Pennsylvanian Formations 

of Southwest Virginia 

By RALPH L. MILLER 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1280 

Descriptions and type sections of the 

Lee Formation, Norton Formation, 

Gladeville Sandstone, and Wise 

Formation, and description of 

the Harlan Formation 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1969 
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

WALTER J. HICKEL, Secretary 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

William T. Pecora, Director 

Library of Congress catalog-card No. 7o-602 850 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 

Washln!lton, D.C. 20402 - Price 70 cents (paper cover) 
CONTENTS 

Page 

Abstract__________________________________________________________ 1 

Introduction______________________________________________________ 2 

Acknowledginents __________________________________________ ~-~ 4 

Lee Formation____________________________________________________ 4 

Bee Rock Sandstone Meinber _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 5 

Bald Rock Congloinerate Meinber__ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ ___ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ 8 

Members of the Lee Formation near Cuinberland Gap_____________ 9 

Norton Forination (preliininary discussion)___________________________ 11 

GladevilleSandstone_______________________________________________ 11 

Norton Formation_________________________________________________ 19 

Wise Formation___________________________________________________ 23 

Robbins Chapel Sandstone Meinber _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ __ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 25 

Keokee Sandstone Member_____________________________________ 27 

Clover Fork Sandstone Member_________________________________ 28 

Marcuin Hollow Sandstone Member_____________________________ 28 

Reynolds Sandstone Meinber(?)__ _ _ _ _ __ __ __ _ _ _ ___ ___ _ _ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ 29 

Kendrick Shale of Jillson (1919)--------------------------------- 30 

Magoffi.n Beds of Morse (1931)---------------------------------- 31 

Harlan Forination_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 31 

Conclusion________________________________________________________ 34 

Measured geologic sections__________________________________________ 35 

References cited___________________________________________________ 61 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

PLATE 1. Generalized geologic Inap and section of the western part of 

the Virginia coal fields showing the location of measured 

and structure sections, core holes, and deep wells ____ In pocket 

FIGURE 1. Index map showing area underlain by rocks of Pennsylvanian age in southwest Virginia_____________________ 2 

2. Map showing geographic localities for geologic names used 

by M. R. Cainpbell for formations of Pennsylvanian age_ 3 

3. Partial geologic map of the area around Big Stone Gap___ 6 

4-6. Maps showing: 

4. Location of outcrops and distribution of part of the 

Gladeville Sandstone at Wise, Va_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 16 

5. Location of prominent units within the type section 

of the Norton Forination_____________________ 22 

6. Location of prominent units within the type section 

of the Wise Forination________________________ 26 

In 
IV CONTENTS 

Page 

FIGURE 7. Columnar section of the Harlan and upper part of the 

Wise Formations __________________________________ _ 33 

8. Diagram showing sandstone units near the base of the 

Harlan Formation _________________________________ _ 34 

TABLES 

Page 

TABLE 1. Thickness of intervals from the top of the Lee Formation to the 

base of the Gladeville Sandstone and to the Imboden coaL__ 14 

2. Thickness of sandstone and shale units between the Norton and 

Dorchester coals in three diamond-drill cores and in geologic 

section 2 in the vicinity of Wise, Va_______________________ 17 

3. Equivalence of named and numbered coal beds of the Wise 

Formation in Lee and western Wise Counties, Va___________ 25 
PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST 

VIRGINIA 

By RALPH L. MILLER 

ABSTRACT 

In 1893 Marhrs R. Campbell divided the rocks of Pennsylvanian ·age in southwest Virginia into five formations as follows: Lee Conglomerate, Norton Formation, Gladeville S·andStone, Wise Formation, and Harlan SandStone. These names 

have been in common use ever since, except that Lee Conglomerate has been 

changed to Lee Fo:mnation, and Harlwn Sandstone is changed to Harlan Formation in this report. Campbell designated type areas for his formations, but he 

published a measured section only of the Lee. This paper includes a more detailed 

section of the Lee Formation, and describes and presents type sections for the 

Norton Formation, Gladeville Sandstone, and Wise Formation. The Harlan 

FoTmation is described, but a type section is not given because a well-exposed 

section has not been found. 

The Gladeville Sandstone, a rather thin formation, separates the thick Norton 

and Wise Formations in most of southwest Virginia. It is, however, not distinctive. Because of this and because of misinterpretation of structure along the 

upturned southeast margin of the coal fields, the Gladeville has in the past been 

misidentified in the western part of the Virginia coal fields. Detailed and reconnaissance mapping has established its presence along an 8-mile stretch, where 

formerly it was believed to be absent due to faulting. In the westernmost part 

of the coal fields, the Gladeville seems to thin and change facies so it is no longer 

a mappable unit. 

Both the Norton and Wise Formations consist of intertonguing units of sandstone, siltstone, and shale. In the ·wise Formation, resistant sandstone units 

are numerous ; four of the most prominent and areally extensive of these are 

herein designated formal members-the Robbins Chapel, Keokee, Clover Fork, 

and Marcum Hollow Sandstone Members. In :addition, a thick sandstone in 

the uppermost part of the Wise Formation in Lee and Wise Counties is tentatively designated the Reynolds Sandstone Member ( ?) , as identified by Wanless 

( 1946) in Black Mountain. Two calcareous zones, the Kendrick Shale of Jillson 

( 1919) and lthe Magoffin Beds of Morse ( 1931) , are believed to 'be present everywhere in the Wise Formation. 

Campbell defined the Harlan Sandstone as being the beds on Big Black Mountain characterized 'by a basal cliff-forming quartzose sandstone 40 to 100 feet 

thick and extending upward to the top of the mountain. In Lee County, extensive 

strip mines in the High Splint coal just below the Harlan Formation reveal that 

resistant quartzose sandstone units at the approximate base of the Harlan Formation are lenticular, and in many places they are completely absent. For this 

reason, •the base of the Harlan is redefined as the top of the High Splint coal. 

1 
2 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

INTRODUCTION 

In the Pennsylvanian System, more lthan in any other system of 

southeastern United St3!tes, each formation name in past and present 

use tends to be restricted to an individual State, and almost completely 

different sets of formation names ·are applied to the system in various 

States. Nomenclature has grown from early work in important coalproducing regions in the different States; rut that time, accurate interstate correl•ations of the l•argely continental sediments were ·almost impossible. Once a system of names for Pennsylvanian formations was 

established in a State by one of the early workers, most subsequent 

workers in the same State used ·the names wherever possible. 

Rocks of Pennsylv·anian age in Virginia are confined to the southwest corner of the State in the coal-producing regions of Lee, Wise, 

Scott, Dickenson, Russell, Buchanan, and Tazewell Counties (fig. 1). 

Early studies of these coal fields were made by .Stevenson· ( 1881), Boyd 

( 1887), and McCreath ·and d'Invilliers ( 1888). Campbell ( 1893), however, was the first to divide the rocks of Pennsylvanian age into named 

10 0 10 20 30 40 50 MILES 

FIGURE 1.-Index map showing area underl•ain by Pennsylvanian rocks (stippled) 

in southwest Virginia. 
INTRODUCTION 3 

formations and to show these units on a geologic map. His units were: 

Harlan Sandstone 

Wise Formation 

Gladeville Sandstone 

Norton Fonn3!tion 

Lee Conglomerate 

Campbell's publication and map covered parts of Lee, Wise, Russell, 

and Scott Counties, Va., and small parts of adjoining Harlan and 

Letcher Counties, Ky. The location of features from which Campbell's 

names were derived is shown in figure 2. 

These names were adopted by later workers and in particular by 

writers of a series of county reports on the Virginia coal fields (Harnsberger, 1919; ·Giles, 1921, 1925; Wentworth, 1922; and Eby, 1923). 

The only form·ation name of Campbell that gained acceptance in the 

adjoining states of Tennessee and Kentucky was the Lee Formation. 

In the Pocahontas coal fields, Tazewell County, Va., there is a tendency to use the formation names of ·adjoining West Virginia ratJher 

than those of Campbell. Elsewhere in the Virginia coal fields, however, 

the Campbell names are firmly intrenched, and they have been re83°3P' 83° 82°30' 

KENTUCKY 

10 0 10 20 30 MILES 

FIGURE 2.-Geographic localities for geologic names used by Campbell (1893) for 

Pennsylvanian formations of southwest Virginia. Stipple indicates area underlain by rocks of Pennsylvanian age. 
4 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

iterated as recently ~as 1963 on a geologic map of Virginia by the Virgina Division of Mineral Resources ( 1963). 

Campbell (1893), following the custom of the day, indicated the 

general region where each of his five named formations was well represented, but lhe did not designate specific type localities ·and he included 

only one measured section of a Pennsylvanian formation. His general 

descriptions have, however, been used by subsequent workers in identifying, not always correctly, the formations he named. 

In both detailed and reconnaissance mapping in the western part 

of the Big Stone Gap coal field, including the area from Wise in 

Wise County to a point 5 miles west of Pennington Gap in Lee County 

(fig. 2), I have been faced with the prdblem of exaotly what rocks 

should be included in each of the five named formations of Pennsylvanian age in Virginia. Much time has been spent finding and measuring suitruble sections and tracing units from their type regions as designated by Campbell (1893) into the areas of my detailed mapping. As 

a result, it is now possible to designate exact type and reference localities and to present type and reference sections for the Pennsylvani,an 

formations of Virginia, thus describing these formations as recommended by the Stratigraphic Code. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

During part of my mapping and straJtigraphic studies in both field 

and office, I was assisted by John B. Roen, whose help is gratefully 

acknowledged. I am also indebted to Mr. William Shupe of the Stonega 

Division of Penn Virginia Corporation, to Mr. Clifford L. Stallard of 

the Wise Coal and Coke Co., and to Mr. William A. ~hompson, Jr., 

of Thompson and Litton Engineers for providing engineer's logs of 

deep drill holes, information from which is used in this repo·rt. 

LEE FORMATION 

Campbell (1893) named the lowest formation of the Pennsylvanian 

System the Lee Conglomerate for Lee County, Va. (fig. 2), "as it constitutes the north western line of that county from near Pennington 

Gap to Cumberland Gap, a distance of 35 miles." It erops out on both 

flanks of the Middlesboro syncline in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee (fig. 2). The name Lee is still used in Kentucky and Virginia, 

but the Tennessee Division of Geology (Wi~lson and others, 1956) has 

proposed new nomenclature for beds equivalent to the Lee, as well as 

for younger Pennsylvanian formations. In Lee County, Va., the lower 

part of the Lee forms the upper slopes and crest of Cumberland Mountain ·and rt:Jhe middle and upper parts of the formation underlie the 

back slopes of the mounta;in in ·adjoining Bell and Harlan Counties, 
LEE FORMATION 5 

Ky. Cumberland Mountain (fig. 2) continues northeastward into Wise 

Counrty, Va., but its name changes successively rto Stone Mountain, 

Little Stone Mountain, and Powell Mountain (fig. 2, pl. 1). 

The Lee Formation in its type region is composed of a heterogeneous 

sequence of quartzose sandstone, conglomerate, siltstone, and shale 

and contains a few coal beds. Outcrops of the resistant sandstone and 

conglomerate units are abundant, and these units form high cliffs or 

prominent flanges in many places on the mountains. The intervening 

less resistant· units are, however, almost completely covered on the 

mountain slopes but are partly exposed in railroad and highway cuts 

through gaps in the mountain. For this reason and also because of the 

rugged topography of the mountains formed by the Lee, there are but 

four places in Virginia in the type region where good sections of the 

Lee may be measured. These are Cumberland Gap and Pennington 

Gap in Lee County and Big Stone Gap and Little Stone Gap in Wise 

County (fig. 2). 

When Campbell ( 1893) introduced the name Lee Conglomerate, he 

stated that the Lee "is best exposed at Big Stone Gap," and he included 

a measured section· 1,531 feet thick divided into 12 units. Although 

the term "type section" was not in vogue at that time, Campbell's intent 

seems to have been to designate his published section ~at Big Stone Gap, 

which he called the "best exposed" one, as the section typical of the 

formation. Eby ( 1923, p. 65), in the Wise County report to which 

Campbell contributed, states : "The formation is named for Lee 

County, Va., although the type section as described by Campbell is in 

Big Stone Gap." The section still is well exposed; Campbell correctly 

interpreted and diagrammed the folded structure in the gap, and his 

generalized section is in proper order of units. The name has been 

changed from Lee Conglomerate to Lee Formation by later workers, 

however, because of the heterogeneous lithology of the formation. 

I have rem·~asured the section 'at Big Stone Gap in more detail than 

did Campbell (geologic section 1). Most exposures of the Lee are in 

cuts along the two railroads that follow opposite sides of the Powell 

River through the gap and that reverse sides in the middle of the gap. 

Some parts of the Lee are better exposed on one side of the river and 

other parts are better exposed on the opposite side, so the section was 

measured partly along the west side and partly along the east. Figure 

3 shows the location of prominent resistant sandstone units in the Lee. 

BEE ROCK SANDSTONE MEMBER 

Campbell ( 1893) designated the topmost sandstone of his Lee section 

at Big Stone Gap as the Bee Rock Sandstone. He derived the name 

from an earlier publication of Stevenson ( 1881), who stated that the 

353-475 0-69-2 
EXPLANATION 

Contact 

Dashed where appro:ri-

·mately locnted 

Unclassified fault 

Anticline 

Sh.fJ U"i'ng trat'e of 

1u-ial plane 

Syncline 

Do.•hed u•here appro:rimutely located 

Outcrops which make up 

type section of the 

Lee Formation and 

middle part of the 

Norton Formation 

~8 $ 

Inclined Horizontal 

Strike and dip of bedding 

0 ¥2 MILE 

I I I I 

FIGURE 3.-Partial geologic map of the area around Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va., showing major structural features, 

outcrop belts, and resistant sandstone units within the following fol'!lllations of Mississippian and Pennsylvani·an age : 

Stony Gap Sandstone Member of Hinton Fol'!llla:tion, resistant (Mhs); upper member of Hinton Formation, nonresistallit 

(Mhu) ; Princeton Sandstone, resi.srtant (Mp) ; Bluestone Formation, nollJl"eSistJant (Mbs) ; unnamed sandstone units in Lee 

}j ... ormiation, resistant (IPis); Bee Rock Sandstone Member of Lee Formation, resistant (IPib); unnamed sandstone units in 

Norton Formation, resistant (IPns); Gladeville Sandstone, resistant (Pg). Contour interval is 200 feet. 

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LEE FORMATION 7 

highest bed of the Seral (Pottsville) Conglomerate at Big Stone Gap 

"is a moderrutely fine-grained rook and is well shown at rthe head of the 

gap, where it dips at 80°. This is known as the 'Bee Rock,' as the laurel 

blossoms covering it are the resort of immense numbers of bees during 

the early summer." The Bee Rock forms a prominent unit on the lower 

northwest slopes of Stone Mountain and Little Stone Mountain, which 

is readily traceable on aerial photographs and in the field. Where the 

beds dip steeply to vertical, the Bee Rock forms a flange as at Big 

Stone Gap, where the Louisville and Nashville Railroad passes1through 

it in a tunnel. Where beds dip more gently, southwest of Big Stone 

Gap, the Bee Rock forms sheer south-facing cliffs as much as 80 feet 

high. I have mapped the Bee Rock in the field from Norton, 10 miles 

northeast of Big Stone Gap, to the south edge of the Pennington Gap 

quadrangle, 19 miles southwest of Big Stone Gap. Englund (1964, 

p. B37) has traced the Bee Rock an additional 34 miles southwest to 

Cumberland Gap. In most places the Bee Rock is a quartzose, massivebedded, crossbedded, medium- to coarse-grained sandstone, but locally 

it contains lenses or thick zones of pebbly conglomerate. Now here 

within the Bee Rock have I seen abundant conglomeratic pebbles 

larger than a half an inch in diameter, though a few pebbles may exceed 

this size. 

At the Louisville and Nashville Hailroad tunnel in Big Stone Gap, 

the Bee Rock Sandstone Member is about 95 feet thick, of which the 

lower 90 feet of beds are well exposed, and the upper part, estimated 

to be about 5 feet thick, is concealed. A thickness of about 80 to 100 f~ 

is persistent northeastward to Norton and also for several miles southwestward. At Pennington Gap, however, the Bee Rock is 213 feet thick 

along the highway, and it seems to be about 250 feet thick at the Louisville and Nashville Railroad tunnel three-quarters of a mile east of the 

highway. The explanation for this large westward increase in thickness became clear when the member was mapped continuously between 

the two gaps. About 51h miles northeast of Pennington Gap and 1 mile 

southwest of .the Smlall town of Delvale, a siltstone and shale unit 

appears within the thick Bee Rock Sandstone Member. This unit 

thickens northeastward and separates a lower cliff-forming quartzose 

sandstone about 100 feet thick from a higher cliff-forming quartzose 

sandstone as much as 60 feet thick. This upper sandstone continues 

to be more than 30 feet thick :fior about 5 miles northeast of Delvale. 

Beyond this point, however, it thins, and near the Wise County-Lee 

County line it disappears (pl. 1). Thus, the Bee Rock at Pennington 

Gap and farther southwest includes not only the main sandstone unit 

of the type Bee Rock 'at Big Stone Gap but also a higher quartzose 

sandstone tongue of typical Lee (and Bee Rock) lithology that has 

merged with it about 5 miles northeast of Pennington Gap. 
8 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Englund and DeLaney (1966, fig. 2) have also noted this pronounced thinning of the Bee Rock Sandstone Member of the Lee between Pennington Gap and Big Stone Gap and have attributed it to 

the dying out eastward of a sandstone tongue of the Bee Rock. They 

have interpreted the tongue as being the lower part of the Bee Rock 

at Pennington Gap, which thus would be intertongued with the underlying nonresistant unit of the Lee. My detailed mapping in this 

region indicates, however, that between the two gaps the upper part 

of the Bee Rock is intertongued with nonresistant beds of the lower 

part of the overlying Norton Formation. (See pl. 1.) 

BALD ROCK CONGLOMERATE MEMBER 

Eby (1923, p. 6'5) named another member of the Lee the Bald Rock 

Conglomerate Member, which he described ·as the middle resistant conglomerate of the Lee. He took the name from a prominent mountain 

near Miller Yards (railroad yards) , 4 miles northeast of Dungannon 

in Scott Coui1ty, and 6 miles south -southeast of Coeburn, Wise County 

(pl. 1). This feature is labeled Bald Rock on Eby's geologic map but 

is unnamed on the 1957 ·edition of the 71;2-minute topographic map of 

the Dungannon quadrangle; it is the prominent mountain lying 0.4 

mile northwest of the switchback at Miller Yards. A resistant conglomerate unit, overturned and dipping 50° southeast, forms a bare 

rock dip slope on the south flank of Bald Rock Mountain. This is apparently the conglomeratic unit to which Eby attached the name Bald 

Rock Conglomerate Member. In air photos, this unit is very prominent, 

and it may readily be traced to the water gap of the Clinch River 0.6 

mile east-northeast. In this gap the unit crops out along the railroad 

track of the Clinchfield Railroad on the west side of the river, and it 

forms a very prominent flange from water level to a mountain .top on 

the east side of the river. It is a massive-bedded pebbly conglomerate 

and is at least 30 feet thick. It lies, however, at the base of the Lee, 

rather than higher in the ·formation. This same unit was likewise 

picked ·as the base of the Lee by W.ilpolt and Marden (1949, 1959), 

who measured an Upper MiiSsissippian section at Miller Yards. They 

also commented that the conglomeraitJe unit is "very resistant and very 

striking on the aerial photographs." Eby did not map his Bald Rock 

Conglomerate Member separately nor did he trace it continuously; 

he seems to have mistakenly assumed that the resistant unit rut Bald 

Rock was the sa.me as the second resistant unit in the water gap. This 

second unit, which is coarse grained to pebbly, is almost 600 feet higher 

stratigraphically ·and is partly exposed in the core of a syncline along 

the railroad. If the name Bald Rock Conglomerate Member of the Lee 

is used in the future, it should be applied to the resistant conglom-
LEE FORMATION 9 

eratic sandstone at the base of the Lee in the vicinity of Bald Rock 

and Miller Yards. Eby ( 1923) did not measure a section of his Bald 

Rock Conglomerate Member at Miller Yards, so no type section has 

boon established. A better section than the very poor Miller Ya.rds 

section should be found, if possible, for the type section. At the Clinch 

River water gap sizable covered intervals are present, both above and 

below the exposed beds of the basal resistant conglomerate unit, and 

the unit may be considerably thicker than the apparent 30 foot. 

MEMBERS OF THE LEE FORMATION NEAR CUMBERLAND GAP 

Englund ( 1964) has divided the Lee in the Cumberland Gap region 

into seven mappable members. These are: 

Hance Formation 

Lee Formation 

Bee Rock Sandstone Member 

Hensley Member 

Middlesboro Member 

Dark Ridge Member 

White Rocks Sandstone Member 

Chadwell Member 

Pinnacle Overlook Member 

Pennington Formation 

He demonstrates intertonguing of resistant and nonresistant units in 

this region, not only within the Lee, but also at its base; the lowest 

resistant member of the Lee at Cumberland Gap, his Pinnacle Overlook Member, intertongues with the uppermost part of the underlying 

Pennington Formation of Mississippian age and dies out 16 miles eastnortheast of Cumberland Gap. 

Englund and DeLaney (1966) traced the. named members of the 

Lee in the Cumberland Gap area northeastward to determine therelation of the Lee Formation of Lee and Wise Counties to the Pocahontas and New River Formations of Tazewell County, Va., and adjoining 

areas of West Virginia. They believe that the basal resistant sandstone 

unit of the Lee, about 275 feet thick at Pennington Gap, is the same as 

the White Rocks Sandstone Member of the Lee in the Cumberland 

Gap-Ewing region (fig. 2), but they incorrectly show this basal resistanlt unit tonguing out eastward between Pennington Gap and Big 

Stone Gap. My mapping between the two gaps, based on dozens of 

traverses up Stone Mountain, indicates that the basal resistant sandstone and conglomerate unit at Pennington Gap is continuous through 

and northeast of Big Stone Gap. Study of aerial photographs and of a 

considerably thinner section of the Lee at Little Stone Gap, 7 miles 

northeast, suggests strongly that this basal unit does lens out between 
10 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Big Stone and Little Stone Gaps. Hence, it intertongues with the 

underlying Bluestone Formation at the top of the Pennington Group 

as Englund and DeLaney interpret, but this basal tongue seems to die 

out northeast of Big Stone Gap rather than southwest of it. 

In mapping the Lee in western Wise and eastern Lee Counties, I 

have mapped individually all resistant sandstone and conglomerate 

units more than 30 feet thick, and I have also mapped thinner resistant 

units where they made prominent outcrops or topographic features. 

These resistant sandstone and conglomerate units are moderately to 

very quartzose and normally have very few impurities. They are comnlonly nearly white when fresh and light colored when weathered. 

They are predominantly medium grained, but coarse-grained and 

pebbly sandstone beds are common and lenses and thick beds of pebble 

conglomerate are also common. Conglomerate and pebbly sandstone 

are more abundant in the basal and near-basal resistant units of the 

Lee but may be present in higher units. West of Big Stone Gap the 

Bee Rock is notably pebbly, but at its type locality in the gap it is 

entirely sandstone. 

Resistant sandstone and conglomerate units are almost the only 

rock types visible on the mountains formed by the Lee, and even in the 

water gaps few of the intervening nonresistant beds are exposed. 

Nevertheless, these nonresistant beds form a large part of the formation, which in the type section at Big Stone Gap amonnts to 49 

percent of the total thickness. Most of these poorly exposed beds 

seem to be composed of medium-dark-gray siltstone and shale, 

although thin sandstone beds or units are undoubtedly present. 

Coal beds and associated underclays are included in the Lee but most 

are thin. In Wise County, chips of coal are found at various horizons 

in the Lee in cuttings from deep wells that have penetrated the formation, and several coal beds crop out in cuts in Big Stone and Pennington Gaps. The thickest coal bed (geologic section 1, unit 19), about 

500 feet above the base of the formation, is 4.7 feet thick, but the coal is 

so badly sheared that the original thickness before folding and shearing cannot be determined here. Another coal bed, 2. 7 feet thick ( geologic section 1, unit 15) but also badly sheared, lies about 85 feet lower 

in the section. Probably other ooal beds are present, particularly in the 

middle and upper parts of the formation. Steep dips along Stone 

Mountain and its east and west extensions, as well as the sheared condition of visible coal beds, have discouraged mining and prospecting. 

Where the Lee Formation again comes to the surface on the northwest 

flank of the Middlesboro syncline, a coal bed in the upper part of the 

Lee Formation has been mined m~ar Elkhorn City, Ky. Englund and 

DeLaney ( 1966) correlate the rich coal Jbearing Pocahontas Form·ation and the lower part of the New River Formation in Tazewell 
GLADEVILLE SANDSTONE 11 

County, Va., and adjoining West Virginia with much of the Lee 

Formation. 

The Lee Fonnation is 1,596 feet thick at its type locality at Big 

Stone Gap. Englund and DeLaney (1966) showed it to be about 1,675 

feet thick at Pennington Gap to the west. In a series of wells of the 

Clinchfield Coal Co., starting at a point 3 miles north of Appalachia 

and continuing 30 miles northeastward, the Lee decreases from 1,349 

feet to 1,148 feet. Thus, the Lee seems to maintain a rather constant 

thickness westward from its type section at least as far as Pennington 

Gap, but it thins markedly both northward and northeastward. A 

great part of this northeastward thinning is probably due to loss of 

beds at the base through intertonguing with the Bluestone Formation 

at the top of the Pennington Group, but Englund and DeLaney (1966, 

fig. 2) indicated that the Bee Rock Sandstone Member at the top of the 

Lee lenses out in an eastward direction by intertonguing with the lower 

part of the Norton Formation about 20 miles from Big Stone Gap. 

NORTON FORMATION (Preliminary Discussion) 

The Norton Formation is characterized by impure sandstone, siltstone, shale, and coal beds, which in places are commercial. Campbell 

(1893) named the formation for the town of Norton in Wise County, 

V a. (fig. 2), and defined it as including -all beds between !the Lee Conglomerate (Formation) below and the Gladeville Sandstone above. 

He estimated the Norton to be about 1,300 feet thick. As previously 

noted, the top of the Lee, and hence the base of the Norton, in Virginia is the top of the Bee Rock Sandstone Member, which seems to 

be a persistent unit from the Tennessee State line for at least 60 miles 

to rthe northeafrt.. The thick Wise Formation overlying the Gladeville 

Sandstone also consists of impure sandstone, siltstone, shale, and coal 

beds, very similar in overall aspect Ito the Norton. Thus, delineation of 

theN orton and Wise Form·artions depends on recognition and tracing of 

the rather thin Gladeville Sandstone that separates them. This seemingly simple stratigraphic problem has instead proved extremely difficult. Inasmuch as the upper limits of the Norton cannot be discussed 

until the identity of the Gladeville is established, the Glad~ville Sandstone is· described below out of stratigraphic sequence before returning to discuss the Norton Formation more completely. 

GLADEVILLE SANDSTONE 

The Gladeville Sandstone has been a problem formation ever since 

Campbell named it in 189'3. Though Campbell believed that the "massive sandstone or conglomerate," which he named for the town of 

Gladeville (since renamed Wise), Wise County, Va., and which he 
12 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

said ranged in thickness from 75 to 120 feet, was distinctive and could 

be readily recognized over a wide area of the Virginia coal fields, the 

reverse has proved true. Campbell, himself, misidentified as being 

Gladeville a sandstone, which is about 300 feet higher in the sec.tion, 

near the town of Norton and only 4 miles from Wise (Eby, 1923, p. 

67) ; from here on westward in Virginia and in adjoining Hadan 

County, Ky., Campbell's mapped Gladeville Sandstone in his original 

publicrution ( 1893) ·and in the Estill ville folio (Campbell, 1894), 

which includes the type region, is not the true Gladeville Sandstone on 

which downtown Wise is situated. 

Eby ( 1923) corrected Campbell's misidentification of the Gladeville Sandstone around Norton and traced the Gladeville another 4 

miles westward along the base of Stone Mom1tain, where the steep dips 

on the northwest flank of the Powell Valley anticline flatten abruptly. 

At Blackwood (pl. 1) this flexure is nearly a right angle; because of 

the crowding of con1petent and incompetent beds, including thick coal 

beds, at the hinge of this sharp inflection, a few foot of faul~t displaceInent has resulted. This very minor fault is observable in a railroad 

cut of the Interstate (now Southern) Railroad just east of Blackwood, 

where it was noted by both Eby ~and Campbell, but it is even better 

exposed in a recent high way cut close above the railroad. Eby could 

not find the Gladeville Sandstone west of Blackwood. He concluded 

that its apparent absence was due to westward increase in the displacement of ·the "incipient :fault" in the Blackwood railroad cut, which 

eliminated the Gladeville at the surface. He and Campbell, who wrote 

a section on the history of geologic work and the correlation of coal 

beds in Eby's Wise County report (1923, p. 73-114), both believed 

that this fault increased with corresponding elimination of stratigraphic section to a maximum of 1,500 fee;t at the head (north side) 

of Big Stone Gap. West of the gap the displacement on this fault was 

said to decrease gra.dua.lly to Laurel Fork of Pigeon Creek where the 

fault terminated and the Gladeville Sandstone reappeared at the surface. Eby named this fault the Pigeon Creek fault, because the trace 

of the fault as drawn lay near tha:t creek west of Big Stone Gap. 

In 1962 I began mapping the Pe1msylvanian rocks o:f the Big Stone 

Gap quadrangle, which includes the town of that name and which lies 

just south of the gap itself. In mapping the part <;>f the section where 

the Gladeville Sandstone should be, two things quickly became apparent. First, there were several, very similar, massive-bedded, resistant 

sandstone units, somewhat arkosic but otherwise quite clean, ranging in 

thickness from 30 to 50 feet; ·any one of these might be the Gladeville. 

There was no sandstone 75 to 125 feet thick in this part of the section, 

nor was there one of distinctive lithology. Second, no evidence for 
GLADEVILLE SANDSTONE 13 

faulting was noted anywhere along the course of the presumed Pigeon 

Creek fault, except for the very minor movement visible in the railroad 

and highway cuts at Blackwood. Instead, in a cut of the Louisville 

and Nashville Railroad just south of 1the trestle across the Powell River 

at the head of Big Stone Gap, an outcropping sandstone follows continuously around the sharp flexure, without any rupturing, at the 

place where the Pigeon Creek fault with 1,500 feet of displacement 

and elimination of beds is supposed to occur. Subsequently, a similar 

relation was found along strike 1,000 feet to the west at the junction of 

Pigeon Creek and Looney Creek. These two findings cast doubt not 

only on the identification of the Gladeville Sandstone by Eby in his 

mapping west of Laurel Fork of Pigeon Creek but also on the existence 

of the Pigeon Creek fault. Furthermore, if there is no Pigeon Creek 

fault, where is the Gladeville Sandstone in the S-mile stretch between 

Blackwood and Laurel Fork~ 

To resolve this problem, John B. Roen and I have mapped a belt of 

rocks that includes the Gladeville Sandstone at a scale of 1: 10,000; 

the belt extends from the type locality of the Gladeville at the town of 

Wise, southwestward to Norton, thence west-southwestward through 

Blackwood, Appalachia, and the head of Big Stone Gap, to the north 

edge of the Big Stone Gap quadrangle. West of Blackwood the line of 

outcrop is largely south of the Powell River on the steep timbered 

lower slopes of Little Stone Mountain. The Gladeville and other sandstones above and below the Gladeville were mapped without finding 

any evidence for faulting and elimination of beds. This unpublished 

mapping has been summarized rut much smaller scale on plate 1. In 

places along the lower slopes of the mountain, debris from the steep 

mountain slopes ·above and he:avy vegetation cover the bedrock for considerable distances, so it cannot be said that the Gladeville has been 

traced continuously from Wise to the Big Stone Gap quadrangle. 

There were only two places where there was doubt that the mapped 

sandstones were correctly matched on opposite sides of covered intervals. One of these places is near the east edge of the Appalachia quadrangle, where a prominent spur protrudes northward from the main 

ridge of Little Stone Mountain. Several very similar sandstone units 

are present on the crest of this spur, but I have considerable confidence 

that the one we believed to be the Gladeville is the same resistant sandstone as the one that Roen and I followed and mapped from Wise to 

this point. From here to the town of Appalachia, a distance of 1 mile, 

almost continuous cover of this part of the section makes it less than 

certain that I have correctly connected mapped sandstones across the 

interval. Nevertheless, similarity of section, spacing of sands, and 

353-475 Q-69-3 
14 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

stratigraphic distance above the top of the Bee Rock Sandstone member support the mapping, and it is probably right. 

As a further check on the geologic mapping, a series of 12 structure 

sections was drawn from Norton to the mouth of Laurel Fork (pl. 1, 

section lines A-A' toL-L'). The top of the Lee ·and the Gl'adeville 

Sandstone were plotted to scale in each section. In addition, the Imboden coal, which lies about 450 feet above the Gladeville and is exposed 

almost continuously in strip mines, was included in those sections 

( F -F' to L-L') where it lies close to the Gladeville belt of outcrop. 

One secJtion, J-J' (pl. 1), is at the head of Big Stone Gap. A summary 

of all the measurements from these 12 sections is shown in table 1. The 

consistent thickness from the top of the Lee Formation to the Gladeville Sandstone and from the base of the Gladeville to the Imboden 

eoal further substantiates tthat the Gladeville has been correetly mapped 

from Norton to and beyond the head of Big Stone Gap; it also offers 

additional proof that no sizable fault such as the presumed Pigeon 

Creek fault exists along the flexure at the foot of Little Stone Mountain and Stone Mountain from Blackwood to the mouth of Laurel 

Fork. Because of these findings, the Pigeon Creek fault was not shown 

on the 1963 geologic map of Virginia (Virginia Division of Mineral 

TABLE 1.-Thickness of intervals, in feet, from the top of the Lee Formation to the 

base of the Gladeville Sandstone and to the Imboden coal in the Wise Formation 

[Measurements are from 12 structure sections between Norton and the mouth of Laurel Fork, Wise County, Va. See plate 1 for location of sections] 

Structure section 

A-A' ____________________________ _ 

B-B'----------------------------- C-0' ____________________________ _ 

D-D' ---- _- _- _-------------------- E-E' ____________________________ _ 

F-F'-----------------------------

0-G'---- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - }{-}{' ___________________________ _ 

I-1'-----------------------------

J-J'-----------------------------

}(-1('----------------------------

L-L'-----------------------------

Top of Lee formation to- Base of Glade- ----------- ville Sandstone 

Base of Glade- Imboden coal to Imboden coal 

ville Sandstone 

850 --------------------------

885 --------------------------

865 -------------------------- 1 1, 110 --------------------------

930 -------------------------- 840 1,560 720 

970 1,600 630 

880 1,525 635 

(2) 1, 500 ------------

925 1,505 580 

920 1,480 560 

895 1,440 505 

Range _____________________ 3 84Q-1, 110 1, 440-1,600 505-720 

t Interval in doubt because of observed small-scale folding in the Norton Formation which could not be 

compensated for. 2 Gladeville not identified with certainty in this section. a Probable range is from 840 to 970 feet. See footnotp, 1. 
GLADEViLLE SANDSTONE 15 

Resources, 1963) . The very sharp flexure along the base of the mountain from Norton to the mouth of Laurel Fork is here named the Pigeon 

Creek flexure. Mapping by Roen and myself also seems to disprove the 

existence of a similarly located fault at the head of Pennington Gap, 

named the North Fork fault (Giles, 1925). 

Stratigraphic sections were also 1neasured ·across the G 1adeville interv;al ·at favorable loca.lities from Norton to Big Stone Gap to supplement and control the geologic mapping. These sections contain many 

resistant sandstone units; the thicker units have been traced for miles. 

Correlation of these very similar resistant sandstone units without 

mapping key units between sectilQns is very difficult and emphlasizes the 

problems Campbell, Eby, and other earlier workers faced in trying 

to identify the Gladeville Sandstone throughout the Big Stone Gap 

coal field. 

No measured section of the Gladeville Sandstone was given by Campbell when he named the formation. It is clear, however, from Campbell's collaboration in the Wise County report (Eby, 1923) that he 

intended the name to apply to the massive sandstone that is visible 

in roadcuts of U.S. Highway 23 on the south edge of the town of Wise 

and on top of which the courthouse and other downtown buildings are 

situated (fig. 4). This sandstone, which crops out conspicuously at 

many places in 1and near town, is massive bedded, strongly crossbedded, 

white,. quartzose, and medium grained. It is extremely difficult to get 

accurate measurements of the thickness of the Gladeville Sandstone 

from surface sections at the town of Wise, because the base and top 

of the formation are not exposed anywhere in close proximity and the 

persistent crossbedding makes it almost impossible to measure meaningful dips and strikes to correct for dip. The best thickness measurement I could obtain was from the base of Gladeville ledges in the woods 

west of the hill on which the water tank and Wise County Memorial 

Hospital 1are located to the hillcrest, which is believed to be capped by 

beds very near the top of the formation. This measurement gave a 

thickness of 51 foot. 

Thompson and Litton Engineers of Wise, Va., have kindly m·ade 

available to me the logs of cores from ·three diamond-drill holes near 

Wise, each of which penetraJted all of the 'Gladeville. In hole 1 (table 

2), a mile north of the center of town, an upper sandstone 32 feet thick 

and a lower sandstone 17 feet thick are separated by 11 feet of black 

shale. In hole 2 (table 2), a mile and a half north-northwest of town, 

two sandstone units 32 feet ·and 27 foot thick, respectively, are 

separated by 13 feet of .shale and -a :Y2 -inch-thick coal bed. In hole 3 

(table 2), 2 miles north-northwest of the center of town, an upper sandtone 47 feet thick and a lower sandstone 21 foot thick are separated by 
16 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

EXPLANATION 

Gladeville Sandstone 

Contact 

Dashed whe1·e nppro.•·imately 

located 

_ .. s 

Outcrops 

Number refers to unit . 

in ~asured geologic section .! 

1000 0 1000 2000 FEET 

N 

FIGURE 4.-Location of outcrops and distribution of part of the Gladeville 

Sandstone (shaded) and adjacent formations at Wise, Va. 

18:Y2 feet of dark shale. In the three holes the Norton coal lies 2 to 8 

feet below the lower sandstone, ·and the Dorchester coal lies 14 to 35 

feet rubove the upper sandstone. In the type section of t:he Glade ville 

Sandstone in the town of Wise (geologic s~tion 2), a lower sandstone 

more than 12 feet thick lies 2:y2 feet above the Norton coal. It is very 

fine grained and micaceous, and this description does not fit the lithologic concept of the Gladeville Sandstone. By position this should be 

the lower sandstone of the three drill holes; in the driller's logs, lithologic details of this unit are omitted. Hence, the upper sandstone in 

the three drill holes is the sandstone in the town of Wise to which 

Campbell (1893) gave the name ·Gladeville. Thus, the thickness of the 

formation in these holes is 32 feet, 32 feet, and 4 7 feet (table 2), which 

is considerably less than Campbell's 75 to 120 feet ( 1893, p. 33) and 

Eby's (1923) 90 to 110 feet. The coal operators in the vicinity of Wise 

also cite ·about 100 feet as the ·thickness of the GladeviHe Sandstone. 

The explanation for the discrepancy in the case of the coal operators 

is that they include within the •Gladeville all beds that are between the 

Norton and Dorchester -coals for the sake of convenience and because 

they have abundant data on the position of these coals and the interval 
GLADEVILLE SANDSTONE 17 

between them in northern and eastern Wise County. Campbell's ( 1893) 

greater thickness for the Gladeville ·at Wise may have been due to the 

difficulty of getting accurate measurements at the surface of a "spread 

out" crossbedded sandstone. My ~first attempt ·at such a measurement 

in the town of Wise resulted in a calculated thickness of 83 feet, which 

later proved to be about 32 feet too great. Eby (1923) may have encountered the same problem or he may have accepted CampbeH's approximate thicknesses. Nowhere does Eby indicate that he includes ·all 

beds between the two coals within the Gladeville Sandstone, though 

his geologic map of Wise County does show the Norton and Dorchester 

coals directly in contact with the mapped Gladeville, probably because 

of lack of space at the inch-to-the-mile scale of the map. 

TABLE 2.-Thickness of sandstone and shale units, in feet, between the Norton and 

Dorchester coals in three diamond-drill cores and in geologic section 2 in the vicinity 

of Wise, Va. 

Drill hole Section 2 

Unit --------(see fig. 4) 

2 3 

Base of Dorchester coal to top of upper sandstone_ 35 14 22 -------- Upper sandstone ____________________________ 32 32 47 1 55± 

Shale and associated nonresistant rocks ________ 11 13 18~ 32-

Lower sandstone ____________________________ 17 27 21 12+ 

Base of lower sandstone to top of Norton coaL __ 3 2 8 2% 

Total thickness ________________________ 98 88 116}2 97~+ 

t Includes estimated 4 feet of covered beds at top of formation. 

I believe that the G1a:deville Sandstone should he restricted to the 

massive resistant sandstone unit because this sandstone makes a mn.ppaJble unit, whereas the whole interval between the two coals includes 

units of nonresistant and normally covered beds almost greater or 

even greater in thickness than the resistant sandstone. Moreover, the 

Dorchester and Norton coals are a;ccurately located only in areas 

of intensive mining or prospecting, and the fact that both coals seem 

to disappear west of Big Stone Gap and to thin m'arkedly eastward 

from Wise leaves no good criterion for mapping the Gladeville beyond these limits. Finally, restricting the Gladeville to the massive 

resistant sandstone unit fits Campbell's original definition of the formation ·at Wise, though in his discussion he does include some sandy 

shale units in the Gladeville elsewhere. 

The same difficultty !that exists in trying to measure an accurate 

thickness of the Gladeville in the vicinity of Wise also exists in trying 

to find a good type section for the formation. The Gladeville disap-
18 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

pears heneath the surface north of Wise. East, west, and south of the 

town I could find many outcrops, including prominent ledges and 

small cliffs of the Gladeville Sandstone, hut none of these provided a 

good section of the entire form!ation that could be measured with accuracy. The most suitruhle sootion seems to be the one that starts along 

U.S. Highway 23 just south of the bend in the highway at the south 

edge of town and ends ,at the top of the high hill behind the county 

hospital and the town water tank. Exposures along this section are 

abundant and lithologies are well represented; however, thicknesses of 

individual units within the crossbedded sandstones cannot he measured accurately, 'and the attempted measurements had to be adjusted 

to fit an overall thickness of 51 feet at this locality (p. 15). Because 

this section seems to be the best op.e near Wise (Gladeville), it is here 

designated the type section (geologic section 2) ; figure 4 shows the 

loo31tion of measured uni·ts. 

The Gladeville Sandstone has boon traced southwestward to the 

north edge of the Big Stone Gap quadrangle as previously explained. 

In the Big Stone Gap quadrangle (Miller, 1965) it is a resistant sandstone 35 to 40 feet thick, quartzose to slightly feldspathic, predominantly medium grained, ma:ssive bedded, and crossbedded. It has 

also been mapped across the Keokee quadrangle (Miller and Roen, 

1969) adjoining the Big Stone Gap quadrangle on tthe west. The Gladeville becomes thinner near the west edge of the Keokee quadrangle 

and ·probably does not persist as a mappable unit across westernmost 

Lee County to the Kentucky State line. It is not the sandstone m'apped 

as Gladeville by Oampbell (1893) southwest of Norton and in Kentucky, nor is it the sandstone mapped as Gladeville by Giles (1925) in 

Lee Oounty. I do not know if the mapped Gladeville in county reports 

thJat deal with the coal fields east of Wise is everywhere the same sandstone unit as the type Gladeville, but major errors in recognition a.nd 

mapping of the Gladeville in this region seem less likely because of 

less complicated structure and availability of more mining and exploration data. 

In spite of problems in identifying the Gladeville Sandstone, the 

:form!ation is stratigraphically very useful in Virginia because it divides a very thick sequence of clastic continental coal-bearing sedimentary rocks between the Lee and Hadan Formations into three 

more manageruble parts. Its retention as a m'apped :formation in Virginila is warranted, but experience has proved that misidentifi'cation 

of the Gladeville is all too easy. Unusual oare must be exercised to assure thalt Gladeville is applied to the correct resistant sandstone unit. 

Detailed mapping in this part of lthe section seems to be the only sure 

criterion for its identifioation, except where abundant mining and 

drilling d~ta are a V'ailrable. 
PENNS YIN ANIAN FORMATION OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 19 

NORTON FORMATION 

The Norton Formation by definition includes all beds between the 

top of the Lee Formation and the base of the Gladeville Standstone. 

Campbell (1893, p. 34) named it for the town of Norton where, because he misidentified the Gladeville Sandstone, he thought the nearly 

flat-lying beds beneath the business district and in the hills north of 

town were beneath the Gladeville, and hence were part of the Norton 

Formation (Eby, 1923, p. 67). Instead, the Gladeville crops out in the 

steeply dipping sequence of beds south of the business district and 

railroad tracks, and the Nol'!ton, also steeply dipping and very poorly 

exposed, lies in the lower slopes of LitJtle Stone Mountain (pl. 1) . 

In Wise and Lee Counties the Norton crops out along the lowest 

slopes of Stone and Little Stone Mountains and in places underlies 

parts of the lowl'ands·north of the mountains. Because it is composed 

predominantly of nonresistant rocks, one or another of the larger 

streams of the region have subsequent courses along its belt of outcrop. 

From east to west these are the Guest River, Powell River, and Pigeon 

Creek in Wise County and North Fork of the Powell River and Stone 

Creek in Lee County. 

The Norton is a heterogeneous sequence of clastic sedimentary rocks 

composed predominantly of dark siltstone and shale with lesser 

amounts of thin-bedded fine-grained sandstone, more resistanlt medium-grained sandstone, and coal beds. The overall aspect of the Norton 

differs markedly from the underlying Lee Formation and somewhat 

from the Wise Formation, from which it is separated only by the 

rather thin Gladeville Sandstone. The proportion of shale and siltstone to sandstone is much greater in the Norton than in the Lee, and 

somewhat greater than in the Wise Formation. Nortton sandstone unirts 

are characteristically medium to dark colored, fine or medium grained, 

ilnpure, and micaceous, and some are feldspathic. Lee sandstone units 

are light colored, quartzose, and may be conglomeratic. Wise sandstone units are typically light colored, white speckled, and feldspathic 

with few dark minerals; mica (muscovite), if present, is in widely 

scattered flakes, which may be large and very conspicuous. The siltstone and shale units of the Lee, Norton, and Wise Formations, on the 

other hand, are very similar, though in western Wise and in Lee Counties the shale 'and siltstone units in the Wise Formation seem to contain 

more abundant ironstone beds and bands of nodules than do ~those in 

theN orton Formation. 

Gray siltstone and shale and a few thin interbeds of fine-grained 

impure sandstone form the lowest 250 to 400 feet of the Norton Formation. These nonresistant beds crop out only in a few places. Above 

this nonresistant sequence~ resistant sandstone units form a significant 
20 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

part of the formation, though drab shale and siltstone still predominate. Fine-grained impure micaceous sandstone is more common, 

but some units are medium-grained crossbedded feldspathic sandstone 

similar to that in the Wise Formation. No two sections of the middle 

and upper parts of the Norton are alike in order and spacing of units. 

Some resistant thick sandstone units may be traced for several miles, 

but none seem extensive enough to warrant inember status. 

Coalbeds in the Norton Formation have been mined extensively, 

east of Norton (Harnsberger, 1919; Giles, 1921; Wentworth, 1922; 

Eby, 1923). West of Norton there has been little mining of Norton 

coalbeds, because most of the Norton Formation is steeply dipping to 

nearly vertical and is largely covered by colluvium and talus on the 

steep lower slopes of Little Stone ~fountain for the first 10 miles west 

of Norton; farther west most Norton coal beds are too thin and discontinous to have attracted much interest. In westernmost Lee 

County in the Pennington Gap quadrangle, the Norton and Wise Formations were not mapped separately because the intervening Gladeville Sandstone has pinched out. In the mining district known as The 

Pocket (pl. 1), in the Pennington Gap quadrangle three named coal beds 

have been mined in the part of the section equivalent to the Norton. 

These are (from oldest to youngest) the Bentley, North Fork, and 

Penn Lee coals. The Penn Lee coal, which averages about 3 feet thick, 

has been most extensively mined; the Bentley, least. 

Northeast and east of the town of Norton, in eastern Wise, Dickenson, and Buchanan Counties, the Norton is gently dipping to nearly 

flat, and it is the most important coal-bearing formation. County reports (Eby, 1923; Giles, 1921; Hinds, 1918) list the named coalbeds 

in the Norton (from oldest to youngest) as Tiller, Jawbone, Raven, 

Aily, Kennedy, Lower Banner, Upper Banner, Splash Dam, Hagy, 

and Norton ( Glamorgan). Whereas the Gladeville west of Norton has 

Pither been consistently misidentified or has been erroneously believed 

to be faulted out at the surface, northeast and east of Norton it probably is correctly mapped; hence, all the coal beds listed above are indeed within the Norton Formation. In most parts of this region, 

post-Norton beds have been removed by erosion. 

Complete and well-exposed sections of the Norton Formation near 

Norton are unknown. At Little Stone Gap, a prominent wind gap 

through Lititle Stone Mount.ain 2 miles west of the center of N o:rtton, the 

lowest part of the Norton, about 400 feet thick, is will exposed in a 

roadcut along St:ate Highway 610 (geologic section 3). This section 

represents no more than half the total Norton. Through the courtesy 

of the Wise Coal and Coke Co., John B. Roen and I were able to study 

the cuttings of the Graham 1, a cable-tool well drilled for gas 2% 
NORTON FORMATION 21 

miles no~thwest of Norton. This well spudded in at abouJt 40 feet below 

the Norton coal bed and ·about 90 feet below the base of the Gladeville 

Sandstone. Inasmuch as the top of the Bee Rock Sandstone Member 

is clearly recognizable in the well at a depth of 701 feet, we conclude 

that the Norton Formation near Norton is about 790 feet thick. The 

well also gives a continuous record of the sequence of lithologies for 

almost 700 feet of the Norton Formation. The lithologic log of this 

well is cited as a reference section for the Norton Formation (geologic 

section 4). 

The most complete surface section of the Norton Formation that is 

moderately close to the town for which it is named is along State Highway 646, just northwest of the town of Coeburn and 8 miles east of 

Norton (fig. 5). This road climbs westward from the valley floor, a 

little below 2,000 feet elevation, to the upland level, more than 800 

feet higher (Toms Creek and Wise 71f2-minute quadrangles). A section 

of the Norton, 928 feet thick, here designated the type section of the 

Norton Formation (geologic section 5), was measured along this road. 

This sedtion represents the upper part of the formation; ithe lower 

part is concealed beneath the town of Coeburn and the valley of Guest 

River. Reconnaissance mapping in the vicinity of Coeburn has made it 

possible to calculate very roughly the thickness of covered beds to the 

top of the Lee Formation. Assuming no changes of dip and no faulting 

in the covered interval, the concealed lower part of the formation is 

about 250 feet thick. The full thickness of the Norton Formation at 

this locality is therefore about 1,175 feet. Eby (1923, p. 106) has also 

published a section 752+ feet thick, less detailed than geologic sootion 

5, from this same locality. In the measured part of the type section at 

Coeburn, 39 percent of the ·section is sandstone; the rem'ainder is principally siltstone and shale. Assuming there is little or no sandstone in 

the 250+ feet of concealed beds in the lowest part of the formation, 

as is the case at Little Stone Gap, and assuming that the top sandstone 

unit of the Lee at Norton is the Bee Rock Sandstone Member, sandstone 

content of the Norton Formation drops to 31 percent, which is much 

lower than the percentage of sandstone in any other Pennsylvanian 

formation in this region. 

At the head of Big Stone Gap, old cuts along the two railroads that 

pass through the g:ap 'and along the road to Keokee expose a sandy, coalbearing, nearly vertic'al sequence about in the middle of the Norton 

Forn1ation;· new euts dug for the Southern Railroad in 1965-66, on 

the west side of the gap, have increased and improved the exposures of 

this part of the Norton so that it is now one of the best sections of the 

middle part of the formation (geologic section 6). In this section the 

lowest 290 feet of the Norton is covered and presumed to be largely 

353-475 0-69--4 
EXPLANATION 

.68 

Outcrop of prominent or important lithologic unit 

Number rt/ers to unit in 

measured geologic section 5 

Outcrop of coal bed 

~ 

Strip mine 

-< 

Adit 

~ Quarry 

36" 

56' I ~.t' ·:);;;;, > \? 15" ) . . . "" ( 

FIGURE 5.-Location of prominent units within the type section of the Norton Formation at Coeburn, Wise County, Va. 

l\:) 

t,.j 

~ 

U2 

~ 

I 

~ 

0 

!:0 

~ ~ 

0 

z 

rJl 

0 

~ 

rJl 

0 

d 

~ ~ 

I 
WISE FORMATION 23 

shale and siltstone. Of the exposed beds, 34 7 feet thick, 62 percent is 

sandstone, approximately the same 'a;s the percentage of sandstone in 

the Wise Form'ation. 

'Dhe thickness of the Norton is difficult :to determine accurately in 

most places. Some of the thicknesses cited in the earlier literature are 

in error because of misidentification of the Gladeville Sandstone, which 

overlies the Norton. Others seem to have been considerably in error 

because they were estimates rather than measurements. In Wise and 

Lee Counties the most reliable measurement is at the Graham 1 well 

where the formation is about 790 feet thick. At the type section of the 

Norton at Coeburn, 11 miles east of the Graham well, the measured 

thickness plus calculalted thickness of concealed beds totaled 1,175 

feet. In the series of 12 structure sections across the Norton Formation 

from Norton to west of Big Stone Gap (table 1} all but one thickness 

measurement lay in the range 840 to 970 feet. The one anomalous figure 

of 1,110 feet in section D-D' (pl. 1) is probably too high because of 

smrull-scale folding that was observed but could not be allowed for. Eby 

(1923) states that the Norton in Wise County is 1,300 to 1,500 feet 

thick, and Giles (1925) gives a figure of about 1,400 feet for eastern 

Lee County. My observations and calculations indicate that these 

thicknesses are too great for both areas, but my figures also suggest a 

rather rapid thickening of the formation east of Norton. Detailed 

mapping between Norton and Coeburn will probably be required to 

explain how this thickening takes place and what parts of the formation are involved in the thickening. 

WISE FORMATION 

Campbell (1893) named the Wise Formation for Wise County, Va., 

and defined it as that part of the coal measures lying betwoon the "key 

rock'~ (Gladeville Sandstone) below and the Harlan Sandstone above. 

The H~arlan caps tthe highest parts of Little and Big Bl·ack Mountains 

along the State line between Lee and Wise Counties, V a., and Harlan 

County, Ky. Problems in identifying the Gladeville Sandstone in the 

western part of the Virginia coal fields have been discussed 'above. 

Somewhat similar problems in recognizing the base of the Harlan as 

defined by Campbell ( 1893) will be discussed in the secti~n on the 

Harlan Formation. 

The base of tthe Wise Formation is herein placed at the top of the 

Gladeville Sandstone. The exact contact is almost everywhere covered, 

but it is readily m'a.ppable because of the contrast in resistance of the 

Gladeville and the overlying shale and siltstone of the basal part of 

the Wise. The top of the Wise Formation is placed at the top of the 

High Splint (No.12} coal. 
24 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

The rtotal thickness of the Wise ·at any one locality cannot be determined accurately because at the surface the base of the formation 

is several miles distant from the top. A combination of thickness measurements -at the surface and those from core-hole logs in eastern Lee 

and western Wise Counties gave an overall thickness of 2,440 feet. In 

central Lee County near the west edge of the Lee County coal fields, 

the Gladeville Sandstone has pinched out, but projection of the Gladeville horizon from exposures farther east gives an approximate base 

for use in estimating thickness. The sequence of beds from this horizon 

to the High Splint coal, as determined from deep core holes, is about 

1,950 feet thick, so the Wise Formation seems to thin appreciably in 

a westward direction. 

The Wise Formation consists of a thick sequence of sandstone, siltstone, and shale units and includes many coal beds; it is the most important ·coal-bearing formation in Lee and western Wise Counties. 

This formation contains dozens of coal beds, most of which are of 

limited areal extent and ~are ooo thin to be of economic importance. 

All the thick beds have been mined and have been named or numbered, 

but correlation of coal beds from one part of the coal fields to another 

is difficult and many miscorrelations exist in the literature. Only by 

detailed rna pping and tracing of the coal beds and intervening rna ppable units can one be assured of correct correlation of coal beds in 

parts of the coal field where mining is not extensive. Robert Kosanke, 

John Roen, and I collected samples from several important coal beds 

of the Wise and Norton Forma-tions for spore analysis to assist in 

regional correlations. R. M. Kosanke ( wri.tten commun., September 8, 

1964) reported, however, that the coals proved so metamorphosed that 

spores could not be separated by conventional maceration methods. 

Work on the sa.mples was temporarily suspended. 

More than one name has been applied to several of the important 

coal beds, and in the western part of the coal field in central Lee 

County a numbering system has dominated local usage. Discussion 

of regional correlations of Wise coal beds is beyond the scope of this 

report. The most acceptable names for important mined beds in the 

Wise Formation of western Wise and eastern Lee Oounties is given in 

table 3, and the equivalent number in use in central Lee County is also 

shown. The occurrence and distribution of coal in the Wise Formation 

and in other formations in Virginia is discussed from the economic and 

resouroo point of view by Brown, Berryhill, Taylor, and Trumbull 

(1952). 
WISE FORMATION 25 

TABLE 3.-Equivalence of named and numbered coal beds of the Wise Formation in 

Lee and western Wise Cou,nties, Va. 

Name 

(eastern Lee and western Wise 

Counties) 

High Splint ____________ _ 

No. 

(central Lee 

County) 

12 

Morris_________________ 11 

Pardee _________________ 10 

VVax___________________ 9 

GinCreek-----------~-- 8 

Phillips (Fireclay of 7 

Kentucky). 

Low Splint_____________ 6 

Taggart (Darby)________ 5 

Name 

(eastern Lee and western Wise 

Counties) 

Marker _______________ _ 

VVilson (Harlan of Kentucky?). Imboden ______________ _ 

Dorchester ____________ _ 

No. 

(central Lee 

County) 

4 

3 (jackrock 

coal) 

2 

Resistant sandstone units, most of whieh are less than 45 feet thick, 

are by far the most conspicuous rock units within the Wise Formation. These sandstone units consist predominantly of medium-grained, 

feldspathic, friable, massive-bedded and (or) crossbedded sandstone. 

Fine-grained sandstone may he present in considerable quantity, normally in the upper part of a sandstone unit, but coarse-bedded sandstone is rare and pebble conglomerate is practically absent. Silvery 

1nica flakes are abundant and conspicuous in some sandstone units 

and are totally .aJbsent in others. Dark mineral grains are either rare 

or absent in most sandstone units, although some units may be looally 

argillaceous and less resistant to weathering. The thicker sandstone 

units form low linear ridges where the beds are moderately inclined 

or ledges and Smiall cliffs capping spur8 and irregular ridge crests 

where the beds rare gently inclined or nea,rly flat. In the type section 

of the Wise For:mation (fig. 6 and geologic section 7), 58 percent of 

the section is sandstone; most of the remainder is shale and siltstone . 

.Approximately ·a dozen sandstone units that are more than 25 feet 

thick apiece are present in 'a typical section of the Wise Formation in 

western Wise and Lee Counties. Traced laterally, some of these per· 

sist :for miles, and others lens out or grade into nonresistant sandstone 

or siltstone. Four of the most persistent and conspicuous sandstone 

units are herein given formal member names. These are, in ascending 

order, the Robbins Chapel, Keokee, Clove~r Fork, and Marcum Hollow 

S·andstone Members. 

ROBBINS CHAPEL SANDS'l~ONE MEMBER 

The Robbins Cha-pel Sandstone Men1ber is named for !Wbbins 

Chapel, a small community in the northwestern part of the Keokee 

71h' quadrangle, Lee County, Va. (pl. 1) .. The massive sandstone beds 

of the member crop out in the church yard and in fields on both sides 
50' 

EXPLANATION 

Outcrops 

Number -refers to unit 

in measured geologic section 7 

36°55'1 f.·;';;, 1\\ "= ),G,;;n!}/ '"'!'!' ~ \ 

-~ 1--\<5'~ "1.p',, co 

<<1..t-'-.. 

co) 

~:Y ... __ .. "~ 

1 0 1 MILE 

75 

Prominent unit 

12,4-

Small outcrop of 

important unit 

35 

Outcrop and trace 

of coal bed 

0 

Drill hole 

82°47'30" 

,------, 

FIGURE 6.-Location O!f prominent and important rock units within the type section of the Wise Formation. 

~ 

~ 

"tt 

l%J 

~ 

z 

~ 

~ "":! 

0 

~ ~ 0 

"":! 

m 

i 

~ 

~ 

~ 
WISE FORMATION 27 

of the highway. The measured sootion 1at this locality (geologic section 8) is the type section for the member. The member consists of 

medium- and fine-grained, massive-·bedded. moderately quartzose sandstone. Some units ~are markedly crossbedded, ·and some are micaceous. 

In spite of the fact that !this is a resistant unit, much of lthe sandstone 

is very friable when weathered. 

The Rol>bins Chapel Sandstone Member does not have economioally important coal beds associated with it at its type locality or to the 

east. Westward, however, in the westernntost part of the Keokee quadrangle and in the adjoining Pennington Gap quadrangle two mined 

ooalheds, known looaJly as No. 2 and No. 3, lie close below and close 

above, respelctively. At the west edge of the Keokee quadrangle, the 

No.2 ooal bed lies 0 to 16 feet below the base of the Robbins Chapel, 

and the No.3 coal bed lies 10 to 14 feet ~Lbove the top of the member. 

The Robbins Chapel Sandstone Member has been traced continously 

4 miles east-northeast of its type locality to the vicinity of Darnell 

Town, and in the opposite direction for ahout 6 miles to the vicinity of 

St. Charles. Beyond these points it thins and becomes less resistant 

d'ue to facies changes so that it no longer constitutes a distinct mappruble imit. 

The Robbins Chapel Sandstone Member is about 120 to 150 feet 

'aJbove the base of the Wise Formation. Although it is about 80 feet 

thick at its type looality, throughout most of its extent it ranges from 

30 to 50 foot in thiclrness. 

KEOKEE SANDSTONE MEMBER 

From 150 to 200 feet above the Robbins Chapel Sandstone Member 

is another prominent resistant sandstone unit, which is here designated 

the Keokee Sandstone Member for the town of that name in northeastern Lee County in the northeastern part of the Keokee 7:lh-minute 

quadrangle (pl. 1). The Keokee is composed predominantly of medium-grained, thick-bedded, feldspathic, slightly micaceous sandstone 

but contains some fine-grained sandstone. It is a resistant unit that 

forms ledges and low cliffs in many places. The southern part of the 

town of Keokee is built on the Keokee Sandstone Member, but the 

most complete well-exposed section of the member is along State Highway 68 almost exactly 1 air mile east of J(eokee School. The measured 

section along the highway (geologic section 9) is here designated the 

type section of the member. 

The Keokee Sandstone Member has been traced by mapping for 

1 mile east of its type section and for 6 miles to the west. Beyond these 

limits it thins and changes facies so that it no longer forms a distinctive and significant mappable unit. At its type locality the Keokee is 
28 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUmWEST VIRGINIA 

59 feet thick. Throughout its mapped extent it is consistently more 

than 30 feet thick and is prominent. 

CLOVER FORK SANDSTONE MEMBER 

The Clover Fork Sandstone Member takes its name from Clover 

Fork of the Cumberland River in the northeast corner of the Keokee 

7%-minute quadrangle in Harlan County, Ky. The member crops out 

for several miles along the floor of the valley at the foot of Little Black 

Mountain, but the base of the member is not exposed in this stretch of 

the valley. On the Virginia side of Little Black Mountain the member 

is conspicuous in the lower slopes of the mountain, and it is well exposed along Virginia State Highway 624 from Keokee northward to 

the State line at Morris Gap (pl. 1). Geologic section 10, a measured 

section of the middle part of the Wise Formation exposed along this 

road, is also the rtype section of lthe Clover Fork Sandstone Member. 

The Clover Fork Sandstone Member is a massive, resistant small 

cliff- and ledge-forming unit consiSting predominanttly of mediumgrained, moderately quartzose, massive-bedded sandstone. Locally, it 

contains mica flakes sparingly or abundantly and in places includes 

shale-pebble inclusions and thin shale lenses. At Keokee it lies about 

40 feet above a mined coalbed, locally called the Wilson coal. Giles 

(1925) calls this the Harlan coal, but whether or not he is correct is 

uncertain. About 20 feet above the top of the Clover Fork is a rather 

thin but persistent coal bed known as the Marker (or Taggart Marker). 

The Clover Fork has been mapped northeastward from its type 

locality for 2 miles to the north edge of the Keokee quadrangle and 

6 miles to the southwest to the west edge of rthe quadrangle. In irts type 

section it is 78 feet thick but probably averages no more than 50 feet in 

thickness. It lies about 120 feet above the top of the Keokee Sandstone 

Member. 

MARCUM HOLLOW SANDSTONE MEMBER 

This member is the most prominent sandstone unit in the middle 

part of the Wise Formation, because in places it exceeds 100 feert in 

thickness. It lies close above the Taggart (also called Darby, No. 5, 

and Keokee) coal, the most extensively mined bed in the western part 

of the Virginia coal fields. The Marcum Hollow consists almost entirely of medium-grained, massive-bedded, locally crossbedded, moderately quartzose sandstone. In places the base of the sandstone lies 

directly on the Taggartt coal, but elsewhere a few foot to as much as 15 

feet of shale and siltstone beds intervene between the two. In no place 

have I seen the coal bed cut out by downward extension across the coal 

of sand-filled channels at the base of the Marcum Hollow Sandstone 

Member. 
WISE FORMATION 29 

The member is named for Marcum Hollow just north of the town of 

Keokee (pl. 1). The type section (geologic section 10) is along State 

Highway 624, which follows Marcum Hollow from Keokee to Morris 

Gap and crosses the Marcum Hollow Sandstone Member and the hollow at the first sharp switchback turn as the road climbs the mountain. 

Here, the member is 44 feet thick, but to the west it thickens irregularly and reaches a maximum of about 120 feet. The Marcum Hollow 

has been mapped for 11f2 miles northeastward from its type locality 

to the north edge of the Keokee quadrangle and for 13 miles southwestward to the west edge of the Pennington Gap quadrangle. It 

extends farther in both directions. It lies 60 feet above the top of the 

Clover Fork Sandstone Member at the type locality of the two 

members. 

REYNOLDS SANDSTONE MEMBER( P) 

There are many sandstone units within the Wise Formation above 

the Marcum Hollow Sandstone Member, but only one has the thickness, outcrop prominence, and lateral continuity sufficient to justify 

applying a formalmember name to it. During mapping of Little Black 

Mountain by John Roen and myself, this member was informally 

called the "interstrip sandstone," because of its location between two 

extensively stripped coal beds (Wax and High Splint coals) high on 

the slopes of the mountain, on both sides of the Virginia-Kentucky 

State line. 

This is probably the same sandstone as the one named Reynolds 

Sandstone Member of the Hignite Formation by Ashley and Glenn 

(1906, p. 43) farther west, in Harlan County; it was also identified by 

Wanless (1946, p. 117; see geologic section 7, units 207 and 208 of this 

paper) on Big Black Mountain, west of Appalachia. Although the 

resistant beds of this sandstone unit have abundant prominent outcrops on Little Black Mountain, no suitable section of the whole sequence was found. The Reynolds Sandstone Member ( ? ) 'also underlies 

Big Black Mountain a few miles to the north. When this mountain is 

Inapped in detail, a suitable section may be discovered that is better 

exposed and more accessible than any on Little Black Mountain. 

The Reynolds Sandstone Member(~) on Little Black Mountain is 

consistently more than 100 feet thick. At the head of Stretchneck 

Branch of Yocum Creek, just south of the town of Dizney (pL 1), it is 

141 feet thick; 133 feet of the unit consists of massive-bedded, very 

fine to fine-grained, moderately quartzose, resistant sandstone. An 8-

foot-thick siltstone sequence occurs about 95 feet above the base of the 

member. At the head of Days Branch of Clover Fork on the Kentucky 

side or Little Black Mountain (Pennington Gap 7:%' quadrangle) the 

sandstone sequence is 177 feet thick, and a.t the head of Rockhouse 

353-475 Q-69-5 
30 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Valley near tJhe east edge of tJhe Pennington Gap qU'adrangle it is 165 

:feet thick. The lower one-fourth to one-third of the sequence is rather 

thinly bedded and has few natural exposures, but the middle and upper 

parts are massive bedded, though fine grained, and form many ledges 

and imposing cliffs. 

The base of the Reynolds Sandstone Member ( ~) is about '70 feet 

above the Magoffin Beds of Morse (1931), the best horizon marker in 

the Little and Big Black Mountains area. The top of the Reynolds ( ~) 

lies 80 to 120 foot below the High Splint (No. 12) coal at the top of the 

Wise Formation. 

In addition to the many resistant sandstone units, including both the 

formally named members and other unnamed but mappable sandstone 

units, most of the remainder of the Wise Formation is composed of 

thinner units of sandstone, thin. to thick units of siltstone, and shale. 

The thin standstone units are commonly also thin bedded, and they 

contain more impurities than do the thicker sandstones. Siltstone is 

medium to dark gray, drab, and commonly micaceous. Shale is dark 

gray to grayish black, and many shale units contain ironstone nodules 

and thin beds. In many places, shale and siltstone are interbedded, but 

elsewhere sequences completely of siltstone or shale may be several tens 

of feet thick. No two sections are alike, and it is often difficult to correlate between sections only fractions of a mile apart because of thickness 

or facies changes in equivalent units. 

KENDRICK SHALE OF JILLSON (1919) 

Two marker zones in the Wise Formation are especially valuable for 

correlation. These are the Kendrick Shale of Jillson ( 1919) and the 

Magoffin Beds of Morse ( 1931). The l(endrick Shale at Morris Gap 

(geologic section 10) lies 55 feet above the Low Splint coal, and at 

Darty Gap, 11;2 miles west-southwest, it is 46 feet above the Low Splint. 

Although it crops out near the crest of the mountain at Morris Gap, the 

Kendrick Shale is very close to the middle of the Wise Formation, 

rather than in its upper par.t. The Kendrick Shale on Little Black 

Mountain normally consists of 5 to 10 feet of dark-gray to nearly black 

shale which is in some places silty. It is distinguished by being calcareous and fossiliferous; most fossils 'are small brachiopods. At Morris 

Gap 'and also in the high ·wall of a strip mine on the Low Splint coal at 

Dar.ty Gap, the Kendrick Shale contains large oval limestone concretions that have well-formed cone-in-cone structure. The concretionary 

zone is presumed to be continuous in the Kendrick between Morris and 

Darty Gaps but was not seen elsewhere in the region. 

The Kendrick Shale and enclosing beds are nonresistant, so that 

natural outcrops of these beds are rare and are confined to steep gul-
HARLAN FORMAITNO 31 

lies and sharp ridges. Wherever this part of the Wise is exposed, the 

Kendrick has always been found, and it is believed to be present 

throughout the western part of the Virginia coal fields. 

MAGOFFIN BEDS OF MORSE (1931) 

The Magoffin Beds of Morse ( 1931) are the most distinotive and reliable horizon marker in the Wise Formation. In Virginia, the Magoffi.n 

lies on Jthe upper slopes of Lilttle Black Mountain and Black Mountain 

in Lee •and Wise Counties. Natural outcrops of the Magoffin Beds are 

rare and confined to steep gullies and sharp ridges. In diamond-drill 

holes that penetrate this part of the Wise Formation, the M•agoffi.n is 

invaria;bly present. The most distinctive urrit of the M·agoffin Beds, ·and 

in many places ·apparently the only unit, is a 1- to 2-foot-thick bed of 

nearly black, very dense, hard limestone, which contains 'abundant 

brachiopods. The brachiopod shells •are white, ·and the white fossils in 

a black matrix form a striking rock type and a nearly unique one for 

this ·area. In some localities this uhiquitous limestone 'bed is overlain 

and underlain by calcareous shale, siltstone, ·and even sandstone, which 

may ·also be moderately to sparingly fossiliferous. The total thickness 

of the calcareous zone in places seems to be 'as much as 20 feet, though 

poor exposures make accurate measurements difficult. 

The M·agoffin Beds lie ra:bout 70 feet 'below the base of the Reynolds 

Sandstone Member ( ? ) ·and about 60 feet ·above the Wax (No. 9) coal, 

which is extensively stripped on Little Black Mountain. 

Additional zones of calcareous shale and sandstone, some of which 

contain marine fossils, occur within the Wise Formation. In the area 

of detailed mapping by R. L. Miller and J. B. Roen (Big Stone Ga.p, 

Keokee, and Pennington Gap 7~~-minute quadrangles) all zones seem 

to be local and to lack the lateral persistence of Jthe Magoffi.n •and Kendrick zones. If all the Wise Formation were exposed or cored alt any 

one locality, probably at least half a dozen calcareous zones would be 

found. All those I 'have seen lie between the M·arcum Hollow Sandstone 

Member and the Reynolds Sandstone Member(?), that is, in the middle and upper parts of the f<mnation. 

HARLAN FORMATION 

Campbell ( 1893) defined the Harlan Sandstone, which he named 

for Harlan County, Ky., ·as being lthe beds on Big Black Mountain 

characterized by a basal cliff-forming qUJartzose sandstone 40 to 100 

feet thick and by less resistant beds extending upward to the top of 

the mountain some 400 to 600 feet higher. His type locality was Isom 

Rock Spur, a prominenJt eastward-extending spur of Big Black Mountain, west-northwest of Appala;chia, Wise County, Va. (See pl. 1.) He 
32 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

gives no type sootion, but his general description indicates that the 

Harlan is oomposed predomintantly of quartzose sandstone but also 

contains sh'ale and coal beds. 

At Isom Rock Spur and elsewhere, the Harlan contains a massive 

cliff-forming quartz'Ose sandstone that channels into underlying beda, 

causing a minor unconformity. The base of this sandstone is a few 

inches to 15 to 20 feet above the High Splint (No.12) coal. A diamonddrill hole nearhy on the crest of Big Black Mountain has penetrated 

563 feet of the beds overlying this basal sandstone. The engineer's 

written log has been reproduced graphically as figure 7. In this core 

hole the basal sandstone is 30 feet thick. Where State Highway 160 

crosses Big Black Mountain near Isom Rock Spur, this basal sandstone is 17 feet thick, is quartzose, and grades upward from pebbly or 

coarse-grained to fine-grained particles . .A:bove this unit the log shows 

200 feet of sh'ale and a few sandstone units; aJl are less than 10 feet 

thick. From here to the top of the mountain, the log shows predomin:antly gray sandstone and lesser amounts of shale. Overall, 48 percent 

of the Harlan sequence in this core hole is sandstone, whereas 58 percent of the underlying Wise Formation in its type section nearby is 

sandstone. About 22 coal beds are scattered throughout the 563-foot 

sequence overlying the basal sandstone, but most beds are only a few 

in{fues thick. The thickest coal bed, 2 feet thick, lies 150 feet above the 

base of the formtation. Because of the heterogeneous lithology of the 

Harlan in its type region, the name H·arlan Sandstone is herein 

changed to the Harlan Formation. 

Wanless (1946, p. 115-116) has published a measured section of the 

Harlan near Isom Rock Spur. Only the more resistant beds are exposed along the line of his section which extends from the highway 

crossing southwestward to the high point on the mountain known as 

The Doubles that is now marked by a prominent radar tower (pl. 1). 

When I ex:amined this section about 20 years after Wanless published 

it, many of the exposures Wanless found seemed to have become covered, and exposures in this area are now too poor to designate this as 

the typical section for the Harlan. Nonetheless, I have been unable to 

find any better exposed section of the Harlan. Perhaps when someone 

maps Big Black Mountain in the Appalachia and Benham 71;2-minute 

quadrangles (Virginia-Kentucky), a suitable section will be discovered which can then be designated as a standard reference section of 

the Harlan Formation. 

In the Pennington Gap 71;2-minute quadrangle the Harl'an Formation caps the high parts of Little Black Mountain. Here, the High 

Splint coal has been extensively stripped, and the lowest beds of the 

Harlan are excellently exposed in the high wall for long distances. In 

some places a coarse-grained, quartzose, resistant sandstone lies a few 
HARLAN FORMATION 

DEPTH, THICKNESS, 

IN FEET IN INCHES 

D Sandstone 

E1 

Sandstone, gray, containing 

some interbedded shale 

E==:3 

t::::::::::l 

Siltstone 

r=::..=.:.=J 

~ 

Shale, gray or grayish-black 

DEPTH, 

IN FEET 

300 

··;;.··· 

::.::. 

c: 

0 

., 

I 

c: 

"' 

J: "' 

4 

3 

19 

7 Continued above 

EXPLANATION 

DEPTH, THICKNESS, 

IN FEET IN INCHES 

Continu~~}~om below 

700 

~~~.:::.: 12+ 

~::::: Morns ~~~= coal 

··~··· 13 

Total depth 733 

E":3 

t:=.:..:.:J 

Shale, containing thin 

sandstone interbeds 

87 Coal or coal and bone (coal containing 

layers of argillaceous coal or carbonaceous shale) bed 

Number indicates thickness, in inches 

B 

Fireclay or underclay 

FIGURE 7.-Columnar section of the Harlan and upper part of the 

Wise Formations. From engineer's log of deep core bole at Gm~y 

Gap on Big Black Mounttain, Harlan County, Ky. 

33 

feet to a few tens of feet above the coal, as at Isom Rock Spur, but 

this basal sandstone is extremely lenticular and is totally absent for 

long distanc-es. At other plac1es there is no resistant sandstone, such 

as Campbell ( 11893) designated for his basal unit of the Harlan, for 

many scores of feet above the High Splint coal. Furthermore, where 
34 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

a coarse-grained and massive qua:r;toose basal sandstone is lacking, 

higher sandstone units are finer grained, less quartzose, and hardly 

differ from sandstone units in the underlying Wise Formation. At one 

lo0ality on the State line at th~ head of Rockhouse Valley (Pennington Gap 71h-minute quadrangle) two lenticular quartzose sandstones 

in the lowest pa.rt of the Harlan overlap (fig. 8) so that strict adherence to Campbell's (1893) definition of the base of the Harlan 

would result in jumping the contact from the base of the lower sandstone to the base of the higher one where the lower one lenses out. 

For all the above reasons it is best to pick a less erra!tic marker for the 

base of Harlan Formation. I therefore propose that the base of the 

Harlan Formation be redefined ·as the top of the High Splint coal, 

which is thick -and continuous throughout the area of the Harlan 

Formation in Virgirri'a. In spite of the fact that this form'ation was 

named for Harla;n County, Ky., the form·ation name has rrot been used 

in recent years by geologists wbrking in Kentucky, so it remains 

strictly a Virginia formation. 

CONCLUSION 

Type localities and type sections have been presented for the formation names in current use for rocks of Pennsylvanian age in the 

southwestern Virgini'a coal fields except for the Harlan Formation. 

When a good section of the Harlan Formation is found, probably on 

Big Black Mountain, it too should be similarly designated. Experience 

has shown that detailed tracing of key horizons by walking out beds 

or by large-scale mapping is the most reliable means of carrying accurate correlations from one part of the coal fields to another. Published identifications of key horizons such as the Gladeville Sandstone 

beyond their type regions must be considered suspect unless the units 

have been continuously traced from the known region to the unknown 

because distinctive lithologic characteristics are lacking for almost all 

the rock units within the Pennsylvanian System of this area. 

c 

" 2 Shale. siltstone. and th tn-bedded sandstone 

~~~----------------------------------------------------~ 

0 50 

I I I I I I 100 FEET I 

HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL SCALE 

FIGURE B.-Sandstone units near the base of the Harlan Formation at the head 

of Rockhouse Valley, Harlan County, Ky. 
PENNSYLVANIAN FORMNriONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 35 

MEASURED G:EOLOGIC SECTIONS 

Geo~ogic section 1 

Type section of the Lee Formation and its Bee Rock Sandstone Member. Section 

extends across Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va. For location of units, see 

figure 3. Units 30 to 41 are on west side of gap in a new railroad cut (1966) 

of the Southern Railroad, starting at core of Big Stone Gap anticline and continuing north. Units 25 to 29 are on west side of gap in a cUJt of the Southern 

Railroad, between trestle across river and axis of Roaring Fork syncline. Units 

16 to 24 are on east Side of gap in a cut of the Southern Railroad, just south 

of trestle across river. Units 13 to 15 are on east side of gap in a cut of the 

L & N (Louisville and Nashville} Railroad, at south portal of. tunnel. Units 

1 to 11 are on west side of gap in a cut of the L & N Railroad, near west end 

of trestle across river. Section measured by R. L. Miller, assisted by Abraham 

Jutoran. 

Norton Formation (290+ feet) : 41. Covered on both sides of gap ______________________ _ 

Incomplete thickness of Norton Formation ____ _ 

Lee Formation (type section; 1,596 feet): 

Bee Rock Sandstone Member (1,ype section; 95 ± feet) : 

40. Sandstone, yellowish-gray; fine grained in lower 

few feet, but changes to medium grained; 

quartzose; contains widely scattered coarse to 

very coarse grains .and a few small flakes of 

muscovite; beds are a.s much as 4 feet thick, but 

average 1~ feet in thickness; strongly crossbedded; very resistant; forms prominent flange 

on mountain and on east side of gap at river 

level where it is traversed by a tunnel of the L 

& N Railroad; 82 feet exposed along Southern 

Railroad on west side of gap, 90 feet exposed 

along L & N Railroad on east side ___________ _ 

Total thickness of Bee Rock Sandstone 

Member __________________________ _ 

39. Shale; medium-dark-gray in upper two-thirds of unit, 

and medium-dark-gray siltstone in lower one-third; 

much jointed; contact with overlying Bee Rock 

Sandstone Member is smooth ____________________ _ 

38. Sandstone, medium-light-gray, speckled, and mediumdark-gray, laminated, very fine grained; mostly thin 

bedded, but some beds are as much as 2 feet thick; 

moderately resistant ________________________ -----

Topoj 

unit to base of Thickness formation (feet) (feet) 

290 

290 

95± 1, 596 

95± 1, 596 

50 1, 501 

41 1, 451 
36 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic section 1-Continued 

Lee Formation-Continued 

37. Covered; probably predominantly siltstone and shale, 

but float in upper part is very fine grained sandstone 

and siltstone. On east side of gap a 20-foot-thick 

sandstone, medium grained, quartzose, crops out 130 

feet below top of this covered intervaL ___________ _ 

36. Sandstone ("anticline sandstone"), very light gray, 

medium-grained, quartzose; contains widely scattered dark grains and faint dark bedding laminae; 

beds are 1 to 3 feet thick; strongly cross bedded; very 

resistant unit. This sandstone crops out in the anticline along the Southern Railroad track and in the 

riverbed for 0.4 mile southward, where it is nearly ftatlying ______________________________________ _ 

35. Shale, dark-gray, folded; 3-foot zone of chevron folds 

at base _______________________________________ _ 

34. Siltstone, medium-dark-gray, slightly micaceous, evenbedded; contains scattered ironstone concretions as 

much as 3 inches in longest dimension; well-preserved fossil plants ___________________________________ _ 

33. Sandstone, very pale orange, medium-grained, quartz- ose ___________________________________________ _ 

32. Siltstone, medium-dark-gray, slightly micaceous _____ _ 

31. Sandstone, medium-light-gray, very fine grained, micaceous, thin-bedded and laminated ______________ _ 

30. Sandstone, very pale orange, medium-grained, quartzoze; grades upward into overlying sandstone; lowest 

bed exposed at track level. in core of anticline ______ _ 

29. Sandstone, grayish-green to pale-reddish-brown, medium-grained, speckled; some beds micaceous; some 

beds slightly feldspathic; cross bedded; beds are 1 

inch to 2 feet thick. This unit is overlain by 17 feet of 

shale, 54 feet of unexposed beds, and a resistant sandstone, 44 + feet thick. This resistant sandstone is the same sandstone as unit 36 _______________________ _ 

28. Shale, medium-dark-gray, contains ironstone concre- tions _________________________________________ _ 

27. Sandstone, grayish-orange and pale-yellowish-orange; 

very coarse grained with scattered pebbles at base; 

grades upward into coarse- and medium-grained sandstone; beds are 1 to 3 feet thick; crossbedded; exposed 

in abandoned quarry above highway and railroad 

tracks ________________________________________ _ 

26. Covered ________________________________________ _ 

25. Sandstone, reddish-orange to moderate-orange-pink 

(weathered); coarse-grained with scattered pebbles 

and a 5-foot zone of pebbly sandstone near middle; 

quartzose; beds are ~ to 3 feet thick; crossbedded; 

resistant ______________________________________ _ 

Top of unit to base of 

Thickness formation 

(feet) (feet) 

302 1,410 

138 1, 108 

30± 970 

7.5 

7. 5 

:i3 

19 

6 

35 

7 

76 

121 

46 

940 

932 

925 

912 

893 

887 

852 

845 

769 

648 
MEASURED GEOLOGIC SECTIONS 

Geologic section 1-Continued 

Lee Formation-Continued 

24. Largely covered at Southern Railroad track level, but 

farther up mountain appears to be predominantly 

resistant sandstone and pebble conglomerate ______ _ 

23. Sandstone, light-olive-gray and light-brown, finegrained; beds are as much as 3 feet thick, but most are a few inches thick ______________________________ _ 

22. Sandstone, shaly, light-olive-gray, very fine grained ___ _ 

21. Sandstone, reddish-orange (weathered), mediumgrained, quartzose, massive-bedded. A 2-foot zone 

of very coarse sandstone contains many oval flattened 

cavities as much as 6 inches in largest dimension. 

Shale pebbles have weathered out to form cavities __ 

20. Shale, dark-gray; platy and laminated fine-grained sandstone at base ______________________________ _ 

19. Coal, badly sheared ______________________________ _ 

18. Underclay, shaly, dark-yellowish-brown and olive-gray; 

contains Stigmaria in top 2 feet __________________ _ 

17. Shale, light-olive-gray to dark-gray; contains interbeds 

of fine-grained sandstone; ironstone concretions and 

beds; sandstone units at base and top contain many 

plant impressions; small fault at base of unit has 

estimated 5 to 10 feet of stratigraphic displacement __ 

16. Sandstone, pale-olive, medium-grained, quartzose; in 

massive beds as much as 5 feet thick; basal 3-foot 

zone has many cavities and plant impressions. 

Minor slippage over underlying coal bed. This sandstone on west side of gap is covered by steel mesh 

above highway ________________________________ _ 

15. Coal, sheared; thickens and thins due to shearing and 

slippage _______________________________________ _ 

14. Sandstone, greenish-gray and light-greenish-gray, finegrained, micaceous, laminated, thin-bedded; contains 

plant impressions; two small faults have displacement 

of 5 and 10 feet in this unit at south portal of L & N 

Railroad tunneL _______________________________ _ 

13. Sandstone, greenish-gray, very fine to fine-grained, 

micaceous; weathers dusky-yellow; contains crossbedded laminae; beds are as much as 6 inches thick_ 

12. Covered on both sides of gap ______________________ _ 

11. Sandstone, pale-olive, platy; about 80 percent exposed; 

medium-grained beds become coarse-grained with 

scattered pebbles upward; top 3 feet conglomeratic 

with pebbles as much as H inch diameter ________ - _ 

10. Sandstone, light-brown to white; coarse-grained with 

scattered pebbles; quartzose; crops out at south end 

of L & N Railroad trestle across river _____________ _ 

9. Sandstone, medium-grained; grains cemented by 

quartz; cross bedded, channeled at top; contains 

squeezed coal lenses as much as 6 inches thick _____ _ 

Thickness 

(feet) 

51 

23 

3 

8 

19 

4. 7 

5. 4 

13 

66 

2. 7 

10 

19 

194 

23 

36 

6± 

37 

Top of unit to base of formation (feet) 

602 

551 

528 

552 

517 

498 

493 

488 

475 

409 

407 

397 

378 

184 

161 

125 
38 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic section 1-Continued Top of unit to base of 

Lee Formation-Continued Thickness 

Ueet) formation (feet) 

8. Covered; probably contains a coal bed __________ ~ ___ _ 

7. Sandstone, nearly white, medium-grained; beds are as 

much as 3 feet thick; resistant ___________________ _ 

6. Sandstone, nearly white, very coarse and coarse-grained; 

contains abundant milky white quartz pebbles as 

much as 1 inch in diameter at base, becoming scarce upward _______________________________________ _ 

14 

69 

36 

Total thickness of Lee Formation _____________ 1, 596 

Bluestone Formation (78+ feet): 

5. Covered_________________________________________ 5 

4. Shale, siltstone, and very fine grained grayish-olive and 

olive-gray sandstone_____________________________ 22 

3. Siltstone, grayish-olive, and olive-gray shale__________ 20 

2. Covered; probably like unit!_______________________ 11 

1. Sandstone, moderate-brown, dark-yellowish-brown, 

and light-olive-gray; fine grained in lower part, very 

fine grained in upper; moderately resistant_________ 20 

Incomplete thickness of Bluestone Formation_ 78 

Geologic section 2 

119 

105 

36 

Type section of the Gladeville Sandstone in the south part of the town of Wise, 

Wise County, Va. See figure 4 for location of units. Measured by R. L. Miller. 

Thickness 

Gladeville Sandstone (type section; 55± feet): (feet) 

23. Sandstone, white, fine-grained, very friable; 4 feet of beds partly 

exposed i'n bank at fire hydrant and beneath houses on crest of 

hill; no gain in section____________________________________ 0? 

22. Covered; probably no gain in section_________________________ 0? 

21. Sandstone, much weathered and disaggregated; probably represents several feet of beds containing numerous layers 1 to 3 

inches thick of rudely bedded mammilary limonite; limonite is 

secondary and is a phenomenon of recent weathering. This unit 

may represent the very top of the Gladeville, and units 22 and 23 

are probably slightly lower rather than overlying. Beds are 

presumed to be about the same as found in unit 17 _________ _ 

20. Covered; probably no gain in section_________________________ 0? 

19. Sandstone, white, medium-grained, very friable, massive-bedded; 

5 feet of beds exposed in low cut above flat-topped cement 

reservoir 100 feet northeast of water tank; probably same 

as upper part of unit 17__________________________________ 0? 

18. Covered; probably no gain in section_________________________ 0? 

17. Sandstone, white, medium-grained, massive; contains widely 

scattered muscovite flakes; weathers grayish orange; 13 feet of 

beds exposed in gully along first steep pitch of road from hospital 

to water tank; probably only about top 4 feet represent beds 

higher than in units 15 and 16_____________________________ 4± 
MEASURED GEOLOGIC SECTIONS 39 

Geologic section 2-Continued 

Gladeville Sandstone-Continued Th~~:~~88 

16. Mostly covered; a few small outcrops in steep bank at southwest 

edge of hospital grounds; probably represent beds equal to 

units 15 and (or) 17-------------------------------------- 0? 

15. Sandstone, white, medium-grained, friable, massive-bedded; 

weathers grayish orange; exposed at base of low retaining wall 

40 feet south of lower hospital parking lot ______ ~------------ 4± 

14. Covered; probably no gain in section_________________________ 0? 

13. Sandstone, white, medium-grained, strongly crossbedded; exposed 

in bank of sharp turn to right of road approaching hospitaL__ 4± 

12. Covered; probably little or no gain in section__________________ 0? 

11. Sandstone, white, medium-grained, friable; massive-bedded in 

lower part; beds are 2 to 4 inches thick in upper part; near 

middle contains a 5-inch-thick lens of thin-bedded sandstone 

with abundant carbonized plant remains and a few coal frag- ments ___________________________________________________ 11 

10. Sandstone, white, medium-grained, friable, massive-bedded; 

contains scattered dark grains in basal and top beds; 3-foot 

interval near middle contains thin wavy beds and abundant 

carbonized plant fragments; exposed in highway cut just south 

of entrance to hospital grounds____________________________ 14 

9. Mostly covered; scattered outcrops on east side of road probably are the same as beds of unit 8 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 0? 

8. Sandstone, white, medium-grained, friable; contains a few widely 

scattered dark grains; massive bedded in upper part; lower part 

weathers from slabby to shaly and is crossbedded; contains a 

few flattened pellets and angular pebbles of weathered mediumgray shale as much as 2 inches in largest dimension; upper 14 

feet completely exposed in highway cut at bend______________ 18 

Total thickness of Gladeville Sandstone_______________ 55± 

Norton Formation (56+ feet): 

7. Covered__________________________________________________ 10 

6. Siltstone and sandstone, pale-yellowish-brown and light-gray, 

very fine grained, weathered; more shaly than underlying 

unns___________________________________________________ 9 

5. Covered__________________________________________________ 13 

4. Sandstone, very fine grained, micaceous; weathers grayish orange_ 12 

3. Siltstone, micaceous, even-bedded; weathers dark yellowish 

orange and pale yellowish brown__________________________ 2. 5 

2. Coal (Norton coal); 21 inches thick; deeply weathered; includes 

a l-inch-thick clay seam 2 inches above base________________ 1. 8 

1. Clay, medium-light-gray; grades upward into deeply weathered 

medium-gray siltstone that contains carbonized plant remains 

throughout______________________________________________ 8 

Incomplete thickness of Norton Formation _________ ----- 56. 3 
40 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic section 3 

Section of the lower part of the Norton Formation at Little Stone Gap, Wise 

County, Va. (Norton 7~-minute quadrangle). See plate 1 for location of section. 

Section begins on State Highway 610 at gentle curve to right, heads north, and 

ends 500 feet farther north at sharp curve to right at north edge of gap. Beds in 

upper part of section also well exposed on old U.S. Highway 58 Alternate, below 

highway 610. Bedding is nearly vertical. Measured by R. L. Miller. 

Norton Formation (394+ feet): Thickness 

(feet) 

17. Covered for hundreds of feet _______________________________ _ 

16. Sandstone, white, medium-grained and fine-grained, friable; 

weathers moderate pink and pink speckled; partly slumped. 

Highest beds of Norton exposed anywhere in vicinity are at 

sharp bend of road ______________________________________ _ 

15. Siltstone, shaly; weathers gray and pale yellowish brown; contains three zones of very fine grained, poorly exposed sandstone, 

? 

9 

each seemingly less than 2 feet thick_______________________ 85. 5 

14. Sandstone, micaceous, earthy; weathers yellowish gray and pale 

yellowish brown; moderately resistant _____________________ _ 6. 5 

13. Sandstone, very fine grained, earthy; weathers pale yellowish 

brown; nonresistant______________________________________ 38 

12. Sandstone, light-olive-gray, very fine grained, earthy___________ 7 

11. Siltstone, light-olive-gray; middle part contains two zones of 

earthy sandstone like unit 7 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 30 

10. Siltstone, light-olive-gray; contains two zones of sandstone like 

unit 7, one at top and one 3 feet from top __________________ _ 

9. Sandstone, light-olive-gray, very fine grained, earthy __________ _ 8. Siltstone, light-olive-gray __________________________________ _ 

7. Sandstone, light-olive-gray, very fine grained, earthy __________ -

6. Shale, weathers yellowish orange, and siltstone, weathers light 

11 

0. 5 

8 

0. 5 

olive gray; in outcrops and as float _______________________ - 51. 5 

5. Covered; float suggests largely siltstone with some interbedded 

shale; partly equivalent beds on old U.S. Highway 58 Alternate 

below are interbedded siltstone and shale____________________ 83 

4. Siltstone, light-olive-gray ___________________________________ -

3. Sandstone, fine-grained; weathers pale yellowish brown; micaceous 

in zones that are 5, 12, and 8 inches thick separated by siltstone 

and shale like that in unit 2-------------------------------

2. Siltstone, weathers light olive gray, and shale, weathers light olive 

27 

5. 5 

gray____________________________________________________ 30. 5 

Incomplete thickness of Norton Formation______________ 393. 5 

Lee Formation (part) : 

Bee Rock Sandstone Member (82 feet) : 

1. Sandstone, very pale orange, quartzose; coarse grained in 

lower part, medium grained in upper; massive bedded and 

crossbedded; forms prominent flange at gentle bend in 

road________________________________________________ 81.5 

Total thickness of Bee Rock Sandstone Member-_- 81. 5 

Incomplete thickness of Lee Formation_-------- 81. 5 
MEASURED GEOLOGIC SECTIONS 41 

Geologic section 4 

Reference section for the Norton Formation. Log of Graham 1, a cable-tool well 

drilled by Wise Coal and Coke Co. Well is located about 2% miles northwest 

of Norton, Wise County, Va. (See pl. 1.) Well spudded in at 90 feet below base 

of Gladeville Sandstone and 40 feet below Norton coal. Cuttings are now in the 

repository of the Virginia Division of Mineral Resources at Charlottesville, 

Va., where they are available for study. Measurements based on sample studies 

by John B. Roen. 

Norton Formation (reference section; 792 feet): No cuttings _________________________________________ _ 

Shale, silty, and fine-grained and medium-grained, moderately quartzose to dirty sandstone _________________ _ 

Shale, medium-gray, silty; contains interbedded, very fine 

grained sandstone in upper part _____________________ _ 

Sandstone, medium-grained, moderately quartzose; contains some coarse-grained and some fine-grained sandstone _____________________________________________ _ 

Coal _______________________________________________ _ 

Sandstone, medium-grained, moderately quartzose _______ _ 

Sandstone, fine- to medium-grained, dirty ______________ _ No cuttings _________________________________________ _ 

Shale, silty; contains ironstone concretions and a little finegrained sandstone _________________________________ _ Coal _______________________________________________ _ 

Shale, medium-dark-gray, slightly silty _________________ _ 

Sandstone, medium-grained; becomes fine-grained upward; 

dirty; contains mica flakes __________________________ _ 

Shale, silty _________________________________________ _ 

Sandstone, medium-grained and fine-grained, dirty; contains some siltstone and shale in upper part_ __________ _ 

Shale, medium-dark-gray; contains a little very fine grained, dirty sandstone ___________________________________ _ Coal _______________________________________________ _ 

Shale, medium-dark-gray; contains some silty shale ______ _ Coal _______________________________________________ _ 

Shale, medium-dark-gray, and silty shale; contains a little 

very fine grained, dirty sandstone ___________________ _ 

Sandstone, very fine grained, dirty; grades upward into siltstone and silty shale _______________________________ _ 

Shale, dark-gray; contains ironstone concretions _________ _ 

Total thickness of Norton Formation, including 90 

feet above well collar ________________________ _ 

Lee Formation (81 + feet): 

Bee Rock Sandstone Member (81 feet): 

Sandstone, mostly medium grained, quartzose; contains some coarse-grained and a few fine-grained beds _________________________________________ _ 

Total thickness of Bee Rock Sandstone Member_ 

Thickness Depth (feet) (feet) 

25 D-25 

40 25-65 

50 65-115 

60 115-175 

? 175-176 

16 176-192 

10 192-202 

37 202-239 

19 239-258 

? 258-259 

17 259-276 

37 276-313 

25 313-338 

32 338-370 

96 37D-466 

? 466-467 

176 467-643 

? 643-644 

11 644-655 

27 655-682 

20 682-702 

792 

81 702-783 

81 

Incomplete thickness of Lee Formation________ 81 
42 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic section 5 

Type section of the Norton Formation along State Highway 646 between Coeburn 

and Wise, Wise County, Va., starts in town of Coeburn at junction of State 

Highways 646 and 72 (Toms Creek 7%-minute quadrangle) and ends at Wise 

Mountain lookout tower (Wise 7%-minute quadrangle) 2 miles to the west. See 

figure 5 for location of units. Section includes Gladeville Sandstone and lowest 

part of the Wise Formation. Measured by R. L. Miller. 

Wise Formation (111 + feet): 

88. 

87. 

86. 

85. 

84. 

83. 

82. 

81. 

80. 

79. 

Sandstone, medium-grained, quartzose, massivebedded; weathers nearly white; forms prominent 

ledges beneath Wise Mount~in fire lookout tower __ 

Partly covered; siltstone, shale, and fine-grained 

sandstone; includes coal bed 3 inches thick in upper· 

part of unit __________________________________ _ 

Sandstone, fine-grained, very micaceous; weathers 

shaly in places ________________________________ _ 

Shale, weathered ________________________________ _ 

Coal, slumped, 16 inches; brownish-gray clay, 9 

inches; weathered coal, 3 inches; light-gray clay, 21inches _____________________________________ _ 

Siltstone and weathered shale _____________________ _ 

Largely covered; weathered shale at base and several 

other places in road bank ______________________ _ 

Sandstone, medium-grained, deeply weathered, micaceous, massive-bedded; crops out in bank just below 

low-angle road junction ________________________ _ 

Shale, carbonaceous; weathers brownish black; 3 

inches; underlain by 15 inches of light-gray plastic 

clay containing Stigmaria ______________________ _ 

Sandstone, fine-grained, moderately quartzose, and 

weathered shale _______________________________ _ 

78. Shale, weathered; contains sandstone lens __________ _ 

77. Coal (Dorchester?) _____________________________ -_ 

76. Shale, weathered (units 76 to 78 exposed at top of 

cliff; covered at road level) __________________ - __ _ 

Thickness 

(feet) 

12+ 

38± 

11 

4 

4 

10 

15± 

4 

1.5 

4. 5 

5± 

1± 

1± 

Incomplete thickness of Wise Formation____ 111 + 

Gladeville Sandstone (45 feet): 

7 5. Sandstone, medium-grained, quartzose; contains shale 

pebbles and coal chips at base; becomes coarse 

grained, micaceous, and feldspathic at top; in 

massive beds 1 to 10 feet thick__________________ 45 

Total thickness of Gladeville Sandstone_____ 45 

Top of unit to base of section 

(feet) 

111 

99 

61 

50 

46 

42 

32 

17 

13 

12 

7 

2 

1 

45 
MEASURED GEOLOGIC SECTIONS 

Geologic section .5-Continued. 

Norton Formation (type section; 928+ feet): 

· 7 4. Shale, grayish-brown, slightly carbonaceous _________ _ 

73. Coal, weathered, rashy; on slumped slope; 11± inches 

(not Norton coal) _____________________________ _ 

72. Siltstone, clayey; contains plant impressions ________ _ 

71. Siltstone, medium-light-gray; laminated with ironstone bands; more sandy at top _________________ _ 

70. Covered (at bend to left in highway going uphill) ___ _ 

69. Sandstone, very fine grained, micaceous; weathers 

yellowish brown; moderately resistant ___________ _ 

68. Siltstone, medium-gray; contains prominent thin 

ironstone bands _______________________________ _ 

67. Shale, medium-dark-gray; becomes silty upward; 

contains prominent ironstone bands; grades up- ward into next unit_ __________________________ _ 

66. Siltstone, medium-gray, laminated ________________ _ 

65. Coal, 6 to 7 inches _____________________________ _ 

64. Sandstone, medium-light-gray, medium-grained; similar to underlying unit, but thinner bedded and less 

resistant; 9 to 15 feet __________________________ _ 

63. Sandstone, medium-light-gray, medium-grained; 

grades upward to fine-grained arkosic resistant 

sandstone; forms sheer rock wall in cut above 

highway _____________________________________ _ 

62. Shale, medium-dark-gray; contains ironstone bands __ 

61. Sandstone, fine-grained, impure, micaceous; lower 

part forms minor ledge ________________________ _ 

60. Siltstone, weathers grayish orange, and shale, weathers 

moderate yellowish brown ______________________ _ 

59. Covered; probably same as overlying unit __________ _ 

58. Clay, yellow, 4 inches; overlain by brown carbonace- ous clay, 14 inches _____________________________ _ 

57. Sandstone, medium-grained, impure, micaceous; 

weathers pale yellowish brown; in massive beds that 

weather to laminated beds; resistant_ ____ ·--------

Unconformity. 

56. Sandstone, medium-gray, fine-grained, impure; 

changes upward to siltstone ____________________ _ 

55. Covered at bend to left going uphilL _____________ --

54. Sandstone, fine- and medium-grained, impure, micaceous; weathers pale yellowish brown; crossbedded 

in units as much as 5 feet thick _________________ _ 

53. Sandstone, . very fine grained, impure, micaceous, 

thin-bedded; weathers pale yellowish brown ______ _ 

52. Siltstone, laminated, and medium-dark-gray shale 

containing ironstone beds; includes ironstone lens 5 

feet long and 5 inches thick ____________________ -

51. Covered at bend to left going uphilL ______ ---------

50. Shale, silty; weathers pale yellowish brown ___ -------

43 

Top of unit to base· of 

Thickness section 

(feet) (feet) 

1 928 

1 927 

2 926 

58 924 

3 866 

4 863 

21 859 

19 838 

34 819 

0. 5 785 

12 784 

64 772 

5 708 

8 703 

25 695 

12 670 

1.5 658 

23 657 

9 634 

9± 625 

44± 616 

9 572 

16 563 

17 547 

23 530 
44 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic section 5-Continued 

Norton Formation-Continued 

49. Coal, 9 inches; medium-dark-gray underclay, 6 inches; 

coal, 1% inches; carbonaceous shale containing 

plant remains, 2 inches; light-gray siltstone, 3 

inches _______________________________________ _ 

48. Claystone, light-gray, shaly; bottom 3 inches replaced by limonite ___________________________________ _ 

47. Sandstone, light-gray, fine-grained, micaceous; where 

weathered, shows very even parallel bedding within more massive units ____________________________ _ 

46. Clay, grayish-orange, shaly; contains plant remains; 

0 to 3 inches _____ ~ ___________________________ _ 

45. Coal; 11 inches to 17 inches ______________________ _ 

44. Underclay, pale-yellowish-brown; contains Stigmaria_ 

43. Sandstone, very pale orange, fine-grained, moderately quartzose, slightly micaceous; contains thin 

limonite-stained bands along some bedding planes and cross joints _______________________________ _ 

42. Coal, 17 inches; exposed at spring on highway ______ _ 

41. Clay, medium-dark-gray, shaly; grades into underclay at top ___________________________________ _ 

40. Siltstone _______________________________________ _ 

39. Shale, light-gray; contains thin ironstone bands and 

concretions _________________________________ _ 

38. Coal, 1 inch; olive-gray clay, 2 inches; coal, 29 inches; 

brownish-black carbonaceous sandstone containing 

scattered large mica flakes, 1% inches; coal, 14% 

inches; (Upper Banner coal); siltstone, 1+ inch; 

coal not exposed at hairpin turn on highway but 

well exposed at abandoned mine 200 yards to east__ 

37. Underclay, pale-yellowish-brown, hard; contains Stigmaria; in bank at middle of hairpin turn _________ _ 36. Covered _______________________________________ _ 

35. Sandstone, white speckled, medium-grained, impure, micaceous ____________________________________ _ 

34. Covered _______________________________________ _ 

33. Siltstone, medium-gray __________________________ _ 32. Covered _______________________________________ _ 

31. Sandstone, fine-grained, micaceous; weathers grayish 

orange; thin bedded in lower part; massive with 

spheroidal weathering in upper part _____________ _ 

30. Siltstone, light-olive-gray, laminated _______________ _ 

29. Coal, upper 10 inches rashy (Lower Banner coal) _ ---

28. Underclay, grayish-black, carbonaceous; contains 

carbonized plant remains ______________ -- _____ ---

27. Clay, dark-yellowish-brown, silty; grades upward into 

siltstone; contains carbonized plant fragments __ - - -

26. Sandstone, light-gray, fine-grained, micaceous; thin 

bedded in lower part; massive with spheroidal 

weathering in upper part _____________________ ---

Top of unit to base of Thickness section 

(feet) (feet) 

1. 8 507 

1. 5 505 

25 503 

0. 2 478 

1. 2 478 

0.8 477 

23 476 

1. 4 453 

3. 5 452 

14 448 

7 

4. 1 

4.5 

16 

3 

6 

24 

13 

9 

17 

3. 4 

0. 8 

9 

10 

434 

427 

423 

418 

403 

400 

394 

370 

357 

348 

331 

327 

326 

317 
MEASURED GEOLOGIC SECTIONS 

Geologic section 5-Continued 

Norton Formation-Continued 

25. Sandstone, very fine grained, and siltstone; most is 

evenly bedded, but some is irregularly bedded ____ _ 

24. Sandstone, medium-gray, very fine grained, micaceous; 

contains carbonaceous patches; conspicuous 

spheroidal weathering _________________________ _ 

23. Siltstone, medium-gray, even-bedded ______________ _ 

22. Siltstone, even-bedded, laminated _________________ _ 

21. Shale, medium-gray; 8~ inches ___________________ _ 

20. Coal, 1 inch ____________________________________ _ 

19. Siltstone, poorly exposed _________________________ _ 

18. Sandstone, pale-yellowish-brown, micaceous, very even 

bedded; contains abundant dark grains ____ _ 

17. Siltstone, medium-gray, well-bedded; small longabandoned quarry at top of unit _______________ _ 

16. Siltstone, pale-yellowish-brown, and very fine grained sandstone ____________________________________ _ 

15. Siltstone, pale-yellowish-brown; contains 1-foot bed 

of very fine grained sandstone in middle _________ _ 

14. Sandstone, pale-yellowish-brown, very fine grained; 

grades into siltstone upward and laterally ________ _ 

13. Siltstone, pale-yellowish-brown, thin- and even- bedded ______________________________________ _ 

12. Siltstone; weathers grayish orange _________________ _ 

11. Coal, 4 inches; gray and brown shaly clay, 6 inches; 

carbonaceous shale, 1% inches; medium-light-gray shaly clay, 5 inches ____________________________ _ 

10. Clay, medium-gray, hard ________________________ _ 

9. Sandstone, very pale orange, fine-grained, moderately 

quartzose; massive bedded in lower part; becomes 

thinner bedded upward ________________________ _ 8. Covered _______________________________________ _ 

7. Sandstone, fine- and medium-grained, earthy; weathers 

grayish orange--------------------------------

6. Shale, medium-dark-gray; in bank just below ravine on 

northeast side of highway ______________________ _ 

5. Sandstone, medium-grained, feldspathic, friable; 

weathers grayish orange; contains scattered mica flakes; 

partly exposed in high wall of strip pit north of 

highway and completely exposed at old strip mine in nose of spur south of highway __________________ _ 

4. Siltstone, medium-gray; contains platy interbeds of 

very fine grained sandstone in upper part ________ _ 

3. Coal; not exposed in old strip pits; reported by Eby 

(1923) to be 51 inches thick; includes one 2-inch and 

one 3-inch shale parting (Kennedy coal) _________ _ 2. Covered _______________________________________ _ 

1. Sandstone, yellowish-gray, white speckled, mediumgrained, feldspathic, massive-bedded (McClure 

Sandstone Member of Eby, 1923)----------------

Thickness 

(feet) 

7. 5 

2 

17 

6 

0. 7 

0. 1 

3 

11 

67 

11 

25 

5 

13.5 

8 

1.4 

3. 5 

20 

6 

7 

6. 5 

41 

15 

4. 2 

3 

23 

45 

Top of unit to base of section 

(feet) 

307 

300 

298 

281 

275 

274 

274 

271 

260 

193 

182 

157 

152 

139 

131 

129 

U6 

106 

100 

93 

86 

45 

30 

26 

23 
46 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic .~tection 5-Continued. 

Base of section. 

Concealed beds of lower part of Norton Formation beneath 

town of Coeburn calculated to be about _____________ _ 

Approximate total thickness of the Norton 

Thickness 

(feet) 

250 

Formation ________________________________ 1, 175 

Geologic sec~ion 6 

Section is along Southern Railroad cut at head of Big Stone Gap, Wise County, 

Va. See plate 1 and figure 3 for location of section. Section begins with the Bee 

Rock Sandstone Member of the Lee Formation (exposed in new railroad cut) 

and ends in middle part of the Norton Formation (exposed along State Highway 

68 just west of railroad crossing). Measured by R. L. Miller. 

Norton Formation (636+ feet): 

32. Shale, carbonaceous; grades upward into olive-gray 

shale and very fine grained platy sandstone ______ _ 

31. Coal, sheared and slickensided; 7 inches ____________ _ 

30. Claystone, light-olive-gray _______________________ _ 

29. Sandstone, light-olive-gray, very fine grained, quartz- ose __________________________________________ _ 

28. Shale, weathered ________________________________ _ 

27. Sandstone, light-olive-gray and olive-gray, finegrained, moderately quartzose; weathers pale 

yellowish brown; beds average 1 foot in thickness; 

ripple marked; interbedded shale near top _______ _ 

26. Sandstone, very light gray, medium-grained, quartzose; massive bedded in lower part. Top of this unit 

is at corner between railroad right-of-way and 

State Highway 68 _____________________________ _ 

25. Coal, sheared, 1631 inches; carbonaceous siltstone 1 to 

3 inches; pulverized coal, 0 to 1~ inches _________ _ 

24. Underclay, carbonaceous _________________________ _ 

23. Siltstone, gray __________________________________ _ 

22. Sandstone, medium-light-gray, fine-grained, moderately quartzose, micaceous; prominently crossbedded and massive bedded in lower and middle 

parts ________________________________________ _ 

21. Shale, dark-gray, even-bedded; contains thin ironstone bands; H-inch-thick coal at base ___________ _ 

20. Sandstone, fine-grained, laminated ________________ _ 

19. Sandstone, light-gray, medium-grained, massive, moderately quartzose, slightly micaceous. ________ ----

18. Shale, dark-gray, even .. bedded ____________________ _ 

17. Shale, medium-dark-gray, weathered; contains Stig- tnaria _______________________________________ _ 

16. Shale, medium-dark-gray; grades upward into laminated siltstone __________________________ --_----

Thickness 

(feet) 

2 

0. 6 

0. 8 

1 

2 

21 

49 

1.7 

4. 2 

2 

12 

6. 5 

1.5 

3. 5 

47 

1 

22 

Top of unit to base of formation (feet) 

636 

634 

634 

633 

632 

630 

609 

560 

558 

554 

552 

540 

533 

532 

528 

481 

480 
MEASURED GEOLOGIC SECTIONS 

Geologic ,'fection 6-Continued. 

Norton Formation-Continued 

15. Coal, 31 inch; carbonaceous wavy-bedded shale, 9 

inches; coal, 2 inches __________________________ _ 

14. Shale, gnarled, weathered; contains abundant Stig- maria at top ________________ :.. _________________ _ 

13. Sandstone, medium-light-gray, fine-grained, moderately quartzose, micaceous _____________________ _ 

12. Shale, medium-light-gray; grades upward into siltstone 

that contains thin ironstone bands ______________ _ 

11. Coal, 23 inches _________________________________ _ 

10. Siltstone, medium-gray; weathers blackish red and 

light olive gray; contains abundant Stigmaria _____ _ 

9. Siltstone, medium-light-gray, micaceous; contains 

sparse Stigmaria __ ____________________________ _ 

8. Sandstone, light-gray, very fine grained, laminated, wavy-bedded _________________________________ _ 

7. Sandstone, very light gray, white speckled, mediumgrained, cross bedded, massive; becomes fine grained 

at top; abundant muscovite flakes on bedding planes _______________________________________ _ 

6. Shale, dark-gray ________________________________ _ 

5. Sandstone, medium-dark-gray, very fine grained, 

laminated; contains lighter and darker bands _____ _ 4. Covered _______________________________________ _ 

3. Siltstone, micaceous; weathers pale yellowish brown __ 

2. Covered to top of Bee Rock Sandstone Member of 

Lee Formation ________________________________ _ 

Incomplete thickness of Norton Formation __ 

Lee Formation (82+ feet): 

Bee Rock Sandstone Member (82+ feet): 

1. Sandstone, fine-grained, quartzose, slightly feldspathic; changes upward to medium grained; 

crossbedded in beds as much as 4 feet thick; 

Thickness 

(feet) 

1 

2. 2 

30 

4 

1. 9 

2 

1.5 

1.2 

50 

13.5 

47 

10 

4 

290 

636. 1 

same as unit 40 of geologic section !__________ 82+ 

Incomplete thickness of Bee Rock Sandstone 

Member__________________________ 82+ 

Incomplete thickness of Lee Formation_ 82+ 

47 

Top of un~ 

to base of formation (feet) 

458 

457 

455 

425 

421 

419 

417 

416 

415 

365 

351 

304 

294 

290 
48 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic section 7 

Type section of the Wise Formation. Section extends along Virginia State Highway 160, from mouth of Looney Creek at Appalachia, Wise County, Va., 

westward to crest of Big Black Mountain on Virginia-Kentucky State line 

(Appalachia 7~-minute quadrangle). Location of section and key units shown 

in figure 6. Section also includes Gladeville Sandstone and parts of the Harlan 

and Norton Formations. Units 35 to 191 condensed and slightly revised from 

Wanless (1946, p. 85-87, 10Q-102). Identification of coal beds and named 

sandstone members in units 35 to 191 are from Wanless (1946), unless otherwise 

noted. Units 18 to 22 from engineer's log of diamond-drill hole 450 feet northwest of base of bluff on highway in Inman, Va. Units 1 to 17 (at mouth of 

Looney Creek on west side of Southern Railroad yards at Appalachia, 1 mile 

southeast of Inman), units 23 to 34, and units 192 to 225 measured by R. L. 

Miller. 

Harlan Formation (67 + feet): 

225. Sandstone, moderately quartzose, crossbedded, massive-bedded, resistant; coarse grained at base; 

grades upward into medium grained; crops out at 

high point of State Highway 160 at crest of Big 

Black Mountain; channels into underlying beds __ _ 

Unconformity. 

224. Clay and coal, interbedded: clay, 12 inches; 

weathered coal, 6 inches; shaly clay, 4 feet 7 

inches; coal, 7% inches; underclay, 10 inches; coal, 

12 inches ____________________________________ _ 

223. Siltstone, light-gray; contains Stigmaria at top ____ _ 222. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

221. Sandstone, fine-grained, micaceom;, impure; forms 

ledge exposed in bank 100 yards east of ridge crest __ 

220. Partly covered; a few beds of medium-gray siltstone 

and shale exposed in ditch ____________________ _ 

219. Sandstone, light-gray, white-speckled, coarse-grained; 

becomes medium grained to fine grained upward __ 

Unconformity. 

218. Shale, medium-light-gray; weathers yellow ________ _ 

Incomplete thickness of Harlan Formation 

Wise Formation (type section; 2,268 feet): 

217. Coal (High Splint, No. 12 coal); top 10 inches is 

bony _______________________________________ _ 

216. Underclay ____________________________________ _ 

215. Siltstone, medium-light-gray, dense; Stigmaria at top_ 

214. Siltstone, medium-light-gray; shaly with a more resistant 6-inch bed at top ----------------------

213. Sandstone; medium grained at base with ironstone 

conglomeratic nodules; grades upward into finegrained and very fine grained sandstone ________ _ 

Top of unit to baBe of 

Thicknellll formation 

(feet) (feet) 

11+ 67 

7. 8 56 

7 48 

4 42 

3 38 

17 34 

17 18 

0. 5 1 

67-1-

6. 8 2,268 

2. 6 2,261 

3 2,258 

10 2,255 

1Q-18. 2,245 
MEASURED GEOLOGIC SECTIONS 

Geologic section 7-Continued 

Wise Formation-Continued 

Unconformity. 

212. Shale entirely removed by erosion in places_ 

211. Coal (Morris), 30 inches; carbonaceous shale and 

clay, 2 inches; coal, 4 inches ___________________ _ 

210. Underclay, medium-light-gray, shaly; contains plant impressions_____ _ __________________________ _ 

209. Shale, medium-gray; siltstone bed at top _________ _ 

Probable equivalent of Reynolds Sandstone Member(?) of 

this paper: 

208. Sandstone, medium-light-gray, very fine grained; 

contains interbedded siltstone; top bed 6-12 

inches thick weathers to form prominent flange __________________________________ _ 

207. Sandstone, light-gray, medium-grained, white 

speckled, feldspathic. Reynolds Sandstone 

Member of Wanless (1946) ________________ _ 

Thickness 

(feet) 

o-2. 5 

3 

3. 2 

2. 7 

38 

42 

Total thickness of probable equivalent of 

Reynolds Sandstone Member(?) of this 

paper______________________________ 80 

206. Coal, 22 inches, and underclay containing Stigmaria, 

10 inches ______ :... ________________ --------------

205. Siltstone, light-gray ____________________________ _ 204. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

203. Sandstone, medium-gray, fine-grained, feldspathic, 

massive; forms one ledge _______________ -- _____ _ 

202. Mostly covered; contorted coal bed in ditch near base 

and a few beds of siltstone near top ____________ _ 

201. Sand~tone, medium-gray, feldspathic; has "salt-andpepper'' speckled appearance __________________ _ 

Unconformity. 

200. Siltstone, medium-dark-gray; grades upward into 

shale; this unit completely cut out by overlying 

sandstone along outcrop _______________ --------

199. Sandstone, medium-light-gray, medium-grained, 

white speckled, feldspathic; sparingly micaceous __ 198. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

197. Sandstone, light-gray, medium- and fine-grained; 

bedding, which is strongly deformed in lowest 4 

feet, changes upward to very even thin beds and 

then massive beds ____________ -----------------

196. Siltstone and shale, medium-dark-gray, very even 

bedded; contains ironstone nodules and thin bands_ 

195. Shale, medium-dark-gray; contains ironstone bands 

and nodules _________________________________ _ 

2. 7 

5 

6 

22 

17 

41 

0-10 

29 

5± 

42 

20 

20 

49 

Topofunit 

to base of formation (feet) 

2,231 

2,230 

2,227 

2,224 

2, 221 

2,183 

2, 141 

2,138 

2, 134 

2, 128 

2, 106 

2,088 

2,048 

2,042 

2,013 

2,008 

1,966 

1,946 
50 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic section '/-Continued 

Wise Formation-Continued 

Equivalent of Magoffin Beds of Morse (1931): 

194. Limestone, black, very fossiliferous; exposed in 

ditch ___________________________________ _ 

193. Siltstone, light-olive-gray, even-bedded, calTop of unit to base of Thickness formation 

(feet) (feet) 

0. 7 1, 926 

careous__________________________________ 19 1, 926 

192. Shale, medium-dark-gray, calcareous; contains 

ironstone concretions. Wanless (1946) reports 

17-inch coal at base of this unit on Kentucky 

side of mountain__________________________ 10.5 

Total thickness of equivalent of Magoffin Beds of Morse (1931)___________ 30. 2 

191. Sandstone, light-brown, massive, cliff-forming; calcareous at top. Equivalent to "Jesse" and Pilot 

Knob sandstone units of Wanless (1946). High 

tension line crosses lower part of this unit_ ______ _ 

Unconformity. 

190. Shale, light-gray, silty ________________________ .. __ 

189. Coal, 3 feet 8 inches; light-gray clay, 6 inches; coal 

(Pardee coal), 8 inches _______________________ --

188. Shale, light-brownish-gray _______________________ _ 187. Coal __________________________________________ _ 

186. Underclay, silty ________________________________ _ 

185. Siltstone, brownish-gray, fairly massive ___________ _ 

184. Sandstone, fine- to medium-grained, massive, cliffforming _____________________________________ _ 

Unconformity.· 

183. Coal __________________________________________ _ 

182. Underclay, silty ________________________________ _ 

181. Shale, light-olive-gray, silty, hard; contains fossil 

plants _______________________________________ _ 

180. Coal __________________________________________ _ 

179. Underclay, silty _______________________________ _ 

178. Shale, light-brownish-gray, silty; spheroidal weathering __ 177. Coal __________________________________________ _ 

176. Siltstone; not laminated _____ .... __________________ _ 

175. Sandstone, light-yellow-gray, medium-grained, mas- sive ________________________________________ _ 

Unconformity. 

174. Shale, light- to medium-gray; silty near top; contains 

1-foot underclay and ~-inch coal in upper part ___ _ 

173. Coal, 10 inches; medium-gray clay, 5~ inches; coal, 

7~ inches; medium-gray clay, 6 inches; coal, 9 inches ______________________________________ _ 

172. Underclay, light-gray __________________________ --

171. Siltstone; not laminated ________________________ _ 

47 

3. 2 

4. 8 

3 

0. 3 

2.2 

3 

49 

0. 5 

3 

8. 2 

0. 2 

2 

9. 5 

0. 2 

2 

7. 5 

11. 7 

3. 2 

1.5 

8 

1, 907 

1, 896 

1,849 

1,846 

1,841 

1,838 

1,838 

1,836 

1,833 

1,784 

1, 783 

1, 780 

1, 772 

1, 772 

1, 770 

1,760 

1,760 

1,758 

1,751 

1,739 

1,736 

1,734 
MEASURED GEOLOGIC SECTIONS 

Geologic section 7-Continued 

Wise Formation-Continued 

170. Coal __________________________________________ _ 

169. Underclay ____________________________________ _ 

168. Sandstone, fine-grained, even-bedded, massive _____ _ 

Unconformity. 

167. Shale, silty, light-gray __________________________ _ 

166. Coal, 1% inches ________________________________ _ 

165. Underclay ____________________________________ _ 

164. Sandstone, light-gray; contains root traces ________ _ 

163. Underclay, 2 inches ____________________________ _ 

162. Sandstone, olive-gray; interbedded with shaly partings; more massive in upper part _______________ _ 

161. Siltstone, medium-gray, fairly massive; spheroidal weathering ___________________________________ -

160. Shale, dark-gray, hard; contains ironstone concre- tions; 1 foot of clay at base ___________________ _ 

159. Coal, blocky, 4 inches; underlain by 4 inches of clay __ 

158. Shale, medium-gray; contains partings of siltstone 

and sandstone _______________________________ _ 

157. Sandstone, light-brownish-gray, fine-grained _______ _ 

156. Shale, light-olive-gray, silty _____________________ _ 

155. Coal; badly split with clay interbeds; total coal, 14_% inches ______________________________________ _ 

154. Underclay, light-yellow-gray ____________________ _ 

153. Sandstone, light-gray, poorly bedded _____________ _ 

152. Shale, silty, light-gray; contains plant traces _______ _ 151. Coal, 20 inches ________________________________ _ 

150. Underclay, sandy ______________________________ _ 

149. Siltstone; contains Stigmaria _____________________ _ 

148. Underclay, sandy ____________________ ;... _________ _ 

14 7. Coal, shaly ____________________________________ _ 

146. Underclay ____________________________________ _ 

145. Shale, light-olive-gray; coaly at base; changes to 

platy sandstone at top ________________________ _ 

144. Underclay ____________________________________ _ 

143. Underclay, silty, 2 feet thick at base; changes to 

shale, then fine-grained sandstone upward _______ _ 

142. Siltstone, olive-gray, massive- to thin-bedded ______ _ 

141. Sandstone, olive-gray, medium-grained, very massive, micaceous _____________________ ----------

Unconformity. 

140. Shale, black, hard; contains pelecypod shells (Naiad-

~e~----------------------------------------- 139. Shale, silty, olive- to blue-gray; spheroidal weather- ing _________________________________________ _ 

138. Coal, 1 foot 6 inches; clay, 2 inches; coal, 5 inches; 

flaky medium-gray clay, 5% inches; coal, 1 foot 

8~ inches; light-gray flaky shale, 1 inch; coal, 2X 

inches; Phillips or Fireclay coal of this report, not 

of Wanless (1946) ____________________________ _ 

51 

Top of unit to base of ThickneBB formation (feet) (feet) 

0. 5 1,726 

4 1,726 

8 1, 722 

3. 2 1, 714 

0. 1 1, 711 

2 1,710 

0. 3 1,708 

0. 2 1 70R 

44 1,708 

14 1,664 

4 1,650 

0. 7 1,646 

4.5 1, 645 

4.2 1,641 

5.9 1,637 

3. 5 1,631 

0.8 1, 627 

5. 5 1,626 

7. 3 1,621 

1.7 1, 614 

3 1, 612 

2 1, 609 

6. 2 1,607 

0.2 1,601 

0.6 1,600 

4 1,600 

0.2 1,596 

3.3 1,596 

13 1,592 

40 1,579 

1.9 1,539 

16 1,538 

4. 6 1, 522 
52 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic section 7-Continued 

Wise Formation-Continued 

137. Underclay, light-blue-gray, silty _________________ _ 

136. Sandstone, light-gray, very fine grained; very micaceous in lower part; weathers thin bedded _______ _ 

135. Sandstone, light-gray, medium-grained, massive- and 

crossbedded; contains a conglomerate of ironstone 

pebbles at base; basal contact has relief of 18 feet ________________________________________ _ 

Unconformity. 

134. Clay, blue-gray; contains root traces; 1%-inch coal 

bed at top __________________________________ _ 

133. Shale, medium-gray ____________________________ _ 

132. Siltstone, blue-gray; contains ironstone concretions __ 

131. Shale, poorly bedded; underlain by 2-inch coal bed 

and overlain by 3-inch coal bed ________________ _ 

130. Underclay, 4% inches ___________________________ _ 

129. Siltstone, light-gray ____________________________ _ 128. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

127. Shale, light-gray, silty; changes upward to siltstone 

and to massive sandstone at top _______________ _ 

126. Coal, 10 inches ________________________________ _ 

125. Underclay, light-gray, sandy ____________________ _ 

124. Sandstone, light-gray, fine-grained, massive ________ _ 

123. Shale, coaly, 1 inch; underclay, 11 inches; coaly shale, 1 inch ______________________________________ _ 

122. Underclay ____________________________________ _ 

121. Shale, light-gray; contains small ironstone concre- tions _______________________________________ _ 

120. Coal, containing shaly partings, 6 inches; underclay, 

1 foot 2 inches; shaly coal, 1 inch ______________ _ 119. Underclay ____________________________________ _ 

118. Siltstone, light-gray; contains ironstone bands _____ _ 

117. Sandstone, light-gray, very massive and crossbedded, 

cliff-forming. Equivalent to Puckett Sandstone 

Member of Mingo Formation of Kentucky ______ _ 

116. Coal, 1 inch; shale, 1~~ inches; coal, 2X inches; 

underclay, 6 inches ___________________________ _ 

115. Shale, blue-gray; 14-inch sandstone bed at top _____ _ 114. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

113. Coal, 4 inches; underclay, 7 inches _______________ _ 

112. Siltstone; contains root traces; very fine grained sandstone at base and top _________________________ _ 

111. Underclay; 1 inch of shale at top that contains plant impressions __________________________________ _ 

110. Siltstone, medium-gray; contains root traces ______ _ 

109. Sandstone, light-brownish-gray, fine-grained, mas- sive ________________________________________ _ 

Topofunit 

to base of 

Thickness formation (feet) (feet) 

2 1, 517 

7 1,515 

6Q-80. 1, 508 

3. 1 1, 438 

15 1,435 

4 1,420 

1.2 1, 416 

0. 3 1, 414 

3. 5 1, 414 

2 1, 411 

10 1, 409 

0. 8 1,399 

1.3 1,398 

2. 8 1,397 

1. 1 1,394 

1.3 1, 393 

1.8 1, 391 

1.7 1,390 

1.5 1,388 

5. 5 1,386 

58 1, 381 

0. 9 1,323 

5. 2 1,322 

3 1, 317 

0. 9 1, 314 

4. 9 1,313 

1 1,308 

3. 8 1,307 

14 1,303 
MEASURED GEOLOGIC SECTIONS 

Geologic section 7-Continued. 

Wise Formation-Continued 

Unconformity. 

108. Coal; Phillips coal of Wanless (1946), not of this 

53 

Top of untt to base of Thickness formation 

(feet) (feet) 

report_______________________________________ 2. 3 1,289 

107. Underclay, light-gray, sandy; changes at top to 

sandstone that contains Stigmaria______________ _ 2. 8 1, 287 

106. Sandstone, olive-gray, fine-grained; massive in lower 

part; boardlike structure in middle and upper 

parts; includes shale lens one-third of way above 

base_________________________________________ 101 1,284 

Unconformity. 

105. Siltstone, olive-gray, thin-bedded_________________ 10 1, 183 

Kendrick Shale of Jillson (1919): 

104. Shale, blue-gray; contain marine fossils, including 

Chonetes, M arginifera, Glabrocingulum, and 

Amphiscapha_____________________________ 3. 7 1,173 

Total thickness of Kendrick Shale of 

Jillson (1919) __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 3. 7 

103. Covered __________________________________ _ 

102. Shale, medium-gray, silty ___________________ _ 

101. Shale, medium-gray; contains oval ironstone concretions and Aviculopecten; changes to siltstone at top_ 

100. Coal, blocky, 7 inches; underclay, 2 inches; sandstone 

containing Stigmaria, 9 inches; light-gray crossbedded siltstone, 2 feet; light-gray silty shale, lO 

inches; blocky coal, 8 inches; bone, 2 inches; coal, 3inches ____________________________________ _ 

99. Underclay, light-gray, sandy ____________________ _ 

98. Sandstone, light-brownish-gray, coarse-grained, mas- sive; contains shaly lenses _____________________ _ 

Unconformity. 

97. Coal, 2X inches; coaly shale, 1}~ inches; coal, 5 inches; 

sandstone, 0-3 inches; coal, }~ inch _____________ _ 

96. Underclay, brownish-gray _______________________ _ 

95. Siltstone, not laminated _________________________ _ 

94. Sandstone, light-brownish-gray, fine-grained, platy __ 

93. Shale, yellow-gray, sandy, micaceous _____________ _ 

92. Coal, weathered, 2 feet 2 inches; rash (impure coal), 

11 inches; clay,% inch; coal, 1% inches; Low Splint 

coal. Unit is exposed in ditch, bloom in bank ____ _ 91. Underclay, light-gray ___________________________ _ 

90. Shale; contains fossil plant impressions ___________ _ 

89. Coal, 17~ inches; clay,~ inch; coal, 11~ inches _____ _ 88. Underclay, sandy ______________________________ _ 

87. Sandstone, light-greenish-gray, masoive, micaceous; 

weathers brownish. Equivalent to Pioneer Sandstone Member of Mingo Formation of Tennessee __ 86. Coal, 1 foot 8~ inches __________________________ _ 

12 1, 169 

10 1, 157 

10.2 1,147 

5. 4 1, 137 

2.2 1, 132 

36 1, 130 

1.0 1,094 

0. 7 1,093 

4 1,092 

12 1,088 

7 1,076 

3. 2 1,069 

4 1,066 

5 1,062 

1.1 1,057 

1.2 1,056 

53 1,054 

1.7 1,001 
54 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic section 7-Continued 

Wise Formation-Continued 

85. Underclay ____________________________________ _ 

84. Shale, light-gray, and siltstone with 1,V2-inch coal 

near base and %-inch coal in upper part_ ________ _ 

83. Sandstone, and sandy underclay _________________ _ 

82. Sandstone, brownish-gray, medium-grained, micaceoue, maesive _______________________________ _ 

Unconformity. 

81. Shale, silty, medium- to olive-gray _______________ _ 

80. Shale, medium- to dark-gray, pyritic; fossiliferous 

withDerbua _________________________________ _ 

79. Coal, 4 inches; medium-gray shale, 1% inche8; coal, 

4 inches; light-gray underclay, 7% inchee ________ _ 

78. Siltstone, brownish-gray; contains root impressions __ 

77. Sandstone; contains plant stems; changes upward to 

medium- to dark-gray flaky shale ______________ _ 

76. Siltstone, medium-gray, massive to shaly; contains 

8 inches of medium-blue-gray shale at top _______ _ 

Marcum Hollow Sandstone Member (this report): 

75. Sandstone, medium- to coarse-grained micaceous, massive and cliff-forming; contains shaly partings _________________________________ _ 

Total thickne~s of Marcum Hollow 

Thickness 

(feet) 

1. 4 

1.8 

2.4 

50 

4 

5.3 

1.4 

3.4 

3. 5 

12.6 

75 

Sandstone Member_________________ 75 

Unconformity. 

7 4. Shale, medium-gray; contains fossil plants _________ _ 

73. Coal, 1 foot 5 inches; clay, 2 inches; coal, 10 inches; 

brownish-gray clay, 3,V2 inches; coal (Taggart, No. 

5 coal), 1 foot 7 inches. Unit is exposed in ditch on 

north side of road, 120 feet uphill from power line 

crossing _____________________________________ _ 

72. Underclay, brownish-gray _______________________ _ 

71. Shale, brownish-gray, silty ______________________ _ 

70. Siltstone, medium-gray; contains lenticular masses of sandstone _________________________________ _ 

69. Sandstone, brownish-gray, micaceous, massive _____ _ 

68. Shale, light-brownish-gray; contains plant traces ___ _ 

67. Coal, 4% inches ________________________________ _ 

66. Siltstone; contains root and stem traces ___________ _ 

65. Shale, silty, light-gray __________________________ _ 64. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

63. Coal (Taggart Marker or Marker coal) ___________ _ 

62. Underclay; sandy at top; contains Stigmaria _______ _ 61. Siltstone, shaly ________________________________ _ 

17 

4. 3 

3. 5 

2. 5 

7 

6 

5 

0.4 

2. 5 

4 

2 

3. 3 

3. 9 

1.7 

Top of unit to ba8e of formation (feet) 

1,000 

998 

996 

994 

944 

940 

935 

933 

930 

926 

914 

839 

822 

818 

814 

812 

805 

799 

794 

793 

791 

787 

785 

781 

778 
MEASURED GEOLOGIC SECTIONS 

Geologic section '/-Continued. 

Thickness Wise Formation-Continued (feet) 

Clover Fork Sandstone Member (this paper): 

60. Sandstone, brownish-gray, massive and cliffforming__________________________________ 40 

Total thickness of Clover Fork Sandstone Member____________________ 40 

59. Covered __________________________________ _ 

58. Sandstone, brownish-gray, medium-grained, micaceous, massive to platy _________________ _ 57. Covered __________________________________ _ 

56. Sandstone, brownish-gray, coarse-grained, massive and cliff-forming _____________________ _ 

Unconformity. 

55. Siltstone, medium-gray, shaly _______________ _ 

54. Sandstone, medium-grained, micaceous, massive_ 

Unconformity. 

53. Coal (Standiford coal of Butts (1914, p. 175) and 

Wanless (1946); Wilson coal of this report) ______ _ 52. Underclay ____________________________________ _ 

51. Shale, medium-gray; contains fossil plants _________ _ 50. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

49. Sandstone, medium-gray, coarse-grained, massive and 

cliff-forming _________________________________ _ 

48. Siltstone, brownish-gray, massive ________________ _ 

47. Sandstone, shaly _______________________________ _ 

46. Sandstone; has boardlike structure _______________ _ 

45. Siltstone, medium-gray, shaly to massive __________ _ 

44. Shale, medium- to brownish-gray, silty; contains 

ironstone concretions _________________________ _ 43. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

42. Sandstone, light-gray, micaceous, massive _________ _ 41. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

40. Coal (Kelly cqal) ______________________________ _ 

39. Underclay, olive-gray ___________________________ _ 

38. Shale, medium-gray ____________________________ _ 

37. Siltstone, brownish-gray ________________________ _ 

36. Shale; contains fossil plants _____________________ _ 

35. Coal, 6% inches; dark-gray shale, 4 inches; coal 

(Imboden coal), 4 feet 9 inches _________________ _ 

34. Underclay ____________________________________ _ 

33. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

32. Sandstone, impure, moderately quartzose, micaceous; 

fine grained at base; changes upward to medium 

grained _____________________________________ _ 

31. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

30. Sandstone, medium-grained, impure, micaceous ____ _ 29. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

12 

8 

16 

60 

6 

11 

1.6 

3. 8 

3 

10 

44 

12 

4. 5 

10 

18 

23 

18 

11 

20 

1 

1.5 

5 

2. 5 

4. 7 

5. 6 

0. 5 

42 

55 

4± 

11 

5± 

55 

Tep of unit to base of formation 

(feet) 

776 

736 

724 

716 

700 

640 

634 

623 

621 

617 

614 

604 

560 

548 

544 

534 

516 

493 

475 

464 

444 

443 

441 

436 

434 

429 

424 

423 

381 

326 

322 

311 
56 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic .~ection 7-Co:n,tinued 

Wise Formation-Continued 

28. Sandstone, light-gray, medium-grained, even-bedded 

and crossbedded; thinner bedded in middle; beds 

are as much as 2 feet thick at top ______________ _ 

27. Siltstone, brownish-gray, micaceous, shaly _________ _ 26. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

25. Siltstone, medium-gray; interbedded with dark-gray 

shale; occurs on very steep slope above bluff at 

Inman ______________________________________ _ 

24. Sandstone, light-olive-gray, very fine grained; beds 

average 1 foot in thickness; changes to siltstone 

upward _____________________________________ _ 

23. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

22. Covered (gravel and alluvium cased off in drill hole)_ 

21. Shale, gray ____________________________________ _ 

20. Coal, bony ____________________________________ _ 

19. Fireclay ______________________________________ _ 

18. Shale, blue, silty _______________________________ _ 

17. Sandstone, fine-grained, quartzose, resistant; forms 

cascades in western tributary of Looney Creek. 

This sandstone also forms knob in Southern Railroad yard and ledges on east side of yard _______ _ 

16. Coal, 10 inches; contains 2-inch layers of weathered 

sandstone at base and shale at top _____________ _ 15. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

14. Sandstone, very fine grained, moderately quartzose; 

contains ironstone concretions; makes small water- fall _________________________________________ _ 

13. Siltstone, thin-bedded to shaly, weak _____________ _ 

12. Sandstone, fine-grained, impure; has carbonaceous 

films on bedding surfaces; forms 1-foot ledge at 

base and 3-foot ledge at top; lowest beds are exposed at base of cascades of tributary to Looney Creek ______________________________________ _ 

11. Covered; in rhododendron jungle; seems to include 

thin coal at or near top _______________________ _ 

10. Sandstone, medium-grained, massive-bedded and 

crossbedded, moderately quartzose; involved in 

sharp flexure which carries beds from steep northwest dips up creek bank to gentle northwest dips 

just above creek leveL ________________________ _ 

9. Coal (Dorchester coal), prospected, poorly exposed __ 8. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

Thickness 

(feet) 

64 

2 

13 

32 

9 

5 

23. 5 

26. 2 

0.3 

0. 8 

20± 

49 

1.2 

7 

2.5 

8. 2 

5. 7 

4. 5 

8. 5 

3± 

20. 7 

Total thickness of Wise Formation __________ 2, 268± 

Top of unit to base of formation (feet) 

306 

242 

240 

227 

195 

186 

181 

158 

131 

131 

130 

110 

61 

60 

53 

51 

42 

37 

32 

24 

21 
MEASURED GEOLOGIC SECTIONS 57 

Geologic section 7-Continued 

Gladeville Sandstone (85 feet): 

Top of unit to base of Thickness formation 

7. Sandstone, fine-grained, massive-bedded, moderately 

quartzose, resistant; forms steeply dipping flange 

jutting into Looney Creek _____________________ _ 

6. Sandstone, fine-grained, laminated, impure, weak; 

interbedded with shale ________________________ _ 

5. Sandstone, fine-grained, massive, moderately quartzose, micaceous; contains carbonaceous films _____ _ 4. Shale, medium-gray ____________________________ _ 

3. Sandstone, white speckled, medium-grained, massivebedded, resistant; becomes fine grained upward. __ 

Total thickness of Gladeville Sandstone ___ _ 

Norton Formation (34+ feet)": 2. Covered ______________________________________ _ 

1. Coal (Norton coal); formerly mined but no longer 

exposed; reported to be 4 feet thick ____________ _ 

Incomplete thickness of Norton Formation_ 

Geologic section 8 

(feet) (feet) 

22. 4 85 

9 62 

20 53 

0. 7 33 

32. 5 32 

=== 

84.6 

=== 

30± 

4± 

34± 

Type section of the Robbins Chapel Sandstone Member of the Wise Formation 

at Robbins Chapel, Lee County, Va. (Keokee 7~-minute quadrangle). See plate 1 

for location of section. Section begins on secondary State Road 606 at top of long 

hill, 1,900 feet S. 27° W. of brick church at Robbins Chapel and 20 feet north 

of where two powerlines cross directly above road. Measured by R. L. Miller. 

Wise Fo~mation (91+ feet): 

Robbins Chapel Sandstone Member (type section; 81 feet): 

Thickness 

(feet) 

9. Concealed in fields above old road but believed to be similar 

to unit 8 _____________________________________________ 28± 

8. Sandstone, fine-grained, crossbedded, slightly micaceous; 

weathers yellowish gray and grayish orange; exposed in cut 

of abandoned road above main highway_________________ 15 

7. Sandstone, medium-grained; grades upward to finegrained; 

micaceous, friable; contains interstitial clay derived from 

weathered feldspar grains; beds are 6 inches to 3 feet thick; 

weathers light brown and moderate reddish brown; plant 

trash along some bedding planes; uppermost beds exposed 

in tiny gully above main highway cut___________________ 34 

6. Sandstone, medium-grained, cross bedded, friable; weathers 

grayish orange and very light gray; contains muscovite flakes 

and stringers and patches of coal along cross beds__________ 4 

Total thickness of Robbins Chapel Sandstone Member _____________________________________ 81 

5. Coal, weathered, eroded; H-inch______________________________ 0. 04 
58 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic section 8-Continued. 

Wise Formation-Continued Thickne3B 

(feet) 

4. Clay, dark-yellowish-orange; 9 inches _________________________ _ 

3. Shale, olive-gray, weathered _________________________________ _ 

2. Sandstone, pale-yellowish-brown, fine-grained, impure, friable; 5 inches _________________________________________________ _ 

1. Siltstone, dark-yellowish-brown, weathered, shaly _____________ _ 

0. 75 

3 

0. 4 

6 

Incomplete thickness of Wise Formation________________ 91. 2 

Geologic section 9 

Type section of the Keokee Sandstone Member of the Wise Formation along 

State Highway 68, 1 mile east of Keokee, Lee County, Va. (See pl. 1.) Section 

begins 5,200 feet (airline) east of Keokee School and 200 feet east-northeast of 

junction of side road with highway at curve at bottom of long hill. Measured 

by R. L. Miller. 

Thickness 

Wise Formation (part): (feet) 

7. Siltstone, micaceous, weathered _______________________________ 3+ 

Keokee Sandstone Member (type section 59± feet): 

6. Sandstone, medium-light-gray, white-speckled, mediumand fine-grained, slightly micaceous; beds are 3 inches to 

2~ feet thick; contains carbonized plant fossil!!. Beds 

exposed in ditch and roadcut on south side of road. Top of 

unit in middle of S-turn near top of hilL ________________ 14 

5. Sandstone, pale-yellowish-brown, feldspathic, slightly micaceous, massive; contains abundant white specks and 

scattered dark grains; occurs in beds as much as 3 feet 

thick. Top of unit at curve at junction with woods lane on north side of highway ______________________________ 25 

4. Covered______________________________________________ 4± 

3. Sandstone, medium-gray, cross bedded, feldspathic; weathers 

pale yellowish brown and light brown; contains scattered 

dark grains; beds are 2 inches to 3 feet thick; fine grained 

at base and becomes medium grained upward; contains 

carbonaceous films, stringers, and carbonized plant remains_ 16± 

Total thickness of Keokee Sandstone Member_____ 59± 

Erosional unconformity. 

2. Siltstone, medium-light-gray to medium-dark-gray, micaceous, 

shaly___________________________________________________ 4 

1. Sandstone, very fine grained, massive-bedded, rounded-weathering, 

carbonaceous, micaceous__________________________________ 2. 5+ 

Incomplete thickness of Wise Formation ______________ 68. 5± 
MEASURED GEOLOGIC SECTIONS 59 

Geologic section 10 

Middle part of the Wise Formation; includes type sections of the Clover Fork 

and Marcum Hollow Sandstone Members. Section extends along State Highway 624, between Keokee, Lee County, Va., and Morris Gap at crest of Little 

Black Mountain on Virginia-Kentucky State line. (See pl. 1.) Section begins 

at Harlan coal exposed in ditch at gentle curve, 1,000 feet north-northwest 

of junction of State Highways 606 and 624 in north part of town of Keokee. 

Section ends at top of Little Black Mountain on dirt road, 200 feet west of 

Morris Gap. Measured by R. L. Miller. 

Wise Formation (464+ feet): 

57. Shale, silty, and very fine grained impure sandstone __ 

Kendrick Shale of Jillson (1919): 

56. Shale, dark-gray, fossiliferous, slightly calcareous; 

contains large oval calcareous concretions with 

well-developed cone-in-cone structure; concretions average 3~ feet in longest dimension and 

1H feet in thickness _______________________ _ 

Total thickness of Kendrick Shale of Jillson 

Thickness 

(feet) 

5+ 

2. 3 

(1919)------------------------------ 2. 3 

55. Sandstone, medium-dark-gray, very fine grained, impure, micaceous; contains ironstone concretions in 

upper part' ___________________________________ _ 

54. Siltstone; contains lenses and beds of ironstone _____ _ 

53. Shale, medium-dark-gray; contains ironstone nodules 

and lenses ____________________________________ _ 

52. Sandstone, very fine grained, impure; occurs in thin 

wavy beds that contain rootlets _________________ _ 

51. Sandstone, medium-light-gray, fine-grained, moderately quartzose; forms prominent outcrops and roadcut at high point of highway at Morris Gap ______ _ 

50. Coal (Low Splint coal) ; contains two clay partings, 0.1 

foot thick ____________________________________ _ 

49. Underclay, silty and sandy; contains abundant rootlets-------------------------------------------

48. Sandstone, fine- to medium-grained, thin-bedded, impure; rootlets at top ___________________________ _ 

4 7. Sandstone, medium-grained, thick-bedded, moderately quartzose, micaceous _____________________ _ 

46. Shale, siltY-------------------------------------- 45. Covered _______________________________________ _ 

44. Coal, impure, and clay ___________________________ _ 

43. Covered, probably shale _________________________ _ 

42. Coal, weathered ________________________________ _ 

41. Underclay, silty; contains rootlets _________________ _ 

40. Sandstone, fine-grained, impure, irregularly bedded __ _ 

39. Covered; probably sandstone _______ ----··----------

7. 5 

8. 6 

1.8 

8. 7 

26. 5 

3. 5 

3 

6 

14.9 

5. 5 

23 

0.3 

19.6 

1.0 

3. 8 

8. 0 

10.9 

Top of 

unit to base of section 

(feet) 

464 

459 

456 

449 

440 

438 

430 

403 

400 

397 

391 

376 

370 

347 

347 

328 

327 

323 

315 
60 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

Geologic section 1 0-Continued 

Wise Formation-Continued 

38. Sandstone, fine-grained; fills channel in underlying beds _________________________________________ _ 

37. Shale, chunky; bedding indistinct _________________ _ 

36. Covered; probably shale _________________________ _ 

35. Coal, slumped; contains 2-inch clay parting ________ _ 34. Underclay _____________________________________ _ 

33. Shale, chunky, weathered; contains rootlets ________ _ 

32. Sandstone, very fine grained; occurs in thin wavy beds_ 

31. Covered; probably shale _________________________ _ 30. Coal ___________________________________________ _ 

29. Shale, poorly exposed ____________________________ _ 

28. Sandstone, fine-grained, and shale _________________ _ 

27. Coal and carbonaceous shale, thinly laminated ______ _ 

26. Shale and covered beds __________________________ _ 

Marcum Hollow Sandstone Member (type section; 44 

feet): 

25. Sandstone, medium-grained, massive- and thinbedded, crossbedded, moderately quartzose; 

contains shale clasts near middle. Crops out 

on hairpin turn of highway between 2,367 and 

2,415 feet elevation. Forms prominent ledges 

along Little Black Mountain above Taggart 

(No. 5) coal a~d in high wall of Taggart strip mines . __________________________________ _ 

Total thickness of Marcum Hollow SandThickneaa 

(feet) 

10.7-17.7 

12. 1-19. 1 

11. 0 

0. 5 

0. 5 

5. 5 

7.0 

8.9 

0. 5 

2+ 

2. 3 

0. 6 

3.4 

44.0 

stone Member_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 44 

24. Shale, weathered ________________________________ _ 

23. Coal (Taggart coal-also called No. 5, Darby, and 

Keokee); contains 4-inch clay parting in upper part _________________________________________ _ 

22. Underclay, silty; contains rootlets _________________ _ 

21. Sandstone, very fine grained, poorly bedded; contains 

rootlets ______________________________________ _ 

20. Sandstone, fine-grained, impure to moderately 

quartzose, micaceous, thin- and thick-bedded _____ _ 19. Covered _______________________________________ _ 

18. Sandstone, fine-grained, wavy-bedded, impure, micaceous; carbonaceous material on bedding planes_ 

17. Claystone, weathered; contains rootlets ____________ _ 

16. Coal (Marker or Taggart Marker Coal), upper 6 

inches impure with clay ________________________ _ 

15. Underclay; contains rootlets ______________________ _ 

14. 8hale, silty, poorly bedded _______________________ _ 

13. Coal; contains 6-inch clay parting in upper part_ ____ _ 

4. 3 

5.7 

1.1 

2. 5 

9.5 

5+ 

7. 4 

3. 3 

1.5 

0. 7 

16.5 

1. 6 

Top of 

unit to baae of aection 

(feet) 

304 

290 

274 

263 

262 

262 

257 

250 

241 

240 

238 

236 

235 

232 

188 

184 

178 

177 

174 

165 

160 

152 

149 

148 

147 

130 
REFERENCES CITED 

Geologic section 10-Continued 

Wise Formation-Continued 

Clover Fork Sandstone Member (type section; 78 feet): 

12. Sandstone, medium- and coarse-grained, moderately quartzose; contains abundant muscovite flakes; massive, with a few beds of finegrained shaly sandstone ____________________ _ 

11. Sandstone, coarse-grained, moderately quartzose; 

contains coal laminae and fragments; shale 

pebbles in upper part ______________________ _ 

10. Sandstone; coarse grained in lower part, medium 

grained above; in thin to thick beds; contains 

shale lens near top ________________________ _ 

9. Shale, silty; contains 8-inch coal lens __________ _ 

8. Sandstone, very coarse and coarse-grained, moderately quartzose, crossbedded; fills channel in 

underlying unit ___________________________ _ 

Total thickness of Clover Fork Sandstone 

Thickness 

(feet) 

31. 5 

14.4 

20.9 

5. 0 

6. 0 

Member__________________________ 77.8 

7. Shale, poorly bedded; locally eroded with channels 

filled by overlying unit ________________________ _ 

6. Sandstone, fine- and medium-grained, thin- and thickbedded, moderately quartzose; muscovite on bedding planes _______________________________________ _ 

5. Shale, dark-gray; contains ironstone nodules and beds_ 

4. Covered; probably mostly shale ___________________ _ 

3. Coal; locally called Wilson coal. It is the Harlan coal 

of Giles (1925) at Keokee, but not elsewhere ______ _ 

2. Underclay _______________________________ -------

1. Sandstone, fine-grained, thin-bedded, impure; base 

not exposed __________________________________ _ 

4. 5 

4. 6 

11.0 

27. 5 

1.5 

0. 8 

1+ 

Incomplete thickness of Wise Formation____ 464 

REFERENCES CITED 

61 

Top of 

unit to base of section 

(feet) 

129 

97 

83 

61 

57 

51 

46 

42 

31 

3 

2 

1 

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Cumberland Gap coal field, Kentucky: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 49, 

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Boyd, C. R., 1887, The economic geology of the Bristol and Big Stone Gap section 

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Brown, Andrew, Berryhill, H. L., Jr., Taylor, D. A., and Trumbull, J. V. A., 1952, 

Coal resources of Virginia: U.S. Geol. Survey Oirc. 171, 57 p. 

Butts, Charles, 1914, The coal resources and general geology of the Pound quadrangle of Virginia and Kentucky: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 541-F, p. 165-221. 

Campbell, M. R., 1893, Geology of the Big Stone Gap coal field of Virginia and 

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U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Folio 12, 5 p. 
62 PENNSYLVANIAN FORMATIONS OF SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA 

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617p. 

Englund, K. J., 1964, Stratigraphy of the Lee Fonnation in the Cumberland 

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U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 501-B, p. B30-B38. 

Englund, K. J., and DeLaney, A. 0., 1966, Intertonguing relations of the Lee 

Formation in southwestern Virginia, in Geological Survey research 1966: 

U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 550--D, p. D47-D52. 

Giles, A. W., 1921, The geology and coal resources of Dickenson County, Virginia: 

Virginia Geol. Survey Bull. 21, 224 p. 

---1925, The geology and coal resources of the coal-bearing portion of Lee 

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Harnsberger, T. K., 1919, The geology and coal resources of the coal-bearing portion of Tazewell County, Virginia: Virginia Geol. Survey Bull. 19, 195 p. 

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Virginia Geol. Survey Bull. 18, 250 p. 

Jinson, W. R., 1919, The Kendrick shale ; a new calcareous fossil horizon in the 

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Miller, R. L., 1965, Geologic map of the Big Stone Gap quadrangle, Virginia : U.S. 

Geol. Survey Geol. Quad. Map GQ-424. 

Miller, R. L., and Roen, J. B., 1969, Geologic map of the Keokee quadrangle, Virgini'a: U.S. Geol. Survey Geol. Quad. Map GQ-851. (In press.) 

Morse, W. C., 1931, Pennsylvanian invertebrate fauna: Kentucky Geol. Survey, 

ser.6,v.36,p.293-348. 

Stevenson, J. J., 1881, A geological reconnaissance of parts of Lee, Wise, Scott, 

and Washington Counties, Virginia: Am. Philos. Soc. Proc. v. 19, p. 219-262. 

Virginia Division of Mineral Resources, 1963, Geol'ogic map of Virginia : Charlottesville, scale 1 : 500,000. 

Wanless, H. R., 1946, Pennsylvanian geology of a part of the southern Appalachian 

coal field : Geol. Soc. America Mem. 13, 162 p. 

Wentworth, C. K., 1922, The geology and coal resources of Russell County, Vir-

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Wilpol:t, R. H., and Marden, D. W., 1949, Upper Mississippian rocks of southwestern Virginia, southern West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky: U.S. Geol. Survey Oil and Gas Inv. (Prelim.) Chart 38,3 sheets, text. 

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U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1969 0- 353-475