History 2 Paleozoic Era 2 Mesozoic Era 4 Structural Setting 5 Hicks Dome 5 Rock Creek Graben 6 Glacial History 6 Geomorphology 6 Physiography 6 Shawnee Hills Section 6 Natural Divisions and Geology 6 Natural Divisions 7 Shawnee Hills Section 8 Natural Resources 8 Mineral Production 8 GUIDE TO THE ROUTE 10 STOP DESCRIPTIONS 31 1 Cave-In-Rock 31 2 Cave-In-Rock Ferry 34 3 Tower Rock 34 4 The American Fluorite Museum 35 5 Lunch - Illinois Iron Furnace 36 6 Battery Rock 38 7 Annabel Lee, Fluorspar Mine 39 REFERENCES 45 RELATED READINGS 45 GLOSSARY 46 Period or System Age Era and Thickness Epoch (years ago) General Types of Rocks Holocene Recent; alluvium in river valleys e" 10,000 Quaternary Glacial till, glacial outwash, gravel, sand, silt, 0 500 lake deposits of clay and silt; wind deposits of loess ' and sand dunes. Deposits cover nearly all of state except northwest corner and southern tip Pleistocene Glacial Age 1.8 m Pliocene 5.3 m Chert gravel, present in northern, southern, and 33.7 m western Illinois Age of Mammals Tertiary Mostly micaceous sand with some silt and clay; 0 500' present only in southern Illinois Eocene 54.8 m CENOZOIC "Recent Lif Paleocene Mostly clay, little sand; present only in southern Illinois 65 m e" Mostly sand, some thin beds of clay, and, locally, Cretaceous 144 m gravel; present only in southern and western Illinois 0 300' 290 m MESOZOIC "Middle Lif Age of Reptiles Pennsylvanian Largely shale and sandstone with beds of coal, 0 3,000' limestone, and clay ly Plants ("Coal Measures") 323 m Black and gray shale at base, middle zone of Mississippian thick limestone that grades to siltstone chert, 0 3,500 and shale; upper zone of interbedded ' sandstone, shale, and limestone Age of Amphibians and Ear 354 m e" Thick limestone, minor sandstones, and shales; Devonian largely chert and cherty limestone in southern Illinois; black shale at top 0 1,500' Age of Fishes 417 m Silurian Principally dolomite and limestone LEOZOIC "Ancient Lif 0 1,000' PA 443 m tebrates r Ordovician Largely dolomite and limestone but contains ve 500 2,000' sandstone, shale, and siltstone formations Age of In 490 m Cambrian Chiefly sandstones with some dolomite and shale; exposed only in small areas in north-central Illinois 1,500 3,000' 543 m Precambrian Igneous and metamorphic rocks; known in Illinois only from deep wells Generalized geologic column showing succession of rocks in Illinois. CAVE-IN-ROCK AREA The Cave-In-Rock Area, located in the driftless area fields and seismic exploration to map out the regional of southern Illinois, is one of the most highly faulted characteristics of the basement complex. Such evidence and geologically complex areas of the state. This area’s indicates that in southernmost Illinois, near what is rugged surface has produced some of the state’s most now the historic Kentucky-Illinois Fluorspar Mining scenic landscapes, mainly due to differential erosion District, rift valleys like those in east Africa formed as of Upper Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian age movement of crustal plates (plate tectonics) began to rip sedimentary bedrock strata of sandstones, limestones, apart the Precambrian North American continent. These and shales. The bluffs and ridges are generally under- rift valleys in the midcontinent region are referred to as lain by resistant rocks, usually sandstones, and the val- the Rough Creek Graben and the Reelfoot Rift (fig. 1). leys are underlain by relatively softer limestones and shales. Numerous faults cut across the strata and in part Paleozoic Era control the development of the ridges and valleys. This After the beginning of the Paleozoic Era, about 520 geological science field trip will acquaint you with the million years ago during the late Cambrian Period, the geology1, landscape, and mineral resources for part of rifting stopped, and the hilly Precambrian landscape Hardin County, Illinois. GEOLOGIC FRAMEWORK Precambrian Era 8 Through several billion years of geologic time, the Cave-In-Rock area of Hardin County has undergone many changes (see the rock succession column, facing page). The oldest rocks beneath the field trip area be- WI long to the ancient Precambrian basement complex. We know relatively little about these rocks from direct ob- IO IL servations because they are not exposed at the surface anywhere in Illinois. Only about 35 drill holes have reached deep enough for geologists to collect samples from these Precambrian rocks. From these samples, 1 IN however, we know that these ancient rocks consist mostly of granitic and rhyolitic igneous, and possibly MO metamorphic, crystalline rocks formed about 1.5 to 2 1.0 billion years ago. From about 1 billion to about 0.6 billion years ago, these Precambrian rocks were ex- 6 posed at the surface. During this time, they were deeply weathered and eroded and formed a barren landscape 3 that was probably quite similar to the topography of the KY present Missouri Ozarks. We have no rock record in 7 Illinois for the long interval of weathering and erosion that lasted from the time the Precambrian rocks were 5 TN formed until the first Cambrian agesediments accumu- AR 4 lated, but that interval is almost as long as the time from the beginning of the Cambrian Period to the present. Because geologists cannot see the Precambrian base- Figure 1 Location of some of the major structures in the Illinois region: (1) La Salle Anticlinorium, (2) Illinois Basin, ment rocks in Illinois except as cuttings and cores (3) Ozark Dome, (4) Pascola Arch, (5) Nashville Dome, (6) from boreholes, they must use other techniques, such Cincinnati Arch, (7) Rough Creek Graben–Reelfoot Rift, and as measurements of Earth’s gravitational and magnetic (8) Wisconsin Arch. 1 Terms in italics (except for Latin names) are defined in the glossary at the back of the guidebook. Also, please note: although all present localities have only recently appeared within the geologic time frame, the present names of places and geologic features are used because they provide clear reference points for describing the ancient land- scape. 1 began to sink slowly on a broad regional MEGA- MEMBER SYSTEM SERIES GROUP GROUP FORMATION (Key members only, scale, allowing the invasion of a shallow in Pennsylvanian) sea from the south and southwest. During the 280 million years of the Paleozoic Era, Murray Bluff the subsiding area that is now called the Il- Tradewater Finnie linois Basin continued to accumulate sedi- ANIAN V ments that were deposited in the shallow Grindstaff seas that repeatedly covered it. The region continued to sink until at least 20,000 feet Pounds Racoon Creek of sedimentary strata were deposited in the PENNSYL Caseyville Battery Rock deepest part of the Basin, located in the Lusk Rough Creek Graben area of southeastern Goreville* Illinois and Western Kentucky.