Statenville Formation

Statenville Formation
Stratigraphic range: Miocene
Statenville Formation; Stratigraphic range: Miocene
Type	Geological formation
Unit of	Hawthorn Group
Overlies	Coosawhatchie Formation (partial)
Lithology
Primary	Sand, clay, dolomite
Other	Phosphate
Location
Region	North Florida
Country	United States
Type section
Named for	Beds near Statenville, Georgia
Named by	Huddlestun (1988)

Last updated April 28, 2019

The Statenville Formation is a geological formation of northern Florida, USA.

A formation or geological formation is the fundamental unit of lithostratigraphy. A formation consists of a certain amount of rock strata that have a comparable lithology, facies or other similar properties. Formations are not defined by the thickness of their rock strata; therefore the thickness of different formations can vary widely.

Florida is the southernmost contiguous state in the United States. The state is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida. Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U.S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. The Miami metropolitan area is Florida's most populous urban area. Tallahassee is the state's capital.

Age

Period : Neogene
Epoch : Miocene
Faunal stage : Chattian through early Blancan ~28.4 to ~2.588 mya, calculates to a period of 25.512 million years

The Neogene is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period 23.03 million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period 2.58 Mya. The Neogene is sub-divided into two epochs, the earlier Miocene and the later Pliocene. Some geologists assert that the Neogene cannot be clearly delineated from the modern geological period, the Quaternary. The term "Neogene" was coined in 1853 by the Austrian palaeontologist Moritz Hörnes (1815–1868).

In geochronology, an epoch is a subdivision of the geologic timescale that is longer than an age but shorter than a period. The current epoch is the Holocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period. Rock layers deposited during an epoch are called a series. Series are subdivisions of the stratigraphic column that, like epochs, are subdivisions of the geologic timescale. Like other geochronological divisions, epochs are normally separated by significant changes in the rock layers to which they correspond.

The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago (Ma). The Miocene was named by Charles Lyell; its name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene is preceded by the Oligocene and is followed by the Pliocene.

Location

The Statenville Formation is found in Hamilton, Columbia, and Baker County, northeastern flank of the Ocala Platform.

Hamilton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2010 census, the population was 14,799. Its county seat is Jasper.

Columbia County county is on the northern border of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2010 census, the population was 67,531. Its county seat is Lake City.

Baker County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2010 census, the population was 27,115. Its county seat is Macclenny. The county was founded in 1861 and is named for James McNair Baker, a judge and Confederate Senator.

Composition

It is composed of sands of light gray to light olive gray color which not of great hardness and contains phosphate. The sand is fine to coarse grained with scattered gravel and with minor occurrences of fossils. Clay is yellowish gray to olive gray in color, poorly consolidated and variably sandy containing phosphate. Dolomite is in thin beds of yellowish gray to light orange, poorly to well indurated, sandy, clayey and containing phosphate grains.

Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. It is defined by size, being finer than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of soil or soil type; i.e., a soil containing more than 85 percent sand-sized particles by mass.

Phosphate salt or ester of phosphoric acid

A phosphate is a chemical derivative of phosphoric acid. The phosphate ion is an inorganic chemical, the conjugate base that can form many different salts. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Of the various phosphoric acids and phosphates, organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry, and inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in agriculture and industry. At elevated temperatures in the solid state, phosphates can condense to form pyrophosphates.

Dolomite (also known as dolostone, dolomite rock or dolomitic rock) is a sedimentary carbonate rock that contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, CaMg(CO₃)₂. In old USGS publications, it was referred to as magnesian limestone, a term now reserved for magnesium-deficient dolomites or magnesium-rich limestones. Dolomite has a stoichiometric ratio of nearly equal amounts of magnesium and calcium. Most dolomites formed as a magnesium replacement of limestone or lime mud before lithification. Dolomite is resistant to erosion and can either contain bedded layers or be unbedded. It is less soluble than limestone in weakly acidic groundwater, but it can still develop solution features (karst) over time. Dolomite can act as an oil and natural gas reservoir.

The Statenville Formation partly overlies the Coosawhatchie Formation.^[1] Its permeability is generally low, forming part of the intermediate aquifer system. The phosphate content is of enough quantity to warrant mining.

The Coosawhatchie Formation is a Miocene geologic formation with an outcrop in North Florida. It is within the Hawthorn Group.

An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock, rock fractures or unconsolidated materials. Groundwater can be extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology. Related terms include aquitard, which is a bed of low permeability along an aquifer, and aquiclude, which is a solid, impermeable area underlying or overlying an aquifer. If the impermeable area overlies the aquifer, pressure could cause it to become a confined aquifer.

Fossils

Mollusks (silicified) in casts and molds.

Shark Teeth

Petrified Wood

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References

↑ Burnette, William C., Cook, P. J., Riggs, Stanley R., Stanley R. Riggs, Shergold, J. H., Phosphate deposits of the world: Neogene to modern phosphorites, Cambridge University Press, 1990.

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[1] Burnette, William C., Cook, P. J., Riggs, Stanley R., Stanley R. Riggs, Shergold, J. H., Phosphate deposits of the world: Neogene to modern phosphorites, Cambridge University Press, 1990.