Knox Supergroup

Last updated
Knox Supergroup
Stratigraphic range:
Late Cambrian-Dapingian
~497–470.0  Ma
Sphalerite (mine near Carthage, Tennessee, USA) 1 (44862884385).jpg
Sphalerite from the Knox Superroup, Tennessee
Type Supergroup
Unit of Sauk
Sub-units
Kentucky
Ohio, West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky
Pennsylvania
Indiana and Illinois
Other
Underlies Ancel Group, Wells Creek Dolomite
Overlies
Lithology
Primary Dolomite
Other Limestone and sandstone
Location
RegionIndiana, Illinois, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia
CountryUnited States
Type section
Named for Knox County, Tennessee
Named bySafford (1869, p. 151)

The Knox Supergroup, also known as the Knox Group and the Knox Formation, is a widespread geologic group in the Southeastern United States. The age is from the Late Cambrian to the Early Ordovician. Predominantly, it is composed of carbonates, chiefly dolomite, with some limestone. There are also cherty inclusions as well as thin beds of sandstone. [1] [2]

Contents

Stratigraphy

The Knox lies beneath a unconformity known as the Knox Unconformity. There is well-developed karst topography at the top of the Knox Supergroup. This demonstrates a prolonged period of erosion. This has modern economic impact because of forming reservoirs for hydrocarbons as well as some mineral deposits. [2]

Everton Formation

Collapse breccia (Everton Formation, Middle Ordovician; Rush Creek District, Arkansas, USA) 1 Collapse breccia (Everton Formation, Middle Ordovician; Rush Creek District, Arkansas, USA) 1.jpg
Collapse breccia (Everton Formation, Middle Ordovician; Rush Creek District, Arkansas, USA) 1

The Everton Formation is a geologic formation in northern Arkansas through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana that dates to the middle Ordovician Period. [3] It was named by Ulrich (1907) for exposures found around Everton, Arkansas. Fossils of Conodonts Paraprioniodus costatus and Leptochirognathus quadratus indicate Whiterockian age. [4] Unconformities separate this formation from the underlying Powell Formation and the overlying St. Peter Sandstone Formation. The Everton Formation is composed primarily of dolomite, limestone, and some sandstone as well as a zone of breccia. There are local thick sections of a friable sandstone. The grains are nearly identical to the overlying St. Peter Sandstone, and may cause some confusion in identifying the different formations. The sand grains are medium grained, well rounded and are frosted. Fossils of ostracods, cephalopods, gastropods, bivalves, trilobites, and bryozoans are preserved within the formation. [5]

Stratigraphy

Five named members of the Everton Formation are recognized (in stratigraphic order):

  • Jasper Limestone Member
  • Newton Sandstone Member
  • Calico Rock Sandstone Member
  • Kings River Sandstone Member
  • Sneeds Limestone Lentil

Beekmantown Group

Canyon passage in Skyline Caverns, Rockdale Run Formation, Beekmantown Group Canyon passage (Skyline Caverns, Front Royal, Virginia, USA) 2 (28393169636).jpg
Canyon passage in Skyline Caverns, Rockdale Run Formation, Beekmantown Group

The Beekmantown Group is the upper unit of the Knox Supergroup. [6] It is a late Cambrian to lower–middle Ordovician geologic group that occurs in the eastern Canada (Québec) and northeastern United States, [7] datable from its conodont fauna. It contains dolomitic sandstones and carbonates from just off land from the palaeocoastline. Most likely the Arbuckle Arbuckle Group of Oklahoma, and Ellenburger Group of Texas are equlivant to the Beekmantown. [8]

The usage of the term is diverse and depends on the state or region in question, and the group encompasses different formations in different regions. In some states it is considered a formation rather than a group, but the lithology varies by region. [9]

In Pennsylvania the Beekmantown is broken down into the Bellefonte Formation at the Knox Unconformity, followed by the either the Axemann Formation or the Nittany Dolomite, with the Stonehenge Dolomite at its base. The Stonehenge is stratigraphically equitant to the Chepultepec Formation. [6]

Mining and Industrial materials

Zinc is mined in outcrops found in Virginia. Mostly in Augusta, Rockingham, and Shenandoah counties. The largest is the Bowers-Campbell Mine. [10]

Within the breccia zone galena is extracted along with small amounts of sphalerite and pyrite. [8]

The Beekmantown is quarried in many locations for aggregate and rock. [11]

Chepultepec Formation

The Chepultepec Formation is an Early Ordovician-aged geological formation in the Appalachian regions of Eastern North America. Also known as the Chepultepec Dolomite, it is a unit of the Upper Knox Group, overlying the Copper Ridge Dolomite and underlying the Longview-Kingsport-Mascot sequence. The formation was named by E. O. Ulrich in 1911 for the town of Chepultepec (now Allgood). [6]

The Chepultepec Formation is a primarily limestone and dolomite formation, the earliest formation of the Ordovician period in its area. Further north, it is equivalent to the Stonehenge Formation of the Beekmantown Group. [12] The formation was first described from Allgood, and has also been found in Tennessee and Virginia. [13] In Virginia, the Chepultepec Formation has a habit of forming large natural arches, including Natural Tunnel in Scott County and Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County. [14] [15]

Prairie du Chien Group

This group includes the Oneota Formation and the Shakopee Formation.

Oneota Formation

Sugar Loaf SugarLoafSnow.jpg
Sugar Loaf

The Oneota Formation is a geologic formation in the upper Midwest (United States) including Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. It preserves marine fossils dating back to the Ordovician period. [16]

The Sugar Loaf landmark located in Winona, Minnesota is made of Oneota Dolomite.

Shakopee Formation

Shakopee Formation in southeast Minnesota Shakopee Formation SE Minnesota.jpg
Shakopee Formation in southeast Minnesota

The Shakopee Formation is a geologic formation in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It preserves fossils dating back to the Ordovician period. It is named after the town of Shakopee, Minnesota, where the formation can be seen in bluffs along the Minnesota River.

The formation is broken up into two members, the New Richmond and Willow River Members. The Shakopee was deposited in a peritidal setting and is divided by an unconformity. The unconformity left river valleys that were filled with siliciclastic material that was covered by marine deposits. Facies-defining cycles are divided into grainy carbonate, muddy carbonate, sandstone, shale, and StromatoliticAlgal mat Boundstones. [17]

Stromatolite reefs are a common occurrence in the Shakopee and are well documented throughout. Some of the recognized species of stromatolites are cryptozoon minnesotense, cryptozoon liberta and cryptozoon rosemontensis. [18]

Fossils
  • Mollusk
    • Murchisonia artemesia
    • Pleurotomaria canadensis
    • Lophospira cassina
    • Cameroceras stillwaterense
    • Cotteroceras compressum
    • Cyptendoceras ruedemanni

Related Research Articles

The Ordovician Bellefonte Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in central Pennsylvania. It is the uppermost unit of the Beekmantown Group. The top of the Bellefonte is marked by the Knox Unconformity.

The Ordovician Kittatinny Formation or Kittatinny Limestone is a dolomitic limestone formation in New Jersey. The Kittatinny Limestones are located primarily in the Kittatinny Valley where it lies above the Ordovician Martinsburg Formation within the long valley running from Picatinny Arsenal in Rockaway Township, southwest toward Chester Township. It overlies the Cambrian Hardyston Quartzite.

The Shadow Lake formation is a geological unit that crops out in Southern Ontario, Canada and northern Pennsylvania, United States. The shaly sections act as a caprock to petroleum reservoirs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potsdam Sandstone</span>

The Potsdam Sandstone, more formally known as the Potsdam Group, is a geologic unit of mid-to-late Cambrian age found in Northern New York and northern Vermont and Quebec and Ontario. A well-cemented sandstone of nearly pure quartz, in the 19th century it was widely used in construction and in refractory linings for iron furnaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tonto Group</span> Cambrian geologic unit in the Grand Canyon region, Arizona

The Tonto Group is a name for an assemblage of related sedimentary strata, collectively known by geologists as a Group, that comprises the basal sequence Paleozoic strata exposed in the sides of the Grand Canyon. As currently defined, the Tonto groups consists of the Sixtymile Formation, Tapeats Sandstone, Bright Angel Shale, Muav Limestone, and Frenchman Mountain Dolostone. Historically, it included only the Tapeats Sandstone, Bright Angel Shale, and Muav Limestone. Because these units are defined by lithology and three of them interfinger and intergrade laterally, they lack the simple layer cake geology as they are typically portrayed as having and geological mapping of them is complicated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tapeats Sandstone</span> Cambrian geologic formation found in the Southwestern United States

Except where underlain by the Sixtymile Formation, the Tapeats Sandstone is the Cambrian geologic formation that is the basal geologic unit of the Tonto Group. Typically, it is also the basal geologic formation of the Phanerozoic strata exposed in the Grand Canyon, Arizona, and parts of northern Arizona, central Arizona, southeast California, southern Nevada, and southeast Utah. The Tapeats Sandstone is about 70 m (230 ft) thick, at its maximum. The lower and middle sandstone beds of the Tapeats Sandstone are well-cemented, resistant to erosion, and form brownish, vertical cliffs that rise above the underlying Precambrian strata outcropping within Granite Gorge. They form the edge of the Tonto Platform. The upper beds of the Tapeats Sandstone form the surface of the Tonto Platform. The overlying soft shales and siltstones of the Bright Angel Shale underlie drab-greenish slopes that rise from the Tonto Platform to cliffs formed by limestones of the Muav Limestone and dolomites of the Frenchman Mountain Dolostone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bass Formation</span> Lithostratigraphic unit found in Arizona, US

The Bass Formation, also known as the Bass Limestone, is a Mesoproterozoic rock formation that outcrops in the eastern Grand Canyon, Coconino County, Arizona. The Bass Formation erodes as either cliffs or stair-stepped cliffs. In the case of the stair-stepped topography, resistant dolomite layers form risers and argillite layers form steep treads. In general, the Bass Formation in the Grand Canyon region and associated strata of the Unkar Group-rocks dip northeast (10°–30°) toward normal faults that dip 60+° toward the southwest. This can be seen at the Palisades fault in the eastern part of the main Unkar Group outcrop area. In addition, thick, prominent, and dark-colored basaltic sills intrude across the Bass Formation.

The Neoproterozoic Chuar Group consists of 1,600 m (5,200 ft) of exceptionally well-preserved, unmetamorphosed sedimentary strata that is composed of about 85% mudrock. The Group is the approximate upper half of the Grand Canyon Supergroup, overlain by the thin, in comparison, Sixtymile Formation, the top member of the multi-membered Grand Canyon Supergroup. The outcrop of the Chuar Group strata is limited to exposures along the western bank of the Colorado River in a 150 km2 (58 sq mi) area of the eastern Grand Canyon, Arizona. The strata of the Chuar Group have been subdivided into the Galeros Formation (lower) and the Kwagunt Formation (upper) using the base of the prominent, thick sandstone unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordan Formation</span> Geologic formation in the United States

The Jordan Formation is a siliciclastic sedimentary rock unit identified in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. Named for distinctive outcrops in the Minnesota River Valley near the town of Jordan, it extends throughout the Iowa Shelf and eastward over the Wisconsin Arch and Lincoln anticline into the Michigan Basin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black River Group</span> Geologic group in Eastern and Midwestern, USA

The Black River Group is a geologic group that covers three sedimentary basins in the Eastern and Midwestern United States. These include the Appalachian Basin, Illinois Basin and the Michigan Basin. It dates back to the Late Ordovician period. It is roughly equivalent to the Platteville Group in Illinois. In Kentucky and Tennessee it is also known as the High Bridge Group. In areas where this Geologic Unit thins it is also called the Black River Formation (undifferentiated). One example of this is over the Cincinnati Arch and Findley Arch. Large parts of the Black River have been dolomized (where the parent limestone CaCO3 has been turned into dolomite CaMg(CO3)2.) This happed when there was interaction of hot saline brine and the limestone. This created hydrothermal dolomites that in some areas serve as petroleum reservoirs.

The Shady Dolomite is a geologic formation composed of marine sedimentary rocks of early Cambrian age. It outcrops along the eastern margin of the Blue Ridge province in the southeastern United States and can be found in outcrops in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. It can also be found in the subsurface of Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. The Shady is predominantly composed of dolomite and limestone with lesser amounts of mudrock. It contains fossils of trilobites, archaeocyathids, algae, brachiopods, and echinoderms, along with the enigmatic fossil Salterella. The Shady Dolomite was first described by Arthur Keith in 1903 and was named for exposures in the Shady Valley of Johnson County in the state of Tennessee. Near Austinville, Virginia, the Shady hosts ore deposits that have been mined extensively for lead and zinc ore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonneterre Formation</span> Upper Cambrian geologic formation

The Bonneterre Formation is an Upper Cambrian geologic formation which outcrops in the St. Francois Mountains of the Missouri Ozarks. The Bonneterre is a major host rock for the lead ores of the Missouri Lead Belt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montoya Group</span>

The Montoya Group is a group of geologic formations in westernmost Texas and southern New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the late Ordovician period.

The Mansfield Natural Gas Field is located west of Mansfield, Ohio, within the Appalachian foreland basin. The field is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long by 1.4 miles (2.3 km) wide and is in a general oval shape, stretching northward. This field, although small, is an analog for many of the natural gas fields that occur within the Appalachian Basin. It was first discovered by the Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company in the early 1930s. It is part of the Utica – Lower Paleozoic system, which is estimated to make up 15 to 20 percent of the total hydrocarbon abundance of the Appalachian Basin.

Lahaska Creek is a tributary of Mill Creek in Wrightstown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The Geographic Name Information System I.D. is 1178763, U.S. Department of the Interior Geological Survey I.D. is 02632.

The geology of Ohio formed beginning more than one billion years ago in the Proterozoic eon of the Precambrian. The igneous and metamorphic crystalline basement rock is poorly understood except through deep boreholes and does not outcrop at the surface. The basement rock is divided between the Grenville Province and Superior Province. When the Grenville Province crust collided with Proto-North America, it launched the Grenville orogeny, a major mountain building event. The Grenville mountains eroded, filling in rift basins and Ohio was flooded and periodically exposed as dry land throughout the Paleozoic. In addition to marine carbonates such as limestone and dolomite, large deposits of shale and sandstone formed as subsequent mountain building events such as the Taconic orogeny and Acadian orogeny led to additional sediment deposition. Ohio transitioned to dryland conditions in the Pennsylvanian, forming large coal swamps and the region has been dryland ever since. Until the Pleistocene glaciations erased these features, the landscape was cut with deep stream valleys, which scoured away hundreds of meters of rock leaving little trace of geologic history in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic.

The geology of Missouri includes deep Precambrian basement rocks formed within the last two billion years and overlain by thick sequences of marine sedimentary rocks, interspersed with igneous rocks by periods of volcanic activity. Missouri is a leading producer of lead from minerals formed in Paleozoic dolomite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geology of Utah</span>

The geology of Utah, in the western United States, includes rocks formed at the edge of the proto-North American continent during the Precambrian. A shallow marine sedimentary environment covered the region for much of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, followed by dryland conditions, volcanism, and the formation of the basin and range terrain in the Cenozoic.

The geology of Yukon includes sections of ancient Precambrian Proterozoic rock from the western edge of the proto-North American continent Laurentia, with several different island arc terranes added through the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic, driving volcanism, pluton formation and sedimentation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Lake Member</span> Geologic formation in Tennessee, United States

The Douglas Lake Member is a geologic unit of member rank of the Lenoir Limestone that overlies the Mascot Dolomite and underlies typical nodular member of the Lenoir Limestone in Douglas Lake, Tennessee, region. It fills depressions that are part of a regional unconformity at the base of Middle Ordovician strata, locally the Lenoir Limestone, that separates them from the underlying Lower Ordovician strata, locally the Knox Group.

References

  1. Hickman, John B. (17 December 2019). "Major Lower Paleozoic Horizons of the Southern Illinois Basin". University of Kentucky.
  2. 1 2 Gooding, Patrick J. (1992). UNCONFORMITY AT THE TOP OF THE KNOX GROUP (CAMBRIAN AND ORDOVICIAN) IN THE SUBSURFACE OF SOUTH-CENTRAL KENTUCKY. Kentucky Geological Survey. p. 12.
  3. "Everton Formation, Arkansas Geologic Survey, Ozark Plateaus, Ordovician". Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-11.
  4. "Everton Dolomite". legacy.igws.indiana.edu. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  5. "Ordovician period of the Ozark Plateaus in Arkansas". www.geology.arkansas.gov. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  6. 1 2 3 CALVERT, WARREN L. (1962). "SUB-TRENTON ROCKS FROM LEE COUNTY, VIRGINIA, TO FAYETTE COUNTY, OHIO" (PDF). Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  7. Hersi, O. S.; Lavoie, D.; Nowlan, G. S. (2003). "Reappraisal of the Beekmantown Group sedimentology and stratigraphy, Montréal area, southwestern Quebec: Implications for understanding the depositional evolution of the Lower-Middle Ordovician Laurentian passive margin of eastern Canada". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 40 (2): 149. Bibcode:2003CaJES..40..149H. doi:10.1139/e02-077.
  8. 1 2 Herbert, Jr, Paul; Young, Robert S. (1956). "Sulfide Mineralization in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia" (PDF). Department of Energy Virginia.
  9. Beekmantown Geologic Unit, Geolex – Unit Summary, National Geologic Map Database. USGS/AASG. Retrieved 2018-06-11.
  10. "Virginia Energy - Geology and Mineral Resources - Zinc". energy.virginia.gov. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  11. Wilkes, Gerald P. (2007). "BEDROCK GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE LEXINGTON 7.5-MINUTE QUADRANGLE, VIRGINIA" (PDF). Virginia Department of Energy.
  12. Read, J. Fred; Eriksson, Kenneth A. (2012). "Paleozoic Sedimentary Successions of the Virginia Valley & Ridge and Plateau" (PDF). Virginia Tech Scholarly Works, Department of Geosciences.
  13. Unklesbay, A.G.; Young, Robert S. (May 1956). "Early Ordovician Nautiloids from Virginia". Journal of Paleontology. 30 (3): 481–491.
  14. Spencer, Edgar W. (May 1964). "Natural Bridge and vicinity" (PDF). Virginia Minerals. 10 (2): 1–6.
  15. Woodward, Edgar W. (1936). "Natural bridge and Natural Tunnel, Virginia". The Journal of Geology. 44 (5): 604–616. Bibcode:1936JG.....44..604W. doi:10.1086/624457.
  16. "Oneota Dolomite".
  17. "Geoscience Wisconsin Volume 17 - Sedimentology and Sequence Stratigraphy of a Lower Ordovician Mixed Siliciclastic-Carbonate System, Shakopee Formation, Fox River Valley of East-Central Wisconsin - WGNHS". wgnhs.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  18. STAUFFER, CLINTON R. (July 1945). "Cryptozoons of the Shakopee Dolomite". Journal of Paleontology. 19 (4): 376–379. JSTOR   1299048 via JSTOR.