Upper Devonian Transitional Shale Facies of Western Appalachian Basin of Southeastern Ohio

M. T. Baranoski, R. A. Riley

Transitional facies have been mapped in five Upper Devonian shale units using geophysical logs from southeastern Ohio. Each facies is a north-northeast-trending zone that parallels the paleodepositional strike of the Appalachian basin during the Late Devonian. The facies are defined by the interfingering of gray and greenish-gray siltstones and shales from the east with black shale from the west. Structure and isopach mapping indicate penecontemporaneous faulting and subsequent filling along faults with sediments in the form of coalescing lobate bodies. Penecontemporaneous faulting may be related to sediment loading of the Catskill delta. The relative position of the transitional facies may indicate the western penetration of far-distal turbidites of the Catskill delta in o an anoxic portion of the Appalachian basin.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91041©1987 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, Columbus, Ohio, October 7-10, 1987.