Age:

Pennsylvanian

Type designation:

Type section: The name “Survant Coal” was applied by Fuller and Ashley (1902, p. 2) to exposures near the abandoned town of Survant in Pike County, Indiana (Burger and Wier, 1970; Ault and Harper, 1986). The type section is in the SW¼NE¼ sec. 2, T. 2 S., R. 7 W., at the south edge of Survant along the Patoka River (Burger and Wier, 1970; Ault and Harper, 1986).

Reference section: A reference section for the Survant Coal Member was cored in Indiana Geological Survey drill hole 306 (Indiana Geological Survey Petroleum Database Management System No. 115871) from 83.3 to 85.2 ft (25.3 to 26.0 m) (Hasenmueller and Ault, 1991, p. 6). The drill site is located in the SE¼NE¼NW¼ sec. 2, T. 2 S., R. 7 W., near the type section in Pike County (Hasenmueller and Ault, 1991, fig. 1).

History of usage:

Originally designated by Ashley (1899, p. 108-113) as Coal IV in Sullivan and Greene Counties, the coal is now known as the Survant Coal Member of the Linton Formation (Burger and Wier, 1970; Ault and Harper, 1986).

Description:

The Survant Coal Member is highly variable in thickness (0.2 to 8 ft; 0.1 to 2.4 m), is commonly divided into splits, and is thin or absent in some places (Ault and Harper, 1986). Local facies changes of the upper part of this coal to either a canneloid coal or a black bituminous shale are found north of Linton, Greene County (Burger and Wier, 1970; Ault and Harper, 1986). The Survant coal has a shale parting that is commonly less than a few feet thick but that reaches a thickness of 20 ft (6 m) in southwestern Greene County and southeastern Clay County and 30 ft (9 m) in northwestern Vigo County (Burger and Wier, 1970; Ault and Harper, 1986). The Survant coal is commonly overlain and underlain by sandstones of variable thickness (Ault and Harper, 1986). The top of the Survant coal, which is also the top of the Linton Formation, is marked by sandstone or gray shale in the base of the Petersburg Formation (Burger and Wier, 1970; Ault and Harper, 1986).

Correlations:

The name "Survant" is also now used in Illinois and Kentucky for this coal, which has been correlated throughout the Illinois Basin on the basis of subsurface data and palynology (Jacobson and others, 1985; Ault and Harper, 1986).

Regional Indiana usage:

Illinois Basin (COSUNA 11)
Supergroup: none
Group: Carbondale Group
Formation: Linton Formation
Member: Survant Coal Member
Illinois Basin Margin (COSUNA 12)
Supergroup: none
Group: Carbondale Group
Formation: Linton Formation
Member: Survant Coal Member

Misc/Abandoned Names:

Coal IV, Survant Coal Member (IV)

Geologic Map Unit Designation:

*lsu

Note: Hansen (1991, p. 52) in Suggestions to authors of the reports of the United States Geological Survey noted that letter symbols for map units are considered to be unique to each geologic map and that adjacent maps do not necessarily need to use the same symbols for the same map unit. Therefore, map unit abbreviations in the Indiana Geologic Names Information System should be regarded simply as recommendations.

COSUNA areas and regional terminology

Names for geologic units vary across Indiana. The Midwestern Basin and Arches Region COSUNA chart (Shaver, 1984) was developed to strategically document such variations in terminology. The geologic map (below left) is derived from this chart and provides an index to the five defined COSUNA regions in Indiana. The regions are generally based on regional bedrock outcrop patterns and major structural features in Indiana. (Click the maps below to view more detailed maps of COSUNA regions and major structural features in Indiana.)

COSUNA areas and numbers that approximate regional bedrock outcrop patterns and major structural features in Indiana.

Major tectonic features that affect bedrock geology in Indiana.

References:

Ashley, G. H., 1899, The coal deposits of Indiana: Indiana Department of Geology and Natural Resources Annual Report 23, p. 1–1,573.

Ault, C. H., and Harper, Denver, 1986, Survant Coal Member, in Shaver, R. H., Ault, C. H., Burger, A. M., Carr, D. D., Droste, J. B., Eggert, D. L., Gray, H. H., Harper, Denver, Hasenmueller, N. R., Hasenmueller, W. A., Horowitz, A. S., Hutchison, H. C., Keith, B. D., Keller, S. J., Patton, J. B., Rexroad, C. B., and Wier, C. E., Compendium of Paleozoic rock-unit stratigraphy in Indiana–a revision: Indiana Geological Survey Bulletin 59, p. 152.

Burger, A. M., and Wier, C. E., 1970, Survant Coal Member (IV), in Shaver, R. H., Burger, A. M., Gates, G. R., Gray, H. H., Hutchison, H. C., Keller, S. J., Patton, J. B., Rexroad, C. B., Smith, N. M., Wayne, W. J., and Wier, C. E., Compendium of rock-unit stratigraphy in Indiana: Indiana Geological Survey Bulletin 43, p. 174.

Fuller, M. L., and Ashley, G. H., 1902, Description of the Ditney quadrangle: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Atlas, Folio 84, 8 p.

Hansen, W. R., 1991, Suggestions to authors of the reports of the United States Geological Survey (7^th ed.): Washington, D.C., U.S. Geological Survey, 289 p.

Hasenmueller, W. A., and Ault, C. H., 1991, Reference core and correlation of key beds in the Petersburg and Linton Formations (Pennsylvanian) in Indiana: Indiana Geological Survey Occasional Paper 57, 8 p.

Jacobson, R. J., Trask, C. B., Ault, C. H., Carr, D. D., Gray, H. H., Hasenmueller, W. A., Williams, D., and Williamson, A. D., 1985, Unifying nomenclature in the Pennsylvanian System of the Illinois Basin: Illinois State Academy of Science Transactions, v. 78, p. 1–11.

Shaver, R. H., coordinator, 1984, Midwestern basin and arches region–correlation of stratigraphic units in North America (COSUNA): American Association of Petroleum Geologists Correlation Chart Series.