Age:

Pennsylvanian

Type designation:

Type locality: The name “St. Meinrad Coal” was given by Franklin and Wanless (1944, p. 87-88) to the coal mined near St. Meinrad, Spencer County, Indiana, but no specific type section or other exposure was stated (Hutchison, 1970; Hasenmueller and Hutchison, 1986). This coal lies stratigraphically 160 to 180 ft (49 to 55 m) below the top of the Mansfield Formation (Hutchison, 1970; Hasenmueller and Hutchison, 1986).

Reference Sections: Mastalerz and others (2024) desgnated the following as reference sections for the St. Meinrad Coal Member in Spencer County, Indiana (1) a core from Indiana Geological and Water Survey drill hole (SDH) 537, latitude 38.180721 N, longitude 86.83895 W); and (2) an outcrop of the St. Meinrad Coal Member (latitude 38.147652 N, longitude 86.808903 W).

History of usage:

The lithostratigraphic rank assigned to the St. Meinrad has been considered variably to be formation (Franklin and Wanless, 1944), bed (in the Mansfield Formation; Hutchison, 1971), and member (in the Mansfield Formation; Hutchison, 1971) (Hasenmueller and Hutchison, 1986).

According to Franklin and Wanless (1944), the St. Meinrad corresponds to coals that have been called the Upper Cannelton and Upper Troy Coals along the Ohio River bluff in Perry County and to the coal mined along Anderson River in Spencer and Perry Counties south of St. Meinrad referred to as Coal II by Ashley (1899, p. 1,301) (Hutchison, 1970; Hasenmueller and Hutchison, 1986). In Perry County, the St. Meinrad coal is a probable correlative of the Lower Cannelton Coal of Franklin (1939) (Hutchison, 1970; Hasenmueller and Hutchison, 1986).

Description:

The St. Meinrad Coal Member consists of moderately bright and clean coal that is semiblocky and that ranges from less than 0.1 ft (0.03 m) to more than 5.0 ft (1.5 m) in thickness and averages about 4.0 ft (1.2 m) where mined (Hutchison, 1970; Hasenmueller and Hutchison, 1986). The roof of the coal is commonly shale and less commonly sandy shale, sandstone, dark-gray fissile carbonaceous shale, or tan to gray massive medium-grained sandstone (Hasenmueller and Hutchison, 1986). The floor is gray sandy carbonaceous underclay or shale (Hutchison, 1970; Hasenmueller and Hutchison, 1986). The coal contains an inorganic parting throughout much of its extent in Perry County (Hutchison, 1971), and in places the upper few inches of the seam is a bone coal (Hutchison, 1970; Hasenmueller and Hutchison, 1986).

Distribution: The mapping of the St. Meinrad by Hutchison (1959) in Spencer County shows that the coal is cut out by sandstone both north and south of a small area in the northeastern part of the county (Hutchison, 1970; Hasenmueller and Hutchison, 1986). In Perry County, however, the St. Meinrad coal was traced (Hutchison, 1971) to the Ohio River (Hutchison, 1970; Hasenmueller and Hutchison, 1986).

Correlations:

The St. Meinrad has been correlated with the No. 1b Coal (Bell Coal Bed) of western Kentucky (Peppers and Popp, 1979, p. 67 and 69, fig. 3; Williams, Williamson, and Beard, 1982, p. 10-11, fig. 8) and with both the Bell Coal Bed (Peppers and Popp, 1979, p. 67 and 69, fig. 3) and the Reynoldsburg Coal Member (Williams, Williamson, and Beard, 1982, p. 10-11, fig. 8) of Illinois (Hasenmueller and Hutchison, 1986).

Regional Indiana usage:

Illinois Basin (COSUNA 11)
Supergroup: none
Group: Raccoon Creek Group
Formation: Mansfield Formation
Member: St. Meinrad Coal Member

Misc/Abandoned Names:

Coal II, Lower Cannelton Coal, Upper Cannelton Coal, Upper Troy Coal

Geologic Map Unit Designation:

*msm

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.

Franklin, D. W., 1939, Lithologic and stratigraphic study of the Lower Pennsylvanian strata, Orange County, Indiana: Urbana, University of Illinois, master's thesis, 49 p.

Franklin, D. W., and Wanless, H. R., 1944, Pennsylvanian stratigraphy of part of southern Indiana: Illinois State Academy of Science Transactions, v. 37, p. 85–92.

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 Hutchison, H. C., 1986, St. Meinrad 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. 126–127.

Hutchison, H. C., 1959, Distribution, structure, and mined areas of coals in Spencer County, Indiana: Indiana Geological Survey Preliminary Coal Map 8, scale1:126,720.

Hutchison, H. C., 1970, St. Meinrad Coal Bed, 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. 147–148.

Hutchison, H. C., 1971, Distribution, structure, and mined areas of coals in Daviess County, Indiana: Indiana Geological Survey Preliminary Coal Map 15, scale 1:126,720.

Hutchison, H. C., 1971, Distribution, structure, and mined areas of coals in Perry County, Indiana: Indiana Geological Survey Preliminary Coal Map 14, scale 1:126,720.

Mastalerz, M., Ames, P., Eble, C. F., Hasenmueller, N. R., and Padgett, P., 2024, The St. Meinrad Coal Member (Pennsylvanian)—reference sections from Spencer County, Indiana: Indiana Geological and Water Survey, Indiana Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 6. doi: 10.14434/ijes.v6i1.39143

Peppers, R. A., and Popp, J. T., 1979, Stratigraphy of the lower part of the Pennsylvanian System in southeastern Illinois and adjacent portions of Indiana and Kentucky, in Palmer, J. E., and Dutcher, R. R., eds., Depositional and structural history of the Pennsylvanian System of the Illinois Basin–Pt. 2, Invited papers, Ninth International Congress Carboniferous Stratigraphy and Geology, Illinois Geological Survey Guidebook Series 15a, p. 65–72.

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.

Williams, D. A., Williamson, A. D., and Beard, J. G., 1982, Stratigraphic framework of coal-bearing rocks in the Western Kentucky Coal Field: Kentucky Geological Survey Information Circular 8, 201 p.