Galatia Channel:Stratigraphy: Difference between revisions

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==Stratigraphy==
==Stratigraphy==
This section describes, in ascending order, the rock units that enclose the Springfield Coal and Galatia paleochannel([[:File:C592-Figure-04.jpg|Figure 4]]). To facilitate discussion of the new depositional model, two new members are proposed.
This section describes, in ascending order, the rock units that enclose the Springfield Coal and Galatia paleochannel([[:File:C605-Figure-04.jpg|Figure 4]]). To facilitate discussion of the new depositional model, two new members are proposed.
<div><ul>
[[File:C605-Figure-04.jpg|thumb|right|250px|{{File:C605-Figure-04.jpg}}]]
<li style="display: inline-block;"> [[File:C592-Figure-04.jpg|thumb|left|400px|{{File:C592-Figure-04.jpg}}]]</li>
{|
</ul></div>
|-
 
| '''[[Galatia_Channel:Houchin_Creek_Coal|Houchin Creek Coal]]'''
==Houchin Creek Coal==
|-
[[Galatia_Channel:Stratigraphy/Houchin_Creek_Coal|Houchin Creek Coal]]
| '''[[Galatia_Channel:Excello_Shale_Member|Excello Shale Member]]'''
 
|-
==Excello Shale Member==
| '''[[Galatia_Channel:Hanover Limestone Member|Hanover Limestone Member]]'''
[[Galatia_Channel:Stratigraphy/Excello_Shale_Member|Excello Shale Member]]
|-
 
| '''[[Galatia_Channel:Delafield_Member|Delafield Member (New)]]'''
==Hanover Limestone Member==
|-
[[Galatia_Channel:Stratigraphy/Excello_Shale_Member|Hanover Limestone Member]]
| '''[[Galatia_Channel:Galatia_Member|Galatia Member (New)]]'''
 
|-
==Delafield Member (New)==
| '''[[Galatia_Channel:Underclay_of_Springfield_Coal|Underclay of Springfield Coal]]'''
[[Galatia_Channel:Stratigraphy/Delafield_Member|Delafield Member (New)]]
|-
 
| '''[[Galatia_Channel:Springfield_Coal|Springfield Coal]]'''
==Galatia Member (New)==
|-
[[Galatia_Channel:Stratigraphy/Galatia_Member|Galatia Member (New)]]
| '''[[Galatia_Channel:Dykersburg_(Shale)_Member|Dykersburg (Shale) Member]]'''
 
|-
==Underclay of Springfield Coal==
| '''[[Galatia_Channel:Turner_Mine_Shale_Member|Turner Mine Shale Member]]'''
[[Galatia_Channel:Stratigraphy/Underclay_of_Springfield_Coal|Underclay of Springfield Coal]]
|-
 
| '''[[Galatia_Channel:St._David_Limestone_Member|St. David Limestone Member]]'''
==Springfield Coal==
|-
[[Galatia_Channel:Stratigraphy/Springfield_Coal|Springfield Coal]]
| '''[[Galatia_Channel:Summary#Summary|Summary]]'''
 
|}
==Dykersburg (Shale) Member==
[[Galatia_Channel:Stratigraphy/Dykersburg_(Shale)_Member|Dykersburg (Shale) Member]]
 
==Turner Mine Shale Member==
The Turner Mine Shale is the first marine bed to follow the Springfield Coal or the Dykersburg Shale, or both. It is black, fissile, and phosphatic and lies directly above the Springfield Coal throughout the Illinois Basin wherever the Dykersburg Member is absent. The Turner Mine also overlaps the Dykersburg ([[:File:C592-Figure-04.jpg|Figure 4]]).[[File:C592-Figure-04.jpg|100px|'''Figure 4''' Diagram showing units between the Houchin Creek and Herrin Coals, including members newly named in this report.|thumb]] but typically pinches out where the Dykersburg reaches a thickness of 32.8 ft (10 m) or more. The Turner Mine averages about 3.3 ft (1 m) thick, ranging from less than 1 to 7.9 ft (0.3 to 2.4 m) thick. The Turner Mine is readily identified by very high readings on gamma-ray logs (Figure 5) and low readings on density and neutron logs.
 
The contact between the Turner Mine and Dykersburg Shale varies from rapidly gradational to erosive. Unfortunately, few mines exposing this contact have been active within the last 40 years. In the Eagle No. 2 underground mine in Gallatin County, Illinois, Dykersburg Shale occurred in lenses less than 23.6 in. (60 cm) thick, grading into overlying Turner Mine Shale. Evidently, this mine lay at the eastern depositional limit of the Dykersburg. At the Willow Lake Mine in Saline County, closer to the Galatia channel, lenses of Dykersburg were more numerous and ranged up to 3.3 ft (1 m) thick. Here, the contact was clearly erosive, with the Turner Mine lying against truncated bedding of the Dykersburg.
 
The gray, nonmarine Energy Shale Member that overlies the Herrin Coal near the contemporaneous Walshville channel is a close analogue to the Dykersburg Shale. The contact of the Energy Shale to the overlying black, phosphatic Anna Shale has been observed and mapped in large areas of several underground mines. This contact is sharply erosive, cutting off Energy Shale bedding at angles as steep as 20 degrees. The Energy Shale can be truncated from more than 16.4 ft (5 m) thick to zero in a lateral distance of 98.4 ft (30 m). Such erosion explains the highly irregular, lobate, and podlike distribution of gray shale as mapped in the mines (Bauer and DeMaris 1982; Nelson et al. 1987). Similar erosion evidently affected the Dykersburg prior to deposition of the Turner Mine Shale. The inferred origin of the Turner Mine Shale is essentially the same as that for the Excello Shale.
 
==St. David Limestone Member==
The St. David is marine limestone that overlies the Turner Mine Shale ([[:File:C592-Figure-04.jpg|Figure 4]]).[[File:C592-Figure-04.jpg|100px|'''Figure 4''' Diagram showing units between the Houchin Creek and Herrin Coals, including members newly named in this report.|thumb]]. Savage (1927) named the unit; Wanless (1956) designated (but did not describe) a type section in Fulton County, western Illinois. The name “Alum Cave Limestone” has been used for the same unit in Indiana. Wanless (1939) was the first to use Alum Cave in its present sense. The name St. David therefore has priority and will be used in this report.
 
The St. David is medium to dark gray, argillaceous, lime mudstone to wackestone containing an abundant normal-marine fauna of brachiopods, bivalves, gastropods, cephalopods, ostracods, crinoids, fusulinids, and bryozoans (Savage 1921; Wanless 1957; Shaver et al. 1986).
 
The St. David is practically coextensive with the Springfield Coal. In the Fairfield Basin and parts of western Kentucky, the limestone is less than 11.8 in. (30 cm) thick and consists of dark gray, argillaceous, fossiliferous lime mudstone to wackestone. On the Eastern Shelf in Indiana the limestone is as thick as 9.8 ft (3 m) but more commonly 1 to 3.9 ft (0.3 to 1.2 m), in two layers separated by thin shale (Wier 1961). In northwestern Illinois, the unit is normally a few inches (centimeters) to about 23 in. (60 cm) thick but locally exceeds 6.6 ft (2 m; Wanless 1957). Thicker St. David, lighter colored and less argillaceous than that found in the basin, also occurs on areas of the Western Shelf where the Springfield Coal is thick enough to mine. Along with the Turner Mine Shale, the St. David pinches out where the Dykersburg Shale is thick (~32.8 ft [10 m] or more).
 
The St. David closely resembles the older Hanover limestone and probably was deposited under similar conditions. Like the Hanover, the St. David appears to have developed better in the shallow waters of the margins of the Illinois Basin than in the deeper waters of the basin interior.
 
===Canton Shale===
Savage (1921) named the Canton Shale for the city of Canton in Fulton County, western Illinois. Little has been published about this unit. As depicted by Willman et al. (1975), the Canton Shale occupies the interval between the St. David Limestone and the Briar Hill Coal ([[:File:C592-Figure-04.jpg|Figure 4]]).[[File:C592-Figure-04.jpg|100px|'''Figure 4''' Diagram showing units between the Houchin Creek and Herrin Coals, including members newly named in this report.|thumb|left]] The following information is based on a cursory inspection of selected core records and observations in mines.
 
Generally, the Canton is an upward-coarsening succession of shale, siltstone, and fine-grained sandstone. Shale in the lower part contains numerous bands and nodules of siderite. Brachiopods and other marine fossils are common near the base. Sandstone in the upper Canton tends to be shaly and thinly layered. A few well records indicate a sharp contact between upper sandstone and lower shale, but deep channel incision is unknown. At the top of the Canton is the weakly developed underclay of the Briar Hill Coal. The thickness of the member is normally 9.8 to 49.2 ft (3 to 15 m), but the Canton reaches 82 ft (25 m) thick in Webster County, Kentucky.
 
Two problems arise in defining the Canton Shale. One problem, which does not concern this study, arises where the Briar Hill Coal is absent and the Canton cannot be distinguished from the unnamed clastic rocks overlying the Briar Hill position. The other difficulty is separating the Canton from thick Dykersburg Shale where the Turner Mine and St. David Members are missing. Core records indicate that the Canton thins to less than 9.8 ft (3 m) where the Dykersburg is thicker than about 49.2 ft (15 m).
 
In depositional terms, the Canton Shale is more or less a repetition of the Delafield Member. The unit reflects the shoreline prograding into a shoaling basin during highstand to early regression.
 
===Briar Hill Coal===
The youngest unit considered in this report, the Briar Hill Coal ([[:File:C592-Figure-04.jpg|Figure 4]])[[File:C592-Figure-04.jpg|100px|'''Figure 4''' Diagram showing units between the Houchin Creek and Herrin Coals, including members newly named in this report.|thumb]]is thin but widely persistent in southeastern Illinois, southwestern Indiana, and western Kentucky. Glenn (1912) named the coal in Union County, Kentucky; Butts (1925) extended the Briar Hill into southeastern Illinois. The same coal in Indiana has been called the Bucktown Coal Member (Shaver et al. 1970). Because Briar Hill has priority, usage of Bucktown should be discontinued.
 
The Briar Hill is confined to the southeastern part of the Illinois Basin in approximately the same region as the southeastern area of thick Springfield Coal. It extends above the Galatia channel except where the Dykersburg Member approaches its greatest thickness. Generally, the Briar Hill is a single bench of bright-banded coal between 9.8 and 19.7 in. (25 and 50 cm) thick. The maximum known thickness is about 51.2 in. (130 cm) in Sullivan County, Indiana. Where the Briar Hill is thinner than 9.8 in. (25 cm), the coal commonly becomes shaly. The Briar Hill rests on a weakly developed paleosol, commonly little more than a thin root-penetrated interval of laminated silty mudstone or siltstone. Above the coal is a shaly succession that typically coarsens upward. A thin layer of impure marine limestone or fossiliferous shale may occur at the base. No black phosphatic shale, comparable to the Excello or Turner Mine, accompanies the Briar Hill Coal.
 
==Summary==
 
# The Houchin Creek Coal formed as an in situ peat deposit on a vast, level, stable coastal plain.
# The Excello Shale records rapid marine transgression to the point where bottom water became anoxic because of the absence of circulation and the abundance of plant-derived organic matter. 
# The Hanover Limestone reflects restoration of normal marine circulation in deep water offshore, probably under a seasonally dry climate.
# The Delafield Member records progradation of the shoreline into brackish water under a falling sea level, essentially filling the basin with clastic sediment.
#5. The Galatia Member fills an incised valley that was cut and filled during regression to early lowstand. The river meandered actively and carried a heavy load of sand, rapidly backfilling its meander belt.
# Springfield peat formation commenced during lowstand (maximum glaciation) under an ever-wet climate that produced a perennially high water table. Vegetation stabilized meanders of the Galatia channel, which transitioned to a black-water stream that carried only fine-grained sediment. There were no natural levees, but belts of laminated shaly coal flank the Galatia channel. 
# The Dykersburg Member records the onset of transgression, which converted the Galatia channel to an estuary and drowned the peat swamp. Vigorous tidal currents dislodged floating mats of peat, creating rolls, splits, and localized major disruption of the seam. As the climate became seasonally dry, the fluvial runoff and sediment load increased. Gray Dykersburg clastics rapidly entombed the peat.
#8 Deposition of the marine Turner Mine black shale, St. David Limestone, and younger units completed the story.
 
The Galatia channel provides insights into events that are not recorded in most Carboniferous cyclothems. This example indicates, in conformance with some other studies (e.g., Cecil et al. 1985, 2003b, 2014; Eros et al. 2012; Horton et al. 2012; DiMichele 2014), that glacially driven sea-level fluctuations were linked to climate changes in the tropics. It also refines our understanding of when certain events (such as the development of peat) took place within the eustatic and climatic cycle. These themes will be developed further in a later section of this report. For a more complete understanding of the Galatia channel, it is necessary to investigate other paleochannels related to the Springfield Coal.
 
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Revision as of 13:38, 22 July 2020

Stratigraphy

This section describes, in ascending order, the rock units that enclose the Springfield Coal and Galatia paleochannel(Figure 4). To facilitate discussion of the new depositional model, two new members are proposed.

Figure 4 Diagram showing units between the Houchin Creek and Herrin Coals, including members newly named in this report.
Houchin Creek Coal
Excello Shale Member
Hanover Limestone Member
Delafield Member (New)
Galatia Member (New)
Underclay of Springfield Coal
Springfield Coal
Dykersburg (Shale) Member
Turner Mine Shale Member
St. David Limestone Member
Summary

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