The Flo~A of the Ripley Fo.Rmation
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR HUBERT WORK~ Secretary. UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, Director Professional Paper 136 THE FLO~A OF THE RIPLEY FO.RMATION BY EDWARD WILVER BERRY W A.SHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1925 ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D. C. AT 50 CENTS PER COPY CONTENTS Page Introduction ________________________________________________________________________________ _ 1 General relations of the Cretaceous deposits _____________________________________________________ _ 1 The Ripley formation ____________________________________________ --·-- ___________ ·____________ _ 3 Historical sketch _________________ .. _______________________________________________________ _ 3 Areal distribution ________________________________ ~ _______________________________________ _ 3 Lithologic character _____ ._________________________________________________________________ _ 3 Stratigraphic relations ___________________________________________________________ ~ ________ _ 3 Subdivi~ons----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 The Ripley flora------------------------------------~---------~----------------------------- 5 Occurrence------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 Composition, origin, and evolution __________________________________________________________ _ 5 D~tribution _____________________________________________________________________________ _ 7 Analysis of other Upper Cretaceous floras __________ ..: ________________________________________ _ 15 General considerations ________________________________________________________________ _ 15 Eutawflora--------------------------------~------------~-----------~---------------- 18 Black Creek flora---------------------------------------~----------------------------- 19 Magothy flora ____________________ .___________________________________________________ _ 19 Patoot flora __________________________________________________________________________ _ 20 Verinejoflora _________________________________________ ~----------~------------------- 21 Vancouver Island ________________________________________________________ .:. ____________ _ 21 Colorado grouP----------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Montana group ______________________________________________ - __ ·_- _______ ·__ ---______ _ 21 Japan-----------------------------~-------------------------------------------------- 22 Portugal _____________________________________________________________________________ · 22 GermanY--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Gosau flora--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 France ______________________________________ ~------------~--------------------------- 23 23 Syst!l~:~~~gd~:cr~~~~d~:t~~-~~-~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~-~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 25 IndeX--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 93 ILLUSTRATIONS Page PLATES I-XXIII. Upper Cretaceous plants from the Ripley formation ______________________________ _ 92 FIGun.E 1. Diagrammatic section of the Cretaceous from Tennessee to Georgia, showing the time rela tions of the different stratigraphic units and their relation to underlying and overlying forinations _______________________________________________________________________ _ 4 2. Map of North America showing the area of outcrop of the Ripley formation and the generalized relations of land and sea during Ripley time------------------·----~--------- 14 3. Sketch map of the world showing the location of fossil floras that have been compared with the Ripley flora _________________________________________________________________ _ 18 4. Restoration of Geonomites visianii Berry ____________________________ ----~--- ____ ·______ _ 38 5. Sketch map of the world summarizing the geologic history of Liriodendron _____________ _ 55 6. Sketch map of the world. summarizing the geologic history of Zizyphus _________________ _ 69 III 1.,HE FLORA OF THE RIPLEY FORMATION By EnivARD W. BERRY INTRODUCTION of the field work and ventured to predict that more detailed work would res'!Jlt in the In 1919 the Geological Survey published an discovery of additional fossiliferous outcrops. extensive paper by me entitled "Upper Cre The present contribution serves to fulfil this taceous floras of the eastern Gulf region prediction in part and to supply the first de in Tennessee, Mississippi, . Alabama, and tailed information regarding the flora of that .Georgia." 1 Despite this .comprehensive title part of the Upper Cretaceous section of which the work was. primarily an account of the our ignorance was most ·profound. Both l;>io large flora found in the Tuscaloosa formation, logically and geologically this information is the earliest Upper Cretaceous formation in of the greatest importance, because it fur that region. Between the date when the nishes a measure of the rate of transition manuscript had been transmitted, in 1912, and between the Cretaceoi1s and Eocene floras, as the time of publication scattered collections well as data for. correlation and distribution. from the Eutaw and Ripley formations had Spec~al acknowledgment is due to Bruce been made, and an account of these was in vVade for the industry and skill with which cluded in the report. Although of consider,.. he has studied the Cretaceous of Tennessee able interest as the only known land plants of ·and collected the material upon. which the the Eutaw and Ripley, these plants were few: present paper is so largely based. The types and not especially well preserved, as I had are the property of the Johns Hopkins Uni not had the good fortune to encounter in these versity, but they will be depos:ted in the formations other than very carbonaceous leaf United States National Museum as soon as bearing clays, with drifted and consequently the studies in hand are completed. more or Jess broken materials. It was realized that better-preserved and more representative GENERAL RELATIONS OF THE CRETACEOUS DEPOSITS material might be found in clay lenses in the upper embayment, but neither Stephenson nor The region discussed in this paper includes I had been successful in locating .such out that part of the Atlantic Coastal Plain lying crops, and it was not until Wade's very de south and west of the southern Appalachian tailed county studies for the Tennessee Geo province and east of Mississippi River. logical Survey that this gap in the paleobo The area of outcrop of the Upper Cretaceous tanic history of the Mississippi embayment deposits borders the inland margin of the was satisfactorily filled. All the forms known Coastal Plain, and the belt from which deter from the Ripley are included in the prese.nt minable plant fossils have been collected ex contribution. The bulk of the materials have tends from the vicinity of the Kentucky come from Henry and Carroll counties, in boundary, in west-central Tennessee, .south western Tennessee-a region that has also ward and eastward .to west-central Georgia. furnished the largest single florule of lower · Both Lower ( ~) and Upper Cretaceous de Eocene CVVilcox) age. posits are represented in this area, but· the In the introduction to my account of the former are much less extensive and varied tJ pper Cretaceous floras of the eastern Gulf than in tlw· middle Atlantic slope, to the region I emphasized the reconnaissance nature northeast, or in the western Gulf area, to the west, in Texas and Mexico. Supposed Lower 1 U. S. Geol.. Survey P1·of. Paper 112, 1919. Cretaceous sediments are present only in the 1 2 THE FLORA OF T'HE RIPLEY FORMATION extreme eastern part of the area, where the of Alabama it overlies the Tuscaloosa without southwesterly extension of the Potomac group apparent unconformity. Beyond the Tusca of the ~fiddb Atlantic States has been consid loosa region in Tennessee the Eutaw consti ered to cross Georgia along the fall line as an tutes the basal formation of the Coast•a<l Plain, irregular belt of unfossiliferous cross-bedded resting on the rocks of the Paleozoic floor ex arkosic sandy clay and light-colored kaolin 5 to cept where remnants of the Tuscaloosa are pre . 30 1i1iles wide and to extend westward into served. Alabam'a as a belt 4 to 8 miles wide that termi The Eutaw formation has been divided into nates in Elmore County. The question of the three members-a basal unnamed member, the age of these beds is not yet settled. Recently Tombigbee sand member, and the Coffee sand Stephenson collected fossil plants from a lo member. I have shown in a previous paper 2 cality within this belt at Old Fort Decatur that the basal1nember in Alabama was prob on Tallapoosa River, which are· of Upper Cre ably wholly or partly the marine equivalent of taceous age. la This throws considerable doubt the Tuscaloosa delta deposits. The Tombig on outcrops in North Carolina, South Caro bee sand n1ember appears to be e. true trans lina, and Georgia, which on physical evidence gressive marine sand. In west-central Ala have been considered to represent the Lower bama the changes in drainage brought about Cretaceous in this general region. clear-water marine cbnditions w'ith chalky sedi The Upper Cretaceous of the eastern Gulf ments, and these conditions were