(part of Mauch Chunk Group) - the Bluestone Formation is mostly red, green, and medium-gray shale and sandstone; Princeton Sandstone is underneath.
(part of Mauch Chunk Group) - red, green, and medium-gray shale and sandstone, with a few thin limestone beds, including the Avis.
(part of Pottsville Group) - sandstone, approx. 50%, with some shale, siltstone, and coal. Extends from the top of the Flattop Mountain Sandstone to the top of the Mississippian. Includes from bottom upward Pocahontas coals Nos. 1 through 7.
(part of Pottsville Group) - predominantly sandstone, with some shale, siltstone, and coal. Grades to nearly all sandstone in the subsurface. Extends from the top of the Upper Nuttall Sandstone to the top of the Flattop Mountain Sandstone. Includes the Iaeger, Sewell, Welch, Raleigh, Beckley, Fire Creek, and Pocahontas Nos. 8 and 9 coals.
(part of Mauch Chunk Group) - red and green shale and sandstone, with a few thin limestone lenses, such as the Reynolds.
This unit is predominantly shale, and includes all Devonian beds above the Onesquethaw. Consists of units: Hampshire Formation, Chemung Group, Brallier Formation, Harrell Shale, Mahantango Formation, and Marcellus Formation.
Mainly thick-bedded limestone and dolomite. Various units produce much chert on outcrop. Consists of units: Pinesburg Station Dolomite, Rockdale Run Formation, and Stonehenge Limestone.
Marine limestone and marine and non-marine red and gray shale, and minor sandstone beds in numerous formational units.
Includes the New Market and Row Park Limestones. Predominantly medium-gray aphanitic limestone, containing very low-silica, cream-colored member of considerable economic importance. Chert nodules and dolomite occur in the Row Park.
Predominantly gray to dark shale, yellowish in the upper portion. Contains scattered thin limestone and sandstone interbeds, particularly in the lower portion. The upper portion constitutes the Reedsville Shale.
Maccrady Formation: red shale and mudrock, red and green sandstone, and minor limestone. Present only from Pendleton County southward. Contains rock salt and gypsum in southwestern Virginia. Pocono Group: predominantly hard gray massive sandstones, with some shale. In the Eastern Panhandle, has been divided into the Hedges, Purslane, and Rockwell Formations.
Trenton Group: dark, crystalline, nodular, and argillaceous limestones, with some metabentonite streaks. Includes the Nealmont, Oranda, Edinburg, and the upper part of the Chambersburg Limestones of northeastern West Virginia; also the Moccasin and Eggleston Formation of Mercer and Monroe Counties. Black River Group: predominantly gray aphanitic limestones, with many bioclastic streaks; siliceous in the lower part.
Medium- to thick-bedded, white to gray or pinkish sandstone, fine to coarse, quartzitic, ridge-forming. Equivalent to the Clinch Sandstone of Tennessee.
The Juniata is a thin-bedded, blocky, red sandstone and shale. In places it is underlain by the thick-bedded, gray Oswego Sandstone.
Pennington Group (Campbell, 1893). Bluestone Formation, Princeton Sandstone, and Hinton Formation. Raised to Group rank by Harris and Miller (1958). The group consists of shale, sandstone, mudstone, conglomerate, siltstone, minor limestone, and coal locally. The shale, siltstone, and mud stone are gray to black and shades of red, and mottled red and gray. The sandstone is locally quartzose and conglomeratic, and ranges from shades of gray to brown, and only locally mottled within red shales; many sandstones pinch out southwestward in the Tazewell County area, but two persist farther west and southwest. The limestone is gray to brown, generally near the middle of the group, and is the most widespread marine unit. The Bluestone and Hinton For ma tions thin to the westsouthwest in southwestern Virginia; the widespread sandstone and limestone members nearly converge southwestward to with in 80 feet of each other from about 600 feet of separation in northern Tazewell County. The Princeton Sandstone wedges out in Tazewell County. The top of the Pennington Group is intertonguing to unconform ble with the overlying Lee Formation in the western part of the Southwest Virginia coalfield; basal contact is conformable. The Group thins westward; variation in thickness partly due to intertonguing and the unconformity. The Pennington Group ranges from 235 feet in thickness without the Pinacle Overlook Member of the Lee (as interpreted from Vanover and others, 1989) in the south west to 2355 feet (Trent and Spencer, 1990) in Tazewell County and 1335 feet in a partial section in Washington County (Bartlett and Webb, 1971), where it is mapped as the Pennington Formation. Bluestone Formation (Campbell, 1896). Sand stone, siltstone, shale, mudstone, minor limestone, coal, and underclay. Sand stone, argillaceous, micaceous, locally quartzose, verylight to dark-gray, light-olive- to greenish-gray, yellowish-orange to dark-yellowish-brown, moderate-red, very-fine- to medium-grained, thin- to very-thick-bedded, cross-bedded, locally ripple-bedded, interbedded with shale and siltstone; forms ledges and cliffs. Sand stone in middle of formation in Scott and Russell counties is conglomeratic with quartzite pebbles and other rock clasts (Evans and Troensegarrd, 1991; Nolde and Diffenbach, 1988). Upper part intertongued with Lee in northern Lee County (Miller and Roen, 1973). Siltstone, shale, and mudstone, partly calcareous, greenish-gray, dark gray to grayish-black, pale- to moderate-red and mottled red and greenish-gray; siderite nodules in variegated shales and silt stones; fossils in dark-gray shale (Englund, 1968). Limestone, argillaceous, medium-gray, thin, lenticular, fossiliferous, in middle of formation, and in thin discontinuous beds at the base of the formation in the sub sur face in western Tazewell and eastern Buchanan Counties (Englund, 1981). Thin coal bed in upper part of formation in northern Lee County (Miller and Roen, 1973); coal and impure coal in thin discontinuous beds in middle of formation in northern Tazewell County; underlain by underclay, locally as much as three feet thick, with root casts (Englund, 1968). Top un con form able with the overlying Lee Formation in northwestern Wise and Dickenson counties and extreme northwestern Buchanan County but is intertonguing to the southeast (Mill er, 1974) and southwest in northern Lee County (Miller and Roen, 1973). Base conformable with the underlying Princeton Sandstone in northern Tazewell County, but is disconformable to the southwest because the Princeton wedges out southwestward in Tazewell County and the Bluestone lies on the Hinton Formation (Englund and Thomas, 1990). Bluestone thins northwestward and ranges in thickness from 40 feet in southwestern Lee County (Englund, Landis, and Smith, 1963) to as much as 850 feet to the northeast in Tazewell County (Englund and Thomas, 1990). Princeton Sandstone (Campbell and Mendenhall, 1896). Sandstone, light-gray to light-greenish-gray, weathered locally to pale-reddish-brown, fine- to coarse-grained, thin- to very thick- bedded, locally cross-bedded, calcite cemented, becomes friable upon weathering, contains conglomerate lenses as much as two feet thick with well-rounded to angular pebbles of quartz, shale, silt stone, limestone, chert, and ironstone; fossils in limestone clasts (Englund, 1968, 1979; Trent and Spencer, 1990). Wedges out southwestward in west-central Tazewell County (Englund, 1979). The Princeton as mapped in Lee County and southwestern Scott County (Harris and Miller, 1958; Miller and Roen, 1973) is a different sandstone. The Princeton ranges from 0 to 60 feet in thickness. Hinton Formation (Campbell and Mendenhall, 1896). Shale, siltstone, mudstone, sandstone, limestone, minor coal, underclay. Shale, siltstone, and mudstone, partly calcareous, grayish-red, medium-gray, and greenish-gray, fossiliferous. Sandstone, quartzose, feldspathic, very-light- to medium-light gray, greenish-gray, yellowish-brown, pale- to moderate-red, locally mottled, very-fine- to medium-grained, thin- to very thick- bedded, contains quartz-pebble con lomerate, tree trunk impressions, and coal fragments; cobbles in lowest member locally; interbedded with dark-gray to grayish-black shale. A widespread conglomeratic sandstone in the upper part of the formation has been misidentified as the stratigraphically higher Princeton Sandstone (Englund, 1979). Limestone, argillaceous, light-grayish-brown, medium-gray, thin-bedded, nodular, very fossiliferous, contains marine fossils of Chesterian age and is most widespread marine unit (Little Stone Gap Member) in the Hinton (Englund, 1979). Base conformable. The formation ranges from 164 feet in thickness in southwestern Lee County to 1320 feet in northern Tazewell County (Englund, 1968, 1979).
Some landslides with intact stratigraphic units in Craig County area. Includes: Dsu, Skrt, Sm. (Shrc?)
Oriskany Sandstone: sometimes designated Ridgeley in eastern West Virginia. White to brown coarse- to fine-grained, partly calcareous sandstone, locally pebbly or conglomeratic, and ridge-forming. May be white, nearly pure silica, and a source of glass sand, as at Berkeley Springs, Morgan County. Helderburg Group: mostly cherty limestone, with some sandstone and shale. Contains several named stratigraphic units, including the Keyser Formation, which is partly Silurian and includes the Clifton Forge Sandstone and Big Mountain Shale Members.
Moccasin Formation, Bays Formation, Unit C, Unit B, and Unit A. Moccasin Formation (Campbell, 1894). Mudstone, shale, imestone, and sandstone. Mudstone and shale, dusky-red to dark-reddish-brown, calcareous, ripple-marks, and mud cracks common. Limestone, light-olive-gray, weathers very-light gray, aphanic with "birds-eyes", locally fossiliferous. The limestone generally is the middle member of the Moccasin southwest of Giles County. In eastern Giles County and northeastward a thin medium-grained, gray sandstone occurs near the base of the Moccasin. The thickness ranges from 0 in northern Alleghany County to about 600 feet in Scott County. Bays Formation (Keith, 1895). Siltstone, sandstone, mudstone, and limestone. Siltstone, grayish-red, olive- to light-olive-gray, locally calcareous, sandy in part. Sandstone, light-gray to yellowish-gray, fine- to very-coarse-grained, locally conglomeratic, calcareous. Mudstone, grayish-red, olive- to light-olive-gray, mudcracks common. Limestone, grayish-red to light-olive-gray, aphanic. Five distinct K-bentonites reported by Hergenroder (1966). Contacts are conformable except perhaps in Botetourt, Roanoke, and Montgomery counties. Thickness ranges from 105 feet north of Wytheville to 890 feet near Daleville in Botetourt County. From Scott and Washington counties to Highland County and northwest of the Pulaski and North Mountain faults, a multitude of stratigraphic names have been applied to the rocks between the Bays or Moccasin (above) and the Beekmantown or Knox (below). The lack of detailed geologic mapping, except in Scott and Giles counties, the restricted area of the two major stratigraphic studies (Cooper and Prouty, 1943; Kay, 1956), and the general disagreement as to mappability and correlation of units makes it impossible to apply specific stratigraphic nomenclature at this time. Therefore, the rocks are described as three packages of lithologies (from youngest to oldest): Unit C, Unit B, and Unit A. Unit C. Limestone, medium- to dark-gray, aphanic to fine-grained with thin, medium- to coarse-grained beds, argillaceous, nodular to planar-bedded, locally very fossiliferous. The following names have been applied to Unit C: Witten, Bowen, Wardell, Gratton, Benbolt, Chatham Hill, Wassum, Rich Valley, Athens, Ottesee, Liberty Hall, Fetzer, and Giesler. Unit B. Limestone, light- to dark-gray, aphanic to coarsegrained, black and gray chert nodules, carbonate mound buildups. This unit is characterized by grainstone with interbedded micrite and chert. The overlying Unit C is very argillaceous and lacks chert. The following names have been applied to Unit B: Wardell, Gratton, Benbolt, Lincolnshire, Big Valley, McGlone, McGraw, Five Oaks, Peery, Ward Cove, Rockdell, Rye Cove, Effna, Whitesburg, Holston, Pearisburg, and Tumbez. Unit A. Dolostone, light- to medium-gray, fine-grained, locally conglomeratic, cherty. Limestone, medium- to dark gray, fine-grained, locally cherty. Shale, light-gray to dusky red. A basal chert-dolomite conglomerate with clasts as much as cobble size is locally present on the unconformity surface. The following names have been applied to Unit A: Blackford, Elway, Tumbez, Lurich (lower part), and "basal clastics".
Juniata Formation (Darton and Taff, 1896). Siltstone, shale, sandstone, and limestone. Siltstone, shale, and sandstone, locally calcareous, grayish-red, locally fossiliferous; with some interbeds of greenish-gray shale, quartzarenite, and argillaceous limestone. Cycles consisting of a basal, crossbedded quartzarenite with a channeled lower contact; a middle unit of interbedded mudstone and burrowed sandstone; and an upper bioturbated mudstone are commonly present north of New River (Diecchio, 1985). The Juniata Formation ranges from less than 200 to more than 800 feet in thickness. In southwestern Virginia the red, unfossiliferous, and argillaceous Juniata Formation is present in the southeastern belts. It is equivalent to the gray, fossiliferous, and limy Sequatchie Formation of western belts (Thompson, 1970; Dennison and Boucot, 1974). Even though the beds along Clinch Mountain, in Scott County, contain minor amounts of carbonate rock (Harris and Miller, 1958) the majority is grayish- red siltstone, which is typical of the Juniata Formation. Reedsville Shale. Refer to description under Ou. Trenton Limestone. Refer to description under Ou. Eggleston Formation. Refer to description under Ou.
Greenbrier Limestone (Rogers, in Macfarlane, 1879). Limestone, dolomite, and minor shale. Limestone, very-light olive-to olive-gray and brownish-gray, and medium- to dark gray, micrograined to coarse-grained, thin- to thick- bedded, thinner bedded in upper part, even- to cross-bedded; few shaly beds in upper part; oolitic in upper part and in cross-laminated beds near base; black chert near middle of formation, gray to pale-red near base; very fossiliferous. Pale-brown dolomite near upper chert zone, minor dolomite locally in lower part. Few interbeds of greenish-gray and grayish-red, calcareous, silty shale. Limestone is petroliferous locally in upper part (Henika, 1988). Base locally unconformable with underlying Maccrady Shale. Formation thickens to east, ranging from 200 feet in western Wise County to 3500 feet in Washington nd Scott counties. The Greenbrier is equivalent to (descending): Gasper Limestone, Ste. Genevieve Limestone, St. Louis Limestone (Hillsdale Limestone), and Little Valley Limestone (Warsaw equivalent), and to lower part of the Newman Limestone (Butts, 1940; LeVan and Rader, 1983). Newman Limestone (Campbell, 1893). Limestone and shale. Limestone, light-olive-gray in lower half, medium-gray to olive-gray in upper half, aphanic to fine-grained, partly oolitic, partly argillaceous, with basal beds of dark-gray chert nodules and local dolomite. Shale, medium-gray to medium dark-gray, partly calcareous, interbedded with limestone in upper half of unit. The Newman Limestone ranges from 550 to 600 feet in thickness and is equivalent to the Bluefield Formation and Greenbrier Limestone. Fort Payne Chert. (Smith, in Squire, 1890). Greenish gray chert in thin beds (2 - 6 inches thick); with shale partings. The Fort Payne Chert ranges from 0 to 20 feet in thickness and pinches out to the northeast. Grainger Formation (Campbell, 1893). Shale, pale-olive or greenish-gray to dark-greenish-gray, locally gray ish-red in lower half and at top; with some interbedded pale-olive-gray siltstone and very-fine-grained sandstone, locally abundant siderite nodules near base. The Grainger Formation ranges from 250 to 325 feet in thickness and is the lateral equivalent of the Maccrady Shale and Price Formation.
Bluefield Formation (Campbell, 1896). Shale, siltstone, and limestone, with minor sandstone, coal, and underclay. Shale and siltstone, calcareous in part, medium- to medium dark-gray, light-greenish- to greenish-gray, grayish-red; interbedded with limestone,thin sandstone and a few thin beds of black carbonaceous shale. Limestone, argillaceous, lower part dolomitic, light-olive-gray to medium-gray, light-bluish gray and brownish-gray, micrograined to medium-grained, thin-bedded, very fossiliferous; black chert nodules in lower part; interbedded with fossiliferous light-greenish-gray shale. Sandstone, quartzose to feldspathic, light-gray to greenish gray, very-fine- to medium-grained, thin- to thick-bedded, ripple-bedded, contains root casts in up per part, pyrite nodules, and shale and siltstone interbeds. Coal, locally impure in upper half of formation (Englund, 1968; Windolph, 1987). Underclay, medium-gray, clayey to silty, contains root casts. The Bluefield probably is equivalent to upper part of the Newman Limestone (Englund, 1979) and is a transition zone between carbonates of the underlying Greenbrier Limestone and clastics of the overlying Pennington Group. It is conformable and gradational with underlying formation. Formation thins westward; it ranges in thickness from 150 feet near Kentucky-Virginia boundary (Miller, 1974, p. 25) to 1250 feet in Tazewell County (Cooper, 1944, p. 169).
Brallier Formation (Butts, 1918). Shale, sandstone, and siltstone. Shale, partly silty, micaceous, greenish-gray, gray ish-brown and medium- to dark-gray, black, weathers light-olive-gray with light-yellow, brown and purple tints; black shale in thin beds and laminae, sparsely fossiliferous. Sandstone, micaceous, medium-light-gray, very-fine- to fine-grained, thin- to thick-bedded, and light-brown siltstone interbedded with shale. Locally siltstone is in very-thin, nodular, ferruginous lenses (Bartlett, 1974). Lower contact transitional; base at lowest siltstone bed above relatively nonsilty dark-gray shale. Equivalent to part of the Chattanooga Shale. Formation thins southwestward; it ranges from 940 feet in thickness in southwestern Washington County (Bartlett and Webb, 1971) to more than 2200 feet in Augusta County (Rader, 1967).
Includes the McKenzie Formation, consisting of shale with thin limestone lenses; the dark Rochester Shale; the white Keefer Sandstone; and the Rose Hill predominantly red shale, with thin sandstone interbeds, some of which are called "iron sandstones" from their reddish-brown color and hematite content.
Knox Group (Safford, 1869). Dolostone, limestone, and sandstone. Dolostone, light- to medium-gray, very-fine- to fine-grained, locally with pink streaks in the upper part; and very-light-gray to dark-gray and brownish-gray, medium- to coarse-grained, locally argillaceous dolostone near the base of the unit; greenish-gray shale partings locally present; chert is abundant in some parts of the unit. Limestone, blue gray to dark-blue-gray, very-fine- to coarse-grained, locally sandy. Sandstone, gray to brown, fine- to medium-grained. Limestone is dominant in the eastern thrust belts. The Knox Group ranges from 2000 feet in Southwest Virginia to 3560 feet in thickness to the east in Washington County (Bartlett and Webb, 1971). The Knox includes the Mascot, Kingsport, Chepultepec, and Copper Ridge Dolomites and the Maynardville Formation.
Maccrady Shale and Price Formation. Refer to individual units for descriptions.
Millboro Shale, Huntersville Chert, and Rocky Gap Sandstone. Millboro Shale. Refer to previous description under Dmn. Huntersville Chert (Price, 1929). Chert, white, thin-bedded, iron-stained, blocky, fossiliferous with cherty, glauconitic sandstone and greenish-gray shale. The Huntersville Chert ranges from 10 to 60 feet in thickness (Bartlett and Webb, 1971). Butts (1940, p. 303) states, "The Onondaga [Huntersville Chert] persists to Mendota, Washington County, but 10 miles farther southwest it is absent in a fully exposed section". The Huntersville correlates with the Needmore Formation to the northeast and the upper part of the Wildcat Valley Sandstone in Lee County. Rocky Gap Sandstone (Swartz, 1929): Sandstone, medium- to light-gray, weathers dark-yellowish-orange, coarse-grained, scattered, thin, quartz-pebble conglomerate beds, arenaceous chert in upper ten feet, calcite cement, friable when weathered. Thickness ranges from 0 near McCall Gap, Washington County to about 85 feet in Bland and Giles counties. Equivalent in part to the Wildcat Valley Sandstone of Lee County and the Ridgeley (Oriskany) Sandstone and Helderberg Group north of Craig County. The lower contact is disconformable. The upper contact with the Huntersville Chert appears to be conformable.
New River Formation (Fontaine, 1874; redefined by Read and Mamay, 1964). Sandstone, siltstone, shale, coal, underclay, and limestone. Sandstone, feldspathic, micaceous, disseminated dark mineral grains, light- to medium-light-gray, very-fine- to coarse-grained, locally conglomeratic with quartz pebbles as much as 3 inches in diameter, thin- to thick-bedded, locally massive, ripple-bedded, cross-bedded; contains carbonaceous fragments. Siltstone, medium-light- to medium-gray, even-bedded, ripple-bedded, deformed locally. Shale, medium- gray to black, evenly to indistinctly bedded, with few very fissile carbonaceous beds, plant fossils, ironstone laminations and concretions. Coal, finely cleated, impure coal partings in several beds, locally grades into black carbonaceous shale. Underclay, medium-gray, clayey to silty, contains root casts. Limestone, medium-gray, argillaceous, in thin discontinuous beds and ellipsoidal concretions locally occurs near base and middle part of formation. Marine invertebrate fossils locally in basal bed. Base is conformable with Pocahontas Formation and placed at bottom of Pocahontas No. 8 coal bed in most outcrop areas (Englund and Thomas, 1990). Northwest of outcrop belt, base is unconformable with the underlying Pocahontas Formation. The New River is thickest in western Tazewell and eastern Buchanan counties (Englund, 1981); it ranges from 1380 to 1925 feet in thickness.