Pennsylvanian System

Type locality and use of name: The name Parker Coal was used by Fuller and Clapp (1904, p. 2) for a coal exposed near Parkers Settlement in Posey County, Ind. A discrepancy concerning the stratigraphic position of the coal exists between Fuller and Clapp's text and columnar section, which has created some confusion in the literature. This coal is a few feet below the Parker Limestone of Fuller and Clapp (Carthage Limestone Member of present usage). Wier (1961, 1965 1973, fig. 3) assigned this coal member rank in the Patoka Formation and designated the type locality in the NW¼SE¼ sec. 30, T. 5 S., R. 11 W., which is near the Posey-Vanderburgh county line in Vanderburgh County.

Description: The Parker Coal Member is a bright-banded coal, 0.3 foot to 1.7 feet (0.1 to 0.5 m) thick, overlain by 1 to 3 feet (0.3 to 0.9 m) of black shale and underlain by underclay. In places it is represented by streaks of coal in black shale. The Parker coal is thickest in Posey, Vanderburgh, and Gibson Counties, where it lies about 190 feet (58 m) above the West Franklin Limestone Member of the Shelburn Formation. This coal is thin or absent and is not generally recognized in western Knox County and western Sullivan County .

Correlation: The Parker coal is correlated with the New Haven Coal Member of the Modesto Formation in Illinois (Hopkins and Simon, 1975, p. 196) and the No. 18 Coal of the Sturgis Formation in northwestern Kentucky (Johnson and Norris, 1976; Kehn, 1973, p. B19).