Abstract This is a major Mississippi River bluff exposure above a road next to the railroad yard on the southeast edge of Hannibal, Marion County, Missouri, just west of center of SE¼ Sec. 28, T.57N., R.4W., Hannibal East 7½-minute Quadrangle (Fig. 1).

Abstract The Chouteau Limestone is late Kinderhookian in age in Illinois and late Kinderhookian to Valmeyeran in Indiana (Rexroad and Scott, 1964). The Chouteau conformably overlies the Kinderhookian Hannibal Shale of the New Albany Group (Figures 7-1 and 2-12), except in southwestern Illinois where the Hannibal is absent and it overlies Devonian and older strata (Willman et al., 1975). In places, the lower part of the Chouteau grades laterally into upper beds of the Hannibal. The Chouteau is widespread in the basin and is generally less than 20 ft (6 m) thick. It is a carbonate mudstone and wackestone that is dolomitic and cherty in places and commonly wavy-bedded. The depositional extent of the Chouteau (Figure 8-9) coincides with the shelf-margin, slope and basin areas (Figure 8-5) of the New Albany deposition (Cluff et al., 1981). It coincides with the area of the overlying Borden delta and with the fringes of the Burlington-Keokuk carbonate bank. The Chouteau was probably deposited at a time when siliciclastic influx was minimal. With a minor unconformity, the Chouteau is overlain by a variety of lithofacies in the lower Valmeyeran Series, including Borden Siltstone in central and eastern Illinois and adjacent parts of Indiana, Burlington Limestone in western Illinois, Meppen or Fern Glen formations in southwestern Illinois, Springville Shale in southeastern Illinois, and New Providence Shale in Kentucky (Figure 9-1).

The Mississippian formations and their varied faunas in the type area in the upper Mississippi Valley suggest a wide variety of paleoecological environments. The rock types include black paper-thin shale, greenish clay shale, massive mudstone and siltstone, sandstone, conglomerate, breccia, lithographic limestone, oölitic limestone, fine-grained earthy and dolomitic limestone, dolomite, coarse-grained crinoidal and other types of limestone. The sediments were laid down in relatively shallow seas. The area is structurally a part of the Central Interior Lowlands. The structure is essentially that of a platform of crystalline igneous rocks overlain by a relatively thin cover of sediments. Larger positive areas that surrounded the area include the Wisconsin lobe of the Canadian Shield, the Cincinnati anticlinal area, the Nashville dome, the Ozark dome area, and a landmass along an anticlinal fold that extended northeasterly across Nebraska and adjacent States. Local folds may also have been landmasses at times. Important among these are the Lincoln and Pittsfield-Hadley anticlines and an unnamed feature that extended northeasterly as a slightly submerged area across Fayette, Shelby, Douglas, and Champaign counties, Illinois. Sediments were probably received from all these postulated landmasses. Some of these landmasses served as barriers at times and thus made local seas. At other times the entire area was submerged. The oldest fauna considered is that of the Grassy Creek shale of Devonian or Mississippian age. This unit consists largely of paper-thin black shale beds. It was probably formed in stagnant water in an area partly enclosed by land barriers. The fauna consists of conodonts, other fish remains, spores, and linguloid brachiopods. The muds that formed the Grassy Creek shales were derived from low-lying lands. The Saverton fauna lived in an environment in which greenish-gray mudstones were being deposited. It had a large benthonic invertebrate fauna but included conodonts, other fish remains, and spores. The Louisiana limestone is typically a dense lithographic rock with dolomitic clay partings. The fauna includes a large and varied benthonic assemblage. A relatively thin series of shales, oölites, and limestones lying on the Louisiana limestone has been referred to the Glen Park formation by some authors but is called the “Hamburg” oölite by others. This series is overlain by the greenish-gray siltstone, dark clay shales, and fine-grained olive sandstones of the Hannibal shale. The “Hamburg” strata contain an assemblage of small brachiopods, pelecypods, pieces of Bryozoa, and some small gastropods. The assemblage has been called a dwarf fauna, but the smallness of the individuals that make up most of the assemblage may be a result of sedimentary sorting. The “Hamburg” oölite is thought to have been deposited in very shallow water. The Hannibal fauna consists mainly of brachiopods and pelecypods and suggests a shallow marine benthonic environment with several burrowing types of life being prominent. The Chouteau limestone is principally an argillaceous fine-grained limestone, but it also contains beds of medium crystalline limestone and some dolomitic limestone. It contains a large and varied fauna mainly of benthonic invertebrates. The Sedalia-Burlington-Keokuk limestone series is predominantly a coarsely crystalline cherty crinoidal limestone, with minor amounts of shale and dolomite. The shallow benthonic fauna is dominated by crinoids, although many other forms are quite numerous. Crinoid columnals probably were moved about before consolidation. The Warsaw and Spergen rocks contain more shale and argillaceous limestone than the immediately underlying rocks. Sedimentary structures suggest shallow water as do the faunules. Oölites may be rare or absent; fenestellate bryozoans are important components of the diverse shallow benthonic faunas. The St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve formations are typically fine-grained to dense limestone, and considerable thicknesses of oolitic limestone occur in each formation. Gypsum and anhydrite are known from subsurface sections of the St. Louis. Breccias and conglomerates are conspicuous locally, and dolomites and fine sandstones may be present. Sedimentary structures suggest a shallow-water origin. Shallow benthonic faunas are more abundant in some beds than in others but are less varied as a rule than in the Burlington limestone and adjacent formations. Nektonic life is represented by fish remains. Conspicuous forms in the benthonic fauna are the coral Lithostrotion proliferum and the echinoid Melonechinus. The area was probably land during most of Chester time.

Abstract Evansville, Indiana, USA, grew up along a curve of the Ohio River. Ready access to natural resources including wood, coal, limestone, sandstone, shale, sand, gravel, and clay facilitated its growth. Development of lines of commerce; notably, the road network, steamboat traffic on the Ohio River, the Wabash and Erie Canal, and eventually railroads, expanded access to an ever wider array of materials, including a variety of building stones from North America and Europe. The history of source-area expansion is documented in the time-oriented array of buildings in Evansville and the materials preserved in them. We will illustrate that the availability of an ever-widening source of stone, building techniques, and architectural styles, from massive stones of ornate Victorian structures to the spare, thin cladding of modern buildings, can be used to elucidate the cultural attributes of this unique city. Stops include a number of downtown sites, including historic Victorian structures and more modern buildings with thin stone cladding, some of it bowing. We will also visit Reitz School, which is located above an old coal mine, and Oak Hill Cemetery, a classic garden-style cemetery located on a hilly outlier of loess.

Abstract Berea sandstone, a potential Global Heritage Stone Resource, has been one of the most widely used sandstones in North America. This Paleozoic sandstone, quarried for more than 200 years in Ohio, has been used across much of the continent. Thousands of commercial, residential, ecclesiastical, government and other structures have been built with Berea sandstone, including Thomas Worthington's mansion in Chillicothe, Ohio, the Michigan Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, the Carnegie Library and Natural History Museum Building in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and parts of the Parliament buildings in Canada. Grindstones made from Berea sandstone were shipped throughout North America, as well as to the Caribbean, South America, Europe and Asia. The stone is celebrated in a number of locations, notably Berea and Amherst, where quarries have been important historical sources of this stone. It has been known by a number of different geological and commercial names, including Berea grit and Amherst stone, complicating its identification from historical sources. Stone from the most productive quarries, however, was known to be homogeneous and can be identified by its quartz–arenite to sublithic–arenite composition, its fine to medium sand (125–350 µm) grain size and iron-cement spots. Berea sandstone continues to be quarried today in Erie and Lorain counties.

Abstract This guidebook chapter outlines a walking tour that provides an introduction to the geological, archaeological, and historical setting of Pittsburgh, with an emphasis on the use of local and imported geologic materials and resources in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The focus is on downtown Pittsburgh, the low-lying triangle of land where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers join to form the Ohio River, and Coal Hill (Mount Washington), the escarpment along the Monongahela River to its south. Topics include the importance of—and concomitant effect of—historic coal use; use of local and imported geologic materials, including dimension stone used for buildings and gravestones, and chert used for gunflints and millstones; the frontier forts built at the site; and the ubiquitous landslides along Coal Hill.

Abstract Even before 1800, geological resources such as chert, iron, limestone, and coal were being utilized from the Pennsylvanian rocks of eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. These materials were of great interest to the early geologists of the region. This field trip discusses these products in the context of early grain milling, iron furnaces, and allied industries of Ohio and Pennsylvania in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, with a focus on two publicly accessible sites: McConnells Mill Park in western Pennsylvania, and Mill Creek Park in eastern Ohio. These parks contain publicly accessible gristmills and iron furnaces, and outcrops. We also provide new observations on cultural materials related to these industries, especially iron-furnace slag and millstones.

Abstract Even before 1800, geological resources such as chert, iron, limestone, and coal were being utilized from the Pennsylvanian rocks of eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. These materials were of great interest to the early geologists of the region. This field trip discusses these products in the context of early grain milling, iron furnaces, and allied industries of Ohio and Pennsylvania in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, with a focus on two publicly accessible sites: McConnells Mill Park in western Pennsylvania, and Mill Creek Park in eastern Ohio. These parks contain publicly accessible gristmills and iron furnaces, and outcrops. We also provide new observations on cultural materials related to these industries, especially iron-furnace slag and millstones.

Abstract Drenov Grič black limestone is considered to be one of the most beautiful Slovenian natural stones due to its black colour interwoven with white veins. Over the centuries, it has been extracted from two major quarries located west of Ljubljana. One of these quarries has been declared a valuable natural feature of national importance and is protected as a natural monument. This well-stratified, Triassic (Carnian) micritic limestone occurs in 10–80 cm thick beds with thin marl interlayers. The limestone occasionally contains abundant fossil bivalves, gastropods and ostracods. It is relatively rich in carbonaceous and bituminous organic matter, which is responsible for the black colour of the stone. The stone has been widely used in Slovenian monuments. Many indoor and outdoor architectural elements have been constructed using this limestone, particularly during the Baroque period, which was known for its extensive use of black limestones in other European countries as well. The most significant use of this limestone has been recorded in sculpted portals and altars. Some important buildings, which were decorated utilizing this stone, have been declared cultural monuments of local or national importance. Use of this limestone was also documented in other European countries (Italy, Austria, Serbia) and worldwide (USA). When exposed to climatic influences, chromatic and salt weathering are recognized as the main deterioration phenomena for this limestone when used in monuments.

Abstract Seneca sandstone is a fine-grained arkosic sandstone of dark-red coloration used primarily during the nineteenth century in Washington, DC. Several inactive Seneca sandstone quarries are located along the Potomac River 34 km NW of Washington near Poolesville, Maryland. Seneca sandstone is from part of the Poolesville Member of the Upper Triassic Manassas Formation, which is in turn a Member of the Newark Supergroup that crops out in eastern North America. Its first major public use is associated with George Washington, the first president of the Potomac Company founded in 1785 to improve the navigability of the Potomac River, with the goal of opening transportation to the west for shipping. The subsequent Chesapeake and Ohio Canal built parallel to the river made major use of Seneca sandstone in its construction and then facilitated the stone's transport to the capital for the construction industry. The most significant building for which the stone was used is the Smithsonian Institution Building or ‘Castle’ (1847–55), the first building of the Smithsonian Institution and still its administrative centre. Many churches, school buildings and homes in the city were built wholly or partially with the stone during the ‘brown decades’ of the latter half of the nineteenth century.