Mapping Project Teaches Challenge of Stratigraphy

Abstract

This graduate stratigraphy class project is designed to emphasize interpretative mapping. Full access to library resources is allowed in a compilation covering the 48 contiguous states for a Series, with each student responsible for a region within the larger study. The example used is the Cayugan Series of the Silurian. Maps were prepared at a scale of 1:5,000,000 to show Cayugan outcrops and the outcrop trace of the Cayugan hiatus where the strata are missing, the age of strata beneath the Cayugan horizon, isopachs of the Cayugan Series, Cayugan lithofacies, and the age of post-Cayugan strata. Stratigraphic cross sections illustrate Formation lithologies and thickness, as well as strata above and below the Cayugan Series. A paleoenvironmental map portrays geologic environments, interpreted both in areas where the Cayugan strata are preserved and beyond the limits of preservation. Most of central United States was interpreted to be covered by a shallow sea during the Cayugan, based on the combined patter...