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J.B. Cathcart

Publications and source records attributed to J.B. Cathcart.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS1986

Mineral resource assessment map of the Big Gum Swamp Roadless Area, Columbia and Baker counties, Florida

The Big Gum Swamp Roadless Area (figs, 1 and 2) comprises 13,600 acres in the north-central part of the Osceola National Forest in Columbia and Baker Counties, about 12 airline miles northeast of Lake City, Fla. The area is bounded by Forest Service road 211 and Florida highway 250 on the south, Forest Service roads 233 and 232 on the west and north, and Forest Service road 235 on the east. The area can be reached by traveling 11.7 mi on Florida Highway 250 northeast from its junction with U.S. Highway 441, north of Lake City to the junction of Highway 250 and Forest Service road 233, thence north 1.3 mi on the Forest Service road to the southern corner of the area. The geology of the Big Cum Swamp Roadless Area, which is discussed briefly in this report, is covered in somewhat more detail in a report by Patterson, Cathcart, Cameron, and Schruben (1984). The mineral resource potential is quite similar to that in the Natural Area Roadless Area outlined by Cathcart, Patterson and Crandall (1983). The Natural Area, which is east of the eastern boundary of the Big Gum Swamp (fig. 1), also was designated a Wilderness Study Area by Public Law 98-430, September 28, 1984.

Florida↗
USGS1976

Mineral resources of the Bradwell Bay Wilderness and the Sopchoppy River study area, Wakulla County, Florida

The Bradweli Bay Wilderness and Sopchoppy River Study Area comprise 23,000 acres (93 km 2 ) in the Apalachicola National Forest in the Florida panhandle. The area is a swamp-covered, almost flat surface of a terrace in which the Sopchoppy River is entrenched. Deposits directly underlying the terrace surface generally consist of as much as 30 feet (9 m) of sand, clay, muck, and peat of Pliocene to Holocene age overlying limestone and marl of Miocene age. The limestone and marl are on the east flank of the gulf trough, and are underlain by a thick sequence of older Tertiary and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks. Older formations of probable Jurassic, Triassic, Paleozoic, and Precambrian ages are known from scattered holes drilled for oil in surrounding areas. The Hawthorn Formation of middle Miocene age, from which phosphate and fuller's earth are chiefly produced in Florida, is not found in the Study Area therefore, the potential for resources of phosphate is low. Phosphate pellets, however, were found in auger holes in sand above the St. Marks and Jackson Bluff Formations of early and late Miocene age, respectively. The pellets are mostly in sands deposited in an estuary during Pliocene or early Pleistocene time; they were derived from older rocks, presumably the Hawthorn Formation. Approximately 136,000 tons (123,000 tonnes) of air-dried peat are available from bay swamps in the Study Area, but the deposits are too shallow and widespread to make mining economically feasible. Large quantities of quartz sand are available in abandoned beach ridges and in deposits of shallow nearshore marine origin, but sieve tests show that the sand is generally too fine for mortar and masonry use, and it is not suitable as moulding or glass sand because it lacks the required size grades and purity. The northern Florida, southern Alabama, and Georgia region produces oil, phosphate, fuller's earth, sand, and peat. The Study Area is about 175 miles (280 km) east-southeast of the Jay oil field in the western panhandle of Florida. Part of the production is from the Smackover Formation of Jurassic age, which is also the target formation for drilling in the vicinity of the Study Area. Four oil test wells have been drilled in the vicinity of the Study Area but all proved to be unsuccessful. Phillips Petroleum Company completed a well in Leon County at a depth of 10,466 feet (3,190 m). Placid Oil Company drilled a well in Wakulla County to 12,116 feet (3,693 m) and two in Liberty County, one to 12,131 feet (3,698 m) and the second to 12,400 feet (3,780 m). These three test wells are alined along a northeast trend immediately northwest of the Bradwell Bay area. The oil and gas potential of the Bradwell Bay-Sopchoppy area is low.

Florida↗
USGS1954

Drilling of airborne radioactivity anomalies in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, 1954

From April 22 to May 19, 1953, airborne radioactivity surveys totalling 5,600 traverse miles were made in 10 areas in Florida (Moxham, 1954). Abnormal radioactivity was recorded in Bradford, Clay, DeSoto, Dixie, Lake, Marion, Orange, Sumter, Taylor, and Union Counties, Florida. Additional airborne surveys were made in the Spring of 1954 in Hardee and Manatee Counties, Florida, on the drainage of the Altamaha River in Georgia, and in the area of the old phosphate workings in and around Charleston County, South Carolina.

Florida, Georgia, South Carolina↗
USGS1953

Domestic phosphate deposits

Most of the worlds phosphate deposits can be grouped into six types: 1) igneous apatite deposits; 2) marine phosphorites; 3) residual phosphorites; 4) river pebble deposits; 5) phosphatized rock; and 6) guano. The igneous apatites and marine phosphorites form deposits measurable in millions or billions of tons; the residual deposits are measurable in thousands or millions; and the other types generally only in thousands of tons. Igneous apatite deposits have been mined on a small scale in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia. Marine phosphorites have been mined in Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Residual phosphorites have been mined in Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Florida. River pebble has been produced in South Carolina and Florida; phosphatized rock in Tennessee and Florida; and guano in New Mexico and Texas. Present production is limited almost entirely to Florida, Tennessee, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Incomplete but recently partly revised estimates indicate the presence of about 5 billion tons of phosphate deposits in the United States that is minable under present economic conditions. Deposits too lean in quality or thickness to compete with those in the western and southeastern fields probably contain tens of billions of tons.

Open-File Report↗
USGS1952

The geology of the Florida land-pebble phosphate deposits

The land-pebble phosphate district is on the Gulf Coastal Plain of Florida. The phosphate deposits are in the Bone Valley formation, dated Pliocene by most writers. These strata overlie the Miocene Hawthorn formation and are overlain by consolidated sands 3 to 20 feet thick. The minable phosphate deposits, called “matrix” in the district, range from a featheredge to about 50 feet in thickness and consist of phosphatic pellets and nodules, quartz sand, and montmorillonitic clay in about equal proportions. Locally the matrix displays cross-bedding and horizontal laminations, but elsewhere it is structureless. The phosphorite particles, composed largely of carbonate-fluorapatite, range in diameter from less than 0.1 mm to about 60 cm and in P 2 O 5 content from 30 to 36 percent. Coarse-pebble deposits, containing 30 to 34 percent P 2 O 5 are found mainly on basement highs; and fine-pebble deposits, containing 32 to 36 percent P 2 O 5 are, are found in basement lows. Deposits in the northern part of the field contain more phosphate particles and their P 2 O 5 content is higher than those in the southern part. The upper part of the phosphatic strata is leached to an advanced degree and consists of quartz sand and clay-sized particules of pseudowavellite and wavellite. The leached zone ranges in thickness from a featheredge to 60 feet. The origin of the land-pebble deposits is incompletely known. Possible modes of origin are a residuum of Miocene age, or a reworked residuum of Pliocene or Quaternary age.

Florida↗