UNRAVELING THE BORDEN FORMATION IN OHIO: A PRESENTATION IN THE MEMORY OF PAUL E. POTTER

Paul Potter chipped away at Ohio rocks for nearly seventy years. Paul contributed and authored many studies, field trip guides, and papers in the region of Portsmouth, Ohio, and Maysville and Alexandria, Kentucky. His final contributions to Ohio geology came as he volunteered several days of field work to re-examine rock outcrops and road cuts for a new Mississippian mapping project along the Ohio and Kentucky border area. These last days of fieldwork were the beginning of a new Ohio Geological Survey bedrock-mapping initiative addressing uncertainty in the areas of Mississippian lithostratigraphy and nomenclature. During the days afield, Paul youthfully detailed his understanding of the regional geology and provided a remarkable educational experience. Paul greatly aided the project focus, and his extensive knowledge of the regional geology was invaluable.

The earliest Ohio Geological Survey geologists mapped the Ohio portions of these strata using historic Waverly nomenclature. Later, these strata were remapped, which extended Ohio's Mississippian nomenclature from central Ohio (Logan-Cuyahoga Formation undivided) to south-central Ohio and along the common border with Kentucky. Concurrently, the Kentucky Geological Survey had an ongoing mapping project and later, completed the Geologic Quadrangle (GQ) bedrock map series. These maps depicted Borden Formation strata along the south shore of the Ohio River, paralleling the Logan-Cuyahoga strata. When compared, the Ohio and Kentucky geologic maps created a state-border-line fault.

Paul and other researchers interpreted a prograding clastic deposit infilling the foreland basin as the Borden depositional model. Paul's expertise aided reinterpretation of Jesse Hyde's Vanceburg and Pretty Run facies to correlate to Borden Formation lithostratigraphic members. This presentation is an initial step toward formally recognizing the Borden Formation in Ohio.