The Betsie Shale Member-A Datum for 

Exploration and Stratigraphic Analysis 

of the Lower Part of ttle Pennsylvanian 

in the Central Appalachian Basin 

By CHARLES L. RICE, JAMES C. CURRENS, 

JAMES A. HENDERSON, JR., and 

JACK E. NOLDE 

The Betsie Shale Member (Breathitt Formation, 

Middle Pennsylvanian) is correlated in 

the Central Appalachian basin by means 

of gamma-ray logs of oil and gas wells 

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1834 
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

DONALD PAUL HODEL, Secretary 

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

Dallas L. Peck, Director 

Any use of trade names and trade 

marks in this publication is for 

descriptive purposes only and does not 

constitute endorsement by the U.S. 

Geological Survey 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1987 

For sale by the Books and Open-File Reports Section, U.S. Geological Survey 

Federal Center, Box 25425, Denver, CO 80225 
CONTENTS 

Abstract 1 

Introduction 1 

Acknowledgments 3 

Description of the Betsie Shale Member 3 

Distribution and stratigraphic analyses S 

Section B-B' 7 

Section B '-B" 8 

Section C-C' 8 

Section D-D' U 

Discussion and conclusions 12 

References cited 16 

FIGURES 

1. Index map 2 

2. Gamma-ray and bulk density logs showing details of Betsie Shale 

Member 4 

3-5. Photographs showing: 

3. Type section for the Betsie Shale Member S 

4. Base of Betsie Shale Member 6 

5. Proximal flaggy sandstone facies of Betsie Shale Member· 7 

6-8. Gamma-ray logs for: 

6. Cross section B-B' 9 

7. Cross section B '-B" 10 

8. Cross section C-C' 11 

9. Correlation diagram for Carboniferous stratigraphic units in eastern 

Kentucky 13 

10. Gamma-ray logs for cross section D-D' 14 

11. Line of section extending from near the Kentucky-Tennessee State line to 

central West Virginia showing correlations of major coal beds, coal zones, 

and marine units in the lower part of the Pennsylvanian 1S 

Contents Ill 

The Betsie Shale Member-A Datum for Exploration 

and Stratigraphic Analysis of the Lower Part of the 

Pennsylvanian in the Central Appalachian Basin 

By Charles L. Rice, 1 James C. Currens,2 James A. Henderson, Jr.,3 and Jack E. Nolde4 

Abstract 

An upward-coarsening bay-fill sequence of mostly 

shale and siltstone, here named the Betsie Shale Member 

of the Breathitt Formation, can be identified in gamma-ray 

logs of oil and gas test wells in much of the Central Appalachian basin. The relatively high radioactivity of the basal 

part of the shale is most conspicuous in the deeper and 

poorly known parts of the Pennsylvanian section within and 

northwest of the Cumberland overthrust sheet in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. The Betsie is in the lower part 

of the Middle Pennsylvanian sequence, and this position 

makes the Betsie invaluable as a datum for coal exploration of that part of the section, as well as for regional 

stratigraphic analyses of the controversial Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian quartz arenites. 

INTRODUCTION 

Geologic mapping in southeastern Kentucky has 

identified a distinctive thick marine shale and siltstone 

unit in the lower part of the Middle Pennsylvanian. This 

unit, the Betsie Shale Member (new name), is an upwardcoarsening bay-fill sequence as much as 150 ft ( 46 m) 

thick that occurs above the Matewan, Ointwood, Hance, 

or equivalent coal beds or coal zones in a large part of the 

Central Appalachian basin. In many geologic reports for 

southwestern West Virginia (for example, Hoonen and 

Reger, 1914) and eastern Kentucky (for example, Trent, 

1965), the unit has been informally and, as we will show, 

incorrectly designated the Cannelton Limestone of White 

(1885). 

This distinctive shale and siltstone unit has been 

recognized and mapped for many years in outcrop in West 

1 U.S. Geological SuiVey, Reston, VA 22092. 2 Kentucky Geological SuiVey, Lexington, KY 40506. 3 Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy, 

Abingdon, VA 24210. 4 Virginia Division of Mineral Resources, Abingdon, VA 

24210. 

Virginia and in easternmost Kentucky and as an important element in the stratigraphic framework of these areas. 

However, in other parts of the Central Appalachian basin, 

the unit is in the subsurface, is too poorly exposed, or is 

not visually distinctive enough to have been recognized 

and named. Wanless (1946) gave the name Whetstone 

Creek shale to equivalent strata near Williamsburg, Ky. 

(fig. 1), and suggested that the dark shale unit (about 71 

ft (22 m) thick) was so uniform in bedding, and the 

occurrence of ironstone bands was so persistent, that the 

unit must have formed in an extensive body of water such 

as a large lake or bay. 

The probable wide extent of the unit was suggested 

by Rice and Smith (1980), who correlated the unit as the 

"Cannelton Shale" from easternmost Kentucky to a 

sparsely fossiliferous unnamed marine zone in the lower 

part of the Breathitt Formation along the Cumberland 

Escarpment in Kentucky on the northwestern margin of 

the basin. Outcrops of the unnamed marine zone extend 

about 150 mi (390 km) along the escarpment and occur 

locally above the Corbin Sandstone Tongue of the Lee 

Formation or above the overlying coal bed. The correlation of these marine units was based on very sparse 

surface and subsurface data, and the tentative nature of 

the correlation was emphasized by the fact that no equivalent unit had been recognized in the thicker stratigraphic 

sequences of the Middle Pennsylvanian on the Cumberland overthrust sheet in southeastern Kentucky. 

Geophysical logs from oil and gas test holes have 

provided a valuable new source of stratigraphic data for 

the Pennsylvanian in recent years. Additionally, coal exploration and development programs increasingly have used 

gamma-ray and bulk density (gamma-gamma) logs for 

supplemental stratigraphic data and as a backup for 

traditional lithologic and core logging methods. Such 

exploration in the vicinity of Middlesboro, Ky. (fig. 1 ), 

identified a thick (as much as 140 ft (43 m)) shale 

sequence at the stratigraphic position of the Betsie Shale 

Member above the Hance or Bennetts Fork coal zone 

(Rice and Smith, 1980). Gamma-ray logs of that interval 

Introduction 1 
311" 

37" 

TENNESSEE 

Figure 1. Index map showing locations of sections and wells. 

show that the sequence is characterized by a relatively thin 

basal shale that deflects the curve as much as 100 

American Petroleum Institute (API) units above the 

gray-shale base line (see fig. 2, well 1). In a pioneering 

subsurface study of coal-bearing Pennsylvanian strata in 

Kentucky in the area between Manchester and Whitesburg (see fig. 1), Currens (1978) used, almost exclusively, geophysical logs of oil and gas wells to provide 

subsurface stratigraphic data. Currens traced an unidentified marker bed in his cross sections that was the basal 

bed of a thick shale sequence distinguished by a high 

gamma-ray response. Comparison of Currens' sections 

with the gamma-ray logs from the Middlesboro area 

suggests that the marker bed and overlying shale sequence 

are also the Betsie Shale Member. Further study of oil and 

gas logs confirmed that the Betsie can be recognized by its 

distinctive gamma-ray signature over a wide area and that 

its signature is particularly distinctive in the subsurface in 

the deeper part of the basin northwest of the Cumberland 

82'" 

WEST 

VIRGINIA 

overthrust sheet (Rice and others, 1986). Moreover, our 

investigations suggest that the member extends throughout the Central Appalachian basin and that its base is a 

datum unmatched for its usefulness in coal exploration 

and stratigraphic analysis of the lower part of the Pennsylvanian. 

This paper describes the Betsie, illustrates its wide 

distribution by using several lines of sections, and shows 

how gamma-ray logs can be used for analysis of the lower 

part of the Pennsylvanian in the Central Appalachian 

basin. In respect to the latter, one of the main purposes of 

the paper is to investigate the subsurface continuity and 

distribution of sandstone units in the Lee Formation and 

the equivalent New River Formation to help determine 

whether these units were deposited in fluvial or marine 

environments. Because of the importance of the Betsie in 

developing a coherent stratigraphic framework for the 

Pennsylvanian, we here formally designate it as the Betsie 

Shale Member of the Breathitt Formation in Kentucky 

2 The Betsle Shale Member-A Datum for Exploration and Stratigraphic Analysis 
and Tennessee, of the Kanawha Formation in West Virginia, and of the Wise Formation in Virginia. (In some 

areas discussed in this report, the Breathitt has been 

raised to the rank of group; for purposes of consistency 

and clarity, this report follows the suggestions of Rice 

(1984a) and McDowell and others (1985) and treats the 

Breathitt as a formation.) The type section of the Betsie 

Member (fig. 1) is in exposures above a mine in the 

Hance coal bed located about 3,200 ft (975 m) northnorthwest of Betsie Gap between Blacklick and Coal 

Stone Branches of Brownies Creek, Varilla 7 1/2-minute 

quadrangle, Bell County, southeastern Kentucky. 

This study is dependent almost completely on the 

analysis of gamma-ray logs and on the accompanying bulk 

density logs where available. The gamma-ray log is ideally 

suited for description of Pennsylvanian strata of the 

Appalachian basin because these strata consist mostly of 

sandstone that has low natural radioactivity (producing a 

left-hand curve deflection; see fig. 2, wells 3 and 4, above 

the Betsie Shale Member) and of shale that has relatively 

high natural radioactivity (producing a right-hand deflection). Furthermore, the increase of organic content with 

the decrease of grain size in these rocks produces a very 

useful relation. Because uranium (the major radioactive 

element in the· rocks) is associated with the organic 

material in the shale (Potter and others, 1984), the 

amount of radioactivity of the rock can be used in general 

as a measure of its grain size. The strong deflection of the 

gamma-ray curve at the base of the Betsie shown in figure 

2, well 1, is caused by a distinctive 3-ft-thick (1-m-thick) 

laminated black clay shale bed. The bed contains about 30 

ppm uranium (D. McKown and R. Vaughn, written 

commun., 1986) and probably was deposited in anoxic 

conditions well below wave base on the floor of a bay. 

Turekian and Wedepohl (1961) indicate that the average 

uranium content of shale is 3.7 ppm. Coal beds, which 

commonly underlie the black shales, were deposited in 

uranium-poor terrestrial conditions and, like sandstone, 

may have little natural radiation and a gamma-ray 

response similar to that of sandstone. As a result, bulk 

density logs are useful, particularly in analyzing coalbearing strata and distinguishing coal beds from thin 

sandstone beds. Coal has approximately half the density 

of the enclosing rocks, and coal beds produce a low 

density spike from which bed thickness and even ash 

content can be estimated. For example, the low density 

spike in well1 (fig. 2) about 40ft (12m) below the base 

of the Betsie illustrates a coal bed that has many shale 

partings. The comparable coal bed in well2 (fig. 2) is low 

in ash and free of shale partings. Detailed lithologic logs 

rarely accompanied the geophysical logs; however, when 

available, they were useful in the study to confirm lithic 

interpretations. These lithologic logs were particularly 

useful for distinguishing the unconformable boundary 

between Mississippian red and green shales and the 

overlying Pennsylvanian gray shales. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

This study was partly supported by the Cooperative 

Mapping Project of the Tennessee Division of Geology 

and by the U.S. Geological Survey. Personnel of the West 

Virginia Geological and Economic Survey were extremely 

helpful in identifying and locating log data used in figure 

7 of this report. Personnel of the Southern Appalachian 

Exploration office of Consolidation Coal Co., Pocahontas, 

Va., and the Cumberland Mountain Coal Co., Middlesboro, Ky., provided data and counsel fundamental to 

this study. Similarly, the Cannelton Coal Co., Cannelton, 

W.Va., the Amherst Coal Co., Lundale, W.Va., and the 

Westmoreland Coal Co., Crab Orchard, W. Va., provided 

stratigraphic information and geophysical logs of the 

Pennsylvanian section in the type area of the Cannelton 

and Eagle Limestones. Ashland Oil Co., Ashland, Ky., 

and Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation, Charleston, W. Va., 

provided key geophysical logs for subsurface analysis of 

the Pennsylvanian in West Virginia. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE BETSIE SHALE 

MEMBER 

Most bay-fill sequences in the Pennsylvanian of the 

Appalachian basin are upward-coarsening terrigenous 

clastic accumulations deposited by deltas prograding into 

a shallow bay or subsiding basin. Such sequences commonly rest directly on a coal bed or on the underlying 

underclay or seat rock where the coal bed was not 

preserved. The basal part of the sequences commonly is 

marked by a dark-gray bioturbated clay shale 1-3 ft 

(0.3-1 m) thick that represents distal bottomset or toe 

deposits. The boundary between the bottomset beds and 

the overlying lighter colored, coarser grained, and more 

rapidly deposited foreset beds is either sharp or gradational with respect to color or grain size. The delta 

sequences commonly show an upward thickening of beds 

and have an upward increase in grain size. Where the 

entire bay-fill sequence is preserved, the upper part 

contains beds of flaggy sandstone that represent depasition of the upper parts of the foreset beds at or near the 

top of the distributary mouth bar (see fig. 5); complete 

sequences generally are capped by a coal bed. In many 

places, however, bay-fill sequences are relatively thin (less 

than 20ft (6 m) thick) because of truncation of the upper 

parts by channel-fill sandstone of the overlying progradational fluvial system. Where present, marine fossils and 

fossiliferous limestone commonly are found in the 

bottomset dark-gray shales. Limestone concretions that 

occur in the middle and upper parts of the bay-fill 

Description of the Betsle Shale Member 3 
A 1 2 3 4 A' Gamma rayTBulk density Oamm~ rayTBulk density 

Meters Feet z 

50 0 

150 t-

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IJ Upward-coarsening sequence 

Figure 2. Gamma-ray and bulk density logs of coal-test wells (1-4) in the vicinity of Middlesboro, Ky., showing details of 

the Betsie Shale Member (see fig. 1 for location of section). Logs show mostly shale. Low bulk density spikes are coal 

beds. Channel sandstone units cap the Betsie in wells 3 and 4. 

sequences are mostly barren of marine fossils. Discontinuous thin lenses or diffused bands of siderite, generally 

less than an inch (2.5 em) thick, are common features of 

the prodelta shales (Weller, 1930). 

In general, the Betsie Shale Member follows the 

foregoing description of marine bay-fill sequences. Figure 

2 shows that, in the area of Middlesboro, Ky., the Betsie 

overlies a coal zone, which consists of as many as six coal 

beds in an interval as thick as 85ft (26m). The Betsie is 

overlain by a coal bed in wells 1 and 2 and by sandstone in 

wells 3 and 4 (fig. 2). In the Middlesboro area, the unit is 

mostly a mudstone, but the gamma-ray logs, particularly 

of wells 1 and 2, show that the unit not only coarsens 

upward, but that it consists of five or more upwardcoarsening sequences (fig. 2, wel11). The latter sequences 

cannot be traced between wells or far along the outcrop; 

they probably result from delta lobe switching or channel 

avulsion rather than from subsidence or sea-level change. 

Field studies suggest that the Betsie Member generally does not contain marine body fossils on the Cumberland overthrust sheet, and not even limestone concretions were observed in the unit in the Middlesboro area. 

Sparse brachiopods, bivalves, and ostracodes were found 

in the unit locally in southwestern Virginia; a fragment of 

the goniatite Gastrioceras of probable early Middle Pennsylvanian (late Morrowan) age was identified in the basal 

dark clay shale of the Betsie in southwestern Virginia 

about 15 mi (24 km) east of Whitesburg, Ky. (T.W. Henry 

and M. Gordon, Jr., written commun., 1981). Henry and 

Gordon (1979) give an extensive list of marine taxa from 

collections from the type locality of the Eagle Limestone 

of White (1891) near Montgomery, W. Va. (fig. 1 ); we 

project the Eagle to be equivalent in part to the Betsie 

Shale Member (see fig. 11). In other parts of the Appalachian basin, marine fossils generally are sparse in the 

Betsie. The basal, highly radioactive bed illustrated in well 

1 (fig. 2) contains masses and disseminated grains of 

pyrite and, locally, pyritized plant material. These contents indicate deposition in anoxic conditions. 

Figure 3 shows the type section of the Betsie Shale 

Member in its entirety in the highwall above the proposed 

entrance of a new mine that is being developed in the 

4 The Betsie Shale Member-A Datum for Exploration and Stratigraphic Analysis 
Figure 3. Highwall above new coal mine east of Oaks on Brownies Creek, Varilla quadrangle, Ky., showing the type 

section for the Betsie Shale Member of the Breathitt Formation on the Cumberland overthrust sheet. Top of the Betsie is 

base of sandstone-filled channel at tree line at top of highwall. 

Lower Hance coal bed about 3/4 mi (1.2 km) east of the 

community of Oaks on Brownies Creek, Varilla quadrangle, Kentucky. The member is here about 140ft (43 m) 

thick and consists mostly of a dark-gray silty shale having 

thin laminae and lenses of siltstone and very fine grained 

sandstone. The strata in the highwall show a close correspondence with the geophysical logs illustrated in well 3 

(fig. 2), which is only about 500 ft (152 m) east of the 

highwall. Directly underlying the Betsie (figs. 3, 4) is a 

rooted silty sandstone about 10 ft (3 m) thick. Locally, a 

thin film of coal separates the sandstone from the overlying shale of the Betsie Member. The basalmost upwardcoarsening unit of the Betsie is a dark clay shale or 

siltstone that is also about 10 ft (3 m) thick and that 

contains irregular, flat concretions of siderite 1-2 in. 

(2.5-5 em) thick. The basal unit is overlain by a second 

upward-coarsening sequence that is clearly illustrated in 

figures 2 (well 3), 3, and 4. Because of homogeneity of 

overlying lithologies, other such sequences in figures 3 

and 4 are impossible to distinguish. The upper part of the 

Betsie shown in figure 4 is mainly a siltstone; the member 

is overlain by a 25-ft-thick (8-m-thick), medium-grained, 

crossbedded sandstone. Figure 5 depicts a haul road 

section about 0.75 mi (1.2 km) northeast of the outcrop in 

figure 3 and shows the proximal flaggy sandstone facies in 

the upper part of the Betsie where the Betsie is truncated 

by a sandstone-filled channel. An easily accessible reference section for the Betsie, similar to those sections 

shown in wells 1 and 2 (fig. 2), is found in the highwall 

behind the Bell County High School about 6 mi (10 km) 

north of Middlesboro, Ky., on the eastern side of U.S. 

Highway 25E. 

DISTRIBUTION AND STRATIGRAPHIC 

ANALYSES 

Four lines of sections have been constructed by 

using gamma-ray logs to illustrate the continuity and 

distribution of the Betsie Shale Member and to show its 

usefulness for stratigraphic analysis in the Central Appalachian basin. Only a small percentage of the oil and gas 

test holes have been logged by gamma-ray methods in the 

study area, and only the deeper parts of the Paleozoic 

Distribution and Stratigraphic Analyses 5 
Figure 4. Closeup of the type section showing the base of Betsie Shale Member (base of mattock) over a rooted silty 

sandstone. The basal unit, about 10 ft (3 m) thick, coarsens upward to base of second upward-coarsening unit (see left 

side of photograph). 

6 The Betsie Shale Member-A Datum for Exploration and Stratigraphic Analysis 
Figure 5. Haul road about 0. 75 mi (1.2 km) northeast of the type section of the Betsie Shale Member showing the 

proximal flaggy sandstone facies in the upper part of the Betsie where the member is truncated by a sandstone-filled channel. 

section were logged in many of these holes. All available 

records were used in the construction of the sections; 

most records were taken from the public files of the State 

geological surveys, and all are identified for reference 

purposes. Differences in quality of the logs are due 

largely to differences of logging speed and calibration; 

gamma-ray logs of holes lined with steel casing lose 

precision but are used here in the absence of better data. 

Reduction to publication scale of slowly run logs, such as 

coal-test logs that have large vertical scales, results in a 

horizontal compression that is hard to read and that 

misrepresents the excellence of the log. Where well 

records include the bulk density logs, we show our interpreted positions of coal beds. 

Section B-B' 

Figure 6 shows gamma-ray logs of wells extending 

from northeastern Tennessee to southwestern West Virginia (fig. 1) located on the autochthonous plate as close 

to the Cumberland overthrust sheet as data allowed. The 

subsurface Pennsylvanian strata virtually were unstudied 

by previous work in this area. The datum in this cross 

section, a~ well as in the other cross sections, is the 

radioactive marker bed at the base of the Betsie Shale 

Member. The gamma-ray logs suggest that the Betsie, 

which is below drainage in much of southeastern Kentucky, is 50-150ft (15-46 m) thick. The identification of 

the Betsie in the logs of figure 6 is certain; however, for 

Distribution and Stratigraphic Analyses 7 
corroboration, the base of the Kendrick Shale Member 

(Breathitt Formation and equivalent strata), which occurs 

550-750 ft (166-229 m) above the Betsie, also is identified in the well logs. Pennsylvanian strata form a 

southeastward-thickening wedge, and thickness variations 

of the interval between the base of the Betsie and the base 

of the Kendrick are due largely to the relative position of 

the wells with respect to this wedge. 

The base of the Pennsylvanian in the study area is 

an unconformity; only the upper 100ft (30m) or so of 

Mississippian strata are shown in figure 6. The line of 

section appears to cross several paleovalleys cut into 

Mississippian strata at the base of the Pennsylvanian. The 

largest and deepest paleovalley has its axis near wells 

20457 and 33267 (fig. 6). That feature has been interpreted as a paleovalley (Rice, p. 13, 1984b) and named 

the Middlesboro Valley (Rice, 1985). The quartz arenites 

(greater than 95 percent quartz) of the Lee Formation 

and equivalent strata are shaded in figure 6 (as well as in 

figs. 7, 8, and 10) to distinguish them from silty sandstone 

and finer grained rocks and to help emphasize their 

depositional character. More than 90 percent of the quartz 

arenite units have sharp bases and become finer grained 

upward. These two characteristics commonly are associated with fluvial deposits. The available bulk density logs 

show that coal beds occur within and commonly between 

the major quartz arenite units. The irregularity of the top 

and bottom of the Lee strata and the lack of continuity of 

units within the Lee Formation and equivalent formations 

give added value to the Betsie as a datum for analyses of 

that part of the Pennsylvanian section. The interval 

between the base of the Betsie and the base of the 

Kendrick (see Rice and others (1979) for the overlying 

stratigraphic interval) is relatively constant along the line 

of section B-B', whereas the underlying Pennsylvanian 

stratigraphic intervals expand to the northeast. This difference suggests that the axis of the depositional basin 

shifted slightly from a more northerly orientation during 

earlier Pennsylvanian time to an orientation after deposition of the Betsie Member that is more closely parallel to 

the present structural grain, as represented by the orientation of the northwest edge of the Cumberland overthrust 

sheet. Englund and others (1979, 1985, 1986), Perm 

(1974), and Miller (1974) have interpreted the quartz 

arenites of the Lee Formation as linear barrier, beach, or 

offshore-bar deposits oriented northeast -southwest that 

intertongue westward or northwestward with marine 

deposits. Figure 6, however, suggests a terrestrial environment of deposition for these rocks where the quartz 

arenites alternate with relatively thin coal-bearing 

sequences of shale and siltstone. Given a fluvial interpretation for deposition of the Lee strata, the lack of continuity of the quartz arenite units suggests that section B-B' 

was oriented obliquely to transport direction. 

Section B'-B'' 

Figure 7 shows the extension of the Betsie Shale 

Member into the type area of the Cannelton Limestone of 

White (1885), which is just across the Kanawha River 

from Montgomery, W. Va., and the Eagle Limestone of 

White (1891), which is about 2 mi (3.2 km) southsoutheast of Montgomery (fig. 1). The Cannelton and 

Eagle units designate key marine horizons of Middle 

Pennsylvanian age that have been used extensively for 

regional correlation (Wanless, 1939). In the type area and 

as identified in drill hole DDH-CAN, the Cannelton 

occurs 45-50 ft (13.7-15.2 ni) above the Eagle coal bed, 

and the Eagle Limestone occurs 90-100 ft (27.4-30.5 m) 

below the Eagle coal bed (see fig. 11 and Hennen and 

Teets, 1919). Although the name Cannelton has been 

applied to strata here identified as the Betsie Shale 

Member in southwestern West Virginia and easternmost 

Kentucky, figure 7 shows that the Betsie is stratigraphically below the Eagle coal bed and that the Betsie 

probably includes strata identified by White (1891) as 

Eagle Limestone. The position of the Eagle coal bed in 

the oil and gas wells (fig. 7) is projected from nearby 

outcrop or drill hole data and is also confirmed by 

open-file structure contour maps and coal bed maps 

constructed by the Coal Resources Group of the West 

Virginia Geological and Economic Survey. Those maps, at 

7 1/2-minute-quadrangle scale, indicate that some coal 

beds have been miscorrelated in the County Reports 

across the Boone (Krebs and Teets, 1915) and Logan 

County (Hennen and Reger, 1914) boundary in the area 

of section B '-B'' (M. Blake and A. Keiser, oral commun., 

1986). The section (fig. 7) illustrates the difficulty in 

recognizing and tracing thin stratigraphic units by gammaray logs into marginal parts of the basin that are strongly 

influenced by sandstone deposition in delta plain environments. The Betsie locally is less than 30 ft (9.1 m) thick 

northeast of well 955 in Boone County (fig. 7) and would 

be difficult to trace in the wells without outcrop and core 

hole data. 

Section C-C' 

Section C-C' (figs. 1 and 8) extends almost due 

north in Kentucky away from the axis and toward the 

thinnest part of the depositional basin. The Betsie, the 

base of which is the datum, is increasingly more difficult 

to identify northward because the unit thins from about 

125 ft (38m) at the southern end to locally only a few feet 

thick at the northern erid of the section. The base of the 

Kendrick Shale Member is identified in the logs, as it was 

in figure 6, to reinforce the identification of the Betsie in 

the well logs. An extensive unnamed fossiliferous marine 

zone is reported to directly overlie the Lee quartz arenites 

in the area, particularly north of point C (for example, 

8 The Betsie Shale Member-A Datum for Exploration and Stratigraphic Analysis 
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Distribution and Stratigraphic Analyses 9 
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Betsie Shale Member below drainage 

B ~ E ~ ~~(Of ~~ ~¥ ~~if~ ~~ ~~ ~:~ fi: ~ ~f~ ~~ .'ltk.t: 'fl:~ ,~ 

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Meters Feet 

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Datum- Base of Betsie Shale Member 

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0 5 10 15 20 Miles 

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Figure 8. A line of gamma-ray logs of wells extending into northeastern Kentucky showing northward thinning of the Pennsylvanian section 

and onlap of the underlying eroded Mississippian surface (see fig. 1 for 

location of section). Quartz arenites of the Lee Formation are shaded. 

The main body of the Lee pinches out north of well 51535; the overlying tongue of the Lee just below the Betsie is the Corbin Sandstone 

Tongue of the Lee Formation. Upper Mississippian strata, consisting 

largely of limestone below and shale above, are shown in their entirety 

north of well 62500; the few feet of shale indicated below the limestone 

belongs to the Borden Formation, Early Mississippian in age. No 

Upper Mississippian strata are present in well 45467. 
Englund and Delaney, 1966); our cross section shows this 

marine unit to be the Betsie Shale Member. 

Figure 8 includes the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian 

unconformity, which truncates progressively older rocks 

northward, and shows the northward intertonguing of the 

Lee and Breathitt Formations (see also fig. 9). The entire 

Upper Mississippian section (Slade and Paragon Formations, equivalents of the Greenbrier Limestone and the 

Mauch Chunk Formation; see Ettensohn and others, 

1984) is shown in well 62500 and north of the well to 

illustrate the effects of faulting on preservation of Mississippian strata and Pennsylvanian deposition. Limestone, 

like sandstone, generally produces little natural radioactivity and produces a left-hand deflection of the gammaray curve with respect to shale. The few feet of shale 

shown below the Mississippian Slade limestone in these 

logs belong to the upper part of the Borden Formation 

(Lower Mississippian, fig. 9). The faults shown crossing 

the section in figure 8 are oriented approximate! y eastwest and represent reactivation of a fault system associated with the Rome trough (McDowell, 1986). Wanless 

(1946, fig. 1) suggested that the northernmost fault was a 

major hingeline, and Horne (in Smith and others, 1971, 

fig. 1) characterized the faults as growth faults that had 

significantly greater sediment accumulation during the 

Pennsylvanian on the southern or down thrown sides of the 

faults. Although the Upper Mississippian strata show a 

great variation in thickness in the faulted area (no Upper 

Mississippian strata are present in well45467), the Pennsylvanian strata appear to thicken more or less uniformly 

southward irrespective of the unconformity at the base. 

The Lee Formation as shown at C' (fig. 8) is 

approximately equivalent to the New River Formation of 

West Virginia. The top of the New River Formation is, by 

definition, the boundary between the Lower and Middle 

Pennsylvanian Series. Figure 8 shows the main body of 

the Lee strata both onlapping the eroded Mississippian 

surface and thinning northward, pinching out north of well 

51535. The upper tongue of the Lee at the north end of 

section C-C' is the Corbin Sandstone Tongue; it is also a 

quartz arenite, and it pinches out in the section south of 

well 45467. The Corbin is Middle Pennsylvanian in age 

and locally rests unconformably on the Slade Formation 

north and west of section C-C'. 

Figure 8 shows that the Corbin Tongue, in part, 

directly overlies the main body of the Lee, a relation that 

was surmised but never before demonstrated. Transport 

directions and bed geometries indicate that the Corbin 

was deposited by west-flowing streams in the area of the 

section, whereas the main part of the Lee was deposited 

by southwest-flowing streams (Rice, 1984b ). Thus, the 

two quartz arenite units diverge westward of section C-C' 

to a point along the Cumberland Escarpment outcrop 

belt. There the Corbin diverts southward along the eastern 

flank of the Cincinnati Arch and again crosses the northwestern pinchout of the main body of the Lee (the 

Rockcastle Conglomerate Member of the Lee Formation) 

in the area near Bernstadt, Ky. (Hatch, 1963) (see fig. 1 

for location). In that area, the Corbin is as much as 240 ft 

(73 m) above the top of the Rockcastle Member and 

about 425ft (130m) above the top of the Mississippian 

(Paragon Formation). 

Section D-O' 

Section D-D ' (figs. 1 and 10) is located on the 

Cumberland overthrust sheet and extends down the axis 

of the previously described Middlesboro paleovalley. 

Gamma-ray logs of wells penetrating the Betsie Shale 

Member and the lower part of the Pennsylvanian could 

not be found for the area northeast of D ' in Virginia or 

southwest of D to near Middlesboro, Ky. The Betsie is 

easily recognized in the figure as a shale locally more 

than 150 ft ( 46 m) thick that has a strongly radioactive bed 

at its base. The position of the member in the area of 

section D-D' has been confirmed by surface mapping by 

the Virginia Division of Mineral Resources. In southwestern Virginia, the member is in the middle of an important 

coal-bearing sequence that includes many named and 

mined coal beds; in much of the adjacent area of southeastern Kentucky, this stratigraphic interval is in the 

subsurface and is very poorly known. The basal Betsie 

datum also is helpful in identifying the thin Gladeville 

Sandstone, which is easily confused with other more 

prominent sandstones in this area. The apparent continuity of the quartz arenite units of the Lee Formation in 

section D-D' suggests that the line of the section is nearly 

parallel to transport direction (BeMent, 1976). 

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 

Pennsylvanian stratigraphers face many important 

nomenclatural problems in the Central Appalachian basin 

where one coal bed or marine zone easily might be 

mistaken for some other. A case in point is the confusion 

of the identity of the Cannelton Limestone of White 

(1885) and the Eagle Limestone of White (1891) as they 

have been projected from the type area along the Kanawha River into southwestern West Virginia and eastern 

Kentucky. The magnitude of the error introduced by those 

miscorrelations is evident by comparing drill logs for holes 

DDH-CAN and USGS DDH 7 (fig. 11). These logs show 

that the Eagle coal bed of central West Virginia correlates 

with the Pond Creek coal bed of eastern Kentucky and not 

with the coal bed about 330 ft (100 m) below, labeled 

"Eagle." These correlation problems stem largely from a 

lack of knowledge of the geometry and stratigraphic 

relations of units within the lower part of the Middle 

Pennsylvanian and a lack of an easily recognizable refer12 The Betsie Shale Member-A Datum for Exploration and Stratigraphic Analysis 
ence horizon in the Lower Pennsylvanian. Here, most 

Early and Middle Pennsylvanian strata are in the subsurface and previously have been known primarily from 

widely separated outcrop belts. Coal beds, which traditionally have been used as stratigraphic datums in regional 

framework studies, unfortunately are less persistent in 

this part of the Pennsylvanian section. 

Figure 11 represents the lower part of the Pennsylvanian as a line of section across the central part of the 

basin from a point near the Kentucky-Tennessee State line 

northeastward to the Kanawha Valley in central West 

Virginia (see fig. 1 for location of wells). The figure 

indicates the great variation in thickness of the Pennsylvanian and shows the uncertainty of regional correlation 

because of the discontinuity of coal beds and the complexity of coal zones. Huddle and Englund (1966) previously 

suggested a regional subdivision of the Breathitt Formation in Kentucky and the Kanawha Formation in West 

Virginia at the horizon of the Harlan (Alma) coal bed, but 

that bed is not present or cannot be distinguished easily in 

many parts of the basin and may be miscorrelated across 

West Virginia. In figure 11, no attempt is made to 

illustrate the complexity of the top of the Lee or New 

River Formations. Wanless (1946) recognized that the 

regionally applied subdivisions of the quartz arenites of 

the lower part of the Pennsylvanian in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia could not be correlated from region to 

region and that the tops of sandstone units differed in age 

from place to place. Many of these relations are still in 

question. 

Although other Pennsylvanian marine or marginal 

marine units have similar gamma-ray log signatures, none 

is as distinctive or as thick or has as wide a distribution as 

the Betsie Shale Member. The Betsie is the one continuous and easily recognizable datum that can be used 

confidently for coal exploration in the deeper part of the 

basin and that may result in a comprehensive understanding of this part of the Pennsylvanian section. The use of 

gamma-ray logs that include the Betsie makes possible 

subsurface studies that will provide new insights with 

respect to the relation of Pennsylvanian sedimentology 

and tectonics in the Central Appalachian basin. For 

instance, the lithologic sequences illustrated in the gammaray logs of sections B -B' and C-C' (figs. 6 and 8) do not 

support arguments (Ferm, 1974) that the quartz arenites 

of the lower part of the Pennsylvanian are beach or 

longshore barrier-bar deposits that border land to the 

southeast and intertongue northwestward with marine 

strata. The logs do indicate that the quartz arenites are 

upward-fining channel deposits that have limited lateral 

continuity; these characteristics suggest a fluvial environment of deposition. Furthermore, the logs suggest that the 

channels became the sites of peat accumulation when 

filled with sand and then abandoned and that formation of 

z 

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Kencrick Shale Member 

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Paragon 

Formation 

~ Slade Formation 

Borden Formation 

Figure 9. Correlation diagram of Carboniferous stratigraphic units in eastern Kentucky. 

coal beds of the Lee Formation therefore may be controlled by pre-existent channels. 

A shale unit that commonly occurs at the base of 

the Pennsylvanian as a rule contains a coal bed or zone of 

coal beds. The distribution of a single marine unit in the 

Lower Pennsylvanian of Kentucky has been described by 

Rice (1984b) from outcrops along the Cumberland 

Escarpment where the marine unit occurs within this 

coal-bearing shale and siltstone at the base of the Pennsylvanian. Thus, the northward and westward onlap of the 

New River and Lee quartz arenites was generally across 

Pennsylvanian terrestrial deposits and was not a northwestward progradation of beach or barrier-bar sequences into 

a marine basin. Locally, Pennsylvanian sandstoneDiscussion and Conclusions 13 
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- Coal bed 

MISSISSIPPIAN 

Figure 10. Gamma-ray logs of wells in southwestern Virginia showing the relation of the base (datum) of the Betsie Shale Member of 

the Wise Formation to the Pennsylvanian formations of that area (see fig. 1 for location of section). The quartz arenites of the Lee 

Formation and the Gladeville Sandstone are shaded. 
sw VA 

ANR 10063 KY NE 

USGS 

KY 

34477 

(11-B-681 68 

DOH 7 

~oo-~ Low Splint cb 

KY ~ ~ 

I I 

Sterling cb 

Poplar Lick cb Ft ~~,. 

I l 

II 

HTaggartcb 

1-1 Taggart 

Williamson (Amburgy) cb 

lower 

Pioneer cz 1-l Buckeye Spring cb 

I I 

• • Markercb I I ' 

Jo-1 

' 'Wilson ...... 

I I H (Harlan)cb 

Blue Gem cb 

BlackWaxcb 

Dixiecb 

I I 

I I 

I I 

Meters Feet 

500 

100 H 

cb Coal bed 

cz Coal zone 

50 Miles o;-~--~--T-~~ 

0 50 Kilometers 

c: 

·B 

Ill 

E 

0 

u.. 

u 

!J 

Figure 11. Line of section extending from near the 

Kentucky-Tennessee State line to central West Virginia 

showing correlations of major coal beds, coal zones, and 

marine units (see fig. 1 for location of drill holes and wells). 

Logs KGS D-13 and USGS DOH 7 are from Bergeron and 

others (1983) and Alvord (1970), respectively. DOH-CAN 

was drilled in Dunn Hollow, Montgomery quadrangle, W. 

Hagycb 

Splash Dam cb 

I I 

I I 

I I 

I I 

I I 

I I 

II 

I I 

I I 

I I 

I I 

I I 

I I 

I I 

I I 1 of 1. c. White. 1885 

a of I. C. White. 1891 

Cedar Grove cb 

..,Peerless cb 

No.2 Gascb 

Poweltoncb 

Cannelton Limestone 1 

Eagle cb 

Uttle Eagle cb 

Eagle Limestone t 

Va., about 0.7 mi (1.1 km) west-northwest of the type 

section of the Cannelton Limestone of White (1885). Logs 

are shown as dashed where data are projected from outcrop or from nearby drill holes. The coal bed labeled 

•Eagle• in USGS DOH 7 has been incorrectly named in 

eastern Kentucky. 

Discussion and Conclusions 15 
filled channels are cut into underlying Mississippian 

strata, but some paleovalleys at the base of the Pennsylvanian are filled mostly with coal-bearing shale (see fig. 6, 

wells 29758 and 30449). Marine strata may be more 

prevalent in areas closer to the Pennsylvanian depocenters 

to the south and southwest, but no evidence exists in this 

study area that the quartz arenites intertongue with 

marine deposits. 

The Betsie Shale Member appears to be more 

highly fossiliferous along the Cumberland Escarpment, 

particularly in northern Kentucky, and in central West 

Virginia, and to contain few or no marine fossils in the 

southern or southeastern part of the basin. The subsidence responsible for Betsie deposition probably first 

resulted in the upstream retreat of distributaries of the 

Corbin and other fluvial systems; this retreat was followed 

by the establishment of widespread swamps in the central 

part of the basin and finally by the formation of a large 

lake or bay. The deposition of the Betsie resulted largely 

from deltas prograding into the basin from a rising land 

mass to the east and southeast. Marine water, as a result 

of continued subsidence, appears to have spread from the 

west or northwest across northern Kentucky and southward and eastward into West Virginia and Virginia. This 

transgression essentially ended quartz arenite deposition 

in Kentucky and culminated in the deposition of sparsely 

fossiliferous shales of the Betsie Shale Member. 

REFERENCES CITED 

Alvord, D.C., 1970, Logs of cores from drill holes in southeastern Kentucky: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File 

Report 70-6, 2 p. 

BeMent, W.O., 1976, Sedimentological aspects of Middle 

Carboniferous sandstones on the Cumberland overthrust 

sheet: Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 182 p. 

Bergeron, R.R., Cobb, J.C., Slucher, E.R., and Smith, R.A., 

1983, Geologic descriptions and coal analyses for 1982 

core drilling in the Daniel Boone National Forest, eastem Kentucky: Kentucky Geological Survey Information 

Circular 12, series XI, 243 p. 

Currens, J.c.,· 1978, Correlation and depositional environments of the Upper Elkhorn Number 3 coal zone in 

southeastern Kentucky: Unpublished Masters thesis, 

Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky, 96 p. 

Englund, K.J., Arndt, H.H., and Henry, T.W., eds., 1979, 

Proposed Pennsylvanian System stratotype, Virginia and 

West Virginia: American Geological Institute Selected 

Guidebook Series No. 1, 138 p. 

Englund, K.J., and Delaney, A.O., 1966, Geologic map of the 

Isonville quadrangle, eastern Kentucky: U.S. Geological 

Survey Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-501, scale 

1:24,000. 

Englund, K.J., Gillespie, W.H., Cecil, C.B., Windolph, J.F., 

Jr., and Crawford, T.J., 1985, Characteristics of the 

Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary and associated 

coal-bearing rocks in the southern Appalachians: U.S. 

Geological Survey Open-file Report 85-577, 83 p. 

Englund, K.J., Gillespie, W.H., Johnson, P.L., and Pfefferkorn, H.W., 1986, Depositional model for Upper 

Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian rocks of southwestern Virginia, in McDowell, R.C., and Glover, Lynn, 

III, eds., The Lowry Volume: Blacksburg, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of 

Geological Sciences, Memoir 3, p. 37-45. 

Ettensohn, F.R., Rice, C.L., Dever, G.R., Jr., and Chesnut, 

D.R., 1984, Slade and Paragon Formations-New stratigraphic nomenclature for Mississippian rocks along the 

Cumberland Escarpment in Kentucky: U.S. Geological 

Survey Bulletin 1605-B, 37 p. 

Ferm, J.C., 1974, Carboniferous paleogeography and continental drift: Congres International de Stratigraphie et de 

Geologie du Carbonifere, 7th, Krefeld, West Germany, 

1971, Compte Rendu, v. 3, p. 9-25. 

Hatch, N.L., Jr., 1963, Geology of the Bernstadt quadrangle, 

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Map GQ-202, scale 1:24,000. 

Hennen, R.V., and Reger, D.B., 1914, Logan and Mingo 

Counties: West Virginia Geological Survey County 

Reports, 776 p. 

Hennen, R.V., and Teets, D.D., Jr., 1919, Fayette County: 

West Virginia Geological Survey County Reports, 

1,002 p. 

Henry, T.W., and Gordon, Mackenzie, Jr., 1979, Late Devonian through Early Permian(?) invertebrate faunas in proposed Pennsylvanian System stratotype area, in Englund, 

K.J., Arndt, H.H., and Henry, T.W., eds., Proposed 

Pennsylvanian System stratotype, Virginia and West Virginia: American Geological Institute Selected Guidebook 

Series No. 1, p. 97-103. 

Huddle, J.W., and Englund, K.J., 1966, Geology and coal 

reserves of the Kermit and Varney area, Kentucky: U.S. 

Geological Survey Professional Paper 507, 83 p. 

Krebs, C.E., and Teets, D.D., Jr., 1915, Boone County: West 

Virginia Geological Survey County Reports, 648 p. 

McDowell, R.C., 1986, Structural geology, in McDowell, 

R.C., ed., The geology of Kentucky-A text to accompany the geologic map of Kentucky: U.S. Geological 

Survey Professional Paper 1151-H, p. H53-H59. 

McDowell, R.C., Rice, C.L., and Newell, W.L., 1985, Lower 

and Middle Pennsylvanian nomenclature in the Cumberland overthrust sheet of southeastern Kentucky and 

eastern Tennessee-A discussion: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1605-A, p. A35-A43. 

Miller, M.S., 1974, Stratigraphy and coal beds of Upper Mississippian strata and Lower Pennsylvanian rocks in 

southwestern Virginia: Virginia Division of Mineral 

Resources Bulletin 84, 211 p. 

Potter, P .E., Maynard, J .B., and Pryor, W.A., 1984, Sedimentology of shale: New York, Springer-Verlag, 303 p. 

Rice, C.L., 1984a, Stratigraphic framework and nomenclatural problems in the Pennsylvanian of the Cumberland 

overthrust sheet, Kentucky and Tennessee: Geological 

Society of America Bulletin, v. 95, p. 1475-1481. 

__ 1984b, Sandstone units of the Lee Formation and 

16 The Betsie Shale Member-A Datum for Exploration and Stratigraphic Analysis 
related strata in eastern Kentucky: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1151-G, 53 p. 

__ 1985, Terrestrial vs. marine depositional model-A new 

assessment of subsurface Lower Pennsylvanian rocks of 

southwestern Virginia: Geology, v. 13, p. 786-789. 

Rice, C.L., Currens, J.C., and Henderson, J.A., Jr., 1986, The 

Cannelton Shale-Unique stratigraphic marker bed for 

lower part of Middle Pennsylvanian in Central Appalachian basin [ abs.]: American Association of Petroleum 

Geologists Bulletin, v. 70, no. 5, p. 638. 

Rice, C.L., Sable, E.G., Dever, G.R., Jr., and Kehn, T.M., 

1979, The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) Systems in the United States-Kentucky: U.S. Geological Suzvey Professional Paper 1110-F, 32 p. 

Rice, C.L., and Smith, J.H., 1980, Correlation of coal beds, 

coal zones, and key stratigraphic units in the Pennsylvanian rocks of eastern Kentucky: U.S. Geological Suzvey 

Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-1188. 

Smith, G.E., Dever, G.R., Jr., Horne, J.C., Ferm, J.C., and 

Whaley, P.W., 1971, Depositional environments of east-

''U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1987 - 201-933 - 226-60067 

ern Kentucky coals: Lexington, Kentucky Geological Survey Annual Field Conference, 22 p. 

Trent, V.A., 1965, Geology of the Matewan quadrangle in 

Kentucky: U.S. Geological Suzvey Geologic Quadrangle 

Map GQ-373, scale 1:24,000. 

Turekian, K.K., and Wedepohl, K.H., 1961, Distribution of 

the elements in some major units of the Earth's crust: 

Geological Society of America Bulletin 72, p. 175-191. 

Wanless, H.R., 1939, Pennsylvanian correlations in the Eastern Interior and Appalachian coal fields: Geological 

Society of America Special Paper no. 17, 130 p. 

__ 1946, Pennsylvanian geology of a part of the Southern 

Appalachian coal field: Geological Society of America 

Memoir 13, 162 p. 

Weller, J.W., 1930, Cyclical sedimentation of the Pennsylvanian Period and its significance: Journal of Geology, v. 

38,no.2,p. 97-135. 

White, I.C., 1885, Nomenclature of Appalachian coal beds: 

The Virginias, v. 6, p. 7-16. 

__ 1891, Stratigraphy of the bituminous coal field of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 65, 212 p. 

References Cited 17 




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