Ordovician Bentonites in Tennessee and Adjacent States

Ordovician K-bentonites of eastern North America

“…By extrapolation from well-studied sections in Kentucky, the Murfreesboro Limestone is probably P. aculeata Zone in age (Sweet, 1984). Bed B-2 of Fox and Grant (1944), as much as 12 cm thick, occurs in the Carters Limestone and was correlated by Wilson (1949) with T-2 in central Tennessee.…”

“…Volcanic ash from eruptions associated with an arc/continent collision was carried by southeast tradewinds into the interior of Laurentia where it fell into widespread cratonic seas. Conkin and Dasari, 1986), eastern Tennessee (Fox and Grant, 1944;Rodgers, 1953;Coker, 1962;Milici, 1969), northwestern Georgia (Milici and Smith, 1969), central Tennessee (Wilson, 1949), northeastern Alabama (Drahovzal and Neathery, 1971), Upper Mississippi Valley (Mossler and Hayes, 1966), Ontario (Liberty, 1969;Trevail, 1990), and Quebec (Brun and Chagnon, 1979). Ordovician K-bentonites were also reported from the subsurface as far west as southwestern Texas (King, 1937) and eastern Kansas (Taylor, 1947).…”

“…Ordovician K-bentonite beds were described by Fox and Grant (1944) from Tennessee and adjacent states. The primary emphasis of their report was on southeastern Tennessee in the vicinity of Chickamauga Dam near Chattanooga, Tennessee, where fourteen beds ranging in age from Whiterockian to Cincinnatian were exposed during construction of the dam.…”

“…The two thickest and most widespread beds described by Fox and Grant (1944), B-3 and B-6, are equivalent to the T-3 (Deicke) and T-4 (Millbrig) in central Tennessee. This correlation has been substantiated by recent outcrop studies (Milici and Smith, 1969;Drahovzal and Neathery, 1971;Haynes, 1994).…”

“…Abbreviations: Curdsville, Cd; Logana, Lg; dolomite, Dol; and limestone, Ls. Wilson (1949) T-3 T-4 central Tennessee Fox and Grant (1944) B-3 B-6 eastern Tennessee Miller and Fuller (1954) R-7 R-10 southwestern Virginia (western outcrop belt) Bell (1954) bentonite A bentonite B southeastern Minnesota Weiss and Bell (1956) Carimona Spechts Ferry southeastern Minnesota bentonite bentonite Mossler and Hayes (1966) I-1 I-2 northeastern Iowa Huff (1983) 3 2 northern Kentucky Kay (1931) Hounsfield eastern North America Lilienthal (1978) Black River Michigan Basin shale…”