Depositional and structural history of the Pennsylvanian System of the Illinois Basin Part 2: Invited papers Edited bv James E. Palmer and Russell R. Dutcher Front: Camel Rock (far left) and associated sandstone pinnacles, Garden of the Gods Recreatio'n Area, Shawnee National Forest, Saline County, Illinois. Sandstone is of fluvial origin. Cut-and-fill structures, extensive cross-bedding, and steeply dipping joints are conspicuous. (Pounds Sandstone Member, Caseyville Formation) Back: Circular, suboval, and irregular Liesegang banding. These iron-oxide- rich bands are believed to be the result of repeated uniform precipi- tation from colloidal suspension in porous and permeable sandstone. About one-third actual size. (Pounds Sandstone Member, Caseyville Formation) ~epositionaland structural history of the Pennsylvanian System of the lllinois Basin : Part 2: Invited papers / edited by James E. Palmer and Russell R. Dutcher. -- Urbana : lllinois State Geological Survey, 1977. 158p. : ill. ; 28cm. Field trip 9 / Ninth lnternational Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology. Sponsored by lllinois State Geological Survey, Indiana Geological Survey, Kentucky Geological Survey and Southern lllinois University at Carbondale. Includes bibliographies. 1 . Geology- lllinois Basin--Congresses. 2. Geology, Stratigraphic--Pennsylvanian- Congresses. I. Palmer, James E. I I. Dutcher, Russell R. I II. lnternational Congress on Carboniferous Stratigraphy, 9th, 1979. Field trip 9. Edited by James E. Palmer and Russell R. Dutcher FlELD TR lP 9/Ninth International Congress of Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology May 26 to June 1, 1979 SPONSORS: Illinois State Geological Survey, Indiana Geological Survey, Kentucky Geological Survey, and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale David Dale Owen's sketch of Kyrock Sandstone of Kentucky in 1856. PALEOCLIMATOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY Stratigraphy of the lower part of the Penn- sylvanian System in southeastern l ll inois Pennsylvanian paleoclimate of the Illinois Basin- and adjacent portions of Indiana and James M. Schopf 1 Kentucky-Russel A. Peppers and John T. Popp Paleobotanical studies in the Pennsylvanian System Lower Pennsylvanian limestones in southern of the Illinois Basin-Tom L. Phillips 4 I llinois-G. H. Fraunfelter Development of coal-forming floras during the early Earliest Pennsylvanian depositional environments part of the Pennsylvanian in the lllinois Basin- in central southern I llinois-C. Allan Koeninger Russel A. Peppers 8 and Charles F. Mansfield The distribution of fusulinids and their correlation The stratigraphy and sedimentation of the Abbott between the lllinois Basin and the Appalachian and lower portion of the Spoon Formations Basin-Raymond C. Douglass 15 in the outcrop belt of southern Illinois- Thomas K. Searight Paleoecology and depositional history of rock STRATIGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTS strata associated with the Herrin (No. 6)Coal OF DEPOSITION Member, Delta Mine, southern Illinois- John Utgaard Depositional history of the Pennsylvanian System in the lllinois Basin-A summary of work by Depositional environments of strata of late Dr. Harold R. Wanless and associates-Cynthia Desmoinesian age overlying the Herrin (No. 6) Roseman Wright 2 1 Coal Member in southwestern Il linois-James E. Palmer, Russell J. Jacobson, and Terrigenous sedimentation above unconformities- C. Brian Trask Paul Edwin Potter 27 Pennsylvanian correlations between the Eastern The Mississippian-Pennsylvanian unconformity in the Interior and Appalachian Basins-Charles L. lllinois Basin-Old and new thinking-Richard H. Rice, Thomas M. Kehn, and Raymond C. Howard 34 Douglass Geology of the Springfield Coal Member (V) in Indiana-A review-Curtis H. Ault, Donald D. Carr, STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY AND GEOMORPHOLOGY Pei-Yuan Chen, Donald L. Eggert, Walter A. Hasenmueller, and Harold C. Hutchison 43 Plate-tectonic implications of the Pennsylvanian System in the Illinois Basin-L. L. Sloss 107 Sedimentology of a paleovalley fill: Pennsylvanian Kyrock Sandstone in Edmonson and Hart History of the structural uplift of the southern Counties, Kentucky-Wayne A. Pryor and Paul margin of the lllinois Basin-T. C. Buschbach E. Potter 49 and Elwood Atherton 112 Bitumen-impregnated Carboniferous sandstones Major structures of the southern part of the lllinois along the southeastern rim of the lllinois Basin-Hans-Friedrich Krausse and Colin G. Basin-Preston McGrain 62 Treworgy 1 15 The influence of the Carboniferous rocks on the topography of the Illinois Basin-Stanley E. Harris, Jr. 121 ECONOMIC GEOLOGY Petrology and related chemistry of coals in the Illinois Basin-Richard D. Harvey, John C. Crelling, Russell R. Dutcher, and John A. Schleicher 127 Mining geology of Illinois coal deposits-M. E. Hopkins, R. B. Nance, and C. G. Treworgy 142 Geologic effects of the Walshville channel on coal mining conditions in southern Illinois-W. John Nelson 151 Pennsylvanian paleoclimate of t e Illinois James M. Schopf Dr. Schopf, formerly with the Department of Geology and Mineralogy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, and the U.S. Geological Survey, died on September 15, 1978. FLORISTIC INDICATIONS the sea, which must have had a profound effect on all mar- ginal land areas. He regarded the fusain of coal beds as an The interpretation of paleoclimate is somewhat subjective. indication of drought, but the incidence of fusain in Appa- David White (1913a) has given an excellent review of the lachian coals is about as great as that in Illinois coals. He subject. He concluded that the Pennsylvanian floras indi- did not consider the assemblages of Pennsylvanian plants cated a tropical to subtropical climate. This conclusion still that are now known to us from coal balls because most of seems most acceptable with an important modification- this work has been accomplished since 1931. The plant continent displacement-which still is within the range of remains that are known to us in coal balls show the same climate that he deduced. tropical and subtropical characteristics that I have summa- White presumed a generally equable climate over the rized elsewhere (Schopf, 1975, p. 25). Plants from coal entire globe, but that model now seems unreasonable. Trop- balls show less evidence of a climatic zonation than the ical climate, however, may be interpreted as marking an occurrences of plants preserved as coalified compressions. equatorial zone; this is the significance of the prolific Appa- We have, however, only one Appalachian occurrence of coal lachian flora that Koppen and Wegener (1924) suggested. balls of Kanawha age (Lower, Middle Pennsylvanian), which The belt of equatorial floras extended along the Appala- has been reported extensively by Taylor (1967) and his chian trend, across Nova Scotia, to Britain, to the Ruhr, students (Good and Taylor, 1970). More than 20 coal beds from Silesia to the Donetz basin, and must have continued in the Interior Province have provided coal balls on which eastward in accordance with the presently accepted doc- numerous studies have been completed. Facies assemblages trine of a zonal climate and continent displacement. The have been recognized (Phillips, Kunz, and Mickish, 1977), breadth of a tropical and subtropical zone may reasonably but a phytosociologic (essentially topographic), rather than be extended to include the great Pennsylvanian-age coal- a climatic control, has been suggested to account for these bearing regions of the earth. This point of view is presented differences. Thus far, there is no evidence available that in an article accompanying the paleotectonic map of the differs from the tropical or subtropical interpretation ad- United States (Schopf, 1975). vanced by White. White (1931) presented a more detailed and specific A great diversity of plant forms and types characterizes interpretation of the paleoclimate of the Carboniferous in modern tropical plant assemblages. The inequalities of sam- the Illinois Basin. He noted climatic ameliorations and drier plings of the fossil floras, however, renders suspect any at- periods in comparison to climatic conditions in the Appala- tempt to summarize the fossil data statistically in terms of chian Trough. Such an interpretation agrees reasonably diversity. For example, the Mazon flora of northern Illi- with the marginal, possibly partially subtropical, zone to nois, preserved by authigenic cementation, is one of the which a Pangeatic reconstruction of the continents would most diverse fossil assemblages that is known (Lesquereux, assign it. 1880-1884; No4, 1925; Janssen, 1940; Stewart, 1950; Dar- White's concepts still were somewhat generalized and rah, 1969). This single occurrence, however, is extensive probably did not include the variety of climate that existed. and is one of the plant fossil localities most accessible to He scarcely took account of all the recurrent invasions of collectors (Schopf, 1978). The peculiarities of preservation PALEOCLIMATOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY have made these plant specimens exceptionally attractive to This type of deposition may be explained by at least three collectors. kinds of control: (1) diastrophic causes, (2) isostatic fluc- To make any fair comparison of the Mazon flora with tuation in sea level, or (3) variations in climate. the abundance of plant fossils occurring in shale above most It seems unlikely that any of the three mediating of the Appalachian coal beds is difficult. David \White agents can be eliminated from consideration. All of them (1913b) published an extensive list of plants, which