Deep Borings Research Articles

On the Pliocene Deposits of Holland and their Relation to the English and Belgian Crags, with a Suggestion for the Establishment of a New Zone, ‘Amstelien,’ and some Remarks on the Geographical Conditions of the Pliocene Epoch in Northern Europe

I. Introduction. While engaged in the study of the conditions under which the English Crag–beds were deposited, I was fortunate enough to receive from Dr. J. Lorié, of Utrecht, two important papers on the strata met with in some deep borings in different parts of Holland. 1 These borings reveal the remarkable fact that the Newer Pliocene beds which underlie that country not only attain the great thickness of nearly 500 feet, but have been depressed at one point more than 1000 feet below their original position. The enquiry suggested itself whether this subsidence was connected with the series of earthmovements by which the Older Pliocene deposits of the South of England, of the North-east of France, and of Belgium have been raised to a height of between 500 and 600 feet above the level of the sea, how far the influence of these disturbances could be traced in East Anglia, and in what manner the deposition of the Cragdeposits was affected by them. The facts I have now to submit show that these movements of upheaval and subsidence have this in common, that they were not confined to one period, but went on, though not continuously, from the Pliocene until late in the Pleistocene epoch. The central portion of the area has not been affected by them to any large extent, and seems to have formed the pivot of the disturbance, while depression has increased progressively in a northerly direction, and elevation has been greatest in the south. For the

Geological Survey of Michigan . L. L. Hubbard, State Geologist. Vol. v., 1881- 1893. Part I. Upper Peninsula, 1881- 1884. Iron and Copper Regions, by Carl Rominger, pp. 179, 3 plates and a map. Part II. Geology of Lower Michigan, with reference to deep borings. C. E. Wright and A. C. Lane, with an introduction by L. L. Hubbard, pp.

<i>Geological Survey of Michigan</i> . L. L. Hubbard, State Geologist. Vol. v., 1881- 1893. Part I. Upper Peninsula, 1881- 1884. Iron and Copper Regions, by Carl Rominger, pp. 179, 3 plates and a map. Part II. Geology of Lower Michigan, with reference to deep borings. C. E. Wright and A. C. Lane, with an introduction by L. L. Hubbard, pp.

On Deep Borings at Culford and Winkfield, with Notes on those at Ware and Cheshunt

On Deep Borings at Culford and Winkfield, with Notes on those at Ware and Cheshunt

Note on the Occurrence of Granite in a Deep Boring in Eastern Kansas

Note on the Occurrence of Granite in a Deep Boring in Eastern Kansas

Points in the geological history of the islands Maui and Oahu

"The subjects prominently illustrated by the islands Maui and Oahu are: the conditions of extinct volcanoes in different stages of degradation; the origin of long lines of precipice cutting deeply through the mountains; the extent and condition of one of the largest of craters at the period of extinction; and the relation of cinder and tufa cones to the parent volcano. The other islands of the group present facts bearing on these subjects, but the writer9s knowledge of them is too imperfect for review in this place." Dana describes Haleakala Crater, using W.W. Alexander9s new government map of Maui. He describes young scoria cones, some with exotic blocks of dense basalt. He favors the formation of the two crater gaps by fracturing and subsidence but leaves open the possibility of other explanations. He cites the results of Preston (1888), who determined, by measurement of gravity, that Haleakala9s bulk density was greater than that of its surface lavas, thus supporting consolidation through collapse of an original crater. He quotes a second-hand report of a lateral eruption about 150 years before. Dana infers that coral sand deposits near Wailuku were formed under conditions close to those of the present. Dana concludes his observations on Maui with a cursory description of West Maui Volcano, identifying three centers of volcanism in the eroded edifice, and remarking on the eccentric position of the summit craters of each volcano, relative to the entire volcanic mass. Dana spent several days on Oahu, assembling new facts and reconsidering his earlier conclusions (Dana, 1849). He reviews ideas on the formation of the Koolau Pali, now interpreting the caldera center as being closer to the pali. He confirms that the pali originated by catastrophic subsidence and now extends this idea to include all of the vertical sea cliffs found in the island, including those on Molokai, Lanai, Kauai, Niihau, as well as the scarp bounding Kealakekua Bay on the island of Hawaii. He speculates as follows on a subsidence mechanism (p. 95): "A great volcano is a disgorger of lava in vast floods and so it makes its mountain; and it may make also empty cavities at the same time and as a consequence. As long as the ascensive force keeps the liquid lava-column of the active volcano fully up to the summit crater, the mountain may have only local cavities. But whenever a great discharge takes place, a coequal cavity may result; and if the discharge is from fissures at the base of the cone, 10,000 to 18,000 feet below the sea level (not a greater depth than exists in the neighboring seas) an enormous cavity may be left, which only the renewed action of the ascensive force would fill. If the mountain then became extinct with no return of the liquid, it would be a hollow mountain; and the greatest of subsidences which the Hawaiian facts seem to indicate, are small compared with the possible consequences of such a condition." Dana includes a new map of Oahu with several cross-sections and well data from Diamond Head, Punchbowl, and the Hulihee Palace grounds. He reviews evidence for subsidence, concluding that the coral deposits encountered in deep wells are consistent with, but do not necessarily prove, Darwin9s ideas on subsidence. He proposes additional deep borings to settle the matter. He repeats his observations on the raised reef and coral sand deposits, indicating that the island has undergone recent uplift.

Further Notes on the Results of some Deep Borings in Kent

I ntroductory R emarks The primary object of my paper read to the Society in 1886 was to describe the boring at Chatham, which had reached Oxford Clay; but the paper was extended, to include other borings in Kent which had passed through the Chalk, and had not been brought to the notice of geologists. Since then further and fuller information has come to hand with regard to two of these borings, and another deep work has been carried through the Chalk and the Gault into the Lower Greensand. I have thought it well therefore to send this supplementary paper to the Society, especially as one of the borings, at Dover, has now thrown fresh light on that important and interesting subject, the underground geology of the London Basin. It was originally meant to incorporate these notes with others descriptive of deep borings in Surrey; but as those borings are not yet finished, and as there is a special interest in the Dover boring, it seems better to let the Surrey borings stand over, and to place the new Kentish information in the hands of the Society at once. With regard to the doubt as to the depth of the second Chatham boldng, expressed on p. 30, it should be noted that whilst this depth is rightly made 965 feet from the surface, yet it is only 963 from the point from which the measurements were made, the coping level being 18 inches below the surface. 20 feet therefore wouldseem to be

The Dover Boring

As the deep boring at Dover is alluded to in the last number of NATURE (p. 255), it may be well to state that a short notice thereof was appended to my paper on the Chatham borings, which was read in abstract at the meeting of the British Association last year, and that a fuller account was included in my paper “On Deep Borings in Kent,” read to the Geological Society a few weeks ago (December 2, 1885), and noticed in NATURE of Dec. 24, p. 190. Since then I have got some further information, and specimens of the deeper beds found are now under examination by Mr. J. Sharman, Paaeontologist to the Geological Survey. My paper being now in type, though not yet published, there is no need to enter into details, either of this or of a still deeper boring now going on in the same county. Any additional evidence as to the deep-seated rocks of Kent I hope to give in a supplementary paper, if needful, and I hope also shortly to visit the sites of the two borings referred to.

Jurassic Rocks under London

ON two previous occasions1 the attention of the readers of NATURE has been directed to the facts which have been revealed by deep borings in search of water under London. In the first of these communications it was shown how completely the predictions of geologists, as to the nature, succession, and thicknesses of the different strata under London had been verified; and in the second the question of the possibility of finding workable coal-seams beneath the metropolitan area was discussed at some length.

Guide to the Geology of London and the Neighbourhood (An Explanation of the Geological Survey Map of “London and its Environs,” and of the Geological Model of London, in the Museum of Practical Geology)

SINCE the appearance of the second edition of this most useful little work, some valuable additions have been made to our knowledge of the rocks which underlie the London Basin. The deep borings at Turnford, near Cheshunt, and at Ware, which were executed by the New River Company in 1879, have furnished new data to geologists for determining the position and characters of that great underground ridge of palaeozoic rocks, the probable existence of which was so long ago indicated by Mr. Godwin-Austen. This underground ridge of palaeozoic rocks has now been reached in no less than six borings, those of Kentish Town, Harwich, Crossness, Meux's Brewery, Turnford, and Ware. In four of these cases the age of the rocks which have been found unconformably underlying the Cretaceous strata is placed beyond question, by the discovery of the well-preserved and characteristic fossils, lists of which have recently been published by Mr. Etheridge. At Harwich the cores of dark-coloured indurated shale yielded Posidoniæ, which proved that the rock belongs to the lowest part of the Carboniferous system; at Meux' s Brewery and at Turnford the purple shales yielded the characteristic fossils of the Upper Devonian; while at Ware cores were brought up crowded with the well-known fossils of the Wenlock shale.

On the South-Scarle Section

A t South Scarle, a point about halfway between Newark and Lincoln, au unsuccessful boring for coal some short time ago disclosed a most interesting, but, so far as its lower portion was concerned, somewhat puzzling geological section. The object of this communication is to identify, ff possible, the lower rocks passed through in these borings. The following generalized section is quoted from a paper “On a deep Boring for Coal at Scarle, Lincolnshire,” by Prof. E. Hull, F.R.S., F.G.S. (see Prec. Inst. Civil Engineers, eel. xlix. part iii.) :— Down to 26 feet in the Lower Magnesian Limestone the above classification of the Scarle cores appears to be approximately correct. Below that depth, however (1827 feet), there came up from 50 to 60 feet of a very hard dark grey to black rock, generally oolitic, though apparently untbssiliferous, the analysis of which showed it to be an argillaceous dolomite. This was succeeded by 16 feet of sandy (?) sediment too loose for cores ; then came 118 feet of grey earthy limestones or calcareous shales, with a foot or so of greenish grit or breccia at the base. Last of all (at 2020 feet), compact red or purplish-red clays with nodules of hæmatite were penetrated to a depth of 10 feet. On seeing the first specimens of the “grey earthy limestones,” Professors Ramsay and Hull both came to the conclusion, founded on lithological grounds, that these rocks were to be referred to the Lower Yoredale series. The succession below, however,

Notes on the Palæontology and some of the Physical Conditions of the Meux-Well Deposits

T he various deep borings which have been put down at Crossness, Harwich, Kentish Town, and more recently at Meux's Brewery, in the Tottenham Court Road, have amply established the correctness of Mr. Godwin-Austen's deductions that a ridge of Palæozoic rocks passes under the Jurassic and Cretaceous beds of the south-east of England, the probability, if not the certainty, being that the rocks of which that ridge is formed are a continuation of those which skirt the South-Wales coal-basin, and which, in passing through Somersetshire, are continued in the Mendip range until lost under Secondary deposits near Frome. In the above districts I have previously pointed out that the representatives of some of the Secondary beds are found associated with the older rocks, under very peculiar conditions, through a line of country from east to west of about sixty miles. At one spot thin deposits or pockets of Inferior Oolite may be seen lying unconformably upon the highly inclined but planed down edges of the Carboniferous Limestone; at another, conglomerates of Liassic or Rhætic age of a few feet in thickness, some of them exhibiting shore-conditions, may be found filling depressions in the limestone or passing down its vein-fissures; and however thin these deposits may be, they can be recognized as distinct, and as representing on the sides or otherwise of the southern portion of the Palæozoic anticlinal the presence in the district of Rhætic, Liassic, and Oolitic formations. Perhaps the most interesting evidence of these peculiar physical conditions is seen

Deep Boring in Prussia

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Deep Boring in Prussia

Deep Boring in Prussia

On some recently executed deep wells and borings

On some recently executed deep wells and borings

On some recently executed deep wells and borings

On some recently executed deep wells and borings