DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary 

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, Director 

Professional Paper 95 

SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS TO 

GENERAL GEOLOGY 

1915 

DAVID WHITE, CHIEF GEOLOGIST 

WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRJ;NTING OFFlCE 

1916 
EROSION INTER-VALS IN THE EOCENE OF THE MISSISSIPPI 

EMBA-YMENT. 

By EDWARD \VILBER BER · 

INTRODUCTION. 

The unequaled series of older Tertiary deposits of the I ulf Coastal Plain comprise several 

thousand feet of sands, clays, marls, lignites, and impur~ limestones. . These deposits have 

always been considered as forming an uninterrupted and ponformable series, extending from 

the lower Eocene (Midway) to the top of the Oligocene icksburg and Apalachicola). It is 

the purpose of the present paper to show that the strand line migrated back and forth over 

this area several times during the · period represented by these deposits, and that the sedimentation of Eocene time was interrupted during several intervals, of considerable duration 

in terms of organic evolution. I have attempted to indicat~ the geologic history of the embayment Eocene in a general way in the diagram forming figur~ 27, which is self-explanatory. 

The essential lithologic similarity of the great bulk of these . deposits and their great variability, due to their littoral character and the reworkingtf unlithified deposits concomitant 

upon transgressions and withdrawals of the sea, inhibit th recogni.tion of physical ev1.· deuces 

. of unconformity. -

To ignore for the present the restricted formationa names based on local lithologic 

characters, the standard section of the Eocene may be sai to comprise a series of formations 

assembled in groups, at their base restmg upon Upper ~retaceous rocks and succeeded by 

deposits of Oligocene age. These groups are the Midwa,, Wilcox, Claiborne, and Jackson, 

the oldest being named first. 1 There is a pronounced unconformity between the Upper Cretaceous and the basal Eocene, visible in a number of sectiof s, and discussed by me with reference to the paleobotanic evidence in unpublished papers o~ the Up. per Cretaceous and Eocene 

floras. Stephenson 2 has recently summarized the paleozo ogic and physical facts bearing on 

this subject for the whole Coastal Plain. Obvious breakr, indicating similar unconformities 

occur in the later Tertiary (post-Eocene) deposits at sever! points in the ·Mississippi embayment area. . . 

EVIDENCE OF EROSION INTERVAL BETWEEN HE MIDWAY AND WILCOX 

. , EPOCHS. 

The Midway or basal Eocene deposits forn1 a border on the inner side of the 'rertiary of 

the Gulf Coastal Plain, from Flint River in Georgia to the Jio Grande and beyond. Over this 

vast distance their continuity is uninterrupted except for t~e relatively short.distance of about 

125 miles in ·southeastern Missouri and northeastern Ark~nsas, where later Tertiary erosion 

and su. bsequent Pleistocene deposition have r e:moved o.r c~ncealed them. This continuity is 

important, for the Midway serves as a datum plane for sue eeding deposits. 

The Midway deposits retain their marine character and races of marine faunas well toward 

the head of the embayment. (See fig. 28.) rhe overlyi~g Wilcox qeposits are readily distinguishable lithologically. The northern. most point at which marine f.aunas have been found 

in the Wilcox is about latitude 33 ° N ., or at least 3 ° south of the known northward range of Midway invertebrates. The Wilcox deposits might presu~ptiyeiy be interpreted ·as representing 

1 Detailed tables of formations for different States have been compiled by T. W. Vaugian and published in U. S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 

71, 1912. 

2Stephenson, L. W., The Cretaceous-Eocene contact in the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal lain: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 90, pp. 155-182, 

1915 (Prof. Paper 90-J). · 

73 
• 

74 SHORT'ER CONTRIBUTIONS T'O GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1915, 

a succession of estuarine, littoral, and continental deposits in the wake of the southwardretreating sea. This is doubtless true of a part of the basal Wilcox, but it is by no means the 

whole story. Before considering the evidence furnished by the fossil flora some of the details 

o,f the stratigraphy and the lithologic evidence of a break in the sedimentation should be 

discussed. 

The Wilcox group in its area of greatest development, southern Alabama, comprises four 

formations-the Nanafalia, Tuscahoma, Bashi, and Hatchetigbee. 

Jackson 

formation 

Claiborne 

group 

W·iJcox 

gr()up 

. Midway 

group 

South 

Gos ·art 

Lisbon 

Tallahatta 

Hatchetigbee 

Basht 

Tuscahoma 

Nanafalia 

Nahecila . 

100 

Vicksburg and North 

Holly Springs Shallowing an~ parti~r south~ard mi~ration 

ofthe stran~ line durmgthe mtddle WTic.ox 

Ackermar1 

Long-continued Cretaceous-Eocene emergence 

500 500 FEET 

Vertical scale 

0 100 200 MILES 

Horizontal scale · 

FIGURE 27.-Diagram showing the migrations of the strand line in the Gulf area during the Eocene epoch. 

The Nanafalia or basal Wilcox formation consists of sandy glauconitic beds alternating 

with grayish calcareous clays, which in places are fossiliferous enough to be termed shell marls. 

At the base of the formation, resting on the top of the N aheola, the uppermost formation of 

the Midway group, is a bed of lignite from 5 to 7 feet in thickness which has been traced from 

Pike C()unty, Ala., westward beyond Tombigbee River and which is represented by similar· 

lignites through the greater part of the outcrop in Mississippi. The Nanafalia formation main-· 

tains a rather uniform thickness across Alabama of about 200 feet. The fauna of theN anafalia. 

as it stands recorded in the literature is small and of very shallow water facies, the most. 
EROSION INTERVALS IN EOCENE OF' MISSISSIPPI EMBAYMENT. 75 ' 

I . 

abundant form being the small oyster Ostrea thi1~sce Gabb. fhat few species are restricted to 

this horizon is partly explained by the lack of monographic studies which would tend to increase 

the number of forms recognized.. Nine Nanafalia species, prevailingly long-lived forms, are 

common to the Midway, only four of which are, however, r,stricted to the Nanafalia and the 

Midway. The Nanafalia fauna is really very distinct from ~hat of the Midway, for it marks 

the initiation of many of the most characteristic Gastropodr. The pelecypods known are of 

less than a dozen species, and evidently collectors have missed ma:q.y of the smaller members 

of this order. The distinctly Wilcox types form about 87 ~er cent of the ]plown Nanafalia 

fauna. I 

Overlying the Nanafalia formation is the Tuscahoma forE:ation, a series of about 140 feet 

of gray or yellowish cross-bedded sands and sanely clays, marsive below and laminated above, 

generally poor in the remains of marine life except at two ,I horizons, where glauconitic shell 

marls carry an abundant fauna. This fauna ineludes abou 168 species, well diversified and 

FIGURE 28.-Sketch map showing maximum transgression of the Midway sea (A-A') d probable withdrawal during the interval 

betw,een the Midway and Wilcox epochs (B-B'). • · . 

indicative of a slightly deeper habitat than the Nanafalia Jauna. About 50 per cent of the 

Tuscahoma species are restricted to this horizon-a high plrcentage when it is recalled that 

additions of peculiar species would probably result from a de ailed study of the fauna. · 

The Tuscahoma formation is overlain by the Bashi formation, at the base ·of which is a 

lignite bed 2 feet thick. Above the lignite occur sandy cl ys and thick lenses of calcareous 

glauconitic sands carrying an abundant and diversified .fauna. This fauna has been studied 

more intensively than that of any of the other Wilcox formations. About 200 species are 

known, . of which more than 50 per cent are peculiar to this zpne. · 

The Hatchetigbee formation overlies the Bashi and consfsts of about 175 feet of laminated 

sandy clays and cross-bedded, more or less glauconitic ap.d calcareous fossiliferous sands. 

The fauna of the Hatchetigbee is the most obviously sha~ow-water fauna known from the 

Wilcox. In this epoch were introduced a few new forms which later became prolific, but for 

the most part the fauna represents the end product of evol~tion during Wilcox time. About 

85 species are recorded, of which about one-third are rest icted to this horizon. Of the 38 
. 76 SHORT'ER CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1915. 

species which persisted from earlier Wilcox time 33 became extinct during Hatchetigbee time, 

only 5 passing up into the Claiborne, and 14 additional Hatchetigbee forms are also recorded 

from the Claiborne. 

This indication of shallowing water toward the close of Wilcox time is just what might be 

expected, and it is significant, if my interpretation of a series of transgressions and withdrawals 

of the sea is true, that the numerous and varied ·ostreids, capulids, and other forms which 

indicate a near;..by strand line were found at localities in southern Alabama, several hundred · 

miles south of the head of the embayment. 

The lithologic differentiation of the Wilcox 1 in Mississippi is somewhat different from that 

of Alabama. In Mississippi a threefold division is recognizable. The basal formation is the 

Ackerman, which consists of about 300 feet of dark-gray lignitic and ferruginous sandy clays, 

beds of lignite reaching a maximum thickness of 6 feet, considerable concretionary and bedded 

carbonate of iron, and ferruginous sandstones, in places carrying fossil plants. 

The Ackerman is overlain by the Holly Springs sand. As the name indicates, this formation is prevailingly arenaceous and consists of about 350 feet of cross-bedded, mostly coarse, 

micaceous, in many places highly colored, and locally indurated sands containing lenses of 

prevailingly pink or white usually siliceous clays and carrying an abundant flora. 

The Holly Springs sand is overlain by the Grenada formation, which is prevailingly argillaceous and consists of about 200 feet of pinkish, yellow, or chocolate-colored sandy micaceous 

laminated clays and ferruginous sands. 

The divisions of Wilcox time in Mississippi only partly retain their integrity in western 

Tennessee and Kentucky. The Ackerman formation can not be positively recognized, although 

it may be represented in the southeastern part of the area. In general the highly varied 

lithology of the deposits of Wilcox age in the northern part of the embayment falls into a 

twofold division, the lower part being more like the Holly Springs sand and the upper more 

like the Grenada formation but with a somewhat less amount of clay. The upper part is 

als·o much more lignitic in the northern area than it is in the south. 

The only known erosional unconformity between the Midway and Wilcox is near Fort 

Gaines, Ga., where numerous pothole-like depressions in the Midway, as much as 20 feet deep, 

are filled with Wilcox deposits. Less certainly correlated erosional unconformities have been 

reported along the Rio Grande. 2 The most convincing evidence of such an erosion interval 

was brought to light during a study of the fossil floras, and this led to the assembling of much 

additional evidence, which will be given after a brief consideration of the flora. 

The Wilcox flora comprises about 350 species scattered throughout the area of outcrop; 

but especially well represented in the eastern Gulf area in Mississippi and Tennessee and in the 

western Gulf area in northwestern Louisiana. It falls naturally into three florules-a lower, 

middle, and upper-corresponding to the threefold lithologic divisions established for Mississippi. The ,lower Wilcox flora is the smallest, as it has been found at fewer localities and as 

the outcrop of the Ackerman formation covers a smaller area than that of either of the two 

succeeding formations. Neverthelessfossil plants of Ackerman age occur in Kemper, Choctaw, 

Lauderdale, Lafayette, and Benton counties, Miss. The Ackerman flora consists of 36 species, 

of which 13 are restricted to beds of this age, 16 species persist into the Holly Springs sand, and 

7 continue to the top of the Wilcox. The Holly Springs sand has furnished a flora of 256 species, 

of which 193 are found only at this horizon, 23 are common to the Ackerman, and 47 are common to the Grenada. The Grenada formation contains a flora of 116 species, of which ·60, or 

over 50 per cent,are peculiar to the upper Wilcox. It may be considered established, without 

going into greater detail, that those three floras constitute well-defined units. Their distribution is most significant. The lower Wilcox or Ackerman flora is confined to northeastern 

Mississippi, where it characterizes beds resting on the Midway; in fact, the largest flo rule of 

this age, that from Hurleys, in Benton County, is less than 100 feet from the Midway contact. 

1 For numerous sections see Berry, E. W., The lower Eocene floras of southeastern North America: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 91 (in press). 

ssee a recent paper by E. T. Dumble, Some events in the Eocene history of the coastal area of the Gulf of Mexico in Texas and Mexico: 

J"our. Geology, vol. 23, pp. 481-498, 1915, especially statements on p. 486. 
EROSION INTERVALS IN EOCENE ·oF MISSISS PPI EMBAY ENT. 77 

The lithologically characteristic beds containing the middle ilcox or Ho~ly Springs flora, which, 

in Lafayette County, Miss., are between 300 and 350 feet abo e the Midw~y contact, are throughout Tennessee found to rest almost directly on beds of Midw y age. Thi s at Pinson, in Madison 

County, the plant bed is less than 100 feet above the beds of idway·age. At Peryear, in Henry 

County, in northern Tennessee, a flora of 181 species is not onl near the t~p of the beds of middle 

Wilcox age-that is, stratigraphically above the flora from t e middle 'filcox localities around 

Grand Junction, Holly Springs, and Oxford, Miss.-but also 1 ss than 10(]) feet above the contact 

with beds of Midway age. Although ·the Wilcox formations lose their li hologic identity at the 

head of the embayment and along its western shore in Arkans s, Louisianr, and Texas; it is found 

that only middle and upper Wilcox plants occur at the head of the emb J yment and throughout 

101° 

The type marine section 

of southern Alabama 

TJL F (f 

oF 

1 37 

Distribution f the Distriti>ution 

•

of the Grenada • 

Wilcox flo a Holly Springs or middle · or pper Wilcox flora 

FIGURE 29.~Sketch map showing areal relations of the Wilcox floras. A-A, Maximu extent of the W'lcox transgression. Localities at which upper Wilcox species have been collected: 1, Gr~ ada, Miss.; 2, Som rville, Tenn.; 3, near Trenton, Tenn.; 4, Wickli1Ie and Boaz, Ky.; 5, Bolivar Creek, Hardys Mill, and other loealities on Crowle Ridge, Ark.; 6, lkenton and Malvern, Ark.; 7, 

several localities a tor near Shreveport, La.; 8, Coushatta, La.; 9, around Mansfiel and Naborton, L~.; 10, Sabine River; 11, Old 

Port Caddo Landing, Tex.; 12, Calaveras Creek, Tex. . j 

the western Gulf area. The distribution of these floras is s own on thr· accompanying sketch 

map (fig. 29). 

In summarizing the evidence for an. extensive erosion interval be~ween the Midway and 

Wilcox, it may. be noted that after the Midway epoch, durin which ma ine animals penetrated 

northward at least into Tennessee and deposits of marine c aracter re~ched southern Illinois, 

there was preserved on top of these marine beds in southern Alabama at the base of the N anafalia formation an extensive 5 to 7 foot bed of lignite. Th this bed 9f lignite was formed in 

place (autochthonous) by terrestrial vegetation and that e marine :waters had withdrawn 

southward beyond the ·present outcrop of the lignite be is almost certainly established. 

(See fig. 30.) Northward from this southernmost region a ong the ridway-Wilcox contact 
78 SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS T'O GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1915. 

successively.,younger beds rest upon the Midway, the Middle Wilcox o~ Oxford and Holly 

Springs, Miss., several hundred feet above the base in that latitude, being the extreme basal 

part of the b~ds of Wilcox age in Henry County, Tenn. From the numerous well records 

recently coll~cted by Matson and Hopkins in the N aborton oil field of Louisiana, it is obvious 

that the lower .and most if not all of the middle Wilcox ~re completely transgressed by the 

upper Wilcox. Furthermore, while the evidence is not as complete as would be desirable 

for positive cqn<;lusions, the available well records show a thickening of the Wilcox down the 

dip, a sure indication either of erosion or of deposition during an advance and subsequent 

retreat of the Gulf waters. I have attempted to indicate on the accompanying sketch map 

(fig. 30) th~ ,_ southward migration of the strand line from the maximum limit of the Midway 

transgression, its approximate position at the beginning of the Wilcox transgression, and the 

subsequent·1naximum extent of the Wilcox sediments. 

100 0 100 200 

l 

FIGU:RE 30.-Sketch map showing the approximate position of the strand line. at the beginning of the Wilcox epoch (A-A') and 

the maximum extent of the Wilcox- transgression (B-B'). 

That th~ geologic history was more complex than I have indicated is shown by the heavy 

beds of lignite at various levels toward the head of the embayment, by the 2-foot bed of lignite 

at the· base of the Bashi formation in the Alabama section, by the extremely shallow-water 

character of the Hatchetigbee ma,rine fauna, and by the marked littoral lithology of the Hatchetigbee deposits. and the _cqrresponding lagoon. ~nd sand fl~t lithology of the middle Wilcox 

deposits ill the upper· part of the embayment. 

EVIDENCE OF EROSION INTERVAL BETWEEN THE WILCOX AND CLAIBORNE 

EPOCHS. .. . . ~ 

__ The evid~nce of an interval between the Wilcox and the Claiborne is not so conclusive as 

. that of an iriterval between the Midway and the Wilcox, but rests. on the . complete agreement 

of all the vario'l1;s data. The type section of 'the Claiborne group is found in southern Alab~ma, 

wh(}re. it is capable of a threefold division. The basal formation, kl!-own as the Tallahatta 

buhrstone, is_l}n aluminous sandston.e or siliceous claystone, calca~eous and f?ssiliferous toward 

the east, where it is about 200 feet thick, but becoming practically unfossiliferous in western 
EROSION INTERVALS IN EOCENE OF MISSISS PPI EMBAYMENT. 79 

Alabama, where it re~ches a thickness of about 400 feet an is distinct~y littoral; a character 

which it maintains in its outcrop northwestward across Miss ssippi. O'Terlying the Tallahatta 

is the Lisbon formation, consisting of 100 to 150 feet of calcar ous, argillalceous, and glauconitic, 

abundantly fossiliferous sands, which also can be traced cross MissiJsippi. The Lisbon is 

overlain by the Gosport sand, consisting of 30 or 40 feet of hi hly fossiliferous glauconitic sands 

which have not been recognized outside of the Alabama area 

The physical evidence for a Wilcox-Claibor~~ in~erval con ists of ~ros~onal e;idence reported 

by Veatch and Stephenson 1 from several locaht~es 111 wester Georgia o~ the httoral character 

of the basal beds or Tallahatta buhrstone, t.he l!lndoubted gr at overlap of the lower Claiborne _ 

in Georgia, the overlap of the upper Claiborne toward the ead of th embayment, and the 

great thinning of the deposits in that region. 2 This may be i lustra ted by the following section, 

kindly furnished by Mr. Stephenson: I 

Section along Bolivar Creek, Crowleys Rid c, Ark. 

Pleistocene: Brownish loam underlain by graveL . . .......... , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........... . 

Claiborne formation (incomplate): 

Feet. 

5 

· Argillaceous, faintly laminated sand ........ _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _ ...... ___ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 

Massive sand ................................. _ .. __ . __ ._. __ .. __ .. _·_ .... ·-: .............. 5 

A:gil_Iaceous laminated sand.--.---------------·-------·--·-- -· ·- ·---·----I" ------------- L1gmte .................. -...... ----------- .. ---. -·------------.-- ~---------- ·----------

Wilcox formation: I 

Dark argillaceous sand........... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................. - --- . - - - . 

Lignitic sand................................ . ............. . ---.-------.- ........ -----

Chocolate-colored lignitic clays with fossil plants ... __ ......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........... . 

Tough light-colored clay........ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........... . 

8 

5 

5 

1 

g· I 

2 

43 

The significant feature is the 5-foot bed of lignite at th base of the Claiborne, indicating 

the site of terrestrial vegetation. The evidence is the same, hether thi~ bed is referr,ed tQ the 

top of the Wilcox or the base of the Claiborne. The Claib rne is unfossiliferous at this: outcrop and therefore the reference may be open to question, but fossilif'erous upper Cl:;ti~orne 

beds occur at the neat-by locality of Cherry Valley, and the eld relations indicate that a )part 

of the Bolivar section is of Claiborne age. It is true that the thinness o~the Claiborne:is phrtly 

accounted for by erosion, but e:osion ':ould not be suffieient to explain ~he. ~isparity in th·

1

. ickness between the beds at this locality and those farthe south. Ignitw beds at qther 

localities in the upper part of the embayment in icate old Ian surfaces, but it has not yet !been 

possible to determine at every locality whether they are at th base or th1

e top of the Claiborne. 

The northernmost points at which the lower or middle Clai orne has ~een recognized iti the 

embayment area are about latitude 34° N. in Mississippi and s mewhat s9uth of 34° in southern 

Arkansas. The upper Claiborne, however, carrying typical ossil plantsj is found as far north 

as Cherry Valley, a distance of 150 miles farther north than the recognjzable }<;>wer Claiborne. 

The faunal and floral evidence is very striking. Fossil lants have not been found in the 

lower Claiborne (Tallahat. ta) of the eastern Gulf area, so th. a the time lequir. ed fo.r its deposi-. 

tion has to be considered in determining the amount of evol tion shown by the later Claiborne 

floras. A few f0ssil plants have been found in the lower Clai orne (St. Maurice) of the western 

Gulf area, and the middle and upper Claiborne contains an e tensive and well-distributed flora 

from Georgia westward to Texas. · 

The flora of the Claiborne group known at the present ti e amounts! to 90 species. Of the 

338 species known from the Wilcox group only six are found n the Claibprne, and two of these 

occur only in the basal Claiborne or St. Maurice :formation o the westerp. Gulf area, while one 

other, Taxodium dubium, is a very wide ranging and probabl polymorp~ous form, both in this 

1 Veatch, Otto, and Stephenson, L. W., Preliminary report on the geology of the Coastal Plain of Georgia: Georgia Geol. Survey Bull. 26, p. 

228,1911. See U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 90, pp. 172-173,1915 (Prof. Paper 90-J), for simi ar evidence along the Rio Grande. 

2 Dumble, in the recent paper previously cited, states that there is much evidence of e ergence and erosion between the Wilcox and the 

Claiborne in southwestern Texas and northeastern Mexico. 
80 SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1915. 

country and Europe, so that it has no particular significance in the present discussion. This 

leaves only three species out of a total known flora of 428 species that are common to the Wilcox 

and the Claiborne, a fact which is very significant not only in its bearing on the interval 

unrecorded in exposed sediments between the Wilcox and Claiborne but in the evidence it 

affords that terrestrial floras are much more susceptible to climatic and other physical changes. 

than marine invertebrates. 

The Claiborne fauna embraces between 200 and 300 species, most of which occur in the · 

Lisbon formation. A very small fauna is found in the Tallahatta buhrstone at the base. The 

Gosport at the top of the Claiborne presents no striking faunal differences when compared 

with the Lisbon formation. Over half the species in the Claiborne fauna are peculiar to this 

horizon, and there are striking differences between it and the Wilcox fauna. These differences 

represent not only different species but a different grouping of genera and indicate slightly 

deeper waters. Thus Terebra, which is absent in the Wilcox, has four species in the Claiborne. 

T1 J.. F (J . 

oF 

100 ,0 100 . 200 300 400 

FIGURE 31.-Sketch map showing the extent of the lower Claiborne (A-A'), the area covered by the upper Claiborne transgression 

(B, B), and the strand line of the lower Jackson (C-C'). 

The Pleurotomidre have twenty-seven Wilcox species and only six Claiborne species. Cancellaria, 

.a shallow-water genus, has nine Wilcox and only one Claiborne species. The genera Marginella 

.and Limopsis, unrepresented in the Wilcox, have respectively three and six Claiborne forms. 

'Trophon, with four Wilcox species, Triton, with five Wilcox species, and Epitomium, with 

three Wilcox species, are unrepresented in the Claiborne. The Claiborne has fewer oysters 

than the Wilcox and many more species of :Mitra, Sigaretus, Dentalium, Nucula, Astarte, Venericardia, Cytherea, and Corbula. These comparisons might be continued indefinitely, but in 

view of the absence of any monographic work on these faunas there is a certain lack of finality 

in comparative statements. The conclusion that there is a most decided change in the faunas 

between the Wilcox and the Claiborne is, however, not likely to be invalidated by .future work. 

From tlie foregoing concurrent testimony of lithology, areal distribution, and floral and 

faunal character, it is believed that the presence of an erosion interval between the Wilcox 

and Claiborne has been demonstrated. What I conceive to be the general relations are indicated 

on the accompanying sketch map (fig. 31). 
EROSION INTERVALS IN EOCENE . OF - MISSISSIPPI EMBAYMENT. 81 

EVIDENCE OF EROSION INTERVAL BETWEEN THE CLAIBORNE AND JACKSON 

EPOCIIS. . 

The character of the transition from Claiborne to Jackson in the extreme western part of 

the embayment area has not been worked out in detail, and as I am personally more familiar 

with the region east of Sabine River I will confine my discussion to that region. 

The Jackson is very well marked paleontol gically, but its lithologic similarity to underlying and overlying deposits over part of its area of outcrop has prevented a complete elucidation of its extent and delimitation. The field work of the last few years, proseouted under the 

direction ofT. W. Vaughan by Vaughan, Stephenson, Matson, Deussen, and Cooke, as well as 

the accompanying studies of the Bryozoa by Bassler, the corals by Vaughan, the Mollusca by 

Cooke, and the plants by Berry, will shortly result in a complete account of this important 

upper Eocene horizon. 

The evidence of a southward withdrawal of the Claiborne sea has been more or less indicated in the preceding section of this paper. Evidence of the partial emergence of the northern 

end of the embayment is furnished by the palustrine character of much of the upper Claiborne 

material (Yegua or "Cockfield"). Evidence from. a more southern locality is furnished by the 

Claiborne-Jackson contact at Claiborne Landing, on the east (left) bank of Alabama River 

in Monroe County, Ala. 

The celebrated section at Claiborne Landing, famous as having furnished the fossils which 

enabled Lea in 1833 to apply the term Eocene to -American deposits for the first time, shows 

a very instructive contact between the top of the Claiborne group (Gosport sand) and the 

base of the Jackson. The detailed section was given by Hale 1 as early-as 1848, and it has been 

discussed by Tuomey 2 and in great detail by Sn1ith, 3 so that it is not worth while to repeat 

the complete section in this place. The top of the Gosport in this general region is a glauconitic fossiliferous sand, at this and neighboring outcrops, completely oxidized. In places it 

contains somewhat lignitic layers. At the top of that part of the section exposed along the 

old ferry road to the upper landing there is a lens of laminated gray clay carrying an abundance 

of leaf impressions. Fifteen species have been determined from this exposure, and these 

furnisli intrinsic evidence of the upper Claiborne age of tlie deposits, for nearly all of them are 

represented in the Yegua formation ("Cockfield beds") of Louisiana and Arkansas. Overlying 

this clay is a few feet of coarse ferruginous or glauconitic, calcareous, more or less indurated 

sand, grading upward into the Scutella lyelli bed of the Jackson. There is no physical evidence 

or" a break in sedimentation, but the following considerations are of some significance. Although 

all the formations of the Claiborne group are distinctly shallow-water deposits throughout southern 

Alabama, nowhere below the top has a similar lens of clay carrying the -remains of terrestrial 

vegetation been discovered. The sand which replaces the clay in near-by sections is completely 

oxidized throughout, and this condition may be legitimately considered to be due to emergence 

at the close of the Claiborne, because in the immediately overlying beds of the Jackson, although 

the sands are ferruginous, the glauconite is not cmnpletely oxidized. No evidence of discordance 

in bedding would be expected, nor would erosion make itself visible where the materials in contact 

were practically identical in lithologic character. Furthermore, unless the emergence was considerable in a vertical direction, which is improbable, scarcely any erosion would take place. 

The palustrine beds of upper Claiborne age toward the head of the embayment are overlapped by marine deposits of lower Jackson age which carry the life of marine waters farther 

northward than at any time subsequent to the Midway. (See fig. 31.) Numerous localities 

in Arkansas have furnished invertebrate remains} and along Little Crow Creek, in the northeastern part of the State, extensive oyster reefs are present as well as an abundant shallowwater fauna preserved in a glauconitic ·sand. East of Mississippi River traces of the marine 

Jackson fauna have not been found north of latitude 33° N., but the Jackson flora has been recognized as far north as latitude 35 ° 24' N. in western Tennessee, which is 135 miles farther north than 

1 Hale, C. S., Am. Jour. Sci., 2d ser., vol. 6, p. 354,1848. 

2Tuomey, M., First biennial report on the geology of Alabama, p. 153, 1850. 

a smith, E. A., On the geology of the Coastal Plain of Alabama, pp. 127-132, pis. 5, 20, Alabama Geol. Survey, 1894. 
82 SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS TO GENERAL GEOLOGY, 1915. 

the northernmost recognized upper Claiborne of this area, a fact clearly indicative of a greater 

or less emergence in the last third of Claiborne time and a pronounced transgression marking 

the beginning of the Jackson. The known flora of the Jackson is unfortunately meager, but 

the fauna is extensive. The available paleobotanic evidence corroborates the faunal evidence 

in suggesting that the erosion interval between the Claiborne and the Jackson was shorter 

than any of those which preceded it. 

The Jackson flora, as at present known, comprises only 22 species, but this number is likely 

to be considerably increased with additional studies. Eleven of these species are restricted 

to the Jackson, notwithstanding the fact that much more abundant floras are known from the 

, underlying Claiborne and the overlying Vicksburg and Catahoula. Two of the Jackson forms 

are characteristic Claiborne forms, and five additional Claiborne species have been doubtfully 

recognized in the Jackson. Four Jackson species are found in the Catahoula, and two of these 

are also found in the Vicksburg. 

The Jackson fauna, according to unpublished information kindly communicated by C. W. 

Cooke, comprises over 200 species, of which about 23 per cent are common to the Claiborne. 

When it is recalled that the Claiborne fauna also comprises over 200 species, about 50 common 

species in a total of over 400 seems like a very small common element. The two faunas are, in 

fact, very well marked paleontologically, but there is little change in general facies, closely 

related species appearing in both faunas and the same association -of genera being largely 

identical in both. The immigration of the active and predaceous Zeuglodon into the embayment area during Jackson time is a factor of some importance in contrasting ~he life of the 

two epochs. The similarities between the floras and faunas of the Claiborne and Jackson, as 

well as comparable similarities between those of the Jackson and the basal Oligocene, might 

be considered t'o represent uniformity of climatic and other physical conditions rather than a 

greatly reduced interval of time. 

The areal relations as I interpret them are shown on figure 31 (p. 80).