From the Cincinnati Arch to the Illinois Basin: Geological Field Excursions along the Ohio River Valley

This guidebook complements the field trips offered during the 42nd Annual Meeting of the GSA North-Central Section, held in Evansville, Indiana. Topics include analysis and correlation of Silurian depositional sequences across the Cincinnati Arch in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana; conodonts and Pennsylvanian stratigraphy in southwestern Indiana; relationships between tectonism, igneous activity, and fluorite mineralization within the Illinois-Kentucky Fluorite District; characteristics and origin of the highly eroded Pennsylvanian sandstones at the Garden of the Gods in Illinois; use of filled-fracture features as indicators of seismicity within the lower Wabash and Ohio River valleys; and hydrogeology of an abandoned mine site in Indiana, with applications to planning for disposal of coal-combustion products. Two chapters focus on the history of New Harmony, Indiana, which served as headquarters for the pioneering naturalists who worked to characterize and map this country's interior. Another chapter relates the history of Evansville to the availability and use of geologic materials, with discussions on the characteristics and origins of building stones, building techniques, and architectural styles. References to mining history, with respect to building stone, coal, and fluorite, are made throughout.
Silurian high-resolution stratigraphy on the Cincinnati Arch: Progress on recalibrating the layer-cake
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Published:January 01, 2008
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CiteCitation
Patrick I. McLaughlin, Bradley D. Cramer, Carlton E. Brett, Mark A. Kleffner, 2008. "Silurian high-resolution stratigraphy on the Cincinnati Arch: Progress on recalibrating the layer-cake", From the Cincinnati Arch to the Illinois Basin: Geological Field Excursions along the Ohio River Valley, Anton H. Maria, Ronald C. Counts
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Abstract
The Silurian rocks of the Cincinnati Arch in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana have been studied for nearly two centuries. Compilation of data from these studies, combined with detailed analysis of nearly 20 continuous drill cores and remeasuring and resampling of more than 60 major outcrops, is the basis for a high-resolution sequence stratigraphic framework. Seven depositional sequences are assigned on the basis of through-going unconformities, which mirror those already recognized in the early Llandovery to early Ludlow of the northern Appalachian Basin. Revision of the conodont biostratigraphy for the Cincinnati Arch has produced results that both agree and disagree with the other lines of data implemented in the sequence stratigraphic depositional model. Biostratigraphic correlations between southern Ohio and the Niagara Falls area are largely in agreement with correlations based on other lines of data, as are correlations between west-central and western Ohio, southeastern Indiana, and northern Kentucky. However, correlations between southern and west-central Ohio show major areas of disagreement. Preliminary whole rock carbonate carbon isotope analyses in western-central Ohio show patterns roughly comparable to those documented in the Niagara region, Gotland, and elsewhere. Chemostratigraphic data that might resolve inconsistencies in the correlations between southern and west-central Ohio were not yet available at the time of publication.
- assemblages
- biostratigraphy
- biozones
- C-13/C-12
- carbon
- chemostratigraphy
- Cincinnati Arch
- Conodonta
- correlation
- facies
- field trips
- high-resolution methods
- Indiana
- isotope ratios
- isotopes
- Kentucky
- lithostratigraphy
- microfossils
- North America
- Ohio
- paleo-oceanography
- paleogeography
- Paleozoic
- road log
- sequence stratigraphy
- Silurian
- stable isotopes
- stratigraphic units
- United States