GEOLOGY OF SCOTT COUNTY. BY W. H. NORTON. 33 G Rep · . GEOLOG Y OF SCOTT COUNTY. 391 GEOLOGY OF SCOTT COUNTY. I.' I BY W. H. NORTON. CONTENTS. PAGE. Introduction. .. ... .. .. .. ... .. .. ............. .. 393 Topography ............... : ........ .............. .......................... 394 Constructional Reliefs..... .. ......... ..... ....... ..... ... .......... 395 Iowan Drift Plains. .. 395 The Paha. .. ........................................... 395 Illinoian and Kansan Drift Plains ... .. " .... .................... 399 Fluvial Plains........ " ........ " .... " .... " ..... .. ...... .. ..... 401 Erosional Heliefs . ..... ........ '" .... ............ " .... " ............. 401 ( auses and Conditions.. .. .......... ....................... 401 The Illinoian. .. ......... : ... .... .. .... .. ............ 408 The Kansan. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... 4 10 Drainage. .. ................. ..................... 410 Wapsipinicon River .. ... ...... ............. .. ........ .... ... .... .. 411 Rock and Walnut Creeks... .......... ....... .................... .... 413 .' Mud Creek ... ....................... : .............................. 413 Other afJiuents of Wapsipinicon ... .................. .... ... ......... 415 Afl:Iuents of Mississippi. ........................................... 415 Mississippi River ................................................... 417 Terraces. .. 418 Rock Island Rapids ......................... : ................... 418 History of Drainage..... ................. ......... .. ............... 419 Stratigraphy ..... " .......... " ................................... '" ....... , 422 Taxonomic relations .......................................... ..... : .... 422 Geological Formations .................................................. 423 Silurian ............................................................. 423 Gower Stage ...................................... ' . .. 423 Le Claire Stone ................................... '.' . .. 423 Anamosa Stone. .. 424 Relation of Le Claire and Anamosa ....... .................. 429 Sections of Gower. 430 Le Claire ............................ ......... '.' . .. 432 Anamosa. .. 432 Intermediate Types. .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. 436. 392 GEOLOGY OF SCOTT COUNTY. PAGE. Devonian ........................ .. ........... .. .. ................ , 440 Wapsipinicon ..... , .... ...................., ................... 440 Otis ... .. ................. ......... ...................... 440 Independence. .. 442 Lower Davenport ..... ..... .. : ...... .. ..... ................. 443 Brecciation of Lower Davenport ....... ....... .............. 444 Upper Davenport ............................................ 447 Fauna of Upper Davenport ............................ ..... 450 Sections of Wapsipinicon .. .................................. 452 Cedar Valley................ " .......... " ...................... 457 General Description .......................... .. ............. 457 Sections. 460 ·Carboniferous............ " ............ .. 46:3 Surface Distribution. .... ... ....... ......... .. ......... ..... 463 Sections. .. .................. 466 Geest ............................................................... 469 PleistoceJie ............ : . .. ....... ................... .. .... 471 Taxonomic relations ............................................ 471 Pre-Kansan ............................... .................... , 472 Aftonian. .................................................... 474 Kansan ......... ................. ............... ....... ..... ... 475 yarmouth ....... ........... ... ................................. 478 Illinoian. .. 480 Sangamon. .. 482.- Iowan ............... ........................................... 483 Iowan Loess. .. 484 Red Loam............................ .... ....... ... .... ... 4.8(} Loess Sands. .. .. 488 Preglacial Surface . , ......... : ................................ 492 Economic Products.......................................................... 494 Coal ..... ................... .... ....... ........... .. .......... ...... 498 Building Stone. .. .. 496 Silurian ...... .. .. .. .................. .................. '. .. 496 Devonian .......................................................... 497 Lime .................................................................... 499 Claye ................................................................... 4.99 Carboniferous ....................... ...... '.' ... ................... 4.99 Loess ............................................................... 501 Road Materials .......................... ... .......................... ... 503 Spill! . ................. .................................................. 503 Water Supply ................... " ..................... , ........ ........ 504 Artesian Wells.............................. .. .. 505 Acknowledgments........................................................... 514 Appendix-Table of Wells .................................................. 514. INTRODUCTION. Scott county is not only one of the most populous and wealthy of the counties of Iowa, but it is rich also in geolog­ ical ~henomena of peculiar interest and importance. Although it comprises an area of only 447 square miles, there outcrop within its borders the consolidated sediments of various stages of three great geological series-the Silurian, the Devonian and the Carboniferous. In a number of localities these are of special industrial value, and. furnish mines of coal and clay and quarries of building stone and lime. As the frontiers of three geological systems of indurated rocks lie within the county, so within the same narrow limits the bor­ ders meet of three great sheets of drift, which record three dis­ tinct invasions of continental glaciers in late geological time. In various forms of topography, due to the action of different geological agencies, Scott county is equally rich. Unscored plains of alluvium and of glacial drift, past plains now maturely dissected by valleys of erosion, rocky gorges of young rivers, billowy hills of frontal loess moraines,-all these varied contours give the landscape a diversity of beauty and a wealth of geologic interest. Few counties in Iowa offer better facilities for geological investigation. Fronting on the Mississippi and bounded on the north by the Wapsipinicon, the eastern and northern townships have been so far dissected by these master streams and their tributaries that numerous exposures are afforded of the indurated rocks as well as the unconsolidated Pleistocene deposits. The excavations made in the years since the early 34 G Rep 393 394 GEOLOG Y OF SCOTT COUNTY. settlement of the county have added to the natural sections of gorges, scarps and hillside ledges, many artificial geolog­ ical sections in mines, wells, quarries, and railway cuttings. It is not strange, therefore, that Scott county long since attracted the attention of geologists. In the course of the early surveys of the Mississippi valley made by David Dale Owen;' the geological areas of the county were roughly delineated, and fossils were described and figured from Daven­ port and Buffalo. The survey of Hall and Whitneyt describes accurately the "limestone of the Rapids of LeClaire," and devotes twelve or more pages to the discussion of the higher rocks of the county. Out of thirty-eight spAcies described by this survey from the Devonian, eighteen are listed from Scott county and six from the opposite bank of the Mississippi at Rock Island. Since that time the fossils of the county have been patiently collected and carefully prese.rved, as the fine cabinets of the Davenport Academy of Science, Rev. Dr. W. H. Barris and Mr. Asa Tiffany testify. Their rich fauna has been described by Barris, by Hall, by Worthen, by Meek, and by Lindahl. Aspects of the glacial deposits of the county have been treated by McGee, McWorther, Pratt, Calvin, Bain, Leverett, and U dden, and of the older formations by Barris, Tiffany, Calvin, Udden, Norton and Keyes.' Topography. The topography of Scott county is due to the action of many forces acting through vast periods of time, and it is not always an easy matter to disentangle the complex causes of its various forms of relief. All topographic' forms may be divided into two classes, those of construction and those of erosion. To the former' class belong the hills of the Iowan frontier, some aggraded valley floors, and the uneroded rem­ nants of the drift plains. To the latter class belong all other reliefs in the county; for, with these exceptions, every hill *Rept. Geol. Surv. of WisconsIn, Iowa and Minnesota, Phlladelphla, 1852. tGeol. of Iowa (HIIo11), vol. T, p. 73 seq, p. 278 Sfq, 1858. CONSTRUCTIONAL RELIEFS. 395 and valley, every bluff and precipice, strath and streamway is due to the corrasion of running water in rill and river, to rain wash, and-all the various processes known as weathering. • CONSTRUCTIONAL RELIEFS . Iowan D1'ijt Plains.-In northeastern Iowa there is associ­ ated with the Iowan drift sheet a topography which is strik­ ingly distinct and in part entirely unique. There is the bowlder strewn drift plain, with its gentle undulations, its sags and swales due to initial inequalities in the ice-moulded surface of the till, its drainage so immature that storm water lingers upon it in sloughs and shallow lakelets, its soil peaty and black because of the rapid accumulation of ~umus con­ sequent on the comparative inefficiency of the agents which, in mature districts, remove it