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Keel Mountain Geology |
|
System |
Age |
Formation |
Average Thickness (ft) |
Elevation near Huntsville (ft) |
Geologic Description |
Exposure Siting in Huntsville -
Madison County Area |
Quaternary |
Recent |
Alluvium Deposits |
0-30 |
1560-1580 |
Unconsolidated sand, clay, and gravel |
Some evidence found in northeast
Madison County atop Bingham Mountain |
Pennsylvanian |
|
Pottsville Formation |
85-90 |
1480 |
Sandstone, brown and gray-brown,
medium to coarse grained, massive and thin bedded, contains some shale and a
thin seam of coal near base. Well rounded grains. Iron containing. |
Top of Cumberland Plateau
including Monte Sano, Green, Keel, and Wallace Mountain |
Mississippian |
Chester |
Pennington Formation |
80-100 |
1400 |
Shale, red, gray, and green with
sand and some shaly limeston beds |
Thin seam found near base of
sandstone caprock along Monte Sano bike trails running below the bluffs |
|
Bangor Limestone |
350-400 |
1000 |
Limestone, blue-gray, dark gray,
crystalline, oolitic and partly fossiliferous, dolomitic |
Numerous outcroppings found at
surface. Exposed in upper rock cuts along Governors Drive/Highway 431 across
Monte Sano heading into Big Cove |
|
Hartselle Sandstone |
0-90 |
910 |
Sandstone, tan to brownish gray,
medium to coarse grained, hard, sharp edged grains |
Found all across the upper crest
of Chapman Mountain, Weatherly Mountain, King Mountain, and Garth Mountain |
|
Gasper Formation |
40-90 |
820 |
Limestone, light-gray to gray,
argillaceous, crystalline, abundantly fossiliferous, partly oolitic, some
shale layers. |
Large exposure all across
mountainous slopes |
|
Meremac |
St. Genevieve Limestone |
180+/- |
640 |
Limestone, light gray, oolitic,
thick-bedded, fossiliferous |
Exposure along lower base of
mountains |
|
Tuscumbian Limestone |
150-200 |
below median ground level |
Limestone, dark to light gray,
crystalline, massive bedded, fossiliferous, some chert near base of layer |
Outcroppigs all across
Huntsville including Big Springs Park below banks and the courthouse. Thick
layers below surface all across metro area. Red Clay Forming. |
|
Osage |
Fort Payne Chert |
95-160 |
below median ground level |
Limestone, gray and yellow,
abundant chert, highly porous |
Heavily Saturated Ground water
bearing formation. Tapped into at Dallas Wells. |
Devonian |
|
Chattanooga Shale |
0.5-10 |
below median ground level |
Shale, black, hard, fissile,
contains bitumen and pyrite, some sand, partly radioactive |
Thin seams found along Flint
River Basin in Northeast and North Central Madison County near Riverton Area. |
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Keel Mountain Geology |
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