Browsing by Author "Shaver, Robert H."

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Adventures with Fossils
(Indiana Geological Survey, 1959-06) Shaver, Robert H.
Many laymen write to the Indiana Geological Survey and ask: “Please send me books and maps on fossils and where they can be found.” Some write on tablet paper in the labored fifth-grade hand of a school child; others write on linen in the neatly feminine and classic lines that are surely those of a school teacher; still others type on expensive letterheads that show the nature of their professions. This circular is written for all of them but especially for those of school age. It is for school teachers, scoutmasters, parents, and other counselors of children. It is a beginner’s guide to fossils, most useful to collectors in Indiana. It is for the curious everywhere who do not write to me, but who seek a hobby, avocation, or beginning knowledge to a profession. It is for all who are interested and seek, through fossils, one means to the Truth.
Atlas of Early and Middle Paleozoic paleogeography of the southern Great Lakes area
(Indiana Geological & Water Survey, 1983) Droste, John B.; Shaver, Robert H.
"In earlier presentations (for example, Droste, Shaver, and Lazor, 1975; Droste, Rexroad, and Shave, 1980) we have stressed that advancement of tectono-sedimentational knowledge of the southern Great Lakes area has been conditioned by (1) the provincialism of most studies and (2) the tendency to think of ancient Paleozoic regional structure too much in terms of present regional structure. The first conditioning method above has been a necessary first step in overall study of this area as most individual geologists concentrated in one basin or another or in outcrop geology. As a result, necessarily somewhat independent and contradictory geologic histories have evolved for the Illinois Basin and the two other basins of special concern here, the Michigan and Appalachian Basins. Moreover, some classically generated concepts for the areas of the Cincinnati, Kankakee, Findlay, and Algonquin Arches and the Niagara Escarpment have remained too long uncoordinated with basin-developed knowledge. In this realization we have suggested that regional studies in the Indiana area, extended among three basin and integrating classic outcrop geology, are important keys to improved, integrated regional concepts."
Compendium of Paleozoic Rock-Unit Stratigraphy in Indiana—a Revision
(Indiana Department of Natural Resources Geological Survey, 1986) Shaver, Robert H.; Ault, Curtis H.; Burger, Ann M.; Carr, Donald D.; Droste, John B.; Eggert, Donald L.; Gray, Henry H.; Harper, Denver; Hasenmueller, Nancy R.; Hasenmueller, Walter A.; Horowitz, Alan S.; Hutchison, Harold C.; Keith, Brian D.; Keller, Stanley J.; Patton, John B.; Rexroad, Carl B.; Wier, Charles E.
Compendium of Rock-Unit Stratigraphy in Indiana
(Indiana Geological Survey, 1970) Shaver, Robert H.; Burger, Anne M.; Smith, Ned M.; Wayne, William John; Weir, Charles E.
The Geologic Names Committee of the Indiana Geological Survey has maintained for several years tables of the more important rock- and time-stratigraphic names that have been used in Indiana. These tables show classification and nomenclature that are current and also include obsolete, colloquial, trade, and synonymous terms. First prepared for members of the Indiana Geological Survey, the tables are presented here, together with descriptive information, for the many persons who use and contribute to geologic knowledge of the state. This compendium, so composed, serves to clarify, unify, and stabilize stratigraphic terminology that nevertheless must remain in a fluid state in order to accommodate ever-increasing geologic information. It thus adds to, brings up to date, but does not supplant the next earlier nomenclatural summary for Indiana (Cummings, 1922, "Nomenclature and Description of the Geological Formations of Indiana," in Logan and others, Handbook of Indiana Geology), which contains much valuable information, particularly paleontologic, time-stratigraphic, historical, and bibliographic, that is not repeated here. In recognition of our debt to our predecessors in the field of Indiana stratigraphy, we here dedicate the Compendium of Rock-Unit Stratigraphy in Indiana to the pioneers of Indiana stratigraphy. Amond these, we cannot fail to mention George H. Ashley (1866-1951), Edgar R. Cumings (1874-1967), August F. Foerste (1862-1936), E.M. Kindle (1869-1940), Frank Leverett (1859-1943), Clyde A. Malott (1887-1950), and David Dale Owen (1807-60). Begun under the direction of John B. Patton, the compilation of the tables and compendium was organized by the Geologic Names Committee, which consists of Henry H. Gray, Robert H. Shaver (chairman), and Charles E. Wier and formerly also of T.A. Dawson, John B. Patton (chairman), Ned M. Smith, Frank H. Walker, and William J. Wayne. All are grateful for contributions to the compendium, whether of authorship or review, that were made by other persons within and without the Geologic Names Committee. We are particularly grateful to T.G. Perry, who reviewed the entire manuscript. The main body of this report, headed "Rock-Unit Names," is arranged alphabetically and consists of historical, bibliographic, descriptive, and correlative information for each of the Indiana rock-unit names that had had approved use in Geological Survey-sponsored publications or in manuscripts approved for publication as of December 31, 1968. An asterisk (*) indicates new names or conceptually revised names that were first published in this compendium or in other reports and maps as well before their definitive sources were published. Each name should be considered tentative until the definitive source is published. Names regarded by the Indiana Geological Survey as unofficial for its use are not treated in primary fashion, but readers may consult the index, which lists the pages where the status of these names is reviewed. Neither are time and time-stratigraphic terms given primary consideration, and readers should refer to tables 1 through 6, which show the systematic interrelationships of these and rock-unit terms, both official and unofficial. The locations of type sections and type localities or areas for rock units named for Indiana places are shown in this report. The compendium is not intended to have a direct statement on stratigraphic and nomenclatural policy, although the Geological Survey has adopted most of the provisions of the "Code of Stratigraphic Nomenclature" (American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature, 1961); some exceptions were published by the Geologic Names Committee (1963). Because they had had much first-hand experience, authors of the lexicon were encouraged to be somewhat authoritative rather than merely compilatory in their manner of presentation, so that primary authorship of each article is indicated by initials. An example of correct citation of a part of the compendium follows: Hutchinson, H.C., 1969, Mansfield Formation, in Shaver, R.H., and others, Compendium of rock-unit stratigraphy in Indiana: Indiana Geol. Survey Bull. 43, p. 102. For information relative to the extent and physical characteristics of physiographic provinces that are mentioned in the text, the reader is referred to Malott (1922).
Excursions in Indiana Geology
(Indiana Geological Survey, 1966) Burger, Ann M.; Rexroad, Carl B.; Schneider, Allan F.; Shaver, Robert H.
Our purpose on these excursions arranged for the 58th meeting of the Association of American State Ge ologists is to bring about an awareness of Indiana geology and its attraction. Although our State lacks a Grand Canyon and production of glamour metals, features which in themselves would assure success of a field trip, it nevertheless offers many geologic challenges--challenges that we shall in part take up during these two days.
Excursions in Indiana Geology
(Indiana Geological Survey, 1966-05) Burger, Ann M.; Rexroad, Carl B.; Schneider, Allan F.; Shaver, Robert H.
Indiana lies wholly within the Central Lowland Province and thus calls to mind widespread, thin, nearly flat-lying Paleozoic rocks, major unconformities, and extensive plains. These features express epeirogenic submergences of the central part of the continent, long periods of general stability, and, nevertheless, repeatedly interrupted episodes of sedimentation and landform sculpture. Outstanding among these episodes was continental glaciation that carried to the Ohio River. Receiving ice from two principal directions the State's surface nearly everywhere attests to its latest experience, most obviously in the form of a great till plain that is interrupted in its gross appearance by end moraines, valley trains, and ice-contact deposits. Structurally, the State lies athwart a broad crestal area, the Cincinnati Arch, which separates the Michigan Basin on the north from the Illinois Basin on the southwest. Some structural instability, manifest as long ago as Precambrian time, is evident in such sedimentational or second-rank structural features as lithofacies, Silurian-Devonian and Mississippian-Pennsylvanian unconformities that change both locally and regionally in magnitude, and faulting. The more recent erosional record reflects structural history as well, and Paleozoic rocks from middle Ordovician to middle Pennsylvanian in age crop out at the bedrock surface according to their order of superposition. The Paleozoic units west and south of the Cincinnati Arch have special interest on these excursions. Their truncated edges, having differing resistances, are expressed alternately by open vales of gentle relief and uplands consisting of partly dissected westward-facing dip slopes and rugged forested scarps. Within easy range of Bloomington we can demonstrate much of the variety of geologic form characteristic of the State. Crossing the regional strike and the boundary between driftless and glaciated areas, the first day's excursion (inside front cover) is generally eastward to traverse bedrock of Mississippian to Silurian age and drifts assigned to the Kansan, Illinoian, and Wisconsin Stages. It emphasizes the State's most widely known natural product, the Indiana Limestone, and relationships of physiography to bedrock and drift. The second day's excursion (inside back cover) is northwestward from Bloomington and crosses younger bedrock (to middle Pennsylvanian in age). It emphasizes the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian unconformity, stratigraphic relationships of drifts, and some of the newest methods of coal mining and land reclamation.
A Field Guide and Recollections The David Dale Owen Years to the Present
(Indiana Geological Survey, 1987) Shaver, Robert H.
One hundred and fifty years ago marked the beginnings of a remarkable geologic odyssey funded by the State of Indiana. The legislature of this then pioneer state appropriated less and $2,000 annually for David Dale Owen to conduct a geological survey of the state. David Dale Owen accomplished much more than perhaps even the modern state legislature has yet realized.
A Field Guide to the Mt. Carmel Fault of Southern Indiana
(Indiana Geological & Water Survey, 1972) Shaver, Robert H.; George, Austin S.
Field Trip on Silurian Sedimentary Geology with Special Emphasis on the Reefs, Great Lakes Area
(Indiana University Department of Geology) Shaver, Robert H.
Sedimentology Field Trip prepared for Indiana University Students enrolled in Geology G420 circa mid 1980s.
Geologic Story of the Lower Wabash Valley with Emphasis on the New Harmony Area
(Indiana Geological Survey, 1979) Shaver, Robert H.
The lower Wabash Valley-215 miles as the river flows from Terre Haute, Ind., to its meeting with the Ohio Valley; 3 to 12 miles across from bedrock wall to bedrock wall; as much as 150 feet from modem alluvial plain to ancient bedrock floor; conduit for 6 1/3 cubic miles of water each year by both gentle current and angry torrent; drainer of 33,000 square miles of basin; reservoir for 750 billion gallons of ground water within the alluvial fill at any given moment; storehouse of 18 cubic miles of sediment, some in active transit but much more waiting thousands of years between legs of its fitful journey to the sea Both host to and product of a restless wandering river that forever renews its flood plain, cutting into its alluvial bed on one side and backfilling on the other; host to a river that adds a new layer of silt annually to part of the 900 square miles of lower valley flood plain; a river that erosively impinges here and there against the bedrock-valley walls, thus moving them farther apart as though demanding even more room to accomplish its ultimate task; a river that leaves telltale marks of its patient sorting through the flood-plain sediments: cutoff meanders, silted-up channel scars and sloughs, crescentic ridge-and-swale topography, valley marginal terraces, whose rising edges denote the farthest advances of the latest looping-river bends to migrate gradually by those parts of the valley. A 500,000-acre breadbasket to a nation; direct provider of such basic resources as sand, gravel, and water; secreter and protector, it would seem, of the rich coal and oil fields that extend far below the bedrock floor. The lower Wabash Valley-complex physiographic wonder; capricious (or misunderstood?) phenomenon; tireless geologic agent; artery, resource, playground, and home for prehistoric and modem man alike-what are its origins, how does it gain its boundless energy, and of what legacy does its physiography speak?
The Limberlost Dolomite of Indiana- A Key to the Great Silurian Facies in the Southern Great Lakes Area
(Indiana Geological & Water Survey, 1976) Droste, John B.; Shaver, Robert H.
"A new formation, the Limberlost Dolomite, is proposed for what formerly was called the brown upper part of the Salamonie Dolomite (upper middle Silurian) in northern Indiana that had not been named separately as had other members of the Salamonie. The new unit, ranging in thickness from 0 to more than 70 feet, generally consists of micritic to calcisiltitic rather pure dolomite that apparently is conformable with both the white bioclastic upper (as now restricted) Salamonie lying below the Limberlost Dolomite and with the overlying dark argillaceous Waldron Formation. Laterally disposed facies include oolites, reef and other organic buildup material, and thinly laminated micrites. In fact, the Limberlost is both a lower part of the reef-bearing sequence of the Wabash Platform (a middle Paleozoic feature not to be confused with present structure) and a direct facies of the lower part of the Salina Formation or Group (middle and upper Silurian) of the southern part of the Michigan Basin. The Limberlost Dolomite is at least partly equivalent to the Greenfield Dolomite (lowest Salina) of northwestern Indiana, and with lower A-unit (Salina) rocks in general of the Michigan Basin. Vertical zonation of the unit reflects the alternating periods of above-normal salinity (represented in Indiana by the finest grained carbonate rocks) and of more normal salinity (coarser grained even bioclastic and reefy carbonate rocks in Indiana) that characterize the Salina as a whole as well as its lower, A-unit part. The Limberlost Dolomite represents the onset of restrictive Salina influences within the Michigan Basin that transgressed in time onto the Wabash Platform as far south as Indianapolis. In places this restrictive influence had an abortive effect on beginning reef growth on the platform, but in many places first generation reefs of Indiana and Ohio grew without interruption until the end or near the end of Salina deposition well within the Michigan Basin. The tops of some of these reefs are as much as 400 feet above the Limberlost stratigraphic level. Similarly, the highest outcropping classically known Salina rocks in Indiana (Kokomo and Kenneth Limestone Members) are that high above the Limberlost. These stratigraphic relations in the stated magnitude suggest the key role that the Limberlost Dolomite has in interpretation of the great facies relationship that exists in the Great Lakes area between the reef-bearing and salt-bearing rocks. Such relationship between platform and basin rocks tempers greatly the current ideas on basin tectonics, history of reef growth in buried locales, shallow-water versus deep-water evaporites, and Silurian stratigraphic nomenclature."
Map of Indiana showing thickness of Silurian rocks and location of reefs
(Indiana Geological & Water Survey, 1992) Becker, Leroy E.; Droste, John B.; Keller, Stanley J.; Shaver, Robert H.; Ault, Curtis H
Map of Indiana Showing Thickness of Silurian Rocks and Location of Reefs and Reef-induced Structures
(Indiana Geological & Water Survey, 1976) Becker, Leroy E.; Droste, John B.; Keller, Stanley J.; Shaver, Robert H.; Ault, Curtis H.
The Muscatatuck Group (New Middle Devonian Name) in Indiana
(Indiana Geological & Water Survey, 1974) Shaver, Robert H.
"The new name Muscatatuck Group is proposed for the mostly dolomites and limestones that make up the middle Devonian rocks in Indiana. These rocks are in two mostly separate bodies that flank the Michigan Basin in northern Indiana and the Illinois Basin in southern Indiana but that have in northwestern Indiana a narrow corridor of physical continuity between the two basins. The Muscatatuck Group lies unconformably on Silurian rocks of varying age, except in southwestern-most Indiana, where it lies on lower Devonian rocks. It is overlain by the New Albany Shale in the southern area and by the Antrim Shale in the northern area, the Antrim Shale being defined so as to include a transitional carbonate-shale zone in the Antrim. The Muscatatuck type section is on Big Camp Creek (a part of the Muscatatuck River drainage system) in Jefferson County, Ind., where the Geneva Dolomite and Jeffersonville and North Vernon Limestones are present in a 66-foot Muscatatuck section. Three reference sections are in Boone County, central Indiana (subsurface, 93.5 feet, Jeffersonville and North Vernon); Allen County, northeastern Indiana (subsurface, 102 feet, Detroit River and Traverse Formations); and in LaPorte County, northwestern Indiana (subsurface, 138 feet, Detroit River and Traverse)."
The Search for a Silurian Reef Model, Great Lakes Area
(Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Geological Survey, 1978) Welch, James R.; Suchomel, Diane M.; Rexroad, Carl B.; Okla, Salem M.; James, W. Calvin; Horowitz, Alan S.; Droste, John B.; Ausich, William I.; Ault, Curtis H.; Shaver, Robert H.
The hundreds of known reefs in the Silurian archipelago that spanned much of northeastern North America suggest that thousands await discovery. Never were the intensity of their study and the promised scientific and economic rewards greater than they are today. The quest for their true identity began even before the modern reef controversy reached its zenith near the turn of the century. Emphasis in the Silurian reef controversy has evolved from one of orogenic disturbance versus organic construction to one of much greater complexity that nevertheless partakes of special aspects of both sides of the original question. Curiously, the evolving concept of Silurian reefs in the Great Lakes area became a favorite model for reefs throughout the younger record, although validity of these Silurian buildups as organic-framework reefs is still questioned. These structures include discrete pinnaclelike reefs, some attaining major dimensions of a few miles and thicknesses of several hundred feet, and coalescent features extending barrierlike for hundreds of miles. The host strata range from pre-Lockport rocks (Llandoverian in age) through uppermost Salina equivalents (Pridolian). Some large reefs in the area of the present Illinois Basin attained much of that stratigraphic range without apparent interruption in growth. Lateral and vertical biolithic reef zones attest to marked evolution of physical environment, organic species, and reef communities. Geographic and stratigraphic reef distribution in six or more, partly abortive generations reflects in part the cyclicity of evaporite deposition and also attests to dynamic tectonic-sedimentational regimes and interconnections among the proto-Illinois, -Michigan, and -Appalachian Basins and source areas of terrigenous clastics. The reefs exhibit a wide range of characteristics, many of them repeated at different stratigraphic levels: sizes in feet to miles, initial geometry lenslike to inverted cone shaped and digitate, penecontemporaneous relations with surrounding rocks or diachronous relations, restricted faunal or floral communities to diverse normal-marine communities, and other contrasts."
Some Pennsylvanian Kirkbyacean Ostracods of Indiana and midcontinent series terminology
(Indiana Geological & Water Survey, 1974) Shaver, Robert H.; Smith, Susan G.
Stratigraphy of the Detroit River Formation (Middle Devonian) of Northern Indiana
(Indiana Geological & Water Survey, 1975) Droste, John B.; Shaver, Robert H.; Doheny, Edward J.
Stratigraphy of the Silurian Rocks of Northern Indiana
(Indiana Geological Survey, 1961-05) Shaver, Robert H.
The Tenth Indiana Geologic Field Conference treats the stratigraphy of the Silurian rocks that lie between the Cincinnatian rocks and the bedrock surface in the rectangular area whose corners are defined by Cass, Allen, Randolph, and Hancock Counties, Ind. The area forms part of the Tipton Till Plain and is mantled by Wisconsin tills of the Tazewell and Cary Substages. Thus, well logs and cores are essential to an interpretation of the bedrock stratigraphy, but the eight exposures in the itinerary nearly span the Niagaran and Cayugan? Series as known in Indiana. Lowermost Silurian rocks, not exposed in the area, are assigned to the Brassfield Limestone. Three principal post-Brassfield pre-Mississinewa stratigraphic units are here called “lower Niagaran rocks” and are thought to be correlatives of the Osgood Formation and Laurel Limestone, the Waldron Shale, and the Louisville Limestone of southern Indiana. These rocks are present at the bedrock surface in the southeastern and eastern parts of the conference area. Progressively younger rocks are found westward and northward and are assigned to the Mississinewa Shale, the Liston Creek Limestone, the Huntington Dolomite, and the Kokomo Limestone. The Huntington Dolomite of common usage consists of lower Niagaran rocks, generally bedded, in the eastern and southeastern parts of the area and of upper Niagaran rocks, commonly reef facies, in the northern part. The so-called New Corydon Limestone of Huntington County is in the upper part of the Niagaran, but the New Corydon type exposures in Jay County lie stratigraphically well below the Mississinewa Shale. The Kokomo Limestone in its type area is assigned to the Cayugan, but its age and the unconformity that has been described at its base remain questionable. The rocks near Fort Wayne that have been called “Kokomo” are thought to be early-middle Devonian in age. They rest upon rocks of an upper Niagaran reef facies in the one exposure. Southeastward along the Silurian-Devonian contact in the western part of the area Devonian rocks rest upon progressively older Silurian strata, and most of the Mississinewa and younger Niagaran rocks are absent from the southern part. The historical development of stratigraphic terminology and the latest stratigraphic data suggest that the present usages of names for the following rock units in the conference area are less than satisfactory and that revision and redefinition may follow definitive study: Brassfield Limestone, lower Niagaran rocks, Huntington Dolomite, and New Corydon Limestone. Much of the fossil evidence bearing upon early correlations consists unsatisfactorily of species lists that had grown from author to author and through stratigraphic revisions. Many species, from nontypical exposures but presumably characterizing the faunal type, were added after stratigraphic identification had been made by means of lithostratigraphy; nearly half of the classic fossil localities are here assigned new stratigraphic positions. The fauna from the Mississinewa Shale and younger Niagaran strata is thought to be Lockport and Guelph in age.
Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian stratigraphy of the central Illinois Basin
(Indiana Geological & Water Survey, 1987) Droste, John B.; Shaver, Robert H.
"The little-studied third rock sequence of the middle and upper parts of the Bainbridge Group (Upper Silurian) and of the New Harmony Group (Lower Devonian) in the tristate central Illinois Basin is dominated by four kinds of carbonate rocks. (1) Reef rocks, fringing the deeper basin area and as thick as 900 feet, consist of light-colored, poorly sorted, skeletally derived materials that range from within the St. Clair Limestone (lower part of the Bainbridge Group) to the uppermost part of the Bailey Limestone (upper Bainbridge). (2) Very light colored, fairly well sorted high-purity bioclastic carbonate rocks, nearing 300 feet in thickness, are distinguished genetically from reef rocks by their principal distribution in thick, areally broad piles that make up especially the Backbone Limestone (lower and middle parts of the New Harmony Group) and that are concentrated along the eastern margin of the central basin. (3) Variably colored fine-grained impure noncherty to very cherty carbonate rocks make up most of the Moccasin Springs Formation and the Bailey Limestone (Upper Silurian), whose nonreef facies are more than 600 feet thick in places. (4) Light-colored fine- to medium- grained carbonate rocks that are as thick as 1,000 feet and are characterized by replacement chert and a speckled appearance dominate the Grassy Knob and Clear Creek Cherts (lower and upper New Harmony). The Silurian reefs belong to two principal generations, beginning during St. Clair and Moccasin Springs deposition respectively. Undiscovered, probably smaller reefs in the deeper basin are a distinct possibility. Distributions of the Backbone type of sediment and of the chertier New Harmony facies attest to asymmetrical sedimentational development of the deeper basin during Early Devonian time."