The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-01-23
POSSIBLE INDICATIONS
OF OIL IN MISSISSIPPI

Observations made by the United
States Geological Survey. department
% The interior, and the Mississippi
State Geological Survey in the vicinity
of IazOo. Miss, have thrown new light
on the question of the possible pres
ence OF oil i'm Mississippi and on the
location of points that may be favora-
bic for test drilling No anticline or
dome was mapped, and it is uncertain
whether the facts noted afford ade-
quate ground for the location of the
axis or highest point of a fold in the
strata, for the region is thickly COW
cred with loess. bedrock is exposed at
only a Few localities, and the identity
of the beds seen from place to place is
uncertain. Nevertheless. the survey
Eeologist, /. w. Stephenson, and the
state geologist. r. y. Lowe, say that
folding appears to be indicated by the
reversal of dips Of eoCene beds in the
basin of TesheVa creek. near Free Run,
an abandoned postOffice about ten
miles in an airline northeast Of Yazoo
City. The reverse dips, which appear
TO amount to 40 or so feet to the mile,
are shown by Ignite seams belonging
10 the Iegua formation, the uppermost
formation of the Claiborne group. and
by associated irregularly bedded, poor
ly exposed sands and clays, along sew
eral small tributaries of Tesheva creek
east and northeast Of Free Run.
Owing to the thick covering OF loess
in the vicinity Of Free Run the geologic
structure cannot be mapped from sur
face observations. but the apparent dip
Of the strata indicates that the crest OF
the fold lies probably within a mile
or two southwest or south Of the ra-
vines in which the Ignite seams were
noted. The succession of beds to be
drilled through would probably be sim
liar to that penetrated at Jackson.
Miss. where two test wells, respective
~ 3,043 and 3,079 feet deep, We're drill
ed. (See logs in Mississippi State
Geol Survey Bull No. Is, PIP. 3s-47,
1879 These wells penetrated a sue
cessiCn of clays and sands and toward
the bottom several hundred feet of
chalk According 10 the interpreta-
lions placed upon their logs. they are
supposed TO have penetrated all the
tertiary formations below the Jackson
formation and part Of the underlying
upper cTetaceous beds and were aban-
,dored before they passed through the
Selma chalk. They failed, therefore,
TO test the sands of the Eutaw and
Tuscaloosa formations, which undorlie
the Selma chalk. Although neither the
thickness nor the character of the
deeply buried tertiary and cretaceous
strata in the vicinity of Free Run are
known, the section there doubtless
does not differ greatly from that at
Jackson, and if this assumption is true.
4 000-foot well would probably he
deep enough to test all OF the eacene
section and most of the upper creta-
ceOus section, including the sands OF
the Eutaw and Tuscaloosa formations.
Oil has not yet been found in com
mercial quantities in the coastal plain
of either Mississippi or Alabama. al
though a number Of wells have been
drilled there on pronounced antclines
and their failure to obtain oil prohibits
any great optimism concerning the
presence Of oil in the coastal plain OF
Mississippi. ShoWings of both oil ard
gas. however, have been reported in
this region, and 1t is by no means GER
tain that even the folds which have
been drilled are in fact adequately
tested. 1t may, therefore, be justifia-
bic to prospect a places in Mississippi
where good anticlinical structure oc-
ours, although the risk Of failure is
very high.