Unearthing of the Paleozoic in North America
Permian of the United States.—In Europe, previous to 1841, the formations now classed as Permian were included in the New Red Sandstone, and with the Carboniferous were referred to the Secondary. In that year Murchison proposed the period term Permian. In 1845 came the classic Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains, by Murchison, Keyserling, and De Verneuil. In this great work the authors separated out of the New Red the Magnesian Limestone of Great Britain and the Rothliegende marls, Kupferschiefer, and Zechstein of Germany, and with other formations of the Urals in Russia, referred them to the Permian system. This step, one of the most discerning in historical geology, was all the more important because they closed the Paleozoic era with the Permian, beginning the Secondary, or Mesozoic, with the New Red Sandstone or the Triassic period. There is a good review of this work by D. D. Owen (1807–1860) in the Journal for 1847 (3, 153).
Owen, though accepting the Permian system, is not satisfied with its reference to the Paleozoic, and he sets the matter forth in the Journal (3, 365, 1847). He doubts “the propriety of a classification which throws the Permian and Carboniferous systems into the Paleozoic period.” This is mainly because there is no “evidence of disturbance or unconformability” between the Permian and Triassic systems. Rather “there is so complete a blending of adjacent strata” that it is only in Russia that the Permian has been distinguished from the Triassic. This view of Owen’s was not only correct for Russia but even more so for the Alps and for India, and it has taken a great deal of work and discussion to fix upon the disconformable contact that distinguishes the Paleozoic from the Mesozoic in these areas. In other words, there was here at this time no mountain making. Then Owen goes on to state that because the Permian of Europe has reptiles, he sees in them decisive Mesozoic evidence. “These are certainly strong arguments in favor of placing, not only the Permian, but also the Carboniferous group in the Mesozoic period, and terminating the Paleozoic division with the commencement of the coal measures.” To this harking backward the geologists of the world have not agreed, but have followed the better views of Murchison and his associates.
In 1855 G. G. Shumard discovered, and in 1860 his brother B. F. Shumard (1820–1869) announced, the presence of Permian strata in the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas, and in 1902 George H. Girty (14, 363) confirmed this. Girty regards the faunas as younger than any other late Paleozoic ones of America, and says: “For this reason I propose to give them a regional name, which shall be employed in a force similar to Mississippian and Pennsylvanian.... The term Guadalupian is suggested.”
G. C. Swallow (1817–1899) in 1858 was the first to announce the presence of Permian fossils in Kansas, and this led to a controversy between himself and F. B. Meek, both claiming the discovery. It is only in more recent years that it has been generally admitted that there is Permian in that state, in Oklahoma, and in Texas. This admission came the more readily through the discovery of many reptiles in the red beds of Texas, and through the work of C. A. White, published in 1891, The Texan Permian and its Mesozoic Types of Fossils (Bull. U. S. Geological Survey, No. 77).
Carboniferous Formations.—The coal formations are noted in a general way throughout the earliest volumes of the Journal. The first accounts of the presence of coal, in Ohio, are by Caleb Atwater (1, 227, 239, 1819), and S. P. Hildreth (13, 38, 40, 1828). The first coal plants to be described and illustrated were also from Ohio, in an article by Ebenezer Granger in 1821 (3, 5–7). The anthracite field was first described in 1822 by Zachariah Cist (4, 1) and then by Benjamin Silliman (10, 331–351, 1826); that of western Pennsylvania was described by William Meade in 1828 (13, 32).
The Lower Carboniferous was first recognized by W. W. Mather in 1838 (34, 356). Later, through the work of Alexander Winchell (1824–1891), beginning in 1862 (33, 352) and continuing until 1871, and through the surveys of Iowa (1855–1858), Illinois (essentially the work of A. H. Worthen, 1858–1888), Ohio (1838, Mather, etc.), and Indiana (Owen, etc., 1838), there was eventually worked out the following succession:
Permian period.
Upper Barren series.
Dunkard group.
Washington group.
Pennsylvanian period.
Upper Productive Coal series. Monongahela series.
Lower Barren Coal Measures. Conemaugh series.
Lower Productive Coal Measures. Allegheny series.
Pottsville series.
The New York System.—We now come to the epochal survey of the State of New York, one that established the principles of, and put order into, American stratigraphy from the Upper Cambrian to the top of the Devonian. No better area could have been selected for the establishing of this sequence. This survey also developed a stratigraphic nomenclature based on New York localities and rock exposures, and made full use of the entombed fossils in correlation. Incidentally it developed and brought into prominence James Hall, who continued the stratigraphic work so well begun and who also laid the foundation for paleontology in America, becoming its leading invertebrate worker.
This work is reviewed at great length in the Journal in the volumes for 1844–1847 by D. D. Owen. Evidently it followed too new a plan to receive fulsome praise from conservative Owen, as it should have. He remarks that the volumes “are not a little prolix, are voluminous and expensive, and do not give as clear and connected a view of the geological features of the state as could be wished.... We are of the opinion that before this work can become generally useful and extensively circulated, it must be condensed and arranged into one compendious volume” (46, 144, 1844). This was never done and yet the work was everywhere accepted at once, and to this end undoubtedly Owen’s detailed review helped much.
The Natural History Survey of New York was organized in 1836 and completed in 1843. The state was divided into four districts, and to these were finally assigned the following experienced geologists. The southeastern part was named the First District, with W. W. Mather (1804–1859) as geologist; the northeastern quarter was the Second District, with Ebenezer Emmons (1799–1863) in charge; the central portion was the Third District, under Lardner Vanuxem (1792–1848); while the western part was James Hall’s (1811–1898) Fourth District. Paleontology for a time was in charge of T. A. Conrad (1830–1877); the mineralogical and chemical work was in the hands of Lewis C. Beck; the botanist was John Torrey; and the zoologist James DeKay.
The New York State Survey published six annual reports of 1675 pages octavo, and four final geological reports with 2079 pages quarto. Finally in 1846 Emmons added another volume on the soils and rocks of the state, in which he also discussed the Taconic and New York systems; it has 371 pages. With the completion of the first survey, Hall took up his life work under the auspices of the state—his monumental work, Paleontology of New York, in fifteen quarto volumes of 4539 pages and 1081 plates of fossils. In addition to all this, there are his annual and other reports to the Regents of the State, so that it is safe to say that he published not less than 10,000 pages of printed matter on the geology and paleontology of North America.
In regard to this great series of works, all that can be presented here is a table of formations as developed by the New York State Survey. Practically all of its results and formation names have come into general use, with the exception of the Taconic system of Emmons and the division terms of the New York system. (See p. 88.)
The New York State Survey, begun in 1836, was continued by James Hall from 1843 to 1898. During this time he was also state geologist of Iowa (1855–1858) and Michigan (1862). Since 1898, John M. Clarke has ably continued the Geological Survey of New York, the state which continues to be, in science and more especially in geology and paleontology, the foremost in America.
Western Extension of the New York system.—Before Hall finished his final report, we find him in 1841 on “a tour of exploration through the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, a part of Michigan, Kentucky, and Missouri, and the territories of Iowa and Wisconsin.” This tour is described in the Journal (42, 51, 1842) under the caption “Notes upon the Geology of the Western States.” His object was to ascertain how far the New York system as the standard of reference “was applicable in the western extension of the series.” In a general way he was very successful in extending the system to the Mississippi River, and he clearly saw “a great diminution, first of sandy matter, and next of shale, as we go westward, and in the whole, a great increase of calcareous matter in the same direction.” He also clearly noted the warped nature of the strata, the “anticlinal axis,” since known as the Cincinnati and Wabash uplifts and the Ozark dome.
Hall, however, fell into a number of flagrant errors because of a too great reliance on lithologic correlation and supposedly similar sequence. For instance, the Coal Measures of Pennsylvania were said to directly overlap the Chemung group of southern New York, and now he finds the same condition in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, failing to see that in most places between the top of the New York system and the Coal Measures lay the extensive Mississippian series, one that he generally confounded with the Chemung, or included in the “Carboniferous group.” He states that the Portage of New York is the same as the Waverly of Ohio, and at Louisville the Middle Devonian waterlime is correlated with the similar rock of the New York Silurian. Hall was especially desirous of fixing the horizon of the Middle Ordovician lead-bearing rocks of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, but unfortunately correlated them with the Niagaran, while the Middle Devonian about Columbus, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky, he referred to the same horizon. The Galena-Niagaran error was corrected in 1855, but the Devonian and Mississippian ones remained unadjusted for a long time, and in Iowa until toward the close of the nineteenth century.
| The Geological Column of the New York Geologists of 1842–1843, according to W. W. Mather 1842. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Quaternary system | Alluvial division. | |
| Quaternary division. | ||
| Drift division. | ||
| Tertiary system | These strata are included in the next lower division. | |
| Upper Secondary system | Long Island division. Equals the Tertiary and Cretaceous marls, sands, and clays of the coastal plain of New Jersey. | New Red system of Emmons and Hall. |
| Trappean division. The Palisades | ||
| Red Sandstone division. | ||
Coal system of Mather, and Carboniferous system of Hall.
Old Red system of Catskill Mountains of Emmons; Catskill division of Mather and Hall; and Catskill group of Vanuxem.
| According to Hall 1843, and essentially Vanuxem 1842. | |
|---|---|
| Erie division [Devonian] | Chemung, Portage or Nunda (divided into Cashaqua, Gardeau, Portage), Genesee, Tully, Hamilton (divided into Ludlowville; Encrinal, Moscow), and Marcellus. |
| Helderberg series [Devonian-Silurian] | Corniferous, Onondaga, Schoharie, Cauda-alli, Oriskany, Upper Pentamerus, Encrinal, Delthyris, Pentamerus, Waterlime, Onondaga salt group. |
| Ontario division [Silurian] | Niagara, Clinton, and Medina. |
| Champlain division [Silurian-Ordovician-Upper Cambrian] | Oneida or Shawangunk, Grey sandstone, Hudson River group, Utica, Trenton, Black River including Birdseye and Chazy, Calciferous sandrock, and Potsdam. |
| According to Emmons 1842, Mather 1843, Vanuxem 1842, Hall 1843. | |
|---|---|
| Taconic System [Ordovician and Lower Cambrian] | Granular quartz, Stockbridge limestone, Magnesian slate, and Taconic slate. |
| Primary or Hypogene system | Metamorphic and Primary rocks. |
Correlations with Europe.—The first effort toward correlating the New York system with those of Europe was made by Conrad in his Notes on American Geology in 1839 (35, 243). Here he compares it on faunal grounds with the Silurian system. A more sustained effort was that of Hall in 1843 (45, 157), when he said that the Silurian of Murchison was equal to the New York system and embraced the Cambrian, Silurian, and Devonian, which he considered as forming but one system. Hall in 1844 and Conrad earlier were erroneously regarding the Middle Devonian of New York (Hamilton) as “an equivalent of the Ludlow rocks of Mr. Murchison” (47, 118, 1844).
In 1846 E. P. De Verneuil spent the summer in America with a view to correlating the formations of the New York system with those of Europe. At this time he had had a wide field experience in France, Germany, and Russia, was president of the Geological Society of France, and “virtually the representative of European geology” (2, 153, 1846). Hall says, “No other person could have presented so clear and perfect a coup d’oeil.” De Verneuil’s results were translated by Hall and with his own comments were published in the Journal in 1848 and 1849 under the title “On the Parallelism of the Paleozoic Deposits of North America with those of Europe.” De Verneuil was especially struck with the complete development of American Paleozoic deposits and said it was the best anywhere. On the other hand, he did not agree with the detailed arrangement of the formations in the various divisions of the New York system, and Hall admitted altogether too readily that the terms were proposed “as a matter of concession, and it is to be regretted that such an artificial classification was adopted.” De Verneuil’s correlations are as follows:
The Lower Silurian system begins with the Potsdam, the analogue of the Obolus sandstone of Russia and Sweden. The Black River and Trenton hold the position of the Orthoceras limestones of Sweden and Russia, while the Utica and Lorraine are represented by the Graptolite beds of the same countries. Both correlations are in partial error. He unites the Chazy, Birdseye, and Black River in one series, and in another the Trenton, Utica, and Lorraine. Of species common to Europe and America he makes out seventeen.
In the Upper Silurian system, the Oneida and Shawangunk are taken out of the Champlain division, and, with the Medina, are referred to the Silurian, along with all of the Ontario division plus the Lower Helderberg. The Clinton is regarded as highest Caradoc or as holding a stage between that and the Wenlock. The Niagara group is held to be the exact equivalent of the Wenlock, “while the five inferior groups of the Helderberg division represent the rocks of Ludlow.” We now know that these Helderberg formations are Lower Devonian in age. De Verneuil unites in one series the Waterlime, Pentamerus, Delthyris, Encrinal, and Upper Pentamerus. Of identical species there are forty common to Europe and America.
The Devonian system De Verneuil begins, “after much hesitation,” with the Oriskany and certainly with the five upper members of Hall’s Helderberg division, all of the Erie and the Old Red Sandstone. He also adjusts Hall’s error by placing in the Devonian the Upper Cliff limestone of Ohio and Indiana, regarded by the former as Silurian. The Oriskany is correlated with the grauwackes of the Rhine, and the Onondaga or Corniferous with the lower Eifelian. Cauda-galli, Schoharie, and Onondaga are united in one series; Marcellus, Hamilton, Tully, and Genesee in another; and Portage and Chemung in a third. Of species common to Europe and America there are thirty-nine.
The Waverly of Ohio and that near Louisville, Kentucky, which Hall had called Chemung, De Verneuil correctly refers to the Carboniferous, but to this Hall does not consent. De Verneuil points out that there are thirty-one species in common between Europe and America. “And as to plants, the immense quantity of terrestrial species identical on the two sides of the Atlantic, proves that the coal was formed in the neighborhood of lands already emerged, and placed in similar physical conditions.”
An analysis of the Paleozoic fossils of Europe and America leads De Verneuil to “the conviction that identical species have lived at the same epoch in America and in Europe, that they have had nearly the same duration, and that they succeeded each other in the same order.” This he states is independent of the depth of the seas, and of “the upheavings which have affected the surface of the globe.” The species of a period begin and drop out at different levels, and toward the top of a system the whole takes on the character of the next one. “If it happens that in the two countries a certain number of systems, characterized by the same fossils, are superimposed in the same order, whatever may be, otherwise, their thickness and the number of physical groups of which they are composed, it is philosophical to consider these systems as parallel and synchronous.”
Because of the dominance of the sandstones and shales in eastern New York, De Verneuil holds that a land lay to the east. The many fucoids and ripple-marks from the Potsdam to the Portage indicated to him shallow water and nearness to a shore.
The Oldest Geologic Eras.—We have seen in previous pages how the Primitive rocks of Arduino and of Werner had been resolved, at least in part, into the systems of the Paleozoic, but there still remained many areas of ancient rocks that could not be adjusted into the accepted scheme. One of the most extensive of these is in Canada, where the really Primitive formations, of granites, gneisses, schists, and even undetermined sediments, abound and are developed on a grander scale than elsewhere, covering more than two million square miles and overlain unconformably by the Paleozoic and later rocks. The first to call attention to them was J. I. Bigsby, a medical staff officer of the British Army, in 1821 (3, 254). It was, however, William E. Logan (1798–1875), the “father of Canadian geology,” who first unravelled their historical sequence. At first he also called them Primary, but after much work he perceived in them parallel structures and metamorphosed sediments, underlain by and associated with pink granites. For the oldest masses, essentially the granites, he proposed the term Laurentian system (1853, 1863) and for the altered and deformed strata, the name Huronian series (1857, 1863). Overlying these unconformably was a third series, the copper-bearing rocks. Since his day a great host of Canadian and American geologists have labored over this, the most intricate of all geology, and now we have the following tentative chronology (Schuchert and Barrell, 38, 1, 1914):
Late Proterozoic era.
Keweenawan, Animikian and Huronian periods.
Early Proterozoic era.
Sudburian period or older Huronian.
Archeozoic era.
Grenville series, etc.
Cosmic history.