Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 9

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

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The Hillsboro sandstone is the last clement in the Niagara group. It is found in but

few localities, and its reference to the Niagara series in its entirety is not beyond question. In Highland county it has a thickness of thirty feet in several sections. It is composed of very pure, even-grained, sharp silicious sand. Other deposits of precisely the same character are found in the two next higher limestones of the scale at several points in the State.

The Hillsboro sandstone is sometimes built up above all the beds of the upper Niagara limestone, but again, it is, at times, inter- stratified with the beds of the Guelph divis- ion. In the latter case it is itself fossiliferous, but when found alone it scems destitute of all traces of life. These sandstones in the limestone formations suggest in their pecu- liarities a common origin. They consist of unworn and nearly perfect crystals, in con- siderable part.

The Salina group has appeared in all the recent sections of the rocks of the State, but in the light of faets obtained within the latest explorations, it can no longer be counted a distinct or recognizable element in the Ohio scale,

7. THE LOWER HELDERBERG OR WATER- LIME FORMATION.

The interval that exists between the Ni- agara and the Devonian limestones is occupied in Ohio by a very important formation. It is filled with a series of beds, which are in part, at least, the equivalents of the Water. lime of New York.

The name is unhappily chosen. Strictly applicable to only an insignificant fraction of the beds of this series in New York, we are still obliged to apply the designation Water- lime, with its misleading suggestions, to all deposits of the same age throughout the country.

Though the last to be recognized of our several limestone formations, the Waterlime occupies a larger area in Ohio than any other, its principal developments being found in the drift-covered plains of the northwestern quarter of the State. It has also a much greater thickness than any other limestone, its full measure being at least 600 feet, or twice the greatest thickness of the Niagara limestone.

It can be described as, in the main, a strong, compact, magnesian limestone, poor in fossils, and often altogether destitute of them for considerable areas, microscopic forms being excepted. It is, for the most part, drab or brown in color ; but occasionally it becomes very light-colored, and again it is often dark blue. It is brecciated throughout much of its extent, the beds seeming to have been broken into sometimes small and some- times large angular fragments after their hardening, and then to have been re-cemented without further disturbance. In addition to this, it contains an immense amount of true conglomerate, the pebbles, many of which are bowlders rather than pebbles, being all derived from the rocks of the same general age. The surface of many successive layers

THE GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF OHIO.

at numerous points are covered with sun- cracks, thus furnishing proof of having been formed in shallow water near the edge of the sea. In such localities the beds are usually quite thin, and are also impure in composi- tion. In these respects it suggests the con- ditions of the Onondaga salt group of New York. These features are very characteristic ones. A rude concretional structure is also quite distinctive of the beds of this age. The Waterlime in Ohio everywhere contains pe- troleum in small quantity, which is shown by the odor of freshly broken surfaces. No noteworthy accumulations of oil or gas have thus far been found within it. At some points it carries considerable asphalt, distrib- uted through the rock in shot-like grains, or in sheets and films. Thin streaks of car- bonaceous matter traversing the rock parallel to its bed-planes are one of the constant marks of the stratum in Ohio. It is gener- ally thin and even in its bedding; but in some localities it contains massive beds. At some points it is remarkable for its evenness, and great value is given to the formation on this account, when combined with other qual- ities already named. It is frequently a nearly pure dolomite in composition, and accord- ingly it yields magnesian lime of high quality and is extensively burned in the State, rival- ing in this respect the Guelph beds of the Niagara.

In Southern Ohio it has a maximum thick- ness of 100 feet, and here it reaches its high- est quality in all respects ; but in Central and Northern Ohio it attains the great thickness previously reported. There also it contains several distinct types of limestone rock. A considerable part of it is very tough, strong, dark-blue limestone, while other portions are white, porous, and soft.

Its fossils are referable, in type at least, to the age of the Waterlime, as already stated. The most characteristic forms are the crusta- cean named Eurypterus, which was found by Newberry on the islands of Lake Erie, and which has not been reported elsewhere in the State ; and the bivalve crustacean Leperditia. There are points in the State, however, where the stratum contains a considerable fauna, and perhaps ground may be found for remov- ing some of the higher beds that are now in- cluded in it into a distinct division, viz., the Shaly limestone of the Lower Helderberg series. Greenfield, Highland county, and Lima may be named as localities near which especially fossiliferous phases of the Water- lime can be found.

The Sylvania Sandstone.

A remarkable series of deposits of ex- tremely pure glass sand has long been known in Lucas and Wood counties of Northern Ohio. The best known beds are those of Sylvania and Monclova, northwest and southwest of Toledo.

The Sylvania sandstone has been hitherto referred to the Oriskany period, but a careful study of the section in which it is included renders this reference inadmissible. Its

position is about 150 feet below the Upper Helderberg limestone or somewhat above the middle line of the Lower Helderberg division.

8. THE UPPER HELDERBERG LIMESTONES.

All of the limestone of Devonian age in Ohio has been generally referred to the Cor- niferous limestone of New York, but on some accounts the more comprehensive term used above is counted preferable. A two-fold di- vision of the series is possible and proper in Ohio, the division being based on both lithology and fossils. The divisions are known as the lower and upper, respectively, or as the Columbus and Delaware limestones. The upper division is sometimes called the San- dusky limestone. The maximum thickness of the entire series in Ohio is seventy-five to one hundred feet.

In chemical composition, the Corniferous limestone is easily distinguishable from all that underlie it. It is never a true dolomite in composition, as the Waterlime and Niagara limestones almost always are. The composi- tion of the typical, heavy-bedded lower Cor- niferous may be taken as seventy per cent. carbonate of lime and twenty-five per cent. carbonate of magnesia. The higher beds of the Columbus stone regularly yield ninety-one to ninety-five per cent. carbonate of lime. The upper division, or the Delaware stone, is much less pure in Central Ohio than the lower, a notable percentage of iron and alumina, as well as silica, generally being contained in it. It is, therefore, seldom or never burned into lime. In Northern Ohio, on the contrary, it is often found very strong and ·pure lime- stone.

Both divisions, but particularly the lower one, carry occasional courses of chert, that detract from the value of the beds in which they occur. The chert is found in nodules which are easily detached from the limestone for the most part. In some conditions in which the chert occurs, fossils are found in it in a remarkably good state of preservation.

Throughout the entire formation Devonian fossils abound in great variety and in great numbers. They are often found in an excel- lent state of preservation. The oldest verte- brate remains of the Ohio rocks are found in the Corniferous limestone, a fact which gives especial interest to it. The uppermost bed of the lower or Columbus division is, in many places, a genuine "bone bed ; " the teeth and plates and spines of ancient fishes, largely of the nearly extinct family of ganoids, consti- tuting a considerable portion of the substance of the rock. Corals of various types are also especially abundant and interesting in this limestone. In fact, the formation is the most prolific in life of any in the Ohio scale.

With this formation the great limestones of Ohio were completed. While they are built into the foundations of almost the entire State, they constitute the surface rocks only in its western half. The Upper Silurian and Devonian limestones of our scale, which were formerly known as the Cliff limestone, have an aggregate thickness of 750 to 1,150 feet

THE GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF OHIO.

where found under cover, and though differ- ences exist among them by which, as has already been shown, they can be divided into four or more main divisions, there is still no reason to believe that any marked chang" occurred in the character of the seas during the protracted periods in which they were growing. The life which these seas contained was slowly changing from age to age, so that we can recognize three or more distinct faunas or assemblages of animal life in them. Dif- ferences are also indicated in the several strata as to the depth of the water in which they were formed, and as to the conditions under which the sedimentary matter that enters into them was supplied, but no marked physical break occurs in the long history. No part of the entire series indicates more genial con- ditions of growth than those which the De- vonian limestone, the latest in order of them all, shows. It is the purest limestone of Ohio. Foot after foot of the formation con- sists almost exclusively of the beautifully pre- served fragments of the life of these ancient seas. In particular the corals and crinoids that make a large element in many of its beds could only have grown in shallow but clear water of tropical warmth.

The change from the calcareous beds of this age to the next succeeding formation is very abrupt and well marked, as much so, indeed, as any change in the Ohio scale.

10. THE OHIO SHALE. (Cleveland Shale, Erie Shale, Huron Shale.)

A stratum of shale, several hundred feet in thickness, mainly black or dark-brown in color, containing, especially in its lower por- tions, a great number of large and remarkably symmetrical calcareous and ferruginous con- cretions, and stretching entirely across the State from the Ohio valley to the shores of Lake Erie, with an outcrop ranging in breadth between ten and twenty miles, has been one of the most conspicuous and well-known features of Ohio geology since this subject first began to be studied. It separates the great limestone series already described, which constitutes the floor of all of Western Ohio, from the Berea grit, which is the first sand- stone to be reached in ascending the geologi- cal scale of the State.

This great series of shales was formerly divided into three divisions, as indicated above, but a larger knowledge of the system makes it apparent that no definite boundaries can be drawn through the formation at large. The lower part is chiefly black, the middle contains many light colored bands and the upper beds again are often dark, but the sec- tions obtained from top to bottom in the drilling of deep wells at various points in the State show alternations of dark and light colored bands not once but scores of times. The three-fold division formerly made is not only unsupported, but is misleading and ob- jectionable. The terms are used to cover different phases of one and the same forma- tion.

The mineral basis of all these shales, whether black, brown, blue, gray or red, is essentially one and the same thing, viz., a fine-grained clay, derived from the waste of distant land. As supplied to the sea basin it was originally blue or gray, but a small per- contage of peroxide of iron goes a great way in coloring such deposits red, and in like manner, organio matter in comparatively small amount gives them a dark or black color. The organic matter that colors these shales was probably derived in large part, as Newberry has suggested, from the products of growth and decay of sea-weeds by which these seas were covered, like the Sargasso seas of our own day.

These organic matters seem to have ac- cumulated along the shores and in shallow water in greater quantity than in the deeper seas. Hence, if the section of these shale deposits is taken near the old shore-lines, or where shallow water occurred, a larger pro- portion is black than if the more central areas are examined. The only land of Ohio at this time was to be found in and along the Cincinnati axis, a low fold that had entered the State from the southward at the close of Lower Silurian time, and that had been slowly extending itself northwards through the succeeding ages. Southwestern Ohio was already above water, a low island in the ancient gulf. But the shales on their western outcrop, where they are largely black, are ex- actly equivalent in age to the alternating beds of black and blue shale, the latter being in large excess, that were forming at this time in the central parts of the basin, viz., in Eastern Ohio. The color of the shales is, in this view, an accident, and cannot be safely used as a ground of division. The entire shale formation that we are considering seems to have been laid down without physical break or interruption. It must have required an immensely long period for its accumulation. This is shown not only by the fineness and uniformity of the materials which compose it, and which could not have been rapidly sup- plied, and by the great thickness of the for- mation in Eastern Ohio, but also by the geo- logical equivalents of the shale in the general column which furnish even more convincing proof as to its long continued growth. The Ohio shale, as Newberry has shown, is cer- tainly the equivalent in the general scale of the Genesee slate, the Portage group and the Chemung group, the last named being itself a formation of great thickness and extent. In other words, the shales of our column bridge the interval between the Hamilton proper and the Catskill group, and in the judgment of some geologists, a wider interval even than that named above. As Newberry was the first to show, the oil sands of Penn- sylvania are banks of pebble rock that are buried in the eastern extension of the Ohio shale, but which make no sign within our own limits.

The shales are, for the most part, poor in fossils, except in those of microscopic size but among the few that they contain are the

THE GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF OHIO.

most striking and remarkable not only of the scale of Ohio, but of all Devonian time as well. Reference is here made to the great fishes which have been described by Newberry and which constitute so interesting a chapter of geological history. Some of them belong to the basal beds of the shale formation, and others near the summit. The first were found at the centres of the great concretions already named as characteristic of the formation. These fossils are interesting both on account of their enormous size and of their peculiar combination of points of structure that are widely separated now.

Brief mention must be made of the vege- table fossils of the shales.

Fossil wood, derived from ancient pine trees of the genus Dadoxylon, is quite common in the lower beds (Huron). The wood is silici- fied and the original structure is admirably preserved. This wood is sometimes found, like the fish remains already noted, at the hearts of the concretions, but occasionally large sized blocks are found free in the shale. On account of its enduring nature it is often found in those beds of glacial drift that have been derived largely from the destruction of the shales.

Strap-shaped leaves, presumably of sea- weeds, are occasionally found upon the sur- faces of the shale layers. Sometimes they form thin layers of bright coal which deceive the ignorant. Fossil rushes, of the genus Calamites, are also occasionally met with.

But the forms already named are of small account, so far as quantity is concerned, when compared with certain microscopic fossils that are, with little doubt, of vegetable origin. and which are accumulated in large amount throughout the black beds of the entire shale formation, composing, sometimes, a notable percentage of the substance of the rock, and apparently giving origin, to an important ex- tent, to the bituminous character of the beds.

The leading forms of these microscopic fossils are translucent, resinous discs, ranging in long diameter from one-thirtieth to one- two-hundredth of an inch. Several varieties have already been noted, depending on the size, particular shape and surface markings of these bodies. The facts pertaining to them have of late been more widely published, and the attention of geologists in various parts of the world has been called to these and similar forms, and thus there is the promise of a speedy enlargement of our knowledge in re- gard to them. Sir William Dawson now con- siders the common forms to be the macrospores of rhizocarps allied to Salvinia of the present day. The sporocarps containing these ma- crospores in place have recently been dis- covered. This identification would refer these bodies to floating vegetation on the surface of the seas in which the shales were formed, and is thus directly in line with the sagacious interpretation of Newberry, who many years ago attributed the origin of these black shales to Sargasso seas.

This shale is the undoubted source of most

of the natural gas and petroleum of North- eastern Ohio. It is the probable source, under cover, of a considerable part of these highly valued substances in Western Pennsylvania. It gives rise to " surface indications " of gas and oil throughout the whole extent of its outerops and thus very often misleads ex- plorers, since the indications do not stand in any case for large accumulations of either substance. The most that is to be expected of gas-wells in this formation is a domestic supply. A single well will furnish gas enough for the heat and light of one or more families and often the supply will be maintained for many years. In the parts of the State where the shales make the surface rocks, it will no doubt be found possible to secure from them valuable additions to our stores of light and heat for a long while to come. A farm in such territory will come to be valued on this account in something of the same way that it would be if it carried a seam of coal.

11. THE WAVERLY GROUP.

The important mass of sediments of Sub- carboniferous age, which is known in Ohio and in some adjoining States as the Waverly group, comes next in the column. The name Waverly was given to these strata by the geologists of the first survey, from the fact that at Waverly, in the Scioto valley, excellent sandstone quarries were opened in them. the products of which were quite widely distrib- uted throughout Central and Southern Ohio, as far back as fifty years ago. Associated with the sandstone at this locality, and every- where throughout the district, were several other strata that were always counted as members of the group by the geologists who gave the name. In fact, the boundaries were made definite and easily applicable. The Waverly group extended, by its definition and by unbroken usage in our early geology, from the top of the great black shale (Cleve- land shale), to the Coal Measure conglom- erate. This latter element was, in a part of the field, confused with the Waverly con- glomerate, afterwards recognized and defined by Andrews, until a recent date, it is true, but the intent of the geologists is apparent, and many of their sections were complete and accurate. If the term Waverly is to be re- tained in our classification, and it bids fair to be, every interest will be served by recogniz- ing and retaining the original boundaries.

lla. The Bedford Shale.

This stratum, which makes the base of the Waverly series, consists of forty to sixty feet, in the main composed of red or blue shales, but which sometimes contain fine-grained sandstone courses. The latter are in places valuable. They are represented by the Inde- pendence bluestone of Northern Ohio. The shales are mainly destitute of fossils, aside from the burrows of sea worms which are found on the surfaces of most of the layers and often with great sharpness of outline. All the layers are likely to be ripple-marked, the sculpturings of this sort being very sym-

THE GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF OHIO.

metrical and continuous for layer after layer through many feet of the formation.

11b. The Berea Grit.

We have reached in our review the Berea grit, the second element of the Waverly series, and not only the most important member of the series, but by far the most important single stratum in the entire geological column of Ohio. Its economic value above ground is great, but it is greater below. In its out- crops it is a source of the finest building stone and the best grindstone grit of the country, and when it dips beneath the surface it be- comes the repository of invaluable supplies of petroleum, gas, and salt-water. Its per- sistence as a stratum is phenomenal. Seldom reaching a thickness of fifty feet, its proved area in Ohio, above ground and below, is scarcely less than 15,000 square miles, and beyond the boundaries of Ohio it extends with continuity and strength unbroken into at least four other adjacent States. As a guide to the interpretation of our series, and especially as a guide in our subterranean geology, it is invaluable.

The stratum was named by Newberry from the village of Berea, Cuyahoga county, where the largest and most important quarries of the formation are located. The name is the most appropriate that could have been se- jected for this stratuni, and inasmuch as it has priority in all fields, it ought to be made .

to supersede all others.

The Berea grit, as seen in outcrop, is a sandstone of medium grain in Northern Ohio, and of fine grain from the centre of the State southward. In Northern Ohio it contains one pebbly horizon over a considerable area, but the seam is thin and the pebbles are small. The stratum is sometimes false- bedded and sometimes remarkably even in its bedding-planes. Its main beds, or sheets, have a maximum thickness of six feet, but this is an unusual measure and is seldom reached. It ranges in thickness from 5 to 170 feet, and it very rarely fails altogether from the sections in which it is due.

Like the Bedford shale below it, it stands for an old shore-line, many of its surfaces being ripple-marked, and worm-burrows abounding in its substance.

It is poor in fossils, but not entirely desti- tute of them. It grows finer grained and more impure as it is followed southward. In Southern Ohio it is known as the Waverly quarry-stone.

The Berea grit is the lowest or main oil- sand of the Mackburg field. It is also the gas-rock of Wellsburg, and that part of the Ohio valley, and is without doubt one of the main oil- and gas-rocks of Western Pennsyl- vania.

11c. The Berea Shale.

A bed of dark or black shale, fifteen to fifty feet thick, makes the constant and im- mediate cover of the Berea grit throughout its entire extent in Ohio. The shale is highly fossiliferous, and is rich in bituminous mat-

ter, the amount sometimes reaching twenty per cent. It is a source of petroleum on a small scale, as is shown by the fact that in Southern Ohio an important ledge of sand- stone that belongs just above it is often found saturated with a tar-like oil derived from this source. It was first recognized by Andrews, who described it under the name of the Wa- verly black shale. It constitutes an invalu- able guide in our subterranean geology.

11d. The Cuyahoga Shale.

This formation consists of light-colored, argillaceous shales, which are often replaced with single courses of fine-grained sandstone, blue in color, and in Southern Ohio weather- ing to a brownish-yellow. As a constant characteristic, there are found through the shales flattened nodules of impure iron ore, concretionary in origin, and often having white calcareous centres.

In thickness it ranges from 150 to 400 feet. It is one of the most homogeneous and per- sistent formations in the column of the State throughout most of its extent. Everywhere through the State there is found at or near the base of this division a number of courses of fine-grained stone. These courses are sometimes separated from each other by beds of shale, or they may be compacted into a single stratum. The individual courses also vary greatly in thickness, and in color and general characters. Throughout Southern Ohio, and particularly in Ross, Pike, and Scioto counties, the stratum yields freestone. It is best known from its outerops on the Ohio river at Buena Vista, where it has long been very extensively worked for Cincinnati and other river markets. The Buena Vista stone, at its best, is one of the finest building stones of the country. The same horizon yields excellent stone near Portsmouth, Lucas- ville, and Waverly. It is known as the Waverly brown stone at the latter point.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 9

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006