Allegheny Group

The Pennsylvanian Allegheny Group is a mapped bedrock unit in western and central Pennsylvania, western Maryland and West Virginia, and southeastern Ohio. It is a major coal-bearing unit in the Appalachian Plateau of the eastern United States and fossils of fishes such as Bandringa are known from the Kittaning Formation,[2] which is part of the Allegheny Group.

Allegheny Group
Stratigraphic range: Pennsylvanian
Bituminous coal (Clarion Coal) from the Allegheny Group, Ohio
TypeSedimentary
UnderliesConemaugh Group
OverliesKanawha Formation and Pottsville Formation
Lithology
PrimarySandstone, coal
Location
RegionAppalachian Mountains
CountryUnited States
ExtentPennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio
Type section
Named byH. D. Rogers, 1840[1]

Description

In Pennsylvania, the Allegheny Group includes rocks from the base of the Brooksville Coal to the top of the Upper Freeport Coal, and was defined to include all economically significant coals in the upper Pennsylvanian sequence.[3] The unit consists of cyclothemic sequences of coal, shale, limestone, sandstone, and clay. It contains six major coal zones, which, in stratigraphic order, are:

  • Upper Freeport Coal
  • Lower Freeport Coal
  • Upper Kittanning Coal
  • Middle Kittanning Coal
  • Lower Kittanning Coal
  • Brookville Coal

Members

Glen Richey (PA), Laurel Run (PA), Mineral Springs (PA), Millstone Run (PA), Clearfield Creek (PA); Clarion (OH, MD, PA, WV), Kittanning (PA), Freeport (PA, MD, OH, WV); Putnam Hill (OH, PA); Vanport (PA, MD, OH, WV); Butler (MD, PA), Worthington (MD, PA); Washingtonville (OH, PA, WV), Columbiana (OH)[4]

Age

Relative age dating of the Allegheny places it in the middle Pennsylvanian period.

See also

References
  1. Rogers, H.D., (1840), Fourth annual report of the Geological Survey of the State of Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geological Survey Annual Report, no. 4, 215 p.
  2. R. Zangerl. (1969). Bandringa rayi: A New Ctenacanthoid Shark form the Pennsylvanian Essex Fauna of Illinois. Fieldiana Geology 12:157-169
  3. The Geology of Pennsylvania, C. H. Shultz, ed., DCNR Special Publication 1, 1999. (Ch. 10)
  4. GEOLEX database, Geologic Unit: Allegheny, retrieved 28 December 2010
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