Abstract: Was there a Major Early Cambrian Carbonate Basin on the Indiana-Ohio Boundary ?

RICHARD, BENJAMIN H.; ERNEST C. HAUSER, and PAUL J. WOLFE
Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio

In 1926 the Friend No. 1 Mattinson well penetrated 404 m of carbonate rock below the Mount Simon Sandstone in Clark County, Ohio. In 1940 and 1944 the Farm Bureau Oil Binegar No. 1 and No. 2 wells penetrated 16 m of similar rock in Jay County, Indiana. Seismic data in Clark County suggest these carbonates are on top of the Middle Run Sandstone and may be as much as 1220 m thick. Could these rocks be the same formation as that in Jay County, Indiana?

Seismic and well log data in Ohio suggest the Mount Simon Sandstone was deposited on a karst surface with some remaining terra rosa soil. The carbonate units are organic rich with a gas show at the top and an oil show about 150 m below. Remaining samples from this well are very fine (about one mm) with no allochems apparent but the rocks in Jay County are coarser and appear pelletoidal. The Ohio carbonate is in a basin that is about 100 km across. This, we believe, is too small to have over 1200 m of carbonate rock. Could this basin be a down faulted part of a preexisting much larger basin in which the Jay County rocks were also deposited? And what is the age of the carbonate units?

Fission track dates on the Middle Run suggest it is younger than 700 million. Our seismic data show it is younger than the Grenville orogeny. Since the carbonate unit in Ohio appears younger than the Middle Run, it could be Early Cambrian.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90930©1998 AAPG Eastern Section, Columbus, Ohio