Rome Trough Consortium: Refined Cambrian Lithostratigraphy, Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia

Harris, David C.¹, John B. Hickman¹, Mark T. Baranoski², and Katharine Lee Avary^3
1 Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
² Ohio Division of Geological Survey, Columbus, OH
³ West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey, Morgantown, WV

The Rome Trough Consortium has refined Cambrian stratigraphic correlations below the Knox Group in Ohio, eastern Kentucky, and West Virginia. The basal sandstone, Shady Dolomite and Rome Formation are confined to the Rome Trough and south, and do not extend north of the Kentucky River Fault Zone in Kentucky and the Ohio River Fault Zone in eastern Ohio and West Virginia. The Conasauga Group and its member formations, as defined in eastern Tennessee outcrops, are correlated into the Rome Trough. The oldest three Conasauga formations (Pumpkin Valley Shale, Rutledge Limestone, and Rogersville Shale) are confined to the deeper parts of the Rome Trough in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. These units are largely absent on the shallower Irvine-Paint Creek shelf, where the Maryville Limestone unconformably overlies the Rome Formation.

The Maryville Limestone was deposited on a carbonate ramp that prograded cratonward (west) along the axis of the Rome Trough. Maryville carbonates thin and grade laterally into deeper water shales deposited in an intra-shelf basin in the western Rome Trough. Units within the Conasauga Group are not recognized in this area, and this interval is called the Conasauga Shale. This intra-shelf basin extended to the south into in eastern Tennessee.

Porous sandstones occur in the Rome and Maryville intervals, and produce gas in Elliott and Lawrence Counties, Kentucky. Digital well logs were used to interpret lithology and compute sandstone percentage maps for the Rome and Maryville intervals. Distribution of lithofacies were mapped to illustrate the stratigraphic evolution of the area.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90031©2004 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, Columbus, Ohio, October 3-5, 2004