Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-06-16
A 1000 Foot We'll.
Omitted States Geological Survey Bull


At Charleston, S. c., a well has heen
drilled TO a depth of 2oo0 feet below the
Level of the sea. The shaft yields q plen-
tiful supply Of soft water. Shells and
ot1cr marine organisms were found at
the bottom. All. except those found
within 10 or 50 feet Of the surface. be-
long to species which lived during past
ages and are now extinct. The shell o.
one species beioHg:ag1.S the oyster fam
lily and known to SCIENTISTS as Exogy-
raupatoiensis Stephenson was fioated out
from the bottom of the well by the
natural flow of water The story which
this shell tells is an interesting one to
students OF earth history.
When the oyster was alive the Atlantic
ocean covered the present site of Char
lesion and probably extended for nearly
a hundred miles farther inland. but the
bottom of the sea on which il lived was
probably not more than 50 or 10 fathons
deep. The rivers from the land carried
sand and mud into the sea and gradually
filled il. but as the filing progressed the
sea bottom slowly sank. Sometimes
there was pause in the sinking. and
Al other times there We're even upward
movements which temporarily lifted the
sea floor entirely out OF wate-; but in
The main the movements were down
ward until a relatively recent prehistoric
time, when an upward movement caused
the strand line TO retreat to it's present
position.
In the sands and clays which filed this
downward sinking ocean basin. salty
and thesa waters, now more OF less
mixed with land-derived waters were en-
countered at various depths in the Char
lesion we'll; they are referred to as
fossil waters" because they have been
for so long locked in the earth and pre-
vented from circulating. Although p-ac-
tically motionless, these fossil waters are
under heavy hydraulic pressure due 10
the weight OF the waters which have
percolated from the landward direction
down through the seaward dipping sand
layers. When the sands containing the
fossil waters are tapped by wells the
through the drill hole TO the surface,
thus producing flowing artesian wells,
The water from the 1000 foot level al
Charleston shows only slight Indication
of having been mixed with sea water.
but the waters from some of the higher
levels contain enough of the ancient sea
water to give them a distinct salty taste.
1t is a commonly known fact that the
temperature of the earth increases from
the surface downward. and this fact is
we'll illustrated by the conditions exist
ing in the Charlestown well. The tenn
perature Of the water from the 2y0O-foot
level as it flows out from the mouth of
the well is 80 ga degrees Fahrenheit, be-
ing from IS degrees TO 40 degrees warm
er than the waters obtained from wells
less than 100 feet deep in the same vi
cinity.
AS all the layers Of sand. clay. mari
and limestone which makes up the earth
to a depth OF 1000 feet or more beneath
Charleston, dip oceanward theoretically
they should crop out at the surface TO
the northwest Of Charleston. The layer
containing the ancient oyster at the
bottom Of the 1000 foot-well would be
expected to appear at the surface some
where between Sumter and Camden, but
its exact outcrop has not yet been de-
termined in South Carolina A layer Of
cretaceous sand containing the oyster
has been discovered on Chattahoochee
river and On Upatoi creek. nine or ten
miles south and southeast OF Columbus,
Ga. This shows that the ancient sea in
which the oyster lived did extend in
land to or beyond the present site Of
Columbus, which is approximately 81
miles from the nearest point on the
present Atlantic coast