GEOLOGIC CROSS SECTION OF THE APPALACHIAN BASIN FROM THE FINDLAY ARCH, NORTHWESTERN OHIO, TO THE ALLEGHENY STRUCTURAL FRONT, EASTERN WEST VIRGINIA

A preliminary geologic cross section in digital format has been completed across the Appalachian basin from Wood County, Ohio, to Pendleton County, West Virginia. The cross section, approximately 385 miles long, is controlled by 16 drill holes most of which bottom in Grenville-age (~1.0 Ga) basement rocks. Key information used to construct the cross section are lithologic/mud logs, borehole geophysical logs, and previously published subsurface stratigraphic correlations, balanced structural sections, and State geologic maps,.

Stratigraphic packages shown on the cross section include: (1) Middle Cambrian siliciclastic and carbonate strata (rift deposits of the Rome trough); (2) Cambrian-Ordovician carbonate strata (passive margin carbonate bank); (3) Upper Ordovician-Lower Silurian siliciclastic strata (deposits of the Taconic orogeny); (4) middle Devonian-Lower Carboniferous siliciclastic strata (deposits of the Acadian orogeny); and (5) middle Carboniferous-Lower Permian siliciclastic strata (deposits of the Alleghanian orogeny). The most obvious styles of deformation observed on the cross section are (1) thin-skinned contractional structures of Alleghanian origin at the Allegheny structural front (Wills Mountain anticline) and in the adjoining foreland (Glady, Elkins Valley, and Burning Springs anticlines) and (2) basement-involved Middle Cambrian extensional faults that flank the Rome trough. At several localities, basement fault blocks appear to have been reactivated by compression during the Alleghanian orogeny, commonly with an opposing sense of motion.

The cross section provides regional-scale geologic information that may be used for digital models that illustrate the geologic framework, burial/thermal history, hydrocarbon generation, and fluid flow in the evolving Appalachian basin.