Chattanooga Shale

The Chattanooga Shale is a geologic formation in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. It preserves conodont fossils dating to the Devonian Period.[1] It occurs mostly as a subsurface geologic formation composed of layers of shale. It is located in Eastern Tennessee and also extends into southeastern Kentucky, northwestern Georgia, and northern Alabama. This part of Alabama is part of the Black Warrior Basin.[1]

Chattanooga Shale
Stratigraphic range: Devonian
Chattanooga Shale in Kentucky
TypeFormation
UnderliesMaury Shale, Boone Formation
OverliesUnconformity on Ordovician Cumberland Formation Leipers Limestone and other units [1]
Lithology
PrimaryShale
OtherSandstone
Location
RegionArkansas,[2] Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia,[1] Missouri,[3] Mississippi
CountryUnited States
Type section
Named byCharles Willard Hayes[4]

The Chattanooga Shale of east Tennessee is reported to be an extension of or correlates with the Marcellus Shale of the Appalachian region to the east.[5] Exploratory drilling of the Chattanooga Shale in east Tennessee indicates that it contains significant amounts of natural gas. This has resulted in interest in and attempts to use hydraulic fracturing to exploit the resource.[6]


  • Chattanooga Shale in Kentucky
    Chattanooga Shale in Kentucky
  • Chattanooga Shale
    Chattanooga Shale
  • Pyrite concretion in Chattanooga Shale
    Pyrite concretion in Chattanooga Shale

See also

References
  1. USGS Professional Paper 357, Chattanooga Shale and Related Rocks of Central Tennessee and Nearby Areas. by Louis C. Conant and Yernon E. Swanson, 1961
  2. McFarland, John David (2004) [1998]. "Stratigraphic summary of Arkansas" (PDF). Arkansas Geological Commission Information Circular. 36: 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-12-21. Retrieved 2018-01-11.
  3. Thompson, Thomas L., 2001, Lexicon of Stratigraphic Nomenclature in Missouri, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Land Survey, Report of Investigation Number 73, p 60
  4. Hayes, C.W. (1891). "The overthrust faults of the southern Appalachians". Bulletin of the Geological Society of America. 2: 142–143.
  5. Chattanooga Shale Natural Gas Field, oilshalegas.com
  6. "Chattanooga Shale Stocks". Energy and Capital.


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