Elevating Geoscience in the Southeastern United States: New Ideas about Old Terranes—Field Guides for the GSA Southeastern Section Meeting, Blacksburg, Virginia, 2014

This volume includes 10 field guides that explore the diverse geology of the southern and central Appalachians. These guides examine both ancient rocks and modern landscape processes, highlighting new research ideas regarding these old terranes. Three guides focus on the geology of the Appalachian Plateau and Valley and Ridge, considering topics such as the enigmatic Eocene igneous rocks, the gas-rich Marcellus and Millboro Shales, and new models for karst formation. The 2011 M5.8 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake literally shook up our understanding of the Piedmont and two guides focus on new research in the epicentral region. Two guides take in the Paleozoic to Proterozoic geology of the Blue Ridge province. The volume is rounded out by three guides focused on Mesozoic geology, including the world-class Lagerst–tte fauna in the Dan River basin, a unique uranium deposit at Coles Hill, Virginia, and the tectonics of the Scottsville Basin.
The Devonian Marcellus Shale and Millboro Shale
-
Published:January 01, 2014
-
CiteCitation
Daniel J. Soeder, Catherine B. Enomoto, John A. Chermak, 2014. "The Devonian Marcellus Shale and Millboro Shale", Elevating Geoscience in the Southeastern United States: New Ideas about Old Terranes—Field Guides for the GSA Southeastern Section Meeting, Blacksburg, Virginia, 2014, Christopher M. Bailey, Lorrie V. Coiner
Download citation file:
- Share
-
Tools
Abstract
The recent development of unconventional oil and natural gas resources in the United States builds upon many decades of research, which included resource assessment and the development of well completion and extraction technology. The Eastern Gas Shales Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy in the 1980s, investigated the gas potential of organic-rich, Devonian black shales in the Appalachian, Michigan, and Illinois basins. One of these eastern shales is the Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale, which has been extensively developed for natural gas and natural gas liquids since 2007. The Marcellus is one of the basal units in a thick Devonian shale sedimentary sequence in the Appalachian basin. The Marcellus rests on the Onondaga Limestone throughout most of the basin, or on the time-equivalent Needmore Shale in the southeastern parts of the basin. Another basal unit, the Huntersville Chert, underlies the Marcellus in the southern part of the basin. The Devonian section is compressed to the south, and the Marcellus Shale, along with several overlying units, grades into the age-equivalent Millboro Shale in Virginia. The Marcellus-Millboro interval is far from a uniform slab of black rock. This field trip will examine a number of natural and engineered exposures in the vicinity of the West Virginia–Virginia state line, where participants will have the opportunity to view a variety of sedimentary facies within the shale itself, sedimentary structures, tectonic structures, fossils, overlying and underlying formations, volcaniclastic ash beds, and to view a basaltic intrusion.
- Appalachian Basin
- basalts
- black shale
- Carboniferous
- clastic rocks
- concretions
- development
- Devonian
- Eastern U.S.
- evaluation
- field trips
- gas shale
- guidebook
- igneous rocks
- intrusions
- Laurentia
- lithostratigraphy
- Marcellus Shale
- Middle Devonian
- Millboro Shale
- Mississippian
- natural gas
- New York
- nomenclature
- North America
- Onondaga Limestone
- orogeny
- paleogeography
- Paleozoic
- Pennsylvania
- petroleum
- reconstruction
- Rheic Ocean
- road log
- secondary structures
- sedimentary rocks
- sedimentary structures
- septaria
- soft sediment deformation
- technology
- United States
- Virginia
- volcanic rocks
- volcaniclastics
- West Virginia
- Needmore Shale