Farmville Basin

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The Farmville Basin was one of the Eastern North America Rift Basins. It lies west of Virginia State Route 45 and includes Farmville, Virginia.

Eastern North America Rift Basins A series of sediment-filled aborted rifts created by large-scale continental extension

The Eastern North America Rift Basins are a series of sediment-filled aborted rifts created by large-scale continental extension. Their positions closely mirror the eastern coast of North America.

Virginia State Route 45 highway in Virginia

State Route 45 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The state highway runs 39.72 miles (63.92 km) from the junction of U.S. Route 15 Business and US 460 Business in Farmville north to SR 6 at Georges Tavern. SR 45 is the primary north–south highway of Cumberland County, where the highway meets US 60 near the county seat, Cumberland.

Farmville, Virginia Town in Virginia, United States

Farmville is a town in Prince Edward and Cumberland counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 8,216 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Prince Edward County.

Contents

Farmville Basin Diagram from Virginia DMME Farmville Basin Diagram from Virginia DMME.jpg
Farmville Basin Diagram from Virginia DMME

Extent

The Farmville Basin lies in Virginia spreading North from Farmville, through Cumberland from modern day Cumberland State Forest to Briery Creek with a little bit in Buckingham. [1]

Cumberland County, Virginia County in the United States

Cumberland County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,052. Its county seat is Cumberland.

Cumberland State Forest

Cumberland State Forest is a Virginia state forest located in the piedmont of the state, in Cumberland County. The 16,233-acre (65.69 km2) forest borders the Willis River. Within its confines may be found Bear Creek Lake State Park and a small family cemetery containing the grave of Charles Irving Thornton; the grave marker, with its inscription by Charles Dickens, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Buckingham County, Virginia County in the United States

Buckingham County is a rural United States county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and containing the geographic center of the state. Buckingham County is part of the Piedmont region of Virginia, and the county seat is the town of Buckingham.

Farmville Basin Geology

The combined continents of Africa and the Americas split apart from the combined continent of Pangea during the Triassic Period. A small rift was opened in the Farmville area into which water flowed and allowed for wetland life. The wetland life was later covered with sediment forming clay, and the pressure formed soft, Bituminous coal over hundreds of millions of years. [2] [3]

Bituminous coal collective term for higher quality coal

Bituminous coal or black coal is a relatively soft coal containing a tarlike substance called bitumen or asphalt. It is of higher quality than lignite coal but of poorer quality than anthracite. Formation is usually the result of high pressure being exerted on lignite. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. These distinctive sequences, which are classified according to either "dull, bright-banded" or "bright, dull-banded", is how bituminous coals are stratigraphically identified.

Coal beds in the Triassic Basin near Richmond and Farmville were formed 205 to 245 million years ago, when Pangaea was splitting up rather than colliding. In the Triassic Basin, pressure to convert organic plant material into coal came from just the weight of overlying sediments, without tectonics. That is why the local coal is bituminous, rather than semi-anthracite. [3]

Richmond, Virginia Capital of Virginia

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and the Greater Richmond Region. Richmond was incorporated in 1742 and has been an independent city since 1871.

Pangaea Supercontinent from the late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic eras

Pangaea or Pangea was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from earlier continental units approximately 335 million years ago, and it began to break apart about 175 million years ago. In contrast to the present Earth and its distribution of continental mass, much of Pangaea was in the southern hemisphere and surrounded by a superocean, Panthalassa. Pangaea was the most recent supercontinent to have existed and the first to be reconstructed by geologists.

Tectonics The processes that control the structure and properties of the Earths crust and its evolution through time

Tectonics is the process that controls the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. In particular, it describes the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents known as cratons, and the ways in which the relatively rigid plates that constitute the Earth's outer shell interact with each other. Tectonics also provides a framework for understanding the earthquake and volcanic belts that directly affect much of the global population. Tectonic studies are important as guides for economic geologists searching for fossil fuels and ore deposits of metallic and nonmetallic resources. An understanding of tectonic principles is essential to geomorphologists to explain erosion patterns and other Earth surface features.

Farmville Basin Mining

The Prince Edward Coal Mining Company
Private
Industry Coal
Founded (March 24, 1837 (March 24, 1837))
Defunct

1880 (1880)

[1]
Headquarters Farmville, Virginia
Area served
Farmville
Piedmont Coal Company
Industry Coal
Founded 1860 (1860) in Raines Tavern, Virginia, United States
Founder John Dalby [2]

Coal was mined in the Briery Creek Watershed near Prince Edward Courthouse from as early as 1834 and by the Piedmont Mining Company in the 1860s. [3] Daddow and Bannon, in 1866, described seven or eight coal seams ranging from 0.5 to 3.0 feet thick every 300 feet. They also reported that natural anthracite in some places. The individual seams were irregular and contained sulfur and other impurities. [2] So mining was not as efficient as in the mountains of Virginia with huge seams. [4]

Sulfur Chemical element with atomic number 16

Sulfur or sulphur is a chemical element with symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent, and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow, crystalline solid at room temperature.

Clays for Brick Making

Triassic Clays are not so abundant but the clays of the Farmville Basin show some plasticity. Certain ones like those tested from Farmville would do for the manufacture of hollow brick. The clay was a good red color at the surface but had too much mica a few feet down. Some clays in the basin make bricks as hard as steel. [5] Some brick making was done in the basin the 1870s. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Gaskins, Ray A. (2015-12-23). "Monthly Happenings in Farmville and Prince Edward County". The Farmville Herald. Farmville, Virginia. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  2. 1 2 3 Wilkes and, Gerald P. (August 1882). GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF THE FARMVILLE TRIASSIC BASIN, VIRGINIA (PDF) (Report) (Vol. 28 Num. 3 ed.). Charlottesville, Virginia: Virginia Division of Mineral Resources. Retrieved 2016-08-08.
  3. 1 2 3 Grymes, Charlie (2016). "Coal in Virginia". Virginia Places. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
  4. Ann B. Miller (June 2011). ""Backsights" Essays in Virginia Transportation History Volume One: Reprints of Series One (1972-1985)" (PDF). Virginia DOT. Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
  5. RIES, H. R.; SOMERS, E. (1917). The Clays Of the Piedmont Province,Virginia (VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY) (Report) (Bulletin NO . XIII ed.). Charlottesville, Virginia: UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. pp. 22–26. Retrieved 2016-08-04.