Upper Ordovician and Silurian Stratigraphy in Sequatchie Valley and Parts of the Adjacent Valley and Ridge, Tennessee
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Upper Ordovician and Silurian Stratigraphy in Sequatchie Valley and Parts of the Adjacent Valley and Ridge, Tennessee GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 996 Prepared in cooperation with the Tennessee Division of Geology Upper Ordovician and Silurian Stratigraphy in Sequatchie Valley and Parts of the Adjacent Valley and Ridge, Tennessee By ROBERT C. MILICI and HELMUTH WEDOW, JR. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 996 Prepared in cooperation with the Tennessee Division of Geology UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON 1977 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR CECIL D. ANDRUS, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY V. E. McKelvey, Director Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Milici, Robert C 1931- Upper Ordovician and Silurian stratigraphy in Sequatchie Valley and parts of the adjacent valley and ridge, Tennessee. (Geological Survey professional paper; 996) Bibliography: p. Supt. of Docs. no.: I 19.16:996 1. Geology, Stratigraphic--Ordovician. 2. Geology, Stratigraphic--Silurian. 3. Geology--Tennessee--Sequatchie Valley. 4. Geology--Tennessee--Chattanooga region. I. Wedow, Helmuth, 1917- joint author. II: Title. Upper Ordovician and Silurian stratigraphy in Sequatchie Valley .... III. Series: United States. Geological Survey. Professional paper; 996. QE660.M54 551.7'310976877 76-608170 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 Stock Number 024-001-03002·1 CONTENTS Page Abstract 1 Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Regional setting ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Present investigation ____________________ -----_____________________________ ------____ - 3 Previous investigations ___________________ ----_______ ---______ --__ --------------------- 3 Stratigraphy ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Inman Formation --------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Leipers Limestone -------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Strata of Richmondian Age ------------------------------------------------------------ 8 Sequatchie Formation ------------------------------------------------------------- 8 Shellmound Formation ________________ ----________________________________ - -------- 8 Rockvvood Fortnation ------------------------------------------------------------------ 9 Depositional environments and regional sedimentary facies ----------------------------------- 10 Previous investigations ________ --------_____________________________________ ---______ -- 10 Depositional environments in the Chattanooga area ------------------------------------- 12 Application to Sequatchie Valley ------------------------------------------------------- 16 ~easured sections ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 18 References ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 36 ILLUSTRATIONS Page PLATE 1. Columnar sections illustrating correlation from Sequatchie Valley to Valley and Ridge Province and cross section of Upper Ordovician and Silurian lithofacies along Sequatchie anticline, Tennessee and Georgia -----__ ------_________________________________________________ ,_____________________________ In pocket 2. Cross sections of related fortnations in the Sequatchie Valley area and interpretative diagram of Ordovician depositional environments in the Chattanooga area, Tennessee and Georgia ________________________ In pocket FIGURE 1. Distribution of Upper Ordovician and Silurian strata in Sequatchie Valley and in the Valley and Ridge in Tennessee and adjacent parts of Georgia and Alabama ------------------------------------------ 2 2. Generalized map of Upper Ordovician and Silurian formations in southeastern Tennessee and adjacent parts of Georgia and Alabama, shovving locations of measured sections --------------------------- 4 3. Nomenclature of Upper Ordovician and Silurian strata in Sequatchie Valley ------------------------- 6 TABLES Page TABLE 1. Development of Upper Ordovician and Silurian nomenclature in Sequatchie Valley and parts of the adjacent Valley and Ridge, Tennessee and northvvestern Georgia ------------------------------------------ 5 2. Comparison of Upper Ordovician lithofacies terminology of Chowns (1972a) and Thompson (1971) in Alabama, Georgia, and southeastern Tennessee --------------------------------------------------- 11 3. Location of measured sections in Tennessee and Georgia ------------------------------------------ 17 III METRIC-ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS Metric unit English equivalent Metric unit English equivalent Length Specific combinations-Continued millimetre (mm) 0.039:37 inch (in) litre per second (1/s) .0353 cubic foot per second metre (m) :{.28 feet (ft) cubic metre per second kilometre (km) .62 mile (mi) per square kilometre [ (ms;s) /km2] !ll.47 cubic feet per second per Area square mile [ (fta;s) /ml2] metre per day (m/11) B.28 feet per day (hydraulic square metre (m2) 10.76 square feet (ft2) conductivity) (ft/d) square kilometre (km2) .386 square mile ( mi2) metre per kilometre hectare (ha) 2.47 acres (m/km) rl.28 feet per mile ( ft/mi) kilometre per hour (km/h) .9113 foot per second (ft/R) Volume metre per second (m/s) 3.28 feet per second metre squared per day cubic centimetre (em~) 0.061 cubic inch (ina) 2 litre (I) 61.0X cubic inches (m /d) 10.764 feet squared per day (ftl!fd) cubic metre (m3) 35.31 cubic feet (ft3) (transmissivity) cubic metre .00081 acre-foot (acre-ft) cubic metre per second cubic hectometre (hm3) =810.7 acre-feet (mSjs) = 22.826 million gallons per day litre 2.113 pints (pt) (Mgal/d) litre 1.06 quarts (qt) cubic metre per minute litre .26 gallon (gal) (m3/min) =264.2 gallons per minute (gal/min) cubic metre .00026 million gallons (Mgal or litre per second (1/s) 15.85 gallons per minute 10a gal) litre per second per cubic metre 6.290 barrels (bbl) (1 bbl=42 gal) metre [ (1/s) /m] 4.83 gallons per minute per foot [(gal/min) /ft] Weight kilometre per hour (km/h) .62 mile per hour (mi/h) gram (g) 0.035 ounce, avoirdupois ( oz avdp) metre per second (m/s) 2.237 miles per hour gram .0022 pound, avoirdupois (lb avdp) gram per cubic tonne (t) 1.1 tons, short (2,000 lb) centimetre (g/cm3 ) 62.43 pounds per cubic foot (lb/ft3 ) tonne .98 ton, long (2,240 lb) gram per square centimetre (g/cm2) 2.04R pounds per square foot (lb/ft2) gram per square Specific combinations centimetre .0142 pound per square inch (lb/in2) kilogram per square centimetre (kg/cm2) 0.96 atmosphere (atm) Temperature kilogram per square centimetre .98 bar (0.9869 atm) degree Celsius (°C) 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (°F) cubic metre per second degrees Celsius (ma;s) 35.3 cubic feet per second (ft3js) (temperature) =[(1.8X°C)+32] degrees Fahrenheit UPPER ORDOVICIAN AND SILURIAN STRATIGRAPHY IN SEQUATCHIE VALLEY AND PARTS OF THE ADJACENT VALLEY AND RIDGE, TENNESSEE By RoBERT C. MILICI 1 and HELMUTH WEnow, JR. ABSTRACT Ordovician mudflat deposits prograded seaward and graded The Inman, Leipers, Sequatchie, and Shellmound Forma laterally into marine deposits. Subsidence and drowning of tions constitute the Upper Ordovician strata exposed in Se these littoral deposits was followed by deposition of a post quatchie Valley and parts of the adjacent Valley and Ridge Taconic Silurian molasse. in southeastern Tennessee. These rocks are underlain by the Catheys Limestone (Middle Ordovician) and overlain by the INTRODUCTION Rockwood Formation (Silurian). The Rockwood, in turn, in cludes all Silurian strata of this region, being underlain by beds of the Sequatchie-Shellmound sequence and overlain, REGIONAL SETTING unconformably, by the Chattanooga Shale (Upper Devonian Upper Ordovician and Silurian strata in the south and Mississippian). As originally defined by C. W. Hayes in ern part of the folded and faulted Appalachians are 1891, the Rockwood included all strata between the Chick amauga Limestone (Middle Ordovician) and the younger distributed from Clinch Mountain in eastern Ten Chattanooga Shale. In 1911, E. 0. Ulrich redefined the lower nessee to the Sequatchie anticline in Tennessee and or older part of Hayes' Rockwood as the Sequatchie Forma Alabama (fig. 1). In general, Upper Ordovician and tion, restricting the name Rockwood to the upper or younger Silurian formations are thick and noncalcareous to part of the sequence. the east in the Appalachian geosyncline and are The Inman Formation contains calcareous red beds in southern Sequatchie Valley and in Lookout Valley .and is all thinner and more calcareous westward toward and gray or greenish gray to the northeast. The Leipers Lime on the central Tennessee carbonate platform. stone is a fairly homogeneous, extensively burrowed, gray The Middle-Upper Ordovician boundary is within argillaceous limestone. The Sequatchie Formation consists of shale and limestone of the Martinsburg Shale in the grayish-red and greenish-gray calcareous mudstones and cal cisiltites. The formation generally lacks skeletal fossils but central and eastern Valley and Ridge. To the west, some beds are abundantly burrowed, some are laminated, some the strata become more calcareous; the boundary contain numerous intraclasts, and others show desiccation itself is within strata dominated by carbonate rocks features such as mudcracks and birdseyes. The Sequatchie (Wilson, 1949; Rodgers, 1953). grades southwestward into the Shellmound Formation, a Upper Ordovician formations