Ordovician System

Type locality and use of name: The name Saluda Bed was first used by Foerste (1902, p. 369) in describing a cliff-forming gray silty dolomitic limestone exposed along Saluda Creek 6 miles (10 km) south of Hanover, Jefferson County, Ind. The name replaced the term Madison Beds (of Borden, 1874, and others), which was preoccupied. The Saluda has been known as a member of the Whitewater Formation (Shideler, 1914; Fox, 1962), as the Saluda Limestone (Patton, Perry, and Wayne, 1953), and as the Saluda Formation (Brown and Lineback, 1966; Hatfield, 1968). Because of its limited areal extent, Gray (1972b, p. 21-22) reassigned the Saluda, with member status, to the Whitewater Formation.

Description: The Saluda Member consists principally of dolomitic mudstone and dolomite. In its lower part it contains a distinctive zone rich in the corals Columnaria and Tetradium that is traceable from Clark County to Wayne County (Brown and Lineback, 1966). The base of this zone marks the base of the Saluda Member north of Jefferson County, but in Jefferson and Clark Counties a dolomitic mudstone, commonly about 25 feet (8 m) thick, underlies the coral beds and defines the base of the member. Together the coralline and cliff-forming dolomitic beds of the Saluda contrast well with the interbedded limestone and shale of the underlying Dillsboro Formation and make the conformable contact between these units distinct.

The Saluda in most places is conformably overlain by rubbly limestone and calcareous shale that characterize the rest of the Whitewater Formation, and the contact is placed at the highest dolomitic bed (Brown and Lineback, 1966, p. 1021-1022). In Clark County and part of Jefferson County, however, the upper part of the Whitewater Formation is absent, and the Saluda Member is overlain disconformably by the Brassfield Limestone (Silurian) or by the Osgood Member of the Salamonie Dolomite (Silurian) .

The Saluda Member is about 60 feet (18 m) thick in the Madison area but thins to 14 feet (4 m) in Decatur County and to 9 feet (3 m) in Wayne County (Brown and Lineback, 1966). This northward thinning is mostly complemented by a corresponding thickening in the rest of the Whitewater Formation. The Saluda is recognized only in the outcrop area and in the near subsurface, although a horizon that approximates the base of the Saluda was traced in the subsurface across the state by Gray (1972b).

Correlation: The Saluda Member is Richmondian in age and on the basis of a lithostratigraphic study by Gray (1972b) and further subsurface study by John B. Droste (oral communication, 1983) appears to be correlative with the lower part of the Brainard Shale of western Indiana and Illinois. In Kentucky it is recognized as the Saluda Member of the Drakes Formation (Peterson, 1966), and a thin extension into a small area in western Ohio was recognized by Hay (1981).