USA > Alabama > Hand-book of Alabama. A complete index to the state, with map > Part 35
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
Barite-Is found associated with the Trenton limestone in many localities in Bibb, Shelby and Talladega counties.
Halloysite or Porcelain Clay -- Is mined near Sulphur 27
410
HAND-BOOK OF ALABAMA.
Springs. in DeKalb county, but occurs in small quantities in several localities in the sub-carboniferous formation.
Manganese Ore-Like the brown iron ores, is usually found associated with the sub-carboniferous or the lower Silurian beds, e. g., in Blount, Tuskaloosa, St. Clair, Calhoun and other counties, but it has nowhere yet been found in sufficient quan- tity to be of great commercial importance.
Sandstone-For building purposes has been quarried from the strata of the coal measures near Cullman, from the Clinton formation in Wills valley, and elsewhere from the Cambrian formation in many localities.
Siderite or Spathie Ore, or Clay Iron Stone-Is common in the coal measures, but not as yet mined.
Black Band-Is also, not uncommon in the same formation.
Buwriter .- This important mineral, used as a source of metallic alluminum, is now being shipped in large quantity from Cherokee county. It is associated with the brown iron ores of that region. Other occurrences are known in Calhoun county.
MESOZOIC AND CENOZOIC FORMATIONS - CRETA- .
CEOUS AND TERTIARY.
After the accumulation as above described and the eleva- vation above the sea of the sediments which make up the Paleozoic formations, they constituted the land area of Ala- bama. This ancient land area was in the northeast part of the State, its gulf border being then along a curved line passing from the northwest corner of the State, through Fayette Court House, Tuskaloosa, Scottsville, Centreville and Wetumpka, to Columbus, Georgia. During the next following geological periods, which have been named Cretaceous and l'ertiary, this land mass, disintegrated by atmospheric agen- cies, furnished the material which was carried down by rains, rivulets and rivers to the gulf and spread upon its floor in the form of beds of pebbles and coarse sand near the shore and in the shallow places, in the form of fine sand and clays in the
411
GEOLOGY OF THE STATE. ·
deeper parts and farther from the shores, while in still deeper waters, not reached or only partially affected by the washing's from the land, flourished the corals and other marine animals which formed the limestones.
During all this time there was a gradual elevation of the land-varied at intervals by periods of rest and even of down- ward movement-in striking contrast to the manner in which the Paleozoic deposits were elevated and compressed together, folded and faulted. The result of this movement was to transfer southward, step by step, the shore line of the gulf and to add to the dry land, in successive belts, the sediments which had accumulated along the coasts. As each belt of these deposits was added to the dry land, it, in turn, was sub- jected to erosion, and contributed its share to the materials carried down by the streams and deposited upon the bottom of the sea, to form the strata of the newer formations, them- selves in time and in similar way to be added to the firm land.
From this account, it will be seen that our Cretaceous and Tertiary formations consist of strata having a gentle slope toward the south and coming to the surface, or outcropping, in approximately parallel belts across the State-the oldest beds farthest north and the newer beds occupying the surface, one after the other, as we go southward in the order of their relative age.
By making careful examinations and measurements of the various strata, as exposed along our rivers, in gullies and other natural sections, and by making use of the records of artesian borings, the quality and thickness of the sediments of these two formations have been worked out with some accuracy. If all the strata could be penetrated by a single boring, we should find about 2,500 feet of them belonging to the Creta- ceous, and some 1,800 feet to the Tertiary, and we should also find, as might be expected from their mode of deposition, that the greater part of these sediments consists of sands inter- stratified with thin sheets and, in some instances, with thick beds of clay.
At two horizons, viz : in the uppermost of the Cretaceous and at the top of the Tertiary also, we find important calea- reous deposits, the rotten limestone of the Cretaceous, which forms the basis of our prairie lands, being about 1,000 feet
412
. HAND-BOOK OF ALABAMA.
thick, and the white limestone of the Tertiary, which also forms prairie or lime lands, being 200 or 300 feet thick. In the eastern half of the State one of the lowermost of the Tertiary beds is a limestone.
Among the sandy strata of the Tertiary we find several important beds of marine shells which can be used as marls, and also beds of lignite or brown coal, which, though small of value as fuel, has recently been found to be the best material to be used in the clarifying of sugar.
Cretaceous .- At the bottom of the Cretaceous, we find about 1,000 feet of clays and sands, more clayey below and sandier above, constituting what has been called the Tuska- loosa formation. These beds are much thinner, going eastward, and on the Chattahoochee river, are less than 100 feet. In the lower part of this formation there are important beds of clay, in which purple colors are conspicuous. Some of these clays will one day come extensively into use in the manufacture of fire brick and various kinds of earthenware. In the same for- mation are found beds of yellow ochre, which have been mined in two or three localities. A fairly good quality of iron ore is likewise found in many places in this formation. Next above the Tuskaloosa come about 300 feet of strata chiefly sandy, to which the name Entre has been given. These beds, along the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, have yielded very few fossrl remains, but going eastward, they become highly fossiliferous.
Next above the Eutaw follow the calcareous beds of the rotten limestone,* 1,000 feet thick along the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, but becoming much thinner toward the east, and giving out entirely before the Chattahoochee reached. This formation gives rise to the calcareous soils of the black belt, or canebrake, one of the most noted farming regions in the State. At the base and at the top of this formation are two beds of phosphatic green sund, to which special attention will be directed later.
The uppermost division of the Cretaceous has been named Ripley. The strata are, in the western part of the State, cal- careous below and sandy above; toward the east this formation
.A part of this rock is a true chalk formation, rather than a limestone. The name, rotten limestone, is open to many objections, chief among which is the fact that the greater part of the formation is not a limestone at all, strictly speaking.
413
GEOLOGY OF THE STATE.
becomes much thicker, being 1,000 feet on the Chattahoochee river. In the eastern part of the State the most important strata of the Ripley are the blue micaceous marts which play so prominent a part as a soil maker.
Materials of Economic Importance in the Cretaceous .- The most important materials in this formation are the phos- phutes. These occur as nodules of nearly pure phosphate of lime, similar to the phosphates of South Carolina, but which have nowhere been found in great abundance, or as phosphutic green sand, more or less calcareous, containing up to five per cent. of phosphoric acid, occurring in large quantity. As above indicated, there are two horizons where these materials occur, namely, at the base and at the top of the rotten lime- stone, and they outcrop across the State in two belts, one immediately north and the other immediately south of the black or prairie belt. In the Alabama Geological Reports, and in occasional papers, much detail has been given concern- ing these marls; their capabilities have been fully shown by experiments in several localities. It will, however, be a long time before they come into general use. as a mountain of preju- dice and conservatism will have to be first removed. Materials of exactly similar quality have for many years been used with the best results in New Jersey. Apart from these marls and phosphates, the Cretaceous has little to show of valuable mate- rials, except the clays and ochres in the Tuskaloosa series above alluded to. The clays are mined at several points along the Alabama Great Southern Railroad in Jefferson and Tuska- loosa counties. Yellow ochre from this same formation has been mined for a number of years in Elmore county, near Coosada station.
Tertiary .- The sub-divisions of the Tertiary have been given fully in the table at the head of the present article. A few words of explanation may be added :
At the base of the Tertiary is found an impure limestone, thin and inconspicuous in west Alabama, but thickening east- ward until, on the Chattahoochee river, it is fully 200 feet.
This we have called the Clayton limestone, formerly known as our Midway group, from a locality on the Alabama river.
Next above the Clayton, we find on the Tombigbee river, a series of black clays, 100 feet in thickness, well exposed at
414
HAND-BOOK OF ALABAMA.
Black Bluff, on the Sucarnochee river, and, therefore, called by the latter name. These clays thin down rapidly, becoming more calcareous toward the east, and in Wilcox county form the base of some fine prairies. Beyond Wilcox county, toward the east, this section of the Tertiary has not yet been identified.
Next succeeding the Sucarnochee, or Black Bluff group, is the Matheus' Landing, or Naheola series, composed of gray i sands and clays, with a highly fossiliferous bed at its base, and a thick bed of lignite at the top. On the Tombigbee river this group is nearly two hundred feet in thickness. Eastward, it decreases in thickness, and is lacking entirely on the Chatta- hoochee river. The next group, called the Nanafalia series, maintains a tolerably uniform thickness across the State from the Tombighee to the Chattahoochee. The beds are mostly sandy, but contain a great number of shells of a small oyster called gryphieu thirst. Near the Alabama river, and eastward, the upper part of this group contains a gray aluminous rock, which very closely resembles the buhrstone below described, and, from this resemblance, called by us " pseudo-buhrstone."
The Tuscahoma .- This series consists mainly of gray and yellow laminated, cross-bedded sands and sandy clays, gener- ally poor in fossils, except at Yellow Bluff and Bell's Landing, on the Alabama river. It maintains a pretty uniform thickness across the State of about 140 feet.
The Bashi .- The characteristic feature of this group in Western Alabama is a bed of green sand marl, highly fossilif- erous, having its greatest development at Wood's Bluff, on the Tombigbee river. Immediately below this marl we find several beds of liguite. East of the Sepulgah river, according to Mr. Langdon, the lignite is wanting. The thickness of this group varies, it being on the Tombigbee about eighty feet, and on Pea river 150 feet, while on the Chattahoochee river it is only forty- four feet, and nearly devoid of fossils.
The Hatchetigbee .- This member consists of brown, purple and gray laminated, sandy clays, and cross-bedded sands, about 175 feet thick, on the Tombigbee river, where a great abund- ance and variety of fossils are met with. Eastward, these beds thin down, and on the Chattahoochee river the thickness is not more than ten feet, but the lithological features remain practi- cally constant.
415
GEOLOGY OF THE STATE.
1
The Buhrstone .- In the western part of the State the most · prominent rocks of this series are aluminous sandstones, or siliceous clay stones, varying slightly in composition, and poor in fossils. In eastern Alabama the percentage of clay decreases and the rocks become more calcareous, and the fossils more abundant, and in place of the silicified casts characterizing them on the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, are extensive beds of shells, of which oysters form a very large proportion. On the Tombigbee the thickness of this series is estimated at 400 feet, and this thickness decreases until, on the Chattahoo- chee river, it is less than 200 feet.
The Claiborne .- The thickness of this group on the Ala- bama river is about 145 feet, and at Claiborne Bluff several distinct strata have been described. The most important of these occurs at the top, and is a bed of sand seventeen feet in thickness, filled with the beautifully preserved shells which have made this locality famous. Below this comes a series of beds, in which an oyster 'called ostrea sella formis is the most abundant and characteristic fossil. Below these ostrea sellæe- formis beds we find another highly fossiliferous stratum, ex- posed along the Alabama river at Lisbon Landing. The most persistent member of this series is that which is characterized by ostrea sellætormis, and this is the only representative of the Claiborne formation on the Chattahoochee river, where the thickness is only seventy-five feet.
The White Limestone. This is the uppermost member of the Eocene in Alabama. The most abundant and characteristic rock is a white, friable limestone ( Vicksburg limestone) which when freshly quarried can easily be cut with a saw or axe, and is used extensively, in the region of its occurrence, in the con- struction of chimney and pillars for houses. The characteris- tic fossil of the white limestone is the orbitoides lyelli. The thickness of the formation in Western Alabama is about 200 feet, which thickness it maintains across the State, being at least 275 feet on the Chattahoochee. The lower part of this series is made of an impure, clayey limestone (Jackson), which, in disintegrating, gives rise to black, calcareous soils, similar to those of the black belt of the Cretaceous ; but the topogra- phy in these Tertiary prairies is extremely broken, and the region of their occurrence is usually known as the lime hills.
416
HIAND-BOOK OF ALABAMA.
The Grand Gulf .- Southward of the region of the occur- rence of the white limestone we have recently found, in Wash- ington, Mobile, Baldwin, and Escambia counties, sandstones and clays of variegated color, which are characteristic of the Grand Gulf formation of Dr. Hilgard. It is always exceedingly difficult to discriminate between the disintegrated portions of the rocks of this formation and the surface beds of drifted materials which overlie that whole region, and for this reason the presence in Alabama of the Grand Gulf beds has not until lately been deffinitely ascertained. These beds belong, most probably, to the Miocene division of the Tertiary, but the ab- sence of well-defined fossils prevents our arriving at certainty on this point.
The Pascagoula Formation. - Among the materials brought up by an artesian boring in Mobile recently are some shells that have been recognized as characteristic of the Mio- , cene horizon. Inasmuch as no marine shells have as yet been found in the Grand Gulf beds, it seems best to give a distinct name to this Mobile shell-bearing stratum. A fossiliferous stratum with the same shells as those from the Mobile boring has lately been discovered by Mr. L. C. Johnson, of the United States geological survey, on the Pascagoula river, in Missis- sippi. This bed lies immediately over strata of undoubted Grand Gulf characters, and it may be a marine phase of the Grand Gulf, but withal so entirely different from the other beds of this formation as to be worthy of a name of its own, and Mr. Johnson has suggested Pascagoula, from the original locality.
Mr. Johnson, has also recently traced the Miocene fossilif- erous deposits of Alum Bluff, on the Chattahoochee river, in Florida, westward and northward to within a few miles of the southern boundary of Covington county. It seems altogether probable that this phase of the Miocene will be found to extend into Alabama, and it may turn out to be identical with our Pascagoula, as above defined. The deep beds of sand which overlie this whole southern country stand in the way of geological examination, and the only chance of finding exposures of the Tertiary beds which underlie these sands is in the bluffs and banks of the creeks. The recently discov- ered phosphates of Florida are all associated with Miocene
417
GEOLOGY OF THE STATE.
deposits, which leads us to hope that these same deposits may · yet be traced into Alabama, but whether, so far westward and inland, these beds will be found to contain a large amount of phosphate, or not, is an open question.
The Lafayette or Orange Sand .- With the addition to the dry land area of the State of the Paleozoic, Cretaceous and Tertiary beds above described, the rocky sub-stratum of Ala- bama was practically completed. The land stood then above the sea with substantially the same outline that it now pre- sents. It was for a long period of time subjected to the action . of rains, rivers, frosts, and other disintegrating and denuding agencies, until the surface topography was essentially the same as now.
The next epoch in the geological history of the State was marked by the spreading of a mantle of sandy loam, sand and gravel over all the area of the Cretaceons and Tertiary, and over a tolerably wide belt of the Paleozoie portion also. This tells, according to Mr. McGee, of a subsidence of the land until the waters of the gulf covered all the Cretaceous and Tertiary and lapped far up on the Paleozoic. From the north were washed down, by widely spread and rapidly flowing currents of fresh water, great bodies of sand and pebbles, which came to rest in great part near the new shore line, i. e., near the line of junction of the Paleozoic and newer formations. Then came, apparently, a gradual elevation, which permitted these materials to be carried further and further southward, so as to cover in time the whole surface down to the present gulf shore. The main mass of the pebbles occurs approximately along the curved line above indicated as marking the old gulf shore-line, and beyond the limits of the State, in similar position at the junction of the Paleozoic with the newer formations far to the northeast into Virginia and Maryland.
Besides this, the main body of the pebbles, they are found in streams along the lines of drainage of the principal rivers, occupying an area along each of these streams averaging thirty miles in width. Some of these pebbles have been carried down almost to the shores of the gulf. These beds were long ago carefully studied by Dr. Eugene W. Hilgard, when State Geologist of Mississippi, and designated by him orange sand.
418
HAND-BOOK OF ALABAMA.
The formation has recently been further studied by Mr. McGee, from the Mississippi to the Potomac, and named by him Appomattox, but recently an older name of Dr. Hilgard has been adopted, namely : Lafayette. It is one of our most im- portant formations, inasmuch as it makes the basis of the greater part of the soils of the lower part of the State. These sediments, like the alluvials, have no necessary connection with the rocks upon which they are now found, though in many cases to some extent modified by them, and their distribution is such as to preclude the idea thst they have been transported and deposited by any stream at present existing. Indeed, many of the phenemena, seem to be explicable only on the supposition that they are carried along by rapid currents of water, flowing from the north to the south, and spreading over the entire width of the State from the east to the west ; more than this, the same deposits in the adjoining States show that this great flood was not confined to narrow limits, but extended over the whole width of the Gulf and Atlantic States. The thickness of these beds in Alabama will perhaps average about fifteen or twenty feet, but we often find the older valleys excavated in the Cretaceous and Tertiary strata, which have been subse- quently filled in with these beds of pebbles and sands to a depth of fifty or seventy-five feet. The pebbles occur commonly near the base of the formation, and above them come the sands and the red loam, which latter usually forms the surface, except where removed by denudation. The beds of this age are usu- ally spread, as a mantle of comparatively uniformn thickness, over hill and dale of the older formations. In this way the red loam of the Lafayette group has come to be the sub-stratum of the best farming lands of the southern half of the State, and its excellence is enhanced by the admirable under-drainage afforded by the pebbles upon which it so aften rests. This formation occupies in Alabama perhaps five times the super- ficial area of any other single formation.
This formation until recently has been considered as a member of the Pleistocene, and the characters of its materials and the peculiar distribution of the formation, so utterly unlike those of the other Tertiaries, might well be considered as favoring this interpretation of the age; but, on the other hand, Messrs. McGee, Chamberlin and Salisbury have traced
419
GEOLOGY OF THE STATE.
some yellow gravel, which they consider Lafayette, beneath certain deposits, which they make the lowest of the Pleisto- cene. If this yellow gravel is of Lafayette age, it seems necessary to assign it to the later Tertiary or Pliocene. There seems to be reason for hoping that fossil remains will yet be found in the Lafayette that will fix definitely its geological age.
QUATENARY FORMATIONS.
Pleistocene. - In the tabular view of the Pleistocene formations of Alabama, and in the description which follows, the arrangement must not be understood to be chronological, for it is certain that, to some degree at least, these formations were contemporaneous, and they very plainly grade into each other. Being. accumulated under different conditions, they are rarely to be seen together, so that their precise strati- graphical relations are not easily made out. In two instances I think I have seen the gray Ozark sands overlying the second bottom loams, but in neither case could I be perfectly certain of the identifications.
River Terrace or Second Bottom Deposits .- The rivers and other larger streams of Alabama, especially those traversing the region over which the mantle of pebbles and sand above described has been spread, flow along valleys of varying width (often four to eight miles) cut down into the rocks of the country (Cretaccus and Tertiary ). The immediate channels of these streams, always more tortuous than the valleys above mentioned, are excavated out of materials which have in the past been deposited by the stream itself, or, at least, by the cur- rents which once occupied the valleys between whoes widely separated borders the present streams pursue their winding courses, touching these borders, now on the one side, now on the other. These constitute the second bottom deposits, which are always above overflow, and vary in thickness from sixty feet upwards, in the central part of the State, to less than ten feet, near the gulf. In composition they are uniform, and no one. familiar with our lower rivers can fail to have noticed
420
HAND-BOOK OF ALABAMA.
the comparatively low bluffs which form the banks on at least one side of the river. The second bottoms form a nearly level terrace, sometimes a mile or two in width, slightly above the high water mark of the rivers on which they occur. The first bottoms or flood plains, annually overflowed, form a narrow terrace on one or both sides of the stream, of course lower than the main mass of the second bottom deposits out of which they have been excavated. The materials of the second bottom are sand and clay in varying proportions ; these pre- sent usually very indistinct marks of stratification, especially in the upper parts, which are commonly stiffer and more clayey than the lower and are universally used in the manit- facture of brick. In many places we find near the base of the terrace deposits a clay filled with fragments of twigs and other vegetable remains, and in this clay are the roots of the stumps mentioned below. As above stated, the immediate channel of the stream is cut into this material, and the lower beds being much more sandy than the upper, there is a constant under- mining and caving off going on on the outer side of the bends. As this caving progresses, stumps and logs are frequently brought to view which have been buried under these deposits. These are commonly supposed to be cypress stumps, and are usually in a fair state of preservation. All the other phenom- ena of the second bottom deposits go to show that they were connected with the now existing systems of drainage, but were formed when the general level of the waters was higher than at present, or before the streams had cut their channels to the present depths. The second bottoms are less local in character and less closely connected with existing streams than the first bottoms ; but, on the other hand, much more restricted and closely related to these streams than are the various materials constituting the Lafayette series. Our second bottom deposits are probably nearly equivalent in time to the l'ort Hudson and overlying beds of the Mississippi river, but the material of the latter is quite different from that of our rivers, the difference being probably due in the main to the fact that the Mississippi river reaches up into the region once occupied by glaciers. The Port Hudson deposits are built up mainly of the materials of glacial origin. The only organic remains which the second bottoms are known to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.