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Wallace De Witt

Publications and source records attributed to Wallace De Witt.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Age of the Bedford Shale, Berea Sandstone, and Sunbury Shale in the Appalachian and Michigan basins, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan

The suggestion by Sanford (1967, p. 994) that the Bedford Shale, Berea Sandstone, and Sunbury Shale of the Michigan basin are of Late Devonian age because these strata contain Hymenozonotriletes lepidophytus Kedo is invalid for these formations in the Appalachian basin, the area of their type localities. Endosporites lacunosus Winslow, a synonym of Hymenozonotriletes lepidophytus Kedo, occurs in upper Chautauqua (Upper Devonian) rocks through much of the Kinderhook (Lower Mississippian) strata in Ohio. The Sunbury Shale, the Sunbury Member of the Orangeville Shale in part of northern Ohio, contains a Siplionodella fauna which clearly demonstrates the Kinderhook age of the unit. The basal strata of the Bedford Shale contain Spathoffnathodus anteposlcornis which suggests a very Late Devonian or very Early Mississippian age for this part of the Bedford. Except for the basal fossil zone, most of the Bedford Shale and the younger Berea Sandstone overlie the Murrysville sand, which along the Allegheny Front in central Pennsylvania contains an Adiantites flora of Early Mississippian (Kinderhook) age. The presence of Adiantites in the Murrysville sand indicates that most of the Bedford Shale and all the Berea Sandstone are of Early Mississippian age. Lithostratigraphic evidence suggests that the Berea Sandstone of Ohio may be a temporal equivalent of the basal Beckville Member of the Pocono Formation of the Anthracite region of Pennsylvania. The clearly demonstrable Kinderhook age of the Sunbury, Berea, and most of the Bedford in the Appalachian basin strongly indicates a similar age for the same units in the Michigan basin.

Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania↗

Devonian of the Appalachian Basin, United States

Although Devonian rocks in the Appalachians have been studied for more than 150 years, they are poorly known in most of the area. The nearly complete Devonian sequence in New York has been established as the North American standard of reference. The structural belt that includes unmetamorphosed Devonian geosynclinal strata is bonded on the southeast and east by metamorphic and igneous rocks of the Blue Ridge and Piedmont provinces. Some meta-sedimentary and igneous rocks of the Piedmont may be Devonian, but the only rocks known to be of this age southeast of the structural belt are mudstones and siltstones in the subsurface of northwest Florida and adjacent Georgia. The three oldest stages of the Devonian in the Appalachian area — Helderberg, Deerpark, and Onesquethaw— consist (in ascending order) of carbonate, clastic, and carbonate rocks across an increasingly broad area. The rock units are thin, and facies relations are complex. Most units appear to have accumulated on a relatively stable base in medium- to high-energy environments. Significant subsidence began in Onesquethaw time and continued into the Carboniferous. Concurrently uplifted source areas to the east shed vast amounts of detritus, most of which was trapped in the trough. Middle and Upper Devonian strata are dominantly shallow-marine, fine-grained clastic rocks. These reach a maximum thickness of over 11,000 feet in eastern Pennsylvania. Middle Devonian terrestrial rocks occur locally on the east side of the structural belt. By the close of the Devonian they had spread widely over the northern half of the geosyncline. On the craton, the Middle and Upper Devonian rocks are limestones and shales, but units are thin and discontinuous except for black shale, which, over broad areas, is the latest Devonian deposit. Deposition of this shale persisted into post-Devonian times.

Alabama, Delaware , Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Ma↗

The "Clinton" sands in Canton, Dover, Massillon, and Navarre quadrangles, Ohio

The Canton, Dover, Massillon, and Navarre quadrangles cover about 880 square miles in eastern Ohio. Canton is the largest city in the mapped area. In these four quadrangles, the well drillers generally recognize three "Clinton" sands - in descending order, the "stray Clinton", the "red Clinton", and the "white Clinton". The Clinton sands of Ohio are of early Silurian age and probably correlate with the middle and upper part of the Albion sandstone in the Niagara gorge section in western New York. The study of drillers' logs and examination of well samples show that of the three so-called Clinton sands, the red is most readily recognized. The "Packer shell", a probable equivalent of the Clinton formation of New York, and the Queenston shale - the drillers' "red Medina" - are also good units for short distance correlations. Each of the Clinton sands consists of a thin layer that contains long narrow lenses of thicker sand. Although the pattern of the trend of the lenses varies for each of the Clinton sands, the trend generally is westward across the mapped area. It is thought that these lenses represent deposition in channels, probably offshore from a large delta. Production of gas and oil from the so-called Clinton apparently is closely related to the sorting, porosity, and permeability of the sand. Stratigraphic traps contain the oil or gas, and structure appears to be relatively unimportant in localizing the accumulation of the petroleum. East of the mapped area, the Clinton sands have not produced oil or gas in commercial quantities. Several parts of the mapped area may hold additional amounts of gas.

Ohio↗