Pennsylvanian System

Type section: The Buffaloville Coal Member was first named, simply as the Buffaloville Coal, by Franklin and Wanless (1944, p. 89, 90) for the coal that was surface mined near Buffaloville, Spencer County, Ind. Although not specifically designated as type, the originally described section was in a surface mine in the center of the NE¼NW¼ sec. 9, T. 5 S., R. 5 W. The Buffaloville Coal was assigned member rank by Gray, Wayne, and Wier (1970).

Description: According to Franklin and Wanless, the Buffaloville coal is blocky and has a floor of underclay some 3 feet (0.9 m) thick. The roof of the coal is black sheety unfossiliferous shale, half a foot (0.2 m) thick, which is overlain by dark-gray shale that is soft, calcareous, fossiliferous, and slightly silty and which is overlain in turn by dark-blue to black argillaceous and fossiliferous limestone as much as 2 feet (0.6 m) thick. ln some areas the shale is absent, and the limestone rests directly on the coal.

Correlation: The Buffaloville coal was tentatively correlated by Franklin and Wanless (1944) with Coal II of Ashley (1909), but the Buffaloville was later assigned to the Brazil Formation by Hutchison (1959), who considered that it was continuous with the Minshall Coal Member of Clay and Parke Counties. If this correlation is correct, a single coalbed, called both the Buffaloville and the Minshall, is present from the Ohio River to Warren County at the north end of the Indiana coalfield. According to Thompson and Shaver (1964, p. 20, 21), the limestone in the roof of the Buffaloville marks the lowest known Indiana position containing microfaunas that are characterized by the fusulinid Fusilinella and ostracods Amphissites centronotus and A. girtyi. (See the Perth Limestone Member for a discussion of the coal and the associated limestone.)