Galatia Channel:Delafield Member

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  • Figure 4 Diagram showing units between the Houchin Creek and Herrin Coals, including members newly named in this report.

Delafield Member (New)

Name and definition

Between the Hanover Limestone and the base of the Springfield Coal is a thick, regionally extensive interval of shale, siltstone, sandstone, and mudstone that typically coarsens upward. The name Delafield Member is hereby proposed in reference to the community of Delafield in Hamilton County, southern Illinois.

Type section

The type section of the Delafield Member is the core from the Energy Plus #ME-13 borehole, which was drilled about 1.6 mi (2.5 km) southeast of Delafield (Sec. 31, T4S, R6E, Hamilton County, County No. 25463). The member occupies the depth interval from 1,048.3 to 1,123.2 ft (319.5 to 342.4 m) in the core, and is 74.9 ft (22.8 m) thick (Figure 6, Appendix). The entire core from the Energy Plus borehole is in permanent storage at the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) Samples Library. The core description, a gamma ray-density log, and other data on the borehole are on file at the ISGS Geologic Records Unit and available via the ISGS website.

  • Figure 6 Graphic logs from cores serving as type sections of the newly named members: (a) Energy Plus borehole no. ME-13 in sec. 31, T4S, R6E, type section of the Delafield Member. (b) Kerr-McGee borehole no. 7629-16 in sec. 29, T7S, R6E, Saline County, type section of the Galatia Member.

Thickness and distribution

Weiner (1961) produced a map showing the thickness of what is essentially the Delafield Member in the Illinois Basin. Wanless et al. (1963, Figure 13) and Wanless et al. (1970, Figure 4) published more legible versions. As reproduced here (Figure 7), the map shows that the Delafield Member thins westward from maximum values of more than 98.4 ft (30 m) in southwestern Indiana and southeastern Illinois. The greatest known thickness is 124.7 ft (38 m) in eastern Wayne County, Illinois. The Delafield thins to less than 16.4 ft (5 m) in much of western and northern Illinois, although the detailed pattern undoubtedly is more complex than shown on Figure 7.

  • Figure 13 Photographs showing the ragged, erosive contact between the light-colored siltstone of the Dykersburg Member and the underlying coaly shale of the Galatia Member in the channel crossing at the Galatia Mine, Saline County, Illinois. (a) View of the east wall of the entry. Coaly shale of the Galatia Member grades laterally northward (left, out of view) to shaly Springfield Coal. The pick is approximately 2 ft (60 cm) long. (b) Close-up view on the west wall of the entry. The heart of the Galatia channel is south (left) of view. Notice how erosion undercut the clay below layers of tough, fibrous peat.
  • Figure 4 Diagram showing units between the Houchin Creek and Herrin Coals, including members newly named in this report.
  • Figure 7 Isopach map of the Delafield Member. After Wanless et al. (1970)[1]. Thicknesses are in feet.

Lithology

The Delafield consistently coarsens upward. Dark gray, sideritic clay-shale that contains abundant nodules and bands of siderite is at the base. This grades upward through silty shale to siltstone and fine-grained sandstone. Shale, siltstone, and sandstone are commonly interlaminated in the upper Delafield. Structures include planar, wavy, ripple, and cross-lamination, along with slumped lamination. Definite neap–spring tidal bundles were displayed in one of the cores examined. At the top, siltstone grades upward to claystone or silty mudstone having paleosol features (Springfield underclay). The upward-coarsening profile is evident on electric and other geophysical logs (Figure 5a, Figure 5b).

  • Figure 5a Wireline log illustrating the typical response of key units. (a) Electric log of Carter Oil No. 1 Beers well in sec. 28, T8S, R4E, Williamson County, Illinois (county no. 2107). B, Brereton Limestone; H, Herrin Coal; Sp, Springfield Coal; Han, Hanover Limestone; HC, Houchin Creek Coal; SV, Survant Coal; MQ, Mecca Quarry Shale; C, Colchester Coal. (b) Gamma-ray–resistivity log of Peabody Natural Gas No. 2 Short, in sec. 14, T7S, R7E, Hamilton County (county no. 25375).
  • Figure 5b Wireline log illustrating the typical response of key units. (a) Electric log of Carter Oil No. 1 Beers well in sec. 28, T8S, R4E, Williamson County, Illinois (county no. 2107). B, Brereton Limestone; H, Herrin Coal; Sp, Springfield Coal; Han, Hanover Limestone; HC, Houchin Creek Coal; SV, Survant Coal; MQ, Mecca Quarry Shale; C, Colchester Coal. (b) Gamma-ray–resistivity log of Peabody Natural Gas No. 2 Short, in sec. 14, T7S, R7E, Hamilton County (county no. 25375).

Contacts

The base of the Delafield Member is the top of the Hanover Limestone or, where the Hanover is absent, the top of the Excello Shale. This contact is sharp or gradational within an interval a few centimeters thick. The top of the Delafield is the base of the Springfield Coal or the base of the new Galatia Member. The contact to the coal is generally conformable but sharp, whereas the contact to the Galatia Member is erosive. Where the Galatia Member is absent, the underclay of the Springfield Coal is part of the Delafield Member.

Fossils

Fossils are scarce in the Delafield Member, but they record a transition from near-normal marine conditions at the outset of deposition to increasingly brackish water through time. Articulate brachiopods, crinoid fragments, and other marine forms occur at the base. Above this are found rare pectenoid pelecypods, linguloid brachiopods, a single nautiloid cephalopod, and plant fragments. Burrows are present but not common. The type core contains the trace fossils Teichichnus and Conostichus, which have marine affinities.

Interpretation

The Delafield reflects a rapidly prograding shoreline. Deposition apparently took place in a complex of deltas and shoaling bays; normal marine salinity rapidly gave way to brackish water. At the end of Delafield deposition, terrestrial clastics essentially filled the Illinois Basin as marginal marine sedimentation gave way to emergence and soil formation (underclay of Springfield Coal).


Primary Source

Nelson, W.J., S.D. Elrick, W.A. DiMichele, and P.R. Ames, 2020, Evolution of a peat-contemporaneous channel: The Galatia channel, Middle Pennsylvanian, of the Illinois Basin: Illinois State Geological Survey, Circular 605, 85 p., 6 pls.

References

  1. Wanless, H.R., J.R. Baroffio, J.C. Gamble, J.C. Horne, D.R. Orlopp, A. RochaCampos, J.E. Souter, P.C. Trescott, R.S. Vail, and C.R. Wright, 1970, Late Paleozoic deltas in the central and eastern United States, in J.P. Morgan and R.H. Shaver, eds., Deltaic sedimentation, modern and ancient: Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Special Publication 15, p. 215–245, https://doi.org/10.2110/pec.70.11.0215