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At least 775 records · Page 43Linked to original sources
USGS1984

Palynology of selected coal beds in the proposed Pennsylvanian System stratotype in West Virginia

The usefulness of Pennsylvanian palynomorphs, spores, and pollen grains, as an aid in coal-correlation investigations in the Appalachians, has been known for many years. However, much of this and subsequent information was scattered in the literature or was not from the proposed stratotype area of West Virginia. Investigation of coals from sections of the proposed Pennsylvanian System stratotype provided the opportunity to examine changes in palynomorph content through a number of coals from the New River Formation to the basal part of the Monongahela Formation. The rank of most coals of the Pocahontas and New River Formations of West Virginia does not permit extraction of palynomorphs with current laboratory maceration techniques. Because of this, the data of some possibly equivalent lower rank Pennsylvanian coals from adjacent parts of southern Ohio and eastern Kentucky have been included. The coals examined from the Kanawha Formation, Charleston Sandstone, and Monongahela Formations of West Virginia have yielded abundant and well-preserved palynomorphs. Attention has been focused on the Charleston Sandstone, which is a massive, complex unit lacking marine fossils and composed primarily of sandstone. The coal is a significant resource in Pennsylvanian rocks, and the correlation of coals is an important consideration in the area of the stratotype in West Virginia and in adjacent States. As a result of this preliminary examination, the approximate range zones of some important taxa have been established. These range zones together with abundance data are used to correlate the coals. The range zones of some important taxa from Lower to Upper Pennsylvanian coals are: Densosporites irregularis Hacquebard and Barss, Stenozonotriletes lycosporoides (Butterworth and Williams) Smith and Butterworth, Schulzospora rara Kosanke, Laevigatosporites spp., Radiizonates spp., Torispora securis Balme, Zosterosporites triangularis Kosanke, Thymospora pseudothiessenii (Kosanke) Wilson and Venkatachala, Schopfites dimorphus Kosanke, and Thymospora thiessenii (Kosanke) Wilson and Venkatachala. Some of the range zones are relatively short and extremely useful for correlation studies. For example, in the Charleston Sandstone, T. pseudothiessenii (Kosanke) Wilson and Venkatachala is present in the Upper No.5 Block coal (upper bench) and the No.6 Block coal, whereas Schopfites dimorphus Kosanke is restricted to the No.6 Block coal. Thymospora thiessenii (Kosanke) Wilson and Venkatachala is not restricted to the Pittsburgh No.8 coal, but it is the only coal known in which this taxon is so dominant (more than 70 percent of the palynomorph assemblage). This preliminary report has provided a framework for the correlation of a selected number of coals occurring in Ohio and eastern Kentucky with those of the proposed Pennsylvanian System stratotype of West Virginia. In other studies, additional samples from the stratotype would be examined for ultimate correlation with rocks of Pennsylvania and in adjacent States and elsewhere.

Professional Paper↗
USGS1986

Floods of April 1979, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia

A major storm April 11-13, 1979, following a series of storms in March and April, brought large amounts of rainfall over southeastern United States. Heaviest rain fell over north-central Mississippi and Alabama. A maximum of 21.5 inches was observed at Louisville, 14 SE, Mississippi. Floods in Mississippi and Alabama were the maximum of record at 60 streamflow gaging stations in the Coosa, Alabama, Tombigbee, Chickasawhay, Pearl, and Big Black River basins. On the Pearl River, peak discharges at main stem gaging stations generally approached or exceeded those of the great flood of 1874, and recurrence intervals generally were greater than 100 years. Nine lives were reported lost. Estimated damages totaled nearly $400 million. Seventeen thousand people were driven from their homes in Jackson, Mississippi. This report presents analyses of the meterological settings of the storms, summaries of flood stages and discharges at 221 streamflow gaging stations, stages and contents of 10 reservoirs, flood-crest stages and hydrograph data consisting of gage height, discharge, and accumulated runoff at selected times, at 46 gaging stations, groundwater fluctuations in 11 observation wells, and water salinity and temperature at 22 sites along the Intracoastal Waterway in Mobile Bay. (USGS)

Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi↗
USGS1923

Additions to the flora of the Wilcox group

A rather full account of the extensive flora contained in the lower Eocene strata of the Mississippi embayment which are referred to the Wilcox group was published in 1916. At that time it was not possible to obtain sections of the numerous specimens of petrified wood that had been collected from these beds. These woods have since been sectioned and studied, and it seems eminently desirable to place the results of this study on record, for although much of the material had suffered greatly from decay before silicification, some of it is fairly well preserved and shows, among other results, that conifers were individually much more plentiful during Wilcox time than would be inferred from the almost total absence of their foliage in the very large collections of remains of this class that have been studied.

Texas↗
USGS1923

A section of the Paleozoic formations of the Grand Canyon at the Bass trail

The thick series of horizontal strata of Paleozoic age which makes the greater part of the wall of the Grand Canyon is probably broadly familiar to more people than the strata exposed in any other area in the western United States. Each detail of form or color in the wall is so definitely associated with a bed or set of beds in the series that these strata are the very elements of the canyon landscape. Consequently they have been described not only by geologists but by many writers who have been interested in the Grand Canyon chiefly as a scenic spectacle.

Arizona↗
USGS1923

The shapes of beach pebbles

There is much confusion in geologic literature as to the shapes of fluvial and beach pebbles and the differences between them, if differences exist. Though the contrary has been asserted, most geologists who have written on the subject appear to hold the view that beach pebbles are generally flatter than river pebbles, having discoid, lozenge-shaped, ellipsoid, or oval forms. It is asserted by some that these forms are produced by pushing of the rock fragments to and fro by the waves. Others have considered that the shapes of the original fragments and the inherent structure of the rock are dominant in determining the shapes of beach pebbles, and with this view the writer is in accord. That beach pebbles, even those composed of massive igneous rocks are commonly of a flattened oval form seems certain, as has been stated elsewhere, but this fact is probably to be attributed to the development of such forms from original flat fragments or from rocks of schistose structure or to the segregation of such forms under the peculiar action of the waves, rather than to their production by a specialized wave abrasion.

Connecticut;Massachusetts↗