Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1965 The Geologic Evolution of the Black Warrior Detrital Basin. Robert Ehrlich Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Ehrlich, Robert, "The Geologic Evolution of the Black Warrior Detrital Basin." (1965). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 1070. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/1070 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This dissertation has heen microfilmed exactly as received 66-726 EHRLICH, Robert, 1936— THE GEOLOGIC EVOLUTION OF THE BLACK WARRIOR DETRITAL BASIN. Louisiana State University, Ph.D., 1965 G eology University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THE GEOLOGIC EVOLUTION OF THE BLACK WARRIOR DETRITAL BASIN A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of philosophy in The Department of Geology by Robert Ehrlich B.A., University of Minnesota, 1958 M.S., Louisiana State University, 1961 August, 1965 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS So many persons have given aid and encouragement during the progress of this problem that I approach these acknow­ ledgments with trepidations concerning possible omissions. Conspicuous, however, is the importance of the teaching and advice of Dr. John C. Ferm who, besides being respon­ sible for that which is worthwhile in my training as a sedimentologist, has provided me with a model of high pro­ fessional integrity. The Geological Survey and Oil and Gas Board of Alabama provided for field expenses and the cost of thin sections through its cooperative research program. However, the p "rsonal support and encouragement of individual members of that organization is appreciated as much or' more. Some of these Survey members include Philip E. LaMoreaux, State Geologist, whose expressed confidence in the successful completion of this project sometimes exceeded my own; Charles W. Copeland, Jr., Thomas J. Joiner, and Mrs. Jane W. Win- borne of the Stratigraphic Division; Thomas A. Simpson, T. W. Daniel, Jr. and Otis M. Clark, Jr. of the Economic ii Geology Division; and George Swindel, administrative geolo­ gist, who directed the admirable, logistical support. Aid, advice and hospitality of Drs. Douglas E. Jones of the University of Alabama, John Carrington and William Thomas of Birmingham Southern College are gratefully acknow­ ledged. Discussions with Dr. Reynold Q. Shotts, Professor, in the Alabama School of Mines, and with Donald Maples, graduate student at the University of Alabama, were of great value in understanding the petrology of the Basin. The active cooperation of Donald Palmore, geologist with the Alabama Highway Department; the late R. S. Villad- sen, Walker County Engineer; Russel Boren, mining engineer; and officials of the Republic Steel Corporation is greatly appreciated. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.......................; ............. ii LIST OF FIGURES.................... vi ABSTRACT .......................................... .vii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION............................... 1 II. THE PETROGRAPHIC RECONNAISSANCE.......... 4 III. THE GENERAL NATURE OF THE LOWERMOST SANDSTONE COMPLEX ....................................... 8 IV. REGIONAL VARIATIONS OF THE LOWERMOST SANDSTONE COMPLEX ...................... 11 The northern orthoquartzite facies........... 11 The intermediate mixed facies ................. 11 The southern greywacke facies ................ 12 Summary of the observed facies pattern....... 12 V. MODELS OF COMPOSITIONAL VARIATION AND INFERENCES BASED ON T H E M ................................ 16 The sedimentary-tectonic model............... 16 Preliminary interpretation of facies pattern. 17 The model of total compositional variation. 18 Tectonic intensity factors................. 19 Methods for the removal of non-tectonic effects on mineral composition........... 19 Effects due to local current fluctuations . 19 Effects due to post-depositional mixing . 20 Effects due to environmental differences and random variation. .................. 21 iv Page . VI. THE SAMPLING P L A N ................................. 23 Criteria for selection of sample localities . 23 Intra-locality sampling plans . .......... 25 Introduction. .25 Core sampling....................... .... 25 Sampling at outcrop localities................ 27 Thin section technique............ 27 VII. OBSERVED MINERAL SPECIES.......................... 29 VIII. COMPOSITIONAL PATTERN OF THIN SECTION DATA. 32 Areal compositional variation in the lowermost sandstone complex ............................ 32 Removal of grain size effect on composition . 32 Regional pattern of compositional deviations. 33 The record of changes in tectonic intensity within the core ......................... 37 IX. CORROBORATION OF OBSERVED LATERAL AND VERTICAL PATTERNS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE DETRITAL VOLUME. ................ 41 The basal limestone to shale facies change. 42 Facies change in the Jagger-Pratt interval. 42 Low quartzoseness of sandstone from the vicinity of Tuscaloosa......................... 43 The southern conglomeratic facies ............. 43 X. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.............. 45 SELECTED REFERENCES........................................49 APPENDIX ....................... 53 VITA ......... ........................ 63 v LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE Page 1. Regional Setting of the Black Warrior Basin. 2 2. Total Thickness of Upper Carboniferous Detrital Sequence ........................................ 6 3. Geologic and Location Map of the Outcrop Area. 10 4. North-South Facies Relationship between Orthoquartzite and Greywacke F a c i e s ............ 14 5. Relationship between Quartzoseness and Grain Size of Core Samples ........................... 34 6. Relationship between Quartzoseness and Grain Size of Samples from Localities within the Lowermost Sandstone Complex.......... 3 5 7. Comparison of Quartz-Grain Size Relationships between Localities within the Lowermost Sandstone Complex............ 36 8. Deviations of Core Samples from Least Squares Line with Stratigraphic Position ................ 39 9. Total Quartz-Grain Size Relationship of Core Samples with Stratigraphic Position............ 40 10. North-to-South Generalized Cross-Section through the Detrital Volume............................... In pocket vi ABSTRACT The Black Warrior Basin, located in northern Mississippi' and Alabama, is bounded on the east and west respectively by the northeast trending Appalachian and the northwest trend­ ing Ouachita tectonic belts; and on the north by the broadly arched Nashville-Ozark domal system. Excepting outcrops in northern Alabama, the basinal character is obscured by the post-Paleozoic sediments of the Gulf Coastal Plain and the Mississippi Embayment. In the outcrop area, a mass of upper Carboniferous (upper Chester and Pottsville) detritus caps an otherwise predominantly carbonate early to middle Paleo­ zoic succession. Detection and evaluation of patterns of stratigraphic variation within the detritus exposed in the Alabama outcrop area points to a greenschist-cored uplift in southern Alabama as the source terrane of these sediments. No such patterns were observed along east-west directions. The main line of evidence was the documentation of a north-south compositional gradient (after the data was cleared as much as possible of extraneous non-tectonic effects) in the lowermost sandstone complex — with orthoquartzitic sands in the north intertonguing southward with sands containing large amounts of greenschist detritus. The transition zone between these two facies lies between Gadsden and Birming­ ham. A similar, but vertical, pattern was observed in a continuous core from northern Tuscaloosa County wherein the sediments contain a steadily increasing proportion of green­ schist detritus upwards through the section. These two lines of evidence, one concerning lateral trends and the other vertical, establish the main patterns of variation within the detrital volume. Other corrobora­ ting evidence taken from other parts of the basin include a north-to-south limestone to shale facies change in sediments below the lowermost sandstone complex; a southwards increase in sand content in the Jagger-Pratt interval above the com­ plex; the presence of a southern conglomeratic facies inter­ tonguing with a more northern sandy facies; and the very low quartzoseness of sandstones from the Tuscaloosa area — the southernmost sampled locality. The patterns of grain size and compositional variation observed in the outcrop area of the Black Warrior Basin are the reflection of the influence of a source terrane, located in southern Alabama, being uplifted at an increasing rate viii with eventual emergence of a greenschist core. This situ­ ation is interpreted to be a manifestation of a Ouachita uplift beginning in late Mississippian time. The inaugu­ ration of Appalachian uplift is considered to be distinctly later since its effects are not reflected in the sedimentary patterns, yet do structurally deform these sediments. Fur­ ther, the Ouachita structural trend must