J"S6S /**■©- A 5 £ L HSO- c/ STATE OF ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF REGISTRATION AND EDUCATION STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY DIVISION Morris M. Leighton, Chief SHELBYVILLE AREA Shelby County- Guide Leaflet 5°~B by Gilbert 0. Raasch Urbana, Illinois April 22, 1950 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/shelbyvilleareas1950raas PART I. ITINERARY 0.0 0.0 Caravan assembles opposite Public Library and High School on North First Street facing west. 0,0 0.0 Proceed west on North First Street. 0.7 0.7 Stop sign. Route 128 (Cedar Street). Turn right (N) on No. 128. 0,9 1.6 Road begins to ascend Shelbyville Moraine. 1.1 2.7 Turn left (W) on dirt road and STOP. STOP No, 1. Summit of Shelbyville Moraine. A glacier, such as the great continental ice sheets, moves forward until it reaches a stalemate along a line where melting-back balances forward motion. Here the earth and stones brought foward by the ice accumula tes, so that when the glacier melts away a ridge marks the line along which the glacier stood. Such a ridge is called a moraine. The Shelbyville Moraine here marks the southwestern limit of advance of the last or Wisconsin glacier. The moraine ridge is low and broad (several miles) so that it shows more conspicously on a topographic map than in the field. The moraine runs as a continuous ridge (except where breached by major streams, like the Kaskaskia) from Yfostfield to Shelbyville and from Shelbyville to De.catur and beyond. From the summit of the moraine, we look southwest across to a flat till plain covered by deposits of an earlier glacier, the Illinoian ice sheet, which once covered nearly the whole of Illinois. The high hill on the horizon is Vfilliamsburg Hill, rising to a height over 810 feet, and the lower hills on the western horizon are the Knobs which lie north of Tower Hill, Both these places will be visited later in the day, 0,0 2,7 Continue ahead (w) , 1.4 4,1 Turn left (S). 1.5 5,6 Three-way corner; turn left (E). 0,1 5*7 STOP No, 2, View of Shelbyville Moraine, forming horizon to north and east. The flat land in the foreground is the Illinoian till plain, 1,3 7.0 Stop Sign, Route 128, Cross highway and continue ahead (E), ascend- ing Shelbyville Moraine, 0«8 7,8 Stop Sign, North Broadway; turn left (N) on Broadway, f-)ftj[s £ '.=-..':- r .J .' J '. x I ■:) i J •'«'/'■■ ( -'; - 2 - 0,3 8.1 Turn right (E) on North Ninth Street and cross Railroad. 1.0 9.1 STOP No. 3; at base of hill. Outcrop of glacial till of Wisconin age, in cut on north side of road. When a glacier melts away, the earth and stones which had become incorporated in the ice during its thousands of miles of movement are left behind as a heterogeneous blanket of material called "glacial till." Note that while clay predominates, there is a generous mix- ture of sand, pebbles, and even some boulders. In shape, many of the pebbles have flattish sides which meet at blunt angles and show parallel glacial striae. These characters are developed as the pebbles are ground along in the ice mass. Note also the great variety of rocks, some of which do not crop out less than 1000 miles from Shelbyville. 0.4 9,5 STOP No. 4, On roadway adjacent to gravel pits on left. Unlike the unsorted glacial till of STOP 3, the material in the gravel pits is stratified and is washed and sorted into layers of sand, gravel, and cobbles. Such a condition is evidence that the glacial material has been reworked by water. When the Wisconsin Ice Sheet melted northward, back away from the Shelbyville Moraine, the waters from the melting ice cut their way through the moraine to form the deep narrow valley here at Shelbyville. The load of sand and gravel that washed out from the melting ice built up the bed of the glacial river until it lay at a height of above 590 feet, or 45 feet above the present flood plain. The cars are parked near the top of the terrace, more of which has been removed by the later erosion of the stream, 0.0 9.5 Continue ahead (N), 0»2 9.7 Cross Kaskaskia River, 1.1 10,8 Three-way corner. Turn left (N), 0,3 11.1 Three-way corner. Turn right and STOP. Wal k north -| mile to old coal mines and descend ravine east of road. STOP No. 5, Pennsylvanian Coal-bearing Strata Fossiliferous limestone (Omega) crops out in the ravine down- stream from the abandoned mines, A little farther downstream is an underclay underlain by silty shale and by sandstone, which latter crops out at the mouth of the ravine. The Shelbyville Coal seam, which runs between two and three feet thick, lies not far below the sandstone but is not exposed, (For a disucssion of the origin of coal and coal-bearing strata see section on geologic history.) 0.0 11.1 Continue ahead (E). 0,7 11,8 Three-way corner. Turn right (E)« 0,9 12,7 Three-way corner. Turn right (S), 0.3 13.0 Four-way corner. Turn right (W) . Route here is over Shelbyville Moraine that has been deeply cut up by ravines tributary to the Kaskaskia River. Away from major streams, on the other hand, the moraine shows little erosion. i 1.0 14.0 Three-way corner. Continue ahead (W) . 0.4 14.4 Three way corner. Continue ahead (W). 1.1 15.5 Recross Kaskaskia River. 0.6 16.1 Turn right into City Park. 0.2 16.4 LUNCH STOP. 0.0 16.4 Continue ahead to west exit of park. 0.3 16.7 Stop. Turn right (W) on North Ninth Street and cross Railroad. 0.1 16.8 Turn left (S) on Broadway. 0.3 17.1 Stop Sign. Turn right (W) on North Sixth Street. 0.8 17.9 Stop Sign. Turn left (S) on Route 128, 0.5 18.4 Stop. Junction. Turn right (W) on Route 16. Route descends to Illinois Till Plain. 2.1 20.5 Shelbyville Air Port. 1.0 21.5 Junction of Routes 16 and 128; continue west on Route 16, Route now passing over eroded morainal topography of Illinoian Age, 1.6 23,1 Route descends to low flat of Robinson Creek. 1.3 24.4 Road ascends to level of Illinoian Till Plain. 1,9 26.3 Stop at south turn of Highway 16, STOP No, 6. Illinoian Glacial Moraine, The belt of country west of the Kaskaskia River and running from north of Tower Hill to Alton on the Mississippi is noted for the complexity of its glacial topography. Although studies have not yet been completed, one probable explanation is that along this zone two different lobes of the glacier were in contact. The western lobe may have moved down the Illinois Valley and the eastern is thought by some to have moved westerly from the west end of Lake Erie. Of course, the two lobes may not have arrived in the region at exactly the same time. r;oi?.iyi<-> A '-. Many of the rounded hillocks are made of sand and gravel which appears to have been deposited in standing water, either within the melting ice sheet or at its front. When the thick ice melted from around these deposits of sand and gravel, it left them behind as rounded hills called "kames." 0.1 26.4 Turn left and continue south on Route 16, 1.5 29.9 In Tower Hill, turn left (S) on Penfield road. 0.1 30.0 STOP Wo. 7. Go east into sandpit and school yard. Here a kame has been cut in two by the gravel pit. The sand and gravel have been well-sorted by waters which carried them from the melting ice round about. From the summit of the hill, the Shelbyville Moraine can be well seen lying some six miles to the northeast. 0.0 30,0 Continue ahead (S). 0,2 30,2 Railroad crossings in Tower Hill, Shelbyville Coal was formerly mined here, 0.3 30,5 Highway turns right (W) at school, 0,2 30,7 Highway turns left (S), For next six miles route is south on or among low, north-south trending ridges of the Illinois glacial moraine, 6,0 36.7 Center School. 0.8 37.5 Intersection at Town Hall. Turn left (E), 1.4 38.9 Stop in gravel pit at summit of grade. STOP No. 8. Williamsburg Hill. The hill rises to a height of 810 feet, over 200 feet above the surrounding plain. Numerous gravel pits in this huge hill show it to be made up entirely of kame gravels, the stratification of which slopes steeply to southwest. The same is true of Cor ley Ridge which lies a mile southwest and rises to 800 feet. These kames represent deltas formed in standing glacial waters, the water level of which lay a couple of hundred feet above the present plain. There are no topographic features, in any direction, that could have been responsible for this damming of the water. It seems necessary to conclude, therefore, that the dams were made by the glacial ice, possibly surrounding an opening between two glacial lobes. The persistence of the hills at their present unusual height may be due to the fact that much of the gravel has been cemented to a conglomerate by calcium carbonate. 0.0 38.9 Continue ahead (E). 0.6 39.5 Three-way intersection. Turn left (n) and ascend steep hill. Note deep ravines, caused by erosion of soft zones in the conglomerate. 0.8 40.3 STOP No. 9. North end of Williamsburg Hill; fine view north over Illinoian till plain* 0.0 40.3 Continue ahead (N). CAUTION ; Stay in second gear. 0,6 40.9 Three-way intersection. Continue ahead (N). 0.8 41.7 Four-way intersection. Turn right (E). 1.5 43.2 STOP No a 10. Lakewood Oil Field. This small but productive field was discovered in 1941 and 12 wells were drilled, of which 11 are still active. Total production in this field has amounted to 127,000 bbls., of which 32,000 were obtained last year. Daily production is about 100 barrels. The oil comes from two sands in the Mississippian, Chester Group, The Bethel and Aux Vases sandstones, which here lie about 1,700 feet below the surface. These sands are among the prominent Mississippian oil producers in the deep Illinois Basin to the south. 0.0 43.2 Resume route, going east through Lakewood. 2.5 45,7 Stop Sign, Junction with Route 128. Turn left (n) on No. 128, 3.3 49.0 STOP No. 11. Outcrop on right side of road. The shaly limestone in the road ditch was deposited at a time when the sea inundated the area and brought with it the sea life which is here preserved as abundant fossils. Most common is a small brachiopod (Ambocoelia) , the fragments of crinoids, solitary or cup corals, and bryozoa. Bryozoa are animals which grew in colonies like corals, but were microscopic in size and different in structure. Sandstone and sandy shale show in the bank above and were deposited by fresh waters in streams and mud flats after the sea with- drew* The same rock on the opposite side of the valley contains leaves of land plants. Downstream in the ditch, a sticky underclay is exposed and is thought to be overlain by a thin coaly streak representing the swamp stage of the changeable environment. The different environments commonly occur in a regular succession which is repeated many times. Such a repeated succession is called a cyclothem. (See appended description of a typical cyclothem. ) 0,0 49.0 Continue ahead (n) on Route 128 and cross Robinson Creek. 0,6 49,6 Exposure of Pennsylvanian shale passing downward into sandstone. Fossil ferns are present in the shale, Dug way at left leads to site of coal mine in Shelbyville Coal, - b 1*5 51,1 Junction with Route 16. Shelbyville 3 miles east. End of trip. EON VOYAGE GEOLOGICAL COLUMN - Shelbyville A rea ERAS PERIODS 1 " EPOCHS REMARKS oic ; Life" Age of Mammal s Quaternary Pleistocene Exposed in Shelbyville Recent post-glacial stage Wisconsin glacial stage Illinoian glacial stage o a £ CD CD O O O Tertiary Pliocene Miocene Oligocene Focene Paleocene Not present in Shelbyville area. "CD Age of Reptiles Cretaceous Not present in Shelbyville area. SOZOi le Li Jurassic Not present in Illinois Me "Midd Triassic Not present in Illinois Age of Amphibirns and Early Plants Permian Not present in Illinois Pennsylvanian ' Omega Limestone, Shelby- ville Coal, etc. exposed Mississippian Chester (Upper Mississippian) Sandstones, limestones, and shales in deep wells ; several oil sands *03 Iowa (lower Mississippian) Limestone and shales in deep wells. •H -H • O ,_} to O -p CD fl rH O CJ -H Pw o Age of Fishes Devonian Limestones in deep wells. Age of Invertebrates Silurian Magnesian limestone in deep wells . Ordovician No data available Cambrian No data available Proterozoi Archeozoic 1 Referred to as / Time. "Pre-Cambrian" No data available .- r TEST BORING FOR OIL Shelby County, Illinois P. Mills r Ferm Sea b oard Oil Company and P. N. Wiggins SE-| SW£ S\ il Q k> © C • 1 . Pleistocene; glacial, drift and soil 20' ! ° - "o ^ a • H a cS l> H w" _ Millersville Limestone 1220' i 1 • 1 ! ! i McLeansboro, Carbondale Tradewater and Caseyville Predominantly Shale with thick beds of Sandstone and thinner zones of coal and Ls •/ '.'.' ■'.'. .'*, ••'• .'. '.' —r~.—~~~—i:~- }'{;; :/X'V;//- — . — — _ '*.■*•■','■.'.' '.'/ t Zjt~-~~~"'.~1. Pi c5 ■H a, Ch •H W W •H CO CO •H ~-^-~Lr r 3rr : Vienna Sandstone and Shsle Tar Springs Sandstone Glen Dean Shale and Ls. Goloonda Shale and Ls. Cypress Sandstone and Shale Paint Ck 4 Limestone * Bethel Sandstone Renault Ls. and Sandstone Aux Vases - Ls. & Sandstone Lower Miss., St, Genevieve, St. Louis, Salem, Osage, & Chouteau Limestones, Sand- stones and Shales. 1575' :•■.:;,■;•._.';,•;. '..■-.;. ~ - * „~ r~ — ■ *■ ■ — ' --f-- i i -- — — — :/.'-• ::;.'•*•■. i i i L- r L— , 1 . ; ■ , ' • . • • ! • 1 _!__ - i ! 1 . — — — — ' '1 t -H P New Albany Shale and Devonian Limestone 215' t Silur- . ian / - / Dolomite & Limestones 50 « A / A t / * / Limestone Sandstone Shale .— ., „ — — i Total Depth 3080' 2434' below Sea Level * Bethel and Aux Vases Sandstone are the Oil Producers in the Lakewood Oil Pool. 7 - PART II. GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF SHELBYVILLE AREA BEDROCK FORMATIONS The bedrock, which is exposed in the Shelbyville Area where streams have cut through the cover of glacial drift and which is entered by the mines, belongs to the Pennsylvanian or Coal Period. Deep oil wells and tests have penetrated to still older rocks of Mississippian, Devonian, and Silurian age. (See appended well log). In other parts of Illinois deeper wells pass through additional hundreds of feet of sandstone, shale, and limestone, belonging to the Ordovician and Cambrian periods (see appended geologic column), and some reach the Pre- Cambrian basement beneath. This "basement" is made up of very old, hard, crystalline rocks such as granite, gabbro, basalt, gneiss, and schist. These rocks come to the surface in the far north around Lake Superior and in Canada north of Lake Huron. Fragments of these rocks from the far north have been brought to the Shelbyville area by the glaciers of the Ice Age. EARLY GEOLOGIC HISTORY The rocks of the "basement" formed back in Pre-Cambrian Time, were folded to mountain ranges and then beveled by erosion to a low plain over 500,000,000 years ago. Between that time and the beginning of the Coal Period, an interval of some 250,000,000 years, the region was covered much of the time by shallow seas that inundated a large part of the continent. At intervals the seas with- drew and the region became, from time to time, a low coastal plain. PENNSYLVANIAN HISTORY. With the beginning of Pennsylvanian Time, some 250,000,000 years ago, conditions changed, as high mountains, which may be compared to the Andes, began to rise along the Atlantic Coast. To the westward, in Illinois and elsewhere, was a low hot swampy plain, somewhat resembling the present Amazon Basin, and across which the rivers from the eastern mountains wandered toward the sea which lay off in Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. As the lowland sank, the sea from time to time extended eastward to deposit marine limestone or f ossiliferous shale. At other times, vast jungle swamps existed, in which the luxuriant vegetation accumulated as half-rotten, peat-like masses. But most of the time, the lowland was occupied by rivers, shallow lakes, and bayous in which the mud and sand washed out from the mountains was deposited. In time, thousands of feet of sediments piled up, and the pressure of this great weight of mud and sand helped to compress the peat to coal. THE LOST INTERVAL Following Pennsylvanian Time, the land rose to a moderate elevation above the sea and was never again covered by marine waters. Under these conditions, erosion slowly cut down the land and removed a part of the Pennsylvanian deposits. The material was carried away by the streams to be deposited far away. For this reason we have no record of the life and times of the Age of Reptiles in central Illinois nor of the Age of Mammals that followed. ICE AGE HISTORY The Age of Mammals come to a close as glaciers began moving down across the United States from the far north. There was not just one glacial stage, but four, each separated by a long interval of from 100,000 to 300,000 years during which mild climate prevailed, vegetation flourished, and the animals that had retreated before the advancing ice, returned* The Nebraskan, or first glacial advance, probably did not reach the Shelbyville Area, The second, or Kansan, advance is thought to have crossed it, but evidence is concealed under later glacial drift* The Illinoian glaciation, moving from its center of accumu* lation east of the Hudson 1 s Bay across nearly all of Illinois to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, covered all of Shelby County. The last, Wisconsin ice sheet, which stopped at Shelbyville, covered largely the northeast quarter of the state. It is estimated that only some 25,000 to 30,000 years have passed since the Wisconsin glacier melted away. Therefore, we have no way of knowing whether the ice will return again in one or two or three hundred thousand years. Most of us prefer to worry about more immediate dangers. 10 8 71 ''''• Shale, gray, sandy at top ; contains marine fossils and ironstone concretions especially in lower part. Limestone ; contains marine fossils. Shale, black, hard, laminated ; contains large spheroidal concre- tions ("Niggerheads") and marine fossils. Limestone ; contains marine fossils. Shale, gray ; pyritic nodules and ironstone concretions common at base ; plant fossils locally common at base ; marine fossils rare. Coal ; locally contains clay or shale partings. Underclay, mostly medium to light gray except dark gray at top ; upper part noncalcareous, lower part calcareous. Limestone, argillaceous ; occurs in nodules or discontinuous beds ; usually nonfossiliferous. Shale, gray, sandy. Sandstone, fine-grained, micaceous, and siltstone, argillaceous; variable from massive to thin-bedded ; usually with an uneven lower surface. AN IDEALLY COMPLETE CYCLOTHEM (Reprinted from Fig. 42, Bulletin No. 66, Geology and Mineral Resources of the Marseilles. Ottawa, and Streator Quadrangles, by H. B. Willman and J. Norman Payne) /HLL PLAINS SECTION x GREAT LAKE SECTION CENTRAL LOWLAND PROVINCE tf- ^ ) \ < / ) 1 OZARK PLATEAU5 PROVINCE CENTRAL LOWLAND PROVINCE INTERIOR LOW PLATEAUS PROVINCE ILLINOIS STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY COASTAL PLAIN PROVINCE PHYSIOGRAPHIC DIVISIONS OF ILLINOIS (Reprinted from Report of Investigations No. 129, Physiographic Divisions of Illinois, by M. M. Leighton, George E. Ekblaw, and Leland Horberg) 14 (83093) GLACIAL GEOLOGY IN NORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS Compiled by George E. Ekblaw from data furnished by the Survey January 1, 1942 691— 5M— 5-48) (n H o 7\ m 01 m i33 5 r 5 0)