Thinking of the Furure- What Can We Do Next For New Insights to the Paleozic/Precambrian Boundary in the Midwest?

Abstract

This morning I want to discuss with you what is known of the basal Paleozoic unconformity in the eastern Midwestern states of Illinois, Indian, Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky plus bridges of Minnesota and Iowa and mention some possibilities for future research. I am here, not because I have much experience with this unconformity, but because I have had some modest experience with its possible analogs in Africa and Brazil and in southern Ontario. And, because I have always found it of great interest.

My talk will

1. Illustrate some of the topography of the Precambrian surface in Africa and Brazil

2. Provide a glimpse of well density in the eastern Midwest and Ontario

3. Suggest all the states and provinces to work together on a unified data base

4. Propose a few things that we might do now that would be telling yet not too extensive

This basal unconformity was first recognized by the great Canadian geologist, Andrew Lawson, who called it, “the Great Unconformity”, a name that perhaps we should reintroduce today.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90218 © 2015 Eastern Section Meeting, Indianapolis, Indiana, September 20-22, 2015