Origin of the Chattanooga shale

Abstract

Tonight I will try to present to you the chief facts we have observed that have a bearing on the old problem of how the black shales originated. Some of the ideas have been used before, and some are new. Some of those that have been used before, have been used to support arguments for both shallow and deep water, yet I shall use them again and try to show why our use of them in support of shallow water is justified, and the other fellow's use of them in support of deep water is not justified. These conclusions are strictly our own. Early in our studies we gave serious consideration to deep-water possibilities, but always we ran into such highly improbable circumstances and implications that we were forced to abandon them. The shallow-water theory seems to encounter no such formidable obstacles. We know of no facts that are incompatible with a shallow-water theory; we think that all known facts lend themselves to such an explanation; and we believe that a shallow-water explanation of these black shales is the simpler and sounder of the alternatives.